According to CNN, “Jack the Ripper Tour,” which is operating in the East End of London, is a huge commercial success. At 8 p.m., hundreds of tourists flock to Mitre Square, where past incidents occurred.
The tour is a night program where Jack the Ripper spent about 90 minutes walking around the crime scene where he was active and listening to commentary on the case. The theme is “Fear and Darkness in 19th Century London,” which runs at the same time and route every day.
However, the eyes of local residents are cold. “I hear a guide explaining ‘I cut my stomach and took out my organs from here’ in front of my window every night,” a resident said. “It is very inappropriate for an environment where children are raised.”
Another resident strongly protested, saying, “The Ripper murdered victims of sexual exploitation, and consuming it as an interesting act is like a secondary offense.” Competition among the guides intensified as tourists flock to the area. In some cases, scuffles and physical fights take place to secure a specific place first.
It is pointed out that the explanation method is also sensational. Although the movie pursues “victim-centered commentary,” it mainly focuses on the reaper. Some guides show actual photos of the victim’s body or play background music in the movie “Psycho,” inducing tension. There were even performances that surprised tourists with a fake knife.
Local residents strongly protested, saying, “This is not just tourism, but an act of treating victims of sexual exploitation like commodities.”
The East End of east London, where Ripper worked, is full of names borrowed from the name.
They include barbershop Jack the Clipper, fast food restaurant Jack the Chipper, and fashion store Jack’s Place. At one point, a store selling potato dishes was named Jack the Ripper.
“Jack the Ripper is a real criminal, but it is consumed as an icon of pop culture over time,” said Philip Stone, a professor at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K. “It is a dangerous state where the boundaries between reality and fiction have faded.” The Jack the Ripper Museum, which opened in 2015, is also at the center of controversy. Originally, the museum was approved as a space to commemorate the life and history of women in the East End, but the actual exhibition was centered on the Ripper case.
The museum insisted that it “does not glorify murder,” but the souvenir shop sells Ripper-shaped dolls and T-shirts with the silhouette of the killer.
As a result, local women’s organizations were eventually established separately by the East End Women’s Museum.
“The current Jack the Ripper tour is not designed to remember the victims, but has become a content of consumption centered on criminals,” experts said. “They are consuming violence under the pretext of recording history. It is violence on display, not in museums.”
EJ SONG
US ASIA JOURNAL
