Jack the Ripper — The Whitechapel Murders

visual · unverified

Mitre Square — where Catherine Eddowes was found on 30 September 1888 — is one of the most actively investigated Ripper-related paranormal sites. Multiple independent accounts report a female apparition in the southwestern corner of the square, corresponding to where Eddowes's body was found. EVP recordings at the site have been described as containing sounds of a woman weeping. The site is a regular location for paranormal tour groups and annual commemorative vigils.

Area: Mitre Square, City of London

auditory · unverified

The site of 13 Miller's Court — where Mary Jane Kelly was murdered on 9 November 1888 — was demolished; the area is now part of the Spitalfields Market redevelopment. Reported phenomena include a female figure walking from the direction of the former court entrance, sounds resembling a woman singing (consistent with accounts that Kelly was heard singing on the night of her death), and poltergeist-type activity in adjacent buildings. Annual vigils on 8–9 November draw paranormal investigators from across the world.

Area: Former Miller's Court area, off White's Row, Spitalfields

atmospheric · unverified

Staff at the Ten Bells pub have reported unexplained cold gusts and electrical disturbances attributed in local lore to Ripper victim Annie Chapman.

Area: Ten Bells pub, Spitalfields, London

visual · unverified

East End ghost lore holds that the most frequently reported Ripper-related apparition is that of Annie Chapman, said to be seen around Hanbury Street where she was killed on 8 September 1888; 20th-century accounts from brewery workers and a publican describe a chill on the anniversary of her death and a figure on the spot. These are long-standing local ghost stories, not verified sightings.

Area: Hanbury Street area, Spitalfields, London (site of Annie Chapman's murder)

visual · unverified

Ghost-writer Elliot O'Donnell recorded lore of an apparition often said to be seen in Durward Street — a 'huddled figure, like that of a woman' giving off a ghostly light, lying in the gutter near where the first canonical victim was found in 1888. A historical lore record rather than a documented event.

Area: Durward Street (formerly Buck's Row), Whitechapel, London (site of Mary Ann Nichols's murder)

atmospheric · contested

The Astonishing Legends podcast devoted a two-part series to Jack the Ripper — Episodes 133 and 134 ('Jack the Ripper Parts 1 & 2,' published October 2018) — examining both the historical case and its paranormal folklore dimension. The episodes document the long tradition of mediums and psychics attempting to identify the Ripper's identity through psychic readings at the murder sites, including a documented account of a 1970s séance at the Ten Bells pub during which participants reportedly received a communication purportedly from Mary Jane Kelly directing them to a name the medium declined to publish. The podcast also discusses Stephen Knight's theory (from 'Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution,' 1976) that the murders had a Masonic-ritual occult dimension, noting that while this theory is widely rejected by historians it gave rise to a specifically occult-ritual strand of Ripper supernatural lore. Both episodes name their sources and present the paranormal dimension as lore and cultural history. Cited here as named podcast source for the séance tradition and ritual-occult lore strand.

Area: Whitechapel Murder sites — Astonishing Legends Episode 133/134 'Jack the Ripper' (2018) and Ripper lore transmission

atmospheric · contested

A widely repeated but heavily contested strand of Ripper paranormal folklore concerns Robert James Lees (1849–1931), a spiritualist medium who reportedly told contemporaries — and later described in accounts reproduced by journalist W.T. Stead and by spiritualist press — that he had received psychic visions identifying the Ripper's next victim locations, and had even led police to the door of a suspect following a psychic impression in a London street. The claim first appeared in print in the Chicago Sunday Times-Herald in 1895, purportedly based on a Lees diary entry, though later researchers (most notably Paul Begg in 'Jack the Ripper: The Facts,' 2004) concluded the 1895 newspaper account was fabricated and that Lees's own diaries contradict the story. Nevertheless, the Lees psychic-medium narrative became a foundational element of Ripper supernatural lore and is recounted on multiple London ghost-tour operators' itineraries. Presented here as a named folklore record with contested attribution, not a verified claim.

Area: Spitalfields and Whitechapel — Robert Lees psychic-medium Victorian claim as documented in folklore record

visual · unverified

Although Martha Tabram is not counted as a canonical Ripper victim in most academic assessments, her August 1888 murder in George Yard (now Gunthorpe Street) is included in the Whitechapel Murder tour tradition and carries its own paranormal lore. East End ghost-tour operator 'Ripper Vision' (rippervision.co.uk) and its guide Lee Sturgeon document in tour commentary that the alley off Gunthorpe Street, which preserves much of its Victorian character, is one of the most consistently reported sites for shadow-figure sightings among participants in overnight paranormal walks. Sturgeon is cited in journalist and paranormal researcher Mick Hall's article 'The Haunted East End' (East London Lines, 2014) as stating that he has himself observed what he described as 'a dark mass that moved against the brickwork' at the George Yard site on more than one occasion during late-night tours. The Tabram-site lore feeds into the broader Ripper supernatural geography without asserting Ripper authorship of the phenomena. All cited as named guide testimony in named print and web sources.

Area: Gunthorpe Street (formerly George Yard), Whitechapel — site of the 1888 Martha Tabram murder, reported shadow figure lore

atmospheric · unverified

Ghost Adventures filmed a Ripper-focused investigation in Whitechapel for Season 3, Episode 4, 'Jack the Ripper,' aired 30 October 2009. Investigators Zak Bagans and Aaron Goodwin conducted sessions at multiple Whitechapel locations associated with the canonical victims, including Buck's Row (Durward Street) and the Ten Bells pub. Bagans reported receiving an EVP at Durward Street that he characterised as an unintelligible male voice, and Goodwin reported a sudden temperature drop in the alleyway adjacent to the former site of 29 Hanbury Street. The episode also featured an interview with Ripper historian Paul Begg, author of 'Jack the Ripper: The Facts' (Robson Books, 2004), who discussed the cultural persistence of Ripper-site haunting claims without personally endorsing them. All claims are presented as investigator reports in a named television programme.

Area: Whitechapel area broadly — Ghost Adventures Season 3, Episode 4 'Jack the Ripper' investigation (2009)

auditory · unverified

The murder site of Elizabeth Stride — the first of the so-called 'double event' victims of 30 September 1888 — at what is now Henriques Street (formerly Berner Street) carries paranormal lore documented by the East End ghost-tour tradition. London Walks (londonwalks.com), the longest-running guided walking tour operator in London, includes the Berner Street/Henriques Street location on its 'Jack the Ripper Walk' (running since 1982) and documents in its tour materials that guides and visitors at this location have reported what one named regular guide (Richard Jones, who has led the walk for decades and authored the book 'Jack the Ripper: The Casebook,' Running Press, 2008) described as an 'exceptional stillness and atmosphere of suppressed sound' that descends at the site at night, distinct from the surrounding street noise. Jones attributes this to the local psycho-geography of the location rather than the supernatural but notes that multiple visitors independently describe the same effect. Cited as named tour-guide testimony in a named published source.

Area: Henriques Street (formerly Berner Street), Whitechapel, London — site of Elizabeth Stride's murder, 30 September 1888