Today marks the last known murder by the infamous Jack the Ripper, that of a prostitute named Mary Jane Kelly the Ripper brutally mutilated in 1888. What happened to Jack after the death of Kelly has never been discovered, whether he died, emigrated out of England, or was imprisoned on other charges is anyone's guess. His identity has never been discovered, and in Madame Tussaud's famous Chamber of Horrors he is represented only by a shadow.
Such an intriguing case full of sex, blood, and mystery is definitely going to do some inspiring, and dozens of tunes about the Ripper have been released. Today we present a playlist dedicated to one of history's most famous monsters with one song a piece for each of the lives he claimed on the end of his blade.
Spinal Tap teased us with the possibility of a Jack the Ripper musical in This is Spinal Tap, but it wouldn't be until 2009 that we'd actually get to hear a tune from the project as a SpinalTap.com exclusive bonus track off of Back From the Dead. The title comes from a postcard that is now widely believed to actually be a hoax rather than a true letter from Jack the Ripper. The original postcard has disappeared from police files, but copies remain.
Speaking of the Ripper letters, we should probably explain. Jack liked to send the police taunting notes about his work, inadvertently inventing the concept of trolling. Many of the letters attributed to him we later revealed as hoaxes, but the most famous one, signed "From Hell," is considered authentic. Radio Werewolf, always serial killer obsessed, used the text of the letter for this track off of 1989's the Fiery Summons.
