THE GHOULISH DR. CREAM

Speculation abounds that infamous serial killer Dr. Neill Creame was inspired by reading Robert Louis Stevenson's DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. His brutal poisoning of "red light" women has also led to the belief that he too a cue from Jack the Ripper, although it is more likely that he had already cultivated the propensity for his murderous deeds in his twisted mind.

Cream was eventually caught, convicted and sent to the gallows. It is said that his last words before the noose snapped his spine were "I'm Jack the --". However, his dying statement wasn't true, and history discounts his claim as he was in prison during the Ripper murders.

This story. "Goulish [sic] Dr. Cream" (spelled correctly on the contents page) from the men's adventure magazine BLUEBOOK (October 1962) recounts his deadly career. At first I thought that the photo of Sheldon Lewis from the silent version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE was merely exploitative (as well as the photo from Hammer's HANDS OF THE RIPPER) until I learned of the connections.

An added bonus on one of the pages shown here is a gag panel from the good-girl cartoonist Bill Wenzel.

WHITECHAPEL'S 'AUTUMN OF FEAR'

On the morning of August 31, 1888, the body of a woman, Marie "Polly" Nichols was found murdered in the streets of London's Whitechapel neighborhood. Her throat had been slashed and her abdomen cut open. After 3 November of that year, when the body of Mary Jane Kelley had been discovered inhumanly mutilated and slashed to pieces, the brutal murders suddenly stopped. The killer, dubbed "Jack the Ripper" by the press to this day has never been found.

The Jack the Ripper murders are at the top of the list as the most famous unsolved criminal acts in true crime history. There are a long line of suspects, but all conclusions so far have been based on circumstantial evidence, assumption, and six-degrees of separation. The murders have been the subject of countless books, movies and documentaries.

It's difficult to imagine the horrifying nature of these crimes. But, true they were, and photographic evidence exists that shows to what depths the human monster can fall.

This article is from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY's September/October 2018 issue and recounts the events, and discusses the victims and the suspects.