Whitechapel Quotes

“Perhaps this is the purpose of all art, all writing, on the murders, fiction and non-fiction:

Simply to participate.”
― Alan Moore, From Hell

“No murderer had before or has since caused such a sensation, passed so quickly into folklore or gained an image – top hat, cape and Gladstone bag – that is truly iconic: as instantly recognisable as Sherlock Holmes's deerstalker and meerschaum pipe, and as capable of conveying a meaning understood around the world – even by people who know nothing about the Ripper or what he did, or that he, unlike Holmes, actually existed.”
― Paul Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts

“Everyone is a whore, Fiona." I felt rather than heard when he unfolded himself from the settee. He wasn't so much a warmth or an essence behind me. But the absence of either.

"We each merely offer different parts of ourselves for use, do we not? Our sex. Our blades. Our muscles. Our mind. Our time. Our souls.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Business of Blood

“There were some places, and streets, where he did not venture since he had learnt that others had claims there greater than his own - not the gangs of meths drinkers who lived in no place and no time, nor the growing number of the young who moved on restlessly across the face of the city, but vagrants like himself who, despite the name which the world has given them, had ceased to wander and now associated themselves with one territory or 'province' rather than another. All of them led solitary lives, hardly moving from their own warren of streets and buildings: it is not known whether they chose the area, or whether the area itself had callen them and taken them in, but they had become the guardian spirits (as it were) of each place. Ned now knew some of their names: Watercress Joe, who haunted the streets by St Mary Woolnoth, Black Sam who lived and slept beside the Commercial Road between Whitechapel and Limehouse, Harry the Goblin who was seen only by Spitalfields and Artillery Lane, Mad Frank who walked continually through the streets of Bloomsbury, Italian Audrey who was always to be found in the dockside area of Wapping (it was she who had visited Ned in his shelter many years before), and 'Alligator' who never moved from Greenwich.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor

“Watson, for some time now I have had cause to believe in the improbable-the existence of a mind so exceptional, so well- trained in the sciences and the doctrine of criminology as to be Master of the Arts.’ The suggestion was fantastic!. ‘A Professor of crime?.’ - Holmes to Watson, Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Murders”
― Mark Sohn, Sherlock Holmes and The Whitechapel Murders: An account of the matter by John Watson M.D.

“He drew an oval shape to the left of the board, a doorway to the centre and a noose to the right. ‘Here-’ - he indicated the oval- ‘We have the population of London, gathered together in a single mass. Our door here will admit just one of these millions, so acting as a filter. This individual is the one suited for the noose, the man we shall see hang.’ ‘But, Holmes-how do we make the correct selection?, the odds must be several million to one.’ ‘Let us see if we can lower those odds. - Holmes to Watson, Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Murders”
― Mark Sohn, Sherlock Holmes and The Whitechapel Murders: An account of the matter by John Watson M.D.

“Intuition was just the brain processing information more quickly than one's consciousness could comprehend.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Business of Blood

“Dig two graves, Fiona. One for your enemy... And one for yourself.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Business of Blood

“The figure in the cloak had turned, waving a fist in the air in a gesture of pure spite. ‘Damn you!’ My whispered curse came as I drew my revolver, pausing only to take aim. Two shots rang out, shattering the very air between us. I could not be sure if the heavy bullets had found their mark; the fiend whirling around behind a chimney-stack a moment after I fired. A groan from the blackness below-it was Holmes!. - John Watson, Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Murders”
― Mark Sohn, Sherlock Holmes and The Whitechapel Murders: An account of the matter by John Watson M.D.

“Memories make for powerful ghosts..." I whispered.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Business of Blood

“Did you love me?" It was a pathetic question asked in a pathetic whisper.

"Oh, Fiona," The lips he pressed against my temple were anything but ecumenical. His hand on my back drifted to my waist. "My feelings for you cannot be reduced to a single word. You are my only temptation.”
― Kerrigan Byrne, The Business of Blood

“The city reeked of death, and the savages that resided within its imposing starkness existed in fear of their lives. They had been shocked by the recent bloody Whitechapel murders, as if starvation, disease, moral degradation, and perpetual smog drowning all color in gray wasn’t enough to bring home the pathetic reality of their miserable existence. The police were no nearer to capturing the monster that lurked in the crevices, and London seemed stiller in the dark, the streets devoid of hope.”
― Carol Oates, Something Wicked

“I am a practitioner of the science of deduction, of using the known facts in a case to unveil the unknown.’ - Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel Murders”
― Mark Sohn, Sherlock Holmes and The Whitechapel Murders: An account of the matter by John Watson M.D.

“It is me. He knows it. The dollymop knows it. I know it. I am the problem. Soon I will be discovered and destroyed. I am in constant danger and yet, I am the danger...”
― Ilse V. Rensburg, Blood Sipper

“My companion first explained my curse to me on the night we chanced to meet, spinning delicious words into prose that ignited a desire within my soul. Words that left me with a yearning to devour every taboo known to man.”
― Ilse V. Rensburg, Blood Sipper