Welcome to The Whitechapel Society
The Whitechapel Society is a long-established historical society, originally set up to study the murders of Jack the Ripper and to shine a light on the conditions under which the victims lived.
The Society has grown over the years to include experts in many aspects of Victorian and Edwardian East End life. Members past and present have produced some of the most respected books and papers on East End crime ever written, including Spring-heeled Jack, Jack the Ripper, the Kray twins and many more.
Next meeting
Saturday 5th June 2021
Dan Smith will be talking about his book, The Peer and the Gangster: A Very British Cover-Up, which tells the story of ‘the scandal that history forgot’. In 1964, the Sunday Mirror was poised to reveal that the police were investigating an improper relationship between the Conservative peer and popular broadcaster, Lord Boothby, and gangster Ronnie Kray. What followed was an extraordinary cover-up that went right to the heart of Downing Street and involving both main political parties, the police, Fleet Street, senior legal figures and MI5. So successful was it that it’s full extent has only started to become apparent since 2015.
