Exclusive:
Queen Victoria unleashed hell in a recently uncovered telegram against her Prime Minister who failed to catch notorious murderer Jack the Ripper
Queen Victoria scolded the then Prime Minister Lord Salisbury for the failure to catch Jack the Ripper.
Historian Lucy Worsley discovered the dressing-down in a telegram the monarch sent to the PM in 1888. The Queen was livid that, despite repeated assurances from the government, the Ripper had still not been caught after committing five murders.
In the telegram, which is in the archives at the monarch’s childhood home, Kensington Palace, Victoria wrote: “This new, most ghastly murder shows the absolute necessity of some very decided action. All these courts [the narrow streets of Whitechapel in East London] must be lit and our detectives improved. They are not what they should be.” Lucy, 51, says: “Victoria telegraphed her Prime Minister with some strongly-worded advice.”
She adds: “Her words were sent in code to prevent messengers reading the top-secret information enclosed. She goes on to give the Prime Minister a telling-off… [saying], ‘You promised when the first murder happened to consult with your colleagues. These things have not been done’.”
Lucy, who came across the astonishing document while researching her new BBC2 documentary – Jack the Ripper: Lucy Worsley Investigates – says that when she first saw the telegram, she felt shivers.
The historian adds: “Queen Victoria is applying serious pressure on her Prime Minister to track down and capture the killer. She was appalled by these heinous crimes. It’s actually very Queen Victoria to plunge into the detail of something that’s going on and have very firm views about it.
“I like her sense of female solidarity. I like the way she had a go at her Prime Minister as well. She didn’t hold back.” The gruesome story of the serial killer kick-started a whole new industry… Ripperology. The chilling crimes whipped up a huge media frenzy and helped create the obsession with true crime stories that we know today.
Lucy says: “In the autumn of 1888, everyone was talking about just one story. The murderer was on the loose in East London. A killer had already targeted and butchered several women. The press could not get enough of the story. The entire nation, in fact the world, was gripped by this unsolved case.
“These murders are now more than 130 years old and we’re still obsessed. This case became the prototype for all true crime stories to follow.”
The identity of the killer is still unknown.
- Jack the Ripper: Lucy Worsley Investigates is on BBC2 at 9pm on January 3.
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