Jack the Ripper: From Hell to Belfast

In the bloodiest instalment of his hit Terror Talks series, dark historian Andrew Johnston (Alternative Ulstours) takes a startling new look at history’s most elusive serial killer – Jack the Ripper. Belfast played a surprisingly intense role during 1888’s ‘Autumn of Terror’. Hysterical press coverage of the slayings in London led to horrific copycat attacks in Ulster, with vengeful Irish mobs targeting alleged ‘Rippers’. Amidst this, a fugitive Englishman was arrested, charged and imprisoned in Belfast on suspicion of being ‘Jack’. The compelling case of William John Foster – dubbed Belfast’s ‘man with the knives’ – unfolded between the fourth and fifth canonical Ripper murders. Did Belfast have the Whitechapel fiend in custody, and did local authorities let him slip through their fingers? Andrew’s entertaining lecture will also shine a flashlight on a suspect with family ties to a venerated unionist politician, as well as exploring Belfast’s links to a potential Royal ‘Ripper’.