It's 1888 in London's Whitechapel district, where one by one a group of prostitutes are brutally murdered. Opium smoking Inspector Fred Abberline is called upon to investigate these horrific murders & thru his visions track down & trap Jack the Ripper. David Rumbelow's casebook sets the crimes firmly in their historical setting, examines the evidence comprehensively & scrupulously, disposes of a number of theories & legends & relates the murder to popular literature & to later similar sex crimes. In addition he has had the advantage of access to some of Scotland Yard's most confidential papers.