Portal:Prostitution

Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer generally believed to have been active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. In both the criminal case files and contemporary journalistic accounts, the killer was called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.

Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of the East End of London whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and letters were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer. (read more ...)

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Peter William Coonan (born Peter William Sutcliffe; 2 June 1946) is an English serial killer who was dubbed the "Yorkshire Ripper" by the press. In 1981 Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others.

Sutcliffe initially attacked women and girls in residential areas but seems to have moved to red light districts because he was attracted by the vulnerability of prostitutes. Sutcliffe had allegedly regularly used the services of prostitutes in Leeds and Bradford. When interviewed by authorities, he claimed that the voice of God had sent him on a mission to kill prostitutes. Sutcliffe carried out murders over five years, during which time some members of the public were especially shocked by the murders of women who were not prostitutes. (read more...)

• ... that between 1778 and 1801, Manor House, 21 Soho Square, London, (pictured) was a high-class magic brothel called The White House, described by Henry Mayhew as a "notorious place of ill-fame"?
• ... that the Admiral Apartments, built in 1909, had "sporting girls" (prostitutes) operating out of it by 1913?
• ... that at the town next to the Brazilian gold mine Serra Pelada, thousands of underage girls prostituted themselves for gold flakes while around 60–80 unsolved murders were registered every month?
• ... that the area around La Merced Market, Mexico City, is considered to be a "tolerance zone" for prostitution?

• 11th
  • 1929: Birth of Grisélidis Réal, a writer, sex worker and activist from Geneva, Switzerland.
  • 1952: Birth of Lindi St Clair (Marian June Akin), a British author, leader of the Corrective Party, and campaigner for prostitutes' rights. She accused the Inland Revenue in the High Court of England of being "Her Majesty's pimps".
• 14th
  • 1885: Brothels were outlawed in the United Kingdom by the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.
• 15th
  • 1889: Birth of Marthe Richard, a French prostitute and spy. She later became a politician and worked towards the closing of brothels in France in 1946.
• 16th
  • 1959: Street prostitution was outlawed in England and Wales by the Street Offences Act 1959 coming into force.
• 17th
  • 1888: Murder of Martha Tabram, an English prostitute killed in a spate of violent murders in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. She may have been the first victim of the still-unidentified Jack the Ripper.
• 31st
  • 1888: Murder of Mary Ann Nichols. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper.

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