Carroty Nell

The streets of London's East End were practically deserted as a man and woman made their way through the pre-dawn darkness of a chilly winter morning in 1891. No one saw them as they passed under the cold glare of a gas streetlamp, then entered a pitch-black, tunnel-like passageway under some railway tracks. Had anyone been about, they might have taken the man to be a sailor, and they would have noticed that the woman was young, surprisingly small, and quite attractive. Victorians called people like her unfortunates-women so desperately poor they would sell themselves for pennies, or sometimes just a loaf of stale bread. She anticipated nothing more than a quick liaison that would provide the money she needed for a place to sleep. Instead, she became the final victim of the dreaded killer known as Jack the Ripper.

Carroty Nell tells the story of her tragic descent from humble, working class origins to the mean streets of Whitechapel, and chronicles the events that led to that fateful encounter.