Prologue and Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 Summary

In Autumn of 1888 a series of five brutal murders shocks London. The victims, all poor female prostitutes, are murdered and then mutilated. The murders are attributed to Jack the Ripper, and the real identity of Jack the Ripper is William Gull, the Royal physician, working on explicit orders from Queen Victoria to murder specific women to cover up an illicit affair carried on by her grandson Prince Albert Victor.

The prologue is set at Bournemouth, September 1923. Retired inspector Frederick Abberline and one-time psychic Robert Lees walk along the beach and chat about events. It is between the world wars and the dialogue seems modern. Lees reveals to Abberline that his psychic visions were all hoaxes but, curiously, came true anyway. Both men agree that they knew of the conspiracy to hide the identity of Jack the Ripper...