Introducing the celebs of Victorian reality TV

Did Dr Jekyll turn into Jack the Ripper? Besides becoming evil Mr Hyde, did Robert L. Stevenson’s fictional creation morph into the serial killer who terrified Whitechapel? In a way, he did. A stage version of Stevenson’s novel was playing in the West End at the time of the East End murders. On stage, the actor who played both Jekyll and Hyde performed the switcheroo to such effect that women in the audience fainted. At the same time, the bodies of dead prostitutes — their internal organs expertly removed — caused many to surmise: a doctor did it. That good/bad doctor who was scaring everybody! A newspaper declared: ‘Mr Hyde is at large in Whitechapel.’ Some even pointed fingers at the actor, Richard Mansfield. Obscuring things further, hoaxers sent letters to the police, some signed ‘Jack the Ripper’.

The Victorians went gaga mixing real life and make-believe. In the days before reality TV — indeed, before TV — they blended fiction and non-fiction with gusto, especially where it concerned killings.