The Dark Side of Victorian London in Assassin's Creed Syndicate's Jack The Ripper

The ten-chapter long story of Jack The Ripper pushes the timeline of Assassin's Creed Syndicate 20 years forward, putting the lead characters in the gloomy autumn of 1888 when the hideous crimes of the notorious Jack The Ripper took place. Jack the Ripper, who to this day remains unidentified, is considered one of the most apalling serial killers of all time, although his killing spree was in fact limited in "just" five murders, with several others, called "The Whitechapel Murders" being attributed to him but without clear proof that he actually committed them. Regardless, for the period of time in which he officially operated, he was a terrifying entity in London and the rather seamy borough of Whitechapel in particular, as his victims were prostitutes whom he murdered in a most sadistic way. Gradually Jack The Ripper became a figure of legend, following the additional mythology that accompanied the mystery that surrounded him, with several pieces of evidence showing up from time to time regarding his identity, only to be debunked soon after due to lack of actual proof.

Jack The Ripper is usually depicted as a dark figure with a top hat and a long cape

The Jack The Ripper episodes of Syndicate begin in the autumn of 1888 in medias res, as a few of the murders have already been committed and yet the killer is nowhere to be found. Frederick Abberline, the real-life police officer who was Jacob and Evie's associate in the main game, is the head of the investigation team of Scotland Yard, an historically accurate detail, as the real Abberline was indeed the chief investigator of the Ripper Murders. 

The real Frederick Abberline (left) and his in-game depiction from "Jack The Ripper"

The episodic story, which offers an alternative take about the Ripper's identity and motives, starts with Jacob confronting the infamous killer, with whom he is obviously connected in some way, and then focuses on Evie who arrives in London from India, where she had moved with Henry, after receiving a message from her brother, only to find out that Jacob is nowhere to be found, while being informed by Abberline that several characteristics of the murders and their elusive perpetrator resemble a lot the traits of the Assassins. In a race against time, Evie goes on a cat and mouse chase to locate the murderer, hoping to also find her brother still alive.

Jacob facing Jack The Ripper

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Evie discovers that Jack The Ripper is in fact a young man whom both Jacob and she knew very well; once an apprentice assassin, Jack grew up close to the Fryes, especially Jacob, who meanwhile had become Master Assassin and was in charge of Jack's training and whom the boy viewed as a mentor; however he was a person with a somewhat deranged personality. Prior to his initiation in the Brotherhood, Jack was living with his mother until she was murdered by the Templars. This cost him a lot, he lost his mind and was sent to the Lambeth Asylum where his condition deteriorated due to the lack of proper treatment and the overall bad practices there. Later Jacob took him under his wing and trained him in the Assassin Brotherhood, but Jack's mental and emotional instability gradually came to the surface and he formed a distorted concept of how the Assassins should operate. His tactics, based mainly on violence, intimidation and terrorizing against not only the state but innocent civilians as well, soon gained ground among Jacob's Rooks, whose philosophy had always been to work for the benefit of the people and protect them. Jack then picked and killed two women who appeared as prostitutes, but were in reality Assassins working as spies. His intention was to expose the Brotherhood, draw Jacob out and put him out of the picture, so that he could become the leader of the Assassins but on his own terms. He then went on killing a few more real prostitutes in a hideous way, so as to challenge Evie and make her confront him, claiming, through a series of sick messages, that the source of his bitterness and anger was the fact that Jacob and the Brotherhood failed in tracking down and punishing his mother's murderers. Eventually Evie locates Jacob imprisoned in a cell in the basement of the Lambeth Asylum, where she fights and defeats Jack for good, putting an end to the Ripper's criminal activity before reuniting with her brother, who has been heavily wounded by Jack but is still alive. Abberline arrives just in time, and after a brief inner conflict, he agrees to keep the identity of the Ripper hidden, so as to not expose the Brotherhood, this ending explaining, in the game's take, why the mystery of the Whitechapel murders remains unsolved till this day.

 

Evie reunites with Jacob while Abberline finds the Ripper's dead body

 

Although typically the main lead is Evie, the essential protagonist in Jack The Ripper is actually London and the melancholy that dominated the city during those gloomy times. The depiction of this dark side of London is impressive in Jack The Ripper, as opposed to the overall feel-good and vibrant atmosphere of the main game. The characters are now older, therefore more mature and settled, and this does not go only for Jacob and Evie, but for Abberline as well. The police officer seems to have lost his humorous approach, which is quite normal given the circumstances, something that becomes more evident during those instances where he goes through an inner battle between his sense of duty and his bond of loyalty with Evie and Jacob. Similarly Evie looks less vivid, as if exhausted by life's burdens; Jacob has become more serious and responsible and although I admit that I miss his vibrant personality from the main game, it is a development that makes sense and shows that there has been some decent character development in the story. Jack The Ripper himself, or Jack The Lad as Evie calls him, remains a faceless, mysterious figure till the end, acting like the cold-blooded, ruthless killer that he is during the sequences where we play as him. Although his personality could have been explored more, and maybe it would have been more convenient for both the story's consistency and a better understanding of  the character if Jacob was given more time so that we could have the chance to see more interactions between him and Jack, the Jack The Ripper episodes succeed in painting an accurate picture of the social, political and ethical views of those times, with referencing facts and historical personalities and connecting them to the events in the fictional story in a very smart and effective way.

A luxurious-looking Whitechapel brothel as it is depicted in the game's intro

A character with critical importance for the first half of the game is Lady Owers, an ex-prostitute and now wife of a wealthy but rather feckless and degenerate man, who, behind the curtain, operates as a panderess, hiring prostitutes by threatening them, then bringing them to her lush mansion in the outskirts of London to entertain influential and socially prominent clients so that she can secretly take photos of them in the act and blackmail them later. Evie finds out that Lady Owers is an accomplish of Jack The Ripper, so she infiltrates her mansion in order to find her and make her talk.

Lady Owers is all smiles but in reality she is pure evil

While investigating the many rooms of the house, Evie overhears Mr Owers talking to one of the guards (notably, these guards are ex-Rooks, now recruited by Jack The Ripper, and they can be seen sporting outfits of a dark purple color s opposed to both the green outfits of the original Rooks and the red ones of the Blighters), asking him if he has read the Kama Sutra. When the guard replies that he hasn't, Mr Owers happily announces that he will go fetch for him "Sir Richard's exquisite translation" from his personal library. This is in fact a historical detail of great importance as what Mr Owers is talking about is the real translation of the Kama Sutra by Sir Richard Francis Burton, the famous writer, translator and explorer of the Victorian era.

Sir Richard Francis Burton was a man of impressive height, with a captivating personality

Sir Richard Burton, born in Devon in 1821, was also a military officer and a scholar, also known for his vast knowledge of many languages and his desire to collect as many experiences as possible in all aspects of life, which he moreover fulfilled. His most famous translations include the aforementioned Kama Sutra and the One Thousand And One Nights, while as an explorer he journeyed to Africa with John Hanning Speke, officer of the British Indian Army and fellow explorer, in search of the sources of the River Nile - a story that was also the theme of the beautiful film Mountains of the Moon by Bob Rafelson. His travels brought him close to civilizations that, back then, were considered exotic, and he would return to his homeland to introduce ethics and habits that were many times viewed as extreme or even morally provocative. In 1863 he co-founded the Anthropological Society of London, and during the same time, he also founded the Cannibal Club, a Victorian dining club the meeting point of which was near Fleet Street in Whitechapel. Being essentially a secret society that, moreover, was interested in subjects that were radical, too explicit or taboo, the Cannibal Club was an exclusive one. Regardless, several renowned gentlemen of Victorian London's high society, as well as lawyers, doctors, politicians and writers were among its members. The poet Algernon Charles Swinburne was among them, having also written the short poem that served as the club's invocation and went like this: 

Preserve us from our enemies
Thou who art Lord of suns and skies
Whose meat and drink is flesh in pies
And blood in bowls!
Of thy sweet mercy, damn their eyes
And damn their souls.

Algernon Charles Swinebourne

In spite of his fragile looks, Swinbourne was a man of many vices and weaknesses. At the same time, he was impressively educated and much later in his life he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once. For him, as well as for the other members of the Club, gathering in their favorite meeting place offered the means to free themselves from the norms and restrictions of Victorian society, although for most of them it was also a chance to cross the limits in many areas and try out things that were frowned upon or forbidden in their social circles. Mostly though these gatherings had to do with discussions, exchange of socially unaccepted material, like explicit photographs and illustrations, reading of texts that were prohibited, and other similar activities, sharing thoughts ideas that would be considered too radical or extreme in public. Its members were exclusively men, and although there is no evidence that sexual activity was part of the meetings, it is not something to be ruled out completely either, given the idiosyncrasies of some of its members as well as its founder's. The Cannibal Club and the Anthropological Society of London equally, although the latter claimed that it was almost exclusively scientific on its basis, might have been quite controversial (which is probably why they did not last for long), and probably would be considered so by today's standards as well, but regardless they were indicative of a time in history where social restrictions and prohibitions were often particularly severe, leading people to embrace attitudes and mindsets of the exact opposite extremes. 

The logo of the Anthropological Society of London

Mr Owers of Syndicate's Jack The Ripper was a member of the Cannibal Club, and many of his wife's clients were fellow members, who would attend her luxurious parties for all that they promised. Part of the Cannibal Club's philosophy was all about free sex for any taste after all, and by the looks of it neither Mr Owers nor his lady would say no to an extra spice in their lives. There are hints that both of them swinged both ways and Mr Owers himself is clearly quite promiscuous. Jack, although working with Lady Owers, was not, openly at least, associated with the Club, but even so the indirect connection that the game's story makes between the members of the Cannibal Club and Jack The Ripper is very interesting. 

Mr Owers is as sleazy as he looks

Although there is no evidence connecting the real Cannibal Club to the case of the real Ripper, judging from the Club's unbridled activities in the shadows of the strict and conservative Victorian society, anyone of its members could have actually been the notorious serial killer. The meeting place was on Fleet Street in Whitechapel, the same borough were the Ripper murders also happened. The killings took place many years after the Club's closure, but any of its high-esteemed past members could have been considered suspicious enough, given that to proceed to the initiation ceremony, they had previously proved that they either had no boundaries or that they were willing to break them without having second thoughts.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cannibal_Club

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cannibal-club-racism-and-rabble-rousing-victorian-england-180952088/