Ripperature: Building the Myth

Ripperature takes a completely different angle from every other Jack the Ripper podcast. Instead of rehashing the murders and suspects, host Gracie Bain examines how the 1888 Whitechapel killings have been fictionalized, adapted, and mythologized across more than a century of books, films, and television. The central question is blunt: why do we keep turning the murders of five real women into entertainment, and what does that say about us? Season 1 covers detective fiction and alternate-suspect narratives, analyzing specific works like Kerri Maniscalco's Stalking Jack the Ripper, Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell, and the 1971 Hammer film Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. Bain brings an academic lens to each work, examining how gender, class, and violence intersect in the Ripper mythology. Season 2 expands into other Victorian murders and their fictional afterlives. With 15 episodes across two seasons, the show is compact enough to binge in a weekend. The 4.7-star rating from 13 reviews on Apple Podcasts reflects a small but engaged audience that appreciates Bain's literary and cultural criticism approach. If you have already listened to the forensic and historical Ripper podcasts and want something that interrogates why the Ripper story endures as a cultural obsession, Ripperature fills a niche that no other show in this space occupies.