WARNING: Graphic Images
“Madam, we the women of East London feel horror at the dreadful sins that have been lately committed in our midst.”
–Petition to Queen Victoria by 4000 impoverished women of Whitechapel
In fear for their lives, the women of London’s Whitechapel petitioned Queen Victoria for relief when Jack the Ripper was at large [1][2]. The Ripper is known to have murdered 5 women, but the exact number of his victims is uncertain [3]. These women were all characterized as prostitutes, though they may simply have been destitute women.
Serial Killings
Despite his infamy, Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer of women. Nor will he be the last. The savagery of such attacks will not be addressed here.
There are, however, men who have no compassion for women — whether they ever become serial killers or not. They do not recognize women as human beings, and feel entitled to use and degrade them. A few celebrity predators come to mind, though fame is not a prerequisite.
Sex Trafficking
Worldwide, of course, there are sex traffickers who exploit women by force, fraud, and coercion for their own financial gain. Drugs are commonly employed to secure control over women in the sex trade.
Rape by Proxy
Dominique Pelicot, aged 71, went a step further. Pelicot was recently convicted in France of repeatedly drugging Gisele (his wife of 50 years), then recruiting 50 different men to rape her over a 10 year period [4A]. The men (who, themselves, ranged in age from 26 to 68) were likewise convicted, though some claim they believed they were taking part in an erotic game [5].
Pelicot took thousands of videos of these men abusing his unconscious wife. Though she was asleep during the assaults, Gisele Pelicot suffered large gaps in memory, hair and weight loss, as side effects of the drugs her husband was surreptitiously administering to her [4B]. She feared she was developing Alzheimer’s Disease or a brain tumor. Continue reading
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