The History Forum hosted a “Jack the Ripper Murder Mystery” on Feb. 2 in the Drake Memorial Library.
SUNY Brockport senior and president of the History Forum Sean Hinck discussed the objective of the game with the group prior.
“Each player gets a character and then some time to discuss with others who they are,” Hinck said. “Afterward everyone goes out to search for clues while the killer gets as many people as they can in five minutes. Once the time is up, we go over all of the clues and then everyone votes on who they think the killer is.”
The club’s president and vice president did extensive research and made the game themselves. They gathered information about the case online, looking into different possible suspects and used a similar game as inspiration.
SUNY Brockport senior and vice president of the History Forum Ryan Billington did the research and creative aspect while setting up for the event.
“It was a little stressful creating everything for the game, but it was really fun just doing all of the different research and seeing all the history about Jack the Ripper and everyone that was involved in it,” Billington said.
Advertising around campus and submitting the information regarding the eventwas taken care of by Hinck.
“I’m more of an organizational kind of guy. I get the events submitted and approved. I really just submitted the event to my Brockport and made the posters,” Hinck said.
Hinck appreciates his vice president’s work ethic and support throughout the whole process.
“This event was made very easy by my vice president Ryan. He made all these cards and props. He does a lot of stuff like that,” Hinck said.
SUNY Brockport freshman Julianne Mora enjoyed the club’s first event of this semester and gave suggestions to the club officers for their next event.
“I had a very good time! The experience was very interesting but it could be a little more flushed out because you could see the killer kill people. I really liked how thought out all of the characters were,” Mora said.
There was a turnout of about 30 students, which was much more than the club officials expected.
“I think the turnout was good, but at first I was a little nervous about it,” Billington said. “It was kind of scuffed and just sheets of paper, but I think it went really well. I definitely think we’re going to do this sort of event again and improve it. I definitely think we will be doing this again and next time we will have better cards, more clues, make it more engaging and just have a way so everyone can enjoy the history of it.”
Students enjoyed the mystery aspect of the event and the club officers wound up recruiting a few new members. For anyone interested, the History Forum meets every Thursday at 8 p.m. in the library.
