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Depiction of Ripper crime scene
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In the autumn of 1888, Jack the Ripper terrorized the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent areas of London, England. The name is an alias, since the serial killer's identity was unknown, and the moniker originated in a letter sent to the London Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer.
His victims were alleged prostitutes, killed in public or semi-public places at night or early in the morning. The victim's bodies were mutilated after their throats were cut. Theories suggest that the victims were first strangled in order to silence them, which may explain the lack of blood at the crime scenes. Internal organs were removed from three of the victims, leading some officials to believe that the killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge.
Newspapers gave the killer widespread and enduring notoriety due to the attacks' savagery and the fact that the police failed to capture him, sometimes missing him at the crime scenes by minutes.
The killer's identity has never been confirmed, leading to legends surrounding the murders that have become a combination of real historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. Many authors, historians, and amateur detectives have proposed theories about the identity of the killer and his victims.
Victims
Police files show that the investigation into the Ripper murders began in 1888 and eventually came to encompass eleven separate murders, stretching from April of 1888 to February of 1891. These were known in the police docket as "The Whitechapel Murders".
Authors and historians have connected at least seven other murders and violent attacks with Jack the Ripper. Among the eleven murders actively investigated, five (the canonical murders) are universally agreed upon as the work of a single killer: Jack the Ripper.
- Mary Ann Nichols
- Killed August 31, 1888
- Body discovered at 3:40 am on the ground in front of a gated stable entrance in Buck's Row, a back street in Whitechapel
- Her throat was severed deeply by two cuts
- Part of her abdomen was partly ripped open by a deep, jagged wound
- Several incisions running across her abdomen
- Annie Chapman
- Killed September 8, 1888
- Body discovered around 6:00 am lying on the ground near a doorway in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street
- Her throat was severed by two cuts, one deeper than the other
- Her abdomen was ripped entirely open
- Her uterus was removed
- Elizabeth Stride
- Killed September 30, 1888
- Body was discovered around 1:00 am, lying on the ground in Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street in Whitechapel
- Her throat had one clear cut incision
- Her death was caused by massive blood loss from the nearly severed main artery on the left side of her neck
- Her abdomen showed no signs of mutilation
- Catherine Eddowes
- Killed September 30, 1888
- Body discovered in Mitre Square in London
- Her throat was severed by two cuts
- Her abdomen was ripped open by a long, deep, jagged wound
- Her left kidney was removed
- A major part of her uterus was removed
- Mary Jane Kelly
- Killed November 9, 1888
- Body discovered after 10:45 am in the room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court
- Her throat was severed to the spine
- Her abdomen was virtually emptied of organs, and the organs were left in the room
- Her heart was missing
The mutilation of the victims became more severe as the series of murders proceeded. The murders were generally perpetrated in the middle of the night, on or close to a weekend, in a secluded sight, and on a pattern of dates either at the end of the month or a week or so after.
Most experts point to the deep throat slashes, abdominal and genital-area mutilations, removal of internal organs, and facial mutilations as the distinctive features of Jack the Ripper's modus operandi.
Investigation
The investigations of the murders were not at all organized and were, at times, sloppy. Citizens were not satisfied with the police effort, and volunteer groups ended up patrolling the streets, petitioning the government for raises in the reward for information on the killer, and hiring private detectives to question witnesses.
There was not much evidence found during the investigation. After the murder of Eddowes, police found part of her bloody apron in the stairwell of a tenement on Goulston Street. On the wall above where the apron was found, police discovered a message written in white chalk which read:
"The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing."
The message was quickly removed due to the fear of the message causing a riot.
A profile was created to help police identify and catch the killer.
- Murderer did not possess any kind of scientific or anatomical knowledge
- Murderer did not possess the technical knowledge of a butcher
- Murderer was a man of solitary habits
- Murderer was a man subject to attacks of homicidal and erotic mania
- Murderer may be looking for revenge
- Murderer may have committed the murders due to religious mania
Over the course of the Ripper murders, police and newspapers received hundreds of letters which claimed to have been written by the killer himself. Nearly all are considered hoaxes, but many experts believe that three of the letters are genuine.
- The "Dear Boss" Letter
- Dated September 25, 1888
- Postmarked and received September 27, 1888 by the Central News Agency
- Forwarded to Scotland Yard on September 29, 1888
- Initially considered a hoax
- Writer claimed to have "clip the ladys ears off"
- When Eddowes was found three days after the letter's postmark, one of her ears was partially cut off
- The letter was published on October 1, 1888 in an attempt to get someone to identify the writer by his handwriting (did not work)
- The moniker "Jack the Ripper" was first used in this letter
- The "Saucy Jacky" Postcard
- Postmarked and received by the Central News Agency on October 1, 1888
- Handwriting similar to the "Dear Boss" letter
- Mentions two victims were killed very close to one another
- Mailed before the murders of Stride and Eddowes were publicized
- The "From Hell" Letter
- Postmarked October 15, 1888
- Received by the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on October 16, 1888
- Known as the "Lusk Letter" (received by George Lusk)
- Contained a small box that contained half a human kidney (one of Eddowes' kidneys was missing)
- Writer claimed he had "fried and ate" the other half of the kidney
Suspects
Although numerous suspects were named during the time of the investigation and during the decades that followed, none have been found to be widely persuasive by experts.
Suspects Named During the Investigation by Police
- Montague John Druitt
- Son of a prominent local physician
- Practiced as a barrister and a special pleader until his death on December 1, 1888
- Committed suicide by drowning
- His disappearance and death shortly after the fifth canonical murder and alleged "private information" led some investigatory of the time to suggest he was the Ripper
- After his death, the murders stopped
- George Chapman
- Duplicitous and cold character
- Deliberately poisoned and murdered three of his wives (he was hanged for these in 1903)
- Lived in Whitechapel at the time of the murders
- Worked as a barber
- Supposedly had some of the medical skills necessary to commit the mutilations
- He murdered his wives with poison, and it is uncommon for serial killers to make such drastic changes in modus operandi
- Aaron Kosminski
- Hairdresser
- Certified insane and admitted to a lunatic asylum in February of 1891
- Had great hatred of women
- Had strong homicidal tendencies
- Strongly resembled some witness statements
- Lived close to the sites of the murders
- Lived a mile from each victim
- John Pizer
- Worked as a bootmaker in Whitechapel
- Believed to be a man known as "Leather Apron", a local man who was notorious for committing minor assaults on prostitutes
- Cleared of suspicion when he was with police at the time of one of the murders
- Dr. Francis Tumblety
- Allegedly trained as a homeopathic physician in the US
- Perceived as a misogynist
- Involved in the deaths of some of his patients in Canada
- Arrested in London for gross indecency on November 7, 1888
Suspects Put Forth by Later Authors and Historians
- Lewis Carroll
- Author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
- Named a suspect based on anagrams an author devised for his book
- David Cohen
- Incarceration at Colney Hatch asylum coincided with the end of the murders
- Violently antisocial
- Profilers asserted that behavioral clues gathered from the murders as well as linguistic hints from the "From Hell" letter all point to Cohen or someone very much like him
- Prince Albert Victor
- Viewed as the killer (or the person whom others killed for) as a result of his involvement in several scandals and questions about his sanity
- Thomas Hayne Cutbush
- Sent to Lambeth Infirmary in 1891 suffering from delusions
- Murders ceased when he was admitted
- Admitted to Broadmoor high security hospital in 1891 after stabbing a woman and attempting to stab a second
- Was a leading suspect at the time of the murders
- Nephew of a Scotland Yard superintendent
Other Ripper Theories
- The Ripper was a woman who worked, or posed, as a midwife; could be seen with bloody clothes without attracting unwanted attention and suspicion; would be more easily trusted by the victims than a man
- The Ripper was an unknown Whitechapel resident who blended in and knew his way around the area
- The Ripper was a butcher or meatcutter
- Jack the Ripper was more than one killer
External Links
Relevant discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com
