Jack the Ripper is, by far, the most famous serial killer in the history. He didn’t had many victims, but he shaded the most blood and he’s an inspiration for all his successors, who said that Jack’s killings were real work of art. The identity of Jack the Ripper is, to this day, a mystery, unlike he’s actions that are even study material is forensics manuals.
In the Autumn is 1888, five horrible murders terrified the people of London. Such cruelty was never seen before. Each of the five victims, all prostitutes, ended up in a horrible way: they were mutilated, dissected in a way in which only a very sick mind or a sexual maniac can imagine.
The killer was never found and the mystery grew each year. The police had dozens of suspects and many people claimed that they were the authors. This is how a legend was born.
Jack the ripper is the pseudonym given to the serial killer that remained anonymous. The name was taken from a letter sent to the Central News Agency in London by a person that claimed to be the killer.
Newspapers helped in promoting the killer, because of the brutality of the killings and the inefficiency of the police, who didn’t managed to identify and catch him, even if they arrived, at times, at the scene within minutes, in many cases.
Because of the fact that the killer was never identified, legends have started ti circle around as a combination of history research with folk and history. Along the years, many authors, historians and private detectives came up with different theories about who is the killer, the number and names of the victims.
The Victims of Jack The Ripper
The police file in London contains 11 names, possible victims of Jack The Ripper. Regarding five of them, there is no doubt about it: they were killed by the same maniac killer.
The first one was Mary Ann Nichols, Polly for her customers, 43 years old. She died on August 31, 1888, in a Friday. The police report the following days stated ” We have never seen a more brutal killing than this one”.
On September 8, the body of Annie Chapman, 47 years old, was found.
A double murder happened on Sunday, September 30. The first body was found at 1 am at night. In the police report it was written: ” The body contains a very deep cut around the neck, from one ear to another”. The victim was identified as being Elizabeth Stride, 45 years old. Later, the second body was found, the one belonging to Catherine Eddowes, 46 years old. The media wrote: ” The victim was so disfigured that it was very hard to make a positive ID. Her belly was practically removed and a big chunk of the bowls removed and wrapped around her neck. The killing is the handy work of a professional”.
The latest killing was also the most terrifying. Mary Jane Kelly, 25 years old, was killed on November 9, in her room where she lived. The neck was severed around with a knife and it almost decapitated her. Her abdomen was ripped apart and partially opened, her right arm and breasts were cut off. The woman’s face was completely mutilated: the murdered severed her nose and took off the skin from her forehead. Her ankles were detached from her body and the meat pealed off. Her bowls were removed from the abdomen. Her internal organs, rib parts and liver were placed between the victim’s legs. The killer put the meat from her legs on a table, along with her breasts and nose, and one of the hands was put inside her stomach. This is the description of the murder scene from the police report.
Jack or Jill ?
The killings have stopped and controversy have started to appear, controversy that lasted more than one century. Despite the effort made by the police during time, the identity of Jack the Ripper remained a secret. Still, there were suspects.
Montague John Druin, a failed lawyer which killed himself in December 1888. The fact that his death coincided with the end of the killings in London was an incontestable proof, for some, that he was the killer.
Severin Klosowski, also known as George Chapman, killed three of his wives by poisoning,but it was less likely that he changed his operating method. Anyway, it was recorded the fact that chief inspector, Detective Frederick Abberline, which was tasked with finding Jack the Ripper, observed that when Chapman was arrested he said ” Finally, you have arrested Jack the Ripper”. Later, George denied that he said that.
Doctor Rosfyn D’onston Stephenson, author of some great work and also a magician, which allegedly committed the murders as part of some black magic rituals. The mystery went unsolved with his disappearance, in 1904.
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, nephew of Queen Victoria: The scandals within the royal family were always public and the appearances that surrounded the Clarence family caused some theories to appear, theories which, more or less, pointed at the Duke of being Jack The Ripper. The most speculated theory was the one of a complicity between Sir William Gull, the doctor’s family, actor Walter Sickert and an employee named John Netley. According to this theory, they were the killers, to prevent a scandal that might have implicated Clarence, a saleswoman and a bastard son.
Another theory thinks that James Kenneth Stephen, the tutor of the Duke of Cambridge, homosexual, was actually Jack the Ripper. He was a pathological enemy of women.
Doctor Thomas Neill Cream, the proved author of other murders, said while he was hanged ” I am Jack”. However, during the murders in England, Thomas Cream was in a prison in America.
Further more, it was also suggested that Jack might have been Jill the Ripper, a crazy midwife or a hideous woman that caused abortions.
The theory of a writer is that Jack was never one of the suspects the police had, but a killer that will remain unknown and undiscovered.
