Jack the Ripper was an unidentified
serial killer
A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone:
*
*
*
*
* (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
who was active in and around the impoverished
Whitechapel
Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...
district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.
Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved women working as
prostitutes
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-p ...
who lived in the slums of the
East End of London. Their throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to speculation that their killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and numerous letters were received by media outlets and
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
from people purporting to be the murderer.
The name "Jack the Ripper" originated in the "
Dear Boss letter
The "Dear Boss" letter was a message allegedly written by the notorious unidentified Victorian era, Victorian serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. Addressed to the Central News Agency (London), Central News Agency of London and dated 25 Septem ...
" written by someone claiming to be the murderer, which was disseminated in the press. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax and may have been written by journalists to heighten interest in the story and increase their newspapers' circulation. Another, the "
From Hell letter
The "From Hell" letter (also known as the "Lusk letter") was a letter sent with half of a preserved human kidney to George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, in October 1888. The author of this letter claimed to be the uni ...
", was received by
George Lusk
George Akin Lusk (1839—25 October 1919) was a British builder and decorator who specialised in music hall restoration. He was the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee during the Whitechapel murders, including the killings ascribed ...
of the
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee and came with half a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims. The public came to believe in the existence of a single serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, mainly because of both the extraordinarily brutal nature of the murders and media coverage of the crimes.
Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper, and the legend solidified. A police investigation into a
series of eleven brutal murders committed in Whitechapel and
Spitalfields
Spitalfields () is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and situated in the East End of London, East End. Spitalfields is formed around Commercial Street, London, Commercial Stre ...
between 1888 and 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888. Five victims—
Mary Ann Nichols
Mary Ann Nichols, known as Polly Nichols (née Walker; 26 August 184531 August 1888), was the first Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have murdered an ...
,
Annie Chapman
Annie Chapman (born Eliza Ann Smith; 25 September 1840 – 8 September 1888) was the second Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated a minimum of fiv ...
,
Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride ( Gustafsdotter; 27 November 1843 – 30 September 1888) is believed to have been the third victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whit ...
,
Catherine Eddowes
Catherine Eddowes (14 April 1842 – 30 September 1888) was the fourth of the Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical five victims of the notorious unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have killed and Mutila ...
and
Mary Jane Kelly
Mary Jane Kelly ( – 9 November 1888), also known as Marie Jeanette Kelly, Fair Emma, Ginger, Dark Mary and Black Mary, is widely believed by scholars to have been the final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, w ...
—are known as the "canonical five" and their murders between 31 August and 9 November 1888 are often considered the most likely to be linked. The murders were never solved, and the legends surrounding these crimes became a combination of historical research,
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
and
pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseud ...
, capturing public imagination to the present day.
Background

In the mid-19th century, England experienced an influx of
Irish immigrants
The Irish diaspora () refers to ethnic Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of Ireland.
The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages,Flechner, Roy; Meeder, Sven (2017). The Irish ...
who swelled the populations of the major cities, including the
East End of London. From 1882,
Jewish refugees
This article lists expulsions, refugee crises and other forms of displacement that have affected Jews.
Timeline
The following is a list of Jewish expulsions and events that prompted significant streams of Jewish refugees.
Assyrian captivity
...
fleeing
pogroms in the Russian Empire
Pogroms in the Russian Empire () were large-scale, targeted, and repeated Antisemitism, anti-Jewish riots that began in the 19th century. Pogroms began to occur after Russian Empire, Imperial Russia, which previously had very few Jews, acquired te ...
and other areas of
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
immigrated into the same area. The parish of
Whitechapel
Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...
in the East End became increasingly overcrowded, with the population increasing to approximately 80,000 inhabitants by 1888.
[Honeycombe, ''The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870-1970'', p. 54] Work and housing conditions worsened, and a significant economic
underclass
The underclass is the segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a social class, class hierarchy, below the core body of the working class. This group is usually considered cut off from the rest of the society.
The g ...
developed. Fifty-five per cent of children born in the East End died before they were five years old. Robbery, violence, and
alcohol dependency
Alcohol dependence is a previous (DSM-IV and ICD-10) psychiatric diagnosis in which an individual is physically or psychologically dependent upon alcohol (also chemically known as ethanol).
In 2013, it was reclassified as alcohol use disorder ...
were commonplace,
and the endemic poverty drove many women to
prostitution
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...
to survive on a daily basis.
In October 1888, London's
Metropolitan Police Service estimated that there were 62
brothel
A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
s and 1,200 women working as prostitutes in Whitechapel,
[Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 1; Police report dated 25 October 1888, MEPO 3/141 ff. 158–163, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 283; Fido, p. 82; Rumbelow, p. 12] with approximately 8,500 people residing in the 233
common lodging-house
"Common lodging-house" is a Victorian era term for a form of cheap accommodation in which the inhabitants (who are not members of one family) are all lodged together in the same room or rooms, whether for eating or sleeping. The slang terms ''doss ...
s within Whitechapel every night,
with the nightly price for a
coffin bed being
fourpence () and the cost of sleeping upon a "lean-to" or "hang-over" rope stretched across the dormitory being two pence per person.
The economic problems in Whitechapel were accompanied by a steady rise in
social tension
Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, civil strife, or turmoil, are situations when law enforcement and security forces struggle to maintain public order or tranquility.
Causes
Any number of things may cause civil dis ...
s. Between 1886 and 1889, frequent demonstrations led to police intervention and public unrest, such as
Bloody Sunday (1887)
Bloody Sunday was an event which took place in London, England on 13 November 1887, when a crowd of marchers protesting about unemployment and the Irish Coercion Acts, as well as demanding the release of MP William O'Brien, clashed with the ...
.
Antisemitism
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
, crime,
nativism
Nativism may refer to:
* Nativism (politics), ethnocentric beliefs relating to immigration and nationalism
* Nativism (psychology), a concept in psychology and philosophy which asserts certain concepts are "native" or in the brain at birth
* Lingu ...
,
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
, social disturbance, and severe deprivation influenced public perceptions that Whitechapel was a notorious den of
immorality
Immorality is the violation of moral laws, norms or standards. It refers to an agent doing or thinking something they know or believe to be wrong. Immorality is normally applied to people or actions, or in a broader sense, it can be applied to ...
. Such perceptions were strengthened in 1888 when the series of vicious and grotesque murders attributed to "Jack the Ripper" received unprecedented coverage in the media.
Murders

The large number of attacks against women in the East End during this time adds uncertainty to how many victims were murdered by the same person. Eleven separate murders, stretching from 1888 to 1891, were included in a Metropolitan Police investigation and were known collectively in the police docket as the "Whitechapel murders".
Opinions vary as to whether these murders should be linked to the same culprit, but five of the eleven Whitechapel murders, known as the "canonical five", are widely believed to be the work of the Ripper. Most experts point to deep
slash wounds to the throat, followed by extensive abdominal and genital-area mutilation, the removal of internal organs, and progressive facial mutilations as the distinctive features of the Ripper's ''
modus operandi
A (often shortened to M.O. or MO) is an individual's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as .
Term
The term is often used in ...
''.
The first two cases in the Whitechapel murders file, those of
Emma Elizabeth Smith
Emma Elizabeth Smith ( 1843 – 4 April 1888) was a murder victim of mysterious origins in late-19th century London. Her killing was the first of the Whitechapel murders, and it is possible she was a victim of the serial killer known as Jack the ...
and
Martha Tabram, are not included in the canonical five.
Smith was robbed and
sexually assaulted
Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexua ...
in
Osborn Street, Whitechapel, at approximately on 1888. She had been bludgeoned about the face and received a cut to her ear. A blunt object was also inserted into her
vagina
In mammals and other animals, the vagina (: vaginas or vaginae) is the elastic, muscular sex organ, reproductive organ of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vulval vestibule to the cervix (neck of the uterus). The #Vag ...
, rupturing her
peritoneum
The peritoneum is the serous membrane forming the lining of the abdominal cavity or coelom in amniotes and some invertebrates, such as annelids. It covers most of the intra-abdominal (or coelomic) organs, and is composed of a layer of mesotheli ...
. She developed
peritonitis
Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and covering of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One pa ...
and died the following day at
London Hospital
The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and London Borough of Tow ...
. Smith stated that she had been attacked by two or three men, one of whom she described as a teenager. This attack was linked to the later murders by the press, but most authors attribute this murder to general East End
gang violence
A gang is a group or society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collecti ...
unrelated to the Ripper case.
[
Tabram was murdered on a staircase landing in George Yard, Whitechapel, on 7 August 1888;][Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 35] she had suffered 39 stab wounds to her throat, lungs, heart, liver, spleen
The spleen (, from Ancient Greek '' σπλήν'', splḗn) is an organ (biology), organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter.
The spleen plays important roles in reg ...
, stomach, and abdomen, with additional knife wounds inflicted to her breasts and vagina. All but one of Tabram's wounds had been inflicted with a bladed instrument such as a penknife
Penknife, or pen knife, is a small folding knife. Today ''penknife'' is also the common British English term for both a pocketknife, which can have single or multiple blades, and for multi-tools, with additional tools incorporated into the desi ...
, and with one possible exception, all the wounds had been inflicted by a right-handed person.[ Tabram had not been ]rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...
d.
The savagery of the Tabram murder, the lack of an obvious motive, and the closeness of the location and date to the later canonical Ripper murders led police to link this murder to those later committed by Jack the Ripper. However, this murder differs from the later canonical murders because although Tabram had been repeatedly stabbed, she had not suffered any slash wounds to her throat or abdomen. Many experts do not connect Tabram's murder with the later murders because of this difference in the wound pattern.
Canonical five
The canonical
The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon' the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, ''canonical exampl ...
five Ripper victims are Mary Ann Nichols
Mary Ann Nichols, known as Polly Nichols (née Walker; 26 August 184531 August 1888), was the first Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have murdered an ...
, Annie Chapman
Annie Chapman (born Eliza Ann Smith; 25 September 1840 – 8 September 1888) was the second Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated a minimum of fiv ...
, Elizabeth Stride
Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride ( Gustafsdotter; 27 November 1843 – 30 September 1888) is believed to have been the third victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whit ...
, Catherine Eddowes
Catherine Eddowes (14 April 1842 – 30 September 1888) was the fourth of the Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical five victims of the notorious unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have killed and Mutila ...
, and Mary Jane Kelly
Mary Jane Kelly ( – 9 November 1888), also known as Marie Jeanette Kelly, Fair Emma, Ginger, Dark Mary and Black Mary, is widely believed by scholars to have been the final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, w ...
.
The body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered at about on Friday 1888 in Buck's Row (now Durward Street
Durward Street, formerly Buck's Row, is a street in Whitechapel, London.
In the early morning of 31 August 1888, the body of Mary Ann Nichols ("Polly") was found on the pavement on the south side of Buck's Row. She is generally thought to h ...
), Whitechapel. Nichols had last been seen alive approximately one hour before the discovery of her body by a Mrs. Emily Holland, with whom she had previously shared a bed at a common lodging-house in Thrawl Street, Spitalfields, walking in the direction of Whitechapel Road
Whitechapel Road is a major arterial road in Whitechapel, Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It is named after a small chapel of ease dedicated to St Mary and connects Whitechapel High Street to the west with Mile End Road to the east ...
. Her throat was severed by two deep cuts, one of which completely severed all the tissue down to the vertebra
Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spina ...
e. Her vagina had been stabbed twice, and the lower part of her abdomen was partly ripped open by a deep, jagged wound, causing her bowels to protrude. Several other incisions inflicted to both sides of her abdomen had also been caused by the same knife; each of these wounds had been inflicted in a downward thrusting manner.
One week later, on Saturday 1888, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered at approximately near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street
Hanbury Street is a street running from Commercial Street in Spitalfields to Old Montague Street in Whitechapel located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The eastern section is restricted to pedal cycles and pedestrians only.
History
Th ...
, Spitalfields. As in the case of Nichols, the throat was severed by two deep cuts. Her abdomen had been cut entirely open, with a section of the flesh from her stomach being placed upon her left shoulder and another section of skin and flesh—plus her small intestine
The small intestine or small bowel is an organ (anatomy), organ in the human gastrointestinal tract, gastrointestinal tract where most of the #Absorption, absorption of nutrients from food takes place. It lies between the stomach and large intes ...
s—being removed and placed above her right shoulder. Chapman's autopsy also revealed that her uterus
The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', : uteri or uteruses) or womb () is the hollow organ, organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans, that accommodates the embryonic development, embryonic and prenatal development, f ...
and sections of her bladder
The bladder () is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the kidneys. In placental mammals, urine enters the bladder via the ureters and exits via the urethra during urination. In humans, the bladder is a distens ...
and vagina had been removed.
At the inquest
An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a cor ...
into Chapman's murder, Elizabeth Long described having seen Chapman standing outside 29 Hanbury Street at about in the company of a dark-haired man wearing a brown deerstalker hat
A deerstalker is a type of cap that is typically worn in rural areas, often for hunting, especially deer stalking. Because of the cap's popular association with the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, it has become stereotypical headgear fo ...
and dark overcoat, and of a "shabby-genteel
Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...
" appearance. According to this eyewitness, the man had asked Chapman, "Will you?" to which Chapman had replied, "Yes."
Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both killed in the early morning hours of Sunday 1888. Stride's body was discovered at approximately in Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street (now Henriques Street) in Whitechapel. The cause of death was a single clear-cut incision, measuring six inches across her neck which had severed her left carotid artery Carotid artery may refer to:
* Common carotid artery, often "carotids" or "carotid", an artery on each side of the neck which divides into the external carotid artery and internal carotid artery
* External carotid artery, an artery on each side of ...
and her trachea
The trachea (: tracheae or tracheas), also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all animals' lungs. The trachea extends from ...
before terminating beneath her right jaw. The absence of any further mutilations to her body has led to uncertainty as to whether Stride's murder was committed by the Ripper, or whether he was interrupted during the attack. Several witnesses later informed police they had seen Stride in the company of a man in or close to Berner Street on the evening of 29 September and in the early hours of 30 September, but each gave differing descriptions: some said that her companion was fair, others dark; some said that he was shabbily dressed, others well-dressed.
Eddowes's body was found in a corner of Mitre Square
Mitre Square is a small square located in Aldgate inside the City of London. It measures about by and is connected via three passages with Mitre Street to the south west, to Creechurch Place to the north west and, via St James's Passage (for ...
in the City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, three-quarters of an hour after the discovery of the body of Elizabeth Stride. Her throat was severed from ear to ear and her abdomen ripped open by a long, deep and jagged wound before her intestines had been placed over her right shoulder, with a section of the intestine being completely detached and placed between her body and left arm.
The left kidney and the major part of Eddowes's uterus had been removed, and her face had been disfigured, with her nose severed, her cheek slashed, and cuts measuring a quarter of an inch and a half an inch respectively vertically incised through each of her eyelids. A triangular incision—the apex
The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to:
Arts and media Fictional entities
* Apex (comics)
A-Bomb
Abomination
Absorbing Man
Abraxas
Abyss
Abyss is the name of two characters appearing in Ameri ...
of which pointed towards Eddowes's eye—had also been carved upon each of her cheeks, and a section of the auricle and lobe
Lobe may refer to:
People with the name
* Lobe (surname)
Science and healthcare
* Lobe (anatomy)
* Lobe, a large-scale structure of a radio galaxy
* Glacial lobe, a lobe-shaped glacier
* Lobation, a characteristic of the nucleus of certain biolo ...
of her right ear was later recovered from her clothing. The police surgeon who conducted the post mortem
An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death; ...
upon Eddowes's body stated his opinion these mutilations would have taken "at least five minutes" to complete.
A local cigarette salesman named Joseph Lawende
Joseph Lawende (9 February 1847 – 9 January 1925) was a Polish-born British cigarette salesman who is believed to have witnessed serial killer Jack the Ripper in the company of his fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes, approximately nine minutes ...
had passed by a narrow walkway to Mitre Square named Church Passage with two friends shortly before the murder; he later described seeing a fair-haired man of medium build with a shabby appearance with a woman who may have been Eddowes.[ Lawende's companions were unable to confirm his description.][Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 193–194; Chief Inspector Swanson's report, 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, pp. 185–188] The murders of Stride and Eddowes ultimately became known as the "double event".
A section of Eddowes's bloodied apron was found at the entrance to a tenement in Goulston Street, Whitechapel, at A chalk inscription upon the wall directly above this piece of apron read: "The Juwes are The men That Will not be Blamed for nothing." This graffito became known as the Goulston Street graffito. The message appeared to imply that a Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
or Jews in general were responsible for the series of murders, but it is unclear whether the graffito was written by the murderer on dropping the section of apron, or was merely incidental and nothing to do with the case. Such graffiti were commonplace in Whitechapel. Police Commissioner
A police commissioner is the head of a police department, responsible for overseeing its operations and ensuring the effective enforcement of laws and maintenance of public order. They develop and implement policies, manage budgets, and coordinate ...
Sir Charles Warren
Sir Charles Warren (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was a British Army officer of the Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his military ...
feared that the graffito might spark antisemitic riots and ordered the writing washed away before dawn.
The extensively mutilated and disembowelled
Disembowelment, disemboweling, evisceration, eviscerating or gutting is the removal of organs from the gastrointestinal tract (bowels or viscera), usually through an incision made across the abdominal area. Disembowelment is a standard routine ...
body of Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at on Friday 1888. Her face had been "hacked beyond all recognition", with her throat severed down to the spine, and the abdomen almost emptied of its organs. Her uterus, kidneys and one breast had been placed beneath her head, and other viscera
In a multicellular organism, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to a ...
from her body placed beside her foot, about the bed and sections of her abdomen and thighs upon a bedside table. The heart was missing from the crime scene.
Multiple ashes found within the fireplace at 13 Miller's Court suggested Kelly's murderer had burned several combustible items to illuminate the single room as he mutilated her body. A recent fire had been severe enough to melt the solder
Solder (; North American English, NA: ) is a fusible alloy, fusible metal alloy used to create a permanent bond between metal workpieces. Solder is melted in order to wet the parts of the joint, where it adheres to and connects the pieces aft ...
between a kettle and its spout, which had fallen into the grate of the fireplace.
Each of the canonical five murders was perpetrated at night, on or close to a weekend, either at the end of a month or a week (or so) after. The mutilations became increasingly severe as the series of murders proceeded, except for that of Stride, whose attacker may have been interrupted. Nichols was not missing any organs; Chapman's uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina were taken; Eddowes had her uterus and left kidney removed and her face mutilated; and Kelly's body was extensively eviscerated, with her face "gashed in all directions" and the tissue of her neck being severed to the bone, although the heart was the sole body organ missing from this crime scene.
Historically, the belief these five canonical murders were committed by the same perpetrator is derived from contemporaneous documents which link them together to the exclusion of others. In 1894, Sir Melville Macnaghten
Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten (16 June 1853, Woodford, London −12 May 1921) was Assistant Commissioner (Crime) of the London Metropolitan Police from 1903 to 1913. A highly regarded and famously affable figure of the late Victorian and ...
, Assistant Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police Service and Head of the Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes criminal investigation, detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is disti ...
(CID), wrote a report that stated: "the Whitechapel murderer had 5 victims—& 5 victims only". Similarly, the canonical five victims were linked together in a letter written by police surgeon Thomas Bond to Robert Anderson, head of the London CID, on 1888.[
Some researchers have posited that some of the murders were undoubtedly the work of a single killer, but an unknown larger number of killers acting independently were responsible for the other crimes. Authors Stewart P. Evans and Donald Rumbelow argue that the canonical five is a "Ripper myth" and that three cases (Nichols, Chapman, and Eddowes) can be definitely linked to the same perpetrator, but that less certainty exists as to whether Stride and Kelly were also murdered by the same person. Conversely, others suppose that the six murders between Tabram and Kelly were the work of a single killer.] Percy Clark, assistant to the examining pathologist
Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
George Bagster Phillips
George Bagster Phillips (February 1835 in Camberwell, Surrey – 27 October 1897 in London) was, from 1865, the Police Surgeon for the Metropolitan Police, Metropolitan Police's 'H' Division, which covered London, London's Whitechapel distri ...
, linked only three of the murders and thought that the others were perpetrated by "weak-minded individual nbsp;... induced to emulate the crime". Macnaghten did not join the police force until the year after the murders, and his memorandum contains serious factual errors about possible suspects.
Later Whitechapel murders
Mary Jane Kelly is generally considered to be the Ripper's final victim, and it is assumed that the crimes ended because of the culprit's death, imprisonment, institutionalisation
In sociology, institutionalisation (or institutionalization) is the process of embedding some conception (for example a belief, norm, social role, particular value or mode of behavior) within an organization, social system, or society as a w ...
, or emigration.[ The Whitechapel murders file details another four murders that occurred after the canonical five: those of Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, the Pinchin Street torso, and Frances Coles.][
The ]strangled
Strangling or strangulation is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain by restricting the flow of oxygen through the trachea. Fatal strangulation typically occurs ...
body of 26-year-old Rose Mylett was found in Clarke's Yard, High Street, Poplar on 1888. There was no sign of a struggle, and the police believed that she had either accidentally hanged herself with her collar while in a drunken stupor or committed suicide.[ However, faint markings left by a cord on one side of her neck suggested Mylett had been strangled. At the inquest into Mylett's death, the jury returned a verdict of murder.][Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 245–246; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 422–439]
Alice McKenzie was murdered shortly after midnight on 17 July 1889 in Castle Alley, Whitechapel. She had suffered two stab wounds to her neck, and her left carotid artery Carotid artery may refer to:
* Common carotid artery, often "carotids" or "carotid", an artery on each side of the neck which divides into the external carotid artery and internal carotid artery
* External carotid artery, an artery on each side of ...
had been severed. Several minor bruises and cuts were found on her body, which also bore a seven-inch long superficial wound extending from her left breast to her navel
The navel (clinically known as the umbilicus; : umbilici or umbilicuses; also known as the belly button or tummy button) is a protruding, flat, or hollowed area on the abdomen at the attachment site of the umbilical cord.
Structure
The u ...
. One of the examining pathologists, Thomas Bond, believed this to be a Ripper murder, though his colleague George Bagster Phillips, who had examined the bodies of three previous victims, disagreed. Opinions among writers are also divided between those who suspect McKenzie's murderer copied the ''modus operandi'' of Jack the Ripper to deflect suspicion from himself, and those who ascribe this murder to Jack the Ripper.
"The Pinchin Street torso" was a decomposing headless and legless torso of an unidentified woman aged between 30 and 40 discovered beneath a railway arch in Pinchin Street, Whitechapel, on 1889. Bruising about the victim's back, hip, and arm indicated the decedent had been extensively beaten shortly before her death. The victim's abdomen was also extensively mutilated, although her genitals had not been wounded. She appeared to have been killed approximately one day prior to the discovery of her torso. The dismembered sections of the body are believed to have been transported to the railway arch, hidden under an old chemise.
At on 13 February 1891, PC Ernest Thompson discovered a 31-year-old prostitute named Frances Coles lying beneath a railway arch at Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel. Her throat had been deeply cut but her body was not mutilated, leading some to believe Thompson had disturbed her assailant. Coles was still alive, although she died before medical help could arrive. A 53-year-old stoker, James Thomas Sadler, had earlier been seen drinking with Coles, and the two are known to have argued approximately three hours before her death. Sadler was arrested by the police and charged with her murder. He was briefly thought to be the Ripper,[ but was later discharged from court for lack of evidence on 1891.][Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 218–222; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 551–568]
Other alleged victims
In addition to the eleven Whitechapel murders, commentators have linked other attacks to the Ripper. In the case of "Fairy Fay", it is unclear whether this attack was real or fabricated as a part of Ripper lore.[Evans, Stewart P.; Connell, Nicholas (2000). ''The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper''. ] "Fairy Fay" was a nickname given to an unidentified woman whose body was allegedly found in a doorway close to Commercial Road on 1887 "after a stake had been thrust through her abdomen", but there were no recorded murders in Whitechapel at or around Christmas 1887. "Fairy Fay" seems to have been created through a confused press report of the murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith, who had a stick or other blunt object shoved into her vagina. Most authors agree that the victim "Fairy Fay" never existed.[Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', pp. 21–25]
A 38-year-old widow named Annie Millwood was admitted to the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary with numerous stab wounds to her legs and lower torso on 1888, informing staff she had been attacked with a clasp knife by an unknown man. She was later discharged, but died from apparently natural causes on . Millwood was later postulated to be the Ripper's first victim, although this attack cannot be definitively linked to the perpetrator.
Another suspected precanonical victim was a young dressmaker named Ada Wilson, who reportedly survived being stabbed twice in the neck with a clasp knife upon the doorstep of her home in Bow BOW as an acronym may refer to:
* Bag of waters, amniotic sac
* Bartow Municipal Airport (IATA:BOW), a public use airport near Bartow, Florida, United States
* Basic operating weight of an aircraft
* BOW counties, made of Brown, Outagamie, and Winn ...
on 1888 by a man who had demanded money from her. A further possible victim, 40-year-old Annie Farmer, resided at the same lodging house as Martha Tabram and reported an attack on 1888. She had received a superficial cut to her throat. Although an unknown man with blood on his mouth and hands had run out of this lodging house, shouting, "Look at what she has done!" before two eyewitnesses heard Farmer scream, her wound was light, and possibly self-inflicted.
"The Whitehall Mystery
The Whitehall Mystery is an List of unsolved deaths, unsolved murder that took place in London in 1888. The dismembered remains of a woman were discovered at three sites in the centre of the city, including the construction site of Scotland Yard, ...
" was a term coined for the discovery of a headless torso of a woman on 1888 in the basement of the new Metropolitan Police headquarters being built in Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...
. An arm and shoulder belonging to the body were previously discovered floating in the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
near Pimlico
Pimlico () is a district in Central London, in the City of Westminster, built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by Lon ...
on 11 September, and the left leg was subsequently discovered buried near where the torso was found on 17 October. The other limbs and head were never recovered and the body was never identified. The mutilations were similar to those in the Pinchin Street torso case, where the legs and head were severed but not the arms.
Both the Whitehall Mystery and the Pinchin Street case may have been part of a series of murders known as the " Thames Mysteries", committed by a single serial killer dubbed the "Torso killer".[ It is debatable whether Jack the Ripper and the "Torso killer" were the same person or separate serial killers active in the same area.][Gordon, R. Michael (2002), ''The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London'', Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., ] The ''modus operandi'' of the Torso killer differed from that of the Ripper, and police at the time discounted any connection between the two. Only one of the four victims linked to the Torso killer, Elizabeth Jackson, was ever identified. Jackson was a 24-year-old prostitute from Chelsea whose various body parts were collected from the River Thames over a three-week period between 31 May and 25 June 1889.
On 1888, the body of a seven-year-old boy named John Gill was found in a stable block in Manningham, Bradford
Manningham is a historically industrial workers area as well as a council ward of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
The population of the 2011 Census for the Manningham Ward was 19,983.
History
Manningham holds a wealth of industrial his ...
. Gill had been missing since the morning of 27 December. His legs had been severed, his abdomen opened, his intestines partly drawn out, and his heart and one ear removed. Similarities with the Ripper murders led to press speculation that the Ripper had killed him.[ The boy's employer, 23-year-old milkman William Barrett, was twice arrested for the murder but was released due to ]insufficient evidence
In a legal dispute, one party has the burden of proof to show that they are correct, while the other party has no such burden and is presumed to be correct. The burden of proof requires a party to produce evidence to establish the truth of facts ...
.[ No-one was ever prosecuted.][Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 136]
Carrie Brown (nicknamed "Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
", reportedly for her habit of quoting Shakespeare's sonnets
A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
) was strangled with clothing and then mutilated with a knife on 1891 in New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.[ Her body was found with a large tear through her groin area and superficial cuts on her legs and back. No organs were removed from the scene, though an ovary was found upon the bed, either purposely removed or unintentionally dislodged.][ At the time, the murder was compared to those in Whitechapel, though the Metropolitan Police eventually ruled out any connection.][Vanderlinden, Wolf (2003–04). "The New York Affair", in ''Ripper Notes'' part one No. 16 (July 2003); part two No. 17 (January 2004), part three No. 19 (July 2004 )]
Investigation
The vast majority of the City of London Police
The City of London Police is the territorial police force#United Kingdom, territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, England, including the Middle Temple, Middle and Inner Temple, Inner Temples.
The for ...
files relating to their investigation into the Whitechapel murders were destroyed in the Blitz
The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War.
Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...
. The surviving Metropolitan Police files allow a detailed view of investigative procedures in the Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
.[ A large team of policemen conducted house-to-house inquiries throughout Whitechapel. Forensic material was collected and examined. Suspects were identified, traced, and either examined more closely or eliminated from the inquiry. Modern police work follows the same pattern.] More than 2,000 people were interviewed, "upwards of 300" people were investigated, and 80 people were detained. Following the murders of Stride and Eddowes, the Commissioner of the City Police, Sir James Fraser, offered a reward of £500 for the arrest of the Ripper.
The investigation was initially conducted by the Metropolitan Police Whitechapel (H) Division Criminal Investigation Department
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes criminal investigation, detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is disti ...
(CID) headed by Detective Inspector Edmund Reid
Detective Inspector Edmund John James Reid (21 March 1846 – 5 December 1917) was the head of the CID in the Metropolitan Police's H Division at the time of the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper in 1888. He was also an early aeronau ...
. After the murder of Nichols, Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline
Frederick George Abberline (8 January 1843 – 10 December 1929) was a British chief inspector for the London Metropolitan Police. He is best known for being a prominent police figure in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper serial kille ...
, Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...
, and Walter Andrews were sent from Central Office at Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's London boroughs, 32 boroughs. Its name derives from the location of the original ...
to assist. The City of London Police were involved under Detective Inspector James McWilliam after the Eddowes murder, which occurred within the City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
. The overall direction of the murder enquiries was hampered by the fact that the newly appointed head of the CID, Assistant Commissioner Robert Anderson, was on leave in Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
between and , during the time when Chapman, Stride, and Eddowes were killed. This prompted Colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
Sir Charles Warren, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February 2022.
The rank of Comm ...
, to appoint Chief Inspector Donald Swanson
Chief Inspector Donald Sutherland Swanson (12 August 1848 - 24 November 1924) was a senior police officer in the Metropolitan Police in London during the notorious Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.
Early life
The son of John Swanson, a brewer, ...
to coordinate the enquiry from Scotland Yard.
Butchers, slaughterers, surgeons, and physicians were suspected because of the manner of the mutilations. A surviving note from Major Henry Smith, Acting Commissioner of the City Police, indicates that the alibis of local butchers and slaughterers were investigated, with the result that they were eliminated from the inquiry. A report from Inspector Swanson to the Home Office confirms that 76 butchers and slaughterers were visited, and that the inquiry encompassed all their employees for the previous six months. Some contemporaneous figures, including Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
, thought the pattern of the murders indicated that the culprit was a butcher or cattle drover on one of the cattle boats that plied between London and mainland Europe. Whitechapel was close to the London Docks
The London Docks were one of several sets of docks in the historic Port of London.
They were constructed in Wapping, downstream from the City of London between 1799 and 1815, at a cost exceeding £5½ million.
Traditionally ships had d ...
, and usually such boats docked on Thursday or Friday and departed on Saturday or Sunday. The cattle boats were examined but the dates of the murders did not coincide with a single boat's movements and the transfer of a crewman between boats was also ruled out.
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee
In September 1888, a group of volunteer citizens in London's East End formed the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. They patrolled the streets looking for suspicious characters, partly because of dissatisfaction with the failure of police to apprehend the perpetrator, and also because some members were concerned that the murders were affecting businesses in the area. The Committee petitioned the government to raise a reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer, offered their own reward of £50- the equivalent of between £5,900 (inflation adjusted) and £86,000 (as a percent of GDP) in 2021- for information leading to his capture, and hired private detectives to question witnesses independently.
Criminal profiling
At the end of October, Robert Anderson asked police surgeon Thomas Bond to give his opinion on the extent of the murderer's surgical skill and knowledge. The opinion offered by Bond on the character of the "Whitechapel murderer" is the earliest surviving offender profile
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects and has been used by investigators to link cases that may have been committed by the same perpetrator ...
.[Canter, pp. 5–6] Bond's assessment was based on his own examination of the most extensively mutilated victim and the post mortem notes from the four previous canonical murders.[Letter from Thomas Bond to Robert Anderson, 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 360–362 and Rumbelow, pp. 145–147] He wrote:
Bond was strongly opposed to the idea that the murderer possessed any kind of scientific or anatomical knowledge, or even "the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer".[ In his opinion, the killer must have been a man of solitary habits, subject to "periodical attacks of homicidal and erotic ]mania
Mania, also known as manic syndrome, is a Psychiatry, psychiatric Abnormality (behavior), behavioral syndrome defined as a state of Abnormality (behavior), abnormally elevated arousal, affect (psychology), affect, and energy level. During a mani ...
", with the character of the mutilations possibly indicating "satyriasis
Hypersexuality is a proposed medical condition said to cause unwanted or excessive sexual arousal, causing people to engage in or think about sexual activity to a point of distress or impairment., according to the website of ''Psychology Toda ...
".[ Bond also stated that "the homicidal impulse may have developed from a revengeful or brooding condition of the mind, or that religious mania may have been the original disease but I do not think either hypothesis is likely".][
There is no evidence the perpetrator engaged in sexual activity with any of the victims,] yet psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
s have suggested that the penetration of the victims with a knife and "leaving them on display in sexually degrading
Degradation may refer to:
Science
* Degradation (geology), lowering of a fluvial surface by erosion
* Degradation (telecommunications), of an electronic signal
* Biodegradation of organic substances by living organisms
* Environmental degradation ...
positions with the wounds exposed" indicates that the perpetrator derived sexual pleasure from the attacks. This view is challenged by others, who dismiss such hypotheses as insupportable supposition.
Suspects
The concentration of the killings around weekends and public holidays and within a short distance of each other has indicated to many that the Ripper was in regular employment and lived locally. Others have opined that the killer was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat
The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...
who ventured into Whitechapel from a more well-to-do area. Such theories draw on cultural perceptions such as fear of the medical profession, a mistrust of modern science, or the exploitation of the poor by the rich. The term "ripperology" was coined in the 1970s to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper case in an effort to determine his identity, and the murders have inspired numerous works of fiction.
Suspects proposed years after the murders include virtually anyone remotely connected to the case by contemporaneous documents, as well as many famous names who were never considered in the police investigation, including Prince Albert Victor
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (Albert Victor Christian Edward; 8 January 1864 – 14 January 1892) was the eldest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). From the time of his ...
, artist Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...
, and author Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...
. Everyone alive at the time is now long dead, and modern authors are free to accuse anyone "without any need for any supporting historical evidence". Suspects named in contemporaneous police documents include three in Sir Melville Macnaghten's 1894 memorandum, but the evidence against each of them is, at best, circumstantial.
In addition to the contradictions and unreliability of contemporaneous accounts, attempts to identify the murderer are hampered by the lack of any confirmed surviving forensic evidence
Forensic identification is the application of forensic science, or "forensics", and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident. Forensic means "for the courts".
Hu ...
. DNA analysis
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
has attempted to tie Aaron Kosminski
Aaron Kosminski (born Aron Mordke Kozmiński; 11 September 1865 – 24 March 1919) was a Polish hairdresser who is a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.
Kosminski was a Polish Jew who emigrated from Congress Poland to England in ...
(a Whitechapel barber) to crime scene evidence and Walter Sickert to letters (possibly hoaxes) claiming to be from the Ripper. The scientific methodology
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
used to advance these mutually incompatible claims has been criticised. The mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...
recovered from the uncorroborated crime scene evidence compared with undisclosed descendants of Kosminski (who had no children) is considered questionable. DNA tests on extant letters is inconclusive; the available material has been handled many times and is too contaminated to provide meaningful results. The study linking Kosminski could not be replicated and the original data could not be located, leading the ''Journal of Forensic Sciences
The ''Journal of Forensic Sciences'' (''JFS'') is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal is the official publication of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, published by Wiley-Blackwell. It covers all aspects of forensic science. The m ...
'' to later publish an official expression of concern
In academic publishing, an expression of concern is a notice issued by a publisher against a particular publication, warning that it may contain errors or be otherwise untrustworthy.
Definitions
Practice for issuing expressions of concern is not ...
.
There are numerous, varied theories about the actual identity and profession of Jack the Ripper, but authorities are not agreed upon any of them, and the number of named suspects reaches over one hundred.[Whiteway, Ken (2004). "A Guide to the Literature of Jack the Ripper", ''Canadian Law Library Review'', vol. 29 pp. 219–229] Despite continued interest in the case, the Ripper's identity remains unknown.
Letters
Over the course of the Whitechapel murders, the police, newspapers, and other members of the public received hundreds of letters regarding the case. Some letters were well-intentioned offers of advice as to how to catch the killer, but the vast majority were either hoaxes or generally useless.
Hundreds of letters claimed to have been written by the killer himself, and three of these in particular are prominent: the "Dear Boss" letter, the "Saucy Jacky" postcard and the "From Hell" letter.
The "Dear Boss" letter, dated and postmark
A postmark is a postal marking made on an envelope, parcel, postcard or the like, indicating the place, date and time that the item was delivered into the care of a postal service, or sometimes indicating where and when received or in transit. ...
ed 1888, was received that day by the Central News Agency, and was forwarded to Scotland Yard on . Initially, it was considered a hoax, but when Eddowes was found three days after the letter's postmark with a section of one ear obliquely cut from her body, the promise of the author to "clip the ladys (sic
The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; ''thus'', ''so'', and ''in this manner'') inserted after a quotation indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated as found in the source text, including erroneous, archaic, or unusual spelling ...
) ears off" gained attention. Eddowes's ear appears to have been nicked by the killer incidentally during his attack, and the letter writer's threat to send the ears to the police was never carried out. The name "Jack the Ripper" was first used in this letter by the signatory and gained worldwide notoriety after its publication. Most of the letters that followed copied this letter's tone, with some authors adopting pseudonyms such as "George of the High Rip Gang" and "Jack Sheridan, the Ripper." Some sources claim that another letter dated 1888 was the first to use the name "Jack the Ripper", but most experts believe that this was a fake inserted into police records in the 20th century.
The "Saucy Jacky" postcard was postmarked 1888 and was received the same day by the Central News Agency. The handwriting was similar to the "Dear Boss" letter, and mentioned the canonical murders committed on 30 September, which the author refers to by writing "double event this time".[ It has been argued that the postcard was posted before the murders were publicised, making it unlikely that a ]crank
Crank may refer to:
Mechanisms
* Crank (mechanism), in mechanical engineering, a bent portion of an axle or shaft, or an arm keyed at right angles to the end of a shaft, by which motion is imparted to or received from it
* Crankset, the componen ...
would hold such knowledge of the crime. However, it was postmarked more than 24 hours after the killings occurred, long after details of the murders were known and publicised by journalists, and had become general community gossip by the residents of Whitechapel.[Cook, pp. 79–80; Fido, pp. 8–9; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219–222; Rumbelow, p. 123]
The "From Hell" letter was received by George Lusk
George Akin Lusk (1839—25 October 1919) was a British builder and decorator who specialised in music hall restoration. He was the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee during the Whitechapel murders, including the killings ascribed ...
, leader of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, on 1888. The handwriting and style is unlike that of the "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jacky" postcard.[ The letter came with a small box in which Lusk discovered half of a human kidney, preserved in "spirits of wine" (]ethanol
Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...
).[Evans and Rumbelow, p. 170; Fido, pp. 78–80] Eddowes's left kidney had been removed by the killer. The writer claimed that he "fried and ate" the missing kidney half. There is disagreement over the kidney; some contend that it belonged to Eddowes, while others argue that it was a macabre practical joke. The kidney was examined by Thomas Openshaw of the London Hospital
The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and London Borough of Tow ...
, who determined that it was human and from the left side, but (contrary to false newspaper reports) he could not determine any other biological characteristics. Openshaw subsequently also received a letter signed "Jack the Ripper".
Scotland Yard published facsimiles of the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard on , in the ultimately vain hope that a member of the public would recognise the handwriting. Charles Warren explained in a letter to Godfrey Lushington, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
This article lists past and present parliamentary under-secretaries of state serving the home secretary of the United Kingdom at the Home Office.
Non-permanent and parliamentary under-secretaries, 1782–present
*April 1782: Evan Nepean
*Apri ...
: "I think the whole thing a hoax but of course we are bound to try & ascertain the writer in any case." On 1888, George R. Sims in the Sunday newspaper ''Referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...
'' implied scathingly that the letter was written by a journalist "to hurl the circulation of a newspaper sky high". Police officials later claimed to have identified a specific journalist as the author of both the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard. The journalist was identified as Tom Bullen in a letter from Chief Inspector John Littlechild to George R. Sims dated 1913. A journalist named Fred Best reportedly confessed in 1931 that he and a colleague at '' The Star'' had written the letters signed "Jack the Ripper" to heighten interest in the murders and "keep the business alive".
Media
The Ripper murders mark an important watershed in the treatment of crime by journalists.[ Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer, but his case was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy.][ Davenport-Hines, Richard (2004)]
"Jack the Ripper (fl. 1888)"
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. Subscription required for online version.[Woods and Baddeley, pp. 20, 52] The Elementary Education Act 1880
The Elementary Education Act 1880 ( 43 & 44 Vict. c. 23), or Mundella's Education Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative ...
(which had extended upon a previous Act) made school attendance compulsory regardless of class
Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...
. As such, by 1888, more working-class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
people in England and Wales were literate
Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...
.
Tax reforms in the 1850s had enabled the publication of inexpensive newspapers with a wider circulation. These mushroomed in the later Victorian era to include mass-circulation newspapers costing as little as a halfpenny, along with popular magazines such as ''The Illustrated Police News
''The Illustrated Police News'' was a weekly illustrated newspaper which was one of the earliest British tabloids. It featured sensational and melodramatic reports and illustrations of murders and hangings and was a direct descendant of the ex ...
'' which made the Ripper the beneficiary of previously unparalleled publicity. Consequently, at the height of the investigation, over one million copies of newspapers with extensive coverage devoted to the Whitechapel murders were sold each day. However, many of the articles were sensationalistic and speculative, and false information was regularly printed as fact. In addition, several articles speculating as to the identity of the Ripper alluded to local xenophobic
Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
rumours that the perpetrator was either Jewish or foreign.
In early September, six days after the murder of Mary Ann Nichols, ''The Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' reported: "Whatever information may be in the possession of the police they deem it necessary to keep secret ... It is believed their attention is particularly directed to ... a notorious character known as 'Leather Apron'." Journalists were frustrated by the unwillingness of the CID to reveal details of their investigation to the public, and so resorted to writing reports of questionable veracity.[ Imaginative descriptions of "Leather Apron" appeared in the press, but rival journalists dismissed these as "a mythical outgrowth of the reporter's fancy". ]John Pizer
John Pizer (21 September 1850 – 7 July 1897) was an English bootmaker in Whitechapel, London. He was the first person accused of being the perpetrator in the Whitechapel murders, but was cleared of suspicion after providing alibis for the two ...
, a local Jew who made footwear from leather, was known by the name "Leather Apron"[e.g. Marriott, Trevor, p. 251; Rumbelow, p. 49] and was arrested, even though the investigating inspector reported that "at present there is no evidence whatsoever against him". He was soon released after the confirmation of his alibis.[
After the publication of the "Dear Boss" letter, "Jack the Ripper" supplanted "Leather Apron" as the name adopted by the press and public to describe the killer. The name "Jack" was already used to describe another fabled London attacker: "]Spring-heeled Jack
Spring-heeled Jack was an entity in English folklore of the Victorian era. The first claimed sighting of Spring-heeled Jack was in 1837. Later sightings were reported all over the United Kingdom and were especially prevalent in suburban Lond ...
", who supposedly leapt over walls to strike at his victims and escape as quickly as he came. The invention and adoption of a nickname for a particular killer became standard media practice with examples such as the Axeman of New Orleans, the Boston Strangler
The Boston Strangler is the name given to the murderer of 13 women in Greater Boston during the early 1960s. The crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo based on his confession, on details revealed in court during a separate case, and DNA profi ...
, and the Beltway Sniper
The D.C. sniper attacks (also known as the Beltway sniper attacks) were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred over three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Marylan ...
. Examples derived from Jack the Ripper include the French Ripper, the Düsseldorf Ripper, the Camden Ripper, the Blackout Ripper, Jack the Stripper, the Yorkshire Ripper
Peter William Sutcliffe (2 June 1946 – 13 November 2020), also known as Peter Coonan, was an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980. He was du ...
, and the Rostov Ripper. Sensational press reports combined with the fact that no one was ever convicted of the murders have confused scholarly analysis and created a legend that casts a shadow over later serial killers.
Legacy
The nature of the Ripper murders and the impoverished lifestyle of the victims drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, insanitary slums. In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished, but the streets and some buildings survive, and the legend of the Ripper is still promoted by various guided tours of the murder sites and other locations pertaining to the case. For many years, the Ten Bells
The Ten Bells is a public house at the corner of Commercial Street and Fournier Street in Spitalfields in the East End of London. It is sometimes noted for its supposed association with at least two victims of Jack the Ripper: Annie Chapman ...
public house in Commercial Street (which had been frequented by at least one of the canonical Ripper victims) was the focus of such tours.
In the immediate aftermath of the murders and later, "Jack the Ripper became the children's bogey man." Depictions were often phantasmic or monstrous. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was depicted in film dressed in everyday clothes as a man with a hidden secret, preying on his unsuspecting victims; atmosphere and evil were suggested through lighting effects and shadowplay.[ By the 1960s, the Ripper had become "the symbol of a predatory aristocracy",][Bloom, Clive, "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures", in Werner, p. 251] and was more often portrayed in a top hat dressed as a gentleman. The Establishment
In sociology and in political science, the term the establishment describes the dominant social group, the elite who control a polity, an organization, or an institution. In the Praxis (process), praxis of wealth and Power (social and politica ...
as a whole became the villain, with the Ripper acting as a manifestation of upper-class exploitation. The image of the Ripper merged with or borrowed symbols from horror stories, such as Dracula
''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...
's cloak or Victor Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein is a fictional character who first appeared as the titular main protagonist of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. He is an Italian-born Swiss scientist who, after studying chemical proces ...
's organ harvest. The fictional world of the Ripper can fuse with multiple genres, ranging from Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
to Japanese erotic horror.
Jack the Ripper features in hundreds of works of fiction and works which straddle the boundaries between fact and fiction, including the Ripper letters and a hoax diary: '' The Diary of Jack the Ripper''. The Ripper appears in novels, short stories, poems, comic books, games, songs, plays, operas, television programmes, and films. More than 100 non-fiction works deal exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders, making this case one of the most written-about in the true-crime genre. The term "ripperology" was coined by Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English existentialist philosopher-novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his p ...
in the 1970s to describe the study of the case by professionals and amateurs. The periodicals ''Ripperana'', ''Ripperologist'', and ''Ripper Notes'' publish their research.
In 2006, a ''BBC History'' magazine poll selected Jack the Ripper as the worst Briton in history.
In 2015, the Jack the Ripper Museum opened in east London. It attracted criticism from both Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a borough in London, England. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames and immediately east of the City of London, the borough spans much of the traditional East End of London and includes much of ...
mayor John Biggs and protestors. Similar protests occurred in 2021 when the second of two "Jack The Chipper" fish and chip shops opened in Greenwich
Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
, with some patrons threatening to boycott the premises.
See also
* List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
This is a list of fugitives from justice, notable people who disappeared or evaded capture while being sought by law enforcement agencies in connection with a crime, and who are currently sought or were sought for the duration of their presumed ...
* List of murderers by number of victims
*''For serial killers see:'' List of serial killers by number of victims
*''For mass murderers and spree killers see:'' List of rampage killers
This is a list of mass or spree killers. A mass murderer is typically defined as someone who kills t ...
* List of serial killers before 1900
The following is a list of serial killers i.e. a person who murders more than one person, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons''Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying'' entry o"Serial Killer ...
* List of serial killers in the United Kingdom
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. The British Centre for Crime and Justice Studies defines a seri ...
Notes
References
Sources
* Begg, Paul (2003). ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History''. London: Pearson Education.
* Begg, Paul (2004). ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts''. Barnes & Noble Books.
* Bell, Neil R. A. (2016). ''Capturing Jack the Ripper: In the Boots of a Bobby in Victorian England''. Stroud: Amberley Publishing.
* Cook, Andrew (2009). ''Jack the Ripper''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing.
* Curtis, Lewis Perry (2001). ''Jack The Ripper & The London Press''. Yale University Press.
* Eddleston, John J. (2002). ''Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia''. London: Metro Books.
* Evans, Stewart P.; Rumbelow, Donald (2006). ''Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing.
* Evans, Stewart P.; Skinner, Keith (2000). ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook: An Illustrated Encyclopedia''. London: Constable and Robinson.
* Evans, Stewart P.; Skinner, Keith (2001). ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing.
* Fido, Martin (1987), ''The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
* Gordon, R. Michael (2000). ''Alias Jack the Ripper: Beyond the Usual Whitechapel Suspects''. North Carolina: McFarland Publishing.
* Holmes, Ronald M.; Holmes, Stephen T. (2002). ''Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool''. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
* Honeycombe, Gordon (1982), ''The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870–1970'', London: Bloomsbury Books,
* London, Jack (1984). ''Novels and Social Writings''. Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press.
* Lynch, Terry; Davies, David (2008). ''Jack the Ripper: The Whitechapel Murderer''. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.
* Marriott, Trevor (2005). ''Jack the Ripper: The 21st Century Investigation''. London: John Blake.
* Meikle, Denis (2002). ''Jack the Ripper: The Murders and the Movies''. Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd.
* Rivett, Miriam; Whitehead, Mark (2006). ''Jack the Ripper''. Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials.
* Rumbelow, Donald (1990). ''Jack the Ripper. The Complete Casebook''. New York: Berkley Publishing Group.
* Rumbelow, Donald (2004). ''The Complete Jack the Ripper. Fully Revised and Updated''. London: Penguin Books.
* Sugden, Philip (2002). ''The Complete History of Jack the Ripper''. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
* Thurgood, Peter (2013). ''Abberline: The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper''. Cheltenham: The History Press Ltd.
* Waddell, Bill (1993). ''The Black Museum: New Scotland Yard''. London: Little, Brown and Company.
* Werner, Alex (editor, 2008). ''Jack the Ripper and the East End''. London: Chatto & Windus.
* Whittington-Egan, Richard; Whittington-Egan, Molly (1992). ''The Murder Almanac''. Glasgow: Neil Wilson Publishing.
* Whittington-Egan, Richard (2013). ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Casebook''. Stroud: Amberley Publishing.
* Wilson, Colin; Odell, Robin; Gaute, J. H. H. (1988). ''Jack the Ripper: Summing up and Verdict''. London: Corgi Publishing.
* Woods, Paul; Baddeley, Gavin (2009). ''Saucy Jack: The Elusive Ripper''. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing.
External links
Jack the Ripper
at casebook.org
Home page
of jack-the-ripper.org
Jack the Ripper: The 1888 Autumn of Terror
at whitechapeljack.com
Contemporaneous news article
pertaining to the murders committed by Jack the Ripper
* 198
centennial investigation
into the murders committed by Jack the Ripper compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
* 201
news article
focusing upon modern geographic profiling
Geographic profiling is a criminal investigative methodology that analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most probable area of offender residence. By incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods, it assis ...
techniques used to discover the most likely location Jack the Ripper lived
Letters claiming to be from Jack the Ripper
at nationalarchives.gov.uk
Jack the Ripper
at the ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
''
* Articl
focusing upon the murders committed by Jack the Ripper
published by the Texas State University
Texas State University (TXST) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in San Marcos, Texas, United States, and another campus in Round Rock, Texas, Round Rock. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jack the Ripper
1888 in London
19th-century English criminals
Crimes adapted into films
Date of birth unknown
Date of death unknown
English serial killers
History of the City of London
History of the City of London Police
History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
History of the Metropolitan Police
London crime history
Murder in London
Nicknames in crime
People of the Victorian era
Unidentified British serial killers
Whitechapel