Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper was the name given to a serial killer who preyed on female sex workers in the Whitechapel district of London, England, at the end of the nineteenth century. The killer was only active in the year 1888 and is usually credited for the murders of at least five women, all sex workers. After cutting his victims' throats, Jack the Ripper often cut open the corpses and removed internal organs. This led the public to speculate that the culprit may have been a surgeon. Though police and local media received a number of letters from individuals claiming to be the killer, the true culprit was never arrested and remained a mystery.

Background

An influx of immigrants relocated to London's East End in the middle and late nineteenth century. The onslaught led to overcrowding, and work was often difficult to find. Overcrowding was especially prominent in the area known as Whitechapel, where many women were pushed into sex work due to poverty. Whitechapel became notorious for its depravity, characterized by the abundance of brothels and pubs. The region also experienced a great deal of criminal violence, culminating in the serial murders of several sex workers between the months of August and November 1888.

Murders Accredited to Jack the Ripper

Though a number of murders occurred around the same time as the Jack the Ripper spree, only five deaths were officially linked to the killer. The first murder that would be blamed on Jack the Ripper occurred on August 31, 1888. A forty-two-year-old sex worker named Mary Ann Nichols was found dead on a street called Bucks Row with her throat slashed so deep that her head was almost severed. Nichols's abdomen had also been slashed with a blade and her stomach was cut open.

Eight days later, forty-seven-year-old Annie Chapman's body was discovered in an alley behind Hanbury Street. The sex worker's belongings had been laid out beside her. Like Nichols, Chapman's head was nearly severed and her stomach had been cut open and torn apart. Pieces of her abdominal skin had been placed on her left shoulder and her intestines had been laid on her right shoulder. Parts of Chapman's bladder and reproductive organs were also missing.

On September 28, the Central News Agency received a letter from an individual claiming to have committed the two murders and threatening more. The letter was signed "Jack the Ripper," which is how the public referred to the serial killer from that point forward. Two days later, two more murders were committed between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m.

Elizabeth Stride's body was found on Berner Street around 1:00 a.m. with fresh wounds that still bled. This led police to believe that the killer had been interrupted and fled the scene. The body of forty-three-year-old Catherine Eddowes was discovered shortly after in a nearby alley with her throat slashed and torso ripped open. The killer also sliced open Eddowes's eyelids and cut parts of her nose and right ear off. The words "The Juwes are not the men to be blamed for nothing" were later found chalked on a wall close to Eddowes's murder site, though officials could not conclude if the message was related to the killings.

Jack the Ripper did not strike again until November 9, when twenty-five-year-old Mary Jane Kelly was found mutilated in her apartment. Her body had been skinned and gutted. Pieces of Kelly's face and chest had been removed and placed on a nearby table. Her heart had also been cut out and her intestines were hung over a picture frame. Kelly's was the most gruesome of the murders, and the details led to a mass panic in Whitechapel.

Though Kelly is considered Jack the Ripper's final victim, several more gruesome murders occurred in the following months. The series of homicides was later referred to as the Whitechapel murders, which included the five Ripper murders. During the investigation, the police and media received hundreds of letters related to the killings. Some letters claimed to be written by Jack the Ripper himself. Three of these letters earned special attention: the "Dear Boss" letter, the "Saucy Jack" postcard, and the "From Hell" letter. The "From Hell" letter, which was sent with a package containing a human kidney, was the only document police considered possibly authentic.

Suspects

Though police never uncovered the killer's identity, a number of theories surfaced in the decades following. Many speculators believed the killer held the profession of a butcher, mortician, or doctor, as the evidence suggested that the culprit had knowledge of anatomy. Some independent investigations also linked the murders to historical figures. One far-fetched theory held that Queen Victoria's son, Prince Albert Victor, was responsible, though the prince provided alibies.

London's Metropolitan Police Service listed four possible suspects for the murders committed in 1888. All suspects were male. The first suspect was a poor Polish immigrant simply referred to as Kosminski. The second was a young barrister and schoolteacher named Montague John Druitt who killed himself in December 1888. The third was an older Russian-born thief named Michael Ostrog who had a history of mental illness. The last suspect was Dr. Francis J. Tumblety, an American who was arrested in November 1888 for gross indecency. Tumblety later fled the country after being released from prison. Based on police reports, Kosminski and Tumblety appeared to be the police inspectors' favored suspects of the group. Continued investigation of the murders, however, showed little evidence pointing to any of the police suspects.

More than a century after Jack the Ripper terrorized London, the killer's identity remained unknown. A number of independent researchers have attempted to dissect the case files and available evidence, positing numerous theories about potential suspects. The killer's legacy also inspired a number of authors and filmmakers. The specter of Jack the Ripper is featured in several works of fiction, and the killer has been depicted in multiple films and television shows. Considered by some scientists to be a big break in the case, in 2022 it was announced in a peer-reviewed article that genetic testing of semen from Eddowes's shawl had resulted in a match in the mitochondrial DNA extracted with one of Kosminski's living relatives. The findings were also criticized, however, as lacking in some data specifics and overall still too weak to be definitive.

Bibliography

Adam, David. "Does a New Genetic Analysis Finally Reveal the Identity of Jack the Ripper?" Science, 15 Mar. 2019, www.science.org/content/article/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper. Accessed 5 Oct. 2022.

"FBI Records: The Vault – Jack the Ripper." Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. Department of Justice.6 July 1988. Web. 10 Jan. 2016. https://vault.fbi.gov/Jack%20the%20Ripper/Jack%20the%20Ripper%20Part%201%20of%201/view

"Jack the Ripper." BBC. BBC. Web. 10 Jan. 2016. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic‗figures/ripper‗jack‗the.shtml

"Jack the Ripper." Metropolitan Police. Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime. Web. 10 Jan. 2016. http://content.met.police.uk/Site/jacktheripper

Johnson, Ben. "Jack the Ripper." History and Heritage Accommodation Guide. Historic UK. Web. 10 Jan. 2016. http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Jack-the-Ripper/

Scanlon, Gina. "Ripper Street: Whitechapel." BBC America. New Video Channel America, LLC. 13 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Jan. 2016. http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/ripper-street/blog/2012/12/whitechapel

Sugden, Philip. The Complete History of Jack the Ripper. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2002. Print.