 |
Name | "Jack The Ripper" | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aliases | "The Whitechapel Murderer" "The Autumn of Terror" |
||
| Location | East End of London, UK | ||
| Born | Unknown | ||
| Died | Unknown | ||
| Status | Deceased | ||
|
Name | "Jack The Ripper" | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aliases | "The Whitechapel Murderer" "The Autumn of Terror" |
||
| Location | East End of London, UK | ||
| Born | Unknown | ||
| Died | Unknown | ||
| Status | Deceased | ||
Name |
Age |
Died |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mary Ann Nicholls | 43 | 31st August 1888 | First acknowledged 'Ripper' victim. Savagely attacked across the throat, exposing vertebrae; Repeatedly stabbed at the stomach; Little publicity. |
| Annie Chapman | 47 | 8th September 1888 | Bodily organs removed from victims abdomen. The media 'awakens' to the series of attrocities being commited in the East End. |
| Elizabeth Stride | 45 | 30th September 1888 | The attacker is interrupted in his mutilation of the Swedish prostitute, and fails in the attempt to remove her ear. |
| Catharine Eddowes | 46 | 30th September 1888 | To recompense the failed expedition earlier on, the 'Ripper' resumes his gruesome work on Eddowes. Later examination reveals a kidney is missing. This soon reappears... |
| Mary Jeanette Kelly | 25 | 9th November 1888 | Just as the panic created by the 'Ripper' begins to die, the killer performs the most brutal of all his murders, taking several hours to finish the dismemberment. Later discovered to be pregnant. |
All the attacks occured during the many dark evenings of 19th century London, and with the exception of his final known attack Mary Kelly, all occured in the proximity of London's East End streets, performing his activities in the many darkened alleys and alcoves.
The 'Ripper`s' choice of weapon was a straight razor blade, strong enough to use as a stabbing/slashing implement, but wieldly enough to use in the many dismemberment activities employed. This can also imply the use of some form of medicinal scalpal, which is examined further in the MOTIVES section.
Jill/Jane/Julie the Ripper - Mad Midwife
It has been suggested that the perpetrator of these violent crimes may have
been a woman practising under the guise of abortion techniques which would
go in some part to explain the brutal mutilations undertaken. But the main
objection to this theory is that there has never been a recorded case of a
woman performing sadistic mutilation murders.
Montague John Druitt
A failed lawyer whose body was found in the River Thames in December 1888.
This coincided with the sudden end of the savage murders.
Severin Klosowski
A Polish immigrant who changed his name to George Chapman upon his arrival
to London, and deserving a sub-section all for himself (wife poisoner), he
was labelled (But later retracted) as being Jack the Ripper when arrested
by Frederick Abberline (in charge of the Ripper attrocities at the time). It
is exceptionally unusual for a murderer to change so swiftly his method of
killing, and is more likely that in desperation to pin the murders on
someone, Klosowski fit the bill.
Dr. Roslyn D'Onston Stephenson
An author and magician who preferred to keep his own activities to himself,
has been labelled as the murderer by thoerising that the murders were
committed as part of some secret initiation/ritual process (5 murders ties
in with the belief that the pentagram symbol can be used to channel power to
individuals). This belief may have faded over time were it not for Stephenson
'disappearing' sometime in 1904.
HRH Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence
Scandal has always been welcome at the expense of royalty, which is exactly
what happended to Queen Victoria's grandson and the spate of East End murders.
It has been suggested that Prince Albert, directly or indirectly, had
knowledge of who was involved in the murders. Others who may have been
instigators of the murders themselves include Sir William Gull (the
royal physician), Walter Sickert (An artist) and John Netley
(A royal coachman in service). The murders were apparently commited to
prevent any 'loose ends' involving a Prince's indiscretion, an illegitimate
child and future blackmail attempts. If this is so, why then did five women
die if only one was required to be eliminated, of which the identity was
known? and why were they killed so gruesomely?
James Kenneth Stephen
Directly linked to Prince Albert by way of being his tutor at Cambridge, it
has been claimed he was the murderer due to his homsexuality culminating into
a pathological hatred of women in general. If this is so, why didn't he kill
any female that he saw, instead of merely confining his murders to the East
End?
Dr. Thomas Neil Cream
A serial-killer himself (lady poisoner both
abroad and in Europe), his link with the 'Ripper' legacy is that he blurted
out "I am jack..." just as he was hanged. The fact that he was incarcerated
on American soil at the time hasn't diminshed the link.
James Maybrick
Perhaps being one of the most important developments to arise from continued
Whitechapel investigations was the surfacing of the infamous "Jack the Ripper
Diary" in which the self-confessings of the purported murderer are laid out
in an almost enigmatic fashion, with pages torn out and passages scribbled
out. Unfortunately, instead of the laying to rest one of the most intriguing
cases in human history, equal amounts of scorn and ridicule from sceptics
matches the proponents of the diary, firmly believing in the authenticity of
the document.
"Dear Boss, I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they won't fix me just yet...I am down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady [ref. to Annie Chapman] no time to squeal. How can they catch me know? I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me and my funny little games... The next job I do I shall clip the lady's ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly...Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knofe is nice and sharp. I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good luck. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper"
The letter was considered to be genuine, because only a few hours after the infamous double murder on the 30th of September, the police received a postcard referring to the killings. As details of the murders had not been released, all correspondance up to that date were taken seriously.
"I was not codding [joking], dear old Boss, when I gave you the tip. you'll hear about Saucy Jack's work tomorrow. Double event this time. Number one squealed a bit. Couldn't finish straight off. Had not time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again. Jack the Ripper."
A few days later he followed this with a gruesome package which was delivered to George Lusk, Chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. The cardboard box contained a kidney which was previously missing from the body of Catherine Eddowes. A note addressed "From Hell" was enclosed and contained the following message.
"Mr. Lusk. Sir I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman prasarved it for you. tother piece I fried and ate it was very nice. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer. Signed Catche me when you can Mister Lusk."[sic]
The speculation that the murderer had an anatomical understanding of the human body were made known when during the inquest of Mrs. Nicholls, it was suggested that the murderer was left-handed, and that the wounds were "deftly and...skillfully performed". This was reinforced at the examination of Annie Chapman when the coroner stated "An unskilled person could not have down this, only someone used to the post-mortem room.". Once the media distorted the facts and suggested that a mad doctor was responsible for the murders, for a while, no physician was safe in the East End.
During the murder of Catherine Eddowes, the attacker saw fit to write a message in chalk on the wall. It was discovered to say:
With what could have provided the most important clues to the whole investigation (with the slogan possibly having direct references to the Jewish community, or perhaps some masonic overtones), had it not been for the intervention of Sir Charles Warren (Commisioner of the Metropolitan Police) decided to erase all trace of the message by rubbing it out, at his insistance of it somehow causing "religious trouble". His actions were made even more extraordinary in the fact that he had acted out of his jurisdiction, as the crime had occured in the City of London.
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