|
Who was the Whitechapel Murderer? CASE DETAILS  Jack the Ripper is one of the most notorious serial killers in history. An old file in Scotland Yard shows that between 1888 and 1891, detectives investigated 11 separate murders of women, some of whom were street workers, in London’s East End. Known on the docket as the “Whitechapel Murders,” these gruesome crimes would soon take on a notorious legacy spanning decades. Five of the murders, occurring between August and November 1888, are generally agreed to be the work of a single killer: Jack the Ripper. The Ripper’s killing spree began on August 31, 1888, with the slaughter of 43-year-old Mary Ann Nichols, whose disemboweled body was found in a darkened doorway in Buck’s Row at 3:40am. She was last seen alive about an hour before, at a common lodging house where she had been staying. Her throat was cut twice, once down to the vertebrae. She had been stabbed in the vagina, and the lower part of her abdomen was ripped open.  The “Dear Boss” letter coined the name Jack the Ripper. A week and a day later, on September 8, the body of 48-year-old Annie Chapman was discovered in the backyard of a house on nearby Hanbury Street. Annie had last been seen about 5:30am in the company of a dark-haired man wearing a brown deer-stalker hat and dark overcoat. Her throat was cut twice, her stomach was cut open, and her intestines were placed above her right shoulder. Her sexual organs and anus had also been removed. On September 27, a letter addressed to “The Boss” was delivered to London’s Central News Agency. Written in red ink, it boasted about the murders of Nichols and Chapman and promised more killings. It was signed “Jack the Ripper,” giving the press and public a name to hang on the homicidal maniac. The “Dear Boss” letter, as it became known, was the first of thousands of letters sent to the press, police, and public figures by individuals claiming to be the notorious killer. Most of them are assumed to have been hoaxes.  The victims were all women of poor means. On September 30th, a cartman returning home to Dutfield’s Yard around 1am discovered the body of 44-year-old domestic worker Elizabeth Stride as he went to stable his horse. The cause of death was a six-inch incision across Stride’s throat, which severed her left carotid artery and her trachea. The absence of body mutilations led investigators to assume that the attack had been interrupted by the approach of the horse cart, and the Ripper had fled, his blood lust unsated. In fact, just 45 minutes later, a policeman walking his beat in Mitre Square discovered the eviscerated corpse of 48-year-old Catherine Eddowes. Less than an hour earlier, Catherine had been released from a police station where she had been taken to sober up. Her throat was slashed from ear to ear, her nose was severed, and her eyelids slit. Her abdomen was ripped open, and her intestines were placed over her right shoulder. Her uterus and left kidney were missing.  The five confirmed victims are known as the Canonical Five. The last murder attributed to Jack the Ripper was also his most brutal. Mary Jane Kelly was only 25 years old when her body was discovered on November 9, 1888, in her bed in the single room she rented in Miller’s Court. Her face was disfigured, and her throat was cut down to the spine. Her stomach was cut open, and she had been disemboweled. Her uterus, kidneys and one breast were found beneath her head, and other parts of her body were scattered around the room. Her heart was missing and never found. Police surgeon Dr. Thomas Bond performed the autopsy on Mary Jane Kelly and, responding to a request from Scotland Yard that he examine all the material connected with the Ripper investigation, concluded that all five victims had likely been killed by the same hand. Bond also provided an opinion on the character of the person who might have committed the crimes. This document has come to be regarded as the first attempt at modern police profiling. During the original investigation, police interviewed over 2,000 people, investigated more than 300 individuals, and detained 80 possible suspects without ever having enough evidence to charge anyone. Jack the Ripper strangled and butchered his victims with such unprecedented brutality and stealth that his crimes continue to baffle historians, law enforcement professionals, and armchair detectives well into the 21st century. Contemporaneous suspects included a Polish barber, a disgraced barrister, a Russian sailor, and an American quack. More recently, a famous British artist, a well-known American serial killer, a wealthy Liverpool merchant, and even Queen Victoria’s Royal physician have been suggested, among other possibilities. In the past few decades, along with new suspects and theories, new clues have surfaced, and some artifacts and documents thought to have been lost or destroyed have been found. Ripper scholars, also called Ripperologists, hope that by applying modern forensic techniques and technology to these new and rediscovered materials, the riddle of Jack the Ripper’s identity may yet be solved. It is highly possible that there is something out there, undiscovered and forgotten, that can move the case forward and potentially solve it; someday, someone might open a trunk or an old box in the attic or basement and find the evidence that names Jack the Ripper. Unlock more content at www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/unsolved-mysteries-volume-4. |
