By Deborah O'Toole

Updated December 2009

 

Jack the Ripper. The name summons images of foggy London alleyways, of a man slinking about in a long cape with shifty eyes barely discernable in the shadows, and of the hapless women who met their ends on the wrong side of a knife wielded by a psychotic serial killer. Long before such a pseudonym became commonplace in our modern day and age, Jack the Ripper was the epitome of the definition more than one hundred years ago.

Available information about Jack the Ripper is seemingly endless, from print books to web sites and films. Yet none of these sources have irrefutably proven the identity of Jack the Ripper. Some writers and "Ripperologist's" claim to have the solution to the century-old mystery (each one differing in their findings), yet it is doubtful any of the individual conclusions will ever be regarded as collectively legitimate.

Whitechapel:

The Whitechapel district of London is located in the "East End" of the city, and in 1888 was home to the less fortunate echelon of English society such as common laborers, dockworkers and butchers. Many immigrants also inhabited Whitechapel, such as Jews from Poland, Germany and Russia. This throng of humanity also included a large population of street prostitutes, who plied their "wares" for pittance. Most of the women often spent their meager earnings on liquor and/or lodging for the night. However, there were those who were prostitutes only by circumstance. Ripe for the plucking by a predatory madman, these women were considered dispensable parts of society by the upper reaches of the culture.

Many of the Ripper murder sites are still in existence; such as Miller's Court (where Mary Kelly met her horrific end); Mitre Square (Eddowes murder); Buck's Row (re-named Durward Street, and where Mary Ann Nichols was killed); Berner Street (re-named Henrique Street, the scene of Elizabeth Stride's murder); and George Yard Buildings (now known as Gunthorpe, where alleged first victim Martha Tabram was killed).

Today, Whitechapel is a tad better off than in Victorian times and is home to a popular street market, the Royal London Hospital and the Whitechapel Bell Foundry among others. The foundry has been in existence for more than five hundred years, having cast the original Liberty Bell and London's Big Ben.

The Victims:

In most print publications and other sources it is generally accepted that the first Ripper victim was Mary Nichols, who was brutally murdered in Whitechapel on August 31, 1888. However, some historians feel Emma Smith was also a Ripper victim; she was attacked on April 3, 1888 in Spitalfields, but survived to return to her lodging house on George Street before dying at a hospital two days later. Smith's ear had nearly been lopped off, and there were extensive injuries to her head. An object had also been roughly inserted into her vagina, which in turn later caused her death by peritonitis.

Other experts claim the murders actually began on August 7, 1888 with the slaying of Martha Tabram at the George Yard Buildings off Whitechapel High Street. Tabram was found dead on a landing inside the George Yard Buildings, lying on her back with her legs spread open and her fists tightly clenched. Tabram was stabbed thirty-nine times, many of the wounds inflicted to vital organs such as her liver, heart, lungs, and spleen. There were no signs of a struggle at the crime scene, leading some officials to believe Tabram had been murdered elsewhere and dumped at the George Yard Buildings.

On August 31, 1888 the body of Mary Ann Nichols was found at the entrance to a stable yard on Buck's Row, Whitechapel. Nichols lay on her back with her skirts raised; the fatal gash on her throat so deep it nearly severed her head from her body. Other injuries included incisions along the abdomen (from bottom center along the ribs and under the pelvis to the left side of the stomach), as well as two small wounds on her genitalia.

Annie Chapman was discovered brutally slain on September 8, 1888 in a backyard on Hanbury Street, Spitalfields, Whitechapel. Ironically, the crime scene was a mere four hundered yards away from her own room at a lodging house on Dorset Street. Chapman lay on her back, with skirts raised and her legs drawn up. According to an inquest conducted by divisional police surgeon Dr. George Phillips, Chapman's "face was swollen and turned on the right side; and the tongue protruded between the front teeth." Chapman's small intestines had been removed from her body by the killer and lay still attached on the right side of the body above the shoulder. Chapman's throat was also slashed, the jagged wound almost reaching around the entire diameter of her neck.

The next two deaths would occur on the same day, apparently within a short time of one another:

Around one in the morning on September 30, 1888, the body of Elizabeth Stride was found in Dutfield's Yard west of Berner Street in Whitechapel. Dutfield's was also home to several families and individuals, as well as the International Working Men's Educational Club. The steward of the men's club came upon Stride's body near a wall just outside of the club; Stride was lying on her back with her legs drawn up. The woman's throat has been cut, severing her wind pipes. However, unlike previous victims, Stride's clothing remained undisturbed apart from the unfastened collar of her dress.

Less than an hour after Stride's body was found and only a twelve-minute walk away, a patrolling policeman came across the form of Catherine Eddowes lying prone in a dimly lit corner of Mitre Square. Eddowes skirt was pushed above her breasts, revealing a long gash from her stomach all the way up to her breasts. The intestines were pulled from the body and placed above the victim's right shoulder. Eddowes face was also mutilated almost beyond recognition. Her nose was almost completely cut from her face and laying to the side of her cheek, and there was a long slash down the right side of her face to the jawbone.

The remains of Mary Kelly were discovered in her room at Miller's Court in Whitechapel on November 8, 1888. Her murder was purported to be the last at the hands of the Ripper, and by far the most brutal. Apparently Kelly owed back rent for her lodgings and when the landlord came to collect late in the morning of the 8th, he happened to look inside her room through a window and espied the grotesque tableau upon the bed. Kelly's face was all but obliterated - her nose, eyebrows, ears and cheeks had been partially removed and her countenance slashed so many times she was not recognizable. Kelly had also been completely disemboweled, her breasts cut off and laid to rest on a bedside table along with other lumps of flesh - including her liver. In addition, her heart had been removed from her body but was never recovered by the authorities.

While the Ripper victims were considered debris in English society, they were also innocent women who did not deserve to die. In some instances, circumstances forced them into the lives they led but nothing justified the crime of murder in any degree. The legend and infamy of Jack the Ripper is much about the killer, but sadly less attention and speculation has been shed on his victims as fellow human beings. 

The Suspects:

Over the years, a collection of Ripper suspects have been examined in great detail. Many of the findings have found their way into print, where some writers even claimed to have solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper. Perhaps the most often-debated suspects include Prince Albert Victor (a son of Queen Victoria's); Michael Ostrog (a thief suffering from "mania"); famed artist Walter Sickert; Aaron Kosminski (first suspected in 1894 when identified by a witness who refused to testify against a fellow Jew); and George Chapman (a man who had been married multiple times and who was thought to have poisoned several people). Still, no matter what police investigators may have assumed at the time, none of the suspects were ever charged with the Ripper murders.

Another suspect was John Pizer ("Leather Apron") who was a boot maker questioned by police after the murder of Annie Chapman. Pizer was well-known for mistreating prostitutes, and when a piece of leather apron (much like his own) was discovered near Chapman's body he was scrutinized by Ripper investigators. Pizer was eventually exonerated, after which he took legal action against the newspapers who had labeled him the Ripper.

Some experts consider Montague John Druitt, the second son of a medical practitioner, a likely suspect. Druitt was a barrister, who had attended Winchester and New College, Oxford; he was known as a superb cricket player and also rumored to be a homosexual. As a barrister, Druitt was a special pleader for courts in Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton Assizes. Later, Druitt taught at a Blackheath boarding school. It was reportedly after being terminated from his teaching position that Druitt fell into a deep depression, and he was known to be in London at the time of the murders. Druitt apparently committed suicide: his body was found in the Thames River on December 31, 1888. As some historians claim, the Ripper murders ended with the death of Mary Kelly on November 8, 1888.  

One of the most far-fetched theories includes the notion that a woman may have actually been Jack the Ripper. Some Ripperologist's have suggested that a female would have been able to move around Whitechapel inconspicuously, possibly a midwife who had knowledge of the female form. However, no women were ever arrested in connection with the Ripper murders.

It is generally accepted that Jack the Ripper had anatomical knowledge of the human body, which allowed him to mutilate his victims in precise fashion. But some investigators were not convinced of the theory, claiming a common butcher could possess similar skills in disassembling a human body.

The Investigation:

Inspector Frederick Abberline is perhaps the most well-known police official involved in the Ripper case; he has been touted in many books and movies since. Abberline joined the Metropolitan Police in 1863, and by the time the Whitechapel murders occurred in 1888 he had been promoted to "First Class Inspector." Years later in an interview in the Pall Mall Gazette, Abberline hinted that George Chapman could have been the Ripper, stating "I cannot help feeling that this is the man we struggled so hard to capture fifteen years ago." In an about face, Abberline also mentioned that "Scotland Yard is really no wiser on the subject than it was fifteen years ago."

Following the double murders of Stride and Eddowes, a police constable named Alfred Long discovered a piece of leather apron near Mitre Square and writing etched on black brick above an archway. The words, written in white chalk, simply read:

The Juwes are

The men That

Will not

be Blamed

for nothing

After Long reported his find, Metropolitan officers swarmed the scene. No photographs of the wall were taken, and upon orders of Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Charles Warren the writing was erased. This decision would catch much furor and debate, and eventually Warren resigned his position because of it. Even years later, Warren explained his actions as trying to prevent public upheaval over the word "Juwes" written on the wall, fearing this would lead citizens of Whitechapel to haphazardly target local Jewish residents as Ripper suspects.

In desperate attempts to locate the Ripper, police would on occasion resort to unusual measures. At one point, it was suggested that blood hounds be brought in to try and scent down the killer but the plan never came to fruition. Another peculiar twist included the notion that because photography was a relatively new concept in the 19th century, taking a picture of a dead person's eyes would reveal the last image they saw before death. Although a doctor in Chicago insisted the experiment was plausible, Scotland Yard investigators discarded the idea as useless.

A long list of witnesses also offered insight into the Ripper's physical description, but alleged sightings and claims were never enough to truly pinpoint him. From collective statements by an assortment of witnesses - who saw some of the victims with one man shortly before their deaths - the man called Jack the Ripper was thought to be somewhere between 5' 5" and 5' 7", aged from 25-40, wearing a dark coat and trousers, a scarf and a deerstalker hat; and with a mustache. Some of the witnesses also claimed the suspect appeared to be "shabbily genteel" and/or "respectable."

In the vicinity where Elizabeth Stride's body was discovered on Berner Street, a grape stalk was found which led police to think the Ripper may have offered his victim grapes or eaten them himself. Local greengrocer Matthew Packer was questioned by police, and he claimed to have sold a man walking with Stride a half-pound of black grapes the night before the murder. Packer described the man as "perhaps thirty-five years of age, five feet seven inches in height; was stout with a square build" and "had the appearance of a clerk."  Because Packer's testimony contradicted his initial statement following Stride's murder - in which he stated he had not seen Stride or sold a man any grapes, had in fact "never saw anything suspicious or heard the slightest noise" - his claims were soon disregarded.  

Unrest plagued the citizens of Whitechapel, sometimes reaching a fever pitch, as police attempted to investigate the Ripper slayings. Many citizens felt the police were not doing enough to catch the killer; that because they were considered lower class in society efforts were not being made to track down Jack the Ripper. Therefore, fear and tinges of hysteria were rampant during the time of the murders - feelings that were hardly assuaged by the ongoing police investigation.

The fact that all of the Ripper's victims were prostitutes is without doubt - some perhaps not as prolific as others, but "ladies of the night" all the same. Each killing attributed to the Ripper also occurred during Bank Holidays in England, leading investigators to think the murderer was a working stiff and made time for his gruesome activities during leave from his place of employment. Of course, many "witnesses" to the crimes came forward to muddle the case while others helped shed some light.

What about motive? What drove Jack the Ripper to kill street women, each murder becoming more brutal than the last? Why did he sometimes arrange the body parts of his victims around the corpses? In an era when criminal profiling was unheard of, it is difficult to understand the Ripper's "modus operandi" or the dichotomy of his crime scenes. Some of the areas were heavily traveled by the general public, while others were dim and deserted. Even experts are hard-put to pigeon-hole the Ripper, and any modern day "profiles" are probably nothing more than random speculation.   

The Press:

Newspaper coverage may not have been as intense in 1888 as it is today, but the "media" as it were had a field day with Jack the Ripper during his killing spree. Because they were often not kept apprised of crime investigation developments, some journalists let fiction override truth in order to produce good copy. The Ripper murders sent waves of panic and fear throughout Whitechapel and in other areas of London. Various accounts that appeared in newspapers such as the East London Observer, The Advertiser, The Star and The Daily News frequently led to more suspicion, instinctive terror of the unknown and mob-hysteria. As is human nature, however, initial panic gave way to complacency when there appeared to be a respite between killings.

Many members of the press believed the murders to be the work of a lunatic, while others felt a gang of thieves was responsible. One headline from The Star blazoned on August 31, 1888: A REVOLTING MURDER. ANOTHER WOMAN FOUND HORRIBLY MUTILATED IN WHITECHAPEL. GHASTLY CRIMES BY A MANIAC. On September 11, 1888 The Daily News headline read: THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER: FURTHER ARRESTS, EXCITING SCENES. An article titled THE WHITECHAPEL MYSTERIES: A CLUE TO THE MURDERER, THE CORONER'S THEORY appeared in the East London Observer on September 29, 1888; to be followed by THE WHITECHAPEL HORRORS; DESCRIPTION OF THE VICTIMS; EAST LONDON IN A PANIC; EXTRAORDINARY REVELATIONS AT THE INQUESTS; and A WORD FOR WHITECHAPEL on October 6, 1888:

So far as the recent diabolical murders are concerned, we would remind our readers that in each instance they have been committed under circumstances which do not imply danger to the respectable classes. The murderer has found his victims in the middle of the night, and has induced them to accompany him to corners where none but the depraved would resort. The wretched victims to the seeming mania are selected with marvelous definiteness from the lowest class of prostitutes; and these should now be so well on their guard that further attempts on the part of the murderer should result in his capture. At all events, we hope that all who read our columns will agree with us that the ordinary members of society are not in any danger, and that the thoroughfares of Whitechapel are as safe for the general public as ever.

*Text from original East London Observer article abridged for this context.

In late September 1888 the first of what were considered letters from Jack the Ripper arrived at the Central News Agency in London. While there would be several others, there were only a select few considered to be genuine by experts of the time. The first letter also contained the signature moniker of "Jack the Ripper":

Dear Boss,

I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they won't fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I can't use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck.

 

Yours truly

Jack the Ripper

 

Don't mind me giving the trade name

 

PS Wasn't good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha

On October 16, 1888 another letter was received - this time by George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. More shocking than the letter was the inclusion of a human kidney inside a small box, preserved in wine. Medical reports found the kidney to be similar to that of Catherine Eddowes, although the claim was never proven conclusive. The accompanying "Ripper" letter stated:

From hell.

 

Mr. Lusk,

Sor I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer

 

signed

Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk

Why the letters stopped coming and the murders ceased is as mysterious as the perpetrator himself. While intense focus may have lessened with time, media and public fascination did not end with the 19th century, and continues to this day.

End Notes:

Jack the Ripper's notoriety has attained mythic proportions. Not only are there multiple films about the serial killer, societies have been formed to study the legend and to reexamine theories and evidence; board and computer games have also been created in his name and image. Anyone can draw their own conclusions as to the Ripper's identity after perusing the many sources available; but one fact will always remain the same: he was never apprehended and prosecuted for his grisly crimes.

Modern society has become numb to brutality. Crimes committed against innocent victims have become all too commonplace and unless there is an unusual maniacal twist or other outrageous circumstances involved, they barely get a nod in the daily news roundups.

In the age of film and easily accessible media, it would perhaps be easier to cast a romantic light onto the story of Jack the Ripper. As it is, his legacy remains as intriguing today as it was more than one hundred years ago. Regardless of the Ripper's true identity, in truth he was nothing more than a depraved killer with no conscience and little compassion. The fascination surrounding his activities then and now were more than likely precipitated by the knowledge he was one of the first serial killers to become infamous in his own lifetime without being apprehended.

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