The killing spree of a notorious 19th-century murderer named Jack the Ripper claimed five victims. Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly were all prostitutes and, with the exception of Elizabeth Stride, they were all horribly mutilated, with their throats slashed and organs removed.
BLOODY MURDER
These victims were known as the ‘canonical five’, though it is believed that Jack the Ripper killed as many as eleven women. All the murders took place within a mile of each other, in Spitalfields, Aldgate, Whitechapel and the City of London. The way the bodies were mutilated first led police to suspect that the killer had a good knowledge of the human body. Scores of butchers and slaughterers were investigated.
CRIMINAL PROFILING
The Metropolitan Police Service – popularly known as Scotland Yard – asked police surgeon Thomas Bond to draw up a profile of the killer. His assessment is one of the earliest examples of criminal profiling. Bond concluded that the five murders were indeed the work of a single killer, who would be solitary and prone to attacks of homicidal mania. He did not believe, however, that he had to have any special knowledge of anatomy.
LETTERS FROM A KILLER
The case triggered a media frenzy, which turned the killer into an almost mythical figure. As a result, hundreds of letters were sent to the press and the police, many of them pranks. The nickname “Jack the Ripper” came from one such letter. On the 27th of September, the Central News Agency received a letter allegedly from the killer, which was sent on to Scotland Yard and was first believed to be a hoax. It started with “Dear Boss,” contained a promise to cut off his next victim’s ear and was signed “Jack the Ripper”. When Catherine Eddowes was found with a severed earlobe, the letter was taken seriously.
FROM HELL
Shortly after the “Dear Boss” letter, a postcard arrived at the same news agency, written in similar handwriting and referring to a “double murder.” Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes had both been killed the night before. The most disturbing missive, however, was the “From Hell” letter postmarked 15th of October. This one was delivered to the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, a group of volunteers that patrolled the streets of this East End district, and it arrived along with half a human kidney. One of Catherine Eddowes’ kidneys had been removed by her attacker, though police at the time were unable to confirm it was hers.
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
Almost seven hundred letters were investigated by police, but none of them helped them in their search. Nor was it helpful that the area was an overcrowded maze of dark and dirty alleyways, full of places to hide. The only possible clue left by the killer was a message written in chalk on a wall in Goulston Street that read: “The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.”
These words may have been written when the killer fled the scene of Catherine Eddowes’ murder, as a bloodstained piece of her apron was found on the ground below it. Many Jewish traders lived in the area and police removed the phrase, fearing retaliation. However, as with the letters, it did not prove useful in solving the murder. The killings stopped after 1888 and Jack the Ripper, never found or even identified, did not strike again.
THE ULTIMATE MURDER MYSTERY
Jack the Ripper has been the subject of many studies, books and films over the years and he appears to be as popular as ever. We asked Richard Jones, founder of London’s Jack the Ripper Tour, why this gruesome individual continues to enthrall us.
Richard Jones (English accent): The Jack the Ripper case, I think, fascinates us for many different reasons. One reason, of course, is it’s the ultimate murder mystery. They never caught Jack the Ripper, we don’t know who Jack the Ripper was. And as a result of that, we’ve got this mystery that can’t be … well, many people think can’t be solved. And the great thing is that, because it wasn’t solved, you can come up with virtually any suspect and twist your facts to fit the theory. Another reason is that it gives us a window back onto an age that I think we’re all interested in: that late Victorian age which conjures up all the images of foggy London streets, dark alleyways and gaslight.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
On his tours, Richard Jones encourages people to discuss the subject and he gets asked a lot of questions. So what do people seem most interested in?
Richard Jones: One of the questions that inevitably comes up – and I think every guide will tell you this – is “Was he a member of the Royal Family. He was, wasn’t he?” And the honest answer to that is that he probably wasn’t. But it’s always good to have a conspiracy theory that involves the highest of society.
VICTIMS OF SOCIETY
Yet while Jack the Ripper is a fascinating figure for many people, says Jones, his unfortunate victims are not forgotten, either.
Richard Jones: We do get a lot of pity for the victims, and one of the things we do bring in is the fact that these were five women who’d literally fallen through the cracks of Victorian society. There was no safety net such as the welfare state in those days and so, as a consequence, these poor women found themselves living on the streets of the East End of London. The tragedy of them is that they’d all come from these not affluent backgrounds, but certainly reasonably well-off backgrounds in the sense that they were upper-working-class, as it were. So we do get asked a lot about the victims.
THE KEY QUESTION
And the one question that Jones is always asked not even he can dare to give an answer to.
Richard Jones: We also get asked: “Who do you think Jack the Ripper was?” To which I often reply, “Well, to be honest, I can’t say with any degree of certainty and I don’t think anyone ever will.” It’s always going to be the great unsolved mystery!