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All About Jack the Ripper

Are you all ready for a creepy story? Because I’ve got one for you! Long before the days of Law & Order and CSI, real life crimes that ended up in the newspaper were where it was at. Perhaps the most famous to come out of London in the 19th century? The mysterious and dark case of Jack the Ripper!

You’ve most likely already heard of Jack. It’s a popular story and since they never really caught anyone named Jack, or anyone at all for that matter, to blame for a string of murders in London in 1888…people tend to be interested!

I’m here to tell you all there is to know about Jack the Ripper. Keep reading if you want to learn more about this mysterious, and perhaps nonexistent, murderer of 19th century London. Be warned: this article is about to get gruesome.

Who was Jack the Ripper?

Illustration from The Illustrated Police News, 6 October 1888 – WikiCommons

Before I jump in and tell you all about Jack the Ripper, I want to tell you a little bit more about where he was said to have murdered several women.

Enter: Whitechapel, a district in London that was known for its poverty in the late 19th century. I should note that Jack the Ripper was also known as the “Whitechapel Murderer” and the “Leather Apron.”

Whitechapel was a very impoverished area, known for its homeless, unemployed, alcohol abuse and prostitution. There were immigrants, refugees and Londoners living in the overly crowded area, and pretty soon living conditions were horrendous.

People were constantly being robbed, there was extreme racism and anti-Semitism, and researchers believe that there were at least 62 brothels with over 1,000 prostitutes working in them. All in all, Whitechapel was a seedy and dangerous area.

So, where does Jack the Ripper come into all of this? It seems that if you had to pick any London district to roam, he picked the right one in Whitechapel. His preferred victims were female prostitutes, and as I’ve mentioned, there was no shortage of that in Whitechapel.

He only killed women, many of whom were assumed to be prostitutes. He killed them by slashing their throats, and then he would mutilate their bodies, sometimes taking organs with him. Jack seems to have gotten more and more brutal as more time went on. His first assumed victim had her stomach slashed open, but nothing was taken. The last assumed victim had almost all of her organs taken, including her heart.

I told you this article was going to get a little graphic!

Update: In 2019, despite over 100 years of anonymity, Jack the Ripper is finally thought to have been identified. The case has since been closed.

Read more on this

During an auction in 2007, an author named Russell Edwards purchased a silk shawl, which the vendor claimed to have been discovered beside Catherine Eddowes body – the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper. Over the years, many DNA tests were performed, but the conclusions were incomplete. As technology was imrpoving, the investigation continued, and remnants of blood and semen were identified on the material.

Scientists were able to compare the mitochondrial DNA found on the shawl (the suspect’s DNA inherited from the mother) with the DNA provided by descendants of the suspect. It was a match to  Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish barber at the time of the murders. The only flaw in the investigation is that this mitochondrial DNA could also be shared by his sisters and their sons… What do you think? Should police have closed this case? 

The “canonical five” of Jack the Ripper

“The Whitehall Mystery”: An illustration of the discovery of a female torso in the basement of the Norman Shaw Building in 1888 from The Illustrated Police News newspaper, October 1888 – WikiCommons

Jack the Ripper is sometimes credited with the murders of up to 11 people, but when police were investigating the crimes in 1888, they credited him with just 5. These 5 victims would go on to be known as the  “canonical five.” Their names are as follows:

• Mary Ann Nichols
• Annie Chapman
• Elizabeth Stride
• Catherine Eddowes
• Mary Jane Kelly

Although many murders took place in Whitechapel in and around 1888, police at the time can be quoted as saying that “The Whitechapel murderer had 5 victims—and 5 victims only.”

“The Whitechapel murderer had 5 victims—& 5 victims only.” 

Over the years, this number has been debated over and over again, but, unfortunately we will never know the true number of Jack the Ripper’s victims.

One of the most interesting other alleged victims is probably “The Whitehall Mystery.” In 1888, the torso of a woman was found in the basement of a new Metropolitan Police headquarters, otherwise known as the Norman Shaw Building, that was under construction in Whitehall. The craziest part of their discovery was what was missing: the torso was the only part of the woman’s body that was found. No arms, no legs and no head.

As more time went on, the person responsible for this killing was dubbed the “Torso Killer,” but it is unknown if he and Jack the Ripper are the same person. The Torso Killer was never caught either.

The investigation to find Jack the Ripper

One of a series of images from the Illustrated London News for October 13, 1888 carrying the overall caption, “With the Vigilance Committee in the East End”. This specific image is entitled “A Suspicious Character” – Wikicommons

Although Whitechapel was a crime ridden area, once multiple women with their throats cut began to pop up one after another, the police took notice. Thankfully, for people like you and I who are interested in this kind of thing, the police files of the Jack the Ripper investigation have remained relatively intact! They show that the process hasn’t changed that much since the late 19th century, as well.

Doctors, butchers, slaughterers and surgeons were the main suspects in the murder cases, due to the expertise needed to remove organs from a human body. After investigating over 76 butchers and slaughterers, the police were still coming up empty handed. That’s when they went to police surgeon Thomas Bond to ask his opinion. What Bond came up with is considered to be the first ever “offender profile.” These profiles seem commonplace for us today, thanks to (again) series like CSI and Law & Order. But, this was a major breakthrough in law enforcement in general! Bond said of the killer,

“All five murders no doubt were committed by the same hand.”

Other than the brutal way Jack the Ripper killed his victims and the emergence of the first offender profile, another interesting part of this story are a handful of letters than began to show up at the police station. Hundreds of letters flooded the police station, and the authors claimed to be the killer. There were 3 in particular that stood out to the police.

The first page from the “Dear Boss” letter – the National Archives – WikiCommons

The letters were as follows: the “Dear Boss” letter, the “Saucy Jacky” postcard and the “From Hell” letter. The “Dear Boss” letter arrived at the police station 3 days before Catherine Eddowes’ attack. In the letter, the supposed killer claimed that the victim’s ear would be cut off, and Eddowes was found without her ear. This is actually where the nickname Jack the Ripper came from!

The handwriting in the second postcard was similar to that of the “Dear Boss” letter, which is why the police it was written by the same person. The third letter, however, was clearly not written by the same person as the first 2. The only reason why it was taken into account, is because it was sent with half of a human kidney. Eddowes was founder with her kidney ripped out.

The Jack the Ripper investigation was also fuelled by the media. The newspapers latched onto the story, and nearly everyone in London lived in fear of Jack the Ripper. Other murders had been in the news, but the Jack the Ripper story was everywhere, and it would go onto inspire other stories of murder that made headlines around the world, like the Boston Strangler.

Other “versions” of Jack the Ripper also began popping up internationally, like the “French Ripper,” and the “Dusseldorf Ripper.”

Jack the Ripper’s legacy and legend

Famous Crimes, Past and Present: The Discovery of Jack the Ripper’s first murder (c. 1903) – WikiCommons

The London police never did catch the person responsible for the murders. But, something good that came out of the violence was that it shined light on the terrible conditions of the London slums.

In the years after the killings, the worst areas of the slums were evacuated and then torn down. The living conditions in London slowly but surely improved.

That isn’t to say that you can’t visit some of the places where Jack the Ripper supposedly roamed. There is a pub called The Ten Bells, located on Commercial Street is said to have been frequented by one of the victims. There is also the Jack the Ripper Museum in the East end of London.

The horrors of the Jack the Ripper story also instilled fear in Londoners and people all over the world. It also inspired stories featured in Sherlock Holmes books, novels, plays and movies. If I had to name the world’s most famous serial killers, I’d have to say Jack the Ripper!

Practical information:

The Ten Bells

Opening hours: Sunday-Wednesday 12pm-12am, Thursday-Saturday 12pm-1am

Address: 84 Commercial St, Spitalfields, London E1 6LY, United Kingdom

Tube station: Shoreditch High Street / Aldgate Station

Jack the Ripper Museum

Opening hours: Every day 9:30am-6:30pm

Address: 12 Cable St, Whitechapel, London E1 8JG, United Kingdom

Tube station: Shadwell / Tower Hill Station

Conclusion

I know you probably all had heard of Jack the Ripper before you found this article, but I hope you’ve learned something about the story behind the name! This was definitely a creepy read, so I hope I didn’t freak you out too much.

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