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Jack The Ripper
Background
In the mid 19th century, England experienced a rapid influx of mainly Irish immigrants, who swelled the
populations of both the largely poor English countryside and England's major cities
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London, especially the East End and the civil parish of Whitechapel,
became increasingly overcrowded, resulting in the development of a massive economic underclass
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In October 1888, the London Metropolitan Police estimated that
there were 1,200 prostitutes "of very low class" resident in Whitechapel and about 62 brothels
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In 1886–1889, demonstrations by the hungry
and unemployed were a regular feature of London policing
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A number of the murders involved extremely
gruesome acts, such as mutilation and evisceration, which were widely reported in the media
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One letter, received by George Lusk, of the Whitechapel Vigilance
Committee, included a preserved human kidney
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Although the investigation was unable to connect the later
killings conclusively to the murders of 1888, the legend of Jack the Ripper solidified
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Among the eleven murders actively investigated by the police, five are almost
universally agreed upon as the work of a single killer, collectively called the "canonical five"
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'Canonical' five
 Mary Ann Nichols (nicknamed "Polly") was killed on Friday 31 August 1888
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m
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Her throat was severed deeply by two cuts; the lower part of the abdomen was partly ripped open by a
deep, jagged wound
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 Annie Chapman (maiden name Eliza Ann Smith, nicknamed "Dark Annie") was killed on Saturday 8
September 1888
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m
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Like Mary Ann Nichols's, her throat was severed by two cuts
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 Elizabeth Stride (nicknamed "Long Liz") was killed on Sunday 30 September 1888
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m
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There was one clear-cut incision on the neck; the cause of death was massive blood loss
from the nearly severed main artery on the left side
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That there also were no mutilation to the abdomen
has left some uncertainty about the identity of Elizabeth's murderer, along with the suggestion her killer
was disturbed during the attack
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Her body was found in Mitre Square, in the City of London,
three-quarters of an hour after Stride's
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The left kidney and the major part of the
uterus had been removed
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Her and Stride's murders were later called "The Double Event" in
the media, and across London
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Her gruesomely mutilated body was discovered shortly after 10:45 a
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, lying
on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields
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Her heart
was missing
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Macnaghten did not join the force until the year after the murders; and his
memorandum, which came to light in 1959, contains serious factual errors about possible suspects
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Some
researchers have posited that the series may not have been the work of a single murderer, but of an unknown
larger number of killers acting independently
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Evans and Donald Rumbelow argue that the
"canonical five" is a "Ripper myth" and that the probable number of victims could range from three (Nichols,
Chapman, and Eddowes) to six (the previous three, plus Stride, Kelly, and Martha Tabram) or more
...

Except Stride, whose attack may have been interrupted, mutilations of the "canonical five" victims became
increasingly severe as the series of murders proceeded
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While only Kelly's heart was missing from her crime scene, many of her internal organs were removed and left in
her room
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Yet every case differed from this pattern in some manner
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Nichols was the only victim to be found on an open street, albeit a dark and deserted
one
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Kelly's murder ended six weeks of inactivity for the
murderer
...
)
The large number of horrific attacks against women during this era adds some uncertainty as to exactly how
many victims were killed by the same man
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Figures involved in the investigation and later authors have attributed
some of these to Jack the Ripper
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She survived the attack and walked back to her lodging-house
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She fell into a coma and died on 4 April 1888
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G
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Hillier, attending
surgeon at the London Hospital, the injuries indicated use of great force, which caused a rupture of the
peritoneum and other internal organs, this led to peritonitis, which he deemed the cause of death
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She had a total of 39 stab wounds
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The geographic (George
Yard Buildings, George Yard, Whitechapel) and period proximity to the attacks considered likely to be
those of the Ripper, and is compounded by the evident lack of obvious motive and the attack's noted
savagery
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These four murders happened after the "canonical five":
 Rose Mylett (true name probably Catherine Mylett, but was also known as Catherine Millett, Elizabeth
"Drunken Lizzie" Davis, "Fair" Alice Downey, or simply "Fair Clara") was reportedly strangled "by a cord
drawn tightly round the neck" on 20 December 1888, though some investigators believed that she had
accidentally suffocated herself on the collar of her dress while in a drunken stupor
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



Alice McKenzie (nicknamed "Clay Pipe Alice", and sometimes used the alias Alice Bryant), a prostitute,
was killed on 17 July 1889
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Her body was found in Castle Alley, Whitechapel
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Evans and
Rumbelow suggest that the unknown murderer tried to make it look like a Ripper killing to deflect
suspicion from himself
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The mutilations were similar to the body which was
the subject of the "The Whitehall Mystery", though in this case the hands were not severed
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Speculation, at the time, that the remains were of Lydia Hart, a prostitute
who had recently disappeared, was disproved when she was soon located in a local infirmary where she
was receiving medical treatment to cure the after effects of a "bit of a spree"
...
"The Whitehall Mystery" and "The Pinchin Streets Murderer" have been
suggested to be part of a series of murders, called the "Thames Mysteries" or "Embankment Murders",
committed by a single serial killer, dubbed the "Torso Killer"
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The Pinchin Street murder prompted a revival of interest in the Ripper—manifested in an illustration
from "Puck" showing the Ripper, from behind, looking in a mirror at alternate reflections embodying
current speculation as to whom he might be: a doctor, a cleric, a woman, a Jew, a bandit or a policeman
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Minor wounds on the back of the head suggest that she was thrown
violently to the ground before her throat was cut
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Her
body was found under a railway arch at Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel
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However he was discharged from court due to lack of evidence on 3
March 1891
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Other alleged Ripper victims
In addition to the eleven murders officially investigated by the Metropolitan Police as part of the Ripper
investigation, various Ripper historians have at times suggested a number of other contemporary attacks as
possibly being connected to the same serial killer
...

"Fairy Fay," a nickname for an unknown murder victim allegedly found on 26 December 1887 with "a stake
thrust through her abdomen"
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The name of "Fairy Fay" was first used for this alleged victim in 1950
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Most authors agree that "Fairy Fay" never
existed
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1850) reportedly the victim of an attack on 25 February 1888
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She was discharged from hospital but died
from apparently natural causes on 31 March 1888
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An arm belonging to the body had
previously been discovered floating in the River Thames near Pimlico, and one of the legs was subsequently
discovered buried near where the torso was found
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Annie Farmer, born c
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She survived with
only a superficial cut on her throat, apparently caused by a blunt knife
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Elizabeth Jackson, a prostitute whose various body parts were collected from the River Thames between 31
May and 25 June 1889
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Carrie Brown (nicknamed "Shakespeare", reportedly for quoting William Shakespeare's sonnets) was killed 24
April 1891 in Manhattan, New York City
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Her
body was found with a large tear through her groin area and superficial cuts on her legs and back
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Whether it was purposely removed or
unintentionally dislodged during the mutilation is unknown
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Investigation

The surviving Whitechapel Murders police files allow a quite detailed view of investigative procedure in
Victorian times
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A close reading of the investigation
shows a basic process of identifying suspects, tracing them and deciding whether to examine them more closely
or to cross them off the list
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The investigation was initially
conducted by Whitechapel (H) Division C
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D
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After the Nichols
murder, Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore, and Walter Andrews were sent from Central
Office at Scotland Yard to assist
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However, overall direction of the murder
enquiries was confused and hampered by the fact that the newly appointed head of the CID, Sir Robert Anderson,
was on leave in Switzerland between 7 September and 15 October, during which time Chapman, Stride and
Eddowes were killed
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, Sir Charles Warren, to appoint
Superintendent Donald Swanson to coordinate the enquiry from Scotland Yard
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Due in part to dissatisfaction with the police effort, a group of volunteer citizens in London's East End called the
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee also patrolled the streets of London looking for suspicious characters,
petitioned the government to raise a reward for information about the killer, and hired private detectives to
question witnesses separate from the police
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Albert Bachert, in
1889, claimed to be in charge of that group or a similar group
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At about 3:00 a
...
,
Constable Alfred Long discovered a bloodstained piece of an apron in the stairwell of a tenement on Goulston
Street
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There was writing
in white chalk on the wall (or, in some accounts, the door jamb) above where the apron was found
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" The writing is referred to by a
number of authors as the "Goulston Street Graffito"
...
"
A copy according with Long's version of the message was taken down and attached to a report from Chief
Commissioner Sir Charles Warren to the Home Office
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Later, in his report of 6 November to the Home Office, he claimed, that with the strong
feeling against the Jews already existing, the message might have become the means of causing a riot:
"I beg to report that on the morning of the 30th of September, last my attention was called to some writing on the
wall of the entrance to some dwellings No
...
"
Since the Nichols murder, rumours had been circulating in the East End that the killings were the work of a Jew
dubbed "Leather Apron"
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Arnold ordered a man to be standing by with a sponge to erase the writing, while he consulted Metropolitan
Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren
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While the Goulston Street Graffito was found in Metropolitan Police territory, the apron piece was from a victim
killed in the City of London, which has a separate police force
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m
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Several possible explanations have been suggested as to the importance of this possible clue:
 According to historian Philip Sugden there are at least three permissible interpretations of this
particular clue: "All three are feasible, not one capable of proof
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The apron piece was dropped by the writer, either by accident or design
...

The third interpretation was, according to Sugden, the one most favoured at the Scotland Yard and by
"Old Jewry": The chalk message was a deliberate subterfuge, designed to incriminate the Jews and throw
the police off the track of the real murderer
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Walter Dew was
inclined to endorse this approach to the problem
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And Chief Inspector Henry Moore and Sir Robert Anderson are both on record as having explicitly
stated their belief that the message was written by the murderer
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He suggests that the writing might be translated into standard English as "The Jews are men
who will not take responsibility for anything" and that the message was written by someone who
believed he or she had been wronged by one of the many Jewish merchants or tradesmen in the area
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In an
article (signed 'One Who Thinks He Knows') in the Pall Mall Gazette of 1 December 1888,
Stephenson concluded from the overall sentence construction, the double negative, the double
designation "the Juwes are the men," and the highly unusual misspelling that the Ripper most
probably was of French-speaking origin
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

Author Stephen Knight suggested that "Juwes" referred not to "Jews," but to Jubela, Jubelo and
Jubelum, the three killers of Hiram Abiff, a semi-legendary figure in Freemasonry, and furthermore,
that the message was written by the killer (or killers) as part of a Masonic plot
...
"
Criminal profiling
After the acquittal of Daniel M'Naghten in 1843, and the establishment of the M'Naghten rules, physicians
became increasingly involved in determining whether defendants in murder cases were suffering from 'mental
illness'
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Their work further encompassed the treating of the
perpetrators of crimes who were regarded as mad rather than bad; it is therefore not surprising that by the
1880s, medical officers thought it appropriate to offer opinions about the characteristics of an offender; the
earliest of such opinions for which a copy still exists is that offered by the police surgeon Dr
...
Robert Anderson, head of the London CID, concerning the character of the
"Whitechapel murderer"
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According to investigative psychologist David Canter Dr
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Bond based his assessment on his own
examination of the most extensively mutilated victim and the post mortem notes from the four previous
murders
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In the first four the throats appear to have been cut
from left to right
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All the circumstances surrounding the murders lead me to form the opinion that the women must have been
lying down when murdered and in every case the throat was first cut
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Bond was strongly opposed to the idea that the murderer would possess any kind of scientific or anatomical
knowledge, or even the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer
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Dr
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Researchers today have continued attempts to profile the killer, drawing parallels with the motives and actions
of modern-day serial killers
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The Ripper could have been a deranged schizophrenic, like the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, who heard

voices instructing him to attack prostitutes
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Many authors dismiss his
theory as a fantasy
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Some were from well-intentioned persons offering advice for catching the killer
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Perhaps more interesting were hundreds of letters which claimed to have been written by the killer himself
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Initially it was considered a
hoax, but when Eddowes was found three days after the letter's postmark with one ear partially cut off,
the letter's promise to "clip the ladys ears off" gained attention
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The name "Jack the
Ripper" was first used in this letter by the signatory and gained worldwide notoriety after its
publication
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After the murders, police
officials contended the letter had been a hoax by a local journalist
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

The "Saucy Jacky" postcard, postmarked and received 1 October 1888, by the Central News Agency, had
handwriting similar to the "Dear Boss" letter
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It has been argued that the letter was mailed
before the murders were publicised, making it unlikely that a crank would have such knowledge of the
crime, though it was postmarked more than 24 hours after the killings took place, long after details were
known by journalists and residents of the area
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

The "From Hell" letter, also known as the "Lusk letter," postmarked 15 October and received by George
Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on 16 October 1888
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One of
Eddowes' kidneys had been removed by the killer
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There is some disagreement over the kidney: some contend it had belonged to Eddowes,
while others argue it was "a macabre practical joke, and no more
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Most experts believe this was a modern fake inserted into police records in the 20th century, long after the
killings took place
...
It
is also not mentioned in any surviving police document of the time
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Media

The Ripper murders mark an important watershed in modern British life
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Reforms to the Stamp Act in 1855 had enabled
the publication of inexpensive newspapers with wider circulation
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This, combined
with the fact that no one was ever convicted of the murders, created a legend that cast a shadow over later serial
killers
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This became standard media practice with examples such as the Boston Strangler,
the Green River Killer, the Axeman of New Orleans, the Beltway Sniper, and the Hillside Strangler, besides the
derivative Yorkshire Ripper almost a hundred years later and the unnamed perpetrator of the "Thames Nude
Murders" of the 1960s, whom the press dubbed Jack the Stripper
...
This attention enabled social reformers of the time to
finally gain the support of the "respectable classes
...
”



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