Misplaced Pages

Latest revision as of 14:06, 25 December 2024

Jack the Ripper
"With the Vigilance Committee in the East End: A Suspicious Character" from The Illustrated London News, 13 October 1888
Born	Unknown
Other names	"The Whitechapel Murderer" "Leather Apron"
Motive	Unknown
Details
Victims	Unknown (5 canonical)
Date	1888–1891 (1888: 5 canonical)
Location(s)	Whitechapel and Spitalfields, London, England (5 canonical)

Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.

Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved women working as prostitutes who lived in the slums of the East End of London. Their throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to speculation that their killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and numerous letters were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard from individuals purporting to be the murderer.

The name "Jack the Ripper" originated in the "Dear Boss letter" written by an individual claiming to be the murderer, which was disseminated in the press. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax and may have been written by journalists to heighten interest in the story and increase their newspapers' circulation. Another, the "From Hell letter", was received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee and came with half a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims. The public came to believe in the existence of a single serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, mainly because of both the extraordinarily brutal nature of the murders and media coverage of the crimes.

Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper, and the legend solidified. A police investigation into a series of eleven brutal murders committed in Whitechapel and Spitalfields between 1888 and 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888. Five victims—Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly—are known as the "canonical five" and their murders between 31 August and 9 November 1888 are often considered the most likely to be linked. The murders were never solved, and the legends surrounding these crimes became a combination of historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory, capturing public imagination to the present day.

Background

In the mid-19th century, England experienced an influx of Irish immigrants who swelled the populations of the major cities, including the East End of London. From 1882, Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire and other areas of Eastern Europe emigrated into the same area. The parish of Whitechapel in the East End became increasingly overcrowded, with the population increasing to approximately 80,000 inhabitants by 1888. Work and housing conditions worsened, and a significant economic underclass developed. Fifty-five per cent of children born in the East End died before they were five years old. Robbery, violence, and alcohol dependency were commonplace, and the endemic poverty drove many women to prostitution to survive on a daily basis.

In October 1888, London's Metropolitan Police Service estimated that there were 62 brothels and 1,200 women working as prostitutes in Whitechapel, with approximately 8,500 people residing in the 233 common lodging-houses within Whitechapel every night, with the nightly price for a coffin bed being fourpence (equivalent to £2 in 2023) and the cost of sleeping upon a "lean-to" or "hang-over" rope stretched across the dormitory being two pence per person.

The economic problems in Whitechapel were accompanied by a steady rise in social tensions. Between 1886 and 1889, frequent demonstrations led to police intervention and public unrest, such as Bloody Sunday (1887). Antisemitism, crime, nativism, racism, social disturbance, and severe deprivation influenced public perceptions that Whitechapel was a notorious den of immorality. Such perceptions were strengthened in 1888 when the series of vicious and grotesque murders attributed to "Jack the Ripper" received unprecedented coverage in the media.

Murders

The large number of attacks against women in the East End during this time adds uncertainty to how many victims were murdered by the same individual. Eleven separate murders, stretching from 3 April 1888 to 13 February 1891, were included in a Metropolitan Police investigation and were known collectively in the police docket as the "Whitechapel murders". Opinions vary as to whether these murders should be linked to the same culprit, but five of the eleven Whitechapel murders, known as the "canonical five", are widely believed to be the work of the Ripper. Most experts point to deep slash wounds to the throat, followed by extensive abdominal and genital-area mutilation, the removal of internal organs, and progressive facial mutilations as the distinctive features of the Ripper's modus operandi. The first two cases in the Whitechapel murders file, those of Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, are not included in the canonical five.

Smith was robbed and sexually assaulted in Osborn Street, Whitechapel, at approximately 1:30 a.m. on 3 April 1888. She had been bludgeoned about the face and received a cut to her ear. A blunt object was also inserted into her vagina, rupturing her peritoneum. She developed peritonitis and died the following day at London Hospital. Smith stated that she had been attacked by two or three men, one of whom she described as a teenager. This attack was linked to the later murders by the press, but most authors attribute this murder to general East End gang violence unrelated to the Ripper case.

Tabram was murdered on a staircase landing in George Yard, Whitechapel, on 7 August 1888; she had suffered 39 stab wounds to her throat, lungs, heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and abdomen, with additional knife wounds inflicted to her breasts and vagina. All but one of Tabram's wounds had been inflicted with a bladed instrument such as a penknife, and with one possible exception, all the wounds had been inflicted by a right-handed individual. Tabram had not been raped.

The savagery of the Tabram murder, the lack of an obvious motive, and the closeness of the location and date to the later canonical Ripper murders led police to link this murder to those later committed by Jack the Ripper. However, this murder differs from the later canonical murders because although Tabram had been repeatedly stabbed, she had not suffered any slash wounds to her throat or abdomen. Many experts do not connect Tabram's murder with the later murders because of this difference in the wound pattern.

Canonical five

The canonical five Ripper victims are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

The body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered at about 3:40 a.m. on Friday 31 August 1888 in Buck's Row (now Durward Street), Whitechapel. Nichols had last been seen alive approximately one hour before the discovery of her body by a Mrs. Emily Holland, with whom she had previously shared a bed at a common lodging-house in Thrawl Street, Spitalfields, walking in the direction of Whitechapel Road. Her throat was severed by two deep cuts, one of which completely severed all the tissue down to the vertebrae. Her vagina had been stabbed twice, and the lower part of her abdomen was partly ripped open by a deep, jagged wound, causing her bowels to protrude. Several other incisions inflicted to both sides of her abdomen had also been caused by the same knife; each of these wounds had been inflicted in a downward thrusting manner.

One week later, on Saturday 8 September 1888, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered at approximately 6 a.m. near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. As in the case of Nichols, the throat was severed by two deep cuts. Her abdomen had been cut entirely open, with a section of the flesh from her stomach being placed upon her left shoulder and another section of skin and flesh—plus her small intestines—being removed and placed above her right shoulder. Chapman's autopsy also revealed that her uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina had been removed.

At the inquest into Chapman's murder, Elizabeth Long described having seen Chapman standing outside 29 Hanbury Street at about 5:30 a.m. in the company of a dark-haired man wearing a brown deerstalker hat and dark overcoat, and of a "shabby-genteel" appearance. According to this eyewitness, the man had asked Chapman, "Will you?" to which Chapman had replied, "Yes."

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both killed in the early morning hours of Sunday 30 September 1888. Stride's body was discovered at approximately 1 a.m. in Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street (now Henriques Street) in Whitechapel. The cause of death was a single clear-cut incision, measuring six inches across her neck which had severed her left carotid artery and her trachea before terminating beneath her right jaw. The absence of any further mutilations to her body has led to uncertainty as to whether Stride's murder was committed by the Ripper, or whether he was interrupted during the attack. Several witnesses later informed police they had seen Stride in the company of a man in or close to Berner Street on the evening of 29 September and in the early hours of 30 September, but each gave differing descriptions: some said that her companion was fair, others dark; some said that he was shabbily dressed, others well-dressed.

Eddowes's body was found in a corner of Mitre Square in the City of London, three-quarters of an hour after the discovery of the body of Elizabeth Stride. Her throat was severed from ear to ear and her abdomen ripped open by a long, deep and jagged wound before her intestines had been placed over her right shoulder, with a section of the intestine being completely detached and placed between her body and left arm.

The left kidney and the major part of Eddowes's uterus had been removed, and her face had been disfigured, with her nose severed, her cheek slashed, and cuts measuring a quarter of an inch and a half an inch respectively vertically incised through each of her eyelids. A triangular incision—the apex of which pointed towards Eddowes's eye—had also been carved upon each of her cheeks, and a section of the auricle and lobe of her right ear was later recovered from her clothing. The police surgeon who conducted the post mortem upon Eddowes's body stated his opinion these mutilations would have taken "at least five minutes" to complete.

A local cigarette salesman named Joseph Lawende had passed by a narrow walkway to Mitre Square named Church Passage with two friends shortly before the murder; he later described seeing a fair-haired man of medium build with a shabby appearance with a woman who may have been Eddowes. Lawende's companions were unable to confirm his description. The murders of Stride and Eddowes ultimately became known as the "double event".

A section of Eddowes's bloodied apron was found at the entrance to a tenement in Goulston Street, Whitechapel, at 2:55 a.m. A chalk inscription upon the wall directly above this piece of apron read: "The Juwes are The men That Will not be Blamed for nothing." This graffito became known as the Goulston Street graffito. The message appeared to imply that a Jew or Jews in general were responsible for the series of murders, but it is unclear whether the graffito was written by the murderer on dropping the section of apron, or was merely incidental and nothing to do with the case. Such graffiti were commonplace in Whitechapel. Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren feared that the graffito might spark antisemitic riots and ordered the writing washed away before dawn.

The extensively mutilated and disembowelled body of Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at 10:45 a.m. on Friday 9 November 1888. Her face had been "hacked beyond all recognition", with her throat severed down to the spine, and the abdomen almost emptied of its organs. Her uterus, kidneys and one breast had been placed beneath her head, and other viscera from her body placed beside her foot, about the bed and sections of her abdomen and thighs upon a bedside table. The heart was missing from the crime scene.

Multiple ashes found within the fireplace at 13 Miller's Court suggested Kelly's murderer had burned several combustible items to illuminate the single room as he mutilated her body. A recent fire had been severe enough to melt the solder between a kettle and its spout, which had fallen into the grate of the fireplace.

Each of the canonical five murders was perpetrated at night, on or close to a weekend, either at the end of a month or a week (or so) after. The mutilations became increasingly severe as the series of murders proceeded, except for that of Stride, whose attacker may have been interrupted. Nichols was not missing any organs; Chapman's uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina were taken; Eddowes had her uterus and left kidney removed and her face mutilated; and Kelly's body was extensively eviscerated, with her face "gashed in all directions" and the tissue of her neck being severed to the bone, although the heart was the sole body organ missing from this crime scene.

Historically, the belief these five canonical murders were committed by the same perpetrator is derived from contemporaneous documents which link them together to the exclusion of others. In 1894, Sir Melville Macnaghten, Assistant Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police Service and Head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), wrote a report that stated: "the Whitechapel murderer had 5 victims—& 5 victims only". Similarly, the canonical five victims were linked together in a letter written by police surgeon Thomas Bond to Robert Anderson, head of the London CID, on 10 November 1888.

Some researchers have posited that some of the murders were undoubtedly the work of a single killer, but an unknown larger number of killers acting independently were responsible for the other crimes. Authors Stewart P. Evans and Donald Rumbelow argue that the canonical five is a "Ripper myth" and that three cases (Nichols, Chapman, and Eddowes) can be definitely linked to the same perpetrator, but that less certainty exists as to whether Stride and Kelly were also murdered by the same individual. Conversely, others suppose that the six murders between Tabram and Kelly were the work of a single killer. Percy Clark, assistant to the examining pathologist George Bagster Phillips, linked only three of the murders and thought that the others were perpetrated by "weak-minded individual ... induced to emulate the crime". Macnaghten did not join the police force until the year after the murders, and his memorandum contains serious factual errors about possible suspects.

Later Whitechapel murders

Mary Jane Kelly is generally considered to be the Ripper's final victim, and it is assumed that the crimes ended because of the culprit's death, imprisonment, institutionalisation, or emigration. The Whitechapel murders file details another four murders that occurred after the canonical five: those of Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, the Pinchin Street torso, and Frances Coles.

The strangled body of 26-year-old Rose Mylett was found in Clarke's Yard, High Street, Poplar on 20 December 1888. There was no sign of a struggle, and the police believed that she had either accidentally hanged herself with her collar while in a drunken stupor or committed suicide. However, faint markings left by a cord on one side of her neck suggested Mylett had been strangled. At the inquest into Mylett's death, the jury returned a verdict of murder.

Alice McKenzie was murdered shortly after midnight on 17 July 1889 in Castle Alley, Whitechapel. She had suffered two stab wounds to her neck, and her left carotid artery had been severed. Several minor bruises and cuts were found on her body, which also bore a seven-inch long superficial wound extending from her left breast to her navel. One of the examining pathologists, Thomas Bond, believed this to be a Ripper murder, though his colleague George Bagster Phillips, who had examined the bodies of three previous victims, disagreed. Opinions among writers are also divided between those who suspect McKenzie's murderer copied the modus operandi of Jack the Ripper to deflect suspicion from himself, and those who ascribe this murder to Jack the Ripper.

"The Pinchin Street torso" was a decomposing headless and legless torso of an unidentified woman aged between 30 and 40 discovered beneath a railway arch in Pinchin Street, Whitechapel, on 10 September 1889. Bruising about the victim's back, hip, and arm indicated the decedent had been extensively beaten shortly before her death. The victim's abdomen was also extensively mutilated, although her genitals had not been wounded. She appeared to have been killed approximately one day prior to the discovery of her torso. The dismembered sections of the body are believed to have been transported to the railway arch, hidden under an old chemise.

At 2:15 a.m. on 13 February 1891, PC Ernest Thompson discovered a 31-year-old prostitute named Frances Coles lying beneath a railway arch at Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel. Her throat had been deeply cut but her body was not mutilated, leading some to believe Thompson had disturbed her assailant. Coles was still alive, although she died before medical help could arrive. A 53-year-old stoker, James Thomas Sadler, had earlier been seen drinking with Coles, and the two are known to have argued approximately three hours before her death. Sadler was arrested by the police and charged with her murder. He was briefly thought to be the Ripper, but was later discharged from court for lack of evidence on 3 March 1891.

Other alleged victims

In addition to the eleven Whitechapel murders, commentators have linked other attacks to the Ripper. In the case of "Fairy Fay", it is unclear whether this attack was real or fabricated as a part of Ripper lore. "Fairy Fay" was a nickname given to an unidentified woman whose body was allegedly found in a doorway close to Commercial Road on 26 December 1887 "after a stake had been thrust through her abdomen", but there were no recorded murders in Whitechapel at or around Christmas 1887. "Fairy Fay" seems to have been created through a confused press report of the murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith, who had a stick or other blunt object shoved into her vagina. Most authors agree that the victim "Fairy Fay" never existed.

A 38-year-old widow named Annie Millwood was admitted to the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary with numerous stab wounds to her legs and lower torso on 25 February 1888, informing staff she had been attacked with a clasp knife by an unknown man. She was later discharged, but died from apparently natural causes on 31 March. Millwood was later postulated to be the Ripper's first victim, although this attack cannot be definitively linked to the perpetrator.

Another suspected precanonical victim was a young dressmaker named Ada Wilson, who reportedly survived being stabbed twice in the neck with a clasp knife upon the doorstep of her home in Bow on 28 March 1888 by a man who had demanded money from her. A further possible victim, 40-year-old Annie Farmer, resided at the same lodging house as Martha Tabram and reported an attack on 21 November 1888. She had received a superficial cut to her throat. Although an unknown man with blood on his mouth and hands had run out of this lodging house, shouting, "Look at what she has done!" before two eyewitnesses heard Farmer scream, her wound was light, and possibly self-inflicted.

"The Whitehall Mystery" was a term coined for the discovery of a headless torso of a woman on 2 October 1888 in the basement of the new Metropolitan Police headquarters being built in Whitehall. An arm and shoulder belonging to the body were previously discovered floating in the River Thames near Pimlico on 11 September, and the left leg was subsequently discovered buried near where the torso was found on 17 October. The other limbs and head were never recovered and the body was never identified. The mutilations were similar to those in the Pinchin Street torso case, where the legs and head were severed but not the arms.

Both the Whitehall Mystery and the Pinchin Street case may have been part of a series of murders known as the "Thames Mysteries", committed by a single serial killer dubbed the "Torso killer". It is debatable whether Jack the Ripper and the "Torso killer" were the same person or separate serial killers active in the same area. The modus operandi of the Torso killer differed from that of the Ripper, and police at the time discounted any connection between the two. Only one of the four victims linked to the Torso killer, Elizabeth Jackson, was ever identified. Jackson was a 24-year-old prostitute from Chelsea whose various body parts were collected from the River Thames over a three-week period between 31 May and 25 June 1889.

On 29 December 1888, the body of a seven-year-old boy named John Gill was found in a stable block in Manningham, Bradford. Gill had been missing since the morning of 27 December. His legs had been severed, his abdomen opened, his intestines partly drawn out, and his heart and one ear removed. Similarities with the Ripper murders led to press speculation that the Ripper had killed him. The boy's employer, 23-year-old milkman William Barrett, was twice arrested for the murder but was released due to insufficient evidence. No-one was ever prosecuted.

Carrie Brown (nicknamed "Shakespeare", reportedly for her habit of quoting Shakespeare's sonnets) was strangled with clothing and then mutilated with a knife on 24 April 1891 in New York City. Her body was found with a large tear through her groin area and superficial cuts on her legs and back. No organs were removed from the scene, though an ovary was found upon the bed, either purposely removed or unintentionally dislodged. At the time, the murder was compared to those in Whitechapel, though the Metropolitan Police eventually ruled out any connection.

Investigation

The vast majority of the City of London Police files relating to their investigation into the Whitechapel murders were destroyed in the Blitz. The surviving Metropolitan Police files allow a detailed view of investigative procedures in the Victorian era. A large team of policemen conducted house-to-house inquiries throughout Whitechapel. Forensic material was collected and examined. Suspects were identified, traced, and either examined more closely or eliminated from the inquiry. Modern police work follows the same pattern. More than 2,000 people were interviewed, "upwards of 300" people were investigated, and 80 people were detained. Following the murders of Stride and Eddowes, the Commissioner of the City Police, Sir James Fraser, offered a reward of £500 for the arrest of the Ripper.

The investigation was initially conducted by the Metropolitan Police Whitechapel (H) Division Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headed by Detective Inspector Edmund Reid. After the murder of Nichols, Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore, and Walter Andrews were sent from Central Office at Scotland Yard to assist. The City of London Police were involved under Detective Inspector James McWilliam after the Eddowes murder, which occurred within the City of London. The overall direction of the murder enquiries was hampered by the fact that the newly appointed head of the CID, Assistant Commissioner Robert Anderson, was on leave in Switzerland between 7 September and 6 October, during the time when Chapman, Stride, and Eddowes were killed. This prompted Colonel Sir Charles Warren, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to appoint Chief Inspector Donald Swanson to coordinate the enquiry from Scotland Yard.

Butchers, slaughterers, surgeons, and physicians were suspected because of the manner of the mutilations. A surviving note from Major Henry Smith, Acting Commissioner of the City Police, indicates that the alibis of local butchers and slaughterers were investigated, with the result that they were eliminated from the inquiry. A report from Inspector Swanson to the Home Office confirms that 76 butchers and slaughterers were visited, and that the inquiry encompassed all their employees for the previous six months. Some contemporaneous figures, including Queen Victoria, thought the pattern of the murders indicated that the culprit was a butcher or cattle drover on one of the cattle boats that plied between London and mainland Europe. Whitechapel was close to the London Docks, and usually such boats docked on Thursday or Friday and departed on Saturday or Sunday. The cattle boats were examined but the dates of the murders did not coincide with a single boat's movements and the transfer of a crewman between boats was also ruled out.

Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

In September 1888, a group of volunteer citizens in London's East End formed the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. They patrolled the streets looking for suspicious characters, partly because of dissatisfaction with the failure of police to apprehend the perpetrator, and also because some members were concerned that the murders were affecting businesses in the area. The Committee petitioned the government to raise a reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer, offered their own reward of £50 (the equivalent of between £5,900 and £86,000 in 2021) for information leading to his capture, and hired private detectives to question witnesses independently.

Criminal profiling

At the end of October, Robert Anderson asked police surgeon Thomas Bond to give his opinion on the extent of the murderer's surgical skill and knowledge. The opinion offered by Bond on the character of the "Whitechapel murderer" is the earliest surviving offender profile. Bond's assessment was based on his own examination of the most extensively mutilated victim and the post mortem notes from the four previous canonical murders. He wrote:

All five murders no doubt were committed by the same hand. In the first four the throats appear to have been cut from left to right, in the last case owing to the extensive mutilation it is impossible to say in what direction the fatal cut was made, but arterial blood was found on the wall in splashes close to where the woman's head must have been lying.

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.

Bond was strongly opposed to the idea that the murderer possessed any kind of scientific or anatomical knowledge, or even "the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer". In his opinion, the killer must have been a man of solitary habits, subject to "periodical attacks of homicidal and erotic mania", with the character of the mutilations possibly indicating "satyriasis". Bond also stated that "the homicidal impulse may have developed from a revengeful or brooding condition of the mind, or that religious mania may have been the original disease but I do not think either hypothesis is likely".

There is no evidence the perpetrator engaged in sexual activity with any of the victims, yet psychologists have suggested that the penetration of the victims with a knife and "leaving them on display in sexually degrading positions with the wounds exposed" indicates that the perpetrator derived sexual pleasure from the attacks. This view is challenged by others, who dismiss such hypotheses as insupportable supposition.

Suspects

The concentration of the killings around weekends and public holidays and within a short distance of each other has indicated to many that the Ripper was in regular employment and lived locally. Others have opined that the killer was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat who ventured into Whitechapel from a more well-to-do area. Such theories draw on cultural perceptions such as fear of the medical profession, a mistrust of modern science, or the exploitation of the poor by the rich. The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper case in an effort to determine his identity, and the murders have inspired numerous works of fiction.

Suspects proposed years after the murders include virtually anyone remotely connected to the case by contemporaneous documents, as well as many famous names who were never considered in the police investigation, including Prince Albert Victor, artist Walter Sickert, and author Lewis Carroll. Everyone alive at the time is now long dead, and modern authors are free to accuse anyone "without any need for any supporting historical evidence". Suspects named in contemporaneous police documents include three in Sir Melville Macnaghten's 1894 memorandum, but the evidence against each of these individuals is, at best, circumstantial.

In addition to the contradictions and unreliability of contemporaneous accounts, attempts to identify the murderer are hampered by the lack of any confirmed surviving forensic evidence. DNA analysis has attempted to tie Aaron Kosminski (a Whitechapel barber) to crime scene evidence and Walter Sickert to letters (possibly hoaxes) claiming to be from the Ripper. The scientific methodology used to advance these mutually incompatible claims has been criticised. The mitochondrial DNA recovered from the uncorroborated crime scene evidence compared with undisclosed descendants of Kosminski (who had no children) is considered questionable. DNA tests on extant letters is inconclusive; the available material has been handled many times and is too contaminated to provide meaningful results. The study linking Kosminski could not be replicated and the original data could not be located, leading the Journal of Forensic Sciences to later publish an official expression of concern.

There are numerous, varied theories about the actual identity and profession of Jack the Ripper, but authorities are not agreed upon any of them, and the number of named suspects reaches over one hundred. Despite continued interest in the case, the Ripper's identity remains unknown.

Letters

Over the course of the Whitechapel murders, the police, newspapers, and other individuals received hundreds of letters regarding the case. Some letters were well-intentioned offers of advice as to how to catch the killer, but the vast majority were either hoaxes or generally useless.

Hundreds of letters claimed to have been written by the killer himself, and three of these in particular are prominent: the "Dear Boss" letter, the "Saucy Jacky" postcard and the "From Hell" letter.

The "Dear Boss" letter, dated 25 September and postmarked 27 September 1888, was received that day by the Central News Agency, and was forwarded to Scotland Yard on 29 September. Initially, it was considered a hoax, but when Eddowes was found three days after the letter's postmark with a section of one ear obliquely cut from her body, the promise of the author to "clip the ladys (sic) ears off" gained attention. Eddowes's ear appears to have been nicked by the killer incidentally during his attack, and the letter writer's threat to send the ears to the police was never carried out. The name "Jack the Ripper" was first used in this letter by the signatory and gained worldwide notoriety after its publication. Most of the letters that followed copied this letter's tone, with some authors adopting pseudonyms such as "George of the High Rip Gang" and "Jack Sheridan, the Ripper." Some sources claim that another letter dated 17 September 1888 was the first to use the name "Jack the Ripper", but most experts believe that this was a fake inserted into police records in the 20th century.

The "Saucy Jacky" postcard was postmarked 1 October 1888 and was received the same day by the Central News Agency. The handwriting was similar to the "Dear Boss" letter, and mentioned the canonical murders committed on 30 September, which the author refers to by writing "double event this time". It has been argued that the postcard was posted before the murders were publicised, making it unlikely that a crank would hold such knowledge of the crime. However, it was postmarked more than 24 hours after the killings occurred, long after details of the murders were known and publicised by journalists, and had become general community gossip by the residents of Whitechapel.

The "From Hell" letter was received by George Lusk, leader of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, on 16 October 1888. The handwriting and style is unlike that of the "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jacky" postcard. The letter came with a small box in which Lusk discovered half of a human kidney, preserved in "spirits of wine" (ethanol). Eddowes's left kidney had been removed by the killer. The writer claimed that he "fried and ate" the missing kidney half. There is disagreement over the kidney; some contend that it belonged to Eddowes, while others argue that it was a macabre practical joke. The kidney was examined by Thomas Openshaw of the London Hospital, who determined that it was human and from the left side, but (contrary to false newspaper reports) he could not determine any other biological characteristics. Openshaw subsequently also received a letter signed "Jack the Ripper".

Scotland Yard published facsimiles of the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard on 3 October, in the ultimately vain hope that a member of the public would recognise the handwriting. Charles Warren explained in a letter to Godfrey Lushington, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department: "I think the whole thing a hoax but of course we are bound to try & ascertain the writer in any case." On 7 October 1888, George R. Sims in the Sunday newspaper Referee implied scathingly that the letter was written by a journalist "to hurl the circulation of a newspaper sky high". Police officials later claimed to have identified a specific journalist as the author of both the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard. The journalist was identified as Tom Bullen in a letter from Chief Inspector John Littlechild to George R. Sims dated 23 September 1913. A journalist named Fred Best reportedly confessed in 1931 that he and a colleague at The Star had written the letters signed "Jack the Ripper" to heighten interest in the murders and "keep the business alive".

Media

The Ripper murders mark an important watershed in the treatment of crime by journalists. Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer, but his case was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy. The Elementary Education Act 1880 (which had extended upon a previous Act) made school attendance compulsory regardless of class. As such, by 1888, more working-class people in England and Wales were literate.

Tax reforms in the 1850s had enabled the publication of inexpensive newspapers with a wider circulation. These mushroomed in the later Victorian era to include mass-circulation newspapers costing as little as a halfpenny, along with popular magazines such as The Illustrated Police News which made the Ripper the beneficiary of previously unparalleled publicity. Consequently, at the height of the investigation, over one million copies of newspapers with extensive coverage devoted to the Whitechapel murders were sold each day. However, many of the articles were sensationalistic and speculative, and false information was regularly printed as fact. In addition, several articles speculating as to the identity of the Ripper alluded to local xenophobic rumours that the perpetrator was either Jewish or foreign.

In early September, six days after the murder of Mary Ann Nichols, The Manchester Guardian reported: "Whatever information may be in the possession of the police they deem it necessary to keep secret ... It is believed their attention is particularly directed to ... a notorious character known as 'Leather Apron'." Journalists were frustrated by the unwillingness of the CID to reveal details of their investigation to the public, and so resorted to writing reports of questionable veracity. Imaginative descriptions of "Leather Apron" appeared in the press, but rival journalists dismissed these as "a mythical outgrowth of the reporter's fancy". John Pizer, a local Jew who made footwear from leather, was known by the name "Leather Apron" and was arrested, even though the investigating inspector reported that "at present there is no evidence whatsoever against him". He was soon released after the confirmation of his alibis.

After the publication of the "Dear Boss" letter, "Jack the Ripper" supplanted "Leather Apron" as the name adopted by the press and public to describe the killer. The name "Jack" was already used to describe another fabled London attacker: "Spring-heeled Jack", who supposedly leapt over walls to strike at his victims and escape as quickly as he came. The invention and adoption of a nickname for a particular killer became standard media practice with examples such as the Axeman of New Orleans, the Boston Strangler, and the Beltway Sniper. Examples derived from Jack the Ripper include the French Ripper, the Düsseldorf Ripper, the Camden Ripper, the Blackout Ripper, Jack the Stripper, the Yorkshire Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper. Sensational press reports combined with the fact that no one was ever convicted of the murders have confused scholarly analysis and created a legend that casts a shadow over later serial killers.

Legacy

The nature of the Ripper murders and the impoverished lifestyle of the victims drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, insanitary slums. In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished, but the streets and some buildings survive, and the legend of the Ripper is still promoted by various guided tours of the murder sites and other locations pertaining to the case. For many years, the Ten Bells public house in Commercial Street (which had been frequented by at least one of the canonical Ripper victims) was the focus of such tours.

In the immediate aftermath of the murders and later, "Jack the Ripper became the children's bogey man." Depictions were often phantasmic or monstrous. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was depicted in film dressed in everyday clothes as a man with a hidden secret, preying on his unsuspecting victims; atmosphere and evil were suggested through lighting effects and shadowplay. By the 1960s, the Ripper had become "the symbol of a predatory aristocracy", and was more often portrayed in a top hat dressed as a gentleman. The Establishment as a whole became the villain, with the Ripper acting as a manifestation of upper-class exploitation. The image of the Ripper merged with or borrowed symbols from horror stories, such as Dracula's cloak or Victor Frankenstein's organ harvest. The fictional world of the Ripper can fuse with multiple genres, ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Japanese erotic horror.

Jack the Ripper features in hundreds of works of fiction and works which straddle the boundaries between fact and fiction, including the Ripper letters and a hoax diary: The Diary of Jack the Ripper. The Ripper appears in novels, short stories, poems, comic books, games, songs, plays, operas, television programmes, and films. More than 100 non-fiction works deal exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders, making this case one of the most written-about in the true-crime genre. The term "ripperology" was coined by Colin Wilson in the 1970s to describe the study of the case by professionals and amateurs. The periodicals Ripperana, Ripperologist, and Ripper Notes publish their research.

In 2006, a BBC History magazine poll selected Jack the Ripper as the worst Briton in history.

In 2015, the Jack the Ripper Museum opened in east London. It attracted criticism from both Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs and protestors. Similar protests occurred in 2021 when the second of two "Jack The Chipper" fish and chip shops opened in Greenwich, with some patrons threatening to boycott the premises.

See also

This article is part of a series aboutJack the Ripper
Whitechapel murders Annie Chapman Catherine Eddowes Mary Jane Kelly Mary Ann Nichols Elizabeth Stride Speculated Emma Elizabeth Smith Martha Tabram Thames Torso Murders Whitehall Mystery Locations Buck's Row Dorset Street Flower and Dean Street Hanbury Street Mitre Square Ten Bells Letters and clues "Dear Boss" letter "Saucy Jacky" postcard "From Hell" letter Openshaw letter Goulston Street graffito Investigators Frederick Abberline Robert Anderson Walter Andrews Thomas Arnold Walter Dew George Godley Melville Macnaghten Henry Moore Edmund Reid Donald Swanson Charles Warren Adolphus Williamson Whitechapel Vigilance Committee George Lusk Doctors and coroners Wynne Edwin Baxter Thomas Bond Roderick Macdonald Thomas Horrocks Openshaw George Bagster Phillips Witnesses George Hutchinson Joseph Lawende Charles Allen Lechmere Israel Schwartz Suspects Montague Druitt Jacob Isenschmid George Chapman Aaron Kosminski Michael Ostrog John Pizer James Thomas Sadler Francis Tumblety William Henry Bury Thomas Neill Cream Thomas Hayne Cutbush Frederick Bailey Deeming Carl Feigenbaum Robert Donston Stephenson Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale Joseph Barnett Willy Clarkson William Gull George Hutchinson James Kelly Charles Allen Lechmere Jacob Levy James Maybrick Michael Maybrick Walter Sickert Joseph Silver James Kenneth Stephen Sir John Williams, 1st Baronet, of the City of London L. Forbes Winslow Mary Pearcey Legacy In fiction Jack the Ripper Museum
v t e

• List of fugitives from justice who disappeared
• List of murderers by number of victims
• List of serial killers before 1900
• List of serial killers in the United Kingdom

Notes

1. The full name of this individual is believed to be Thomas J. Bulling.

References

1. Serial Killers: True Crime ISBN 978-0-7835-0001-0 p. 93
2. Kershen, Anne J., "The Immigrant Community of Whitechapel at the Time of the Jack the Ripper Murders", in Werner, pp. 65–97; Vaughan, Laura, "Mapping the East End Labyrinth", in Werner, p. 225
3. ^ Honeycombe, The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870-1970, p. 54
4. Life and Labour of the People in London (London: Macmillan, 1902–1903) Archived 3 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine (The Charles Booth on-line archive) retrieved 5 August 2008
5. London, Novels and Social Writings, p. 147
6. "Jack the Ripper: Why Does a Serial Killer Who Disembowelled Women Deserve a Museum?". The Telegraph. 30 July 2015. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
7. Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 1; Police report dated 25 October 1888, MEPO 3/141 ff. 158–163, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 283; Fido, p. 82; Rumbelow, p. 12
8. Rumbelow, p. 14
9. Rumbelow, Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook, p. 30
10. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 131–149; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 38–42; Rumbelow, pp. 21–22
11. Marriott, John, "The Imaginative Geography of the Whitechapel murders", in Werner, pp. 31–63
12. Haggard, Robert F. (1993), "Jack the Ripper As the Threat of Outcast London", Essays in History, vol. 35, Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia
13. Woods and Baddeley, p. 20
14. ^ The Crimes, London Metropolitan Police, archived from the original on 29 January 2017, retrieved 1 October 2014
15. Cook, pp. 33–34; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 3
16. Cook, p. 151
17. ^ Keppel, Robert D.; Weis, Joseph G.; Brown, Katherine M.; Welch, Kristen (2005), "The Jack the Ripper murders: a modus operandi and signature analysis of the 1888–1891 Whitechapel murders", Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 2 (1): 1–21, doi:10.1002/jip.22, ISSN 1544-4759
18. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 47–55
19. "Locality of the Whitechapel Women-Murders". Reynold's News. 11 November 1888. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
20. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, pp. 29–30
21. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 27–28; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 47–50; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 4–7
22. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 28; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 4–7
23. e.g. The Star, 8 September 1888, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 155–156 and Cook, p. 62
24. ^ Davenport-Hines, Richard (2004). "Jack the Ripper (fl. 1888)" Archived 25 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Subscription required for online version.
25. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 29–31; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 47–50; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 5–7
26. ^ Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 35
27. Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History ISBN 0-582-50631-X p. 63
28. The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper ISBN 978-1-566-19537-9 p. 17
29. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 51–55
30. Waddell, p. 75
31. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 51–55; Marriott, Trevor, p. 13
32. 3000 Facts about Historic Figures ISBN 978-0-244-67383-3 p. 171
33. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 43
34. Whittington-Egan, The Murder Almanac, p. 91
35. "Old Wounds: Re-examining the Buck's Row Murder". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
36. "Another Horrible Tragedy in Whitechapel". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
37. Eddleston, p. 21; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 60–61; Rumbelow, pp. 24–27
38. Rumbelow, p. 42
39. Honeycombe, The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870–1970, pp. 55–56
40. Jack the Ripper – Through the Mists of Time ISBN 978-1-782-28168-9 p. 21
41. Marriott, Trevor, pp. 26–29; Rumbelow, p. 42
42. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 76
43. Jack the Ripper ISBN 978-0-760-78716-8 p. 36
44. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 153; Cook, p. 163; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 98; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 59–75
45. Holmes, Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool, p. 233
46. Naming Jack the Ripper: New Crime Scene Evidence, A Stunning Forensic Breakthrough ISBN 978-1-447-26423-1 p. 60
47. Cook, p. 157; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 81–125
48. Wilson et al., p. 38
49. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 176–184
50. "The Whitechapel Murders: Rewards Offered". Birmingham Daily Post. 2 October 1888. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
51. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 177
52. Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London's East End ISBN 978-1-845-63001-0 p. 88
53. Jack the Ripper – Through the Mists of Time ISBN 978-1-782-28168-9 p. 27
54. "Catherine Eddowes a.k.a. Kate Kelly". casebook.org. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
55. Medical report in Coroner's Inquests, no. 135, Corporation of London Records, quoted in Evans and Skinner, pp. 205–207 and Fido, pp. 70–74
56. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 171
57. ^ Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 193–194; Chief Inspector Swanson's report, 6 November 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, pp. 185–188
58. e.g. Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 30; Rumbelow, p. 118
59. Ripper Notes: The Legend Continues ISBN 978-0-978-91122-5 p. 35
60. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 179
61. Eddleston, p. 171
62. Cook, p. 143; Fido, pp. 47–52; Sugden, p. 254
63. Letter from Charles Warren to Godfrey Lushington, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, 6 November 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 183–184
64. "The Whitechapel Murders: A Startling Discovery". The Lancaster Gazette. 13 October 1888. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
65. "The Seventh Murder in Whitechapel: A Story of Unparalleled Atrocity". The Pall Mall Gazette. 10 November 1888. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
66. Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London's East End ISBN 978-1-781-59662-3 p. 95
67. Holmes, Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool, p. 239
68. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, pp. 292–293
69. Thomas Bond "notes of examination of body of woman found murdered & mutilated in Dorset Street" MEPO 3/3153 ff. 12–14, quoted in Sugden, pp. 315, 319
70. Eddleston, p. 63
71. e.g. Daily Telegraph, 10 November 1888, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 339–340
72. Macnaghten's notes quoted by Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 584–587; Fido, p. 98
73. Eddleston, p. 70
74. Cook, p. 151; Woods and Baddeley, p. 85
75. Macnaghten's notes quoted by Cook, p. 151; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 584–587 and Rumbelow, p. 140
76. ^ Letter from Thomas Bond to Robert Anderson, 10 November 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 360–362 and Rumbelow, pp. 145–147
77. e.g. Cook, pp. 156–159, 199
78. Evans and Rumbelow, p. 260
79. Interview in the East London Observer, 14 May 1910, quoted in Cook, pp. 179–180 and Evans and Rumbelow, p. 239
80. Marriott, Trevor, pp. 231–234; Rumbelow, p. 157
81. "The Whitechapel Murders: The Belief that the Perpetrator of the Crimes is Now Dead". Sioux City Journal. 8 July 1895. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
82. "Frances Coles: Murdered 13 February 1891". jack-the-ripper.org. 2 April 2010. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
83. Alias Jack the Ripper: Beyond the Usual Whitechapel Suspects ISBN 978-1-476-62973-5 p. 179
84. Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims ISBN 978-1-306-47495-5 p. 125
85. ^ Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 245–246; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 422–439
86. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 314
87. "Rose Mylett (1862–1888)". casebook.org. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
88. "Alice McKenzie a.k.a. "Clay Pipe" Alice, Alice Bryant". casebook.org. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
89. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 208–209; Rumbelow, p. 131
90. Evans and Rumbelow, p. 209
91. Marriott, Trevor, p. 195
92. Eddleston, p. 129
93. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 316
94. The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London ISBN 978-1-476-61665-0 p. 159
95. Evans and Rumbelow, p. 210; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 480–515
96. Fido, p. 113; Evans and Skinner (2000), pp. 551–557
97. Waddell, p. 80
98. "Frances Coles a.k.a. Frances Coleman, Frances Hawkins, 'Carroty Nell'". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
99. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 317
100. "The Whitechapel Tragedy". The Cheshire Observer. 28 February 1891. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
101. ^ Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 218–222; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 551–568
102. ^ Evans, Stewart P.; Connell, Nicholas (2000). The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper. ISBN 1-902791-05-3
103. ^ Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, pp. 21–25
104. "The Importance of Fairy Fay, and Her Link to Emma Smith". casebook.org. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
105. Fido, p. 15
106. The name "Fairy Fay" was first used by Terrence Robinson in Reynold's News, 29 October 1950, "for want of a better name".
107. Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 3
108. Sugden pp. 5–6
109. The Eastern Post and City Chronicle, 7 April 1888
110. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 26
111. Beadle, William (2009), Jack the Ripper: Unmasked, London: John Blake, ISBN 978-1-84454-688-6, p. 75
112. Beadle, p. 77; Fido, p. 16
113. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 27
114. e.g. East London Advertiser, 31 March 1888
115. Beadle, p. 207
116. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, pp. 311–312
117. Beadle, p. 207; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 202; Fido, p. 100
118. "Casebook: Annie Farmer". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
119. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 142–144
120. "Scotland Yard is Built on a Crime Scene Related to an Unsolved Murder: The Whitehall Mystery". The Vintage News. 29 October 2016. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
121. ^ Gordon, R. Michael (2002), The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., ISBN 978-0-7864-1348-5
122. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 210–213
123. "Elizabeth Jackson". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
124. Gordon, R. Michael (2003), The American Murders of Jack the Ripper, Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing, ISBN 978-0-275-98155-6, pp. xxii, 190
125. "Unsettling Tale of Murder in Victorian Bradford". Telegraph and Argus. 21 November 2017. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
126. "Bradford Police Museum Recreates Macabre Child Murder Trial". Telegraph and Argus. 21 January 2024. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
127. ^ Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 136
128. ^ Vanderlinden, Wolf (2003–04). "The New York Affair", in Ripper Notes part one No. 16 (July 2003); part two No. 17 (January 2004), part three No. 19 (July 2004 ISBN 0-9759129-0-9)
129. "Home: Introduction to the Case". casebook.org. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
130. ^ Canter, David (1994). Criminal Shadows: Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer. London, England: HarperCollins. pp. 12–13. ISBN 0-00-255215-9.
131. Inspector Donald Swanson's report to the Home Office, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 205; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 113; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 125
132. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 184
133. The Enduring Mystery of Jack the Ripper, London Metropolitan Police, archived from the original on 4 February 2010, retrieved 31 January 2010
134. Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 675
135. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 205; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 84–85
136. "The Seventh Murder in Whitechapel: A Story of Unparalleled Atrocity". The Pall Mall Gazette. 10 November 1888. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
137. Rumbelow, p. 274
138. Inspector Donald Swanson's report to the Home Office, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 206 and Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 125
139. Marriott, John, "The Imaginative Geography of the Whitechapel murders", in Werner, p. 48
140. Rumbelow, p. 93; Daily Telegraph, 10 November 1888, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 341
141. Robert Anderson to Home Office, 10 January 1889, 144/221/A49301C ff. 235–236, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 399
142. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 57
143. Jack the Ripper – Through the Mists of Time ISBN 978-1-782-28168-9 p. 22
144. Officer, Lawrence H.; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023), Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present, MeasuringWorth, retrieved 19 February 2023
145. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Facts, p. 128
146. e.g. Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 245–252
147. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 186–187; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 359–360
148. Canter, pp. 5–6
149. Woods and Baddeley, p. 38
150. See also later contemporary editions of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis, quoted in Woods and Baddeley, p. 111
151. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 187–188, 261; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 121–122
152. Marriott, Trevor, p. 205; Rumbelow, p. 263; Sugden, p. 266
153. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 43
154. Woods and Baddeley, pp. 111–114
155. "So You Want to Be a "Ripperologist"?". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
156. "7 People Suspected of Being Jack the Ripper". history.com. 16 July 2015. Archived from the original on 14 October 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
157. "Casebook: Jack the Ripper: Lewis Carroll". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
158. Evans and Rumbelow, p. 261
159. e.g. Frederick Abberline in the Pall Mall Gazette, 31 March 1903, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 264
160. Cook, p. 31
161. Connor, Steven (7 September 2014), "Jack the Ripper: Has Notorious Serial Killer's Identity Been Revealed by New DNA Evidence?", The Independent, archived from the original on 12 July 2020, retrieved 1 September 2017
162. Adam, David. "March 15, 2019". Science. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
163. Jones, Richard. "Walter Sickert - Case Closed". Jack the Ripper 1888. Retrieved 13 December 2024.
164. Marks, Kathy (18 May 2006). "Was Jack the Ripper a Woman?" Archived 12 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine The Independent, retrieved 5 May 2009
165. Meikle, p. 197; Rumbelow, p. 246
166. "Expression of Concern". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 69 (5): 1938. 2024. doi:10.1111/1556-4029.15595. PMID 39132924.
167. ^ Whiteway, Ken (2004). "A Guide to the Literature of Jack the Ripper", Canadian Law Library Review, vol. 29 pp. 219–229
168. Eddleston, pp. 195–244
169. Whittington-Egan, pp. 91–92
170. Donald McCormick estimated "probably at least 2000" (quoted in Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 180). The Illustrated Police News of 20 October 1888 said that around 700 letters had been investigated by police (quoted in Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 199). Over 300 are preserved at the Corporation of London Records Office (Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 149).
171. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 165; Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 105; Rumbelow, pp. 105–116
172. "Letters to Police, Signed "Jack the Ripper," are Practical Jokes". The Yorkshire Herald. 8 October 1888. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
173. Over 200 are preserved at the Public Record Office (Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, pp. 8, 180).
174. Fido, pp. 6–10; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219 ff.
175. Cook, pp. 76–77; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 137; Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, pp. 16–18; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 48–49
176. Cook, pp. 78–79; Marriott, Trevor, p. 221
177. Cook, p. 79; Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 179; Marriott, Trevor, p. 221
178. Cook, pp. 77–78; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 140; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 193; Fido, p. 7
179. Cook, p. 87; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 652
180. "The Whitechapel Horrors: An Exciting Week". casebook.org. 2 April 2004. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
181. "The Whitechapel Murder: The Inquest". The Leeds Mercury. 13 November 1888. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
182. Eddleston, p. 155; Marriott, Trevor, p. 223
183. Marriott, Trevor, p. 223
184. Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219–222
185. ^ Cook, pp. 79–80; Fido, pp. 8–9; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219–222; Rumbelow, p. 123
186. e.g. Cullen, Tom (1965), Autumn of Terror, London: The Bodley Head, p. 103
187. Sugden p. 269
188. "The Whitechapel Murders". The Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser. 20 November 1888. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
189. ^ Evans and Rumbelow, p. 170; Fido, pp. 78–80
190. The Hype and the Press Speculation, London Metropolitan Police, archived from the original on 29 January 2017, retrieved 1 October 2014
191. Wolf, Gunter (2008), "A kidney from hell? A nephrological view of the Whitechapel murders in 1888", Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, 23 (10): 3343–3349, doi:10.1093/ndt/gfn198, PMID 18408073
192. Cook, p. 146; Fido, p. 78
193. Jack the Ripper 'Letter' Made Public Archived 1 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, BBC, 19 April 2001, retrieved 2 January 2010
194. Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, pp. 32–33
195. Letter from Charles Warren to Godfrey Lushington, 10 October 1888, Metropolitan Police Archive MEPO 1/48, quoted in Cook, p. 78; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 140 and Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 43
196. Quoted in Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, pp. 41, 52 and Woods and Baddeley, p. 54
197. Cook, pp. 94–95; Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters From Hell, pp. 45–48; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 624–633; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219–222; Rumbelow, pp. 121–122
198. Quoted in Cook, pp. 96–97; Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 49; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 193; and Marriott, Trevor, p. 254
199. "A Look at Some of the Known Letter Writers". jack-the-ripper.org. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
200. Westcott, Thomas C. (2 April 2004). "Thomas Bulling and the Myth of the London Journalist". casebook.org. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
201. Professor Francis E. Camps, August 1966, "More on Jack the Ripper", Crime and Detection, quoted in Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, pp. 51–52
202. ^ Woods and Baddeley, pp. 20, 52
203. "Education in England: A History". educationengland.org.uk. 1 June 1998. Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
204. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 208
205. Curtis, L. Perry, Jr. (2001). Jack the Ripper and the London Press. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08872-8
206. "Jack the Ripper". psychologytoday.com. 27 January 2004. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
207. "Murderers Who Haunt the Screen". Borehamwood & Elstree Times. 30 November 2006. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
208. "Horror Upon Horror. Whitechapel is Panic-stricken at Another Fiendish Crime. A Fourth Victim of the Maniac". casebook.org. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
209. "John Pizer". casebook.org. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
210. Ignacio Peyro (29 October 2018). "Who Was Jack the Ripper?". nationalgeographic.co.uk. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
211. Manchester Guardian, 6 September 1888, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 98
212. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 214
213. e.g. Manchester Guardian, 10 September 1888, and Austin Statesman, 5 September 1888, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 98–99; The Star, 5 September 1888, quoted in Evans and Rumbelow, p. 80
214. Leytonstone Express and Independent, 8 September 1888, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 99
215. ^ e.g. Marriott, Trevor, p. 251; Rumbelow, p. 49
216. Report by Inspector Joseph Helson, CID 'J' Division, in the Metropolitan Police archive, MEPO 3/140 ff. 235–238, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 99 and Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 24
217. Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, pp. 13, 86; Fido, p. 7
218. Ackroyd, Peter, "Introduction", in Werner, p. 10; Rivett and Whitehead, p. 11
219. Marriott, John, "The Imaginative Geography of the Whitechapel murders", in Werner, p. 54
220. "The Whitechapel Murders". Western Mail. 17 November 1888. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
221. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 1–2; Rivett and Whitehead, p. 15
222. Cook, pp. 139–141; Vaughan, Laura, "Mapping the East End Labyrinth", in Werner, pp. 236–237
223. Dennis, Richard, "Common Lodgings and 'Furnished Rooms': Housing in 1880s Whitechapel", in Werner, pp. 177–179
224. Rumbelow, p. xv; Woods and Baddeley, p. 136
225. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 19
226. Dew, Walter (1938). I Caught Crippen. London: Blackie and Son. p. 126, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 198
227. ^ Bloom, Clive, "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures", in Werner, p. 251
228. Woods and Baddeley, p. 150
229. Bloom, Clive, "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures", in Werner, pp. 252–253
230. Bloom, Clive, "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures", in Werner, pp. 255–260
231. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 299; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 272–277; Rumbelow, pp. 251–253
232. Woods and Baddeley, pp. 70, 124
233. Evans, Stewart P. (April 2003). "Ripperology, A Term Coined By ...", Ripper Notes, copies at Wayback and Casebook Archived 16 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
234. Creaton, Heather (April 2003), "Recent Scholarship on Jack the Ripper and the Victorian Media", Reviews in History (333), archived from the original on 28 September 2006, retrieved 20 June 2018
235. "Jack the Ripper is 'Worst Briton'" Archived 3 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 31 January 2006, BBC, retrieved 4 December 2009
236. Woods and Baddeley, p. 176
237. Khomami, Nadia (5 August 2015). "Jack the Ripper Museum Architect Says He was 'Duped' Over Change of Plans". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
238. Brooke, Mike (6 November 2017). "Jack the Ripper Museum Besieged by Women Protesters in Cable Street Again". East London Advertiser. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
239. Bennett-Ness, Jamie (17 August 2021). "Locals Boycott Greenwich Chippy Named 'Jack the Chipper'". News Shopper. Retrieved 19 August 2021.

Sources

• Begg, Paul (2003). Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History. London: Pearson Education. ISBN 0-582-50631-X
• Begg, Paul (2004). Jack the Ripper: The Facts. Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 978-0-760-77121-1
• Bell, Neil R. A. (2016). Capturing Jack the Ripper: In the Boots of a Bobby in Victorian England. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-445-62162-3
• Cook, Andrew (2009). Jack the Ripper. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84868-327-3
• Curtis, Lewis Perry (2001). Jack The Ripper & The London Press. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-08872-8
• Eddleston, John J. (2002). Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia. London: Metro Books. ISBN 1-84358-046-2
• Evans, Stewart P.; Rumbelow, Donald (2006). Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-4228-2
• Evans, Stewart P.; Skinner, Keith (2000). The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. London: Constable and Robinson. ISBN 1-84119-225-2
• Evans, Stewart P.; Skinner, Keith (2001). Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-2549-3
• Fido, Martin (1987), The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, ISBN 0-297-79136-2
• Gordon, R. Michael (2000). Alias Jack the Ripper: Beyond the Usual Whitechapel Suspects. North Carolina: McFarland Publishing. ISBN 978-0-786-40898-6
• Holmes, Ronald M.; Holmes, Stephen T. (2002). Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-7619-2594-5
• Honeycombe, Gordon (1982), The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870–1970, London: Bloomsbury Books, ISBN 978-0-863-79040-9
• London, Jack (1984). Novels and Social Writings. Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26213-2
• Lynch, Terry; Davies, David (2008). Jack the Ripper: The Whitechapel Murderer. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 978-1-840-22077-3
• Marriott, Trevor (2005). Jack the Ripper: The 21st Century Investigation. London: John Blake. ISBN 1-84454-103-7
• Meikle, Denis (2002). Jack the Ripper: The Murders and the Movies. Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd. ISBN 1-903111-32-3
• Rivett, Miriam; Whitehead, Mark (2006). Jack the Ripper. Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials. ISBN 978-1-904048-69-5
• Rumbelow, Donald (1990). Jack the Ripper. The Complete Casebook. New York: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-425-11869-6
• Rumbelow, Donald (2004). The Complete Jack the Ripper. Fully Revised and Updated. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-017395-6
• Sugden, Philip (2002). The Complete History of Jack the Ripper. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-0276-1
• Thurgood, Peter (2013). Abberline: The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper. Cheltenham: The History Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-752-48810-3
• Waddell, Bill (1993). The Black Museum: New Scotland Yard. London: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-90332-5
• Werner, Alex (editor, 2008). Jack the Ripper and the East End. London: Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-8247-2
• Whittington-Egan, Richard; Whittington-Egan, Molly (1992). The Murder Almanac. Glasgow: Neil Wilson Publishing. ISBN 978-1-897-78404-4
• Whittington-Egan, Richard (2013). Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Casebook. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-445-61768-8
• Wilson, Colin; Odell, Robin; Gaute, J. H. H. (1988). Jack the Ripper: Summing up and Verdict. London: Corgi Publishing. ISBN 978-0-552-12858-2
• Woods, Paul; Baddeley, Gavin (2009). Saucy Jack: The Elusive Ripper. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7110-3410-5

External links

• Jack the Ripper at casebook.org
• Home page of jack-the-ripper.org
• Jack the Ripper: The 1888 Autumn of Terror at whitechapeljack.com
• Contemporaneous news article pertaining to the murders committed by Jack the Ripper
• 1988 centennial investigation into the murders committed by Jack the Ripper compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
• 2014 news article focusing upon modern geographic profiling techniques used to discover the most likely location Jack the Ripper lived
• Letters claiming to be from Jack the Ripper at nationalarchives.gov.uk
• Jack the Ripper at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Article focusing upon the murders committed by Jack the Ripper published by the Texas State University

• Jack the Ripper
• 1888 in London
• 19th-century English criminals
• Crimes adapted into films
• English serial killers
• History of the City of London
• History of the City of London Police
• History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• History of the Metropolitan Police
• London crime history
• Murder in London
• Nicknames in crime
• People of the Victorian era
• Unidentified British serial killers
• Whitechapel