Who was Jack the Ripper?

Jack the Ripper: The Victims and Suspects

The Whitechapel Murderer

During the Autumn of 1888 several prostitutes in London's East End were murdered in particularly brutal fashion by an unknown Victorian serial killer called at various times The Whitechapel Murderer, Leather Apron, or Jack the Ripper.

The Jack of Legend

The notoriety of Jack the Ripper endures quite simply because of the continuing fascination with his true identity. He was not the first serial killer, nor the most prolific, his victims were not rich or famous, they were common prostitutes. Despite this, he is known in every country in the world and has appeared as either the central character or in a cameo role in countless films, books and plays. Jack the Ripper is one of those rare historical figures who are immensely famous yet at the same time anonymous. Like the Man in the Iron Mask, Jack is well known as his alter ego, while his real identity remains the subject of much debate.

Letter sent to George Lusk, "From Hell"

He was not always Jack the Ripper. Until a series of letters were sent to police and civic leaders bearing the now famous signature and the return address “From Hell” he was simply “The Whitechapel Murderer” or “Leather Apron”. An early suspect who was arrested and released once he had established convincing alibis was John Pizer, an unemployed shoe maker who was known locally as Leather Apron. The letters were widely accepted by the public as genuine although the police considered them the work of an enterprising journalist named Tom Bulling. Genuine or fake, the signature caught the imagination of the public and a legend was born.

The Victims of Jack the Ripper

According to Sir Melville McNaughten, head of the Criminal Investigation Department, there were “five and five only”:

• Mary Nichols, Friday 31st August 1888, Bucks Row, Whitechapel

Mary Nichols - Mortuary Photograph

• Annie Chapman, Saturday 8th September 1888, Hanbury St, Spitalfields

Annie Chapman - Mortuary Photograph

• Elizabeth Stride, Sunday 30th September 1888, Berner St, Whitechapel

Elizabeth Stride

• Catherine Eddowes, Sunday 30th September 1888, Mitre Square, London (City)

Catherine Eddowes - Mortuary Photograph

• Mary Kelly, Friday 9th November 1888, Millers Court, Spitalfields

Mary Kelly - Crime Scene Photograph

These are the generally accepted victims. All were killed at night and during the weekend and each had their throats cut before being subjected to increasingly severe mutilation. The exception is Stride whose throat was cut but no subsequent mutilation occurred. Stride and Eddowes were killed on the same night in the infamous Double Event. It has been convincingly argued that Stride was not eviscerated because the killer was disturbed. Frustrated, he was forced to find a second victim rather than fading back into the shadows.

Other Victims

Martha Tabram, Early Ripper Victim?
 - Mortuary Photograph

Other murders occurring in the Whitechapel area were attributed to Jack however it should be remembered that the life of an East End prostitute was often short and violent. Prostitutes in Whitechapel had been killed and mutilated long before Jack the Ripper’s autumn 1888 reign of terror and long afterwards. How many women did Jack the Ripper kill? Opinions range from as few as three to more than thirty.

More ink than blood has been spilled regarding Jack the Ripper, much of it in speculation as to his, or even her, identity. Less attention has been given to the victims. Anyone who knew for sure is long since dead and the picture has been clouded by generations of authors who have selected victims with a demise fitting the known movements of their particular nominee as Saucy Jack.

Chronological List of Possible Victims of The Whitechapel Murderer

• Fairy Fay : December 26th 1887 - Reported long after the event to have been killed in the Whitechapel area by a stake thrust into her abdomen. Possibly mythical or the unrecorded alias of one of the later victims.
• Annie Milwood : February 25th 1888 - Milwood, a 38 year old widow from Spitalfields was admitted to hospital suffering from multiple stab wounds to her legs and abdomen. Her attacker was unknown to her. She survived the attack but died one month later from natural causes.
• Ada Wilson : March 28th 1888 - A 39 year old prostitute living in Mile End. She survived a knife attack to her throat by a man demanding money. Her description of the attacker is similar to several later accounts of possible suspects.
• Emma Elizabeth Smith: April 3rd 1888 - A 45 year old East End prostitute. Smith survived her ordeal long enough to describe her attackers as a gang of youths. She also claimed to have been raped.
• Martha Tabram : August 7th 1888 - Tabram a 39 year old Spitalfields prostitute had spent the evening of her murder drinking with another prostitute named Pearly Poll and two soldiers. Her body was later found in George Yard with multiple stab wounds to the torso.
• Mary Ann Nichols : August 31st 1888 - A 42 year old Spitalfields prostitute found with her throat cut and abdomen mutilated in Bucks Row, Whitechapel.
• Annie Chapman : September 8th 1888 - Chapman, a 47 year old Spitalfields prostitute was found with her throat cut, abdomen mutilated and uterus removed in Hanbury Street, Spitalfields
• Elizabeth Stride : September 30th 1888 - "Long Liz" was a 45 year old Swedish immigrant and part time prostitute. Stride's lifeless body was found off Berner Street, Whitechapel. Her throat was cut but nothing in the way of mutilation done, possibly because the killer was disturbed. Stride claimed to be a survivor of the SS Princess Alice sinking.
• Catherine Eddowes : September 30th 1888 - Eddowes, a 46 year old prostitute was killed less than an hour after Elizabeth Stride. In addition to the usual attacks to the throat and abdomen she suffered from facial mutilation. Her uterus was removed by the killer.
• Unidentified female: October 2nd 1888 - The torso of a woman was found in the cellar of what would later become New Scotland Yard. The arms were later found in the Thames but the head and legs never recovered.
• Mary Jane Kelly : November 9th 1888 - Kelly was reportedly an attractive 25 year old prostitute living at Millers Court in Spitalfields. Her body was found on the bed in her room with severe mutilations. Unlike the other victims she had been killed indoors. Many researchers believe this to be the final victim.
• Annie Farmer : November 21st 1888 - A 40 year old prostitute living in the same lodging house as the recently murdered Martha Tabram was found with a slight cut to her throat after she had screamed for help. Her attacker fled.
• John Gill : December 29th 1888 - The body of eight year old Gill was found near his home in Manningham, Bradford. Speculation at the time was that the murder was similar to that of Mary Kelly although a local milkman was arrested for the murder.
• Rose Mylett : December 20th 1888 - A 30 year old prostitute found strangled in Clarke's Yard, Poplar
• Elizabeth Jackson : June 4th 1889 - The 23 year old Soho prostitute's body was recovered in pieces over a 12 day period. It was reported that her uterus was missing.
• Alice McKenzie : July 16th 1889 - A 40 year old prostitute also known as "Clay Pipe" was found dead in Castle Alley, Whitechapel. Her throat was cut and her abdomen mutilated.
• Lydia Hart : September 10th 1889 - The torso and arms found under a railway arch in Pinchin Street were tentatively identified as being the remains of Lydia Hart,
• Frances Coles : February 13th 1891 - Also known as "Carroty Nell", Coles was a 23 year old Whitechapel prostitute. She was killed on Friday the 13th by having her throat cut by a blunt knife at Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel.
• Carrie Brown : April 24th 1891 - An elderly New York prostitute known as Shakespeare was found dead in an East River hotel. The mutilations inflicted on the corpse were thought to resemble those of the London victims.

Modus Operandi of Jack the Ripper

Jack would stalk the miserable Whitechapel Streets during the early hours looking for the ideal victim - a drunken middle aged prostitute.  After a brief negotiation they would go to a dark back alley to take care of business. As the victim leant forward to raise her skirts he would seize them by the throat and strangle them. After lowering the lifeless body to the ground he would squat or kneel on the right side, turning the face away from him before cutting the throat. He would then perform ritual mutilations, often arranging the personal belongings in a pattern. Internal organs were sometimes removed and taken away as trophies.

The Suspects

A rich, well dressed man in Whitechapel would attract as much attention as a poor, ragged fellow in Mayfair. Jack the Ripper evaded the police, who on at least one occasion came close to catching him, by being indistinguishable from the teeming crowds into which he vanished. In response to public outrage over the slayings the police adopted a saturation policy. The popular image of a flamboyantly dressed Jack with red lined cloak, white gloves and a top hat is absurd. Such a figure would have inevitably attracted too much attention.

While none of the following has been categorically proven to have been the killer, each was regarded as a strong suspect by those involved at first hand. It is fairly certain that not all of the documentary evidence available in 1888 has survived.

Montague John Druitt

Montague Druitt

Druitt, a 31 year old barrister and schoolteacher was named by McNaughten as being a likely candidate. His suicide around the end of November 1888 fits well with the final canonical murder of Mary Kelly on the 9^th. The Druitt family had a history of mental illness. His mother was committed to an asylum in July 1888. Although Druitt’s address was in Blackheath, he maintained chambers at 9 King’s Bench Walk at the time of the murders, an easy walk to Whitechapel.

Seweryn Klosowski

Seweryn Klosowski

Klosowski, also known as George Chapman was hanged in 1903 for murdering his three wives by poison. A Polish born immigrant, he arrived in the East End, probably in March 1887 and remained until at least April 1891. Inspector Frederick Abberline, who was in charge of the investigation, came to believe that Klosowski was the killer despite the drastic change in modus operandi.

Aaron Kosminski

Kosminski was cited as a suspect by both McNaughten and Assistant Commissioner Sir Robert Anderson. Anderson claimed in his memoirs that Kosminski had been identified by a fellow Jew who refused to testify. According to McNaughten there were strong reasons to indicate Kosminski may have been the Ripper and that he was known to have “strong homicidal tendencies”. He was committed to a mental asylum on 7^th February 1891.

Michael Ostrog

Michael Ostrog

McNaughten includes Ostrog in his list of possible killers although there is nothing in Ostrog’s long criminal record as a petty thief which indicates a violent disposition. He is described as a “mad Russian doctor” however Ostrog’s claim to have served in the Russian Navy as a surgeon is almost certainly false. He is described, again by McNaughten, as “unquestionably a homicidal maniac” although whatever information lead to this conclusion has been lost. The biggest factor against Ostrog being the killer is that he was in the hands of the French penal system at the time of the murders.

Other Suspects

Later authors have named many prominent Victorians as being Jack the Ripper candidates and while some of the theories are well researched and presented they all fail a simple test. Why were none of these suspects ever arrested and questioned by the police investigating the murders? It may be argued that simply because of their prominence, they were regarded as untouchable. Arresting HRH Prince Albert, the Duke of Clarence, heir apparent to the throne of England, would have been unthinkable. Lewis Carroll, Sir William Gull, J.K. Stephen or Walter Sickert however were all very much within the reach of the law. Even in the case of the Duke of Clarence it seems impossible for a conspiracy, which would of necessity involve dozens if not hundreds of police officers, newspaper editors and civic leaders , to have remained a secret.

J.K. Stephen - Unlikely Ripper

A much more credible suspect is Dr Francis Tumblety, American quack doctor, abortionist and woman hater. Detectives were known to have traveled to America to interview an unnamed suspect which may have been Tumblety.

Francis Tumblety

Robert D'Onston Stephenson, a chronic liar, was thought by some to have knowledge of the murders which only the killer could know. Stephenson was known to be in the Whitechapel area during the 1888 reign of terror, but as an inpatient at the London Hospital.

Robert D'Onston Stephenson

James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton merchant and purported author of an incriminating journal which is almost certainly a modern forgery. In an interesting twist of fate, Maybick's wife was accused of his murder and tried by Justice Fitzjames Stephen, father of J.K. Stephen, ripper suspect and the tutor of HRH Prince Albert Victor, another possible Jack.

James Maybrick

The Identity of Jack the Ripper

So, does the face of the world's most infamous serial killer stare back at you from this page? Maybe. If we discount the unlikely, such as Lewis Carroll, Prince Albert Victor and J.K. Stephen and concentrate only on the most credible we are left with a much shorter list. Druitt, Tumblety, Stephenson and Kosminski. The artist Walter Sickert remains as a good outside bet.

My own feeling is that of all the proposed suspects Montague Druitt narrowly beats Aaron Kosminski. Both were identified as being likely candidates by senior police officers who were able to access information which is no longer available. I have opted for Druitt as the more likely because of his declining personal circumstances in the period leading up to his suicide. Druitt had been dismissed from his post at Blackheath School amidst rumors of  scandal and had confided to his family that he feared he was following the path of his mother who was certified insane in July 1888. Druitt's suicide after the generally accepted final killing of Mary Kelly fits well with the theory that Jack the Ripper was Montague J Druitt.

Montague Druitt (1857–1888)
Cricketer, Barrister, Schoolteacher and Jack the Ripper?

In naming Druitt as Jack it must be acknowledged that there have been several well researched arguments against. Druitt was an avid cricket player and some conflicts between his known appearances and the estimated times of death of the victims need to be resolved.  Druitt is however the best candidate to date despite these weaknesses in the case against him.

There is an even more probable candidate than either Druitt or Kosminski. Unfortunately we do not know his name and at this point, so far removed from the events of 1888, we most likely never will. He was just another empty face, probably born into poverty to a Whitechapel prostitute. He may have been interviewed by the police in connection to the killings (the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe had already been questioned and released by the police before a false license plate lead to his arrest) but any surviving records are yet to be discovered. If I were to start looking for Jack the Ripper it would be among the anonymous poor whose birth, life and death caused barely a ripple in the public record. A manual worker, possibly involved with slaughterhouse or even mortuary work. Perhaps he had previous convictions for assaults on women as he progressed from beatings, stabbings into mass murder. 

The clues are there, but perhaps too faint to be found.

Sources:

Casebook: Jack theRipper

The National Archives

Metropolitan Police