English World
Jack the Ripper
In 1888, London was a divided city. In the West, the rich lead comfortable lives, but for the thousands of poor crammed into the slums of the East End life was no party.
Many shared one room with six or seven other people. Each night up to eight thousand women and children queued for a place in a lodging house.
In the Autumn of 1888, Jack the Ripper terrorised the area around Whitechapel. He murdered five women, slashing her throats, and suddenly, desappeared!
He was the first British serial killer to hit the headlines. And his real identity remains a mistery up to now.
The Crimes
The Ripper’s five victims were all prostitutes working around Whitechapel. His first, 43 year old Mary Ann Nicolls, was found on 31st August in Buck’s Row. Her throat had been slashed and her body mutilated.
Annie Chapman, 47, was murdered in Hanbury St on 8th September. Again her throat was slashed and this time internal organs had been removed. A few days later the Central News Agency received the famous ‘Dear Boss’ letter which was supposedly written by the murderer. It was signed ‘Jack the Ripper’, the name which put fear in the hearts of Old London Town.
The Ripper struck again on 30th September. The bodies of Elizabeth Stride, 45, and Catherine Eddowes, 46, were discovered just a few streets apart within an hour of each other. It looked as if the killer had been disturbed when attacking ‘Long Liz’ because her injuries were less severe than Catherine Eddowes, whose face was slashed and organs removed. The killer had also taken her kidney as a grisly souvenir.
In October, another Ripper letter arrived - this time with half of what he claimed to be Eddowe’s kidney. Jack said that he had fried the other half and eaten it.
Mary Kelly, 25, was the last victim on 9th November. She was killed at home and the walls of her lodgings were spattered with her blood. Her face had been brutally hacked away, her breasts and organs removed and her body slashed.
Suspects
With no scientific tests available, not even finger printing, the police found it impossible to find the killer. Over the past century many suspects have emerged.
Today, genuine suspects nominated by contemporary police officers are only four. They are:
Kosminski, a poor Polish Jew resident in Whitechapel
Montague John Druitt, a 31 year old barrister and school teacher who committed suicide in December 1888
Michael Ostrog, a Russian-born thief and confidence trickster, believed to be 55 years old in 1888, and detained in asylums on several occasions
Dr Francis J. Tumblety, 56 Years old, an American 'quack' doctor, who was arrested in November 1888 for offences of gross indecency, and fled the country later the same month, having obtained bail at a very high price.
There have been arguments over whether the Ripper had some knowledge of anatomy, like a doctor or a butcher, because of the speed and accuracy with which he mutilated his victims.
The murders were considered too much for the local Whitechapel Division at the time, and assistance was sent from the Central Office at Scotland Yard. After the Eddowes murder the City Police were also engaged on the hunt for the killer.
Who was this man? Was there just one muder? And why he stopped killing, all of a sudden?
We may never know. But one thing is sure. Who ever he was, Jack the Ripper has taken his place as one of the most infamous and bloody killers in British History.
Following Jack's Steps
The Golden Tours offer tours all over the London.
Maybe one of the most creepy ones is the "London of Jack the Ripper". Immagine yourself walking late at night through the actual murder sites where the Ripper butchered his victims!
If you like detective stories, consider taking this tour next time you fly to London!
Fonts:
Crime Library
Metropolitan Police Museum
Golden Tours
Discovery Channel
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