THE CASE August 31, 1888, a prostitute is brutally murdered and eviscerated
in a back street off Whitechapel, in the East End of London.
Most of the injuries are done to her lower abdomen. For the police
and anyone else, Polly Nichols's murder is simply that, a horrible
tragedy in a poor area of London. September 8th, Annie Chapman is murdered, adding to the death toll of a number of women in the Whitechapel area. Now the police believe they have a serial killer on the prowl. All in all, as many as fifteen and as few as five women fell victim to a murderer that has been come to known as 'Jack the Ripper.' THE VICTIMS |
 "Polly" Nichols Aug. 31 1888 |
 Annie Chapman Sept. 8 1888 |
 Elizabeth Stride Sept. 30 1888 |
 Catherine Eddowes Sept. 30 1888 image blurred due to graphic nature |
Feeling a bit like Haley Joel Osment yet? Ya know- I see dead people?
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 Mary Jane Kelly Nov. 9 1888 image blurred due to graphic nature |
"Ripperologists" (scholars and hobbyists who study the Ripper murders) disagree on the number of victims of Jack the Ripper. The above victims are generally accepted to be the most likely true victims of Jack, although Elizabeth Stride is in contention. The problem with her case is that she did not display the sadistic mutilation that accompanied the others. One explanation may be that Jack had been interrupted in his "work" by the late night cart driver that discovered her body. However, Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly show the more vicious "surgery" that has become his striking modius operandi. Most of the women had been gutted, and their intestines removed and torn apart. Some of the women's uteruses (now what's the plural on that? uteri? Ah, Danahay won't care, he doesn't seem to be much of a stickler on esoteric grammar)... okay, how's this? The uterus in most of the women had been removed, sometimes laid atop the corpses, in other cases, taken by Jack as a possible trophy. Most of the cuts appear to have been from the right to the left, indicating a left-handed killer, which incidentally contributes to the long history of left-handers. The word sinister is derived from the Latin meaning "on the left." As the record stands- the London metropolitan police had 11 murders in the Jack the Ripper file. Some murders committed before August 31st have been attributed to Jack, as well as several other murders after November 9th. A list of the possible victims are available here. There is always the possibility of one or more copycat killers. THE CRIMINAL We don't know the name of the murderer (or murderers) who killed the women in the Whitechapel area in the late 1880s. A number of letters have been "written" by the killer, and two of the letters gave him his most enduring name, "Jack the Ripper." Another letter had been signed, "Saucy Jack" and yet another letter arrived with a return address simply saying, "From Hell." Most Ripperologists believe that the letters purporting to be from the killer were either hoaxes by newspaper writers seeking to extend the story, or by other individuals playing jokes.
This letter provided the inspiration for the title of the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell which was adapted into a movie starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham (playing yet another ho... Boogie Nights, From Hell, and The Guru... that's three hos, or a Santa laugh). Interestingly enough, the signature says "Catch me when you can" which is close to the title of a book on another true-life criminal, which in turn was adapted into a movie starring Leo DiCaprio, and none of this has any degrees of Kevin Bacon. THE SUSPECTS Many theories abound as to who Jack the Ripper was. Only a few clues could be gleaned from most of the crime sites. A piece of Eddowes's bloody apron used to wipe down a knife and a seemingly anti-Semitic message written in chalk found on a nearby street, conflicting eyewitnesses reports, etc. Jack could have been anywhere from 5'5" to 5'7",
stout, thin, swarthy or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle theorized that Jack the Ripper may have disguised himself as a midwife, to gain closer access to the working women, and to leave the scene of the crime unobtrusively even with a bloody apron. One of the early suspects was nicknamed "Leather Apron," a man known to prostitutes in the area. The police did not find enough evidence to prove that he was responsible for anything other than extortion and assault. One item of interest is that he was Jewish. The police questioned a large number of Jewish people and immigrants. A common theme in the eyewitness descriptions was that the man looked "foreign." One could say this was a sign of the mentality of "the Other." as in, "No it wasn't one of us, it was someone else who came here and did these things." Privately, the London police reached the general consensus that Jack may have just been an ordinary Polish Jewish immigrant who blended in with the rest of the population in Whitechapel, with various dissenting opinions. Today, Ripperologists have the same situation on their hands- many suspects, little evidence, and dissenting opinions. Click here to see an photo array of suspects. OTHER NOTEWORTHY ITEMS At the time, London County was having their first council election, and there was a struggle between the incumbent party and the Radicals. Naturally, the Radicals took the opportunity to lambaste the current politicians for their mishandling of the case and ignorance of the plight of the East End. In the "HERE AND THERE" section of the Oct. 13, 1888 edition of the East London Advertiser, the Radicals are reported to be making "political capital out of the horrors." George Bernard Shaw, who was also a social activist at the time, called Jack the Ripper an "independent genius" who did more to draw attention to the problems in Whitechapel and the East End of London than all the genteel activists. The police feared an anti-Semitic backlash. When "Leather Apron," a Jewish man, was brought in for questioning, a mob formed outside the police station to assault and hurl epithets at him. After the Eddowes murder, a piece of her apron was found on a nearby street, and on the brick wall, scrawled in chalk was "The Juwes are The men that Will not be Blamed for nothing." The police wiped the message down as to minimize its impact on the community. Opinion is divided whether it was a message from Jack himself or simple graffiti. This can be further evidence of "the Other" mentality which pervaded London at the time. THE JEKYLL AND HYDE CONNECTION You bought Professor Danahay's book (well, I'm assuming you didn't go all Winona Ryder and nick the book from the UTA Bookstore, which would be a darn shame since you'd be cheating Danahay out of his royalties), you can read what he put in Appendix J. Page 184. Right after Appendix I. Go on. Yeah, right there. There ya go. |
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gentlemanly. He might've
been a butcher by trade, or even a doctor, due to the skill some
medical examiners gleaned from the corpses. Or he might just
be a guy with a knife "so nice and sharp" to work with.
He could even been Queen Victoria's supposedly syphilitic grandson
(say that three times fast!), Prince Albert. In an effort to
be absolutely thorough, I researched Prince Albert. And yes,
there is a connection to Jack the Ripper. One 