Jack the Ripper's last victim. Who was Jack the Ripper? The secret is revealed. Versions and theories
In 1888, a serial killer known under the pseudonym Jack the Ripper was active in London and Whitechapel. This nickname was signed in a letter received by the Central News Agency. This letter stated that the author takes full responsibility for the murders upon himself. This figure has also been called the "Leather Apron" and the "Whitechapel Killer".
This maniac killed prostitutes from the slums. The victims' throats were cut before the internal organs were removed. Based on this, it was concluded that the killer was well acquainted with anatomy. It was assumed that the killer was a surgeon. In September and October 1888, it became popular that there was some connection between the victims found. Many publishers received letters that may have been written by Jack the Ripper. The famous letter “From Hell” was delivered to the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, which included a human kidney.
It is worth noting that for many years the identity of Jack the Ripper remained unknown. However, last year the media reported that Russell Edwards, a writer and detective, together with molecular biologist Jari Louhelainen, used DNA testing to identify the serial killer. It turned out to be Aaron Kosminsky, an emigrant from Poland. He worked as a barber in Whitechapel and was mentally ill. Interestingly, during the investigation in 1888, Aaron Kosminsky appeared in the case as a suspect, but the police were never able to find conclusive evidence of his guilt. By the way, many forensic experts do not agree with the statement of Russell and Yari.
What caused such cruelty?
Emigrants flooded into the big cities of England. Since 1882, many Russians and Jews, as well as people from of Eastern Europe. Emigrants kept coming and coming, and this led to overpopulation, which led to a deterioration not only of living conditions, but also of working conditions. Chaos reigned in many areas: alcoholism, robbery and lawlessness. Poverty forced the fair half of humanity into prostitution.
As of October 1888, it was established that about 1,200 women were engaged in the “ancient profession” and 62 brothels were operating. Whitechapel at that time can be characterized as follows: poverty, crime and racism. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was during this period that the brutal serial murders attributed to Jack the Ripper occurred.
It is widely believed that the serial killer first strangled his victims. Experts who examined the dead reported that there were signs of strangulation. If so, then this explains why the people living next door did not hear the screams of the unfortunate people. But today this theory is disputed by some, since there is no evidence.
Identified victims of Jack the Ripper
Marie Ann Nichols, known as "Polly". Born August 26, 1845. Killed on August 31, 1888.
Elizabeth Stride, known as "Long Liz". Born November 27, 1843. Killed on September 30, 1888.
During the murders, Jack the Ripper slit the throats of his victims. The cut was made from left to right. The killer did not smear himself in the blood of his victims due to the fact that he tilted the heads of the dead to the right. When the woman was already dead, the serial killer opened the abdominal cavity. In some women he cut out all the internal organs, in others only certain parts.
Letters from Jack the Ripper
During the Jack the Ripper investigation, the media and police received a ton of letters. Some suggested ways to catch the elusive and brutal killer, however, many of them were simply unacceptable. Of particular interest were the letters that were written by the maniac himself. Although many experts are of the opinion that there are no letters written by Jack the Ripper, three letters stand out.
"Dear boss." The letter indicated the date: September 25. Like many others, he was not given any importance at first. But three days later, part of a human ear was found on the Eddowes postmark. After this, the contents of the letter were taken more than seriously. The letter contained some promise: "to cut off the lady's ears." On October 1, the police decided to publish the letter. They hoped that someone would be able to recognize the author's handwriting, but this did not bring any results. This letter was the first to mention the pseudonym "Jack the Ripper". After the murders, the police made an official statement (perhaps to avoid mass panic among the population) that this letter was nothing more than a hoax by a little-known journalist.
"Sassy Jackie" postcard. Dated October 1, 1888. The letter attracted attention only because the handwriting in it was similar to the handwriting in which the previous letter was written. The card mentioned two victims: Eddowes and Stride. Made next output: The postcard was sent before the crimes took place. Police said the journalist who wrote the letters has been identified.
Letter "From Hell". It was received by George Lusk on October 16, 1888. The letter was accompanied by a box. It contained half a kidney. The examination established that the organ was stored in “wine alcohol.” One of the victims, Eddowes, had a kidney cut out by the killer. The letter indicated that the other half was fried and eaten by Jack. Experts have different opinions: some are sure that this is a kidney from one of the victims, while others are sure that this is just someone’s cruel joke.
Tests are being carried out on DNA that may have been preserved on the letters. Ian Findlay, a professor from Australia, concluded that most likely the author of these letters was a woman. It is worth noting that during the investigation of the murders, a woman named Mary Piercy came under suspicion and was hanged for the murder of her lover's wife.
Professional killer skills
To this day, experts argue about the level of knowledge of the anatomy of the famous serial killer. The reports of medical experts who performed autopsies on the bodies of Jack the Ripper victims are being studied. They note the precision of some wounds and the professionalism of removing internal organs. This suggests that the killer could well have been a professional surgeon.
However, the controversy continues. Some claim that even the most ordinary butcher could master such skills, while others are confident in the killer’s many years of surgical practice. One more detail was established: the killer was undoubtedly left-handed.
In 1888, London was rocked by a series of brutal murders in the Whitechapel area. It was a slum area where various dregs of society lived, among whom there were a lot of immigrants. Brawls and stabbings happened every day, and the death of another prostitute from Whitechapel would not have shocked anyone if not for the circumstances.
All the victims of the serial killer, nicknamed Jack the Ripper, were prostitutes, and they were all killed in the same way: their throats were cut with strong blows from a very sharp weapon, and after that their peritoneum was opened and their entrails were torn out. Sometimes some organs (uterus, bladder, kidneys) the killer took with him. There is an assumption that the victim was first strangled. This explains the fact that no one in overpopulated Whitechapel ever heard the screams of the victim.
How many victims Jack the Ripper actually had is still debated. They name a number from 4 to 15. In the literature about the Ripper, a so-called list of “canonical victims” of the maniac has been established. It includes five names and opens with Mary Ann Nichols, who was killed on August 31, 1888. The list is completed by Mary Jane Kelly, who was killed on November 9 of the same year.
After the murder of Mary Kelly, Jack the Ripper's macabre activities in London ceased.
[С-BLOCK]The killer was never found, despite the efforts of the police.
The personality and motives of Jack the Ripper still excite the public's imagination and have given rise to a whole movement - "Ripperology" (from the English Jack the Ripper), in which journalists, amateur detectives and historians are producing ever new versions of who he really was. Jack the Ripper?
Some of the most popular include the following.
Montague John Druitt, lawyer and schoolteacher. In 1888, his body was found in the Thames. There were people in his family who suffered mental disorders. He was named the main suspect because his death occurred shortly after the discovery of the fifth victim, after which the Ripper-style killings stopped. However, he was later removed from the list of suspects.
Severin Antonovich Klosowski, Pole. Arriving in England, he took the surname Chapman. He poisoned three of his wives in succession and was hanged. The inspector who led the investigation into the Ripper case suspected Klosowski of murdering prostitutes, however, the Pole was a poisoner, and for a serial killer, a maniac, it is almost impossible to change his methods of murder.
Mikhail Ostrog, also known as Dr. Grant, Claude Clayton, Orloff, Ashley Nabokoff and half a dozen different names. He claimed that he served as a surgeon on the ship, which fits very well with the version that Jack the Ripper was familiar with medicine, human anatomy, and that he delivered his blows with a surgical instrument and with surgical precision. However, no evidence was found that Ostrog was not just a swindler and rogue, but a serial killer.
Lizzie Williams is a midwife. Police were looking for a man with medical skills whose clothes may have been stained with blood. Who will pay attention to a modest midwife hurrying along a dark street? And who will be surprised by the fact that the midwife's clothes are spattered with blood? Lizzie Williams is said to have gone mad due to her infertility, which explains the fury with which she allegedly hacked into the bodies of her victims, removing the reproductive organs.
There is also this version: Jack the Ripper was Prince Albert, nephew of Queen Victoria. This version is supported by the fact that the offspring royal family visited the prostitutes of Whitechapel, caught syphilis from one of them, and was even close to Mary Jane Kelly, the last of the maniac’s “canonical victims.” In addition, the police received letters allegedly written by Jack the Ripper (they were later declared the work of journalists), and so, the handwriting of these letters was very similar to the handwriting of Prince Albert. This is all great, but the prince has an alibi. It is absolutely established that he was not in London on the days of the murders.
It has been suggested that the killer was Charles Latwidge Dodgson, known to us as Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. Some researchers managed to make anagrams from letters that formed the sentences of his books. This is how the statement was “read”: “cut her throat from the left ear to the right.” However, if you set yourself such a task, then in the same way in the books of any author you can find a hint of any crimes.
And, finally, the man who, apparently, was the very same Jack the Ripper. Aaron Mordke Kosminski comes from Russian Empire, Polish Jew, barber from Whitechapel. He was a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, but nothing could be proven because one of the witnesses, also a Jew, refused to testify against him. Aaron was released, but was soon recaptured by police while attempting to stab his sister to death. He was declared insane and placed in a mental hospital. After Aaron was isolated, the killings of prostitutes in Whitechapel stopped.
It was only recently possible to prove that Kosminski was the serial killer, in 2014, through DNA analysis from sperm stains preserved on a shawl that was found near the corpse of one of the Ripper victims. One of the policemen liked the shawl, he took it from the crime scene and gave it to his wife. The shawl was subsequently sold at auction. The research was carried out by Jari Louhelainen, associate professor of molecular biology from Liverpool. The owners of the shawl, which, as it turned out, had never been washed, provided him with this rarity for research. Louhelainen did a great job comparing the DNA preserved on the shawl with the DNA of all living descendants of people who were suspected of these terrible crimes. The DNA on the shawl and the DNA of Aaron Kosminski's descendants matched.
The working-class areas of Victorian London were not the most cheerful places in the world: poverty, unsanitary conditions, dirt and debauchery reigned there. It was in such an atmosphere that one of the most sinister legends of Great Britain unfolded - the story of Jack the Ripper. The ZagraNitsa portal has collected interesting facts and theories about the serial maniac for you: from Lewis Carroll to the Russian paramedic
London at the end of the 19th century witnessed many tragedies, both fictional and real. However, the sophisticated fantasy of Oscar Wilde and Arthur Conan Doyle pales against the background of the bloody horror that the capital of Britain experienced in 1888.
There is still no definite answer as to who is actually guilty of the brutal murders in Whitechapel, although literature and cinema are replete with various, sometimes very crazy, theories. Let's find out who Jack the Ripper is and why his name even today evokes awe among many British people.
Photo: davidhiggerson.wordpress.com
A little history
In 1888, the poor areas of London resembled a powder keg: the dominance of immigrants, rampant drunkenness, poverty, unemployment, prostitution and constant outbreaks of viral diseases. The dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of these godforsaken neighborhoods became so obvious that residents of wealthy areas were afraid to show themselves here. The lack of jobs was one of the reasons for the huge number of prostitutes on the streets of the city: during the year the police counted 62 brothels, and these are only those that were discovered.
Photo: shutterstock Whitechapel Killer
Of course, such a situation could not give rise to anything but cruelty and immorality. In the autumn of 1888, London was shaken by unprecedented crimes: serial maniac not only killed prostitutes, but did it with particular sophistication, removing internal organs from his victims. Famous nickname the killer received thanks to one of the letters to reporters, in which he allegedly confesses to his crime and signs: “Jack the Ripper.” However, researchers call this message a fake, of which there were many at that time.
Different versions attribute from 5 to 15 victims to Jack the Ripper, but most experts believe that there were five of them: all were involved in prostitution, all had their throats cut, and three had their internal organs removed. Today they are called the “five canonical victims” of Jack the Ripper. Some researchers add a sixth woman to this list, whose murder was most likely also the work of a maniac.
Photo: thinkingsidewayspodcast.com
Photo: telegraph.co.uk The Whitechapel killer chose his victims girls lung behavior, apparently believing that thereby helping society get rid of filth and decline in morals. The cause of death of the women was a slit throat; the organs were removed after the murder. The maniac’s knowledge of human anatomy gave rise to many versions (never confirmed) about his affiliation with medicine and, in particular, surgery. Many people believe that the skills of a butcher are quite enough for this.
Letters from Hell
Jack the Ripper was active in the autumn of 1888. In addition to the unprecedented brutality, the criminal (or his imitators) was prone to publicity and apparently sought recognition for his activities. Since the start of the investigation, both police officers and journalists have been literally inundated with letters confessing to what they had done. Of course, most of them were hoaxes or someone's sick imagination, but among this pile there were also several messages written, probably, by the killer's hand.
The "Dear Boss" letter is known for giving the maniac his sad famous name- Jack the Ripper. Later, the police officially recognized this message as a hoax. The most terrible of the letters is called “From Hell.” In addition to bravado and mockery, the sender included a box containing part of a human kidney. The author claimed that he fried and ate the second half.
Photo: whitechapeljack.com 
Photo: casebook.org Versions and theories
The impotence of the police, who were unable to find and punish the bloody killer, became the basis for a mass of different studies, theories and speculations. There are even Ripperologists - this is what the learned (and not so learned) men call themselves, who to this day are trying to find out the real name of the Whitechapel killer.
1. Polish emigrant
For example, last year the results of DNA tests conducted by one of these researchers, Russell Edwards, were made public. According to the results, the killer was the Polish emigrant Aaron Kosminski, who moved to Britain in 1881 and was named as a suspect in the case. This is indicated by analysis of a shawl found near one of the victims and bought by businessman Russell Edwards at auction. DNA samples found on the shawl were compared with genetic material from the descendants of Aaron, who died in a mental hospital. However, these conclusions cause skepticism among many scientists who call the research amateurish.
Photo: usvsth3m.com 
Photo: bbc.com 2. Russian paramedic
Another theory suggests that the criminal has Russian roots. This is a certain paramedic Ostrogov, who arrived in London from France, where he left behind not the best memories: he was suspected by the French authorities of murdering a prostitute. Ostrogov's profession fit perfectly with the theory about the killer's medical education. However, the alleged criminal successfully escaped from British justice in St. Petersburg, where he was also convicted and sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Photo: shutterstock Without a doubt, the funniest theory is that Jack the Ripper is famous writer Lewis Carroll. In 1996, researcher Richard Wallis published an entire book on this subject. The author claims that in Carroll's works he discovered anagrams confirming criminal activity writer. Like, if you take a few sentences from Carroll's books and swap the letters, you get a story about the atrocities of the Whitechapel killer. To be fair, it should be noted that Carroll did have a controversial reputation, but the brutal murders committed by the author of Alice in Wonderland are hard to believe.
Photo: telegraph.co.uk 
Photo: history.com Jack the Ripper brand
Gloomy and bloody legends have always attracted people's attention, and if there is demand, then there will be supply. Many books and songs have been written about the Whitechapel killer, dozens of films have been made, there are even several computer games. But Michael Dibdin, a writer who exploits the image of Sherlock Holmes, published a detective story about how the famous detective brought Jack the Ripper to clean water: it turned out to be Professor Moriarty.
Photo: standard.co.uk London also hosts daily tours of the places where the maniac committed his atrocities. For a two-hour walk you will have to pay 10 pounds. And recently, a Jack the Ripper museum opened in the capital, causing a wave of protests among activists of the feminist movement.
These days, a killer who poisons a dozen people doesn't even make national news, but several thousand victims local war(very decent figures by medieval standards) will only be a pretext for the adoption of another formal UN resolution. So why do historians, criminologists and mystery lovers constantly return to 1888, to a murderer who is ordinary by today's standards, with only five proven corpses to his name?
2008 marks the 120th anniversary of the crimes of Jack the Ripper. The date is not the best, and the occasion can hardly be called festive, but “World of Fantasy” cannot ignore the anniversary of one of the most attractive mysteries in the criminal history of mankind. Let's walk through the streets of Victorian London. Who knows - maybe a black cloak will flash in the gateway, a constable's whistle will be heard, and we will finally find out the name of serial killer No. 1?
This is my suit. I'm a serial killer. They are no different from ordinary people.
Wednesday Adams (The Addams Family)
At the bottom
What could be more progressive than Victorian Britain? Not an era, but endless techno-romanticism and the triumph of human genius: the London Underground, Darwin's theory of evolution, the first international exhibitions and compact cameras, electric lighting streets, time machine, Holmes and Watson, journey, ... Where else?
Even in the case of the Sun, scientists are most interested not in its rays, but in its spots. And therefore, one of the most striking symbols of the late 19th century was a completely unknown (in every sense of the word) person. No name, no photograph - just a nickname, which today is known to all more or less educated people from the land of Franz Josef to Burkina Faso.
The scene of his crimes was the Whitechapel area in the East End of London, which since the 17th century proudly bore the title of “an oasis of prostitution.” Even in the progressive 19th century, this place was a real cesspool. Emigrants lived here, mainly Jews and Irish (it is noteworthy that today immigrants from Bangladesh settle in the East End). It was this area that Jack London described in “People of the Abyss”: workhouses, terrible poverty, sleeping on the streets...
In October 1888, police estimated that in tiny Whitechapel alone there were 62 brothels and 1,200 prostitutes (out of a population of half a million people in the entire East End). To imagine the overpopulation of this area in 1888, it is enough to say that only about 200 thousand people now live in it.
The roads were unpaved, the houses were small and without foundations. Drainage and sewerage systems were absent almost everywhere. Cows and pigs grazed in the backyards. The townspeople cooked offal and melted lard. The aromas in the air could be the envy of many medieval cities.
Cartoon from Punch magazine (September 1888), satirizing the helplessness of the police.
Ripperology
Researchers-Ripperologists have calculated that it is written about Jack the Ripper more books than about everyone American presidents, taken together. It is generally accepted that the Ripper appeared suddenly, committed 5 murders, one bloodier than the other (the last victim was literally torn to pieces), and then just as suddenly disappeared. This is not entirely true. In the crowded East End, murder was as common as the stench of the streets. For example, 25 days before Jack’s first “performance”, prostitute Martha Tabram was stabbed to death in Whitechapel (39 stab wounds to the “body and private parts”).
The Ripper was unique in that he killed without any reason apparent reason; boldly, cruelly, in a uniform manner. The throat was cut from left to right, while the victim's head was tilted to the right, and considerable force was applied to the knife (the wounds were very deep). After that it was opened abdomen, some organs were cut out and taken away.
In 2006, based on the testimony of witnesses and the conclusions of detectives of the 19th century, an identikit of the Ripper was compiled.
The fact that the killer apparently managed to avoid being stained with blood and escape unnoticed partly explains his other nickname, “Leather Apron.” The police later caught John Pizer, a blackmailer of prostitutes known by this nickname.
In all cases there was little blood, which gave rise to two assumptions: the women were first strangled (which also explains the absence of cries for help, because in some cases the constables were on neighboring streets and were a few minutes late), and then stabbed, or the crimes were committed in some other place (a house, a moving carriage), and the bodies were thrown out onto deserted streets.
What are our girls made of?
On Friday, August 31, 1888, a certain citizen, Charles Cross, was walking through the Whitechapel area at 4 a.m. (the usual time for the start or end of a working day). working night in the East End). Near the stables he noticed a woman lying on the road. The skirt was pulled up, from which Cross concluded that the lady had been raped. He called another passerby. The two men straightened her skirt (in the dark, no one noticed that she was dead) and went in search of the policeman.
Constable John Neil brought a lantern and only then did it become clear that a murder had occurred. Dr. Rhys Llewellyn, who arrived at the crime scene, discovered that death was caused by two huge cuts in the throat (from ear to ear), and this happened a maximum of half an hour ago, since the body was still warm. A little blood flowed out, most of it was absorbed into the clothes.
There were no traces of blood on the chest. Consequently, the victim died not on his feet (otherwise the blood from the cut throat would have gotten onto his clothes), but on the ground. This version is confirmed by the fact that she had a bruise on her left cheekbone, five teeth were missing and her tongue was injured. The woman was probably knocked to the ground with a strong blow and only then stabbed to death. An examination of the body in the morgue revealed another oddity - the victim’s abdominal cavity was opened.
The investigation showed that the “first swallow” of the Ripper was Mary Ann Nichols, 42 years old. She had a husband and five children, but “Polly” (as her friends called her) became an alcoholic and last years spent her life at the bottom of society. On the night of her death, she did not have enough money for a place to stay. She went out into the street, telling her friends that she would soon earn the 4 pence she was looking for “with the help of her new hat.”
The killer's next victim was Annie Chapman, a homeless alcoholic who suffered from tuberculosis and syphilis. A few days before her death, she got into a fight with a woman over a bar of soap, received a black eye and lost her “marketable appearance.” For this very reason, on September 7, 1888, she did not have money for an overnight stay. Annie wandered the streets, hoping to find a "client". IN last time she was seen at 5 am, talking with some man (the witness caught only one of her remarks - “No”).
At 6 o'clock her body was found in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street. This place is located next to the market, so in the morning it is quite lively - people go to work, carts with goods drive along the roads. The windows of residential buildings overlooking the courtyard remained open at night. It was already light outside. Incredibly, in such conditions no one noticed anything suspicious.
Annie Chapman and the scene of her murder (reconstruction from police sketches).
Annie's throat is cut so deeply as if the killer wanted to separate her head from her body. The entrails were carefully removed and laid out next to the body. The work took a long time thin knife- Most likely, special tool for opening. The killer took the uterus with him.
Dr. Phillips, who examined the corpse, stated that the internal organs were dissected very professionally. He himself would have needed at least 15 minutes to do this in a calm environment, and most likely about an hour. This radically changed things, since a good medical education at that time was not available to everyone. Other surgeons subsequently agreed, but believed that the Ripper could have been a less qualified medical student or butcher.
Letters from Hell
Newspapers excitedly told people about the Whitechapel killer. People did not remain in debt. Every day the police received “candid confessions” of mentally ill individuals, denunciations of neighbors and advice on conducting an investigation. Only a few letters are considered relatively “authentic.” The first arrived on September 27, beginning with the words “Dear Boss” and ending with the caption “Jack the Ripper.”
The second postcard is dated the first of October. The third letter, entitled “From Hell,” arrived along with part of Eddowes’ kidney (the rest was allegedly fried and eaten by the maniac) on October 16. Today many believe that all these letters were evil pranks. It is quite possible that the nickname “Jack the Ripper” was not invented by the criminal himself, but by some bored idiot.
If at one in the morning on September 30, 1888, the Russian Jew Louis Demshits had not lit a match on the corner of Dutfield and Berner Streets, he would have slept peacefully for the rest of his life. However, fate decreed otherwise, and the man saw “Long Lizzie” (Elizabeth Stride) lying supine on the ground. Blood was still flowing from her throat - as if the murder had happened just a minute ago. Demshitz involuntarily scared the killer away, preventing him from opening the victim’s stomach.
A similar “surprise” awaited Constable Edward Watkins 45 minutes later. While patrolling Miter Square (a quarter of a mile from the previous crime scene), he discovered the gutted corpse of Catherine Eddowes (this time the maniac took the uterus and kidney). Realizing that a double murder had occurred, the police raided the entire area but found no one. This was almost incredible, because at the alleged time of the crime there were at least three constables patrolling the area. The Ripper had no more than 15 minutes to do everything - and to cut out organs from Eddowes, he needed a light source.
In both cases, police had witnesses who testified that they saw prostitutes talking to a man shortly before his death. The descriptions of the stranger were generally consistent: dark clothing, a felt hunting hat (well known as Holmes's headdress), a mustache and a traveling bag in his hand.
Graffiti
The night of September 30 was long. At five minutes to three, Constable Alfred Long found a piece of a bloody apron against the wall with a chalk inscription: “The Jews are not people who can be blamed for anything.” They wanted to photograph her, but Commissioner Charles Warren ordered the evidence to be erased, supposedly so that it would not provoke pogroms of the Jews. This, and the fact that the word "Jews" was misspelled (juwes), supposedly characteristic of the Freemasons, gave rise to the legend that the Ripper belonged to the "masons' lodge", and Warren - also a Freemason - defended him.
The fifth and final (according to the canonical version) victim of the Ripper is Mary Jane Kelly. The girl was 25 years old, she had an attractive appearance and therefore, unlike most poor priestesses of love, she could rent a room. London had been rocked by four previous murders. The streets of the East End were heavily patrolled, prostitutes avoided going out to “work” at night, so Kelly’s own apartment came in handy.
Reconstruction of Mary Kelly's appearance.
On the morning of November 9, the owner of No. 13 Miller's Court sent his assistant, Thomas Boyer, to collect rent from Kelly. When no one responded to the knock on the door, Boer looked out the window... and since then he has never slept peacefully again. Urgently called constables found what was left of the girl. The Ripper had plenty of time to literally turn her inside out. Internal organs were spread out around the room. The heart was missing.
Dozens of people came under suspicion - from misogynistic Jewish beggars to members of the royal family. The reasons for the murders are also called different - from terrorist attacks by agents of the Russian secret police to satanic rituals. The exact number of victims is unknown: alternative theories suggest a number from 4 to 15. A good hundred books have been written about this, where a variety of ideas are found (in 1996, a work was published accusing... Lewis Carroll of the murders). The reality is this: the true identity of the Ripper can only be determined with the help of a time machine.
Oddly enough, in the midst of the murders, the streets of the East End became... safer. Many criminals left the area, fearing that the Ripper's cases would be pinned on them, the police switched to an enhanced work regime, and vigilant citizens pounced on anyone who aroused even the slightest suspicion.
The last murder infuriated Queen Victoria. She scolded the Prime Minister, suggesting that he reform the police. Soon a criminal department appeared in Scotland Yard and fingerprint files began to be compiled.
Jekyll the Ripper
At the height of the Ripper crimes, Robert Louis Stevenson's play " Strange story Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde." The title role was played by actor Richard Mansfield, and he did it so well that one of the spectators, impressed by the stage transformation of a gentleman into a maniac, filed a denunciation to the police, accusing Mansfield of being Jack the Ripper.
Mansfield's Jekyll and Hyde.
Glory of Herostratus
Being 90% a mass cultural phenomenon and only 10% a criminal, Jack the Ripper often looks into science fiction. Some writers use the laws of the genre to provide another “solution” to the famous killer. For example, Robert Bloch (a follower of Lovecraft, author of Psycho) in the story “Forever Yours - the Ripper” (1943) presented Jack as a black magician who committed murders in special places and in a special sequence in order to receive the gift of eternal life from the Darkness.
In another story, “A Toy for Juliet” (1967), Bloch played up the sudden disappearance of the Ripper after the fifth murder. It turns out that he was dragged into the distant future by Grandfather to give a “Victorian doctor” to his sadistic granddaughter. In addition, Bloch wrote the novel "Night of the Ripper" (1984) - good example"Crime Fantasy"
Wells and Jack in the film From Time to Time
In the novel The Ripper (1994), Michael Slade developed the idea with ritual murders, and in the book Time After Time (1979) by Carl Alexander, H. G. Wells creates a real time machine. Jack the Ripper is tricked into using it to travel into the future. The famous writer has to catch him in 1970 (where he introduces himself as Sherlock Holmes, hoping that this character has been forgotten by everyone). The book received a good film adaptation. Wells was played by Malcolm McDowell.
Chris Elliott parodied the Ripper in his novel Shroud of the Thwacker, setting him in 1882 New York. Instead of cutting his victims, the maniac hit them on the head with a bag of apples. And in the comedy film “Amazons on the Moon” (1987), the Ripper turns out to be... a disguised Loch Ness monster.
Robert Asprin (with Linda Evans) dedicated two books to Jack: The Time Rippers (2000) and The House That Jack Built (2001), where time scouts travel to Victorian London and the cult maniac finds a portal and enters the future. .
The film “From Hell” (2001) is a film adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore. Inspector Abberline (Depp) versus Jack - the royal surgeon.
Movies rarely take liberties with the Jack the Ripper story. Usually everything is limited to a detective thriller - such as From Hell (2001), an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore. In comics, the Ripper is a welcome guest. He often appears in the manga, he is chased by Batman (Gotham by Gaslight), and in the Marvel universe, Jack, who emigrated to the United States, is revived by a demon so that he sacrifices people to him.
TV series also keep up with the comics. In Babylon 5 (Episode 2:21), it is stated that in late 1888 Jack was kidnapped from Earth by the Vorlons to make him their Inquisitor named Sebastian. And in " Star Trek"(Episode 2:14 "Wolf in the Shepherd") it is said that the electromagnetic entity Redjac ("Red Jack") - an alien "ghost" - is responsible for the Ripper's crimes on Earth, as well as for a series of murders of women on other planets, feeding on human fear. Interestingly, the plot of this episode was written by the aforementioned Robert Bloch.
***
The Ripper was not the world's first serial killer. But he became the first maniac operating in the metropolis at the very time when law enforcement services stopped walking the streets at night with mallets and announcing the time, and began to actually catch criminals.
In addition, the Ripper became the “brainchild” of funds mass media. At the end of the 19th century, Britain experienced a newspaper boom. Print media turned into a powerful socio-political force, and journalists, eager for sensations, made a real reality show out of the Ripper’s crimes. Every murder, every mistake by the police was carefully monitored and reported to the public.
It was the journalists who made a world “superstar” out of an ordinary maniac.
Recently, a British private detective revealed the identity of the legendary maniac known in the world as Jack the Ripper. The solution came thanks to DNA analysis - a method that, according to known reasons, the police officers of 1888 could not resort to. The search for the killer has put many honest (and even more not so honest) citizens of the country at risk. During the entire investigation, the police managed to target more than 200 people, from ship doctors to princes of the blood. from Whitechapel is indirectly confirmed by science, we decided to collect the most likely historical characters who different time considered a great maniac.
Carl Feigenbaum
In 2011, supposedly confirmed information about Jack's identity appeared online. The legendary killer was a German citizen, Karl Feigenbaum, who was executed in the electric chair for the murder of his housewife. One of the most active private researchers of the maniac’s case, historian Trevor Marriott, insisted on the authenticity of the fact. Having picked up the archives, he discovered that at the time all the murders were committed, the ship Reiher was moored at the London pier, where Feigenbaum served as a sailor. Until now, the version looked very harmonious: the series of murders stopped just with the departure of Reiher, and the further adventures of the sailor clearly showed him mental condition. However, a DNA test carried out by another researcher, Russell Edwards, completely refuted Marriott’s hypothesis.
Elizabeth Williams
Many researchers on the topic of Jack the Ripper believed that a woman was hiding under the male guise. The theorists' argumentation is quite strong and is based on the undeniable factors of the case. Firstly, none of the prostitutes were raped. Secondly, near the second victim (Catherine Eddowes), the police found buttons from a woman's shoe. Thirdly, at the feet of another innocently murdered prostitute Annie Chapman, the maniac very carefully, in in a feminine manner, folded the girl's clothes. Fourth, in the fireplace of the last victim, Mary Jane Kelly, detectives found the remains of a skirt and hat that clearly belonged to someone else. American researcher John Morris even named the suspect: Elizabeth Williams. This woman was married to the royal gynecologist, Sir John Williams. She may well have had the surgical skills that the real killer used masterfully. Plus, one of the prostitutes, Mary Jane Kelly, for a long time was in a relationship with the husband of a good woman, which could not help but upset the latter.
Walter Sickert
The famous impressionist attracted attention all his life with his strange behavior. In 2002, American Patricia Cornwell published the book “Portrait of a Murderer: The Case of Jack the Ripper Closed,” where she quite convincingly identified Walter Sickert as the main suspect. The artist really suited the police in many ways: he was in London at the time of the murders, Sickert’s handwriting is quite comparable to Jack’s canonical message to the police (“From Hell”), and the impressionist often used local prostitutes as models. The researcher was unable to obtain direct evidence, since the artist’s body was cremated by the heirs. However, according to Cornwell, Sickert’s sketch “An Unknown Man Kills His Father” exactly repeats the scene of the murder of Mary Jane Kelly.
Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence
During his life, poor Albert Victor collected a whole train of strange legends and myths, mostly unconfirmed even by the testimony of indirect witnesses. He was both a homosexual (the Cleveland Street brothel scandal), and an epileptic (according to street charlatans), and, of course, Jack the Ripper himself. This theory was widely circulated in the press of the time, which was understandable. Speculating on the personality of the illustrious prince is a great way to increase circulation (it still works). The most rabid reporters stated that in this way Victor was taking revenge on the whores for his syphilis, from which he allegedly later died. Despite the wide circulation of this version, the Prince Duke had a reliable alibi for each case of murder, which completely excludes his guilt.
Pimps
Many researchers still believe that behind the personality of Jack the police are hiding numerous atrocities of the brutal pimps of Whitechapel. On the one hand, it looks rather dubious, since the guys from the streets of that time preferred to simply cut the obstinate lady’s throat, and that would be the end of it; on the other hand, almost all pimps were excellent at wielding edged weapons: the maniac also had this skill. In addition, the murders of women look demonstrative and frightening: if it was done as a means of intimidation, then it probably worked.
