Unsolved Murders: true crime stories

Jack the ripper (1888)

Jack the Ripper is one of history's most infamous serial killer despite only being active as a killer for 10 weeks (august to October 1888) in an area of London called Whitechapel.  He has 5 confined victims but experts believe it could be around 10 or potentially higher. In the year 1888 Queen Victoria has been on the throne for over 50 years and many religious and scientific ideas were beginning to grow and change. Yet Whitechapel was a East end town know for crime, disease, dangerous drunks and prostitutes. However at this time there were differences in the way people were seen, if they were posh with lots of money and lived in the cleaner area of London they were known as Gentleman. However Whitechapel was a more dangerous city and around 450000 people lived in Eastend and out of that 1200 were sex workers/ prostitutes. Many people do believe that Jack the Ripper was a gentleman who would travel down to Whitechapel to kill but some believe he lived there already and close to his victims. A more recent idea is that jack lived on Flower and Dean Street as scientist have used where his victims were murdered and the idea of a comfort zone to pinpoint a believed location. It was easy for Jack to kill people as there were many alleyways and people still don't know if Jack got lucky or if he knew the city well.

His 5 victims are:
• Mary Anne Nickles
• Annie Chapman
• Elizabeth stride
• Catherine Edos
• Mary Jane Kelly

Mary Anne nickles was his first victim, she was 43 years old and had 5 children but because she loved alcohol she had spilt from her husband and became a sex worker in order to earn money. On 31st August she was seen leaving a pub and waiting at the corner of Osborn street for a gentleman and she went down an alleyway where she was murdered. A man named Charles Cross found her body at 3:40am and alerted a police comestible. When a doctor arrived he sent her to the morgue where it was discovered that the woman's throat had been slit.

People often question why jack targeted sex workers, some people think that he wanted to rid society of them, others believed that they were easy targets so he killed them because they were easy to kill. However the FBI profile written on Jack the Ripper in 1988 (100 years on) discusses the idea that jack could have suffered with mother hate, which is the belief that jacks view of woman could have been influenced by his mother if she abused him (could be mentally, emotionally or sexually.)

Annie Chapman was Jack the rippers second confirmed victim, she was 47 years old and was a known alcoholic and sex worker who had turned to sex work after separating from her husband. She was last seen heading towards a church with a potentially dark, foreigner around the age of 40 according to a witness statement. John Davis found the body and it had been mutilated, her stomach had been opened with a knife, some of her body parts were removed and she was potentially suffocated. The cuts were clean which lead the medical examiner to believe that the killer would have to had good knowledge of human anatomy: they believed he was a doctor or a surgeon- a gentleman. By Chapmans body a torn piece of an envelope was found with a symbol on it for a unit in the British army and on the other side was the letter M and a post office stamp. Police believed that the killer could potentially be in the army but soon found that this lead was a dead end and not important so the case went cold again.

People believe that Jack the Rippers amo may have been to find lonely sex workers who were desperate for money, then lead them to a dark area and kill them. Removing the intestine is considered to be jacks signature, or as it's more commonly called a calling card. People do believe that Jack was a visionary killer, that he was crazy and insane yet precise and alert, but he is still considered to be apart of all of the 4 serial killer arcitipes.

Jack the Ripper was the first serial killer covered by the press- a British newspaper called 'The Star' because the most famous newspaper commonly associated with the jack case along with Inspector Frederick Aveline of Scotland Yard who is the inspector most commonly associated with the case. On the 27th September 1888 a newspaper received a letter that was apparently from Jack the Ripper. Yet the newspaper thought it was a hoax so waited 2 days before handing it to the police. This letter was the first time in history that the name Jack the Ripper was mentioned and it's believed that this letter is where it originated from. Using the letter people began to believe that Jack had split personality disorder.

The first suspect was John Piezer, also known as The Leather Apron, he was known to threaten people which is why he became a person of interest but as they couldn't place him at the scene of the crime he was cleared and removed from the suspect list.

On 30th September 1888 The Double Event occurred, which is when Jack murdered 2 women in one night. The first victim of the Double Event and jacks 3rd confirmed victim was Elizabeth Stride who turned to sex work to get money after a failed marriage, she liked to drink so was often arrested and lived in Flower and Dean street which is where some experts believe Jack the Ripper may have lived. At 11pm she emerged from a pub with a man who was dressed well with a thick black moustache and no other facial hair (but this could have been due to the fact that it was night and dark) he was middle aged, middle height and mild in tone yet clearly educated. 1am Loui Deanship found her body in the yard of the pub. The post mortem examination revealed that she has bled to death slowly, after being shoved to the ground and having her throat slit and her neck pulled back by jack and she was believed to have been killed where she was found because of the fact that the blood was still flowing. Some people think that because this murder isn't as graphic or as violent as any of his others that he was interrupted mid way through so couldn't finish his process which some believe may have lead to the 2nd murder during that night. Catherine Edos was Jacks 2nd double event victim and his 4th confined victim, she was a sex worker and was often drunk and on the 29th September she was arrested for being drunk and released on the 30th. At around 1:30am a police man found her body in an alleyway, her body had been ripped up and Mutilated, her stomach cut open, some of her organs were removed and taken away  and her intestine placed around her neck (jacks calling card) along with a cut along her throat, and one of the worst details is that her face was removed by jack. Jack had a lot of time to do this murder as as a result it was the most gruesome of his crimes so far. This was much more intense then his other crimes, it was a step up jack was becoming desperate to kill because he was unable to complete his amo on his 3rd victim, it's believed he needed a more complete kill. The bodies were found within a 12 minute walk of each other and jack took roughly 45 minutes between the kills. On the crime scene an officer found a note on the wall that said 'the jews are not the men who will be Blamed for nothing.' Many people still question if this was legit or not and the police were worried about it getting out, so in the end they just removed it.

At this point all of London was in a panic, newspaper were blaming police for not catching the killer and woman didn't want to walk the streets at night over fear of being killed.

On October 1st 1888 a newspaper received another letter known as the 'saucy Jackie' letter, it was very similar to the dear boss letter but had a few differences, it was short and was a way of telling police what he had done and was apparently covered in blood. The police interviewed hundreds of doctors and butchers believing jack to be either a surgeon or a butcher but all of these attempts failed.

However on October 16th 1888 George Lust, the president of the Whitechapel vigilante community received a post card and a box, inside the box was half a kidney believed to belong to Catherine Edos (Jacks 4th victim) and the message was written in red ink. However there was no definitive answer that all of these letters were written by the same person however all the handwriting was the same so it is certainly possible.

Jacks 5th and final victim was 25 year old Mary Jane Kelly who became a sex worker after the death of her husband. She lived on 13 millers court and at 11:45pm she was seen standing with a 36 year old man who wasn't Jack the Ripper as she was seen again at 2:00am with a different man. At 4:00 am neighbours heated a scream yet no one really payed any attention until 5:45am when they heard footsteps. Her landlord found her dead at 10:30am after looking for her payment. She was lying in bed where she had been murdered, her throat was slit and her body was obliterated, her face was mutilated, her heart was missing and her organs were placed on the bed around her. There was barely anything left of her. This was jacks most awful and horrific crime and it was also the first and last time that jack committed a murder inside which left London in another state of panic.

However it would turn out that this was in fact Jacks last murder, many people believed that after this killing jack went down to the River Thames where he there himself into the river, killing himself.

Jack the Ripper is a very well known serial killer for multiple reasons; the violent degree of his crimes, the police cases that looked into his murder and that fact that over 100 years later his true identity isn't known. He terrorised the city of London for 10 weeks, claiming 5 lives, and in the process placed himself forever in the hall of fame of the worlds worst serial killers...