Jack The Ripper

Hello folks, as we all know, the 19th and 20th centuries were all about industrial and technological revolution. It was also an era of many mysteries that are still unsolved. Mysteries of spies, nations, politics, civil wars and crimes that were brutal and unable to solve due to lack of technological advancements. In the history of mankind, many serial killers almost shook the world. But no one could this beat one.

The killer shook London in late 1888, killing five women. Before we discuss the killer, let's discuss London first in 1888.

Situation in Whitechapel

In the late 19th century, London experienced an inrush of Irish, Jewish and Russian refugees. These people chose to live in the East End of London. London was the richest city at that time. But the people of East London were not rich enough especially the Whitechapel district. In fact, the basic living standards worsened and an economically backward class developed as East London was being overcrowded by refugees. The crime rate also increased due to all these factors like robbery, violence, poverty, unemployment, racism, and social disturbance. Poverty led many women to prostitution.

More than half of the eastern children were dead even before they could reach above 5 years. As a result, the Whitechapel became the root of all evil in East London. The local press kept telling the police department and the Government that they had to do something about people of East London otherwise they would cut your throats. This is the society that gave us the most ingenious serial killer of all time with its 5 victims.

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A large number of attacks and crimes on women in East London adds uncertainty and confusion to how many victims were killed by the killer. All the murders that took place in the Whitechapel were known as the Whitechapel Murders. But 5 five of them were very identical to each other, known as the Canonical Five, which are believed that done by the killer.

The Five Victims

The very first victim of the killer was Mary Ann Nichols, a 44 years old prostitute. She was murdered on 31st August 1888. Her body was found in the early morning with some anatomical damage and two cuts on her throat. Her two gold rings were also missing. Nichols was the first-ever murdered victim to be photographed. The press called the incident as "Dreadful mutilation of a woman".

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The second victim was Anni Chapman on 8th September 1888. Like the first victim, Anni's body was having exactly two cuts on her throat and her uterus was missing. Another body with some anatomical damage!!!

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were killed on the morning of 30 September 1888.

Stride's dead body was found with a stab wound in her artery on the left side of her neck. One witness said that she was with a foreign man wearing a brown tuxedo and after half n hour she was found dead.

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Eddowes' body was found with cuts on her throat. Her left kidney and uterus had been removed by the killer. That night the local police found Eddoowes' bloodied apron and some Jewish writing on the wall above it.

The fifth and the last victim of the killer was, Mary Jane Kelly. Kelly's mutilated body was found on 9 November 1888, lying on a bed where she lived. Her landlord found her body first when he reached her house to collect the rent. The throat was having several cuts on it. This time, the heart was missing and several other organs too!!!

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Interesting Facts about one of the Suspects

By the time, the third murder occurred, local police had interviewed around 2000 people and 80 suspects were arrested. But obviously, that revealed nothing. As the police were dealing with A drama without an actor!!!

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Whoever the killer was, one thing was pretty clear that he had a bitter hatred of women. There were some witnesses or claimed theories also floating around by the local press. As I mentioned earlier, someone saw Elizabeth Stride with a foreign man just before she got murdered. That might be our guy but the police never got to know who was the man.

To be noted, there were rumors going around that before the killings had begun, London's pathological museum had been approached by an American doctor asking to buy a number of uteruses. As a part of the investigation, inspector Andrews from Scotland Yard went to New York.

Many investigators that have been researching on these killings believe that a lot of evidence and reports regarding the Whitechapel murders were destroyed by Scotland Yard. The reason is obviously disclosed.

The local press took these murders as their personal profit and kept publishing thrilling and made-up stories just to get attention. Two journalists came up with the name for the killer, "Jack The Ripper" and they got attention. Even the police started calling the killer by the same name. Our killer has earned several other names too. Like "Whitechapel Murderer" and "Lethal Apron"!!!

There were many suspects, but one suspect is very very close to Jack The Ripper. He was an American doctor, named Francis Tumblety. Well, at very first, he matches the description of the witness for the Elizabeth Stride's case. Tumblety was present in Whitechapel all the time during the killings i.e. from August 1888 to November 1888. Chief Inspector John Littlechild kept saying that Tumblety is the killer, but again Scotland Yard kept destroying evidence and reports. Littlechild said that Tumblety had been trialed for the death of one of his patients and also for the assassination of Abraham Lincon. But somehow he escaped prosecution.

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Tumblety was married once but his wife was not able to conceive a child and for that, they ended their marriage. After all these, Tumblety started engaging in homosexuality. While he was in Whitechapel i.e. 1888, on 7 November, he was arrested for his homosexualness which was illegal at that time. He got bailed just before the two days from the last murder.

While an interview, one of his Colonel friend said, he had hatred for women. One side of his room was entirely occupied by the glass jars containing uteruses and he described them as "Wombs of every class of women". After he got bailed, he fled to New York via France under a false name. It might be possible that Tumblety kept those uteruses as his trophies. Many serial killers keep trophies. Another interesting fact is that, when Tumblety died, the hospital made a list of his belongings and personal inventory, which included two imitation gold rings - identical to the first victim's missing two rings!!!

Another side of Tumblety's story is that when the fifth victim murdered, i.e. on 9 November 1888, the landlady of the Whitechapel Lodging House spotted one of his lodgers came home with bloodstains on his coat. After that, the local police kept an eye on that lodger but eventually, he escaped. Now, all these make sense if and only if the police could prove that the lodger and Tumblety was the same person. But they could not.

Conclusion

That was the story of only one suspect. There were many suspects for "Jack The Ripper". Ripper's history was full of fraud. Whoever was the Ripper, he had no feelings for women that's for sure. Also, he was an expert with anatomies. Jack The Ripper did not just take life with a knife, he mutilated women, removing organs like uterus and kidney.

Jack The Ripper has been the topic of mystery hunters, news stories, TV series makers and filmmakers for almost a century. This is one hell of a notorious mystery of all time and it has been the stuff full of melodrama. I would like to name this mystery as "Ripper's Anatomy"!!!

That's it for now and let me know if you have something on your mind :D