 "A depiction of one of the Jack the Ripper murders as shown in the The Illustrated Police News newspaper in October 1888. Image Courtesy: The Illustrated Police News")
There are very few questions in the world that create as much intrigue as one — who is Jack the Ripper? It’s a mystery that has endured for more than 130 years. But now, descendants of the victims of Jack the Ripper — one of the world’s most famous serial killers — are hoping to solve one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of all time.
What’s going on? We get to the bottom of it.
Calls for fresh probe into Jack the Ripper murders
Descendants of some of the victims of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper have called for a new investigation to be opened over 130 years after the murders rocked Britain. Calls for such a probe have come after new evidence has been found, which could pinpoint the identity of ‘Jack the Ripper’.
All of this comes as a bloodstained shawl found on Catherine Eddowes, the Ripper’s fourth victim, was found to contain both her DNA and the DNA of a man identified as Aaron Kosminski, a Polish barber who was a suspect at the time but was never arrested because police had no evidence linking him to the killings.
The discovery took place after Russell Edwards, an author and Ripper researcher bought the bloodstained shawl at an auction and then linked it to Eddowes and Kosminski through their descendants. According to reports, the shawl was found at the murder scene on September 30, 1888.
Edwards’ push for a new probe has gained support from Karen Miller, 53, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Eddowes.
“The name Jack the Ripper has become sensationalised; it has gone down in history as this famous character,” said Miller, as per a report in _The Time_s. “What about the real name of the person who did this? Having the real person legally named in a court which can consider all the evidence would be a form of justice for the victims.”
She added, “We have got the proof, now we need this inquest to legally name the killer. It would mean a lot to me, to my family, to a lot of people to finally have this crime solved.”
Descendants of Jack the Ripper’s victims — Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Mary Jane Kelly – have also backed the campaign. As Mary Sue Parlour, whose husband Andy is distantly related to Ann Nichols told The Telegraph, “There was no justice for these victims at the time. It was all such a long time ago.
“But it would mean a lot to finally be able to name the killer, to get some closure on this. These women have been dismissed as just prostitutes like they did not matter, but they did.”
Even the family of Kosminski, who is believed to be Jack the Ripper, has extended support to a new inquest. Amanda Poulos, his three-times great-niece, said: “I’m more than happy to finally establish what really happened.”
The horrific Jack the Ripper murders
The mystery of the Jack the Ripper murders began on August 31, 1888, when the body of a dead woman was found in London’s Whitechapel street. Her throat had been cut and her abdomen gouged open. She was later identified as Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols.
A week later, on September 8, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered bearing similar injuries as Nichols. However, British investigators also found that some of her internal organs had also been cut away and removed; her small intestines lay by her right shoulder.
At the end of the month, came two other murders on one night: Elizabeth Stride, age 45, and Catherine Eddowes, age 46. In Eddowes’ case, her intestines had been ripped out and the killer had taken away her left kidney and uterus.
On November 9, 1888, came news of the fifth murder. Twenty-five-year-old Mary Jane Kelly was discovered brutally mutilated in a lodging house in Miller’s Court.
Other killings have also been attributed to this same killer, who came to be known as Jack the Ripper. The killings, also known as the Whitechapel murders, soon caught the attention of the country, with even Queen Victoria reportedly obsessed with the murders.
The mystery behind the killer
As the killings gripped the attention of the country, many wanted to find out the identity of the killer. But Scotland Yard remained flummoxed. They were only sure of a few things: the first being that Jack the Ripper, as he was being called, acted alone. Secondly, all five women were active or former prostitutes and belonged to the lower class; and all the murders were committed after pub closing time.
But more than the victims, the focus remained on his identity. Many theories emerged and there were many suspects. For instance, some believed that it was Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, also known as the Duke of Clarence, who was the actual Jack the Ripper. Another outlandish theory posited that Charles Dodgson, better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll and author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was Jack the Ripper. This came about when a book in 1996 claimed that unscrambled anagrams in his books revealed the killings, an argument that has since been dismantled by historians.
But apart from the bizarre theories, the police did narrow it down to some suspects — over 150 of them. One of them was Francis Tumblety, an American-born quack doctor who possessed a collection of human organs and, it was reported, detested prostitutes.
Another was school teacher Montague Druitt, who was from a wealthy background but had fallen on hard times, was also believed to be Jack the Ripper. His body was fished from the Thames shortly after the last murder.
Aaron Mordke Kosminski, the Polish immigrant barber, was never officially named as a suspect by any of the subsequent Ripper police investigations. However, one of the primary investigators in the case, Chief Inspector Swanson, was a firm believer in his guilt. There are notes about Kosminski from another officer, Assistant Chief Constable Sir Melville Mcnaghten, who described the man as having a hatred of women and displaying homicidal tendencies.
Another to be named as a suspect was American serial killer HH Holmes. Notorious for several gruesome murders during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, it is also claimed he was Jack the Ripper.
The legacy of Jack the Ripper
The Jack the Ripper murders have become one of the world’s most famous killings. Since then, he has become the topic of several movies, books and even television shows. In fact, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that there is no other serial killer in the world that has been sensationalised as much as Jack the Ripper.
The murders have also led to the creation of ‘Ripperologists’ — people who study the Jack the Ripper mystery. This name was coined by Colin Wilson in 1970.
And in 2006, a BBC History magazine poll selected Jack the Ripper as the worst Briton in history.
Those who remain bewildered by the murders can also visit the Jack the Ripper Museum, which opened in east London in 2015.
With inputs from agencies