Jack the Ripper, a serial killer whose identity remains unknown, claimed five canonical victims in 1888 in London’s East End. In that year, Victorian England found London’s East End, specifically Whitechapel, to be a densely populated and squalid slum inhabited by nearly a million of the city’s most impoverished residents. The streets reeked of filth, and living conditions were abysmal. Alcohol addiction was prevalent, offering solace at the bottom of gin bottles. Many women resorted to prostitution as a means of surviving their dire poverty.
One of these women was Marianne “Polly” Nichols, a 44-year-old. Nichols, struggling with alcoholism, had been unable to maintain her employment as a domestic servant in London. After losing her job, she sought refuge in a common lodging house. On the night of August 30, 1888, Nichols was struggling to pay for her bed. To raise funds, she left the lodging house around 11 pm with the intention of prostituting herself. Her former roommate, Ellen Holland, tried to convince her to return, given that it was nearing 2 am. Nichols, however, claimed to have raised her lodging money three times already that night but had spent it all on alcohol. She seemed unconcerned, and the two parted ways. Nichols was last seen walking toward Whitechapel Road.
Approximately one hour later, her lifeless body was discovered. The death of a prostitute was not uncommon in Whitechapel, given the dangerous nature of the profession. However, Nichols’ murder was particularly shocking. Her throat bore deep cuts from two wounds, one of which had severed the tissue down to the vertebrae. Violent incisions marred her abdomen on both sides, with a deep, jagged wound partly ripping open the lower portion of her abdomen, causing her bowels to protrude. Nichols had not just been killed; she had been gruesomely mutilated.
A week later, on September 8, 1888, the body of 47-year-old Annie Chapman was found. Similar to Nichols, Chapman battled alcoholism, lived in a lodging house, and turned to prostitution for income. Chapman’s throat, like Nichols, had been slashed, severing her vocal cord, rendering her unable to scream. Her abdomen was completely sliced open, and she had been disemboweled. Sections of flesh from her stomach were deliberately placed on her shoulders, while her small intestines had been removed and arranged above her right shoulder. The autopsy revealed that parts of her bladder were also taken, likely as macabre keepsakes.
In the early morning hours of September 30, 1888, the killer struck again, claiming two victims in close succession. The first was Elizabeth Stride, 44 years old, found by Louis Diemshutz, the steward of the International Working Men’s Education Club. Stride’s body was discovered in a poorly lit yard, without the mutilations inflicted on the previous victims. Her throat bore a single knife wound, and her body remained warm, suggesting that her death occurred shortly before its discovery.
Not satisfied with Stride’s death, the killer targeted Catherine Eddowes, 46 years old, found about a mile away from Stride’s body in Mitre Square. Eddowes had been drinking heavily on the night of her murder. Her throat was severed, like the other victims, and she was disemboweled, with intestines placed over her right shoulder. This time, the killer went further with mutilation, disfiguring her face. Her nose was removed, her cheeks were slashed, and vertical cuts were incised through each eyelid. The police surgeon believed that these mutilations were At least five minutes would have been necessary to complete this gruesome act. Two weeks later, on the 16th of October, the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee received a male parcel containing a human kidney, along with a letter claiming it was from Eddowes’s body. Many contemporary observers and most modern historians, however, believe that the kidney was not authentic and more likely sent as a prank.
The murders of Stride and Eddowes eventually became known as the “double event.” This time, a clue was left near the crime scene in Gulston Street, just a short walk from Mitre Square. Police discovered a section of Eddowes’s bloodied apron, with a chalk inscription on the wall directly above it that read: “The Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.” The message seemed to suggest that Jewish individuals or the Jewish people were responsible for the series of murders. It remains unclear whether this statement was written by the murderer who intentionally placed the apron or if it was merely incidental and unrelated to the case, as graffiti was common in Whitechapel. Police Commissioner Charles Warren was concerned that the graffiti might incite anti-Semitic riots and ordered it to be washed away before dawn.
Mary Jane Kelly was the final known victim of Jack the Ripper. Unlike the other victims, Kelly was considerably younger at just 25 years old. She was murdered on Friday, the 9th of November 1888. Similar to the other four victims, Kelly had been living as a prostitute.
In contrast to the other victims who were murdered outdoors and had their mutilations performed hastily, Kelly was killed in the small room she rented at 13 Miller’s Court off Dorset Street. This afforded her killer an extended period to take their time in disfiguring and mutilating her body. On the night she was murdered, she was last seen alive by a witness named George Hutchinson. They met around 2 a.m. on Commercial Street, where she asked him for a loan of sixpence. When he didn’t have it, she walked in the direction of Thrall Street. Along the way, she was picked up by a well-dressed man who accompanied her to her lodgings on Dorset Street. Hutchinson described the man in Kelly’s company as wearing a coat trimmed with astrakhan fur, a black tie with a horseshoe pin, button-over boots, and a large gold chain hanging from his waistcoat. Police questioned the credibility of Hutchinson’s description, fueling debates regarding the Ripper’s social class.
The shocking discovery of Kelly’s mutilated body was made the next morning. Her landlord, John McCarthy, sent his assistant, former soldier Thomas Boyer, to collect the rent, as Kelly was six weeks behind in payments, owing 29 shillings. Boyer knocked on her door, received no response, and moved aside some clothing that had been used to plug a broken window. Peering through the window, he found Kelly’s extensively mutilated corpse lying on the bed. Kelly’s body was in the middle of the bed, with her shoulders flat but slightly inclined to the left, and her head turned on its left side.
Her throat had been severed down to the spine, and her face was hacked beyond recognition, with her nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears partially removed. Her abdomen had been almost entirely emptied of its organs, and both breasts were sliced off. Her uterus, kidneys, and one breast had been placed beneath her head, while the other breast was on her right foot. Her liver was found between her feet, and the spleen was located on the left side of her body. Her intestines had been removed and scattered around her feet, with sections draped upon the bedside table. Her thighs had been stripped of skin, flesh, and muscle, while her heart was missing from the crime scene, leading to speculation that the killer took it with them. The murderer is estimated to have spent about two hours with her body. Dr. Thomas Bond and Dr. Baxter Phillips, who examined the body, believed that Kelly had died between three to nine hours before being discovered. Phillips thought that, like the other victims, Kelly’s life had been ended by the slash to her throat and the subsequent mutilations. Bond stated in his report that the knife used was about one inch wide and at least eight inches long, indicating that the murderer lacked specialized medical training or knowledge. However, it was clear that the killer needed to perform not only the murders but also the mutilations as part of a macabre ritual.
While some researchers may disagree, Mary Kelly is generally regarded as the Ripper’s final victim. It is often assumed that the crimes ceased because the culprit either died, was imprisoned, institutionalized, or emigrated out of the city. The Jack the Ripper murders posed a significant challenge for Victorian police, who had little experience in handling such crimes. Detectives were searching for a killer who left very few clues. The police lacked many of the techniques and tools available to modern investigators, including fingerprinting, modern forensics, and psychological profiling. Crime scene photography, commonly used today, was not employed during that era.
The murders took place in one of London’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods, where the clandestine nature of criminal elements and the general mistrust of the police by Whitechapel residents posed significant challenges for the investigation. During and after the murders, the police department and local press received hundreds of letters claiming to be authored by the murderer. Most of these letters were promptly dismissed as fakes, attributed to individuals seeking to generate fear or even to journalists aiming to boost newspaper sales. Ripper experts have largely disregarded nearly all of these letters as hoaxes. However, there is a possibility that at least one of the letters might have been a genuine clue from the killer.
On October 16, 1888, George Lusk, the President of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received a three-inch square cardboard box in the mail. Inside the box was a letter, disturbingly containing half of a human kidney preserved in wine. The letter, which included spelling errors, read as follows:
“George Lutsk
From Hell
Mr. Lusk, Sir, I send you half the kidney I took from one woman and preserved it for you. Tell her peace, I fried and ate it; it was very nice. I may send you the bloody knife that took it out if you wait a while longer.
Signed, Catch me when you can, Mr. Lusk.”
Regarding Emma Smith, initially, there was suspicion that the murders might be linked to local criminal gangs in the area, as prostitutes were often under the control of such gangs. It was believed that the victims had been attacked by their pimps as punishment or as a means of intimidating and warning other women under their control. Emma Smith was murdered by one such gang in Whitechapel on April 4, 1888. She was bludgeoned and attacked by at least two or three men, but she initially survived this assault and reported the attack. Some have considered her a possible Ripper victim, but this seems unlikely.
By early September 1888, the police abandoned the idea that the murders were gang-related. They concluded that the publicity surrounding the murders would have likely led to a member of the gang informing on the others. Consequently, the police shifted their focus to looking for a lone assassin.
John Piser, also known as “Leather Apron” due to the leather apron he wore for work, was a Polish Jew in Whitechapel. Locals reported that he ran an extortion racket, threatened prostitutes, and was always seen carrying a knife. Although he initially fit the profile of the killer, he had alibis for the nights of the two most recent murders and was ruled out as a suspect.
Severan Klosowski, known as George Chapman, was another suspect. He worked as a barber in Whitechapel and was investigated by Chief Inspector Frederick Aberline. Chapman was known to go out at night for extended periods, but there was little evidence linking him to the crimes at the time. He later poisoned three of his wives using tartar emedic, a compound resulting in a painful death similar to arsenic poisoning. Despite his guilt in those poisonings, most experts do not consider Chapman a likely Ripper suspect due to differences in the killings.
Francis Tumblety, an Irish-American, posed as an Indian herb doctor and resided in Whitechapel during the time of the murders. He was known for his extreme hatred of women, particularly prostitutes, and collected preserved female reproductive organs. Tumblety was arrested in 1888 for alleged homosexuality, a criminal offense at the time, but he fled to New York just before the murder of Mary Kelly. Although there were suspicions, he was never extradited to England, and to this day, Tumblety remains a possible suspect.
Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew who emigrated to England, was a hairdresser in Whitechapel during the time of the murders. He was regarded as insane, experiencing auditory hallucinations, paranoia, and poor hygiene. Police considered him a prime suspect during the initial investigation. In 2014, a shawl belonging to Catherine Eddowes, the Ripper’s fourth victim, was found, and DNA analysis suggested a link to Kosminski’s relatives. However, the findings have been met with skepticism, as the shawl might have been contaminated over the years. While doubts persist, it remains the strongest piece of forensic evidence connecting a suspect to the crimes.
Over a century later, the Jack the Ripper murders continue to be one of history’s most famous and enduring mysteries, inspiring a vast industry of books, films, TV shows, and graphic novels. The murder sites have become a macabre tourist attraction, drawing tourists who seek to retrace Jack the Ripper’s steps and the unfortunate paths of his victims.
