jack the ripper hook for essay

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples History

Essay Samples on Jack The Ripper

The myth of jack the ripper: an analytical essay.

During the late 1880s, a hysteria of panic, fear, and excitement overwhelmed the East End of London. Jack the Ripper, the notorious, yet mysterious man who took the lives of five vulnerable women, and possibly many more, has divided countless opinions since 1888. This essay...

• Jack The Ripper

Causes Of Psychopathy And Possible Treatment Solutions

Abstract The study of the human mind, our emotional and mental constitutions have been a subject of interest in both the scientific and public alike. This is, however, not the case for psychopathy. For many years, professionals and the public were horrified but appealed to...

• Criminal Behavior
• Psychopaths

History And Origins Of Psychological Profiling

Five years before Jack the Ripper emerged on the streets of London, in 1883, the first murder was conducted by the United States first profiled serial killer John F. Hickey, dubbed the “Postcard Killer”. (citation needed) Hickey traveled along the East Coast of the United...

• Criminal Investigation
• Criminal Profiling

Culture And Criminal History Of The East End London

Venturing out to the eastern subset of the city of London, the neighborhood of the East End welcomes people with a completely different, fascinating and edgy vibes, from which people have seen in the West End of the city of London. Many findings are led...

The Unresolved Case of Murders by Jack the Ripper

Background The white chapel murderer or the leather Apron as people from that time used to call Jack the Ripper. Jack the ripper was a famous unidentified serial killer in the 19th century he committed 5 murders, all women. Between August and November 1888,the Whitechapel...

• Serial Killer

Stressed out with your paper?

Consider using writing assistance:

• 100% unique papers
• 3 hrs deadline option

How Jekyll and Hyde Influenced Jack the Ripper's Actions

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, published in 1886 by R.L. Stevenson, became a Gothic tale that shook the nation. The thriller as a study of a split-personality where Dr Jekyll discovers a monster through a scientific experiment, where he separates his...

• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Jack the Ripper: Victim Selection, Suspects and Investigation

Jack the Ripper is arguably the most infamous serial killer the world has ever known. He terrorized the whole of London over 100 years ago in 1888, killing at least five women, mutilating their bodies in the process. Whoever Jack was, he was never caught...

The Mysterious Identity of Jack the Ripper

It has been suspected that Jack the Ripper was single and suffered from insomnia. Jack the Ripper, the name given to an unknown man who murdered and cut up several prostitutes in Whitechapel, London, in 1888. The name was used in a letter by someone...

Best topics on Jack The Ripper

1. The Myth of Jack the Ripper: An Analytical Essay

2. Causes Of Psychopathy And Possible Treatment Solutions

3. History And Origins Of Psychological Profiling

4. Culture And Criminal History Of The East End London

5. The Unresolved Case of Murders by Jack the Ripper

6. How Jekyll and Hyde Influenced Jack the Ripper’s Actions

7. Jack the Ripper: Victim Selection, Suspects and Investigation

8. The Mysterious Identity of Jack the Ripper

• Civil Rights Movement
• American History
• Anne Hutchinson
• Moral Of Icarus
• Columbian Exchange
• Imperialism
• Genghis Khan
• Florence Nightingale
• American Revolution
• Anne Boleyn

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

• History & Society
• Science & Tech
• Biographies
• Animals & Nature
• Geography & Travel
• Arts & Culture
• Games & Quizzes
• On This Day
• One Good Fact
• New Articles
• Lifestyles & Social Issues
• Philosophy & Religion
• Politics, Law & Government
• World History
• Health & Medicine
• Browse Biographies
• Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
• Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
• Environment
• Fossils & Geologic Time
• Entertainment & Pop Culture
• Sports & Recreation
• Visual Arts
• Demystified
• Image Galleries
• Infographics
• Top Questions
• Britannica Kids
• Saving Earth
• Space Next 50
• Student Center

Who was Jack the Ripper?

Is the identity of jack the ripper known, who were jack the ripper’s victims.

• How is a homicide defined?

Jack the Ripper

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

• Crime Musuem - Biography of Jack the Ripper
• History Today - How the Press Created ‘Jack the Ripper’
• Marquette University - Death by Gaslight: The Infamy of Jack The Ripper
• Texas State University - Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation - Jack The Ripper
• Jack the Ripper - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Jack the Ripper was an English serial killer. Between August and November 1888, he murdered at least five women—all prostitutes—in or near the Whitechapel district of London’s East End. Jack the Ripper was never identified or arrested. Today the murder sites are the locus of a macabre tourist industry in London.

Jack the Ripper is famous in part because his identity is unknown. For years people have speculated about his identity. Commonly cited suspects include Montague Druitt, a barrister and teacher with an interest in surgery; Michael Ostrog, a Russian criminal and physician; and Aaron Kosminski, a Polish immigrant who lived in Whitechapel.

The five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper were Mary Ann Nichols (found August 31, 1888), Annie Chapman (found September 8, 1888), Elizabeth Stride (found September 30, 1888), Catherine Eddowes (also found September 30, 1888), and Mary Jane Kelly (found November 9, 1888). All the victims were prostitutes. All of their corpses had been mutilated.

Where did Jack the Ripper commit the murders?

Jack the Ripper committed at least five murders in or near the Whitechapel district of London’s East End .

What was unique about the murders committed by Jack the Ripper?

All of Jack the Ripper’s victims were prostitutes, and all but one were killed while soliciting customers on the street. In each instance the victim’s throat was cut, and the body was mutilated in a manner indicating that the murderer had at least some knowledge of human anatomy.

Jack the Ripper , pseudonymous murderer of at least five women in or near the Whitechapel district of London ’s East End between August and November 1888. The case is one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of English crime .

Some dozen murders between 1888 and 1892 have been speculatively attributed to Jack the Ripper, but only five of those, all committed in 1888, were linked by police to a single murderer. The so-called “canonical five” victims were Mary Ann Nichols (whose body was found on August 31), Annie Chapman (found September 8), Elizabeth Stride (found September 30), Catherine (Kate) Eddowes (found September 30), and Mary Jane Kelly (found November 9). According to the common assumption of the time, all the victims were prostitutes and all but one of them, Kelly, was murdered while soliciting on the street. That belief was subsequently taken for granted in books about the crimes, which typically offered conjectures as to the true identity of Jack the Ripper and reported graphic details of the murders he committed (many of these books, however, were based on fraudulent claims and documents). In a radical departure from that genre , The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019), the British social historian Hallie Rubenhold argued that Nichols, Chapman, and Eddowes were not prostitutes; that Stride had resorted to soliciting only occasionally, during periods of desperate poverty and emotional suffering (but there is no evidence to show that she had been soliciting when she was murdered); and that the only verifiable prostitute among the five was Kelly. In Rubenhold’s view, the notion that Jack the Ripper was a murderer of prostitutes was a consequence of the misogynistic and class-based prejudices characteristic of the Victorian era .

In each instance, the victim’s throat was cut, and the body was usually mutilated in a manner indicating that the murderer had at least some knowledge of human anatomy . On one occasion, half of a human kidney, which may have been extracted from a murder victim, was mailed to the police. The authorities also received a series of taunting notes from a person calling himself Jack the Ripper and purporting to be the murderer. Strenuous and sometimes curious efforts were made to identify and trap the killer, all to no avail. A great public uproar over the failure to arrest the murderer was raised against the home secretary and the London police commissioner, who resigned soon afterward.

The case has retained its hold on the popular imagination, in part because known instances of serial murder were much rarer at the time than they are today. Jack the Ripper has provided themes for numerous literary and dramatic works. Perhaps the most notable was the horror novel The Lodger (1913) by Marie Adelaide Lowndes , which inspired numerous films, including Alfred Hitchcock ’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927).

The most commonly cited suspects are Montague Druitt, a barrister and teacher with an interest in surgery who was said to be insane and who disappeared after the final murders and was later found dead; Michael Ostrog, a Russian criminal and physician who had been placed in an asylum because of his homicidal tendencies; and Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew and a resident of Whitechapel who was known to have a great animus toward women (particularly prostitutes) and who was hospitalized in an asylum several months after the last murder. Several notable Londoners of the era, such as the painter Walter Sickert and the physician Sir William Gull , also have been subjects of such speculation. The murder sites have become the locus of a macabre tourist industry in London.

How Jack the Ripper Became a Legend

In 1880s London, an anti-prostitution campaign, anti-immigration feelings, and a deep class divide set the scene for the Jack the Ripper media frenzy.

On August 31, 1888, the body of forty-three-year-old Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols was found in Whitechapel, East London. She was the first of five murder victims attributed to Jack the Ripper, also known as the Whitechapel Murderer, Whitechapel Fiend, and Leather Apron—all names given by the press and/or the popular imagination. The never-identified killer (or was it killers?) terrorized, and titillated, late Victorian Britain for months.

Ever since, “the Ripper story has continued to provide a common vocabulary of male violence against women ,” writes historian Judith R. Walkowitz about popular culture’s first serial killer phenomenon. This vocabulary’s “persistence owes much to the mass media’s exploitation of Ripper iconography—depictions of female mutilation in mainstream cinema, celebrations of the Ripper as a ‘hero’ of crime—that intensify the dangers of male violence and convince women that they are helpless victims.”

In her pioneering essay, Walkowitz “seeks to exorcise that ghost from women’s consciousness, by historicizing Jack the Ripper: by returning to the scene of the crimes and investigating how the story of Jack the Ripper was constructed out of the fissures and tensions of class, gender, and ethnic relations in 1888.”

The fissures were deep. Demonstrations and riots in 1886 and 1887 revealed the stark divide between wealthy West London and “Outcast London” (as the well-off called it) to the east. Whitechapel was already notorious for crime and misery. Like many slums, however, it was also a place of strong community. And, like many slums, the middle and upper classes came to it as thrill-seekers. Many suspected the Ripper’s true identity was a “toff” (or aristocrat) of some kind. (Also under suspicion were doctors, sailors, butchers, even midwives).

Also in the murky London air were sex scandals and an anti-prostitution campaign fired up by a sensational muckraking series called “Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.” The reform movement ended up making prostitutes more vulnerable to violence because they were forced to the streets when brothels were shut down. (The same 1885 law also outlawed “indecent” acts between consenting adult males, the basis of anti-homosexual prosecutions until 1967.)

Immigration panic also played a role. The murderer was called “Jacob the Ripper” by those trumpeting the anti-Semitic libel that Jews engaged in ritual murder. After Annie Chapman’s murder on September 8, 1888, the police sent hundreds of officers into the neighborhood to “forestall a possible pogrom.”

Want more stories like this one?

Get your fix of JSTOR Daily’s best stories in your inbox each Thursday.

Privacy Policy   Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message.

Walkowitz also reveals that the Ripper story “covertly sanctioned male antagonism toward women and buttressed male authority over them.” Husbands, lovers, strangers, vigilante gangs, slumming upper class men who claimed to be private detectives, and even little boys in the street, threatened girls and women Whitechapel-style. The initial Jack the Ripper letter and post card, believed by Walkowitz and others to be the work of an enterprising journalist, were the first of some three-hundred-and-fifty letters purporting to be from the killer. Imitation if not emulation was the order of the day.

Even “respectable women” in good neighborhoods were effectively under “house arrest” at night as the media speculation flared throughout the autumn of 1888. Walkowitz’s research was expanded into a book-length study about “narratives of sexual danger in late-Victorian London.” City of Dreadful Delight suggests that an intermingling of sensationalism, entertainment, and terror, erotic and otherwise, hovered through the fog and filthy air of Victoria’s metropolis.

The last of what Wikipedia calls the “canonical” murder victims of the Ripper—to distinguish them from earlier and later unsolved murders—was twenty-five year-old Mary Jane Kelly. She was killed on November 9, 1888. Though the cases were never solved, the concept of Jack the Ripper has lived on, in innumerable films, television shows, fictions, and more than a hundred non-fiction works.

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

Get Our Newsletter

More stories.

• Endangered: North American Cricket

Reclaiming a Coal Town

Printing Anarchy

Gonna Make You a ( Bangsawan ) Star

Recent posts.

• Eisenhower and the Real-Life Nautilus
• How Renaissance Art Found Its Way to American Museums
• Lessons in Mannerism at the Palazzo del Te
• Breakdancing, Animal Pandemic, and Cutting-Edge Steel

Support JSTOR Daily

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

Jack the Ripper

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 7, 2019 | Original: November 8, 2010

Jack the Ripper terrorized London in 1888, killing at least five women and mutilating their bodies in an unusual manner, indicating that the killer had a substantial knowledge of human anatomy. The culprit was never captured—or even identified—and Jack the Ripper remains one of England’s, and the world’s, most infamous criminals.

All five killings attributed to Jack the Ripper took place within a mile of each other, in or near the Whitechapel district of London’s East End, from August 7 to September 10, 1888. Several other murders occurring around that time period have also been investigated as the work of “Leather Apron” (another nickname given to the murderer).

A number of letters were allegedly sent by the killer to the London Metropolitan Police Service (often known as Scotland Yard), taunting officers about his gruesome activities and speculating on murders to come. The moniker “Jack the Ripper” originates from a letter—which may have been a hoax—published at the time of the attacks.

Despite countless investigations claiming definitive evidence of the brutal killer’s identity, his or her name and motive are still unknown.

Various theories about Jack the Ripper’s identity have been produced over the past several decades, which include claims accusing the famous Victorian painter Walter Sickert, a Polish migrant and even the grandson of Queen Victoria . Since 1888, more than 100 suspects have been named, contributing to widespread folklore and ghoulish entertainment surrounding the mystery.

The ‘Whitechapel Butcher’

In the late 1800s, London’s East End was a place that was viewed by citizens with either compassion or utter contempt. Despite being an area where skilled immigrants—mainly Jews and Russians—came to begin a new life and start businesses, the district was notorious for squalor, violence and crime.

Prostitution was only illegal if the practice caused a public disturbance, and thousands of brothels and low-rent lodging houses provided sexual services during the late 19th century.

At that time, the death or murder of a working girl was rarely reported in the press or discussed within polite society. The reality was that “ladies of the night” were subject to physical attacks, which sometimes resulted in death.

Among these common violent crimes was the attack of English prostitute Emma Smith, who was beaten and raped with an object by four men. Smith, who later died of peritonitis, is remembered as one of many unfortunate female victims who were killed by gangs demanding protection money.

However, the series of killings that began in August 1888 stood out from other violent crime of the time: Marked by sadistic butchery, they suggested a mind more sociopathic and hateful than most citizens could comprehend.

Jack the Ripper didn’t just snuff out life with a knife, he mutilated and disemboweled women, removing organs such as kidneys and utereses, and his crimes seemed to portray an abhorrence for the entire female gender.

The Legacy of Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper’s murders suddenly stopped in the fall of 1888, but London citizens continued to demand answers that would not come, even more than a century later. The ongoing case—which has spawned an industry of books, films, TV series and historical tours—has met with a number of hindrances, including lack of evidence, a gamut of misinformation and false testimony, and tight regulations by the Scotland Yard.

Jack the Ripper has been the topic of news stories for more than 120 years, and will likely continue to be for decades to come.

More recently, in 2011, British detective Trevor Marriott, who has long been investigating the Jack the Ripper murders, made headlines when he was denied access to uncensored documents surrounding the case by the Metropolitan Police.

According to a 2011 ABC News article, London officers had refused to give Marriott the files because they include protected information about police informants, and that handing over the documents could impede on the possibility of future testimony by modern-day informants.

Biography courtesy of BIO.com

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

The Elusive Jack the Ripper: A Hero or Villain? Research Paper

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Theories on jack the ripper, works cited.

The story of Jack the Ripper has become somewhat of a legend. Sometimes he is fictionalized in films and literature that people of the present age who have not known the real history behind the fiction believe that Jack the Ripper is just a figment of a writer’s imagination, or that he did not exist at all.

Non-fiction writers and scholars have tried to straighten this up by separating facts from myths – that during the time of Victorian England, the year 1888 to be exact, Jack the Ripper, the name he gave himself to the press, actually wreaked havoc, by murdering helpless women, “mutilating and disemboweling” them.

Odell (2006) says, “No other murderer has given rise to such an outpouring of the printed word; indeed, few historical events have inspired so vast a literature. None has given birth to a field of interpretation and study such as that represented by Ripperology” (239).

Though he has remained popular in committing the “art of crime”, yet he (or she) has remained elusive, and his real identity has remained unknown up to this day, more than two centuries since the first known murder in the East End of London in August of 1888. Brutal and cunning are some of the few extreme words we can describe Jack the Ripper. It is not our intention to create a celebrity (for indeed the man – or woman – has become a celebrity in a sense) out of a notorious criminal but to look at different angles and to arrive at a thesis that can help put the matter to rest. A new term has been introduced in the dictionary out of this phenomenon – Ripperologist, a term referred to a person who studies the “art” of Jack the Ripper.

There have been many speculations about the identity of Jack the Ripper. Since his popularity and the crimes he committed happened in 1888, for sure he’s not with us anymore. But he is with us, figuratively speaking. Moreover, Jack the Ripper is the subject of films, plays, theories and speculations that up to now, he’s one of the most talked about “celebrity”.

This paper asks, what motivates a man to commit such murders on helpless prostitutes? Is it a question of revenge or just plain savagery and wanton passion to kill?

In the internet, we can gather various topics all focusing on the subject of Jack the Ripper, some even offering tours for tourists to visit the exact place (allegedly) where the crimes were committed. In short, the subject has become an interesting source of income, a commercialization, so to speak. The man who murdered helpless women, mutilated and disemboweled their bodies, has become an icon and commercialized, thanks to the modern ways of communication such as the internet, cable, satellite and high-definition television.

Coville and Lucanio say, “Even though the mystery of the Ripper’s physical identity has consistently drawn the attention of the public, the symbolic Jack the Ripper tantalizes the public even more” (3).

It is perhaps man’s “animal instinct” that Jack the Ripper is put into the pedestal. He has become more of a celebrity than a criminal. Unimagined violence or mutilation of organs from the inside of man has become a subject in films and mystery stories. Jack the Ripper created his own genre of mystery and horror stories. And what can we claim? We have immortalized the man. Can this be the reason that criminal acts, and serial killings, are sometimes ordinary activities nowadays?

Odell (2006) says “Five murders are commonly attributed to Jack the Ripper, all characterized by his trademark throat-cutting […] and bound together by the fact that they were all prostitutes living and working in Whitechapel and Spitalfields […] and all found with their throats cut and suffered various degrees of mutilation…” (xviii).

Coville and Lucanio (1999) narrate this horrifying drama:

“In the early morning hours of August 31, 1888, in a lowly part of London called Buck’s Row in Whitechapel, Constable John Neil flashed his “bull’s eye” lamp into a narrow gateway and discovered the mutilated body of Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, a 37-year-old prostitute” (7). This is the beginning of a series of murders in that area of London. But let us first examine how the place look like in that time of history.

This picture can give us an idea of how that part of London looked like during the time of the murders. It was Victorian England.

Josh (2009) described the place as “a dire place in 1888 […] opium dens and brothels shared cramped quarters alongside family housing […] drunken residents spilled from the pubs into streets where children played.” In other words, the place was conducive to street crimes. And it was not a good place to stay or live. Josh adds: “The living conditions in the East End reflected the poverty of its residents.”

In his essay, “Victorian Women Expected to Be Idle and Ignorant”, Petrie (1960) explains that “a Victorian woman prepared for a marriage which gave her status if she landed a prosperous husband from a higher class. When she married, she was completely subservient to her husband; if she found herself in an intolerable marriage, she had no recourse for divorce” (178).

Petrie (1960) further said that “Victorian women prepared for marriage not work” (179).

Five murders are attributed to Jack the Ripper, and their status in life revealed that mostly were separated or divorced. Odell gives the detail of these murders:

“First Murder: Mary Ann Nichols (nickname “Polly”), aged 45; Date: Friday, August 31; Place: Buck’s Row, Whitechapel; Time: 03.40

“Second Victim: Annie Chapman (nickname “Dark Annie”); aged 47; Date: Saturday, September 8; Place: 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields; Time: 06.00 (approximately);

“Third Victim: Elizabeth Stride (nickname “Long Liz”); aged 45; Date: Sunday, September 30; Place: Berner Street; Time: 01.00;

“Fourth Victim: Chatherine Eddowes (also known as Kate Kelly); aged 46; Date: Sunday, September 30; Place: Mitre Square, Aldgate; Time: 01.45;

“Fifth Victim: Mary Jane KELLY (also known as Marie Jeanette); aged 24; Date: Friday, November 9; Place: 13 Miller’s Court, Dorset Street, Spitafields; Time: Between 03.30 and 04.00” (xviii-xxiv).

Though there were several suspects for each of the victims, Jack the Ripper was the principal suspect because of the method or manner of slaying – the victims were disembowelled, their throats were cut, and the time of the commission of the crime was almost the same – during the wee hour of the midnight or early dawn.

Eddleston (2001) listed about 18 victims who were murdered around that time and in and around the area, but they could not be possibly attributed all to Jack the Ripper.

In researching for this paper, we consulted some of the most reliable books, periodicals, journals, and websites on the subject of Jack the Ripper. We have used various sources, and it’s noteworthy to cite one of the very important facts. One of these books is John J. Eddleston’s Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia , a book detailing the narratives, data and information about the victims, covered in one section, and the other three sections covered “the ‘witnesses’, the ‘police’, and ‘others who played a part’” (Eddleston xv).

Other books and websites provided some important theories while some we can understand as rehashed or recycled pieces of information.

Theories abound on the possible motives of Jack the Ripper. Can this be a story about revenge? Can it just be a story of a simple psychopath wanting to experiment? Or a male chauvinist wanting to exert power over women? Let’s take some educational contexts of male power over female.

In her book, Gender and Conflict , Chatterji (2006, p. 1) says, “’Sex’ determines ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’ based purely on physical differences. Therefore, ‘sex’ has the structural quality of being universal.”

Although this quote from the book “Gender and Conflict” of Chatterji talks about, well, gender and conflict, we can extract some ideas as to the murderer’s state of mind. There was inner conflict in Jack the Ripper, there’s no doubt about that. But there are reasons behind this conflict. Sex and gender are two phenomenon that could have influenced his murdering prostitutes. However, this remains to be proven considering the Ripper’s method of finishing her victims – most of them were horribly mutilated, some parts of the inside organs were placed somewhere, beside or far from the bodies.

Sugden (2002) says, “The Ripper’s contemporaries were baffled by the lack of conventional motive, whether gain, jealousy or revenge, in his crimes. Casting about for an explanation, some turned to the far past. ‘It is so impossible to account … for these revolting acts of blood,’ commented one, ‘that the mind turns as it were instinctively to some theory of occult force, and the myths of the Dark Ages rise before the imagination. Ghouls, vampires, bloodsuckers, and all the ghastly array of fables which have been accumulated throughout the course of centuries take form, and seize hold of the excited fancy’” (2).

One theory is provided by “The Criminologist, a British professional journal of police science” quoted by Time U.S. (online) which said that “the identity of Jack the Ripper was known to Scotland Yard”.

The article (dated Nov. 09, 1970) quoted the magazine: “He was the heir to power and wealth. His grandmother, who outlived him, was very much the stern Victorian matriarch… His father, to whose title he was the heir, was a gay cosmopolitan and did much to improve the status of England internationally” (TIME 2009).

The same article quotes Thomas Stowell, “a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons,” who said that the fellow referred to as ‘S’ “caught syphilis in the West Indies while touring the world in his late teens. At 21, he was ‘gazetted to a commission in the army … He resigned his commission shortly after the raiding of some premises in Cleveland St., which were frequented by aristocrats and well-to-do homosexuals” (TIME 2009).

Then there’s this intriguing theory initiated by Kathy Marks (2006) who says that Ian Findlay, a professor of molecular and forensics diagnostics, had said that “he had developed a profiling technique that could extract DNA from a single cell or strand of hair up to 160 years old.” Dr. Findlay concluded that “it’s possible the Ripper could be female” (Marks 2006). The same theory was supported by Detective Frederick Abberline. Marks further said that there was one female suspect Mary Pearcey “who was convicted of murdering her lover’s wife.” The theory however sounds unbelievable.

On the other hand, Eddleston (2001) furnishes a long list of people involved or could have given light to the mystery surrounding the murders. This list includes the victims, witnesses, suspects, detectives and members of Scotland Yard, and literature and films about Jack the Ripper and the time of the commission of the murders in 1888.

On top in Eddleston’s list is George Hutchinson from Britain who resembled the closest identity to Jack the Ripper. Eddleston (2001) writes:

“Hutchinson lived close to the epicenter of the murders, was the right age and height, and, given what little we know of his physical description, may have matched the composite picture of Jack. Further investigation is needed, but Hutchinson is a very strong candidate [to be Jack the Ripper]” (115).

To add further, Eddleston gave Hutchinson the score of “5”, in a scale of 1 to 10, for the “chance of being the Ripper”. Still Eddleston (2001) admits that “there is a good chance that the real Ripper has never come to public attention. Most sensible writers accept that Jack was a local man, of the same class as those he murdered, and was someone the victims would readily have accepted as one of their own” (242).

It’s just fair to conclude that Jack the Ripper appeared in that time of history of Victorian England, murdered several victims (to be exact, there were five positively attributed to him, though there were several others not clearly proven that it was his own doing) and then disappeared in sight, never to be identified, never to appear again. Whatever happened to Jack the Ripper, nobody knows. Most of the possible suspects are products of theories and speculations.

It is therefore logical, sane and proper that the case of Jack the Ripper has to be put to rest. But if it is for the satisfaction and enjoyment of students and readers of fiction, then let it be one of those that remain immortal in our literature for many to devour. That can be only for enjoyment, or entertainment, hence, it can be fiction, for that is what is appearing now in the light of so many forms of media with Jack the Ripper as the “main protagonist” instead of the other way around.

We can also conclude that if the circumstances surrounding the murder – the victims, suspects, witnesses – were around in the time of new technology applied on forensic medicine, including fingerprinting and DNA, surely there couldn’t have been all the hullabaloo surrounding Jack the Ripper. We could have known who Jack the Ripper was and where to really put him to rest – in the heroes’ hill, the criminals’ grave, or the actors’ cemetery similar to Hollywood.

For me, let’s just learn the lessons in literature and fiction. And how to enjoy them.

Chatterji, Shoma A. Gender and Conflict . New Delhi, India: UBS Publishers’ Distributors Pvt. Ltd. 2006

Clark, Josh. How Jack the Ripper Worked . 2008-2009. How stuff works? Web.

Coville, Gary and Patrick Lucanio. Jack, The Ripper: His Life and Crimes in Popular Entertainment. North Carolina: McFarland, 1999. 7 – 25.

Eddleston, John J. Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia . ABC-CLIO, 2001, ISBN 1576074145, 9781576074145. 1-84.

Marks, Kathy. Was Jack the Ripper a woman? 2006. The Independent Science. Web.

Odell, Robin. Ripperology: A Study of the World’s First Serial Killer and a Literary Phenomenon. Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2006. xviii-xxiv; 239-242.

On the trail of Jack the Ripper . 2009. Web.

Petrie, Charles. “Victorian Women Expected to Be Idle and Ignorant.” Victorian England. Eds. Bruno Leone, Bonnie Szumski, and David M. Haugen. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000. 178-187.

Sugden, Philip. The Complete History of Jack the Ripper. Carrol & Graf, 2002. ISBN 0786709324, 9780786709328

TIME U.S. (2009). Who was Jack the Ripper?

• Harmonices Mundi by Johannes Kepler
• The Spanish Civil War, Franco vs. Hitler, Juan Pujol, Double Agents
• Who Was Anne Hutchinson?
• Amicus Curiae Brief: Hutchinson vs. Proxmire
• Tessie Hutchinson’s Character From “The Lottery” Analysis
• Nelson Mandela: Analysis of Personality
• Life of Gordon Park
• Guglielmo Marconi: The Inventor of the Telegraph
• Mohandas Gandhi’s “Hind Swaraj”
• Justinian the Great: A Life Story
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, October 21). The Elusive Jack the Ripper: A Hero or Villain? https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-elusive-jack-the-ripper-a-hero-or-villain/

"The Elusive Jack the Ripper: A Hero or Villain?" IvyPanda , 21 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/the-elusive-jack-the-ripper-a-hero-or-villain/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'The Elusive Jack the Ripper: A Hero or Villain'. 21 October.

IvyPanda . 2021. "The Elusive Jack the Ripper: A Hero or Villain?" October 21, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-elusive-jack-the-ripper-a-hero-or-villain/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Elusive Jack the Ripper: A Hero or Villain?" October 21, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-elusive-jack-the-ripper-a-hero-or-villain/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Elusive Jack the Ripper: A Hero or Villain?" October 21, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-elusive-jack-the-ripper-a-hero-or-villain/.

• TOP CATEGORIES
• AS and A Level
• University Degree
• International Baccalaureate
• Uncategorised
• 5 Star Essays
• Study Tools
• Study Guides
• Meet the Team
• History Projects

Jack the Ripper - How and why did he evade capture?

Jack the Ripper

Throughout this essay I will discuss the many factors that contributed to the perpetrator responsible for the Whitechapel Murders to remain free. I will also discuss why the police were unable to catch the criminal who was responsible for these murders, also known as ‘Jack the Ripper’. Some of the factors I will include are; The limitations and inefficiency of the police, the public, the media, the geographic area of Whitechapel and the ‘Ripper’ himself. Through the use of examining a number of sources, I will extract information and use this to back up my observations in order to come to a conclusion to why the police failed to grasp this notorious and twisted murderer. In order to establish a formal foreword, here is a definition taken from Wikipedia about the perpetrator of the Whitechapel murders; “Jack the Ripper is a pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London in the latter half of 1888. The name is taken from a letter to the Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer.”

      Jack the Ripper remained free for a number of reasons; one of the main causes that allowed him not to be caught for so long was the limitations of the police.

      Source A is an extract taken from Wikipedia, an internet encyclopaedia that was published in 2000. This source discusses the limitations which the police faced during the investigation of the ‘Ripper’ case:

      “The concept and motives of serial killers were poorly understood.”

      The above quote from the source shows that the police did not have good investigative techniques back in the Victorian era; we are also told that they did not have the ability to profile criminals and they had hardly any criminal psychology understanding.

      This source is not entirely reliable. Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia, but through further research I have found that it is a unique website that allows any visitor to edit the information contained on it. Also, the internet can be an unreliable source of information at times as generally anyone can post their opinions, instead of facts.

      Source B, also linked to the limitations of the police, is from www.casebook.org ; an internet website created by ‘Ripperologists’ in order to help amateurs try and solve the mystery themselves. This source examines how two police forces that carried out investigations on the case and how they didn’t work well together:

      “…two police forces carried out investigations… To what degree, if any, did their failure to co-operate have on solving the case is not known.”

This is a preview of the whole essay

      We are shown that the police forces who did investigate the Whitechapel murders may not have combined forces to assist each other in order to catch the criminal, which should have been their main concern. We have to consider if their failure to co-operate might have affected to whether the murderer remained free.

      As this source was created by amateurs it’s slightly unreliable. However, we know for a fact that two police forces did  carry out investigations, so it is a very strong possibility that they failed to work together.

      Another factor that contributed to the failure to capture the murderer was the inefficiency of the police.

      Source D is part of an article taken from a local newspaper after the murders of Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman. This article discusses the inefficiency of the police:

      “He warned that murder would ensue if matters were left as they were… but he never made any impression.”

      We are told that an ‘informant’ gave advice to the police that they should strengthen the force right there and then, but the police ignored the advice.

      The source is not very reliable as we do not know who wrote it or who the informant was; there is no date or name of the paper that it was published in.

      Source E is a very reliable source which highlights the police force’s inefficiency, the aforementioned source is a police leaflet published after the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Kate Eddowes:

      “Should you know of any person of whom suspicion is attached, you are earnestly requested to communicate…”

      The police were requesting co-operation from the public to gain information and support. We can see that they were almost begging for assistance from the public.

      The reliability is very strong as it is an official police leaflet.

      The media that was running at the time of the Whitechapel murders had quite a significant role towards the investigation surrounding the murders.

      Source J is the iconic “Dear Boss” letter that is one of the most well-known letters throughout history, the message is dated September 25 th 1888 but was postmarked and received on September 27 th  1888.

      Scotland Yard did not receive it until September 29 th 1888.

      As the letter was sent directly to the Central News Agency it was treated as a hoax at first, but it wasn’t forwarded to the police until 2 days later. This may have delayed a major point in the investigation as the letter could possibly be real.

      Probably the most unreliable source out of them all, Source J is most likely a hoax letter but there is a slim chance that it could be legitimate, but, we do not know the real sender.

      Source K is a headline from The Star newspaper and was published on the 5 th  of September 1888:

      “LEATHER APRON THE ONLY NAME LINKED WITH THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS”

      This headline or story was produced to give information to the public about the possible suspects. The media often caused a stir as their news was not always helpful, they gave away too much information which caused the public to panic and go around accusing innocent people such as butchers due to their profession being linked with the media’s accusations.

      In a sense, Source K is reliable due to the fact that we know when it was published and by which newspaper. However, The Star was, and is, not a very accurate newspaper as it mainly exists to sell itself.

      Source I displays the package and letter that Mr. George Lusk, president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received on October 16 th  1888 which contained half a human kidney preserved in wine and a letter claiming it was taken from Kate Eddowes:

      “I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved it for you…” (Spelling mistakes as in letter)

      Either a hoax or real, no one knows, but it’s possible that this could have been a legitimate letter. This source shows us how the public were not helping by sending many hoaxes claiming to be ‘Jack the Ripper’. The person who sent it did not send it straight to the police or the Central News Agency but to a member of the public, it is therefore slightly more likely that this was not a hoax.

      Source N is a cartoon titled “The Nemesis of Neglect” which was published in Punch magazine on September 29 th  1888:

      The image shows a ghostly figure holding a knife with the words “Crime” across its head.

      This source criticizes the police for neglecting East London at the time of the Whitechapel murders. The cartoon tells us that many people believed that crime was floating around at its will and nothing was being done to stop it, this shows us how easy it was for ‘Jack the Ripper’ to commit his acts of atrocity and continue to remain free.

      As this cartoon appeared in a magazine that was well known for condemning the government and the police for not doing anything about the murders, we have to consider whether the image is biased or not, as many of the artists that drew such cartoons were very partial towards the law.

      Source M is part of an article published in a local newspaper after the murders of Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman:

      “The main thoroughfares of Whitechapel are connected by a network of narrow, dark and crooked lanes…”

      Described in this source are the streets of Whitechapel and what it was like back there in 1888. We know that back in the Victorian era the streets of Whitechapel were overcrowded and 75% of crime that occurred was petty, so this source tells us that the area was suitable for this type of habitation as the streets were very crooked and appropriate to house crime in a concealed area.

      This source was published in a local newspaper, which contributes to it’s unreliability as many of the local papers “sensationalised” the events that took place.

      Having discussed the many factors that could have possibly contributed to the murderer known as ‘Jack the Ripper’ remaining free I have come to the conclusion that the police force at the time of the murders was very inefficient and unreliable. Even though there were actually 2 police forces carrying out investigations, the resources and knowledge that they possessed was not enough to combat this type of one-man crime wave. As forensic was not available, the only way to catch a criminal and prosecute them with sufficient evidence was to catch them in the act, which was frankly unacceptable as there was not nearly enough policemen to patrol every street every second of the day. Their understanding on the motives and psychology of criminals was very poor, and this heightened their inability to catch the murderer. Also, the media and public exacerbated, or ‘sensationalised’ the situation by sending many hoax letters and failed to fully co-operate with the police force. Due to the media’s perseverance to keep the public in a state of panic, in order to sell their papers, the investigation into the Whitechapel murders met many obstacles that were unnecessary and may have seriously damaged the chances of catching the murderer. Lastly, the geographical area of Whitechapel may have also contributed to the murderer remaining free. Through neglect it was obvious that something like this was bound to happen at one point, described as “a breeding ground for evil” such an occurrence was unavoidable as the area was greatly infested with crime.

      To this day the murderer known as ‘Jack the Ripper’ has never been named with concrete evidence to fully back-up the accusations, but it is clear that the time period in which the evil acts were committed accommodated the murderers ability to remain free.

Jay Shukla  11K4  Kingsford Community School

Document Details

• Word Count 1756
• Page Count 3
• Subject History

Related Essays

Jack the Ripper - Why was he never caught?

Why were the police unable to catch Jack the Ripper?

Jack The Ripper

Why were the police unable to catch Jack the Ripper

Advertisement

How Jack the Ripper Worked

• Share Content on Facebook
• Share Content on LinkedIn
• Share Content on Flipboard
• Share Content on Reddit
• Share Content via Email

The Legacy of Jack the Ripper

When the ghastly handiwork of Jack the Ripper began turning up around Whitechapel, it marked the appearance of a new brand of killer. Jack wasn't the world's first serial killer, but he was undoubtedly the product of an increasingly industrialized Western society and the anonymity and isolation it produced. He didn't kill for money, to eliminate an enemy or punish a spouse . The killings seemed random, and he caught the London police forces completely off guard [source: Sugden ].

To catch this new breed of killer, criminology had to evolve. What is arguably the first crime scene photo was taken at Miller Court of Mary Jane Kelly, now standard procedure in police investigations. The technique of comparing the bodies of victims to establish M.O. was also borne out of the Ripper investigation. One can argue that all modern forensic investigation techniques find their cradle in the Ripper murders.

The Ripper murders are also characterized by the media coverage they received. This was the first time a serial killer was given international coverage. The exposure spurred a rash of hundreds of letters. Although there's no proof that any of the Ripper letters were written by the actual murderer, they would prove to be a lasting legacy. Later serial murderers like the Zodiac Killer of the 1960s corresponded with the very media outlets that presented his crimes to the public. The press and serial murderers came to form a symbiotic relationship. The media provide the renown many serial killers crave, and the killers provide fodder for reporters.

Jack the Ripper also had an immediate effect on London by exposing the existence of the poverty stricken lower classes. Prior to the murders, the wealthier classes were aware of social unrest stirring in the East End. A riot and a widespread demonstration by the poorer classes had spilled outside of East End two years before. But the slayings focused an international lens on this district and the quality of life of the people who lived in the developed world's slums. The playwright George Bernard Shaw pointed out that the gruesome murders succeeded where social reformers failed by managing to attract widespread attention to the area's conditions [source: Grose].

Perhaps the most obvious legacy of Jack the Ripper is the lasting interest in the case, which has never really waned. The Ripper has remained a consistent draw in movies, at newsstands, on television, in tours and exhibits. The field of Ripperology is taken very seriously by those who do more than dabble in it. Many Ripperologists have written successful books, some of which have proven definitive sources on the subject of the murders.

This still doesn't fully explain why the Ripper's legacy endures. Certainly, the fact that a century later his identity has yet to be verified points to the continued interest. But a darker perspective was suggested by Alex Murray in his 2004 essay in the journal Critical Survey titled " Jack the Ripper, the Dialectic of Enlightenment and the Search for Spiritual Deliverance in 'White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings' ". We assume that the more civilization has developed, the more we've left behind our nightmarish capability of exercising brutality. Having emerged from the slums of developed society, Jack the Ripper stands as our best reminder of the potential violence latent in each one of us, no matter how civilized we become. As Murray writes, "The only thing to be revealed in the investigation of Jack the Ripper is ourselves" [source: Critical Survey ].

For more information on serial killers and other related topics, see the links below.

Related Articles

• How Serial Killers Work
• Was a Hungarian countess the world's most prolific serial killer?
• Could Jack the Ripper have been an artist?
• 10 of the World's Most Prolific Serial Killers

More Great Links

• Jack the Ripper Biography from Biography.com
• Casebook (Definitive Online Resource for Ripperology)
• London Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard)
• Jack the Ripper Walking Tour
• Adam, David. "Does a new genetic analysis finally reveal the identity of Jack the Ripper?" Science. Mar. 15, 2019. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper
• Amiri, Farnoush. "Jack the Ripper's identity may finally be known, thanks to DNA. " NBC News. March 18, 2019. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/jack-ripper-s-identity-may-finally-be-known-thanks-dna-n984536
• Bachelor, Blane. "London's new Jack the Ripper exhibit cuts deep." Fox News. May 23, 2008. https://www.foxnews.com/story/londons-new-jack-the-ripper-exhibit-cuts-deep
• Barbee, Larry S. "Jack the Ripper: Introduction to the Case. " Casebook.org. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.casebook.org/intro.html
• BBC News. "Jack the Ripper's face revealed." BBC News. November 20, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6164544.stm
• Begg, Paul. "A final response to Mr. Harris." Casebook. April 1998. http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/maybrick_diary/beggfin.html
• British Library. "Suspicious Characters. " British Library. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://vll-minos.bl.uk/collection-items/suspicious-characters-from-the-illustrated-london-news
• Casebook. "Annie Chapman aka Dark Annie, Annie Siffey, Sievey or Sivvey." Casebook. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://www.casebook.org/victims/chapman.html
• Casebook. "Catherine Eddowes a.k.a. Kate Kelly." Casebook. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://www.casebook.org/victims/eddowes.html
• Casebook. "Elizabeth Stride aka Long Liz." Casebook. (Sept. 8, 2019)http://www.casebook.org/victims/stride.html
• Casebook. "Martha Tabram." Casebook. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://www.casebook.org/victims/tabram.html
• Casebook. "Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols." Casebook. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://www.casebook.org/victims/polly.html
• Casebook. "Mary Jane Kelly A.K.A. Marie Jeanette Kelly, Mary Ann Kelly, Ginger." Casebook. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://www.casebook.org/victims/mary_jane_kelly.html
• Casebook. "Michael Ostrog (b. 1833). " Casebook.org. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.casebook.org/suspects/ostrog.html
• Casebook. "The Mcnaughten Memoranda. " Casebook. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.casebook.org/official_documents/memo.html
• The Daily Telegraph. Untitled article. Casebook. Oct. 1, 1888. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/daily_telegraph/dt881001.html
• Douglas, John E. "Unsub; aka Jack the Ripper; series of homicides, London, England, 1888." Federal Bureau of Investigation. July 6, 1988. https://archive.org/stream/JackTheRipperInvestigations/Jack%20The%20Ripper%20FBI_djvu.txt
• Edwards, Russell. "Naming Jack the Ripper." Rowman & Littlefield. 2014. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://bit.ly/2UJ6lSE
• Feldman, Elliot. "Who's Jack the Ripper - some suspects you wouldn't suspect." Associated Content. May 17, 2007. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/247188/whos_jack_the_ripper_some_suspects.html
• Flanders, Judith. "Jack the Ripper. " British Library. May 15, 2014. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/jack-the-ripper
• Grose, Thomas K. "Jack the Ripper revisited." Time. May 20, 2008. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1807923,00.html
• Haggard, Robert F. "Jack the Ripper as the threat of outcast London." University of Virginia. 1993. http://www.essaysinhistory.com/jack-the-ripper-as-the-threat-of-outcast-london/
• Harris, Paul. "Jack the Ripper suspect named." Daily Mail. July 13, 2006. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-395498/Jack-Ripper-suspect-named.html#
• Keppel, Robert, etal. "The Jack the Ripper Murders: A Modus Operandi and Signature Analysis of the 1888-1891 Whitechapel Murders. " Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling. 2005. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jip.22
• London Daily Telegraph. "Inquest: Annie Chapman. " Daily Telegraph. Sept. 11, 1888. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.casebook.org/official_documents/inquests/inquest_chapman.html
• London Metropolitan Police. "The enduring mystery of Jack the Ripper." E-telescope. March 19, 2005. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.e-telescope.gr/en/mystery/the-enduring-mystery-of-jack-the-ripper
• Long, Tony. "Nov. 9, 1888: Jack the Ripper strikes for the last time ... or does he?" Wired. November 9, 2007. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/11/dayintech_1109
• Louhelainen Jari and Miller, David. "Forensic Investigation of a Shawl Linked to the Jack the Ripper Murders." (Abstract only.) Journal of Forensic Sciences. March 12, 2019. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1556-4029.14038
• Morrison, Andrew L. "Mystery play: Police opinions on Jack the Ripper." Casebook. http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-mysteryplay.html
• Murray, Alex. "Jack the Ripper, the dialectic of enlightenment and the search for spiritual deliverance in the White Chappell scarlet tracings." Critical Survey. 2004. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LLDh8gFzJpTkt1fcqp17LycYDtp1Q1p2Mc1FnvbCr1k819wfHgTz!-1828415860?docId=5007599834
• Payro, Ignacio. "Who was Jack the Ripper? " Nationalgeographic.com Oct. 29, 2018. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2018/09-10/jack-the-ripper-murders-mystery-history/
• Rumbelow, Donald. "The Complete Jack the Ripper. " Virgin Books (Random House). 2013 (Sept. 8 2019) http://bit.ly/2HUCLUU
• Slifer, Stephanie. "Jack the Ripper Case: 125 years later, murders of London prostitutes by notorious serial killer remain unsolved. " CBS News. Aug. 30, 2013. (Sept. 8, 2019) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jack-the-ripper-case-125-years-later-murders-of-london-prostitutes-by-notorious-serial-killer-remain-unsolved/
• Smith, David. "Revealed at last: The Ripper case book." The Observer. March 9, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/09/ukcrime
• Spallek, Andrew J. "Montague John Druitt: Still Our Best Suspect. " Ripper Notes (The International Journal for Ripper Studies). July 2005. (Sept. 8, 2019) http://bit.ly/2HVhcDE
• Sugden, Phillip. "The Complete History of Jack the Ripper." Carroll and Graf Publishers. 2002. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EiP8jz_oH5oC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=jack+the+ripper+suspects&ots=u9hjKg7Vgz&sig=xdzAPk8oeegyCDpX6J0MgfMR254

Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article:

• Fundamentals NEW

• Biographies
• Compare Countries
• World Atlas

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper’s murders have given rise to a macabre tourist industry in London.

Related resources for this article

• Primary Sources & E-Books

Between August and November 1888, an unknown murderer killed at least five women, all prostitutes , in London , England . All of the murders were committed in the poor Whitechapel district of the city’s East End. These murders are one of the most notorious unsolved criminal cases of modern times. The name Jack the Ripper was signed to a series of taunting notes sent to police authorities by someone claiming to be the murderer.

The Jack the Ripper killings are part of a larger case called the Whitechapel Murders , which were committed between 1888 and 1891. All 11 of these killings have been speculatively attributed to Jack the Ripper, but five from 1888 are most strongly linked to him. These “canonical” killings include Mary Ann Nichols (found August 31), Annie Chapman (found September 8), Elizabeth Stride (found September 30), Catherine Eddowes (also found September 30), and Mary Jane Kelly (found November 9). All but one of Jack the Ripper’s victims were killed while soliciting customers on the street.

It is believed that the murders were committed by the same person because of similarities between them. Each victim’s throat was slashed, and each body was mutilated in a manner suggesting that the killer had a considerable knowledge of anatomy. There was a great public outcry over the crimes , and the police made strenuous efforts to capture the murderer. The failure to catch the murderer was a factor that led to the resignation of London’s police commissioner, Sir Charles Warren.

Many dozens of suspects have been named, both at the time of the killings and in the years since. One of the most commonly cited culprits is Montague Druitt, a barrister and teacher with an interest in surgery who was said to be insane and who disappeared after the final murders and was later found dead. Another is Michael Ostrog, a criminal and physician who had been placed in an asylum because of his homicidal tendencies. Still another is Aaron Kosminski, a resident of Whitechapel who was known to have a great hatred toward women (particularly prostitutes) and who was hospitalized in an asylum several months after the last murder. Several notable Londoners of the era, such as the painter Walter Sickert and the physician Sir William Gull, also have been subjects of speculation.

The case has retained its hold on the popular imagination, in part because known instances of serial murder were much rarer at the time than they are today. Jack the Ripper has provided themes for numerous literary and dramatic works. Perhaps the most notable was the horror novel The Lodger (1913) by Marie Adelaide Lowndes, which inspired numerous films, including Alfred Hitchcock ’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927). Many of the books about the case speculate about the true identity of the murderer and the circumstances surrounding the crimes. Some have suggested that the police were covering up for prominent culprits, perhaps even members of the royal family. Many of these books, however, are based on fraudulent claims and documents.

It’s here: the NEW Britannica Kids website!

We’ve been busy, working hard to bring you new features and an updated design. We hope you and your family enjoy the NEW Britannica Kids. Take a minute to check out all the enhancements!

• The same safe and trusted content for explorers of all ages.
• Accessible across all of today's devices: phones, tablets, and desktops.
• Improved homework resources designed to support a variety of curriculum subjects and standards.
• A new, third level of content, designed specially to meet the advanced needs of the sophisticated scholar.
• And so much more!

Want to see it in action?

Start a free trial

To share with more than one person, separate addresses with a comma

Choose a language from the menu above to view a computer-translated version of this page. Please note: Text within images is not translated, some features may not work properly after translation, and the translation may not accurately convey the intended meaning. Britannica does not review the converted text.

After translating an article, all tools except font up/font down will be disabled. To re-enable the tools or to convert back to English, click "view original" on the Google Translate toolbar.

• Privacy Notice
• Terms of Use

Home / Essay Samples / History / Contemporary History / Jack The Ripper

Jack the Ripper Essay Examples

History mysteries - the notorious killer jack the ripper.

There are some mysteries in history that will never be solved. Whether it is lack of information surrounding the mystery or sheer indifference toward discovering what really happened, some historical mysteries have not been solved till date and may never be solved in the future....

Serial Killer Or Mass Murderer: Jack the Ripper

In earlier times authorities never knew how to differentiate types of murders that were happening. 'Over the centuries, there have been hundreds of documented cases of serial murder around the world, but the term 'serial killer' is relatively new. Up until the 1970s, serial killers...

Trying to find an excellent essay sample but no results?

Don’t waste your time and get a professional writer to help!

You may also like

• Alexander Hamilton
• French Revolution
• Louisiana Purchase
• African Diaspora
• The Protestant Reformation
• Black Death
• Winston Churchill
• Mother Teresa Essays
• Silk Road Essays
• Roaring Twenties Essays
• Cuban Missile Crisis Essays
• 19Th Century Essays
• Apartheid Essays
• Slavery in The World Essays
• Arab-Israeli Conflict Essays
• Cuban Revolution Essays
• Green Revolution Essays

About Jack the Ripper

"The Whitechapel Murderer", "Leather Apron"

August 1888 - November 1888

Jack the Ripper was an English serial killer. Between August and November 1888, he murdered at least five women — all prostitutes — in or near the Whitechapel district of London’s East End. Jack the Ripper was never identified or arrested.

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->