A cobblestone alley filled with shadows, dim lanterns, and silence. Whitechapel, London, England, 1888. A night looked different back then. No bass thumping inside club walls. No cell phones. No vehicles. Summer hung over the city, waiting to fade into autumn. Somewhere in that transition of seasons, something else brewed and lurked, before he finally struck, driving a knife not only through five helpless women, but through the heart of London with a savagery that would never be forgotten.
I saw a post recently in a Facebook group asking people what true crime cases we obsess over. In a series of posts, I’m going to take you through the top five cases I can’t ever get enough of learning about, starting with a case that has drawn many into the rabbit hole of true crime, such as myself:
Jack the Ripper
Image by Obsidain Photography from Pixabay
With so many wacky and wild theories out there, I can't even start to lay everything out in this post, or even a series. But the ominous silhouette of a top hat and cape with a bloody knife we've come to associate with this killer has become a staple in pop culture and true crime circles alike. This post will merely scrape an iceberg on this case. It can go in various directions and take many turns. I'm going to stick with the facts and the five best known victims (though there are others believed to be attributable to Jack).
A killer, who remains unidentified, terrorized the Whitechapel district in London, England between August and November 1888. He killed five women in a morbid and gruesome manner that haunts the world to this day, and has rarely been replicated since.
On Friday, August 31, 1888, at 3:40 a.m., carman Charles Cross was on his way to work when he found Mary Ann Nichols. He flagged down another man, also on his way to work. They assessed her body, then found a policeman to tend to the scene. Another policeman walking his beat at the time also came across the body. Her throat had been slashed and the wound still bled. Her torso had also been violently cut into. The coroner said the killer was likely left-handed and all injuries were inflicted with the same blade, all of which could have been done in five minutes or less.
On September 8, 1888, Annie Chapman became the second victim. At 3:30 a.m., Mr. Thompson left his residence to go to work. At 5:45, one of the men sharing the home, John Davis, left the same building and through the backyard to go to work. Outside, he found Annie’s body. At 6:10, a nearby inspector attended the scene. In “Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia” by John J. Eddleston, Inspector Joseph Chandler is quoted in his description of her body. In short, her small intestine and “flap of the abdomen” were left lying above her right shoulder, still attached to the intestines remaining inside her body. Two flaps of skin from the lower abdomen lay on her left shoulder. Her throat was deeply cut, left to right, in the same jagged manner as Nichols. Her time of death was estimated to be at 4:30 a.m.
In a climactic fashion, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both found on September 30. Stride was found in a stable yard just after 1 a.m. Her throat had also been cut but had stopped bleeding by then, once again slashed left to right. This was the only injury she sustained. Her time of death was between 12:46 and 12:56. In Jack the Ripper’s stunning “double event”, Eddowes’s body was discovered at 1:30 a.m. Shortly after this was the discovery of the infamous writing on the wall, not far from the body:
“The Jewes are
The men that
Will not
Be blamed
For nothing.”
As with the others, Eddowes’s throat was cut. Her intestines were pulled out and thrown over her right shoulder. About two feet of it was detached and placed between the body and left arm. From “her breast bone to her pubes” (coroner’s report), she was cut open. An incision was made into her liver. One kidney was removed and taken, never to be found. The coroner’s report goes into great detail describing the horrific mutilations made to Eddowes. It can be found in “Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia”. (I recommend this book for any beginner Ripperologists as it is based on facts, not theories. Start with understanding facts, then it’s easier to sift through the haphazard theories. I still refer to it often).
And finally, Mary Jane Kelly. On November 9, her body was found where she was residing at the time at 10:45 a.m. Her throat was cut, listed as her cause of death, but it didn’t end there. Her time of death was estimated to be between 4:45 and 5:45 a.m. Parts of the body were skinned, a few organs removed and set around the body. Blood soaked the bed and two square feet on the floor. Incisions covered her face. Her breasts were also removed. The list went on. There are no words for how gruesome these scenes were, and for how the killer was clearly escalating.
After Kelly, the murders mysteriously stopped. Some murders that came after these ones are believed to have been the work of Jack the Ripper, but of course, it cannot be confirmed. The killer would leave behind an intriguing legacy that would be alive and well over a century later. A psychopath who slipped away like a ghost through the Whitechapel alleys. Nameless. Faceless. He’d be followed through the years by many names, ideas and theories, but none will ever know his truth.
Why this case?
I can’t pinpoint one thing that draws me to the Jack the Ripper case. On one hand, it’s terribly cliché of me. On the other, it’s a rabbit hole of theories and wonder. It’s human nature to be drawn to the unsolved. The unknown. Look at the obsessions over aliens, ghosts, or other bizarre phenomena. We’re all drawn to things that remain unanswered.
In some ways, Jack the Ripper is a typical serial killer: a man killing women he deemed to be unworthy of living. The women were believed to be sex workers. However, in 2019, British historian Hallie Rubenhold released a book, titled "The Five", in which she claims history has the narrative of the five women all wrong - and it's entirely possible, given attitudes surrounding homeless people, addicts and sex workers. They tend to be lumped into the same category looked down upon by those from a place of privilege. Rubenhold attempts to humanize the victims in a case that has admittedly dehumanized them and made Jack the Ripper into some glorified creature, as though he was from a horror flick. But we always need to remember this was very real. These women existed and they mattered, no matter what their walk of life was. Jack the Ripper was a dangerous psychopath. Who knows how much damage he moved on to cause after Whitechapel.
He even sent taunting notes to police before vanishing. He was probably white, in his thirties or forties, and something sent him over a homicidal edge. I agree with those who believe there were victims before Mary Ann Nichols, and indeed some unsolved murders seem to line up. I used to think maybe Mary Ann Kelly’s ex-lover might have been behind it all, since she left him. Maybe he was trying to scare her into returning to him. But then there was a mystery man Kelly was seen with prior to her death. Who was he? If these women weren't sex workers, they were at least homeless and sleeping in the streets, and Rubenhold believes this is why they were targeted, given she found little evidence they were actually sex workers. Due to the nature of their lives, these women came into contact with so many men they didn’t know. They’re high-risk victims at the bottom of the societal totem pole. Even today, some people have a superiority complex over homeless people in general. One can refer to the Green River Killer case (coming up in a later post!), Robert Pickton, or the Highway of Tears here in Canada (Note: not all of those women were sex workers, either. Others were addicts, some were neither, and all but one was Indigenous. It’s a racial discrimination vs one against sex workers and sadly, many of these women have never been found nor their murders solved.)
I think what holds my fascination is that the case happened at a time with none of the technology we have now. No DNA, no computers, no social media to spread the word, no cell phones, nothing. It was true old school police work. I bet with the technology we have today, the case would have been solved. The scenes were messy, the killer would have been caught on camera somewhere, there likely would have been DNA left at or near the scene. Testing anything now is almost useless, since any DNA that might remain could be from anyone. The evidence has been handled by so many over the years, not to mention the number of people the victims came into contact with. The best DNA to test would have come straight from the scene.
Photo by Lavinia Thompson
In July 1988, FBI profiler John Douglas wrote out a profile for Jack the Ripper, and it’s actually pretty cool to read through. (I’ll add a link at the end of this post.) Douglas points out that prostitutes were readily accessible at the time and they likely approached the unknown subject (unsub). (Keep in mind, this was done long before Rubenhold's book). He also says the removal of organs indicates some anatomical knowledge on the unsub’s part. All the women were killed in early morning hours on weekends. Only Kelly was murdered indoors. Knowing he was safe from being seen, unlike at the other locations, he got to live out his fantasy in full and spend plenty of time with the body.
The “double event” is theorized to have happened because he was interrupted upon killing Strides and didn’t get to complete his inner fantasy. Eddowes was murdered because his compulsion wasn’t yet fulfilled. Strides' murder was over too quickly. He liked to spend time with the bodies afterward, exploring them with his knife. A bizarre and grotesque fascination with essentially dissecting these women. The change in MO with Kelly’s case likely came about because he was nearly caught during Strides’ murder.
Something important to also point out is that this was a lust murderer. Douglas mentions that it is because of this that the unsub must be a male, as women simply don’t kill in this fashion. Indeed, there are no records from Douglas or the FBI of a female lust murderer. Not only that, women don’t typically make such a mess of crime scenes. Female serial killers don’t typically contact or taunt the police. That still leaves a large demographic, though the FBI profile definitely narrows down the endless list of suspects. I think it is a vitally important tool to keep in mind when researching this case.
I don’t claim to have any idea who Jack the Ripper was. There remain so many theories and suspects, it’s impossible to know – and barring some miraculous technology, we never will. I think that’s why the case draws so many people to it: the notion that anyone can become an amateur sleuth and come to their own conclusion. But maybe Rubenhold's book can make Ripperologists look away from the notion the victims were all sex workers. Given that's been the assumption for over 100 years, it's possible then that prostitutes were not the victimology and the women were simply victims of opportunity. That opens up new avenues of investigation.
Next week, we’ll look at the next case I have always been obsessed with: the Zodiac Killer! (yes, I love unsolved cases.) As always, thanks for joining me. I’ll leave below a reading list of books I have found to be informative on Jack the Ripper, and the link to John Douglas’s profile.
“Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia” by John J. Eddleston
“Jack the Ripper: The Suspects” by the Whitechapel Society
“The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper” by Maxim Jakubowski and Nathan Barund
"The Five" by Hallie Rubenhold
The Guardian discussed Rubenhold's book after its release.
Jack-the-Ripper.org - a site dedicated to the case, complete with photos.
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