Jack The Ripper ( II )

The Crimes:

Traditionally, Jack The Ripper is considered to have killed five women, all London prostitutes, during 1888: Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, on August 31, Annie Chapman on September 8, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes on September 30 and Mary Jane (Mary Jeanette) Kelly on November 9. In practice there's no agreed list: the most popular change is to discount Stride and/or Kelly, adding Martha Tabram, killed August 7th. Authors naming more than eight have achieved very little consensus. The Ripper generally killed by strangling his victims, then laying them down and cutting the arteries in their throats. This was followed by a varied process of mutilation, during which parts of the body were removed and kept. Because Jack did this quickly , often in the dark, and because he seemed to have great anatomical knowledge, people have assumed the Ripper had a doctor's or surgeon's training. As with much of the case, there is no consensus: a contemporary thought him simply a blunderer.


The Letters and the Nicknames:

During the autumn and the winter of 1888/89 a number of letters circulated among the police and newspapers, all claiming to be from Whitechapel murderer. These include "From Hell" letter and one accompanied by part of a kidney. Ripperologists considered most, if not all, of the letters to be hoaxes, but their impact at the time was considerable, if only because one contained the first use of "Jack The Ripper", a nickname the papers swiftly adopted and which is now synonymous.

Jack The Ripper

Summary: 

Someone in London murdered and mutilated a number of prostitutes during the autumn of 1888. Press went into a frenzy, politicians pointed the finger at each other, hoaxers polluted the investigation and one of several names stuck: Jack The Ripper. Over a century later Jack's identity has never been proven (there isn't even a leading suspect), most aspects of the case are still debated and The Ripper in an infamous cultural bogeyman. 

The enduring mystery: 

The Ripper's identity has never been established and people have never stopped looking: the publishing rates's average is a new book a year since 1888. Unfortunately, the wealth of Ripper source material -letters, reports, diaries and photographs- provides enough depth for detailed and fascinating research, but too few facts for any incontrovertible conclusions. Just about everything about Jack The Ripper is open to debate and the best you can get is a consensus. There is no better mystery but about that we'll talk next time.