The Infamous Jack the Ripper

Serial killers, while being some of the worst humans in existence, never fail to intrigue and fascinate us. Some of the famous of these include Ted Bundy, the brilliant educated manic with an extraordinary mind who murdered scores of young women in the 1970s, Jeffery Dahmer, aka the Milwaukee Cannibal, and John Wayne Gacy, the scariest clown to ever give nightmares to the children. Over the pond, in the UK they had Harold Shipman, aka The Doctor Death, with a body count of around 250 people. Psycho Ed Gein didn't kill many folks, yet his hobby of making clothes and ornaments out of his victim's body parts inspired a lot of gruesome horror movies. But in this article we are going to focus on one of the most intriguing serial killers of all time who is famous by the name Jack The Ripper and why he was never found?

Along with the Zodiac killer, Mr. Ripper has become one of the biggest mysteries in the bloody world of serial homicides. So let's have a look at what he did.

did. 

His handy work, which included killing and eviscerating women on the streets of London, scared the Brits witless in the late 19th century. He did most of his work in the slums East London in the district of Whitechapel, which is why he was also called, "The Whitechapel Murderer". Another name he was given was the "Leather Apron". He got the name of Jack the Ripper to form a letter he ostensible wrote to police known as the "Dear Boss" letter. So what did Jack do?

Well, the story goes that in the 1880s, East London was a place of absolute squalor. Immigrants from all around the world flooded there for work, but that didn't always work out for them. Crowded streets were festooned with what the English might call habitual boozers, and women of ill-repute could be seen lingering on many street corners. People blame the immigrants for high spikes in crime and overcrowded streets. Racism was pervasive, as were fights and robberies. The police had their hands full as London on the brink of social unrest and rioting, but the police of 1888 got the shock of their lives when a murderer came to life, and he wasn't like any killer they'd ever seen. It's thought that he could have killed 11 people, but police report that they can only say that he killed 5 people. These are known as the "canonical five", meaning they were part of his killer canon. Now 11 bodies aren't such a big deal when you consider the Ted Bundy's of the world, and while Bundy wasn't necrophile, the ripper had arguably even stranger proclivities. He used the knife as you might get from his name, slashing throats and bodies sometimes to ribbons. But he also mutilated women's genitals, made all kinds of incisions on their bodies, and skillfully remove their internal organs. This surgery might include removing the kidneys, uterus, or generally any parts of the abdominal area. Sometimes he'd just hack away at the women's faces so they are unrecognizable. Now, because East London was such a crap-hole in those days, police can't be sure if lots of other murders at that time were his doing or people were just copying him. Jack the ripper was huge in the media, and the frenzied, mostly working-class public ate up this story with as much enthusiasm as us modern folks might lap-up horror stories in the dubious tabloid, The Daily Mail. Police worked hard trying to find out who was responsible for heinous crimes, interviewing thousands of people, and detaining over 80 of them. Rewards would be given over any advice on this ripper, and so even regular people were out there investigating this crime. East London was patrolled by cops 24/7 and amateur sleuths were not far behind them. Police were focused on certain people's occupations given that removing a uterus is not something most people can do. It's said Jack was an expert with his blade and so cops looked at butchers, surgeons, doctors, physicians, and generally anyone who might cut up bodies for a living.

                                                                                      The Canonical Five

As for the letters to the police, quite a few of them were claimed to be were by the ripper himself but the most famous on those was the "From hell" letter. Police believed this letter was the only one that was genuine.

Postmarked, 15 October 1888, it went like this:

"Mr. Lusk,

I send you half the kidney I took from one woman preserved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. 

Imay send you the bloody knife that took it out if you only wate a whil longer.

Signed:-

Catch me if you can Mister Lusk"

                                                                      "From Hell", Letter by Jack the Ripper

The writer appears to barely literate, so did this count out doctors and surgeons doing the killing, or was a well-educated geezer jus being rather "cheeky" in his writing style. Overtime many suspects have been put forward as to the Ripper's identity.

I'll give you a rundown on the main ones:-

• The principal suspect was a verified sexually insane doctor named Montague John Druitt. He was found dead in the river Thames, and guess what, that was about a month after the last ripper murder. The doctor was no doubt well-educated, being rather posh, but was also of what then was called "unsound mind".
• Another suspect was a Polish immigrant named Seweryn Klosowski. This wicked geezer poisoned and killed three of his wives and then hang himself.
• Another one was a wealthy trader called James Maybrick. Maybrick's dairy was apparently found in Liverpool in 1992. In the dairy, this man talks about going on a murder spree, killing only women because his wife had been unfaithful to him. You are thinking, that could have been any old murder spree. But this was also in the dairy."I give my name that all know me, so history do tell, what love can do to a gentleman born. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper."
•  Police also thought a man they called a "mad Russian" could have been involved; his name was Michael Ostrog. 
• This one is a conspiracy theory and favorite of everyone naming Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, the Duke of Clarence as the ripper. This aristocrat, the grandson of Queen Victoria, died in an asylum after syphilis had destroyed his mind. It's also said he couldn't have done the wicked deeds as he wasn't in London at the time. 
• A lot of investigators believe it was Aaron Kosminski as his mitochondrial DNA was found on one shawl found near a victim. His occupation was a barber. Now, who wouldn't want to have a close shave from him?
• German merchant sailor Carl Feigenbaum even admitted to mutilating women, and his lawyer said he was the ripper for sure. He emigrated to America, and guess what happened there. He murdered a woman, was caught, and was subsequently fried in the USA's infamous electric chair

In the twentieth century, two more names were put forward, with some Ripperologits, 'yes that's a word', confident that they'd got their man.

One was artist Walter Richards Sickert, whose DNA was linked to the murders. The impotent artist chose mostly to paint prostitutes.

Last on the list is Francis Craig, a reporter that actually covered the murders. 

Well one surprisingly interesting special suspect I should mention was Alice in Wonderland author, Lewis Carroll(real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), a great writer but also a man suspected of being a pedophile. Apparently his friends said he had seen dairy entries in Carroll's diaries connecting him to the murders. 

So, why did the police never get him?

We might also remember the Ripper was a very careful murderer, one reason why many people put forward the names of educated people as suspects. He left hardly any clues in a time when police often relied on nothing more than catching criminals in the act, or having bulletproof witness testimonies. There was no DNA testing, no such things as fingerprints, no psychological profiling, no CCTV, and to top off, much of the public at that time hated the cops and were really unhelpful. He also killed poor people and prostitutes, and one could say these people in those days weren't considered very important to society. Some Ripperologists also believe there could have been two killers as two murders sharing Ripper trademark once occurred at the same time. We should take into account that London was jam-packed in those days, with 4 million people living in those sometimes dingy, unlit areas of squalor. It's a fact that those dark satanic London streets of the past, many murders went unsolved. Cops just weren't that skilled and were without modern technology. They were so desperate they even dress up as women and hung about in the East End hoping the killer might strike them. 

In terms of mysteries of the criminal world and the "Who did it?" question that eclipses all others, there is nothing more mysterious then who was Jack the Ripper. You might have seen countless movies, documentaries, and tv shows on this subject, and read myriad books on this topic, or listened to a plethora of online sleuths who think they have cracked the mystery, but let's face it. It was always a guessing game. There's been absurd speculations as well as a more thorough investigation, but the man who eviscerated women on the streets of London has never had his Scooby-Doo-esque denouement. But according to forensics science journal, back in March 2019 the forensics experts working on the DNA found on a shawl found near one of the victims of Mr. Ripper which pointed towards the one and only Barber, Mr. Aaron kosminski. Okay as I mentioned earlier, there was a theory about Kosminski because of his DNA. But the trouble back then was none of the DNA evidence was supported, it was mostly down to a well-off businessman and Ripper researcher called Russell Edwards. The thing is, that evidence was not peer-reviewed by any number of other scientists but it has been now.

                                                                                       Aaron kosminski.

It is published that two researchers called Jari Louhelainen and David Miller ran genetic tests on semen and blood on the shawl found next to the murdered Catherine Eddowes. They then compared mitochondrial DNA from Eddowes present family members as well as people from the present Kosminski family. They concluded the Ripper was indeed one of their ancestors. They also said it's very likely Jack the Ripper had blue eyes and brown hair. 

So finally they found the guy, Jack the Lad was 23-year-old Pole that went to London and trimmed mustaches, cut hair and also the odd stomach wide open. 

Researchers wrote that in the paper, "the shawl referred to in this paper is the only piece of physical evidence known to be associated with these murders." The DNA found on that shawl should be passed to mother to mother, and the DNA could be traced back to the Polish man's family. 

The internet knows quite a bit about our boy, who moved over to the Whitechapel area(slums) in London, and there he set up a shop. But it's said in 1891 Mr. kosminski was sent to one of the finest insane asylums in London. He was apparently an on and off lunatic, doing some barber work,, then being looked after by his family, and then sometimes he was back inside with the people screaming at the moon. It's said he suffered a kind of psychosis. It's also said that his utterly insane behavior led him to be sent to the workhouse. 

What we have is a man who was in and out of asylum while those murders were going on, so you could say his name fits the picture. God knows who his customers were at the barbershop in Whitechapel, or if he had packed that in once he started to hear voices, eat trash from streets and "self-abuse". That was a fine English euphemism for what the brits later would call a five-knuckle-shuffle. There's also evidence in his psychiatrist reports that he threatened a sister with a knife. The thing is he doesn't sound much like a skilled surgeon, nor a man who android enough to never leave any evidence behind. 

And then we have these naysayers. These critics were doubtful of the first time the Polish man was connected to the murders, and say the latest conclusions were partly predicated on the original 2014 paper. Fobes reported just after everyone was saying, finally we have found him, that the new paper contained three-parts hogwash. I am sorry to burst your bubbles, but Forbes cites a group of archaeologists geneticists who said that even if the shawl was left behind by a victim still "the way it has been handled since would render DNA analysis crippling problematic." 

Why is that?

Well, it's been an item over the years that have been passed around, touched by many, many hands, and left in places for people to view. It's hardly a fine specimen for DNA analysis said the scientists. Another British geneticist wrote this, "How did this ever get passed revies!?, Primers not listed, data not presented, was it done in a proper forensic/DNA lab..? Unpublishable." 

Steady on old chap, surely you just can't discount the new papers?

Well one other person in the geneticist milieu said this, "The suspect couldn't have passed on his mitochondrial DNA, as he was a man." These academics don't mince their words either, sometimes sounding like they were prepared to take a straight razor to the jugular of those that published the paper. 

"Nonsense like this paper and gullible media does nothing but foment scientific and historical illiteracy built upon the grotesque romanticization of the brutal murders of five women," said one of them, no doubt words sprat through a mist of strong English tea and bits of scone. 

But at some academics pointed out, you can't just go around saying it was the Kosminski kid without having absolute irrefutable proof if only because there are a bunch of people in Poland, or perhaps still in England whose friends have suddenly started hiding knives when they've been invited around for dinner. 

"The question of his identity, I am confident will never be known," concluded the angry professor I just quoted. 

As some commenters say, if Kosminski did do it, was he really clever enough to just disappear after each murder. How comes he never told anyone else, not even when he was locked up? Where did he get his surgical skills from? Can we not find out if anyone of the murders happened during the spurts he had outside of the asylum?

As for the new evidence, the researchers have admitted that they would not use it if it were for a present criminal trial. So can we rely on that shawl and the new results? Tell me what do you think about all of this? Tell me in the comments. 

Also keep waiting I will post a new article soon, covering another maniac killer.