Jack the Ripper?

Question

I am as intrigued by this mysterious murderer as a lot of other people are. I think it's because there have been so many interesting theories and never a definite answer.

Who do you think it was? The Royal Dr? the American actor? two people? a woman? the mild mannered janitor? (sorry, that was Hong Kong Fuey - lol)

Some links or a bit of an explaination as to your answer would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Trevor Marriott puts forward an intriguing theory in his Book "Jack the Ripper; A 21st Century Investigation" although he does not name the killer. Without going into to much detail Marriott proposes that the Killer was a Merchant Seaman, given the time lapses between each murder he also concludes that only two of the five victims had their internal organs removed surgically and this was done at the mortuary prior to the autopsies being carried out by persons unknown (Not by the Killer) as the bodies were left unattended prior to the surgeons arrival, which was not uncommon in Victorian England as organs were much sought after for medical and private research. Also despite the popular belief the Killer was never seen, is dismissed inasmuch that there were a number of witness who testified seeing the victims
with their Killer prior to being murdered. Marriott also lends credible support to propose that the murderer could not have carried out the surgical removal of organs in the time scale given to him and narrowly avoid detection in the dimly lit streets of Whitechapel. Well worth the Read even if you prefer the usual suspects, Marriott brings the Killer down to Earth with a bang.

Answer 2

Jack the Ripper substitute right into a serial killer who murdered prostitutes in an impoverished area of britain. To at the instant time he maintains to be nameless, nonetheless there are various theories as to his identity.

Answer 3

Easier to say which of the popular suspects he was not: Not the Royal Doctor (who was in his seventies and had suffered a stroke), not the Duke of Clarence (he was in scotland for most of them) and not Sickert (Cornwell's book is utter crrud).

My shortlist for the Ripper is:
Montague Druitt--He was named as a likely suspect in the Scotland Yard files and no-ones been able to rule him out
James Kelly--an escaped homicidal lunatic who was at large at the time of the crimes
Francis Tumblety,

The Ripper was likely local, but with a slightly better education than the average East-ender. He was not "famous", did not write any of the letters ascribed to him, and was not helped or protected by anyone during his crimes.

Answer 4

A lot of people would be very disappointed if the identity of Jack the Ripper was ever proved beyond reasonable doubt. It's human nature to dwell on the gory details and to enjoy a good murder mystery. Especially one set in the smog filled cobbled streets of Victorian London. Hence the multitude of books and films on the subject! Have a look here: http://pirate.shu.edu/~wisnieka/jack_the_ripper.htm

Answer 5

Suspects
In 1894, Sir Melville Macnaghten, then Chief Constable, wrote a confidential report in which he names the three top suspects. Although some information concerning the suspect he believed most likely to have been the murderer had been available before the turn of the century, the name of that suspect was not made public until 1959. Macnaghten's suspect was M.J. Druitt, a barrister turned teacher who committed suicide in December 1888. Unfortunately for Macnaghten who wrote his memoranda from memory, the details he ascribes to Druitt are wrong. According to the Chief Constable, Druitt was a doctor, 41 years of age, and committed suicide immediately after the Kelly murder. In actuality Druitt was 31, not a doctor, and killed himself nearly a month after the last official murder. No other police officer supported Macnaghten's allegations, and one in fact, stated that the theory was inadequate and that the suicide was circumstantial evidence at best that the drowned doctor was the Ripper. While it is still possible that he was the Ripper, correct information gathered about Druitt so far makes him seem an unlikely candidate.

In 1903, Frederick Abberline, a retired crack detective who had been in charge of the Ripper investigation at the ground level stated that he thought that multiple wife poisoner Severin Klosowski, alias George Chapman, might be Jack the Ripper. As with Macnaghten, no other officer has concurred with his opinion and modern criminal profiling science tends to reject Klosowski as a serious candidate.

The name of Macnaghten's second suspect was confirmed as Aaron Kosminiski in the early 1980s when a researcher came upon Donald Swanson's personal copy of Robert Anderson's book of memoirs. Both Swanson and Anderson were officers who participated in the Ripper investigation; indeed, they were the ones given the responsibility of being in charge of the case. Anderson had written in his memoirs that appeared for the first time in 1910 that the police knew who the Ripper was. According to Anderson the Ripper was a Polish Jew who was put away in an insane asylum after the crimes, and then died soon after. Swanson had made some notes in his copy of the book concerning Anderson's suspect, and wrote that the suspect's name was Kosminski. At first it seemed that the case had been solved, but research has found a number of problems with the theory. No other officer supports' Anderson's allegation, and Swanson's notes seem to question his superior's claims rather than support them. Aaron Kosminski was a real person and was placed in an insane asylum. His records show him to be a docile and harmless lunatic that heard voices in his head and would only eat food from the gutter. The dates of his incarceration are wrong, and he did not die soon after his committal but lived on until 1919. Some researchers have tried to explain the problems by saying that the name Kosminski' was confused with another insane Polish Jew, who really was dangerous.

The search continues. The third Macnaghten suspect, Michael Ostrog, has been investigated and there is nothing to indicate that he was nothing more than a demented con man.

Dr. Francis Tumblety, the latest serious suspect, only became known to students of the Jack the Ripper murders in 1993. A collector of crime memorabilia obtained a cache of letters belonging to a crime journalist named G.R. Sims. Among the letters was one from John Littlechild, who had been in charge of the Secret Department in Scotland Yard at the time of the murders. Dated 1913, Littlechild writes to Sims: "I never heard of a Dr. D. (which many assume is a reference to Druitt as Macnaghten thought Druitt was a doctor and Sims was a confident of the Chief Constable), in connection with the Whitechapel Murders but amongst the suspects, and to my mind a very likely one, was a Dr. T . . . He was an American quack named Tumblety . . . " A book by the collector who found the letter goes to great lengths in trying to prove that Tumblety is the final solution for the mystery. Unfortunately, he fails to do so. There is no doubt that Tumblety was a legitimate suspect and that when he fled to America, Scotland Yard detectives came over to investigate him further. It is unlikely that Scotland Yard continued to view him as a serious suspect. James Monro, who succeeded Warren and was in overall command of the Secret department before becoming Commissioner, thought that the Alice McKenzie murder of July 1889 was the work of the Ripper. He stated in 1890 that he did not know who the Whitechapel murderer was but that he was working on his own theory.

http://www.casebook.org/

Answer 6

There was an article about him on METRO a few days ago. Apparently, the forensic scientists of Scotland yard have come up with the image of how he looked like, based on the information they have now. They think the police at the time was looking for a wrong sort of guy.

Answer 7

,this is all speculation as there is no DNA evidence or any thing else as no one really knew what they were doing there are a lot a of web site on this the latest is a guy called twombelty sorry my spelling is crap, who was an American business man who lived in Liverpool for a while and then went back to America this is popular cos Scotland yard (or whoever was in charge back then) went to America to check him out but i think he died there soon after

Answer 8

There was a programme on TV last night channel 4 who reconstructed the murders & profiled the offender they ended up saying that it would have been a local male who did it.
Sorry cant recall the name of the programme

Answer 9

according to a british study by 2 policemen the most lightly person was an irish/american by the name of dumpltee(not sure of spelling)he was in that part of london at the time of all the murders,there were many other bits of evidence as well,when he died in the usa they found a couple of cheap brass rings in one of his pockets, he probably kept them as trophies,the same type that was missing from one of the murdered prostitutes,ps i notice that all the above answers including the royal doctor or perhaps the prince of wales,both of them were in scotland at the time of 3 of the murders

Answer 10

I'd say it was a local butcher. Royalty would've been easy to spot, and stand out like a sore thumb. It needed to be someone these women have met, or at least seen frequently enough to not be alarmed by his presence. It also needed to be someone familiar with the streets they walked to feel comfortable with when/where to commit the crime.

There is a theory that it was a local butcher who spouted his hatred of prostitute (his own mom was a prostitute) - and what better way to conceal a bloody crime than to have a bloody apron that butchers wear?