How long after the last Jack The Ripper murder did the police officially stop looking?

Answer 1

The Ripper's case was closed in 1892. But as a matter of fact, there are four new suspects but the police will not disclose any of the ripper's papers. More than 200 suspects have been named. But to Ripper expert Trevor Marriott, a former murder squad detective, German merchant Carl Feigenbaum is the top suspect. He was convicted of murdering his landlady in Manhattan and died in the electric chair in New York's Sing Sing prison in 1894. His lawyer suspected him of the Ripper murders too.

Investigating other groups who might have been in the area the St Katharine and the London Docks are a short walk from Whitechapel, a place merchant seamen would have flocked to as it was an infamous red light district. Such close proximity would have made it easy for the killer to steal back to his ship unnoticed.

The gaps between the murders also suggest the killer may have been a traveller. This theory fits with other facts, too. Although some suggest the killer was a resident of Whitechapel, wouldn't locals have given him up to the police? Especially after a reward was offered.

After some digging, Marriott came across records which showed the Nord Deutsche Line, a German merchant vessel group, had a ship called the Reiher docked at the time of the murders. When Marriott investigated the seamen aboard this ship, he came across the convicted murderer Feigenbaum.

Having watched his client die in the electric chair, Feigenbaum's lawyer William Lawton told the press he believed him to be responsible for the Ripper murders in London. Feigenbaum had confessed, he said, to suffering from a disease which periodically drove him to murder and mutilate women.

But having reviewed the evidence, Elizabeth Stride may have died at the hands of another killer, as everything about her murder is different to the others.

"Firstly the time the murder took place, and the knife used to cut her throat was much smaller than all of the other victims, hence the knife wound to her throat was much smaller and she had no other mutilations," says Marriott.

Doing the killing of both woman and distance between the two and the cutting of the second victim in less than one hour, does not seem possible.

Answer 2

The case was officially closed in 1895.