What is the biggest mistake people make in the case of Jack The Ripper?

Answer 1

By far the biggest mistake that most people make when trying to identify JTR would be to assume the start and stop of his murders. Especially in a case so old, errors get passed down so many times that they are eventually taken as fact.

I have read so many JTR books that claim to know the identity of the Ripper, yet instead of starting at the begining and sticking to just the facts, meaning the autopsy reports, or what is left of them, whatever Scotland Yard has retained in the way of evidence, and building on these things.

Contrary to what most people know and believe about the Ripper's crimes, he most likely did not begin with Polly Nickols, and it may not have been Martha Trabam either. And more important to the case is the supposed last victim Mary Kelly. Scotland Yard knew Kelly was not the last victim. The murders went on for years. Although I have never uncovered this in my years of studing this criminal, for some reason the papers stopped almost completely their stories of the Ripper's crimes. It could have come from the higher-ups at Scotland Yard, but I have not found that to be a fact. When the crimes stopped made for much speculation about what happened to the Ripper. Many suspects were applied to the crimes based on this one faslehood.

For reasons I'm not sure anyone can pinpoint, Mary Kelly got the false label of 'last victim'. If and when the Ripper stopped had a profound influence on the suspect list. I have found only 2 books that start from the beginning and stick to the facts not the folklore and fable that have attached themselves to these crimes. By applying modern forensics and psychological criminal profiling and studying the case files and sticking to the facts we could get a much better idea of who Jack The Ripper really was.