Jack the Ripper

Joseph Barnett as JTR suspect is flawed. The theory's biggest supporter it seems is Bruce Paley who published his thoughts in a book that was supposed to reveal the true Ripper. Unfortunatly, his theory makes little sense. In Paley's story Barnett, who was Mary Kelly's live in boyfriend was so enraged by her acts of prostitution that he killed a few 'working girls' to scare her off the streets. This is not a new angle. This is the same theory that was used when trying to explain why James Maybrick was JTR. Supposedly Maybrick was furious that his wife had a lover so he killed prostitutes to get even for her infidelity.

These crimes were not committed by a jealous spouse. These crimes were not about revenge. For the same reasons that Ted Bundy killed, or the Green River Killer Gary Ridgeway, Jack The Ripper killed for his own satisfaction and sexual gratification. This killer had an extreme hatred of women. Anyone that knew Barnett or Maybrick for that matter, knew they were not 'women haters'. Although not much is known about Barnett by all accounts he seemed to be a regular kind of man, hard working when he could find work at all. He had at least some respect and affection for Kelly, since he continued to visit her and give her what money he could spare. If Barnett was going to kill someone out of jealousy it would have been the woman that Mary Kelly had been sharing her bed with, which is the reason Barnett left Kelly in the first place.

In conclusion, it would be wise for anyone tempted to write a Ripper book to have at least some understanding of sexual serial murder and the type of men that carry out these kinds of crimes.

The 19th century serial killer known as Jack The Ripper killed at least 6 women, all working as prostitutes in London's east end district known as Whitechapel. Since this famous killer was never caught there are differing opinions as to how many victims he really had. I will list the victims that most likely are the Ripper's victims. Martha Tabram was found murdered on August 7, 1888. Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols, found murdered in the early morning hours of August 31, 1888. On September 8, 1888 Annie Chapman was found with her throat cut and disembowelled, at least one organ taken. Next was what is known as the 'double event'. Elizabeth Stride was murdered on September 30, 1888, less than an hour later and less than 1 mile from Stride's body, Catherine Eddows was found, throat slit and severely mutilated. On November 9, 1888, Mary Jane Kelly was found murdered and mutilated beyond recognition. The only known photo of Kelly was taken by police at her rented room in 13 Miller's Court, Whitechapel. Every organ had been removed from her body cavity with the exception of her brain. Her heart must have been taken by the Ripper because it was never found.

For reasons that are unclear, interest in the Ripper and his crimes seemed to fade after the murder of Mary Kelly. That does not mean that the killer was finished. There were a number of murders consistant with the Ripper's other crimes but were barely reported in the papers of the day. Other victims that are not generally known to the public are Alice McKenzie, an unidentified mutilated body known as the Pinchin Street Corpse found on September 10, 1889, dismembered body parts found on December 13, 1889, the body of Frances Coles, a prostitute working in the Whitechapel district, on February 13, 1891. More dismembered female body parts found in June 1902, and the body of prostitute Emily Dimmock, Camden Town, in 1907.

As is true for most serial killers, Jack The Ripper did not stop killing. It was reported erroneously that Mary Kelly was his last victim. Far from it. These kinds of killers will continue to kill unless they are caught, they are incarcerated, they become sick and infirm and/or die, or they just get too old and the urge to kill decreases over years as they slip into old age. This is the most likely scenario for the killer known Saucy Jack, aka, Jack The Ripper.

Surprisingly, a full understanding of the Ripper's modus operandi was not established until several years ago. The Whitechapel murderer and his victim stood facing each other. When she lifted her skirts, the victim's hands were occupied and was then defenseless. The Ripper seized the women by their throats and strangled them until they were unconscious if not dead. The autopsies constantly revealed clear indications that the victims had been strangled. In the past some writers believed that the Ripper struck from behind when the victims were bent forward, their skirts hiked up their backsides while waiting to engage in anal sex. This is a very awkward arrangement and the risk that they may scream or elude his clutch's make this unacceptable. The Ripper then lowered his victims to the ground, their heads to his left. This has been proven by the position of the bodies in relation to walls and fences that show that there was virtually no room for the murderer to attack the body from the left side. No bruising on the back of the heads shows that he lowered the bodies to the ground rather than throwing or letting them fall. Given the inclement weather and filth in the streets it is unacceptable that the prostitutes or their client would have attempted intercourse on the ground. He cut the throats when the women were on the ground. Splatter stains show that the blood pooled beside or under the neck and head of the victim rather than the front which is where the blood would flow if they had been standing up. In one case blood was found on the fence some 14 inches or so from the ground and opposite the neck wound and this shows that the blood spurted from the body while in the prone position on the ground. This method also prevented the killer from being unduly blood stained. By reaching over from the victim's right side to cut the left side of her throat, the blood flow would have been directed away from him, which would have reduced the amount of blood in which he would have been exposed. If the victim was already dead before their throats were cut, then the blood spilt would have not been very much. With the heart no longer beating the blood would not have been "pressurized," so only the blood in the immediate area of the wound would have evacuated gently from the cuts. The Ripper then made his other mutilations, still from the victim's right side, or possibly while straddling over the body at or near the feet. In several cases the legs had been pushed up which would have shortened the distance between the abdomen and the feet. No sign of intercourse was ever detected nor did the Ripper masturbate over the bodies. Usually he took a piece of the victim's viscera. The taking of a "trophy" is a common practice by modern sexual serial killers. In the opinion of most of the surgeons who examined the bodies, most believed that the killer had to have some degree of anatomical knowledge to do what he did. In one case he removed a kidney from the front rather than from the side, and did not damage any of the surrounding organs while doing so. In another case he removed the sexual organs with one clean stroke of the knife. Given the time circumstances of the crimes (outside, often in near total darkness, keeping one eye out for the approach of others, and under extremely tight time constraints), the Ripper almost certainly would have had some experience in using his knife.

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Unintentionally, but yes he was. His crimes and the publicity that followed was like a beacon to expose the horrendous conditions that his victims were forced to endure on a daily basis. The wealthier citizens of London, Queen Victoria included, were publicly shamed into action.

But as with most governments, and most social reform, change is slow to appear. Author Jack London for a brief time lived penniless among the impoverished east enders in 1900-01 as research for his book 'People of the Abyss'. At that time conditions were hardly improved from 1888, the time of Jack The Ripper's initial crimes.

To walk the streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields today, one would barely recognize them as the Whitechapel of the Victorian age. There are still the same streets and alleys that the Ripper stalked his prey, even a few of the buildings remain. The Ten Bells tavern is still in operation and #13 Miller's Court where Mary Jane Kelly was so brutally murdered is part of Ripper Walks for tourists. But the filth and hopelessness of the area has been eliminated, thanks in part, the Jack The Ripper.

Well we know what happened to half of the famous organ. It was turned over first to Scotland Yard by it's receiver George Lusk, the leader of the East End Vigilante Committee. At that point Scotland Yard sent the kidney to Dr. Openshaw, the pathologist curator of the London Hospital museum. Dr. Openshaw's opinion was that is was in fact 1/2 of a human kidney, taken from a female in her 40s, that had indulged in alcohol more than was good for her, and that she was in the advanced stages of Brights disease. The chance that it could have been anyone other than the Ripper murder victim Katherine Eddows, would have been almost impossible. Without modern DNA testing this was about as positive a match as anyone could ever get.

The Letter From Hell came into being in 1888. The letter was written by the person clamming to be Jack the Ripper. The letter was sent to George Lusk who then posted the letter the following day.

His crimes were done in Whitechapel, England in 1888.

It is a fact that not all homicides are solved. In the case of Jack The Ripper the killer was never caught, but not from lack of trying. Scotland Yard did everything in their power to catch the Ripper, but they lacked the 'tools' necessary to apprehend a killer like him. Saucy Jack was a century ahead of the technology and understanding that was vital to his capture.

In the century since the Whitechapel killer roamed the east end there have been many that have claimed to know the identity of the killer. The subject of numerous books, movies, websites and endless discussions, yet the murders are still a mystery as is the man that committed them.

Since the rippper was never caught, there will be questions never answered.

Ripperologists.

The last of the canonical five murders was Mary Kelly on November 9th, 1888. But some people believe that later murders in Whitechaple were also the work of Jack the Ripper. And others believe that Jack the Ripper left the country and committed murders in the US. We don't know for sure.

Soon after Kelly's death, the body of Montagu Druitt was found in the Thames, and a note went round Scotland Yard saying that there would be no more murders now. Assuming Kelly was the last Ripper victim, this would point to Druitt as the serial murderer.

As for some other murders in the area in the following year or two, many authors have tried to link these to the Ripper, but most experts are not convinced.

At the time of her murder in 1888 she was 29 years old. So she was born in the year 1859.

He didn't stalk his victims from a know place. The theory goes that he walked the allies in search for a victim but a pub in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, could be the pub that the ripper visited.

From the condition of his victim's bodies it is clear that the killer known as Jack the Ripper had a great amount of hostility toward women. Whether that extended to hatred for men we may never know. It is likely that he looked like a regular guy, average and able to blend in, hiding in plain sight.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Stewart advanced theories involving a female murderer dubbed "Jill the Ripper." Supporters of this theory believe that the murderer worked, or posed, as a midwife. She could be seen with bloody clothes without attracting unwanted attention and suspicion and would be more easily trusted by the victims than a man. A suspect suggested as fitting this profile is Mary Pearcey, who in October 1890, killed her lover's wife and child, though there is no indication she was ever a midwife. E. J. Wagner, in The Science of Sherlock Holmes, offers in passing another possible suspect, Constance Kent, who had served 20 years for the murder of her younger brother at the age of sixteen. There is some inconclusive DNA evidence taken from the letters sent to the police - this evidence does not rule out the possibility of the killer being a woman.

Jack the Ripper

The notion that Jack the Ripper might not in fact be a man at all, but rather a woman, was one postulated by Inspector Abberline himself at the time of the killings.

Which scene of this type is the most notorious is a matter of opinion. Some of the most famous scenes of this type are those of the victims of Jack the Ripper, Lizzie Bordon, and Charles Manson.

The canonical victims are the 'original five' women that are most commonly associated with the Jack The Ripper killings. Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols, Annie Chapmen, Elizabeth Stride, Katherine Eddows and Mary Kelly.

For reasons that are not clear the 'hoopla' over the Ripper crimes diminished greatly after the death of Mary Kelly. The killer kept on killing most likely for years but was mostly ignored by the press. But the detectives that worked the case know that the Ripper went nowhere. It does seem that after the Kelly murder his made some adjustments to his MO, possibly to avoid detection.

Jack The Ripper was never caught which makes it very difficult to know much about him. An educated guess would make him a white male of which there were many in London's east end. But the Whitechapel district was overrun with foreigners, many who could not even speak the Queen's english. There were many Polish and Russian Jews, Irish immigrants, Asians, ect., and of course many British and Scottish people. The area had many sailors since the docks were close by, and their population waxed and waned as their ships came and went. One thing is very clear though. Whatever his nationality, he had extensive knowledge of the area, and his appearance would have to have been benign, blending in perfectly to his surroundings. Whether he actually lived there is unknown, nor was it necessary. He may have lived in another part of London or somewhere close by and still have a mental map of Whitechapel and Spitalfields.

Anywhere from several hundred to several thousand, providing it passes the inspection of a rare document specialist.

Jack the Ripper is the best known pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished districts in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. Since he was never aprehended, we would not know how he determine his prey was near by.

I believe the Ripper was targeting prostitutes because they were an easy target. Serial killers lack the true killing instict. They prey on victims that easy to kill. I never seen a serial killer killing a hells angels biker.

//I agree that prostitutes are often chosen as victims because they are available targets. But Jack The Ripper's crimes were sexually motivated. This is why he did not kill men. He was most likely heterosexual or he would have chosen men instead. It is also obvious that the killer had an enormous hatred for women. Some killers that victimize prostitutes claim they were doing society a favor by cleaning up the streets. Washington state's Green River Killer Gary Leon Ridgeway said this exact thing after his arrest.

For many years it was believed the Mary Kelly's murder on November 9, 1888, was Jack The Ripper's last murder. This simply is not true. A prostitute named Francis Coles was murdered in Whitechapel in 1891 who is now also thought to be killed by JTR. It is also most likely that Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols was not the Ripper's first victim. At the very least Martha Tabram, who was found murdered several weeks before Nichols, was the Ripper's also. If this is true than Kelly would have been the Ripper's sixth victim, not the fifth.

She had a good theory but after reading the book, you come to the conclusions that he was not the ripper.