conspiracies-and-crime

[conspiracies-and-crime]

[conspiracies-and-crime]

The Jack the Ripper case

Information about the case: The Jack the Ripper murders were a series of murders that took place in London, England. Jack the Ripper went after women, specifically prostitutes. It has been over 100 years and this case is still unsolved, no one knows who this “Jack the Ripper” as though there are suspects and ideas on who it could have been. There is also a speculation on how many women were killed. Some think that it was only five murders others believe it was eleven. It is said that he was a madman without a clear motive for the murders.

Notes:

All the victims were prostitutes

Women rather than men.

Most women in the white chapel district had to turn to prostitution for survival.

Women rather than men.

Most women in the white chapel district had to turn to prostitution for survival.

Took place between 1888 &  1891

It’s been > 100 years since this case took place.

100’s of suspects.

The white chapel district is were most-all murders took place

Is known for violence and crime.

Said to not have a clear motive

Most say that he only claimed the lives of five women.

Known as the “canonical five”

Some think he claimed the lives of eleven women.

The murders were in the newspaper and the public eventually became fascinated with them.

The public became so upset that the police commissioner + the home secretary resigned from the case.

Eight possible suspects.

August 31, 1888, at 3:40 AM was when the first victim was found.

The first victim was Mary Ann Nichols’

Found by a man named, Charles Cross.

Claims he was walking along buck’s row when he noticed a bundle near the western end.

Another man, Robert Paul approached the body with Cross.

Mary Ann Nichols’ was found on her on her back with her thought slit violently and she was disembowelled.

Only dead for a half hour.

The killer could have been nearby when Paul and Cross found her.

September 8, 1888, Annie Chapman was found in 29 Hanbury street.

Chapman was discovered by John Davis, an elderly man from the building on the street.

Chapman's throat was also slit but this time her womb was taken.

Dr, George Baxter Phillips served as the divisional police surgeon at the time had thought to have knowledge by how Annie Chapman's womb had been removed.

The killer was either a doctor or had basic anatomical knowledge.

On September 27 i888 the central news agency got a letter from the alleged killer basically saying that he had been hearing that the police had caught him but he wouldn’t stop the murders but instead he would send an ear to the police as a joke. He says that he laughs when they say they are on the right track and he won’t stop until he’s caught or dead. He brags about his last murder and how he gathered some of the blood in a ginger ale bottle to write with but it thickened up too quickly for him to write with. He jokes about them thinking that he’s a doctor.

The letter wasn’t released to the public until October 1st.

People thought the letter was faked by the journalist.

On September 30th 1888 at 1:00 AM the body of Elizabeth Stride was found on Berner street by Louis Diemschutz.

This time only her throat was slit making the police to believe that Jack the Ripper was interrupted when Diemschutz approached.

This was the second victim

People question whether this was actually the doing of Jack the Ripper as her throat was cut quite hastily & didn’t have any of the other things that had happened previously.

When she was examined at 1:15 AM it was determined that by that time she had been dead for 30 minutes.

Only 45 minutes after the discovery of Stride the body of Catherine Eddowes was found Mitre Square.

This was just west of the Strider murder.

Her body was very mutilated including her face. Her uterus was removed along with her left kidney.

The body was 10-15 mins away while walking.

After Eddowes was killed he made his way back to the first murder.

East from the body of Eddowes (?) was the only solid clues for investigators and police in the case.

The clue was a piece of Catherine Eddowes apron.

Found by Alfred Long in the doorway of an apartment block nearby Goulston street.

This was east of the Eddowes murder site.

Nearby written in chalk was a message that read “The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.”

This was a sign of the anti-Semitism that was in this specific area.

The big thing about this clue was that it was found east of the murder site.

This was in the direction of Elizabeth Stride's murder site.

The murder that was committed 45 mins prior to this.

This meaning that the killer entered an area that, at the time, was swarming with cops.

Despite this showing that the killer could easily escape places that he could have been living in the east London area.

A postcard was received by the police on October 1st and was written by someone who had been claiming to be the Murderer.

It was written in similar handwriting.

This time talking about how he wasn’t kidding and how he couldn’t finish and how there would be a double even in the paper.

No one in the public knew about this so this lead police to believe that it was the killer as he described it in detail.

On October 13, 1888, police spent a week searching people's houses in East Densworth but found nothing

October 16 a man named George Lusk had received a letter.

He was the head of the Mile End Vigilance Committee.

This was a group to help assist the police.

The letter was signed. “From Hell”

Was delivered in a box w/ half a kidney.

The kidney was believed to be Catherine Eddowes’ kidney.

This was later to be found to be a prank by a medical student meaning that some people didn’t take this seriously and it was something they would joke around with.

(~~A month later) On Nov. 9, 1888, the body of the 5th & final victim Mary Kelly was found in her bed at 13 Millers Court.

She was found by her landlords assistant who was seeking rent.

This was the most gruesome murder.

Kelly’s body was disembowelled & “virtually skinned down”

“The sight that we saw I cannot drive from my mind it looked more like a work of a devil than a man” This is what the landlord said about the state of the body.

Some people claimed that they had seen the killer.

All murders were committed on a weekend.

Killers appearance.

In between 25-35

Roughly 5`5-5`7

Stocky, fair complexion, moustache.

Seen wearing a dark overcoat & dark hat.

Looked perfectly sane, frightfully normal.

Yet capable of extreme violence and cruelty.

. . .

Sir Melville Macnaghten, the Scotland yards head of criminal investigation department in 1903, though he had a vague idea on who the killer was.

Knew that Jack the Ripper had a basic knowledge of anatomy.

Possibly a doctor.

His notes say that he had narrowed his list of suspects down to three names.

Suspects of Jack the Ripper.

Suspect #1: Montague Johnson Druitt

A barrister who may have had an uncle + a cousin that were doctors.

~ His time of death he could have been around the age of 40.

Supposedly had an interest in surgery.

Might have lived with a cousin.

Who was practising medicine close to where the murders occurred.

It also appeared that ~ a month before the first canonical murder happened his (Montague) mother went insane.

Wrote down that he too thought he was going insane.

(though most people going or that are insane don’t know they are/going insane)

In Macnaghten’s notes, it says. “From private information, I have little doubt that his own family suspected this man of being the Whitechapel murderer; it was alleged that he was sexually insane”

After the last murder, Montague disappeared

4 weeks after the last murder he was found dead.

The body was found floating in the Thames river on December 3rd 1888

Suspect #2: Michael Ostrog

Russian doctor & criminal

Been in an asylum previously for homicidal tendencies.

Macnaughten wrote in his notes that he couldn’t find a strong alibi for his whereabouts during the murders.

Wasn’t evicted because there wasn’t enough evidence linked.

Suspect #3: Aaron Kosminski

A polish & Jewish resident in Whitechapel.

Spent time in an asylum in 1889

Resided in asylums until his death in 1919

Known for his hatred toward women

Specifically prostitutes.

His description matched with the killers

Name recently was in headlines

Featured in the book, “Naming Jack the Ripper”

Russell Edwards (the author) talked about how a shawl was bought at an auction and contained his DNA proving that he was the killer.

Bought under the impression that it was found at the murder scene of Catherine Eddowes.

Edwards got help from a molecular biologist Jari Louhelainen from Liverpool John Moores University.

Seman on the shawl was linked to Kosminski.

With this discovery, people thought that the case was closed

“I’ve got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case. I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitely solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was. Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now -- We have unmasked him.” - Russell Edwards.

Louhelainen may have made a large mistake.

Dr. Louhelainen identified a mutated piece of DNA on both the scarf and in Eddowes relative Karen Miller.

Mutation believed to be 314.1C

Only found in 1 - 290.000

The match was incorrect it wasn’t 314.1C instead was 315.1C.

Mutation shared with > 99% of people of European descent.

Kosminskies DNA was linked using Mitochondrial DNA using a subtype that wasn’t unique.

Suspect #4: Jill the Ripper

The theory that Jack the Ripper was actually a female

~~ a hunch of inspector Abberline

When everyone was looking for a man instead of a woman would explain why the killer could slip by unnoticed.

A midwife could also have anatomical Knowledge.

Blood on her clothing wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow.

Though all eyewitness accounts pointed to a man.

Suspect #5: Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward (The royal conspiracy.)

Often scoffed at.

Prince Edward was frequent to places that the victims were found.

An activity that led him to contract syphilis which drove him to insanity

Caused him to have a child with a local woman which led the queen to demand that everyone who knows of the child to be “Taken care of.”

Some believe that the insanity spawned by syphilis drove him to commit the murders himself.

Conspiracy theorists believe that he was never discovered because royal aids assisted in covering his identity.

This theory is often called ludacris as there isn’t any evidence to back it up.

Suspect #6: Walter Sickert

Patricia Cornwell (Known for her crime novels and devoted her time to find out who the killer was) claims that Sickert was obsessed with Jack the Ripper.

This is proven true

Referenced Jack the Ripper in some of his paintings.titling one of them “Jack the Ripper's Bedroom”

Cornwell claims that one painting mirrors the body position of the fifth victim Mary Kelly.

Claims that another painting mimics the facial wounds of fourth victim Catherine Eddowes

Reports of Sickert ‘Cosplaying’ as Jack the Ripper for fun.

Cornwell debunks that Sickert was in France at the time of the murders.

Saying that he has sketches of music halls in London at the time of three killings at least.

Analysis of forensic paper expert Peter Bower who identified three of Sickert's letters and two of Jack the Ripper's letters from a handmade paper run with only 24 sheets of that paper.

The possibility of both Sickert and Jack the Ripper writing on the same paper that only has 24 sheets in existence is very unlikely.

While that is undoubtedly evidenced all of the Jack the Ripper letters are unconfirmed.

Suspect #7: Joseph Barnett

Suspicious because he actually lived with Mary Kelly.

May have lived in 10 different locations in East London.

So he knows the area well so he can navigate back streets.

Worked as a fish porter

Reported was in love with Kelly.

According to the Daily Telegraph Barnett referred to Kelly as his “wife”

She was only a roommate.

Disagreed with her life as a prostitute striving to make money to keep her off of the streets.

Saying. “Marie never went out on the streets with me”

Theorised that Barnett committed the first murders to keep her off of the street.

Which for a little bit worked.

When he lost his job Kelly went back to the streets.

Financial struggles lead to fights.

Barnett disliked her love of Gin.

When Kelly brought back two different prostitutes it stirred one final fight which Barnett found unacceptable.

The fight got violent

A window was broken.

Not too long after Barnett moved out of the house.

10 days later Mary Kelly was found dead.

He was questioned for 4 hrs but was set free.

Having lived there he would know knowledge about the house of which included how to unlock the door from the outside.

Also knew Kelly's schedule and tendencies.

Details say that she was killed in her sleep rather than by someone she invited in.

Clothes were folded by the bed “As though they were taken off in an ordinary manner.”

Was wearing a nightgown.

As a fish porter, he would have anatomical knowledge.

Because he knew Kelly other prostitutes would know him allowing him to get close enough for a “sneak attack”

One newspaper at the time stated that some of his friends called him Jack.

Matches both physical and mental descriptions of Jack the Ripper that were created by police & the FBI.

The murders stopped after Mary Kelly.

With his lover , that he was trying to keep off of the streets, now dead he had no reason to keep on killing people.

Suspect #8/Last suspect: James Maybrick

His death matched with the stop of the killings.

Died a year after the killings.

Upper-class cotton merchant

Resided in an estate called the “Battlecrease House” in Liverpool.

Some think that this is a large detail as they think that he wasn’t an upperman & was instead a local.

A wealthy cotton merchant would be able to travel on weekends.

Wouldn’t be killing in his own Locale (Local area)

A diary was found under the floorboards of Maybricks estate.

His diary is signed. “I give my name that all know of me, so history does tell, what love can do to a gentleman born. Yours Truly,

Jack the Ripper.”

The diary held intimate details of the killings.

Scientific tests prove that the diary matched the time of the Jack the Ripper killings.

The diary was discovered by a scrap metal dealer named Mike Barett.

Admitted to the diary being fabricated but then later took that back.

The details of how he got the diary are shaky.

Some say it fell into his hands from being handed down in his family others say Barrett discovering it himself or his associates discovering it and then bringing it to him.

If the diary truly was found under the floorboards of the estate than there is a very strong possibility that Maybrick is Jack the Ripper.

Following the diary, a golden pocket watch was found as potential evidence.

The pocket watch apparently has the initials of each of the five canonical victims scratched into it.

Including the phrases “I am Jack” & “J. Maybrick.

The scratches were analysed from an electron microscope and Dr. Stephen Turgoose who said that the scratches were not done in modern times.

Another Dr. named Robert Wild, in Bristol’s Universities Interface Analysis Center, suggests the scratches “could have been very, very old and were certainly not new but it was difficult to be precise”

The watch, which was displayed and discovered in a Liverpool Jewelry Shop by a college caretaker named Elbert Johnson.

Dated in 1846

Purchased for 225 Pounds. ( 294.88 US dollars.)

My Thoughts.

My thoughts on the Jack the Ripper case. Well, I personally have a fascination with unsolved mysteries, especially unsolved murder cases. This one in particular really caught my attention just in how the victims were chosen and how it has been so long and we have so many suspects but only a couple of them would actually make sense and possibly could be Jack the Ripper but there are places where the theory and reasons to suspect to the person kind of fall out or it would lead to at least a couple of loose ends or it starts to not support it as much as it could and some of the evidence isn’t the best so you can get confused about the true killer. As for the case itself, it is a sad thing that had happened but I honestly can see how it could stay a mystery for so long. With that many suspects and different evidence showing up and being debunked so often and random throughout the years. Like the instance where the shawl was bought at an auction and the molecular biologist got the wrong mutation and said that it was a rare one before finding out that he had said that it was the wrong one and it was actually a mutation that every descendant of a European has the mutation. Things like that can keep it a mystery although I think that we will probably solve it eventually seeing that we have a couple that might actually have been Jack the Killer.

This case is actually the case that really got me into crime and unsolved mysteries I find it fascinating about how we could solve it years and years after the crime had happened and ended. I honestly love the idea of studying cases whether they’re ongoing or if they have already ended and haven’t been solved. Even cases that have been solved are just fun to write my thoughts down or talk about my thoughts and theories about it.

My theories and who I think did it.

Okay, I have three different theories that I think committed all of the Jack the Ripper murders. I’m going to go from the one that I don’t think is very likely and I have very little evidence for to the one that has the most and that is more likely. Now let’s begin.

The Jill the Ripper Theory: Okay I think this one could be likely because at the time that the killings were going on (1888) women weren’t allowed to have a title of a doctor or anything of the sort. So when the first or second letter for Jack the Ripper was sent (now thinking back to it I do believe that it was the first letter sent in.) it says that they were shocked that people were actually thinking that they were a doctor. This leads me to believe that it really could have been a women at the time. Plus in 1888 it would be normal that a midwife would have blood on her clothes so she could have passed it off that she was just a midwife so she could slip in and out of crowds easily which could explain why the killer wasn’t found or spotted on the night of the double murder. It could have also thrown off the police because they were told to be looking for a man but instead they should be looking for a woman. Although there is something that is holding that piece of evidence back that it that the killer had been described by eyewitness accounts and at that time you could easily tell the difference between a man and a women as they had very different figures due to the corsets that they (women) would always wear. Being a midwife would also give her anatomical knowledge that Jack the Ripper obviously had otherwise how else would (s)he be able to disembowel his (her) victims and take out their womb the way they did.

Joseph Barnett: This one definitely has more of a chance than the Jill the Ripper theory does. Barnett actually lived with the fifth and last victim Mary Kelly. He had actually told the Daily Telegraph that she was his “wife” when in reality she was actually just a roommate that he lived with so people naturally started to say that Barnett had loved Kelly and because he disagreed with her being a prostitute people believe that he committed the first murders to scare her off of the street which actually worked for a bit. He said that “When Marie was with me she never went onto the streets.” This was because she didn’t need to because he was working as a fish porter. He was thought to be able to get around so easily because he may have lived in 10 different places in East London so, he could get around quickly because he knew his way around. Because he didn’t like that Kelly was a prostitute they often got into arguments they would also fight because he didn’t like her love of Gin. But when Joseph lost his job as fish porter Kelly went back onto the streets and continued with the prostitution. When Kelly brought two other prostitutes home Barnett didn’t think that this was acceptable so they got into a pretty big argument at this point it had gotten quite violent a window was apparently broken in the fight. After the fight, Barnett ended up leaving the house. 10 days later Kelly was found dead in her apartment. Because he lived there he would know how to unlock the door from the outside and around the house. Kelly’s clothes were also folded like they had been taken off and placed in an ordinary manner and she was in a nightgown so she was killed in her sleep because it didn’t look like she had any form of struggling like she had been killed from someone she had let inside. Right after Kelly was killed the killings had stopped as it is known. This ties in because why would he kill anyone else when the women that he loved was now dead and he had no reason to still be killing.

James Maybrick: James Maybrick is the person that is most likely to have done it. Maybrick was an upper-class cotton merchant so he only really had weekends to go out and do other stuff plus all of the murders took place on weekends which could potentially point directly toward Maybrick. Plus he was living somewhere else so it wasn’t so obvious it was him at first because he lived in a different location than the murders were happening it was kind of shrugged off because you know who would want to go somewhere else to commit a crime such as murder. He also resided with an estate called the “Battlecrease House” that was located in Liverpool. Under one of the floorboards, there was a diary found that had vivid and intimate details about each one of the murders of each one of the victims. The diary was signed with this: “I give my name that all know of me, so history do tell, what love can do to a gentleman born. Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper.”. There was a gold pocket watch that was found by a college caretaker by the name of Elbert Johnson had found it in a jewellery shop in Liverpool. He took it to a Dr. who said that the scratches in the watch weren’t from modern times the scratches read the initials of all of the victims and two phrases “I am Jack” and “J. Maybrick.”