Jack the Ripper factfile

Jack the Ripper - fact and fiction

Jack the Ripper claimed his first victim, Mary Ann Nichols, on 31st August 1888. Like all but one of those he murdered, Mary Ann was a prostitute working in the Whitechapel area of London.

The Ripper’s horrific murder spree lasted until November of 1888 - spanning just three months and claiming five women. He was never caught.

Six other murders were investigated by the Whitechapel police at the time, though none of these has been officially linked with the Ripper.

Typically, the victims were strangled and then horrifically mutilated, sometimes having internal organs removed. The nature of the crimes has led some to theorise that the perpetrator had a knowledge of human anatomy  and could have been a doctor or butcher.

Police investigating the crimes were largely seen as inept, often arriving at the scene just moments after the killer had struck.

Over the period of the killings, police received a series of letters, claiming to be from the Ripper himself. Many were dismissed as hoaxes, but the "Dear Boss" letter is perhaps the most famous. It contained the notorious passage: “I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled.” It was signed “Jack The Ripper”, the first known use of the name.

Over 100 suspects have been proposed since the Ripper first struck. Among the more unlikely was Prince Albert Victor, although there is no firm evidence to substantiate this claim.

Suspects

Montague John Druitt was one of the chief suspects. His body was found floating in the River Thames 31 December 1888. It is thought he drowned himself around the time of the last murder. 

Sir William Withey Gull was physician to Queen Victoria. He was named as the Ripper as part of the royal conspiracy theory. Gull appeared as the Ripper in the novel From Hell by Alan Moore.

Walter Sickert, a German-born artist, was named as the Ripper by author Jean Overton Fuller and crime novelist Patricia Cornwell. However, many Ripperologists believe he was in France at the time of most of the Ripper murders.