An unidentified man, nicknamed "Jack the Ripper," was held responsible for murdering five London prostitutes in 1888. The five prostitutes were stabbed to death between August 31 and November 9. Jack the Ripper, so named for his skill with a knife, was never found. He is often called the first modern serial killer.
The body of Polly Nichols, throat cut and abdomen sliced, was found in the early morning hours of August 31, 1888. Scotland Yard later called her the first victim of Jack the Ripper, although two other prostitutes had been stabbed to death earlier in that section of London. (So, it is possible that Jack the Ripper can be credited with more killings than just five.) On September 8, Annie Chapman was fatally stabbed, followed by Elizabeth Stride on September 30. The fourth killing, of Catharine Eddowes, occurred less than an hour later. Police speculated that she had interrupted the killer while he was cutting up Stride's body. The mutilated corpse of Mary Jane Kelly was found on November 9. These murders were beyond mere stabbings. Organs were cut out, and the police suspected cannibalism. Then, strangely, the killings stopped.
Fear nearly paralyzed London. Hundreds of extra police patrolled the streets. Suspect after suspect was brought in, but no one was ever charged. For more than a century after, fascination with this killer has continued. Countless books have been written about his deeds and identity, along with the production of numerous motion pictures and television programs.
Most modern research concerning the Ripper's identity centers on a paper published in 1959. Called the MacNaghten memorandum, it was written in 1889 by Scotland Yard's Sir Melville MacNaghten, and it named three possible suspects. One of them was a Russian doctor, Michael Ostrog. However, he appears to have been a somewhat harmless lunatic and might not even have been in London at the time of the killings. For a time, the number one suspect was schoolmaster Montague Druitt. MacNaghten seems to have favored Druitt as the killer, although no direct evidence linking him to the crimes was ever found. Druitt did commit suicide shortly after the fifth murder. However, the reason may have been his own severe depression or inherited mental illness, since his mother at the time was in an asylum.
The second most likely suspect, according to MacNaghten's memorandum, was Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew who, supposedly, was homicidal and hated women. A witness who identified Kosminski as being with one of the victims shortly before her murder, would not testify in court. Also, it seems odd that Kosminski was not suspected until some two years after the last murder. He died in an asylum in 1919, with no hard evidence linking him to the crimes.
There are other, less plausible theories as well. Jack the Ripper may have been a workingman in the district who could come and go without being noticed. Police discounted that for lack of evidence. In 1962, Dr. Thomas Stowell published a book claiming the identity of Jack the Ripper to be Prince Albert Edward, eldest son of the Prince of Wales, who became Edward VII. Stowell claimed that Albert, who died in 1892 of syphilis, was a sexual sadist and committed the murders with the help of the royal family's doctor, Sir William Gull. There is no evidence for this theory.
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