The Whitechapel Murders of 1888

The person who murdered at least five women in the Whitechapel area of London in late 1888 is without doubt the most famous serial killer in the world. This is probably because he was the first one that had such a memorable modus operandi that also came with a catchy nickname that the press loved – Jack the Ripper.

Now officially the killer has never been caught, charged or identified, but as the last 133 years have shown, there have been no shortage of suspects and evidence.

It was 31^st August 1888 that the body of Polly Nichols was found murdered in Bucks Row, a gruesome sight but one that was never seen before to this extent. She had been mutilated and stabbed numerous times, yet nobody came forward to say that they had seen a thing.

On 8^th September a second victim, Annie Chapman, was found outside the back doorway of 29 Hanbury Street, she too had been savagely attacked in the same way. It didn’t take a genius to link the two murders but worse was to come.

30^th September 1888 went down in history as the “double event” when two bodies were found at different locations. The first one was Elizabeth Stride, but her corpse had not been as butchered as the others, within less than an hour it was found out why – the killer most likely had been disturbed and run off. The body of Catherine Eddowes was laid in Mitre Square and ripped open like the others.

By now the police were worried that there was a maniac out stalking the streets that had murdered four women in just a month. It wasn’t that there was not enough information – there was too much! A lot of it was hoax letters, even a piece of kidney sent to the police saying that it had come from one of the victims.

In the morning of 9^th November 1888 a visitor to 13 Millers Court found the final victim of Jack the Ripper’s murderous rampage. This one was inside a small room, a bedsit that Mary Kelly had rented, giving the killer as much time as he needed to carry out his deed. Because of this her body was unrecognisable, laid on her bed and cut up into pieces, innards spread out and blood everywhere.

Officially this was the last victim of Jack the Ripper, although there were others before and after these five that may have been down to the same killer. With too many clues to go on the list of suspects over the years has been astronomical, it seems that every day a new expert comes along and gives their own theory on sometimes the smallest possible evidence.

At the top of this suspect list though is Aaron Kosminski, who was caught by the police just after the fifth murder and was named by police in official memo’s as the killer, but it was the startling DNA evidence that showed up on a shawl found at the scene of the murder of Catherine Eddowes that had both the victim and the descendent of Kosminski on. Although this has been criticised due to the possibility of cross-contamination, passage of time and other arguments, the truth of the matter is this Polish Jew lived very close to the murders and was sent to a workhouse due to his deteriorating mental state. Later he was forced to be locked up in a mental asylum until his death in 1919.

Today there is very little left of the London that once was, so many streets have changed since 1888 but there is still the pub The Ten Bells where the victims were said to drink, the streets are there but the houses are long gone, Mary Kelly’s home is now a car park. Jack the Ripper tours are a common sight at Tower Hill tube station where visitors can pay a fee to be taken around the areas where the victims were found. A historian friend of mine did it for free up until recently, plus he was more in depth and asked you to remember that these women were not just celebrity victims, they were human beings who had families and now thanks to a killer we still can’t officially name, their names will be remembered forever.