!CRIME TIME!

Jack the Ripper: ‘GHASTLY MURDER IN THE EAST-END’

“In each instance, the victim’s throat was cut, and the body was usually mutilated in a manner of indicating that the murderer had at least some knowledge of human anatomy.”

Between August and November 1888, five women were murdered near the Whitechapel district in London’s East-End. However, there was great speculation that the unidentified murderer killed dozens more, becoming one of London’s greatest unsolved mysteries. 

The bodies of the “canonical-five,” the victims, proved to be linked to a single murderer. Additionally, each victim was brutalized with specific mannerisms. It began with strangulation. Then, the killer would gently lower the body to the ground and slit the victim’s throat, sliding the knife from left to right. This was done to effectively drain the blood before continuing the “ritual[istic] evisceration.” Organ removal from the bodies was done cleanly- suggesting that the killer had anatomical or surgical training. The knife wounds to the neck also indicated that the killer was right-handed.  The bodies were found on the following dates.

1. Mary Ann Nicholas - August 31st

Nicholas was 44 years old the day she was murdered. She was last seen alive around 2:38 am on August 31, 1888. She was later found dead at approximately 3:45 am, lying in a narrow, dimly lit side street of the White Chapel. She suffered an 8-inch laceration on the throat, which severed both arteries in her neck. She also suffered violent lacerations to her abdomen. 

2. Annie Chapman - September 8th

Chapman was a 47-year-old drunk who supported herself via prostitution after her husband passed away. She was seen alive at 5:30 am outside an apartment on Saturday, September 8, 1888. A witness heard a muffled scream of “No!” from behind the fence in his backyard. He claimed to hear a thump on the fence shortly after. Chapman was found with a deep cut in her neck (left to right), her legs up by her head, and her abdomen wide open. Her swollen tongue suggested that Chapman was strangled to death. Additionally, her intestines were removed methodically and strung across her shoulders like a necklace. Her uterus and bladder were also missing. The incisions on the body suggest that the killer was surgically skilled.

3. Elizabeth Stride - September 30th

Stride was a 45-year-old woman who had been drinking earlier in the day. She was last seen Sunday, September 30, 1888, at around 12:35 am. About 25 minutes, later her body was found in a dark alleyway. Her legs were pulled up towards her body, and she had a kerchief tied around her neck. Her throat was deeply cut on the left side, with a shallower incision on the right. The remaining warmth of the body and the lack of mutilation suggested that the killer was interrupted by the witness who discovered her body. 

4. Catherine Eddowes - September 30th

Last seen alive at 1:35 am, 45-year-old Eddowes’s body was found ten minutes later in the square by the White Chapel. Like the other victims, the throat was slit and the knees were bent towards the sky. Eddowes was sliced open from the rectum to the sternum. Her entrails were wrapped around her like a scarf. The nose was cut off, and deep, violent lacerations marked her eyelids and cheeks. Only a partial amount of the womb remained and the kidney was deemed as missing. 

5. Mary Jane Kelly -  November 9th

Unlike other victims, Kelly was 25 years old and was considered very attractive. She was the only victim ever murdered indoors, and the killer took advantage of that privacy. She was last seen alive Friday, November 9, at 2:00 am, entering her apartment with a man holding a parcel. A rent collector at 10:45 am later entered her apartment to find her body. Kelly was arguably the most mutilated victim. Her face was slashed and stabbed repeatedly to the point where it virtually wasn’t there, her throat was slit so deeply that it scratched her vertebrae, and her organs, entrails, and breasts were underneath her head like a pillow. Additionally, slabs of flesh from her thighs were laid on the nightstand next to her bed. A piece of the heart was missing from the body as well. There was also evidence to suggest that—in addition to the killer’s notoriously long, thin blade—an ax was used as well

Since the “canonical five,” there were a number of murders that fit the killer’s M.O. It is suspected that the killing spree went on for months and years after Mary Kelly’s body was found. A British social historian, Hallie Rubenhold, suggested that the killing of the aforementioned women was a result of the murderer’s “..misogynistic and class-based prejudices of the Victorian Era.” It is believed that all of the murdered women were prostitutes. 

The killer, during the massacre, identified himself to the police by mailing a small portion of a human kidney to them. He called himself “Jack the Ripper.” This was not his real name, but he continued to use this alias when sending taunting letters to the London Police. Strenuous efforts were made to capture Jack the Ripper, but the police ultimately failed. A great public uproar ensued, targeted against the home secretary and the London Police Commissioner. Since then, the victims were not only referred to as the “canonical five” but also as the “Ripper Murders.”