Forget everything you've ever heard about Jack the Ripper...
During the autumn of 1888, a series of murders occurred in London’s East End that sent shockwaves reverberating around the world. The victims were all prostitutes,their killer, a knife-wielding assailant with an insatiable bloodlust.
Within the space of just three months, this unnamed fiend would claim at least five lives. Then, he mysteriously vanished, leaving behind a trail of mutilated corpses and a scar upon our collective psyche that endures to this day.
The atrocities attributed to Jack the Ripper have become the stuff of legend. And like any legend they have become the subject of wild speculation and unfounded theory...until now.
Join true crime author Robert Keller as he embarks upon a forensic examination of this most enigmatic of murder cases.
WARNING: Be prepared to have everything you thought you knew about
Jack the Ripper picked apart and challenged.
The Devil in Whitechapel
The Devil in Whitechapel
During the autumn of 1888, a series of murders occurred in
London’s East End that sent shockwaves reverberating around the world. The
victims were all prostitutes, their killer, a knife-wielding assailant with an
insatiable bloodlust. Within the space of just three months, this unnamed fiend
would claim at least five lives. Then, he mysteriously vanished, leaving behind
a trail of mutilated corpses and a scar upon our collective psyche that endures
to this day.
Contrary to popular belief, Jack the Ripper was not the
world’s first serial killer. Who it is that holds that dubious distinction is
unknown, although there are documented cases of serial murder going back to the
Roman Empire and to China’s Han Dynasty. Further along the historical path, we
can point to Gilles de Rais, a 15th-century French nobleman accused of
murdering over 140 children, or to Peter Stumpp, an alleged werewolf who
terrorized the German town of Bedburg, a hundred years later. Among the
Ripper’s contemporaries, we find any number of psychopathic killers, including
serial poisoner Mary Ann Cotton, depraved nurse Jane Toppan, and Chicago’s
notorious “Torture Doctor” Dr. H.H. Holmes.
So Jack wasn’t the first. It would be safe to say, though,
that no serial killer in history has garnered as much morbid attention as the
Whitechapel murderer. Indeed, there can be few historical figures who have had
as many manuscripts dedicated to them, from quasi-fiction potboilers to
scholarly works of doctoral quality. In addition, there have been films, TV
specials, plays, comic books, themed walks, even an opera. More recently, there
have been internet sites and chatrooms where Ripper aficionados can debate
their pet theories to their hearts’ content.
Why our obsession with this one case?
Perhaps it’s because it is the classic murder mystery. A
fiend emerges from the fog, taking victims at will, his bloodlust escalating
with each crime. Then, after a finale of unspeakable violence, he vanishes,
leaving us to ponder who he was, why he did what he did, and why he suddenly
stopped. It has all the elements of a perfect whodunit, except that there is no
Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot to point out the killer for us.
Will we ever know Jack’s identity? Sadly, the answer to that
question is, probably not. Many a name has been put forward but none of them
entirely fits the bill.
But that is not to say that we know nothing about the
Ripper. We have a good idea, via the testimony of eyewitnesses, as to what he
looked like; we are able, through an examination of the crimes, to form a
strong picture of how and where he lived; criminal psychologists are able to enlighten
us as to his motives and personality; the pathology reports give us insights
into his modus operandi and address the important question of whether or not he
had medical training.
So, in spite of the shroud of mystery that envelopes the
case, we know quite a lot about Jack the Ripper. We just are not able to name
him.
That, of course, hasn’t stopped us trying. Countless authors
have attempted, over the years, to convince us that they have uncovered the
Ripper’s true identity. In the main, the theories they have presented are
dubious at best and often quite ridiculous. The Ripper was a homicidal cotton
merchant, he was a famous painter, he was the heir to the British throne. Unfortunately,
none of these are true. Rather they are the product of twisting the facts and
dredging up questionable “evidence” in order to buffer a pet theory. That is
not the approach that I will be taking in this book.
Instead, I’ll be revisiting the crimes, scrutinizing the
credentials of oft-mentioned suspects, and debunking the common myths
surrounding the case. I’ll be re-examining the evidence, calling on the help of
some expert profilers, and finally constructing a picture of the most enigmatic
killer in history. If that sounds like something that might interest you, then
I welcome you along on an exploration of one of the world’s great mysteries.
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Very exciting blog, I've always been fascinated by the whole Whitechapel Walks About.
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