Serial Killers: Jack the Ripper

Number of victims: 5

Date of murders: August - November 1888

Method of murder: Strangulation / Stabbing

Location: London, England

The granddaddy of all serial killers, Saucy Jack terrorized the east end of London over nine bloody weeks during 1888. Jack was not the most prolific of killers by any means, claiming just five victims (some accounts list as many as 11), but such was the ferocity of his attacks that he sparked an unprecedented wave of terror in London and beyond. The victims had their throats cut, their abdomens ripped open and in some cases their internal organs removed from the scene. The fiend also taunted the police in a series of infamous letters.

Jack’s final murder was his most vicious of all. Irish prostitute Mary Kelly was literally torn apart, her breasts and internal organs excised and placed on a bedside table, chunks of flesh hacked from her thighs. Then, with the world’s media blasting out lurid headlines about this latest outrage, the Ripper disappeared, never to be heard from again.

Over a century has passed since the Jack the Ripper murders, but Jack still holds a morbid fascination over us. Many theories exist as to his identity but it is unlikely that we will ever know who he was.

Read the terrifying tale of Jack the Ripper, plus 9 other horrific stories of serial killers who have never been caught in Serial Killers Unsolved. Available now on Amazon.