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{{Short description|Unidentified serial killer in London in 1888}}
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{{About|the serial killer}}
{{For|the murders in or near Whitechapel usually attributed to Jack the Ripper|Whitechapel murders}}
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{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
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{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Jack the Ripper
| image             = JacktheRipper1888.jpg
| caption           = "With the Vigilance Committee in the East End: A Suspicious Character" from ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', {{Nowrap|13 October}} 1888
| alt               = Drawing of a man with a pulled-up collar and pulled-down hat walking alone on a street watched by a group of well-dressed men behind him
| birthname         = Unknown
| alias             = {{ubl|"The Whitechapel Murderer"|"Leather Apron"}}
| motive            = Unknown
| victims           = Unknown (5 canonical)
| date              = {{br entries|1888–1891|(1888: 5 canonical)}}
| locations         = [[Whitechapel]] and [[Spitalfields]], London, England (5 canonical)
}}
'''Jack the Ripper''' was an unidentified [[serial killer]] who was active in and around the impoverished [[Whitechapel]] district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the '''Whitechapel Murderer''' and '''Leather Apron'''.

Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved women working as [[prostitutes]] who lived in the slums of the [[East End of London]]. Their throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to speculation that their killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and numerous letters were received by media outlets and [[Scotland Yard]] from people purporting to be the murderer.

The name "Jack the Ripper" originated in the "[[Dear Boss letter]]" written by someone claiming to be the murderer, which was disseminated in the press. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax and may have been written by journalists to heighten interest in the story and increase their newspapers' circulation. Another, the "[[From Hell letter]]", was received by [[George Lusk]] of the [[Whitechapel Vigilance Committee]] and came with half a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims. The public came to believe in the existence of a single serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, mainly because of both the extraordinarily brutal nature of the murders and media coverage of the crimes.

Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper, and the legend solidified. A police investigation into a [[Whitechapel murders|series of eleven brutal murders]] committed in Whitechapel and [[Spitalfields]] between 1888 and 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888. Five victims—[[Mary Ann Nichols]], [[Annie Chapman]], [[Elizabeth Stride]], [[Catherine Eddowes]] and [[Mary Jane Kelly]]—are known as the "canonical five" and their murders between 31 August and 9 November 1888 are often considered the most likely to be linked. The murders were never solved, and the legends surrounding these crimes became a combination of historical research, [[folklore]] and [[pseudohistory]], capturing public imagination to the present day.

==Background==
[[File:JacktheRipperWhitechapelcirca1890.jpg|180px|thumb|Women and children congregate in front of one of the Whitechapel [[common lodging-house]]s close to where Jack the Ripper murdered two of his victims.<ref>''Serial Killers: True Crime'' {{ISBN|978-0-7835-0001-0}} p. 93</ref>]]

In the mid-19th century, England experienced an influx of [[Irish diaspora|Irish immigrants]] who swelled the populations of the major cities, including the [[East End of London]]. From 1882, [[Expulsions and exoduses of Jews|Jewish refugees]] fleeing [[pogroms in the Russian Empire]] and other areas of [[Eastern Europe]] immigrated into the same area.<ref>Kershen, Anne J., "The Immigrant Community of Whitechapel at the Time of the Jack the Ripper Murders", in Werner, pp. 65–97; Vaughan, Laura, "Mapping the East End Labyrinth", in Werner, p. 225</ref> The parish of [[Whitechapel]] in the East End became increasingly overcrowded, with the population increasing to approximately 80,000 inhabitants by 1888.<ref name="ReferenceA">Honeycombe, ''The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870-1970'', p. 54</ref> Work and housing conditions worsened, and a significant economic [[underclass]] developed.<ref>[http://booth.lse.ac.uk/ ''Life and Labour of the People in London'' (London: Macmillan, 1902–1903)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203033328/http://booth.lse.ac.uk/ |date=3 February 2011 }} (The [[Charles Booth (philanthropist)|Charles Booth]] on-line archive) retrieved {{Nowrap|5 August}} 2008</ref> Fifty-five per cent of children born in the East End died before they were five years old.<ref>London, Novels and Social Writings, p. 147</ref> Robbery, violence, and [[Alcohol dependence|alcohol dependency]] were commonplace,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> and the endemic poverty drove many women to [[prostitution]] to survive on a daily basis.<ref>{{cite news|title=Jack the Ripper: Why Does a Serial Killer Who Disembowelled Women Deserve a Museum?|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11773060/Jack-the-Ripper-Why-does-a-serial-killer-who-disembowelled-women-deserve-a-museum.html|access-date=21 February 2020|work=The Telegraph|date=30 July 2015|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308162417/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11773060/Jack-the-Ripper-Why-does-a-serial-killer-who-disembowelled-women-deserve-a-museum.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In October 1888, London's [[Metropolitan Police Service]] estimated that there were 62 [[brothel]]s and 1,200 women working as prostitutes in Whitechapel,<ref name=Evans-and-Skinner-p1>Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 1; Police report dated 25 October 1888, MEPO 3/141 ff. 158–163, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 283; Fido, p. 82; Rumbelow, p. 12</ref> with approximately 8,500 people residing in the 233 [[common lodging-house]]s within Whitechapel every night,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> with the nightly price for a [[Four penny coffin|coffin bed]] being [[Fourpence (British coin)|fourpence]] ({{Inflation|UK|0.01666666666|1888|fmt=eq|r=0|cursign=£}})<ref>Rumbelow, p. 14</ref> and the cost of sleeping upon a "lean-to" or "hang-over" rope stretched across the dormitory being two pence per person.<ref>Rumbelow, ''Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook'', p. 30</ref>

The economic problems in Whitechapel were accompanied by a steady rise in [[Civil disorder|social tension]]s. Between 1886 and 1889, frequent demonstrations led to police intervention and public unrest, such as [[Bloody Sunday (1887)]].<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 131–149; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 38–42; Rumbelow, pp. 21–22</ref> [[Antisemitism]], crime, [[Nativism (politics)|nativism]], [[racism]], social disturbance, and severe deprivation influenced public perceptions that Whitechapel was a notorious den of [[immorality]].<ref>Marriott, John, "The Imaginative Geography of the Whitechapel murders", in Werner, pp. 31–63</ref> Such perceptions were strengthened in 1888 when the series of vicious and grotesque murders attributed to "Jack the Ripper" received unprecedented coverage in the media.<ref>Haggard, Robert F. (1993), "Jack the Ripper As the Threat of Outcast London", ''Essays in History'', vol. 35, Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia</ref>

==Murders==
{{Main|Whitechapel murders}}
[[File:Whitechapel Spitalfields 7 murders.JPG|thumb|left|alt=Victorian map of London marked with seven dots within a few streets of each other|The sites of the first seven Whitechapel murders&nbsp;– [[Osborn Street]] (centre right), [[George Yard]] (centre left), [[Hanbury Street]] (top), [[Buck's Row]] (far right), [[Berner Street]] (bottom right), [[Mitre Square]] (bottom left), and [[Dorset Street (Spitalfields)|Dorset Street]] (middle left)]]

The large number of attacks against women in the East End during this time adds uncertainty to how many victims were murdered by the same person.<ref>Woods and Baddeley, p. 20</ref> Eleven separate murders, stretching from {{Nowrap|3 April}} 1888 to {{Nowrap|13 February}} 1891, were included in a Metropolitan Police investigation and were known collectively in the police docket as the "Whitechapel murders".<ref name=met>{{citation |url=http://content.met.police.uk/Article/The-Crimes/1400015321521/1400015321521 |title=The Crimes |publisher=London Metropolitan Police |access-date=1 October 2014 |archive-date=29 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129070443/http://content.met.police.uk/Article/The-Crimes/1400015321521/1400015321521 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Cook, pp. 33–34; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 3</ref> Opinions vary as to whether these murders should be linked to the same culprit, but five of the eleven Whitechapel murders, known as the "canonical five", are widely believed to be the work of the Ripper.<ref>Cook, p. 151</ref> Most experts point to deep [[Slashing (crime)|slash wounds]] to the throat, followed by extensive abdominal and genital-area mutilation, the removal of internal organs, and progressive facial mutilations as the distinctive features of the Ripper's ''[[modus operandi]]''.<ref name="Keppel">{{citation |last1=Keppel |first1=Robert D. |author-link1=Robert D. Keppel |last2=Weis |first2=Joseph G. |last3=Brown |first3=Katherine M. |last4=Welch |first4=Kristen |title=The Jack the Ripper murders: a modus operandi and signature analysis of the 1888–1891 Whitechapel murders |journal=Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling |volume=2 |issue=1 |year=2005 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1002/jip.22|doi-access=free |issn=1544-4759}}</ref> The first two cases in the Whitechapel murders file, those of [[Emma Elizabeth Smith]] and [[Martha Tabram]], are not included in the canonical five.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 47–55</ref>

Smith was robbed and [[sexual assault|sexually assaulted]] in [[Osborn Street]], Whitechapel, at approximately {{Nowrap|1:30 a.m.}} on {{Nowrap|3 April}} 1888.<ref>{{cite news|title=Locality of the Whitechapel Women-Murders|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/23570055/map_of_whitechapel_murders_body_of_mary/|access-date=4 June 2023|work=Reynold's News|date=11 November 1888}}</ref> She had been bludgeoned about the face and received a cut to her ear.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', pp. 29–30</ref> A blunt object was also inserted into her [[vagina]], rupturing her [[peritoneum]]. She developed [[peritonitis]] and died the following day at [[London Hospital]].<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 27–28; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 47–50; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 4–7</ref> Smith stated that she had been attacked by two or three men, one of whom she described as a teenager.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 28; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 4–7</ref> This attack was linked to the later murders by the press,<ref>e.g. ''[[The Star (1888)|The Star]]'', {{Nowrap|8 September}} 1888, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 155–156 and Cook, p. 62</ref> but most authors attribute this murder to general East End [[Gang#Gang violence|gang violence]] unrelated to the Ripper case.<ref name=met/><ref name=odnb/><ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 29–31; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 47–50; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 5–7</ref>

Tabram was murdered on a staircase landing in George Yard, Whitechapel, on 7 August 1888;<ref name=begg35>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 35</ref> she had suffered 39 stab wounds to her throat, lungs, heart, liver, [[spleen]], stomach, and abdomen, with additional knife wounds inflicted to her breasts and vagina.<ref>''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'' {{ISBN|0-582-50631-X}} p. 63</ref> All but one of Tabram's wounds had been inflicted with a bladed instrument such as a [[penknife]], and with one possible exception, all the wounds had been inflicted by a right-handed person.<ref name=begg35/> Tabram had not been [[rape]]d.<ref>''The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper'' {{ISBN|978-1-566-19537-9}} p. 17</ref>

The savagery of the Tabram murder, the lack of an obvious [[Motive (law)|motive]], and the closeness of the location and date to the later canonical Ripper murders led police to link this murder to those later committed by Jack the Ripper.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 51–55</ref> However, this murder differs from the later canonical murders because although Tabram had been repeatedly stabbed, she had not suffered any slash wounds to her throat or abdomen.<ref>Waddell, p. 75</ref> Many experts do not connect Tabram's murder with the later murders because of this difference in the wound pattern.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 51–55; Marriott, Trevor, p. 13</ref>

===Canonical five===
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The [[Canon (basic principle)|canonical]] five Ripper victims are [[Mary Ann Nichols]], [[Annie Chapman]], [[Elizabeth Stride]], [[Catherine Eddowes]], and [[Mary Jane Kelly]].<ref>''3000 Facts about Historic Figures'' {{ISBN|978-0-244-67383-3}} p. 171</ref>

The body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered at about {{Nowrap|3:40 a.m.}} on Friday {{Nowrap|31 August}} 1888 in Buck's Row (now [[Durward Street]]), Whitechapel. Nichols had last been seen alive approximately one hour before the discovery of her body by a Mrs. Emily Holland, with whom she had previously shared a bed at a common lodging-house in Thrawl Street, Spitalfields, walking in the direction of [[Whitechapel Road]].<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 43</ref> Her throat was severed by two deep cuts, one of which completely severed all the [[Tissue (biology)|tissue]] down to the [[vertebra]]e.<ref>Whittington-Egan, ''The Murder Almanac'', p. 91</ref> Her vagina had been stabbed twice,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rn-old-wounds.html |title=Old Wounds: Re-examining the Buck's Row Murder |publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=4 September 2020 |archive-date=25 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125102816/https://casebook.org/dissertations/rn-old-wounds.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and the lower part of her abdomen was partly ripped open by a deep, jagged wound, causing her bowels to protrude.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/east_london_observer/elo880901.html |title=Another Horrible Tragedy in Whitechapel |publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=2 September 2020 |archive-date=18 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118032855/https://casebook.org/press_reports/east_london_observer/elo880901.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Several other incisions inflicted to both sides of her abdomen had also been caused by the same knife; each of these wounds had been inflicted in a downward thrusting manner.<ref>Eddleston, p. 21; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 60–61; Rumbelow, pp. 24–27</ref>

[[File:29 Hanbury Street, 1888.jpg|thumb|right|180px|29 [[Hanbury Street]]. The door through which [[Annie Chapman]] and her murderer walked to the yard where her body was discovered is beneath the numerals of the property sign.]]
One week later, on Saturday {{Nowrap|8 September}} 1888, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered at approximately {{Nowrap|6 a.m.}} near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of 29 [[Hanbury Street]], Spitalfields. As in the case of Nichols, the throat was severed by two deep cuts.<ref>Rumbelow, p. 42</ref> Her abdomen had been cut entirely open, with a section of the flesh from her stomach being placed upon her left shoulder and another section of skin and flesh—plus her [[small intestine]]s—being removed and placed above her right shoulder.<ref>Honeycombe, ''The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870–1970'', pp. 55–56</ref> Chapman's autopsy also revealed that her [[uterus]] and sections of her [[Urinary bladder|bladder]] and vagina<ref>''Jack the Ripper – Through the Mists of Time'' {{ISBN|978-1-782-28168-9}} p. 21</ref> had been removed.<ref>Marriott, Trevor, pp. 26–29; Rumbelow, p. 42</ref>

At the [[inquest]] into Chapman's murder, Elizabeth Long described having seen Chapman standing outside 29 Hanbury Street at about {{Nowrap|5:30 a.m.}}<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 76</ref> in the company of a dark-haired man wearing a brown [[Deerstalker|deerstalker hat]] and dark overcoat, and of a "shabby-[[Gentry|genteel]]" appearance.<ref>''Jack the Ripper'' {{ISBN|978-0-760-78716-8}} p. 36</ref> According to this eyewitness, the man had asked Chapman, "Will you?" to which Chapman had replied, "Yes."<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 153; Cook, p. 163; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 98; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 59–75</ref>

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both killed in the early morning hours of Sunday {{Nowrap|30 September}} 1888. Stride's body was discovered at approximately {{Nowrap|1 a.m.}} in Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street (now [[Henriques Street]]) in Whitechapel.<ref>Holmes, ''Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool'', p. 233</ref> The cause of death was a single clear-cut incision, measuring six inches across her neck which had severed her left [[carotid artery]] and her [[trachea]] before terminating beneath her right jaw.<ref>''Naming Jack the Ripper: New Crime Scene Evidence, A Stunning Forensic Breakthrough'' {{ISBN|978-1-447-26423-1}} p. 60</ref> The absence of any further mutilations to her body has led to uncertainty as to whether Stride's murder was committed by the Ripper, or whether he was interrupted during the attack.<ref>Cook, p. 157; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 81–125</ref> Several witnesses later informed police they had seen Stride in the company of a man in or close to Berner Street on the evening of 29 September and in the early hours of 30 September,<ref>Wilson ''et al.'', p. 38</ref> but each gave differing descriptions: some said that her companion was fair, others dark; some said that he was shabbily dressed, others well-dressed.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 176–184</ref>

[[File:CatherineEddowesJacktheRipperCanomicleVictimFourMitreSq.30091888a.jpg|170px|thumb|left|Contemporaneous police drawing of the body of [[Catherine Eddowes]], as discovered in [[Mitre Square]]]]
Eddowes's body was found in a corner of [[Mitre Square]] in the [[City of London]], three-quarters of an hour after the discovery of the body of Elizabeth Stride.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33276502/birmingham-daily-post/|title=The Whitechapel Murders: Rewards Offered|access-date=12 October 2021|date=2 October 1888|work=Birmingham Daily Post}}</ref> Her throat was severed from ear to ear and her abdomen ripped open by a long, deep and jagged wound before her intestines had been placed over her right shoulder, with a section of the intestine being completely detached and placed between her body and left arm.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 177</ref>

The left kidney and the major part of Eddowes's uterus had been removed, and her face had been disfigured, with her nose severed, her cheek slashed, and cuts measuring a quarter of an inch and a half an inch respectively vertically incised through each of her eyelids.<ref>''Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London's East End'' {{ISBN|978-1-845-63001-0}} p. 88</ref> A triangular incision—the [[Apex (geometry)|apex]] of which pointed towards Eddowes's eye—had also been carved upon each of her cheeks,<ref>''Jack the Ripper – Through the Mists of Time'' {{ISBN|978-1-782-28168-9}} p. 27</ref> and a section of the [[Auricle (anatomy)|auricle]] and [[Earlobe|lobe]] of her right ear was later recovered from her clothing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/victims/eddowes.html |title=Catherine Eddowes a.k.a. Kate Kelly |publisher=casebook.org |date=1 January 2010 |access-date=27 April 2020 |archive-date=13 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113212406/https://www.casebook.org/victims/eddowes.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Forensic pathology|police surgeon]] who conducted the [[Autopsy|post mortem]] upon Eddowes's body stated his opinion these mutilations would have taken "at least five minutes" to complete.<ref>Medical report in Coroner's Inquests, no. 135, Corporation of London Records, quoted in Evans and Skinner, pp. 205–207 and Fido, pp. 70–74</ref>

A local cigarette salesman named [[Joseph Lawende]] had passed by a narrow walkway to Mitre Square named Church Passage with two friends shortly before the murder;<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 171</ref> he later described seeing a fair-haired man of medium build with a shabby appearance with a woman who may have been Eddowes.<ref name=lawende/> Lawende's companions were unable to confirm his description.<ref name=lawende>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 193–194; Chief Inspector Swanson's report, {{Nowrap|6 November}} 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, pp. 185–188</ref> The murders of Stride and Eddowes ultimately became known as the "double event".<ref>e.g. Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 30; Rumbelow, p. 118</ref><ref>''Ripper Notes: The Legend Continues'' {{ISBN|978-0-978-91122-5}} p. 35</ref>

A section of Eddowes's bloodied apron was found at the entrance to a tenement in Goulston Street, Whitechapel, at {{Nowrap|2:55 a.m.}}<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 179</ref> A chalk inscription upon the wall directly above this piece of apron read:<!--- ATTENTION: PLEASE DO NOT FIX THE SPELLING/GRAMMATICAL ERRORS. THIS IS A DIRECT QUOTE OF THE ACTUAL GOULSTON STREET GRAFFITO.---> "The Juwes are The men That Will not be Blamed for nothing."<ref>Eddleston, p. 171</ref> This graffito became known as the [[Goulston Street graffito]]. The message appeared to imply that a [[Jews|Jew]] or Jews in general were responsible for the series of murders, but it is unclear whether the graffito was written by the murderer on dropping the section of apron, or was merely incidental and nothing to do with the case.<ref>Cook, p. 143; Fido, pp. 47–52; Sugden, p. 254</ref> Such graffiti were commonplace in Whitechapel. [[Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis|Police Commissioner]] [[Charles Warren|Sir Charles Warren]] feared that the graffito might spark antisemitic riots and ordered the writing washed away before dawn.<ref>Letter from Charles Warren to Godfrey Lushington, Permanent [[Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department]], {{Nowrap|6 November}} 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 183–184</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=13 October 1888|title=The Whitechapel Murders: A Startling Discovery|work=The Lancaster Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/68216583/the-lancaster-gazette/|access-date=26 May 2022}}</ref>

The extensively mutilated and [[Disembowelment|disembowelled]] body of Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off [[Dorset Street (Spitalfields)|Dorset Street]], Spitalfields, at {{Nowrap|10:45 a.m.}} on Friday {{Nowrap|9 November}} 1888.<ref>{{Cite news|date=10 November 1888|title=The Seventh Murder in Whitechapel: A Story of Unparalleled Atrocity|work=The Pall Mall Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24865209/body-of-mary-jane-kelly-whitechapel/|access-date=22 March 2022}}</ref> Her face had been "hacked beyond all recognition",<ref>''Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London's East End'' {{ISBN|978-1-781-59662-3}} p. 95</ref> with her throat severed down to the spine, and the abdomen almost emptied of its organs.<ref>Holmes, ''Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool'', p. 239</ref> Her uterus, kidneys and one breast had been placed beneath her head, and other [[organ (anatomy)|viscera]] from her body placed beside her foot,<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', pp. 292–293</ref> about the bed and sections of her abdomen and thighs upon a bedside table. The heart was missing from the crime scene.<ref>Thomas Bond "notes of examination of body of woman found murdered & mutilated in Dorset Street" MEPO 3/3153 ff. 12–14, quoted in Sugden, pp. 315, 319</ref>

Multiple ashes found within the fireplace at 13 Miller's Court suggested Kelly's murderer had burned several combustible items to illuminate the single room as he mutilated her body. A recent fire had been severe enough to melt the [[solder]] between a kettle and its spout, which had fallen into the grate of the fireplace.<ref>Eddleston, p. 63</ref>

[[File:MaryJaneKelly Ripper 100.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Black and white photograph of an eviscerated human body lying on a bed. The face is mutilated.|Official police photograph of the body of [[Mary Jane Kelly]] as discovered in 13 Miller's Court, [[Spitalfields]], 9 November 1888]] Each of the canonical five murders was perpetrated at night, on or close to a weekend, either at the end of a month or a week (or so) after.<ref>e.g. ''Daily Telegraph'', {{Nowrap|10 November}} 1888, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 339–340</ref> The mutilations became increasingly severe as the series of murders proceeded, except for that of Stride, whose attacker may have been interrupted.<ref>Macnaghten's notes quoted by Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 584–587; Fido, p. 98</ref> Nichols was not missing any organs; Chapman's uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina were taken; Eddowes had her uterus and left kidney removed and her face mutilated; and Kelly's body was extensively [[Evisceration (autotomy)|eviscerated]], with her face "gashed in all directions" and the [[Tissue (biology)|tissue]] of her neck being severed to the bone, although the heart was the sole body organ missing from this crime scene.<ref>Eddleston, p. 70</ref>

Historically, the belief these five canonical murders were committed by the same perpetrator is derived from contemporaneous documents which link them together to the exclusion of others.<ref>Cook, p. 151; Woods and Baddeley, p. 85</ref> In 1894, Sir [[Melville Macnaghten]], Assistant [[Chief Constable]] of the [[Metropolitan Police Service]] and Head of the [[Criminal Investigation Department]] (CID), wrote a report that stated: "the Whitechapel murderer had 5&nbsp;victims—& 5&nbsp;victims only".<ref>Macnaghten's notes quoted by Cook, p. 151; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 584–587 and Rumbelow, p. 140</ref> Similarly, the canonical five victims were linked together in a letter written by police surgeon [[Thomas Bond (British physician)|Thomas Bond]] to [[Robert Anderson (police official)|Robert Anderson]], head of the London CID, on {{Nowrap|10 November}} 1888.<ref name=bond/>

Some researchers have posited that some of the murders were undoubtedly the work of a single killer, but an unknown larger number of killers acting independently were responsible for the other crimes.<ref>e.g. Cook, pp. 156–159, 199</ref> Authors Stewart P. Evans and [[Donald Rumbelow]] argue that the canonical five is a "Ripper myth" and that three cases (Nichols, Chapman, and Eddowes) can be definitely linked to the same perpetrator, but that less certainty exists as to whether Stride and Kelly were also murdered by the same person.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, p. 260</ref> Conversely, others suppose that the six murders between Tabram and Kelly were the work of a single killer.<ref name="Keppel"/> Percy Clark, assistant to the examining [[Pathology|pathologist]] [[George Bagster Phillips]], linked only three of the murders and thought that the others were perpetrated by "weak-minded individual[s]&nbsp;... induced to emulate the crime".<ref>Interview in the ''East London Observer'', {{Nowrap|14 May}} 1910, quoted in Cook, pp. 179–180 and Evans and Rumbelow, p. 239</ref> Macnaghten did not join the police force until the year after the murders, and his memorandum contains serious factual errors about possible suspects.<ref>Marriott, Trevor, pp. 231–234; Rumbelow, p. 157</ref>

===Later Whitechapel murders===
Mary Jane Kelly is generally considered to be the Ripper's final victim, and it is assumed that the crimes ended because of the culprit's death, imprisonment, [[Psychiatric hospital|institutionalisation]], or emigration.<ref name=odnb/><ref>{{cite news|title=The Whitechapel Murders: The Belief that the Perpetrator of the Crimes is Now Dead|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/24865296/jack_the_ripper_whitechapel_murderer/|access-date=4 June 2023|work=Sioux City Journal|date=8 July 1895}}</ref> The Whitechapel murders file details another four murders that occurred after the canonical five: those of Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, the Pinchin Street torso, and Frances Coles.<ref name=begg35/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/frances-coles.htm |title=Frances Coles: Murdered 13 February 1891 |publisher=jack-the-ripper.org |date=2 April 2010 |access-date=4 February 2021 |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208073756/https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/frances-coles.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[Strangling|strangled]] body of 26-year-old Rose Mylett<ref>''Alias Jack the Ripper: Beyond the Usual Whitechapel Suspects'' {{ISBN|978-1-476-62973-5}} p. 179</ref> was found in Clarke's Yard, High Street, [[Poplar, London|Poplar]] on {{Nowrap|20 December}} 1888.<ref>''Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims'' {{ISBN|978-1-306-47495-5}} p. 125</ref> There was no sign of a struggle, and the police believed that she had either accidentally hanged herself with her collar while in a [[Alcohol intoxication|drunken stupor]] or committed suicide.<ref name=mylett/> However, faint markings left by a cord on one side of her neck suggested Mylett had been strangled.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 314</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/victims/mylett.html |title=Rose Mylett (1862–1888) |publisher=casebook.org |date=1 January 2010 |access-date=19 April 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020105857/https://www.casebook.org/victims/mylett.html |url-status=live }}</ref> At the inquest into Mylett's death, the jury returned a verdict of murder.<ref name=mylett>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 245–246; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 422–439</ref>

Alice McKenzie was murdered shortly after midnight on 17 July 1889 in Castle Alley, Whitechapel. She had suffered two stab wounds to her neck, and her left [[external carotid artery|carotid artery]] had been severed. Several minor bruises and cuts were found on her body, which also bore a seven-inch long superficial wound extending from her left breast to her [[navel]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/victims/mckenzie.html |title=Alice McKenzie a.k.a. "Clay Pipe" Alice, Alice Bryant |publisher=casebook.org |date=1 January 2010 |access-date=26 April 2020 |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123011653/https://www.casebook.org/victims/mckenzie.html |url-status=live }}</ref> One of the examining pathologists, Thomas Bond, believed this to be a Ripper murder, though his colleague George Bagster Phillips, who had examined the bodies of three previous victims, disagreed.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 208–209; Rumbelow, p. 131</ref> Opinions among writers are also divided between those who suspect McKenzie's murderer copied the ''modus operandi'' of Jack the Ripper to deflect suspicion from himself,<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, p. 209</ref> and those who ascribe this murder to Jack the Ripper.<ref>Marriott, Trevor, p. 195</ref>

"The Pinchin Street torso" was a decomposing headless and legless torso of an unidentified woman aged between 30 and 40 discovered beneath a railway arch in Pinchin Street, Whitechapel, on {{Nowrap|10 September}} 1889.<ref>Eddleston, p. 129</ref> Bruising about the victim's back, hip, and arm indicated the decedent had been extensively beaten shortly before her death. The victim's abdomen was also extensively mutilated, although her genitals had not been wounded.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 316</ref> She appeared to have been killed approximately one day prior to the discovery of her torso.<ref>''The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London'' {{ISBN|978-1-476-61665-0}} p. 159</ref> The dismembered sections of the body are believed to have been transported to the railway arch, hidden under an old chemise.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, p. 210; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 480–515</ref>
[[File:Frances Coles 1891.jpg|180px|thumb|right|Frances Coles was found with her throat cut under a railway arch in Whitechapel on 13 February 1891.<ref>Fido, p. 113; Evans and Skinner (2000), pp. 551–557</ref>]]
At {{Nowrap|2:15 a.m.}} on 13 February 1891, PC Ernest Thompson discovered a 31-year-old prostitute named Frances Coles lying beneath a railway arch at Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel.<ref>Waddell, p. 80</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/victims/coles.html |title=Frances Coles a.k.a. Frances Coleman, Frances Hawkins, 'Carroty Nell' |publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=16 October 2024}}</ref> Her throat had been deeply cut but her body was not mutilated, leading some to believe Thompson had disturbed her assailant. Coles was still alive, although she died before medical help could arrive.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 317</ref> A 53-year-old [[Stoker (occupation)|stoker]], [[James Thomas Sadler]], had earlier been seen drinking with Coles,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75368668/cheshire-observer/|title=The Whitechapel Tragedy|date=28 February 1891|work=The Cheshire Observer|access-date=11 February 2022}}</ref> and the two are known to have argued approximately three hours before her death. Sadler was arrested by the police and charged with her murder. He was briefly thought to be the Ripper,<ref name=coles/> but was later discharged from court for lack of evidence on {{Nowrap|3 March}} 1891.<ref name=coles>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 218–222; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 551–568</ref>

===Other alleged victims===<!--not all of the following cases were murders, so cannot say "other murders"-->
In addition to the eleven Whitechapel murders, commentators have linked other attacks to the Ripper. In the case of "Fairy Fay", it is unclear whether this attack was real or fabricated as a part of Ripper lore.<ref name="Hunted">Evans, Stewart P.; Connell, Nicholas (2000). ''The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper''. {{ISBN|1-902791-05-3}}</ref> "Fairy Fay" was a nickname given to an unidentified<ref name="TheFacts"/> woman whose body was allegedly found in a doorway close to Commercial Road on {{Nowrap|26 December}} 1887<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/importance-fairy.html |title=The Importance of Fairy Fay, and Her Link to Emma Smith |publisher=casebook.org |date=1 January 2010 |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123010829/https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/importance-fairy.html |url-status=live }}</ref> "after a stake had been thrust through her abdomen",<ref>Fido, p. 15</ref><ref>The name "Fairy Fay" was first used by Terrence Robinson in ''[[Reynold's News]]'', {{Nowrap|29 October}} 1950, "for want of a better name".</ref> but there were no recorded murders in Whitechapel at or around Christmas 1887.<ref>Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 3</ref> "Fairy Fay" seems to have been created through a confused press report of the murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith, who had a stick or other blunt object shoved into her vagina.<ref>Sugden pp. 5–6</ref> Most authors agree that the victim "Fairy Fay" never existed.<ref name="Hunted" /><ref name="TheFacts">Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', pp. 21–25</ref>

A 38-year-old widow named Annie Millwood was admitted to the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary with numerous stab wounds to her legs and lower torso on {{Nowrap|25 February}} 1888,<ref>''The Eastern Post and City Chronicle'', 7 April 1888</ref> informing staff she had been attacked with a [[pocketknife|clasp knife]] by an unknown man.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 26</ref> She was later discharged, but died from apparently natural causes on {{Nowrap|31 March}}.<ref name="TheFacts" /> Millwood was later postulated to be the Ripper's first victim, although this attack cannot be definitively linked to the perpetrator.<ref>Beadle, William (2009), ''Jack the Ripper: Unmasked'', London: John Blake, {{ISBN|978-1-84454-688-6}}, p. 75</ref>

Another suspected precanonical victim was a young dressmaker named Ada Wilson,<ref>Beadle, p. 77; Fido, p. 16</ref> who reportedly survived being stabbed twice in the neck with a clasp knife<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 27</ref> upon the doorstep of her home in [[Bow, London|Bow]] on {{Nowrap|28 March}} 1888 by a man who had demanded money from her.<ref>e.g. ''East London Advertiser'', {{Nowrap|31 March}} 1888</ref> A further possible victim, 40-year-old Annie Farmer, resided at the same lodging house as Martha Tabram<ref>Beadle, p. 207</ref> and reported an attack on {{Nowrap|21 November}} 1888. She had received a superficial cut to her throat. Although an unknown man with blood on his mouth and hands had run out of this lodging house, shouting, "Look at what she has done!" before two eyewitnesses heard Farmer scream,<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', pp. 311–312</ref> her wound was light, and possibly [[Self-inflicted wound|self-inflicted]].<ref>Beadle, p. 207; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 202; Fido, p. 100</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/victims/afarmer.html |title=Casebook: Annie Farmer |publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=11 June 2021}}</ref>

"The [[Whitehall Mystery]]" was a term coined for the discovery of a headless torso of a woman on {{Nowrap|2 October}} 1888 in the basement of the new [[Norman Shaw Buildings|Metropolitan Police headquarters]] being built in [[Whitehall]]. An arm and shoulder belonging to the body were previously discovered floating in the [[River Thames]] near [[Pimlico]] on 11 September, and the left leg was subsequently discovered buried near where the torso was found on 17 October.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 142–144</ref> The other limbs and head were never recovered and the body was never identified. The mutilations were similar to those in the Pinchin Street torso case, where the legs and head were severed but not the arms.<ref>{{cite web |title=Scotland Yard is Built on a Crime Scene Related to an Unsolved Murder: The Whitehall Mystery |url=https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/29/scotland-yard-is-built-on-a-crime-scene-related-to-an-unsolved-murder-the-whitehall-mystery/ |website=The Vintage News |access-date=19 April 2020 |date=29 October 2016 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806162728/https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/29/scotland-yard-is-built-on-a-crime-scene-related-to-an-unsolved-murder-the-whitehall-mystery/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Whitehall murder school illustration.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Drawing of three men discovering the torso of a woman|"The [[Whitehall Mystery]]" of October 1888]]
Both the Whitehall Mystery and the Pinchin Street case may have been part of a series of murders known as the "[[Thames Torso Murders|Thames Mysteries]]", committed by a single serial killer dubbed the "Torso killer".<ref name=gordon/> It is debatable whether Jack the Ripper and the "Torso killer" were the same person or separate serial killers active in the same area.<ref name=gordon>Gordon, R. Michael (2002), ''The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London'', Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., {{ISBN|978-0-7864-1348-5}}</ref> The ''modus operandi'' of the Torso killer differed from that of the Ripper, and police at the time discounted any connection between the two.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 210–213</ref> Only one of the four victims linked to the Torso killer, Elizabeth Jackson, was ever identified. Jackson was a 24-year-old prostitute from [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]] whose various body parts were collected from the River Thames over a three-week period between 31 May and 25 June 1889.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/victims/ejackson.html |title=Elizabeth Jackson |publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=27 January 2021 |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123084134/https://www.casebook.org/victims/ejackson.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Gordon, R. Michael (2003), ''The American Murders of Jack the Ripper'', Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing, {{ISBN|978-0-275-98155-6}}, pp. xxii, 190</ref>

On {{Nowrap|29 December}} 1888, the body of a seven-year-old boy named John Gill was found in a stable block in [[Manningham, Bradford]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Unsettling Tale of Murder in Victorian Bradford|url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15601386.unsettling-tale-of-murder-in-victorian-bradford/|access-date=8 May 2020|work=Telegraph and Argus|date=21 November 2017|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308222345/https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/15601386.unsettling-tale-of-murder-in-victorian-bradford/|url-status=live}}</ref> Gill had been missing since the morning of 27 December.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bradford Police Museum Recreates Macabre Child Murder Trial|url=https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/24061771.bradford-police-museum-recreates-macabre-child-murder-trial/|access-date=16 October 2024|work=Telegraph and Argus|date=21 January 2024}}</ref> His legs had been severed, his abdomen opened, his intestines partly drawn out, and his heart and one ear removed. Similarities with the Ripper murders led to press speculation that the Ripper had killed him.<ref name=gill/> The boy's employer, 23-year-old milkman William Barrett, was twice arrested for the murder but was released due to [[Burden of proof (law)|insufficient evidence]].<ref name=gill/> No-one was ever prosecuted.<ref name=gill>Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 136</ref>

[[Carrie Brown (murder victim)|Carrie Brown]] (nicknamed "[[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]", reportedly for her habit of quoting Shakespeare's [[Shakespeare's sonnets|sonnets]]) was strangled with clothing and then mutilated with a knife on {{Nowrap|24 April}} 1891 in [[New York City]].<ref name=brown/> Her body was found with a large tear through her groin area and superficial cuts on her legs and back. No organs were removed from the scene, though an ovary was found upon the bed, either purposely removed or unintentionally dislodged.<ref name=brown/> At the time, the murder was compared to those in Whitechapel, though the Metropolitan Police eventually ruled out any connection.<ref name=brown>Vanderlinden, Wolf (2003–04). "The New York Affair", in ''Ripper Notes'' part one No. 16 (July 2003); part two No. 17 (January 2004), part three No. 19 (July 2004 {{ISBN|0-9759129-0-9}})</ref>

==Investigation==
[[File:F.G.Abberline.jpg|left|thumb|upright|alt=Sketch of a whiskered man|Inspector [[Frederick Abberline]]]]
The vast majority of the [[City of London Police]] files relating to their investigation into the Whitechapel murders were destroyed in [[the Blitz]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/intro.html |title=Home: Introduction to the Case |publisher=casebook.org |date=1 January 2010 |access-date=16 April 2020 |archive-date=13 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113142706/https://www.casebook.org/intro.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The surviving [[Metropolitan Police]] files allow a detailed view of investigative procedures in the [[Victorian era]].<ref name=canter12/> A large team of policemen conducted house-to-house inquiries throughout Whitechapel. Forensic material was collected and examined. Suspects were identified, traced, and either examined more closely or eliminated from the inquiry. Modern police work follows the same pattern.<ref name=canter12>{{cite book|first=David|last=Canter|authorlink=David Canter|date=1994|title=Criminal Shadows: Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|location=London, England|pages=12–13|isbn=0-00-255215-9}}</ref> More than 2,000 people were interviewed, "upwards of 300" people were investigated, and 80 people were detained.<ref>Inspector [[Donald Swanson]]'s report to the Home Office, {{Nowrap|19 October}} 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 205; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 113; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 125</ref> Following the murders of Stride and Eddowes, the [[City of London Police#List of commissioners|Commissioner of the City Police]], [[James Fraser (police officer)|Sir James Fraser]], offered a reward of £500 for the arrest of the Ripper.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 184</ref>

The investigation was initially conducted by the Metropolitan Police Whitechapel (H) Division [[Criminal Investigation Department]] (CID) headed by Detective Inspector [[Edmund Reid]]. After the murder of Nichols, Detective Inspectors [[Frederick Abberline]], [[Henry Moore (police officer)|Henry Moore]], and [[Walter Simon Andrews|Walter Andrews]] were sent from Central Office at [[Scotland Yard]] to assist. The City of London Police were involved under Detective Inspector James McWilliam after the Eddowes murder, which occurred within the [[City of London]].<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm |title=The Enduring Mystery of Jack the Ripper |publisher=London Metropolitan Police |access-date=31 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100204014147/http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm |archive-date=4 February 2010 }}</ref> The overall direction of the murder enquiries was hampered by the fact that the newly appointed head of the CID, [[Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis|Assistant Commissioner]] [[Robert Anderson (police official)|Robert Anderson]], was on leave in [[Switzerland]] between {{Nowrap|7 September}} and {{Nowrap|6 October}}, during the time when Chapman, Stride, and Eddowes were killed.<ref>Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 675</ref> This prompted [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|Colonel]] Sir Charles Warren, the [[Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis|Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police]], to appoint Chief Inspector [[Donald Swanson]] to coordinate the enquiry from Scotland Yard.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 205; Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 84–85</ref>

Butchers, slaughterers, surgeons, and physicians were suspected because of the manner of the mutilations.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Seventh Murder in Whitechapel: A Story of Unparalleled Atrocity|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pall-mall-gazette-body-of-mary-jane/24865209/?locale=en-GB|access-date=9 September 2024|work=The Pall Mall Gazette|date=10 November 1888}}</ref> A surviving note from Major Henry Smith, Acting Commissioner of the [[City of London Police|City Police]], indicates that the alibis of local butchers and slaughterers were investigated, with the result that they were eliminated from the inquiry.<ref>Rumbelow, p. 274</ref> A report from Inspector Swanson to the Home Office confirms that 76 butchers and slaughterers were visited, and that the inquiry encompassed all their employees for the previous six months.<ref>Inspector Donald Swanson's report to the [[Home Office]], {{Nowrap|19 October}} 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 206 and Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 125</ref> Some contemporaneous figures, including [[Queen Victoria]], thought the pattern of the murders indicated that the culprit was a butcher or cattle drover on one of the cattle boats that plied between London and mainland Europe. Whitechapel was close to the [[London Docks]],<ref>Marriott, John, "The Imaginative Geography of the Whitechapel murders", in Werner, p. 48</ref> and usually such boats docked on Thursday or Friday and departed on Saturday or Sunday.<ref>Rumbelow, p. 93; ''Daily Telegraph'', {{Nowrap|10 November}} 1888, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 341</ref> The cattle boats were examined but the dates of the murders did not coincide with a single boat's movements and the transfer of a crewman between boats was also ruled out.<ref>Robert Anderson to Home Office, {{Nowrap|10 January}} 1889, 144/221/A49301C ff. 235–236, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 399</ref>

[[File:Ripper cartoon punch.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Drawing of a blind-folded policeman with arms outstretched in the midst of a bunch of ragamuffin ruffians|"[[Blind man's buff]]": ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' cartoon by [[John Tenniel]] ({{Nowrap|22 September}} 1888) criticising the police's alleged incompetence. The failure of the police to capture the killer reinforced the attitude held by radicals that the police were inept and mismanaged.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 57</ref>]]

===Whitechapel Vigilance Committee===
In September 1888, a group of volunteer citizens in [[East End of London|London's East End]] formed the [[Whitechapel Vigilance Committee]]. They patrolled the streets looking for suspicious characters, partly because of dissatisfaction with the failure of police to apprehend the perpetrator, and also because some members were concerned that the murders were affecting businesses in the area.<ref>''Jack the Ripper – Through the Mists of Time'' {{ISBN|978-1-782-28168-9}} p. 22</ref> The Committee petitioned the government to raise a reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer, offered their own reward of £50- the equivalent of between £5,900 (inflation adjusted) and £86,000 (as a percent of GDP) in 2021<ref>{{Citation |last1=Officer |first1=Lawrence H. |title=Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a UK Pound Amount, 1270 to Present |date=2023 |url=https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/result.php?year_source=1888&amount=50&year_result=2021|publisher=MeasuringWorth |access-date=19 February 2023 |last2=Williamson |first2=Samuel H. }}</ref>- for information leading to his capture,<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts'', p. 128</ref> and hired private detectives to question witnesses independently.<ref>e.g. Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 245–252</ref>

===Criminal profiling===
At the end of October, Robert Anderson asked police surgeon Thomas Bond to give his opinion on the extent of the murderer's surgical skill and knowledge.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 186–187; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 359–360</ref> The opinion offered by Bond on the character of the "Whitechapel murderer" is the earliest surviving [[Offender profiling|offender profile]].<ref name=canter5>Canter, pp. 5–6</ref> Bond's assessment was based on his own examination of the most extensively mutilated victim and the post mortem notes from the four previous canonical murders.<ref name=bond>Letter from Thomas Bond to Robert Anderson, {{Nowrap|10 November}} 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 360–362 and Rumbelow, pp. 145–147</ref> He wrote:

{{blockquote|All five murders no doubt were committed by the same hand. In the first four the throats appear to have been cut from left to right, in the last case owing to the extensive mutilation it is impossible to say in what direction the fatal cut was made, but arterial blood was found on the wall in splashes close to where the woman's head must have been lying.<br /><br />All the circumstances surrounding the murders lead me to form the opinion that the women must have been lying down when murdered and in every case the throat was first cut.<ref name=bond/>}}

Bond was strongly opposed to the idea that the murderer possessed any kind of scientific or anatomical knowledge, or even "the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer".<ref name=bond/> In his opinion, the killer must have been a man of solitary habits, subject to "periodical attacks of homicidal and erotic [[mania]]", with the character of the mutilations possibly indicating "[[satyriasis]]".<ref name=bond/> Bond also stated that "the homicidal impulse may have developed from a revengeful or brooding condition of the mind, or that religious mania may have been the original disease but I do not think either hypothesis is likely".<ref name=bond/>

There is no evidence the perpetrator engaged in sexual activity with any of the victims,<ref name="Keppel"/><ref>Woods and Baddeley, p. 38</ref> yet [[psychologist]]s have suggested that the [[Sexual penetration|penetration]] of the victims with a knife and "leaving them on display in sexually [[Defamation|degrading]] positions with the wounds exposed" indicates that the perpetrator derived sexual pleasure from the attacks.<ref name="Keppel"/><ref>See also later contemporary editions of [[Richard von Krafft-Ebing]]'s ''Psychopathia Sexualis'', quoted in Woods and Baddeley, p. 111</ref> This view is challenged by others, who dismiss such hypotheses as insupportable supposition.<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 187–188, 261; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 121–122</ref>

==Suspects==
{{Main|Jack the Ripper suspects}}
[[File:JacktheRipperPuck.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=Cartoon of a man holding a bloody knife looking contemptuously at a display of half-a-dozen supposed and dissimilar likenesses|Speculation as to the identity of Jack the Ripper: cover of the 21 September 1889 issue of ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'' magazine, by cartoonist [[William Mecham|Tom Merry]]]]
The concentration of the killings around weekends and public holidays and within a short distance of each other has indicated to many that the Ripper was in regular employment and lived locally.<ref>Marriott, Trevor, p. 205; Rumbelow, p. 263; Sugden, p. 266</ref> Others have opined that the killer was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an [[British nobility|aristocrat]] who ventured into Whitechapel from a more well-to-do area.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 43</ref> Such theories draw on cultural perceptions such as fear of the medical profession, a mistrust of modern science, or the exploitation of the poor by the rich.<ref>Woods and Baddeley, pp. 111–114</ref> The term "ripperology" was coined in the 1970s to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper case in an effort to determine his identity, and the murders have inspired [[Jack the Ripper in fiction|numerous works of fiction]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-so.html|title=So You Want to Be a "Ripperologist"?|publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=25 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-the-Ripper|title=Jack the Ripper|publisher=britannica.com|date=23 January 2025|access-date=9 February 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/ripperology_n?tl=true |title=Oxford English Dictionary: Ripperology Noun |website=[[Oed.com]]|publisher=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] |access-date=17 March 2025}}</ref>

Suspects proposed years after the murders include virtually anyone remotely connected to the case by contemporaneous documents, as well as many famous names who were never considered in the police investigation, including [[Prince Albert Victor]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/who-was-jack-the-ripper-6-tantalizing-theories |title=7 People Suspected of Being Jack the Ripper |publisher=history.com |date=16 July 2015 |access-date=14 October 2020 |archive-date=14 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014201052/https://www.history.com/news/who-was-jack-the-ripper-6-tantalizing-theories |url-status=live }}</ref> artist [[Walter Sickert]], and author [[Lewis Carroll]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/suspects/carroll.html |title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper: Lewis Carroll |publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=9 November 2022 }}</ref> Everyone alive at the time is now long dead, and modern authors are free to accuse anyone "without any need for any supporting historical evidence".<ref>Evans and Rumbelow, p. 261</ref> Suspects named in contemporaneous police documents include three in [[Melville Macnaghten|Sir Melville Macnaghten]]'s 1894 memorandum, but the evidence against each of them is, at best, [[circumstantial evidence|circumstantial]].<ref>e.g. [[Frederick Abberline]] in the ''[[Pall Mall Gazette]]'', {{Nowrap|31 March}} 1903, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 264</ref>

In addition to the contradictions and unreliability of contemporaneous accounts, attempts to identify the murderer are hampered by the lack of any confirmed surviving [[Forensic identification|forensic evidence]].<ref>Cook, p. 31</ref> [[Genetic testing|DNA analysis]] has attempted to tie [[Aaron Kosminski]] (a Whitechapel barber) to crime scene evidence and Walter Sickert to letters (possibly hoaxes) claiming to be from the Ripper. The [[scientific methodology]] used to advance these mutually incompatible claims has been criticised.<ref>{{citation |author=Connor, Steven |title=Jack the Ripper: Has Notorious Serial Killer's Identity Been Revealed by New DNA Evidence? |date=7 September 2014 |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/has-jack-the-rippers-identity-really-been-revealed-using-dna-evidence-9717036.html |access-date=1 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712100659/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/has-jack-the-rippers-identity-really-been-revealed-using-dna-evidence-9717036.html |archive-date=12 July 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[mitochondrial DNA]] recovered from the uncorroborated crime scene evidence compared with undisclosed descendants of Kosminski (who had no children) is considered questionable.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Adam |first=David |title=March 15, 2019 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/does-new-genetic-analysis-finally-reveal-identity-jack-ripper |access-date=December 13, 2024 |website=Science}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=Richard |title=Walter Sickert - Case Closed |url=https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/walter-sickert.htm |access-date=December 13, 2024 |website=Jack the Ripper 1888}}</ref> DNA tests on extant letters is inconclusive;<ref>Marks, Kathy ({{Nowrap|18 May}} 2006). [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/was-jack-the-ripper-a-woman-478597.html "Was Jack the Ripper a Woman?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201212073430/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/was-jack-the-ripper-a-woman-478597.html|date=12 December 2020}} ''[[The Independent]]'', retrieved {{Nowrap|5 May}} 2009</ref> the available material has been handled many times and is too contaminated to provide meaningful results.<ref>Meikle, p. 197; Rumbelow, p. 246</ref> The study linking Kosminski could not be replicated and the original data could not be located, leading the ''[[Journal of Forensic Sciences]]'' to later publish an official [[expression of concern]].<ref name=EoC>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/1556-4029.15595|pmid=39132924|journal=Journal of Forensic Sciences|title=Expression of Concern|date=2024 |volume=69 |issue=5 |page=1938 }}</ref>

There are numerous, varied theories about the actual identity and profession of Jack the Ripper, but authorities are not agreed upon any of them, and the number of named suspects reaches over one hundred.<ref name=whiteway>Whiteway, Ken (2004). "A Guide to the Literature of Jack the Ripper", ''Canadian Law Library Review'', vol. 29 pp. 219–229</ref><ref>Eddleston, pp. 195–244</ref> Despite continued interest in the case, the Ripper's identity remains unknown.<ref>Whittington-Egan, pp. 91–92</ref>

==Letters==
Over the course of the Whitechapel murders, the police, newspapers, and other members of the public received hundreds of letters regarding the case.<ref>[[Donald McCormick]] estimated "probably at least 2000" (quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 180). The ''Illustrated Police News'' of 20 October 1888 said that around 700 letters had been investigated by police (quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 199). Over 300 are preserved at the Corporation of London Records Office (Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 149).</ref> Some letters were well-intentioned offers of advice as to how to catch the killer, but the vast majority were either hoaxes or generally useless.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 165; Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 105; Rumbelow, pp. 105–116</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Letters to Police, Signed "Jack the Ripper," are Practical Jokes |date=8 October 1888|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24858556/letters-to-police-signed-jack-the/ |publisher=The Yorkshire Herald |access-date=5 August 2021}}</ref>

Hundreds of letters claimed to have been written by the killer himself,<ref>Over 200 are preserved at the Public Record Office (Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', pp. 8, 180).</ref> and three of these in particular are prominent: the [[Dear Boss letter|"Dear Boss" letter]], the [[Saucy Jacky postcard|"Saucy Jacky" postcard]] and the [[From Hell letter|"From Hell" letter]].<ref>Fido, pp. 6–10; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219 ff.</ref>

The "Dear Boss" letter, dated {{Nowrap|25 September}} and [[postmark]]ed {{Nowrap|27 September}} 1888, was received that day by the [[Central News Agency (London)|Central News Agency]], and was forwarded to Scotland Yard on {{Nowrap|29 September}}.<ref>Cook, pp. 76–77; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 137; Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', pp. 16–18; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 48–49</ref> Initially, it was considered a hoax, but when Eddowes was found three days after the letter's postmark with a section of one ear obliquely cut from her body, the promise of the author to "clip the ladys ([[sic]]) ears off" gained attention.<ref>Cook, pp. 78–79; Marriott, Trevor, p. 221</ref> Eddowes's ear appears to have been nicked by the killer incidentally during his attack, and the letter writer's threat to send the ears to the police was never carried out.<ref>Cook, p. 79; Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 179; Marriott, Trevor, p. 221</ref> The name "Jack the Ripper" was first used in this letter by the signatory and gained worldwide notoriety after its publication.<ref>Cook, pp. 77–78; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 140; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 193; Fido, p. 7</ref> Most of the letters that followed copied this letter's tone,<ref>Cook, p. 87; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 652</ref> with some authors adopting pseudonyms such as "George of the High Rip Gang"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/east_london_observer/elo881013.html|title=The Whitechapel Horrors: An Exciting Week|publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004|access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> and "Jack Sheridan, the Ripper."<ref>{{cite news|title=The Whitechapel Murder: The Inquest |date=13 November 1888 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70867953/the-leeds-mercury/|publisher=The Leeds Mercury |access-date=22 June 2022}}</ref> Some sources claim that another letter dated {{Nowrap|17 September}} 1888 was the first to use the name "Jack the Ripper",<ref>Eddleston, p. 155; Marriott, Trevor, p. 223</ref> but most experts believe that this was a fake inserted into police records in the 20th century.<ref>Marriott, Trevor, p. 223</ref>

[[File:FromHellLetter.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Scrawled and misspelled note reading: From hell—Mr Lusk—Sir I send you half the kidne I took from one woman prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer—Signed Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk|The "[[From Hell letter|From Hell]]" letter]]

The "Saucy Jacky" postcard was postmarked {{Nowrap|1 October}} 1888 and was received the same day by the Central News Agency. The handwriting was similar to the "Dear Boss" letter,<ref>Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219–222</ref> and mentioned the canonical murders committed on 30 September, which the author refers to by writing "double event this time".<ref name=saucy/> It has been argued that the postcard was posted before the murders were publicised, making it unlikely that a [[Crank (person)|crank]] would hold such knowledge of the crime.<ref>e.g. Cullen, Tom (1965), ''Autumn of Terror'', London: The Bodley Head, p. 103</ref> However, it was postmarked more than 24 hours after the killings occurred, long after details of the murders were known and publicised by journalists, and had become general community gossip by the residents of Whitechapel.<ref name=saucy>Cook, pp. 79–80; Fido, pp. 8–9; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219–222; Rumbelow, p. 123</ref><ref>Sugden p. 269</ref>

The "From Hell" letter was received by [[George Lusk]], leader of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, on {{Nowrap|16 October}} 1888.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Whitechapel Murders|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105727163|access-date=18 November 2021|work=The Kiama Independent and Shoalhaven Advertiser|date=20 November 1888}}</ref> The handwriting and style is unlike that of the "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jacky" postcard.<ref name=hell/> The letter came with a small box in which Lusk discovered half of a human kidney, preserved in "spirits of wine" ([[ethanol]]).<ref name=hell>Evans and Rumbelow, p. 170; Fido, pp. 78–80</ref> Eddowes's left kidney had been removed by the killer. The writer claimed that he "fried and ate" the missing kidney half. There is disagreement over the kidney; some contend that it belonged to Eddowes, while others argue that it was a macabre practical joke.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://content.met.police.uk/Article/The-Hype-and-the-Press-Speculation/1400015323758/1400015323758|title=The Hype and the Press Speculation|publisher=London Metropolitan Police|access-date=1 October 2014|archive-date=29 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129063503/http://content.met.police.uk/Article/The-Hype-and-the-Press-Speculation/1400015323758/1400015323758|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last1=Wolf|first1=Gunter|title=A kidney from hell? A nephrological view of the Whitechapel murders in 1888|journal=Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation|volume=23|issue=10|year=2008|pages=3343–3349|doi=10.1093/ndt/gfn198|pmid=18408073|doi-access=free}}</ref> The kidney was examined by [[Thomas Horrocks Openshaw|Thomas Openshaw]] of the [[Royal London Hospital|London Hospital]], who determined that it was human and from the left side, but (contrary to false newspaper reports) he could not determine any other biological characteristics.<ref>Cook, p. 146; Fido, p. 78</ref> Openshaw subsequently also received [[Openshaw Letter|a letter signed "Jack the Ripper"]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1286183.stm Jack the Ripper 'Letter' Made Public] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801052004/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1286183.stm |date=1 August 2017 }}, BBC, {{Nowrap|19 April}} 2001, retrieved {{Nowrap|2 January}} 2010</ref>

Scotland Yard published facsimiles of the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard on {{Nowrap|3 October}}, in the ultimately vain hope that a member of the public would recognise the handwriting.<ref>Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', pp. 32–33</ref> Charles Warren explained in a letter to [[Godfrey Lushington]], Permanent [[Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department]]: "I think the whole thing a hoax but of course we are bound to try & ascertain the writer in any case."<ref>Letter from Charles Warren to Godfrey Lushington, {{Nowrap|10 October}} 1888, Metropolitan Police Archive MEPO 1/48, quoted in Cook, p. 78; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 140 and Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 43</ref> On {{Nowrap|7 October}} 1888, [[George Robert Sims|George R. Sims]] in the Sunday newspaper ''[[Sunday Referee|Referee]]'' implied scathingly that the letter was written by a journalist "to hurl the circulation of a newspaper sky high".<ref>Quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', pp. 41, 52 and Woods and Baddeley, p. 54</ref> Police officials later claimed to have identified a specific journalist as the author of both the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard.<ref>Cook, pp. 94–95; Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters From Hell'', pp. 45–48; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', pp. 624–633; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 219–222; Rumbelow, pp. 121–122</ref> The journalist was identified as Tom Bullen in a letter from Chief Inspector [[John Littlechild]] to George R. Sims dated {{Nowrap|23 September}} 1913.<ref>Quoted in Cook, pp. 96–97; Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', p. 49; Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 193; and Marriott, Trevor, p. 254</ref>{{refn|group=n|The full name of this journalist is believed to be Thomas John Bulling.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/writers.htm |title=A Look at Some of the Known Letter Writers |publisher=jack-the-ripper.org |date=2 April 2010 |access-date=5 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Westcott|first=Thomas C. |url=https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-bulling2.html|title=Thomas Bulling and the Myth of the London Journalist |publisher=casebook.org |date=2 April 2004 |access-date=5 August 2023 }}</ref>}} A journalist named Fred Best reportedly confessed in 1931 that he and a colleague at ''[[The Star (1888)|The Star]]'' had written the letters signed "Jack the Ripper" to heighten interest in the murders and "keep the business alive".<ref>Professor Francis E. Camps, August 1966, "More on Jack the Ripper", ''Crime and Detection'', quoted in Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', pp. 51–52</ref>

==Media==
[[File:The Penny Illustrated Paper - September 8, 1888 - Jack the Ripper.jpg|180px|thumb|8 September 1888 edition of the ''[[Penny Illustrated Paper]]'' depicting the discovery of the body of the first canonical Ripper victim, [[Mary Ann Nichols]]]]

The Ripper murders mark an important watershed in the treatment of crime by journalists.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=w&b20/> Jack the Ripper was not the [[Serial killer#History|first serial killer]], but his case was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy.<ref name=odnb>[[Richard Davenport-Hines|Davenport-Hines, Richard]] (2004). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38744 "Jack the Ripper (fl. 1888)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725143844/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38744 |date=25 July 2015 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. Subscription required for online version.</ref><ref name=w&b20>Woods and Baddeley, pp. 20, 52</ref> The [[Elementary Education Act 1880]] (which had extended upon a [[Elementary Education Act 1870|previous Act]]) made school attendance compulsory regardless of [[Social class|class]]. As such, by 1888, more [[working-class]] people in England and Wales were [[Literacy|literate]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://education-uk.org/history/chapter06.html |title=Education in England: A History |publisher=educationengland.org.uk |date=1 June 1998 |access-date=14 September 2020 |archive-date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226232031/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter06.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Tax reforms in the 1850s had enabled the publication of inexpensive newspapers with a wider circulation.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 208</ref> These mushroomed in the later Victorian era to include mass-circulation newspapers costing as little as a [[Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|halfpenny]], along with popular magazines such as ''[[The Illustrated Police News]]'' which made the Ripper the beneficiary of previously unparalleled publicity.<ref>Curtis, L. Perry, Jr. (2001). ''Jack the Ripper and the London Press''. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-08872-8}}</ref> Consequently, at the height of the investigation, over one million copies<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/wicked-deeds/201401/jack-the-ripper-identified |title=Jack the Ripper |publisher=psychologytoday.com |date=27 January 2004 |access-date=23 January 2020 |archive-date=31 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331082352/https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/wicked-deeds/201401/jack-the-ripper-identified |url-status=live }}</ref> of newspapers with extensive coverage devoted to the Whitechapel murders were sold each day.<ref>{{cite news|title=Murderers Who Haunt the Screen|url=https://www.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk/news/1051836.murderers-who-haunt-the-screen/|access-date=23 January 2020|work=Borehamwood & Elstree Times|date=30 November 2006|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308030305/https://www.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk/news/1051836.murderers-who-haunt-the-screen/|url-status=live}}</ref> However, many of the articles were [[Sensationalism|sensationalistic]] and speculative, and false information was regularly printed as fact.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/star/s880908.html |title=Horror Upon Horror. Whitechapel is Panic-stricken at Another Fiendish Crime. A Fourth Victim of the Maniac |publisher=casebook.org |date=1 January 2010 |access-date=1 June 2020 |archive-date=18 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118044730/https://casebook.org/press_reports/star/s880908.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, several articles speculating as to the identity of the Ripper alluded to local [[Xenophobia|xenophobic]] rumours that the perpetrator was either Jewish or foreign.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/non-fiction/cjmorley/149.html |title=John Pizer |publisher=casebook.org |date=1 January 2010 |access-date=1 June 2020 |archive-date=24 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124183718/https://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/non-fiction/cjmorley/149.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2018/10/who-was-jack-ripper| title= Who Was Jack the Ripper?| author= Ignacio Peyro| website= nationalgeographic.co.uk| date= 29 October 2018| access-date= 1 June 2020| archive-date= 31 March 2021| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210331082322/https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2018/10/who-was-jack-ripper| url-status= live}}</ref>

In early September, six days after the murder of Mary Ann Nichols, ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' reported: "Whatever information may be in the possession of the police they deem it necessary to keep secret&nbsp;... It is believed their attention is particularly directed to&nbsp;... a notorious character known as 'Leather Apron'."<ref>''Manchester Guardian'', {{Nowrap|6 September}} 1888, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 98</ref> Journalists were frustrated by the unwillingness of the CID to reveal details of their investigation to the public, and so resorted to writing reports of questionable veracity.<ref name=odnb/><ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 214</ref> Imaginative descriptions of "Leather Apron" appeared in the press,<ref>e.g. ''Manchester Guardian'', {{Nowrap|10 September}} 1888, and ''Austin Statesman'', {{Nowrap|5 September}} 1888, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 98–99; ''The Star'', {{Nowrap|5 September}} 1888, quoted in Evans and Rumbelow, p. 80</ref> but rival journalists dismissed these as "a mythical outgrowth of the reporter's fancy".<ref>''Leytonstone Express and Independent'', {{Nowrap|8 September}} 1888, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 99</ref> [[John Pizer]], a local Jew who made footwear from leather, was known by the name "Leather Apron"<ref name=pizer>e.g. Marriott, Trevor, p. 251; Rumbelow, p. 49</ref> and was arrested, even though the investigating inspector reported that "at present there is no evidence whatsoever against him".<ref>Report by Inspector Joseph Helson, CID 'J' Division, in the Metropolitan Police archive, MEPO 3/140 ff. 235–238, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 99 and Evans and Skinner, ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook'', p. 24</ref> He was soon released after the confirmation of his alibis.<ref name=pizer/>

After the publication of the "Dear Boss" letter, "Jack the Ripper" supplanted "Leather Apron" as the name adopted by the press and public to describe the killer.<ref>Evans and Skinner, ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell'', pp. 13, 86; Fido, p. 7</ref> The name "Jack" was already used to describe another fabled London attacker: "[[Spring-heeled Jack]]", who supposedly leapt over walls to strike at his victims and escape as quickly as he came.<ref>[[Peter Ackroyd|Ackroyd, Peter]], "Introduction", in Werner, p. 10; Rivett and Whitehead, p. 11</ref> The invention and adoption of a nickname for a particular killer became standard media practice with examples such as [[the Axeman of New Orleans]], the [[Boston Strangler]], and the [[Beltway sniper attacks|Beltway Sniper]]. Examples derived from Jack the Ripper include the [[Joseph Vacher|French Ripper]],<!--Rumbelow, pp. 249, 303–304--> the [[Peter Kürten|Düsseldorf Ripper]],<!--Rumbelow, pp.312–330; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 218–222--> the [[Anthony Hardy|Camden Ripper]],<!--Rumbelow, p.298; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 235–237--> the [[Blackout Ripper]],<!--Woods and Baggeley, pp. 222–223--> [[Jack the Stripper]],<!--Rumbelow, pp. 305–312; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 223–226--> the [[Peter Sutcliffe|Yorkshire Ripper]],<!--Cook, p. 192; Marriott, Trevor, pp.330 351, Woods and Baddeley, pp. 57–59--> and the [[Andrei Chikatilo|Rostov Ripper]]<!--Rumbelow, p. 298; Woods and Baddeley, pp. 226–228-->. Sensational press reports combined with the fact that no one was ever convicted of the murders have confused scholarly analysis and created a legend that casts a shadow over later serial killers.<ref>Marriott, John, "The Imaginative Geography of the Whitechapel murders", in Werner, p. 54</ref>

==Legacy==
{{see also|Jack the Ripper in fiction}}
[[File:Jack-the-Ripper-The-Nemesis-of-Neglect-Punch-London-Charivari-cartoon-poem-1888-09-29.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A phantom brandishing a knife floats through a slum street|The 'Nemesis of Neglect': Jack the Ripper depicted as a phantom stalking Whitechapel, and as an embodiment of social neglect, in a ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' cartoon of 1888]]
The nature of the Ripper murders and the impoverished lifestyle of the victims<ref>{{cite news |title=The Whitechapel Murders |date=17 November 1888 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32713412 |publisher=Western Mail |access-date=9 February 2020 |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202185647/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32713412 |url-status=live }}</ref> drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', pp. 1–2; Rivett and Whitehead, p. 15</ref> and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, insanitary slums.<ref>Cook, pp. 139–141; Vaughan, Laura, "Mapping the East End Labyrinth", in Werner, pp. 236–237</ref> In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished,<ref>Dennis, Richard, "Common Lodgings and 'Furnished Rooms': Housing in 1880s Whitechapel", in Werner, pp. 177–179</ref> but the streets and some buildings survive, and the legend of the Ripper is still promoted by various guided tours of the murder sites and other locations pertaining to the case.<ref>Rumbelow, p. xv; Woods and Baddeley, p. 136</ref> For many years, the [[Ten Bells (public house)|Ten Bells]] public house in [[Commercial Street, London|Commercial Street]] (which had been frequented by at least one of the canonical Ripper victims)<!--Mary Kelly--> was the focus of such tours.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 19</ref>

In the immediate aftermath of the murders and later, "Jack the Ripper became the children's bogey man."<ref>[[Walter Dew|Dew, Walter]] (1938). ''I Caught Crippen''. London: Blackie and Son. p. 126, quoted in Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 198</ref> Depictions were often phantasmic or monstrous. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was depicted in film dressed in everyday clothes as a man with a hidden secret, preying on his unsuspecting victims; atmosphere and evil were suggested through lighting effects and shadowplay.<ref name=bloom/> By the 1960s, the Ripper had become "the symbol of a predatory aristocracy",<ref name=bloom>Bloom, Clive, "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures", in Werner, p. 251</ref> and was more often portrayed in a top hat dressed as a gentleman. [[The Establishment]] as a whole became the villain, with the Ripper acting as a manifestation of upper-class exploitation.<ref>Woods and Baddeley, p. 150</ref> The image of the Ripper merged with or borrowed symbols from horror stories, such as [[Dracula]]'s cloak or [[Victor Frankenstein]]'s organ harvest.<ref>Bloom, Clive, "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures", in Werner, pp. 252–253</ref> The fictional world of the Ripper can fuse with multiple genres, ranging from [[Sherlock Holmes]] to [[Assault! Jack the Ripper|Japanese erotic horror]].<ref>Bloom, Clive, "Jack the Ripper – A Legacy in Pictures", in Werner, pp. 255–260</ref>

{{anchor|Ripperologists}}Jack the Ripper features in [[Jack the Ripper fiction|hundreds of works of fiction]] and works which straddle the boundaries between fact and fiction, including the Ripper letters and a hoax diary: ''[[The Diary of Jack the Ripper]]''.<ref>Begg, ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History'', p. 299; Marriott, Trevor, pp. 272–277; Rumbelow, pp. 251–253</ref> The Ripper appears in novels, short stories, poems, comic books, games, songs, plays, operas, television programmes, and films. More than 100 non-fiction works deal exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders, making this case one of the most written-about in the true-crime genre.<ref name="whiteway" /> The term "ripperology" was coined by [[Colin Wilson]] in the 1970s to describe the study of the case by professionals and amateurs.<ref>Woods and Baddeley, pp. 70, 124</ref><ref>Evans, Stewart P. (April 2003). "Ripperology, A Term Coined By&nbsp;...", ''Ripper Notes'', copies at {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080321211934/http://www.rippernotes.com/ripperology-ripperphile.html Wayback]}} and [http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rn-walking.html Casebook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016042408/http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rn-walking.html |date=16 October 2011 }}</ref> The periodicals ''Ripperana'', ''Ripperologist'', and ''Ripper Notes'' publish their research.<ref>{{citation |first=Heather |last=Creaton |title=Recent Scholarship on Jack the Ripper and the Victorian Media |date=April 2003 |issue=333 |journal=Reviews in History |url=http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/articles/creatonH.html |access-date=20 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060928185213/http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/articles/creatonH.html |archive-date=28 September 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2006, a [[BBC History|''BBC History'' magazine]] poll selected Jack the Ripper as the worst Briton in history.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4663280.stm "Jack the Ripper is 'Worst Briton'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203110348/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4663280.stm |date=3 February 2009 }}, {{Nowrap|31 January}} 2006, BBC, retrieved {{Nowrap|4 December}} 2009</ref><ref>Woods and Baddeley, p. 176</ref>

In 2015, the [[Jack the Ripper Museum]] opened in east London. It attracted criticism from both [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets|Tower Hamlets]] mayor [[John Biggs (London politician)|John Biggs]]<ref>{{Cite news|last=Khomami|first=Nadia|date=5 August 2015|title=Jack the Ripper Museum Architect Says He was 'Duped' Over Change of Plans|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/05/jack-the-ripper-museum-salacious-misogynist-rubbish-london-east-end|access-date=20 November 2020|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> and protestors.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Brooke|first=Mike|title=Jack the Ripper Museum Besieged by Women Protesters in Cable Street Again|url=https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/jack-the-ripper-museum-besieged-by-women-protesters-in-cable-street-again-1-5267058|access-date=20 November 2020|website=East London Advertiser|date=6 November 2017|archive-date=21 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921025911/https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/jack-the-ripper-museum-besieged-by-women-protesters-in-cable-street-again-1-5267058|url-status=dead}}</ref> Similar protests occurred in 2021 when the second of two "Jack The Chipper" fish and chip shops opened in [[Greenwich, London|Greenwich]], with some patrons threatening to boycott the premises.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/19518484.locals-boycott-greenwich-chippy-named-jack-chipper/|title=Locals Boycott Greenwich Chippy Named 'Jack the Chipper'|date=17 August 2021|last=Bennett-Ness|first=Jamie|work=[[News Shopper]]|access-date=19 August 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|London|History}}
* [[List of fugitives from justice who disappeared]]
* [[List of murderers by number of victims]]
* [[List of serial killers before 1900]]
* [[List of serial killers in the United Kingdom]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=n}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Begg, Paul (2003). ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History''. London: Pearson Education. {{ISBN|0-582-50631-X}}
* Begg, Paul (2004). ''Jack the Ripper: The Facts''. Barnes & Noble Books. {{ISBN|978-0-760-77121-1}}
* Bell, Neil R. A. (2016). ''Capturing Jack the Ripper: In the Boots of a Bobby in Victorian England''. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-445-62162-3}}
* Cook, Andrew (2009). ''Jack the Ripper''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-84868-327-3}}
* Curtis, Lewis Perry (2001). ''Jack The Ripper & The London Press''. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-08872-8}}
* Eddleston, John J. (2002). ''Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia''. London: Metro Books. {{ISBN|1-84358-046-2}}
* Evans, Stewart P.; [[Donald Rumbelow|Rumbelow, Donald]] (2006). ''Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7509-4228-2}}
* Evans, Stewart P.; [[Keith Skinner|Skinner, Keith]] (2000). ''The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook: An Illustrated Encyclopedia''. London: Constable and Robinson. {{ISBN|1-84119-225-2}}
* Evans, Stewart P.; Skinner, Keith (2001). ''Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell''. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7509-2549-3}}
* [[Martin Fido|Fido, Martin]] (1987), ''The Crimes, Detection and Death of Jack the Ripper'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, {{ISBN|0-297-79136-2}}
* Gordon, R. Michael (2000). ''Alias Jack the Ripper: Beyond the Usual Whitechapel Suspects''. North Carolina: McFarland Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-786-40898-6}}
* Holmes, Ronald M.; Holmes, Stephen T. (2002). ''Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool''. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. {{ISBN|0-7619-2594-5}}
* [[Gordon Honeycombe|Honeycombe, Gordon]] (1982), ''The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870–1970'', London: Bloomsbury Books, {{ISBN|978-0-863-79040-9}}
* London, Jack (1984). ''Novels and Social Writings''. Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-26213-2}}
* Lynch, Terry; Davies, David (2008). ''Jack the Ripper: The Whitechapel Murderer''. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. {{ISBN|978-1-840-22077-3}}
* Marriott, Trevor (2005). ''Jack the Ripper: The 21st Century Investigation''. London: John Blake. {{ISBN|1-84454-103-7}}
* Meikle, Denis (2002). ''Jack the Ripper: The Murders and the Movies''. Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd. {{ISBN|1-903111-32-3}}
* Rivett, Miriam; Whitehead, Mark (2006). ''Jack the Ripper''. Harpenden, Hertfordshire: Pocket Essentials. {{ISBN|978-1-904048-69-5}}
* Rumbelow, Donald (1990). ''Jack the Ripper. The Complete Casebook''. New York: Berkley Publishing Group. {{ISBN|978-0-425-11869-6}}
* Rumbelow, Donald (2004). ''The Complete Jack the Ripper. Fully Revised and Updated''. London: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|978-0-14-017395-6}}
* [[Philip Sugden (historian)|Sugden, Philip]] (2002). ''The Complete History of Jack the Ripper''. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. {{ISBN|0-7867-0276-1}}
* Thurgood, Peter (2013). ''Abberline: The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper''. Cheltenham: The History Press Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0-752-48810-3}}
* Waddell, Bill (1993). ''The Black Museum: New Scotland Yard''. London: Little, Brown and Company. {{ISBN|978-0-316-90332-5}}
* Werner, Alex (editor, 2008). ''Jack the Ripper and the East End''. London: Chatto & Windus. {{ISBN|978-0-7011-8247-2}}
* Whittington-Egan, Richard; Whittington-Egan, Molly (1992). ''The Murder Almanac''. Glasgow: Neil Wilson Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-897-78404-4}}
* Whittington-Egan, Richard (2013). ''Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Casebook''. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-445-61768-8}}
* [[Colin Wilson|Wilson, Colin]]; Odell, Robin; Gaute, J. H. H. (1988). ''Jack the Ripper: Summing up and Verdict''. London: Corgi Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-552-12858-2}}
* Woods, Paul; [[Gavin Baddeley|Baddeley, Gavin]] (2009). ''Saucy Jack: The Elusive Ripper''. Hersham, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-7110-3410-5}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Jack-the-ripper.ogg|date=5 March 2011}}
{{Commons category|Jack the Ripper}}
{{Wikiquote|Jack the Ripper}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* [http://www.casebook.org Jack the Ripper] at casebook.org
* [http://www.jack-the-ripper.org/ Home page] of jack-the-ripper.org
* [https://whitechapeljack.com/ Jack the Ripper: The 1888 Autumn of Terror] at whitechapeljack.com
* [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/94769173 Contemporaneous news article] pertaining to the murders committed by Jack the Ripper
* 1988 [http://vault.fbi.gov/Jack%20the%20Ripper centennial investigation] into the murders committed by Jack the Ripper compiled by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]
* 2014 [https://www.itv.com/news/london/2014-06-07/experts-pinpoint-the-spot-where-jack-the-ripper-lived/ news article] focusing upon modern [[geographic profiling]] techniques used to discover the most likely location Jack the Ripper lived
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/museum/item.asp?item_id=39 Letters claiming to be from Jack the Ripper] at nationalarchives.gov.uk
* [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/298729/Jack-the-Ripper Jack the Ripper] at the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''
* Article [http://www.txstate.edu/gii/jacktheripper.html focusing upon the murders committed by Jack the Ripper] published by the [[Texas State University]]

{{Jack the Ripper}}
{{Jack the Ripper media}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jack the Ripper}}
[[Category:Jack the Ripper| ]]
[[Category:1888 in London]]
[[Category:19th-century English criminals]]
[[Category:Crimes adapted into films]]
[[Category:Date of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Date of death unknown]]
[[Category:English serial killers]]
[[Category:History of the City of London]]
[[Category:History of the City of London Police]]
[[Category:History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:History of the Metropolitan Police]]
[[Category:London crime history]]
[[Category:Murder in London]]
[[Category:Nicknames in crime]]
[[Category:People of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:Unidentified British serial killers]]
[[Category:Whitechapel]]