Unsolved Jack The Ripper

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Overview:

Status: Unsolved

Active:1888, London

Tally: 5. This is the generally accepted figure, although some say 4, others 7.

Intro:

Jack was the first modern serial killer. His crimes have scared, repulsed and strangely fascinated people since they were committed. He was the first killer that the press latched onto and breathlessly reported every detail. He's spawned an industry and a field of study with its own experts and villains.

And today, Jack's identity is no closer to being revealed. every few years a new theory and new proof is tendered to a suspect's guilt, but Jack's identity is still as much of a mystery as it was back in the 1880s.

His crimes, as per the Lusk letter, are 'straight from hell'.

This excellent intro is from casebook (link below):

Jack the Ripper" is the popular name given to a serial killer who killed a number of prostitutes in the East End of London in 1888. The name originates from a letter written by someone who claimed to be the killer published at the time of the murders. The killings took place within a mile area and involved the districts of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Aldgate, and the City of London proper. He was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and "Leather Apron."

Link


Links:

Casebook - the largest Jack the Ripper resource on the net.

Clips/Image libraries:

Pics of the crime and the area, both then and now.

Image library of crimes, victims and suspects (from casebook)



 
Jun 24, 2011
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Was staying legitimately right next to a JTR murder alley while I was in London earlier in the year... (could see it from my window)... some eery s**t.
Is that meant to be JTR in the middle of the photo or is it only a lady in a burqa?
Can't really tell the difference... :confused:
 
Is that meant to be JTR in the middle of the photo or is it only a lady in a burqa?
Can't really tell the difference... :confused:

Surely he wasn't the "first" modern serial killer, but simply the one that was noticed because his "signature" was so obvious and he restricted his crimes to such a small area.
 
Sep 8, 2010
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Is that meant to be JTR in the middle of the photo or is it only a lady in a burqa?
Can't really tell the difference... :confused:
Never actually noticed that before! But yeah, it's a woman wearing a burqa.
Down the alley it's self was all kinds of eerie though, like, homeless people sleep in there... you sorta wonder if they like, know...

Also next to it is a Jack the Ripper themed pub, and the burger king which is very close to the scene has this big creepy silhouette of him on the wall.
 
Any of you familiar with HH Holmes? He was an American doctor who some think killed over 200 people. He built this hotel with all sorts of bizarre features, including secret passages and murder chutes. Almost too much like fiction to believe, but he actually existed. Anyway, just remembered that there was a story not so long ago where people were claiming he was actually the ripper. He was a doctor and a seriously depraved individual.

Here's a link I found to the news story.

"Jeff Mudgett, the great-great-great-grandson of the killer, has submitted handwriting samples from both Holmes and Jack the Ripper for review and handwriting experts have confirmed the likelihood they could stem from the same hand."

It's an interesting theory. Regardless, HH Holmes is worthy of further reading. A very dangerous and weird cat.

Here's the ubiquitous wiki link.
 
Aug 17, 2006
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A problem I have with the JTR case is that it's almost too mysterious. The accepted suspects seem to all have no more than a casual link with the case, some combination of: they lived in the Whitechapel area; or they died/were committed to a psychiatric facility shortly after the killings finished; or they were mysogynists; or they had been convicted of relatively minor crimes (most of these weren't even violent crimes). The suspects that were later convicted of seperate murders, such as George Chapman, had a completely different method of killing their known victims.

It just seems to me that there's no way the case will ever be solved, though the H.H. Holmes theory is interesting. Agree with grizzlym, that his crimes sound more like something out of a bad horror movie than things that really happened.
 
Oct 14, 2011
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" I was born with the devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing...I was born with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into the world, and he has been with me since."

Really does send a shiver down your back.
 

Dan Moody

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Apr 3, 2007
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Many suspects in the JTR file, one of the Queens nephews is in there as well.
Remember reading up a lot on this, many conclude that a chap called Montague John Druitt was most likely the Ripper.
The Michael Caine mini series back in the late 80's was brilliant, spine chilling and very memorable.
 
I just had a brief read of his wiki... extremely hard to believe that something like that could be committed for real, and not just in a novel.
This was in the days before CCTV, DNA, computer matching, proper investigative methods etc...
 
Oh yeah, I realise that, but it is still amazing nonetheless.
Yeah, compared to the likes of us who can't even talk our way out of a speeding fine :)

Conmen and sociopathic types can get away with heaps of stuff even today. I think it points to the idea that people don't want to believe that this sort of thing really happens.
 
Has more credibility then most on that list, Whitechapel certainly had a colorful bunch of individuals.

We've got one guy saying the handwriting is the same. Meanwhile the actual act of killing doesn't seem to be similar at all.
Jack had his own special style.
 
Apr 23, 2007
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Has more credibility then most on that list, Whitechapel certainly had a colorful bunch of individuals.

If you can place the guy in Whitechapel it will give credence but I cant find a single piece of evidence that the man even crossed the Atlantic at this time. As the bloke was setting up a family, house and practice in the US at a similar time this one seems most unlikely.
 
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