On the Trail of Jack the Ripper

Introduction

Spitalfields is Jack the Ripper territory

James Mason – The London Nobody knows 1968

Let’s start by acknowledging the fact that we will probably never know the identity of history’s most elusive serial killer. Well, not to everyone’s satisfaction at least. The police did not catch him. They have variously been called incompetent or party to a conspiracy or cover-up. It’s even claimed the police knew who it was but it was someone so important that they could not reveal it to the public.

Thus is the fantasy and romance that surrounds the most infamous murder mystery in the world. But in truth, the reason they never caught Jack the Ripper is because they lacked the experience. They were dealing with a new type of killer, the first of his kind, the world’s first modern serial killer. The police were simply not equipped to hunt him down. They closed the investigation down after four years, (although the last record attached to it was in 1896) leaving the case unsolved. They also were under extreme pressure, both from a highly critical press and an equally criticised government who were demanding action. Finally, they did not have the resources or technology at their disposal that a modern police investigation would. There were no forensic examinations, DNA or fingerprints that could be used in an 1888 police investigation. Today London is one of the most surveillanced cities in the world. If Jack was running around modern Whitechapel, I am fairly confident he would have been caught quite easily by camera alone, never mind police techniques.

A view up Whitechapel High Street in the late 1800’s. The church in the distance marking the centre of Whitechapel

Diagram showing how the structure of St Mary Matfelon changed over the years.

The term serial killer is one with which we are now familiar. The phenomenon is not a new one, but the term itself is recent and did not exist 50 years ago, never mind 130 years ago. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and member of the FBI psychological profiling team Robert Ressler is often credited for coining the term serial killer in the 1970’s, to describe those that murder several victims, obsessively, and often with a deviant sexual motive.

A modern seating area in Altab Ali Park maps out the where the original church once stood.

Before then, a killer who murdered in this way was known as a mass murderer. Today we characterise killers differently, for instance the mass murderer is now someone who kills four or more people at the same time (or in a short period of time) in the same place, and then we have spree killers, who murder randomly over multiple locations and usually within a short period of time.

Serial killers are different, they often work alone, and they have no attachment or connection to their victims and pretty much kill for the sake of killing. Today they are generally defined to be someone who kills three or more people, one at a time, over a relatively short period.

Jack the Ripper is regarded as the father of the modern day Serial Killer as he is the first early example of this type of murderer. He was not a prolific killer: he is thought to have murdered five victims, more or less, and here begins the enduring mystery which has captured the imagination of the world.

Many other British serial killers have murdered more. These notorious criminals are, unfortunately, household names, for example Peter Sutcliffe, Dennis Nilsen, Harold Shipman, and the serial killing couple, Fred and Rose West

Peter Sutcliffe, usually attacking his victims from behind with a hammer, killed 13 but attempted to murder a further seven. Carrying out his attacks and murders in the north of England between 1975 and 1981, he is better known as the Yorkshire Ripper.

Dennis Nilsen, the Kindly Killer, murdered 15 young men between 1978 and 1983. Fred West, with his wife Rose, killed at least 12, but before committing suicide in 1995 he admitted there were more. Harold Shipman, also known as Doctor Death, murdered his patients, probably in excess of 250, from 1975 to 1998.

Serial killers fascinate and repel and none more so than the case of Jack the Ripper. Here we see a difference. He, strangely enough, remains the only serial killer in history to define an actual era. When you mention his name anywhere in the world, you instantly think of Victorian London, foggy nights, horse and carriages, gas lamps and that lone top hat wearing figure lurking in a dark alley way. If anything the Ripper is as much part of Victorian London as Queen Victoria herself.

The struggle to identify him has remained the favourite pastime of retired policemen, crime writers and jaded historians for the last 133 years. We have been beset by theories that the Ripper was a barrister, an evil doctor, a mad polish Jew or even an insane Royal Prince. The real truth will almost certainly never be known. The Ripper’s long appeal lies with 130 years of books, movies, plays and references in pop culture. Those years have twisted the mental image of the killer into a real life gothic bogeyman, on the same level as fictional villains like Freddy Kruger and Michael Myers. His fictional costume will forever be the long dark cloak, the top hat, white gloves and doctor’s bag. It is this myth that has kept the public’s fascination going for so long.

Poverty and homelessness was rife in the East End of London. Each night, hundreds of men and women would seek shelter in over cramped Doss Houses

The myth, however, is a million miles from reality.

Even today if you ask anyone how many victims Jack the Ripper claimed, you will usually get an answer that ranges from just a few unfortunate individuals to hundreds of potential victims. There is a simple reason for this – nobody actually knows the answer. The killer was never caught so his true death toll will never be known.

As far as the police were concerned, the murders spanned three years (1888-1891) and included a proposed eleven victims: Emma Smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly, Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, Frances Coles and one unfortunate, unidentified headless torso. All these identified women were known to be local prostitutes living in common lodging houses in a relatively small area.

In 1894, Melville Macnaghten, former Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police, wrote a private memorandum in which he claimed that the Whitechapel murderer had five victims and five victims only

These five victims – Nichols, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes and Kelly – have become known as the ‘Canonical Five’. The similarity in the way they were killed (throats cut, abdominal mutilations and, in three cases, internal organs removed) suggests that this idea is a sound one, but it does have its detractors.

When looking at contemporary reports in the press, we then notice that after the murder of Nichols in August 1888, many felt that the previous deaths of Emma Smith (April 1888) and Martha Tabram (August 1888), could also have been the work of the same hand and thus, at the time, Nichols was considered the third victim.

Put simply, the Whitechapel Murders spanned eleven victims over three years, but the one individual known as Jack the Ripper is widely thought to be responsible for the Canonical Five killings in a ten-week period later labelled as the ‘Autumn of Terror’.

So just as you have the mystery of who was this elusive fiend and how many did he kill, you also have the perfect setting for this great Victorian mystery – Whitechapel -London’s East End

These days, the East End is known for its diverse population and multi-culturalism as much as it is for being a working class tourist destination. With a history that is just as vivacious as the present day with visible throwbacks to days gone by – those cobblestones, the Borough has made leaps and bounds over the last century.

Brick lane 2021

Rewind to the year 1888 and you’ll be presented with a very different depiction of the East End, especially in Whitechapel. The name for this infamous quarter originally came from a small local chapel, St Mary’s, which later developed into the local church of St Mary Matfelon. Nobody really knows how long this original church was standing in the area but we start getting a mention of it around the 1300’s. Over the centuries the church was rebuilt several times with the last version surviving into the 1940’s but sadly destroyed in a blitz attack during the war. After lying derelict for many years it was eventually demolished. Modern visitors to the area can still visit the site where it once stood. All that remains of the old church is a modern day outline of the floor plan and a few scattered graves. It is now known as Altab Ali park (named after a 25 year old British Bangladeshi clothing worker who was sadly murdered in the area in 1978).

Apart from this not much is really known about Whitechapel until around the 16th century when we do start to see evidence of a class divide. Up until then the area was quite rural, but following the great fire of London in 1666 traders and businesses started to expand out beyond the city walls. Brick and tile manufacturers really took off on the back of the fire, where the old method of wood and thatch houses were replaced with a much stronger – and slightly more fire resistant – option. Understandably the area where these businesses operated soon became known as Brick