The profusion of stories about the killer's identity have all contributed to a culture of mythology and ghoulish entertainment, ranging from the great Victorian painter Walter Sickert to a Polish immigrant and even Queen Victoria's grandson.1)
There were other suspects, but only three remained under investigation. Aron Kosinski, a Polish immigrant, barrister Montague John Druitt and Russian doctor Michael Ostrog were all maniacs who despised prostitutes. 2)
Many prostitutes were murdered in Whitechapel during the time of Jack the Ripper's notoriety — the London Metropolitan Police Service recorded 11 of these. Five of these 11 are thought to have had the same idiosyncrasies and were murdered by Jack the Ripper. These five were dubbed the Canonical Five, as their bodies were dismembered and their organs were meticulously taken. 3)
The name “Jack the Ripper” was derived from a letter reportedly written by the assassin in 1888. The letter's validity, on the other hand, has been hotly contested. 4)
Another idea holds that Jack was not “Jack” at all, but a woman, as proposed by famous Inspector Frederick Abberline at the time of the killings. According to Donald McCormick, author of The Identity of Jack the Ripper, published in 1959, Abberline discussed the hypothesis with his instructor, Dr. Thomas Dutton, after Mary Kelly's death. Caroline Maxwell's testimony, who lived in the vicinity, was crucial to the case. 5)
Respectable London society saw the East End with either compassion or contempt. Despite being a neighborhood where talented immigrants, primarily Jews and Russians, flocked to create new lives and companies, the neighborhood was infamous for terrible poverty, violence and crime. According to modern-day criminal investigations, this was the primary reason Jack the Ripper chose this particular location to perpetuate his heinous crimes. 6)
The heinous killings of prostitutes in Whitechapel sparked outrage in London, and people requested that the police act quickly to solve the case, but nothing was ever confirmed concerning Jack the Ripper's identity. 7)
Psychologists believe he despised women and regarded them to be inferior and useless. The depth of his hatred was unfathomable, which is why he altered their features in an attempt to destroy their identities. Other ideas contend that he was simply crazy suffering from mental disease, which is why he ruthlessly murdered and butchered prostitutes, mutilating their bodies and removing their organs. 8)
Many historians and most doctors in the medical field in his time who examined the corpses agreed that he had to have a strong understanding of what he was doing and how he had to execute it.9)
Although no one knows for certain, most historians assume Jack the Ripper was between the ages of 25 and 35 when he committed the killings. 10)
He lived in Whitechapel, where most of the killings occurred, and he appeared “painfully” normal, as opposed to the stereotype of maniacs, who appear to be screaming lunatics. 11)
He was also said to be of medium height and stocky build with a dark beard. 12)
When he committed the murders he left no evidence. There were no eyewitnesses to his crimes, only the dead bodies.13)
On September 30th, one of Jack the Ripper's most brazen acts, known as the “Double Event,” occurred. Three weeks after Annie Chapman's murder, a damp, dreary night saw the murders of two women in less than an hour: Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. 14)