MINISTERUL EDUCATIEI CERCETARII SI TINERETULUI

INSPECTORATUL SCOLAR JUDETEAN BACAU

COLEGIUL NATIONAL FERDINAND I BACAU

ATESTAT PENTRU OBTINEREA

CERTIFICATULUI DE COMPETENTA
LINGVISTICA LA LIMBA ENGLEZA

PROFESOR COORDONATOR
AMBROSIE ADRIANA

CANDIDAT
RADU IOANA-COSMINA

Jack the
Ripper

Table of Contents
I) Introduction..4
II) Media....5

III) Social background

6
IV) Investigation.7
a) Victims.7
b) Method of
operation8
c) Letters from the
Ripper.....9
V) Criminal personality profile
11
VI)
Suspects..12
VII) Jack the Ripper in popular
culture..15
VIII)
Bibliography.17
I)

Introduction

The true identity of Jack the Ripper, one of the most famous serial
killers remains a mystery even today. No one knows for sure what motivated
3

him, but he was in a macabre way a man of his times. The harsh and
inhuman conditions, the majority of families, often up to nine people living in
one room, the indifference towards children, incest was common in these
crowded conditions, even amongst children as young as 10, and the savage
lifestyle of the nineteenth century, all contributed to produce the first
modern serial killer.
Many youths form East End died before the age of five. It was not
unusual for mothers to send their children into the streets until after
midnight while she was engaged in the business of prostitution, to make
enough money to feed them, but at least they had a home. Many others
slept on the streets or in dustbins, under stairways or bridges. Seventeen
hours of backbreaking labor paid only 10 pence so prostitution was a viable
alternative. It was estimated that one in 16 women was engaged in this
business so there were over 1200 prostitutes in Whitechapel. The situation
was so terrible that after the second murder the Irish playwright George
Bernard Shaw commented sarcastically that the murderer was a social
reformer who wanted to draw attention to social conditions in the East End.
Three years of investigation revealed no conclusive results and
because the killer's identity has never been confirmed, the legends
surrounding the murders have become a combination of genuine historical
research, folklore, and pseudo-history. Many authors, historians, and amateur
detectives have proposed theories about the identity of the murderer. The
unsolved case was officially closed in 1892, though interest in the killings has
never dwindled and so, a thriving subculture of amateur criminologists
Ripperologists has been cultivated.
Although Jack the Rippers reign was short, he has a great importance
and has influenced both the serial killers of the next century who saw in him
a mentor and a model to be followed because of his bloody killings and the
police which because of him has improved the investigation process and the
techniques used to catch murderers or other citizens that commit felonies.

II) Media
4

Even though he was not the first serial killer in the world, he definitely
was the first to have created such a media frenzy. This happened because
the reforms to the Stamp Act in 1855 made possible the circulation of
inexpensive newspapers which had a wider circulation. The fact that no one
was ever convicted for the murders created some sort of legend which cast a
shadow over later serial killers.
It is though that the nickname was given by an editor to make a more
interesting story in order to sell more papers. The nature of the murders and
the victims forcibly drew attention on the conditions of life of the poor who
lived in East End. They had long been neglected by affluent society. This
enabled social reformers to gain the support of the respectable classes.
George Bernard Shaw commented sarcastically:
Whilst we Social Democrats were wasting our time on education,
agitation and organization, some independent genius has taken the
matter in hand, and by simply murdering and disemboweling four
women, converted the proprietary press to an inept sort of
communism.
Even though a lot was written on this subject especially in the tabloids
of the time most of it was worthless and only helped Jack the Ripper become
a real legend who terrorized Whitechapel. The first serious book on the
Ripper was written in 1929 by Leonard Matters and it is called The Mystery
of Jack the Ripper. Alfred Hitchcock's film The Lodger showed that the
interest for this serial killer has never really left, on the contrary it had only
just began.
In 1970 a new theory appeared in which Prince Albert Victor, the
grandson of Queen Victoria was accused of being the Ripper, this making
the interest in the serial killer explode. Some other theories included
Freemasons, court physicians, and sinister figures from occult organizations.
The FBI's Behavioral Science Unit did a criminal profile of the Ripper in
which they explained the aspects of the murders. During the 1990s other
two books have been published which are indispensable for those who are
interested in doing research in the Ripper murders.

Even after more than a hundred years the case is still fascinating for
more and more people who try to solve this intriguing mystery. Chances for
the case to ever be resolved are open to debate. This makes the challenge
much more difficult because the amount of evidence destroyed in World War
II is considerable. Moreover, some think that the files were purposefully
destroyed to keep the murderer's identity a secret.
Some of the remaining documents were taken in the late 1970s/ early
1980s and were put on microfilm. It seems possible that the identity of Jack
the Ripper may one day be discovered; it may be one of the suspects
mentioned in the police report, or it may be someone completely unknown at
this time. The future may or may not reveal the true Ripper's name.

III) Social background

In the mid 19th century London, especially the East End and the civil
parish of Whitechapel, suffered from the development of a massive economic
underclass. The main cause was the rapid influx of immigrants from Tsarist
Russia and Eastern Europe that added to the overcrowding and the already
worsening work and housing conditions. Because of the poverty many
women were driven to prostitution. In 1888, the London Metropolitan Police
estimated that there were about 1200 prostitutes of very low class and 62
brothels in Whitechapel.
Even though the murders attributed to Jack the Ripper occurred in
latter half of1888, the brutal killings in Whitechapel continued until 1891.
Some of the murders involved mutilation and evisceration, which were
widely reported in the newspapers. The letter received by George Lusk
contained a human kidney which was well preserved. Because of media and
the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders the public came to
believe that there was only one serial killer terrorizing Whitechapel,
nicknamed Jack the Ripper after the signature on a postcard which was
received by the Central News Agency. Even if the investigation was unable to
connect these killings with the ones in 1888, the legend of the Ripper
solidified.
6

Every day the activities of the Ripper were chronicled in the

newspapers as were the results of the inquiries and the actions taken by the
police. Also the feelings of the people living in the East End appeared each
day for both the people of London and the whole world to read. It was the
press coverage that made this series of murders something that the world
had never known before and was also partly responsible for creating many
myths surrounding the killer, finally turning him into one of the most
romantic figures in history.
The rest is the responsibility of the Ripper. He may have been a sexual
serial killer, too common in the 1990s, but he was also the one who
managed to terrify a city and make the whole world take notice of him by
leaving his horribly mutilated victims in plain sight. Lastly, the fact that the
Ripper was never caught and the mysteries surrounding this killer add to the
romance of the story and create an intellectual puzzle that people of our
time still want to solve.

IV) Investigation
a) Victims
The file Whitechapel murders contained eleven separate murders.
Although authors and historians have added at least seven other murders
and violent attacks with Jack the Ripper, only five of them are universally
agreed upon, collectively called the "canonical five" victims:
1) Mary Ann Nichols (nickname "Polly"), killed Friday 31 August 1888
2) Annie Chapman ("Dark Annie"), killed Saturday 8 September 1888
3) Elizabeth Stride (nickname, "Long Liz"), killed Sunday 30 September 1888
4) Catherine Eddowes (also known as "Kate Conway" and "Mary Ann Kelly"),
killed Sunday 30 September 1888 (the same day as the previous victim,
Elizabeth Stride)
5) Mary Jane Kelly ("Ginger"), killed Friday 9 November 1888
Besides these five there is a good reason to believe that the first
actual victim was Martha Tabram, murdered Tuesday, August 7, 1888. With
the exception of Stride, whose attack may have been interrupted or some
7

even question it being a Rippers victim, the bodies presented severe signs
of mutilation as the series went on. These murders occurred during the night
and on or close to a week-end. Some of the distinctive characteristics in Jack
the Rippers mode of operation were deep throat slashes, abdominal and
genital area mutilation, removal of internal organs and progressive facial
mutilation.
All five of these plus Tabram were prostitutes and were killed between
August and November 1888. But for Tabram and Kelly all were killed outdoors
also there is no evidence to suggest any connection between them, there are
differences in both age and appearance, except the fact that all of them were
prostitutes and most were drunk or thought to be drunk at the time they
were killed.
Other six murders were investigated by the Metropolitan Police at the
time, two of which occurred before the "canonical five" and four after. In
addition to the eleven murders officially investigated as part of the Ripper
investigation, some Ripper historians have suggested a number of other
contemporary attacks as possibly being connected to the same serial killer.

b) Method of operation
A full understanding of the Ripper's modus operandi was only
established several years ago. The victims and the murderer stood facing
each other. The victim's hands were occupied with lifting her skirt because
she was a prostitute leaving her defenseless. The Ripper seized her by her
throat and strangled her until she was unconscious, if not dead, the
autopsies constantly revealing clear indications of strangulation. The Ripper
then lowered his victim to the ground with her head on his left. This fact has
been proven by the position of the bodies in relation to walls and fences.
There were no bruises on the back of the head showing that the killer
lowered the bodies rather than throwing or letting them fall.
He cut the throat when the body was on the ground. This method
prevented the killer from getting blood stains on his clothes. By reaching
over from the victim's right side to cut the left side of her throat, the blood
would have been directed away from him, reducing the amount of blood to
8

which he would have been exposed. If the victim was dead before the throat
slashing, then the blood spilt would not have been very much. With the heart
no longer beating the blood would not have been "pressurized," so only the
blood in the immediate area of the wound would have gently flown from the
cuts.
The Ripper then made his other mutilations, still from the victim's right
side, or possibly while standing over the body and in several cases the legs
had been pushed up which would have shortened the distance between the
abdomen and the feet. There was never any sign of intercourse or
masturbation over the bodies detected. Most of the times he took as a
trophy a piece of the victim's viscera. This is thought to be a common
practice of modern sexual serial killers.
In the opinion of most surgeons who examined the bodies, the killer
had to have some degree of anatomical knowledge to do what he did. In one
case he removed a kidney without damaging any of the surrounding organs
while doing so. In another case he removed the sexual organs with one clean
stroke of the knife. Given the time circumstances of the crimes (outside,
often in near total darkness, keeping one eye out for the approach of others,
and under extremely tight time constraints), the Ripper almost certainly had
some experience with the knife.

c) Letters from the Ripper

During the time of the investigation the police and the newspaper
received thousands of letters regarding the Ripper. Some were well
intentioned and wanted to offer advice to catch the killer, but most of them
were useless. The police and local press also received letters that were
supposed to be written by the Whitechapel fiend. Most experts think that all
are hoaxes but a few believe that some of them specifically the Dear Boss
letter, Saucy Jacky postcard, and From Hell letter are genuine.

Dear Boss letter

Received on September 27th, 1888 at the Central News Agency, at first
it was believed to be just another hoax, but three days later, after the double
murder of Stride and Eddowes, the earlobe that was found cut off from the
9

body was reminiscent of a promise made in the letter and made them
reconsider it. The police thought that the letter was important enough and
let the press reproduce it hoping that someone would recognize the
handwriting. Whether the letter is a hoax or not, it is the first written
reference in which the name Jack the Ripper as the Whitechapel murderer
is used.

The Saucy Jacky postcard

This letter was received on October 1st, 1888 at the Central News
Agency and it has a similar handwriting to the previous one. It contains
references to both the Dear Boss letter and the murder on the previous
night. The removal of Eddowes's ear and the fact that the postcard mentions
the double-event before it was described by the press, both testify its
authenticity.

'From Hell' letter

On October 16th George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel
Vigilance Committee, received a three-inch-square cardboard box in his mail
and inside it contained half a human kidney preserved in wine, along with
the letter. Medical reports carried out by Dr. Openshaw found the kidney to
be very similar to the one removed from Catherine Eddowes. The letter read
as follows:
I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and
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
Ongoing DNA tests on the still existing letters have yet to yield
conclusive results.

V) Criminal personality profile

After the establishment of the M'Naghten rules in 1843, physicians
became increasingly involved in determining whether the accused in murder
cases were suffering from mental illness. The growing importance of the
10

medical sciences during the same period also led to an increasing

involvement by pathologists in the investigative process.
Dr. Thomas Bond, the police surgeon, was requested by Dr. Robert
Anderson, head of the London CID, to give his opinion on the amount of
surgical skill and knowledge possessed by the Whitechapel murderer.
"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. 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."
Dr. Bond strongly opposed to the idea that the killer had any kind of
anatomical knowledge, saying that he must have been a man of solitary
habits subjected to "periodical attacks of homicidal and erotic mania"
and that the mutilation might indicate satyriasis. He 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".
In 1988 the FBI prepared a criminal personality profile for Jack the
Ripper murders. After an analysis of the crime scenes, police and autopsy
reports, photographs, victimology, and area demographics, the following key
crime scene elements were identified: blitz attacks and lust murders, high
degree of psychopathology exhibited at the crime scenes, no evidence of
sexual assault, postmortem mutilation and organ removal but no torture,
victims selected on the basis of accessibility and that all the crimes took
place on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, in the early morning hours.
The FBI report suggests that Jack the Ripper was a white male of 28-36
years old, single, never married, had difficulty in interacting with people in
general and women in particular, was nocturnal and blended in with his
surroundings, appeared disheveled, was a quiet loner, withdrawn, was of
11

lower social class and lived or worked in Whitechapel, so the crimes were
committed close to home.
He was the product of a broken home, and lacked consistent care and
stable adult role models as a child. He was probably raise by was a dominant
female figure who drank heavily, consorted with different men and abused
him physically, possibly sexually. As a child he abused animals and set fires.
He was mentally disturbed and sexually inadequate, with much generalized
rage directed against women. He was probably interviewed at some point by
the police and did not committed suicide after the murders stopped.

VI) Suspects
Many theories about the identity and profession of Jack the Ripper
have been advanced but none have been entirely persuasive. The following
suspects were named by one or more police officials as possibly being Jack
the Ripper: Montague John Druitt, George Chapman, Aaron Kosminski and
John Pizer. However none of them was convicted due to the lack of solid
evidence.
Druitt was dismissed as a serious suspect on the basis that the only
evidence against him was the coincidental timing of his suicide shortly after
the final murder. Although Chapman poisoned three of his wives, and was
hanged for his crimes in 1903 he was not convicted for the Ripper murders
because it is uncommon for a serial killer to make such a drastic change in
modus operandi.
Aaron Kosminski was named a suspect because "had a great hatred of
women ... with strong homicidal tendencies" and he was soon taken to an
asylum. However, he was described as harmless there, although he had once
brandished a chair at an asylum attendant and he threatened his sister with
a knife. These two incidents are the only known indications of violent
behavior. His insanity took the form of auditory hallucinations, a paranoid
fear of being fed by other people, and a refusal to wash or bathe and in 1919
he died.
John Pizer also known as Leather Apron was thought to have
committed a string of minor assaults on prostitutes and in the early days of
12

the Whitechapel murders many locals suspected that he was the killer, even
though the investigating inspector reported that "there is no evidence
whatsoever against him". However, Pizer successfully obtained monetary
compensation from at least one newspaper that had named him as the
murderer.
Other people were named at the time as potentially being guilty of the
Whitechapel murders by journalists or other people. Some of the most
notable are: William Henry Bury, after strangling his wife, a former prostitute,
he was arrested found guilty and then hanged. He denied having connection
with the Rippers murders despite making a full confession to his wife's
homicide. James Berry, the hangman, promoted the idea that Bury was the
Ripper.
Another suspect was Thomas Neill Cream, a doctor who secretly
specialized in abortions, found guilty of the fatal poisoning of his mistress's
husband in 1881. He was released on good behavior on 31 July 1891. After
his moving to London he resumed killing and was soon arrested. He was
hanged on 15 November 1892 at Newgate Prison and according to some
sources his last words were I am Jack the... interpreted to be Jack the
Ripper. However it is unlikely that he was the serial killer because he was still
imprisoned at the time of the Ripper murders.
Several other names of suspects have been mentioned in the years
following the murders. They include Lewis Carroll, Thomas Hayne Cutbush,
William Withey Gull, George Hutchinson, Alexander Pedachenko and Prince
Albert Victor.
Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was
considered a suspect based on an anagram which author Richard Wallace
devised in his book Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend. However this claim
is not seriously taken by other scholars.
In November 2008 a newspaper reported that some files from
Broadmoor high security hospital show that Thomas Hayne Cutbush may
have been the one responsible for the Ripper murders. In 1891 he was sent
to Lambeth Infirmary because he suffered from delusions probably caused by
syphilis. He was pronounced insane after he stabbed a woman and he was
13

send to Broadmoor where he remained until the time of his death in 1903.
The paper also reports that Cutbush was the nephew of a Scotland Yard
superintendent, and speculates that this may have led to a cover-up of the
killer's identity. There is no evidence that police ever took the idea seriously.
Cutbush was the suspect advanced in A.P. Wolf's 1993 book Jack the Myth.
William Withey Gull, a physician, was named as the Ripper as part of
the evolution of the widely discredited Masonic/royal conspiracy theory. Gull
shows up as the Ripper in a number of books and films, including a 1988 TV
film Jack the Ripper starring Michael Caine and the graphic novel From Hell
written by Alan Moore.
Another suspect was James Kelly who had no known relation to the
Ripper victim Mary Kelly. In 1883 he murdered his wife by stabbing her in the
neck and he was convicted for the crime. He was considered insane and was
moved to a mental asylum from which he escaped in early 1888. The police
searched for him but it seemed that he had disappeared with no trace. He
turned himself back in to the officials in 1927 and died two years later,
presumably of natural causes.
In 1923 William Le Queux stated in his memoirs that he had seen a
French manuscript by Rasputin in which was written that Jack the Ripper was
an insane Russian doctor named Alexander Pedachenko who was an agent of
the Okhrana, the Secret Police of Imperial Russia and whose job was to
commit murders in order to confuse Scotland Yard. However there is no
confirmed evidence that Pedachenko ever existed.
One of the most famous suspects was Prince Albert Victor. The Duke of
Clarence and Avondale was first mentioned as a potential suspect in 1962
when author Philippe Jullian published a biography of Prince Albert Victor's
father, Edward VII. The author made a passing rumor that Albert Victor might
have been responsible for the murders, but made no reference to the day the
rumor first started. It is believed that Prince Albert Victor had committed the
murders after being driven mad by syphilis. The suggestion was widely
dismissed because Albert Victor had strong alibis for the murders.
A friend of Queen Victoria, Sir John Williams, who was the obstetrician
of her daughter Princess Beatrice, was accused of the Ripper crimes in a
14

2005 book, Uncle Jack, written by one of the surgeon's descendants, Tony
Williams, and co-authored by Humphrey Price. They claim that the victims
knew the doctor personally and that they were killed and mutilated in an
attempt to research the causes of infertility. Jennifer Pegg showed that the
version of the notebook entry used in Uncle Jack to show that Sir John
Williams had met Mary Ann Nichols, one of the Rippers victims had been
altered and did not match the original document, thus demonstrating the
innocence of Sir Williams.

VII) Jack the Ripper in popular culture

The notorious serial killer who terrorized Whitechapel in 1888 has been
the source of inspiration for many works ranging from gothic novels
published at the time of the murders to recent motion pictures and
computer games. Important influences on the depiction of the Ripper
include Marie Belloc Lowndes' 1913 novel The Lodger, which has been
adapted for the stage and film, and Stephen Knight's 1976 work Jack the
Ripper: The Final Solution, which expanded a theory involving freemasons
and royalty. The Ripper appears throughout the science fiction and horror
genres and is internationally recognized as an evil character. The
association with death and sex is particularly appealing to heavy metal and
rock musicians, who have incorporated the Ripper murders into their work.

Literature
The first influential short story, The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes,
was published in McClure's Magazine in 1911 and novelized in 1913 and it
features a London couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bunting, who suspect that their
lodger, Mr. Sleuth, is a mysterious killer known as "The Avenger". The focus
of the story is on the Buntings' psychological terror, which may be entirely
unfounded, rather than the actions of "The Avenger". In 1927, "The Lodger"
was the subject of an Alfred Hitchcock-directed film: The Lodger: A Story of
the London Fog.
The many novels influenced by the Ripper include: A Case to Answer
(1947) by Edgar Lustgarten, The Screaming Mimi (1949) by Fredric Brown,
15

Terror Over London (1957) by Gardner Fox, The Private Life of Jack the Ripper
(1980) by Richard Gordon, Anno Dracula (1992) by Kim Newman, Ladykiller
(1993) by Martina Cole, Savage (1993) by Richard Laymon and Matrix (1998)
by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry.

Film
The most famous film based on Jack the Ripper is From Hell, directed
by the Hughes brothers. Even though the film version differs enormously
from the novel, it was quite a success, film critic Roger Ebert gave it 3 out
of 4 stars and The New York Post called it a "gripping and stylish thriller".
Released in the same year as From Hell, and consequently
overshadowed by it, were Ripper and Bad Karma (retitled as Hell's Gate).
Ripper centers on psychology student Molly Keller (played by A. J. Cook) who
studies serial killers. Her classmates start dying at the hands of a Jack the
Ripper copycat, who targets victims with the same initials as the originals.
Bad Karma is another play on the reincarnation theme with the addition of
Patsy Kensit as the Ripper's female accomplice.

Music
Link Wray's 1959 instrumental "Jack the Ripper" begins with an evil
laugh and a woman's scream. These devices were also used in "Jack the
Ripper" (1963), originally recorded by Screaming Lord Sutch and covered by
The White Stripes, The Horrors, Black Lips, The Sharks and Jack & The
Rippers.
Metal bands are particularly keen to associate themselves with the
"bloodshed and sleaze" image of the Ripper. American death core band
Whitechapel derived its name from the inner-city district Whitechapel in
London.

Video games
Jack the Ripper's first appearance in computer games began in a text
adventure game (Jack the Ripper) released in 1987. This was followed by his
appearance in the Sega platform game Master of Darkness (1992), where he
is revealed to be an animated wax doll. Also in 1992, Jack the Ripper
featured in the dungeon crawl style RPG Waxworks. Jack is one of the
16

historically-based characters in the World Heroes fighting game series,

making his debut in World Heroes 2: Jet in 1994.Ripper (1996) deals with a
copycat serial killer in a futuristic New York City in the year 2040, and in Jack
the Ripper (2003) the player takes on the role of a reporter sent to cover a
new outbreak of Ripper-style attacks in New York in 1901, 13 years after the
Ripper's murders.
Mystery in London: On the Trail of Jack the Ripper (2009) fuses the
Ripper story with Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while Sherlock
Holmes versus Jack the Ripper (2009) fuses with the fictional world of
Sherlock Holmes.

VIII) Bibliography

17