272
the Chairman of the Whitechapel
Vigilance Committee. It contained
a letter signed “From hell” and a
human organ. Examining the
organ, Dr Thomas Horrocks
Openshaw, a surgeon at London
Hospital, concluded that it was a
human kidney preserved in spirits.
On 19 October, the Daily Telegraph
reported that the kidney belonged
to an alcoholic female in her mid-
forties, but Dr Openshaw himself
claimed that this was impossible
to determine. Ultimately, most
of the police and surgeons
attributed the kidney to a prank
perpetrated by medical students.Final victim
The last act in the Ripper’s spree
occurred on 9 November 1888, at
13 Miller’s Court: the home of a
25-year-old Irish prostitute named
Mary Kelly. Thomas Bowyer, a rent
collector for Kelly’s landlord, John
McCarthy, stopped by the address
at 10:45am with orders to obtain
29 shillings in back rent from the
tenant. After knocking on the door
and receiving no answer, he peered
through the makeshift curtains
and swiftly recoiled. Kelly’s naked
body lay sprawled across her bed,JACK THE RIPPER
hacked beyond recognition. At
1:30pm, Superintendent Arnold
instructed his men to forcibly
enter the dwelling.
Upon examining the corpse’s
state of decay, doctors Thomas
Bond and George Bagster Phillips
both concluded that the murder had
occurred between 2 and 8am. The
level of mutilation was unparalleled:
the victim’s skin had been stripped
from her legs, her breasts and
internal organs removed and
arranged around her remains, and
her face disfigured by countless
gashes. Only one organ – her heart- was unaccounted for.
Kelly’s mutilations were far
worse than those of the other
victims, and she was considerably
younger. While police at the time
investigated her murder as a Ripper
case, it has since been suggested
that Kelly was killed by someone
attempting to pass off the murder
as the Ripper’s work – perhaps
even her boyfriend, Joseph Barnett.
However, Barnett was questioned
by police for hours after Kelly’s
death, and released without charge.
The police were yet again unable to
find any useful clues as to the true
identity of Jack the Ripper.
Then, as suddenly as they had
begun, the killings stopped.
Although some similar subsequent
murders were suspected to be the
Ripper’s work – such as the slaying
of Frances Cole in February 1891- Kelly is usually considered to
have been the final Ripper victim.
Difficult investigation
Today, it seems inconceivable that
the Ripper would be able to elude
the authorities for more than a few
weeks, let alone an eternity. The
investigations were hampered,
however, by a lack of evidence and
eyewitnesses – the murders being
committed so late at night in a
dangerous area – and also by the
interference of the press.
Initially, the police believed the
“Whitechapel murders” to be the
work of local gangs – largely due
to the death of Emma Smith, who
was attacked by a gang on 3 April
1888, and erroneously included in
Scotland Yard’s Ripper files.
The police investigation was
frustrated at every turn. In
September 1888, Scotland Yard
sent in Frederick George Abberline,
a policeman who had worked in
Whitechapel for 14 years before
being promoted out of the area.
They hoped he would be ableI send you half the Kidney
I took from one women ...
tother piece I fried and ate
it was very nice.
Jack the RipperPioneering policing
If Jack the Ripper gave birth
to the modern serial killer, law
enforcement must be credited
for creating the serial killer’s
arch nemesis: the criminal
profiler. Following the murder
of Mary Kelly, Dr Thomas Bond,
surgeon to the Metropolitan
Police’s “A” Division, submitted
a report on the deaths of the
“Canonical Five” – Nichols,
Chapman, Stride, Eddowes, and
Kelly – to Scotland Yard. The
document has been recognized
as being ahead of its time.Bond employed what is now
termed “linkage analysis”,
identifying signature techniques
to establish the likelihood that a
series of crimes were committed
by a single individual.
From the way each woman
was lying down when they were
murdered, each with their throat
cut, Bond saw the murders as
erotically motivated mutilations
committed by one person. His
focus on the psychology of the
killer was a big improvement on
the phrenological approaches to
criminal profiling that were
popular at the time.266-273_Jack_The_Ripper.indd 272 02/12/2016 15:04
273
Painter Walter Sickert (left), Prince
Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (centre),
and Sir William Gull (right) have all
been suggested as suspects by modern
“Ripperologists” due to their poor alibis.to use his knowledge of local
criminals to get some information
about the killer. This was not the
case – it is unlikely that the Ripper
was a known Whitechapel criminal,
and the man worked alone. None
of the criminals in the area were
able to provide any useful leads for
Abberline’s investigation.
The Ripper was also a press
sensation. Not only did articles
about the murderer create more
work for the police – who had to
deal with false leads, copycats, and
terror in the community – but
journalists also went to extreme
lengths to investigate the murders.
Some followed policemen around as
they investigated; others went so
far as to dress up like prostitutes
and wait for the Ripper to appear.
In the more than 125 years
since, countless detectives, writers,
and armchair sleuths have proffered
suspects from the Duke of ClarenceSERIAL KILLERS
and his physician, Sir William
Gull, to psychologically tortured
wretches like Polish hairdresser
Aaron Kosminski. Today, we are no
closer to discovering the Ripper’s
identity than we were in 1888.
At the inquest into Annie
Chapman’s death, Dr Phillips put
forward the opinion that the Ripper
may have been a medical man,
due to the anatomical knowledge
displayed in his removal of the
victims’ organs. However, Dr Bond
disagreed, stating after the Kelly
murder that the killer did not even
have a butcher’s accuracy when itcame to cutting into his victims.
The image of him as a doctor or
surgeon has persisted, however,
thanks to reports of the Ripper
carrying a Gladstone bag, often
used by medical professionals.Profiling the Ripper
Modern social scientists largely
agree that the Ripper was a
resident of London’s East End.
Although we may never know the
Ripper’s real name, advances in
our understanding of serial killers
can provide strong indications as
to the kind of person he was.
There is a strong likelihood that
he suffered from chronic or episodic
impotence, which may have caused
or resulted from his abnormal, and
violent, sexual impulses. Like his
fellow “rippers” Andrei Chikatilo
and Robert Napper, he was
probably aroused by stabbing,
cutting, or mutilating his victims.
An alienated individual, it is likely
that he struggled to form intimate
relationships – particularly with
women. These deductions may
perhaps explain why the murderer
targeted prostitutes. ■The murderer is likely to
be a quiet, inoffensive-
looking man.
Dr Thomas Bond266-273_Jack_The_Ripper.indd 273 02/12/2016 15:04