What We Know About Jack The Ripper (And What Is Still A Mystery)

London is a city of contrasts, home to endless pretty destinations as well as those that are dark and creepy. Along with London's reportedly haunted Airbnbs are the crime scenes of historic murder sprees that left the city in terror. The locations in and around Whitechapel where the victims of Jack the Ripper were found slashed and mutilated still carry an air of eeriness. Well over a century later, the mystery still hasn’t been solved. Read on to find out what we do know about Jack the Ripper and what remains a mystery.

The Crimes And Victims

Many details surrounding the case of Jack the Ripper remain a mystery, but we do know the most important facts of all: the identities of those who lost their lives. Although it is unknown how many people were actually killed at the hands of the same perpetrator, we do know the identities of the canonical five victims assumed to have been attacked by the Ripper, as well as the alleged victims.

The five victims widely attributed to the Ripper are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. Nichols’ body was the first of the five to be discovered, in August of 1888 in Whitechapel. Chapman, Stride, and Eddowes were murdered in September, while Kelly’s body was discovered in November. All the women received cuts to the throat, while all of them but Elizabeth Stride were also severely mutilated. Investigators believe that the murderer was interrupted during the attack on Stride, otherwise, she too would have been maimed. The famed Ten Bells pub is one of the oldest pubs in London and has been the scene of many historic events—it is believed that Chapman drank there shortly before her murder.

Following the deaths of these five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper, other women were also murdered in and around Whitechapel: Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, Frances Coles, and a female torso that could not be identified due to excessive mutilation. Two more women who were murdered in Whitechapel before Mary Ann Nichols, Emma Elizabeth Smith, and Martha Tabram, are generally believed to have been victims of another killer besides Jack the Ripper.

The Details We Know

When it comes to the history of Jack the Ripper, there are certain details we know, nearly for certain. From analyzing the women who became victims of the Ripper, it is clear that he only targeted sex workers. Whether this was due to disdain for sex workers or the fact that they were easy targets remains unclear.

We also know that the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were part of a double homicide. The two were killed within hours of each other and in close proximity to each other. The fact that Stride’s body was not mutilated suggests that the Ripper had not planned to kill Eddowes, but needed to get his fix after being interrupted in his killing of Stride.

Investigators recognize that only five of the women murdered in and around Whitechapel in the 1880s were victims of Jack the Ripper. The others are likely to have been the victims of other serial killers, possibly copycat killers, or gang violence.

Details extracted from witness statements might also give us an idea of what Jack the Ripper looked like. Many descriptions are conflicting, but it is generally accepted that he was a man. He was described as having a long dark coat and brown deerstalker cap by one witness, while another also described him as wearing a long fur-trimmed coat.

The Details That Are Still A Mystery

The most obvious detail that is still a mystery is the identity of the Ripper. Investigators have come up with over one hundred possible suspects, taking into account that the murderer might have worked as a butcher or in a slaughterhouse if he didn’t possess advanced medical knowledge. Investigators at the time also believed that the murderer lived in the Whitechapel area, detaining 80 people in custody but not able to charge a single one. It is generally accepted that there was only a single killer, but it also remains uncertain whether he had any accomplices.

Along with the identity of the murderer, investigators still don’t know the motive behind the killings, as well as why they eventually stopped. Some theorize this was due to the death, imprisonment, institutionalization, or emigration of the murderer. Although the five canonical victims are attributed to the Ripper, investigators don’t know for certain that there were no others.

Hundreds of letters were sent to the police and newspapers of the time purporting to be Jack the Ripper and the identities of the authors are also not known. Although many were dismissed as hoaxes, one letter gained attention when the author claimed to intend to cut the ear off his next victim, and Catherine Eddowes was found three days later with a missing ear. Another letter accompanied a box containing half a human kidney, which some believe belonged to Eddowes.

More than 130 years have passed since Jack the Ripper terrorized London. Still, investigators cling to the hope that his identity may one day be uncovered.

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