Theories on Jack the Ripper

Dragon's Jewel · Feb 7, 2003

Remove all ads!
While the Alley is filled with many worthwile topics about current politics and such, I am most interested in old, and preferable gruesome murders. The more unsolvable, the better. So, who is the murderer of choice in this mystery for the ages? Perhaps....

Jill/Jane/Julie the Ripper - Mad Midwife
It has been suggested that the perpetrator of these violent crimes may have been a woman practising under the guise of abortion techniques which would go in some part to explain the brutal mutilations undertaken. But the main objection to this theory is that there has never been a recorded case of a woman performing sadistic mutilation murders.
Click to expand...

Or...

Montague John Druitt
A failed lawyer whose body was found in the River Thames in December 1888. This coincided with the sudden end of the savage murders.

Severin Klosowski
A Polish immigrant who changed his name to George Chapman upon his arrival to London, and deserving a sub-section all for himself (wife poisoner), he was labelled (But later retracted) as being Jack the Ripper when arrested by Frederick Abberline (in charge of the Ripper atrocities at the time). It is exceptionally unusual for a murderer to change so swiftly his method of killing, and is more likely that in desperation to pin the murders on someone, Klosowski fit the bill.

Dr. Roslyn D'Onston Stephenson
An author and magician who preferred to keep his own activities to himself, has been labelled as the murderer by theorising that the murders were committed as part of some secret initiation/ritual process (5 murders ties in with the belief that the pentagram symbol can be used to channel power to individuals). This belief may have faded over time were it not for Stephenson 'disappearing' sometime in 1904.

HRH Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence
Scandal has always been welcome at the expense of royalty, which is exactly what happened to Queen Victoria's grandson and the spate of East End murders. It has been suggested that Prince Albert, directly or indirectly, had knowledge of who was involved in the murders. Others who may have been instigators of the murders themselves include Sir William Gull (the royal physician), Walter Sickert (An artist) and John Netley (A royal coachman in service). The murders were apparently committed to prevent any 'loose ends' involving a Prince's indiscretion, an illegitimate child and future blackmail attempts. If this is so, why then did five women die if only one was required to be eliminated, of which the identity was known? and why were they killed so gruesomely?

James Kenneth Stephen
Directly linked to Prince Albert by way of being his tutor at Cambridge, it has been claimed he was the murderer due to his homosexuality culminating into a pathological hatred of women in general. If this is so, why didn't he kill any female that he saw, instead of merely confining his murders to the East End?

Dr. Thomas Neil Cream
A serial-killer himself (lady poisoner both abroad and in Europe), his link with the 'Ripper' legacy is that he blurted out "I am jack..." just as he was hanged. The fact that he was incarcerated on American soil at the time hasn't diminished the link.

James Maybrick
Perhaps being one of the most important developments to arise from continued Whitechapel investigations was the surfacing of the infamous "Jack the Ripper Diary" in which the self-confessions of the purported murderer are laid out in an almost enigmatic fashion, with pages torn out and passages scribbled out. Unfortunately, instead of the laying to rest one of the most intriguing cases in human history, equal amounts of scorn and ridicule from sceptics matches the proponents of the diary, firmly believing in the authenticity of the document.
Click to expand...

I, myself, am drawn towards the good doctor Stephenson, simply because he would have not had the formal education that many of the other suspects had. If you read the notes that were sent to the police during this time, they were written in a very coarse language. While one theory is that it was written that way to disguise the author (if it were, say, HRH, which I believe is too obvious and sensational of a theory) I believe that the coarseness of the letters mirrored the coarseness of the soul. I mean, c'mon, the guy sent pieces of one poor woman's liver to the police, and told them that he ate the other part.

There has also been a recent investigation by Patricia Cornwell that insists that there is DNA evidence that proves that the Ripper was none other than Impressionist painter Walter Sickert.

(AP) Using new evidence, best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell has come up with her own theory about the identity of Jack the Ripper, the pseudonymous murderer who killed at least seven women in London's East End in 1888, all of them prostitutes.

Relying on forensic science such as DNA testing and an image-enhancement computer, Cornwell argues in her new book, "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed," that Jack the Ripper could have been Walter Sickert, a painter and printmaker who was an important British impressionists.

An examination of DNA samples from letters, envelops and stamps reportedly sent by Jack the Ripper to the Metropolitan Police, and by Sickert, his first wife and others helped Cornwell reach her conclusion.

"At best, we have a 'cautious indicator' that Sickert and Ripper mitochondrial DNA sequences may have come from the same person," Cornwell writes in the new book published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

The real proof may never be available because Sickert was cremated, leaving no evidence of his DNA behind.

"Walter Sickert was a forensic scientist's worst adversary," Cornwell writes. "He was like a twister tearing through a lab.

"He created investigative chaos with his baffling varieties of papers, pens, paints, postmarks, and disguised handwritings, and by his constant moving about without leaving a trail through diaries, calendars, or dates on most of his letters and work."

The author worked with Paul Ferrara, director of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, who used a forensic image-enhancement computer to compare watermarks on stationary that Jack the Ripper and Sickert apparently had used.

Cornwell also studied Sickert's art work, searching for signs of the kind of morbidity, violence and hatred of women that someone like Jack the Ripper would have possessed. For example, she says in the book that Sickert's sketch, "He Killed His Father in a Fight," mirrors the murder scene of a Ripper victim, Mary Kelly.
Click to expand...

There are, of course, many other vague and meandering theories about this particular case, so don't hesitate to post interesting ones. For some interesting bakground info, here's a site that has all the original newspaper clips...
Newspaper Links

And here's a good one that outlines the entire case...
web page

the god · Feb 7, 2003

Dr Sir William Gull? (I found the 'From Hell' graphic novel very convincing, despite slight dramatisation)...

Erebus · Feb 19, 2003

Dr. Thomas Neil Cream: to do what was done to the women (ripping out organ etc.) one would need an extnsive knowledge on the female human anatomy. And to add, he does have a psycho streak (killing). But why would he limit his killings during the Jack the Ripper trials to White Chapel prostitutes. I could not have been Prince Albert, partly due to the disease that messes up his motor skills and manual dexterity. And he posses little to no medical knowledge. However it is probable that he hired killers or doctors to kill the woman and prostitutes to hide the existance of their being and the existance of his bastard children (Am I allowed to say that?). The professor is likely, he has the "motive" and the resources. But it is unlikely he would travel such a distance to London for five killings. There are also probabilities for cult killings due to the pentagram formed, but I am not one to delve into that.

Log in or Sign up

Theories on Jack the Ripper

Dragon's Jewel Gems: 14/31
Latest gem: Chrysoberyl

the god Gems: 13/31
Latest gem: Ziose

Erebus Gems: 16/31
Latest gem: Shandon

Log in or Sign up

Theories on Jack the Ripper

Dragon's Jewel Gems: 14/31Latest gem: Chrysoberyl

the god Gems: 13/31Latest gem: Ziose

Erebus Gems: 16/31Latest gem: Shandon

Dragon's Jewel Gems: 14/31
Latest gem: Chrysoberyl

the god Gems: 13/31
Latest gem: Ziose

Erebus Gems: 16/31
Latest gem: Shandon