Jack the Ripper: Murders in Whitechapel
Jack the Ripper: The Whitechapel Murders
The five victims of Jack the Ripper were prostitutes who lived in lodgings in London’s Whitechapel district. They had drinking habits, and they used to spend their money on alcohol and paying for a bed wherever they could sleep. Collecting all the testimony about his crimes, we can conclude that Jack the Ripper was a serial murderer of stately appearance, about 30 years old, who used a similar modus operandi. He committed the crimes in a period of three months. His identity has never been discovered, and there is a long list of suspects, for example, Walter Sickert—an English painter—or George Hutchinson, an alleged witness. His psychological profile describes him as a solitary man who acted alone. Jack the Ripper was smart, efficient, and savage.
The crimes aroused enormous interest, not only in London but throughout the world, and panic began to spread through the neighborhoods. Newspapers used sensational headlines, which increased fear and terror. There has been a lot of talk, crude jokes, suicides, legends, etc., around these crimes. Many letters were sent to the police, many of them mockingly, and some of them were signed by Jack the Ripper.
The Timeline of Terror: 1888
It all began on August 31, 1888. The last person who saw Polly Nichols—a prostitute in the neighborhood—alive was her friend Ellen. A few hours later, a carman found Polly’s corpse lying in the street. When the police arrived and examined the body, they discovered that she had been ripped and decapitated. Locals did not know anything. Inspector Abberline set up an investigation in order to solve the crime.
A few days later, on September 8, Annie Chapman went out at dawn in order to find money to pay for her stay at the lodging house. At 5:30 a.m., a neighbor saw Jack the Ripper and the victim speaking in front of 29 Hanbury Street. Around that time, a resident of the adjacent building heard screams and noises. Later, Annie’s body was discovered lifeless in similar conditions to the first victim. The crime was carried out in the backyard of number 29. What is strange is that at that time, it was daylight, and there were already people on the street, but there weren’t many witnesses.
Double Event: Stride and Eddowes
The third and fourth murders were committed on the same day in a very short period of time. The victims were Liz Stride and Catherine Eddowes (not Mary Ann Kelly as previously stated). The first of them took place close to a neighborhood club. The club owner found the body of Liz and alerted the police. The crime seemed unfinished and interrupted by Louis, the owner of the club. A few minutes later, Jack the Ripper committed the fourth murder, this time in a square. Police found the body of Catherine Eddowes and later found a piece of apron, which was exactly the same piece that was missing from Eddowes’s apron. Near the finding, they found a message written with chalk with allusions to the Jews. But they didn’t give it great importance because they thought that it had no relation to the crime.
The Final Victim: Mary Jane Kelly
The fifth and last crime was committed in different circumstances; this time, it wasn’t on the street, and the murderer took his time to carry out the most macabre murder. The fifth victim of Jack the Ripper was Mary Jane Kelly. A witness saw the victim with a man at the entrance of her room, but it turned out that this man was not the murderer. In the morning, the assistant of Mary Jane’s landlord was looking for her to demand a debt. The assistant got to see out of the window the dismembered, torn, decapitated, and gutted body of Mary Jane. People thought that this crime was an act of the devil. Jack the Ripper burned the victim’s clothes in a pot because he needed more light. This is the terrifying story of Jack the Ripper.