Joseph Barnett; Jack the Ripper
Throughout history, there have been many unsolved mysteries. One of the most well known cases has been discovering the true identity of a serial killer from the 1800’s who has been dubbed as ‘Jack the Ripper’.
In 1888, an unidentified man began a killing spree in which he murdered and mutilated at least five women in a town on the east end of London, more specifically, Whitechapel. This murderer, because of the severe brutality of his crimes, was dubbed “Jack the Ripper”. Over the years, people have become besotted by this case and have studied the evidence over the past hundred years. These individuals have become known as Ripperologists. These Ripperologists have compiled a list of potential suspects that could have been the infamous killer. Although the list of suspects has grown over the years to well over a hundred, the most plausible of them all is a man by the name of Joseph Barnett.
During the fall of 1888, five women were brutally murdered in Whitechapel. These women are the confirmed serial killings of Jack the Ripper. These women are known by many as the canonical five. Every woman in the canonical five were prostitutes, and each of their murders were eerily similar. All of the women’s throats had been slashed and had their corpses mutilated- three of the women’s wounds looked as though they were inflicted with surgical precision. Additionally, these women were all murdered within a three month time frame.
Shortly after the first five murders had taken place, many newspapers along with Scotland Yard received letters from an individual claiming to be the the “Whitechapel Butcher”. These letters taunted the police and gave precise details of how each murder took place. One of the letters obtained by authorities contained half of a preserved kidney that police believed belonged to one of victims. There were several hundred letters that were received by authorities at time, but only three could be counted as credible pieces of evidence. These letters were then publicised, and this then became the first serial killer case with massive media coverage.
Joseph Barnett, the most plausible suspect, has an extensive amount of convicting evidence piled up against him, but there is one specific piece of evidence that directly ties him to the murders. Mary Jane Kelly, the final victim of the canonical five, was in a romantic relationship with Barnett that ended eight days prior to her body being discovered at her residence in Whitechapel.
Joseph barnett reportedly loved Mary vary much, and he wanted to do nothing more than support her so she could stay off the streets. He was reportedly growing angry with her job, and he had to put in a lot of time with his own job to support her. Some of his colleagues stated that Joseph was known to have a strong hatred towards prostitutes. Joseph was a fishporter- this meant he was constantly filleting and deboning fish, which would give him the capability to perform surgical types of incisions on a human. However in june of 1888 he reportedly lost his job and could no longer provide for mary causing her to return to her old means of employment, prostitution. The theory goes that after Barnett learned of Kelly’s returning to her job as a prostitute, he became infuriated. He tried to “scare” her by going on a murdering spree and killing a handful of other prostitutes in the fall of 1888. His plan didn’t work due to Kelly remaining on the streets, and his anger continued to fester. On October 30th, his anger finally reached the boiling point and they parted ways. Then, on November 9th, her body was found brutally mutilated.
Additionally, Barnett fits the physical description of the killer, based off of eye witness reports. The reports state that the killer’s height was around 5’7 and had a thick mustache along with being fair skinned.
Conjointly, in addition to the other evidence pointing to Barnett, his relationship with Kelly is what causes many people to suspect him as the killer. Mary was the only one of the five victims that was not murdered in the streets, but in her place of residence. Along with her being murdered in her home, police found that the door was locked; this meaning that whoever was responsible for the murder was in posession of a key to lock themselves out. Also, during the debriefing along with when he was giving his statement to police, the report mentioned that when he was giving his statement on his whereabouts during the murder, he was stuttering, and the way he described his relationship with Mary to police was not accurate according to other sources that knew them.
Although there are many other suspects in this case, many of them are mostly just conspiracies; some stating that it was a member of the royal family, or a crazed man who fled a mental asylum. Also, any evidence that was found was never linked to anyone in particular, and most of it was falsified. This was because of the sheer popularity of the case- many people wanted to gain fame and to have their name in the newspapers, so they turned over counterfeit documents to police.
Lastly, Joseph Barnett fits the description of the FBI psychological profile that was put together of Jack the Ripper. This profile stated the killer would have been a white male, aged 28 to 36, living or working in the Whitechapel area. In childhood, there would have been an absent or passive father figure. Josephs father died when he was six. The report said the killer would have been working in a profession where there were destructive tendencies; Joseph deboned and gutted fish for a living. The report also stated the killer may have had some sort of physical defect; Joseph had a stutter when he was questioned by police.
As of today, this case is still unsolved, but the most plausible and realistic suspect is Joseph Burnett. Most of the evidence that police obtained such as the letters and submissions from the supposed killer had been falsified, so it was hard to make any definite convictions of who the killer was, thus discrediting the other suspects. But, when new evidence came to light involving Burnett and his relationship to Kelly, it was hard to deny that he was the true killer.