A Documentary Revisited Jack the Ripper 100 Years After his Crimes
A panel of experts pick from the top five suspects.
On August 31, 1888, Constable Jonas Mizen discovered the body of Mary Ann Nichols, the first canonical victim of Jack the Ripper, also known as the Whitechapel Murderer. The killer is believed to have murdered and mutilated at least five women in and around London’s Whitechapel district from August to November 1888.
In 1988, a hundred years after Jack the Ripper terrified London with a series of murders and mutilations, movie legend Peter Ustinov hosted a live documentary titled The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper on American television. It also had some taped segments, including historical recreations.
The show featured a panel of five experts, including John Douglas, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent; William Eckert, forensic pathologist; Ann Mallalieu, Queen’s Counsel; Roy Hazelwood, FBI special agent; and William Waddell, curator of Scotland Yard’s crime museum, The Black Museum.
A couple of fun facts: Ustinov was substituting for Geraldo Rivera, who was busy doing a documentary on Satan worship. Viewers could pay to call in during the show using a 1–900 number to vote for one of five suspects. Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me, but it was the 80s.
The name “Jack the Ripper” came from the “Dear Boss Letter” written by someone claiming to be the murderer. The press widely published the letter, and many believed it to be a fraud written by journalists in an effort to increase interest in the story and sell more newspapers.
From FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas’ July 6, 1988, criminal investigative analysis prepared for the show’s producers, Cosgrove-Meurer Productions Inc., available at vault.fbi.gov:
Communiques Allegedly Received From Jack the Ripper
“Another aspect of this case worth mentioning was the communiques allegedly received from Jack the Ripper. It is quite rare when a serial murderer of this type communicates with police, media, family, etc. … In summary, I would not put emphasis on the communiques during this investigation.”
The canonical five Ripper victims were Mary Ann Nichols (found August 31), Annie Chapman (found September 8), Elizabeth Stride (found September 30), Catherine Eddowes (found September 30), and Mary Jane Kelly (found November 9). Most experts attribute only the canonical five to the Ripper. Some say that only three, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, and Catherine Eddowes, were the work of a single killer.
The reason these five are considered to be Ripper victims is the nature of their wounds, including deep slash wounds to the throat, abdominal and genital mutilation, organ removal, and facial mutilation.
Two women killed before the canonical five are considered by some to be Ripper victims: Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram. The Whitechapel murders also include another four murders that occurred after the canonical five: Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, the Pinchin Street torso, and Frances Coles.
The 5 Most Likely Suspects
Dr. Robert Donston Stephenson (also known as Roslyn D’Onston; 20 April 1841–9 October 1916) was a journalist and writer interested in occult and black magic and a medical doctor.
Montague John Druitt (15 August 1857 — early December 1888) was a Dorset-born barrister.
Sir William Withey Gull (31 December 1816–29 January 1890) was physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria.
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale (8 January 1864–14 January 1892)
Aaron Kosminski (11 September 1865–24 March 1919) was a Polish Jew admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum in 1891.
The TV audience members who called into the show picked Sir William Gull by a narrow margin. The experts unanimously chose Kosminski.
Over the decades, more than 100 suspects have been named, from the likely to the ridiculous. Given the more than 130 years that have passed, the primitive state of forensics at the time of the murders, and that many of the Whitechapel murders files were destroyed in the WW II bombings of London in 1940–41, it is doubtful the identity of the killer will ever be definitively proven.
Still, modern techniques give us a new perspective on the killer and allow us to see patterns that could not have been clear to 19th-century detectives and criminologists, like why the ripper may have shifted his hunting grounds.
Agent Douglas’ remarks on Crime and Crime Scene Analysis:
“With the exception of the last case, all victims were killed outdoors. All victims were killed swiftly, with the victims consequently receiving postmortem mutilation. All homicides occurred within one-fourth of a mile from each other and occurred either on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday during early morning hours. After the first homicide at Whitechapel Station, the subject moved slightly across town (one-fourth of a mile).”
“If a line is drawn from crime scenes 2, 3, 4, and 5, a triangular configuration is formed. This is observed in other types of serial crimes. This triangular configuration is viewed as a secondary comfort zone for the Ripper. This movement is caused when a subject believes that the investigation is heating up in his primary comfort zone. The primary comfort zone would be the location of the first homicide in the vicinity of Whitechapel Station. It is the opinion of this crime analyst that there were other attacks in the Whitechapel area that either went unreported or, for some reason, were not considered by authorities to be crimes of Jack the Ripper.”
Was the Ripper from Texas?
Interestingly enough, multiple U.S. newspapers in 1888, including the Atlanta Constitution and The New York Daily News, suggested the Whitechapel murderer might be the same man who committed ten murders in Austin, Texas, in 1884–1885 and was never apprehended. Their theory appeared to be that it was more likely that the Texas murderer had caught a steamship to London than that there might be two homicidal maniacs in the world.
Who was suspected to be the killer known as the Austin Axe Murderer or the Midnight Assassin? Who were his victims? What were the circumstances of the crimes? That is a story for another day.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it with a friend. You can find more historical crime coverage at blueridgetruecrime.com.
Comments are always welcome. If you have a topic or crime you’d like me to cover, email me at editor@blueridgetruecrime.com.
I also have a Substack newsletter, A History of Bad Ideas, where I write about poorly thought-out ideas, misguided inventions, and dire situations throughout history created by people who frankly should have known better. Check it out!
Sources
The Secret Identity of Jack the Ripper (1988 TV documentary) by Cosgrove-Meurer Productions Inc. (Available on YouTube.)
John Douglas, FBI special agent’s Jack the Ripper Profile from the FBI Vault
Wikipedia: Jack the Ripper Suspects
Atlanta Constitution, GA, Tuesday, October 02, 1888, Page 6, “Is it the Man from Texas?”
The Guardian, London, Wednesday, December 26, 1888, Page 7, “An American View of the Whitechapel Murders”
Buffalo Commercial, NY, Saturday, December 15, 1888, Page 2, “Who and Where is Jack the Ripper?”
Images
The Illustrated Police News — September 15, 1888 — Jack the Ripper
