K.A.W. PRESENTS

Among the people I find most interesting are those who deny the possibility of randomness in our lives. Coincidence can not exist for them, because any relationship of events in appearance must be a relationship in fact. It is to these people that I often refer a study of the case of Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel murders.

This case is so full of confounding coincidences and bizzare linkages of facts that it is no wonder that any number of complex conspiracy theories have arisen to attempt to explain the mystery. We have the notion that a member of the Royal Family was The Ripper; perhaps Prince Eddy. There are tales of a conspiracy of Royals and Freemasonry to salvage the monarchy. There exists a notion that the killer was known to law enforcement, but they turned a blind eye because the victims were not of social signficance. Entire religious organizations have been implicated. In the end, the conspiracies hit dead ends every bit as confounding as the plethora of other theories designed to explain this greatest of unsolved murder mysteries.

A handful of the most commonly named suspects are listed on an earlier page. At least a few dozen others have been named, all with their proponents and critics. In fact, it has become a favored game among Ripperologists to identify just about anyone connected to Whitechapel whose name is still known to us after the passage of more than a century and attempt to build a case against the person. Its actually startlingly easy to build a convincing case against just about anyone.

The names I have previously listed remain the strongest suspects. For that reason, it would be worthwhile to spend a moment evaluating the strength of the case against each individual:

*Dr. Neil T. Cream: He was in prison in Illinois at the time of the slayings. Suggestions of a double or payoff conspiracy are ridiculous.

*Joseph Barnett: Police interviewed him for nearly 4 hours with regard to the Kelly killing and were apparently satisfied with his alibi. But the nature of the questioning is lost to us, and the circumstances surrounding the Kelly killing are sufficiently different that Barnett's possible complicity in Mary Kelly's slaying can't be ruled out.

*F.B. Deeming: He was a monster, but probably had nothing to do with the Whitechapel murders in spite of remarks attributed to him while imprisoned in Australia. One source denies his involvement claiming that he was in South Africa during the Ripper killings, but he can be placed in Whitechapel with certainty in the fall of 1888.

*M.J. Druitt: There is no evidence of violence or criminal activity in his life. His only link to the murders is the fact that they ended around the time he died.

*George Chapman: He was a poisoner, not a knife murder. Abberline's suspicions notwithstanding, there is no reason to believe he was the Ripper.

*Aaron Kosminski: We just don't know enough about him to fully evaluate his possible complicity, although there is apparently some strong evidence, no longer in existance, to connect him to the slaying of Elizabeth Stride.

*James Maybrick: All we have to connect Maybrick to the crimes are the controversial diaries. Until they can be authenticated, Maybrick is a dubious suspect.

*Michael Ostrog: He was a conman and thief, not a murderer.

*R. D. Stephenson: There is no compelling reason to suspect him. He was a showman who probably gained financially and in celebrity by hinting at his involvement, but he is not a compelling suspect.

*Joseph Isenschmid: He was arrested in connection with Annie Chapman's murder, but his name never again arises in police records. It may seems probable that the was either jailed or institutionalized during the later murders.

*John Pizer: Unquestionably a ruffian who probably led gangs that shook prostitutes down for protection money. He also did hard labor for stabbing a man. Its entirely possible that he was somehow involved in some of the murders, but probably not all of them.

This leaves us with one more interesting suspect, Dr. Francis Tumblety.The strongest objection to his involvement is his age: He was at least 55, and possibly a few years older in 1888. (There are controversies as to both the time, and place of Tumblety's birth. One biography claims that he was born in Canada in 1833, while another places his birth in Ireland in 1831.) Most eyewitness accounts suggest a man younger than Tumblety, but he was noted to look younger than his age and its not established that any of the eyewitnesses saw the actual killer.

Was Francis Tumblety Jack the Ripper? Circumstantial evidence would tend to lend credence to the theory. There is evidence that he was the storied "Batty Street Lodger" and its quite apparent that police were watching him closely in 1888. Further, following the murder of Annie Chapman, a curious bit of evidence came to light at the inquest.

The curator of the Pathological Museum in London was approached a few weeks prior to the Chapman murder by a person described as an American doctor. The doctor claimed to be writing a paper and offered to pay 20 pounds each for specimens of female uteri. The man claimed that he wanted a specimen to accompany each paper he distributed. Whether or not this event can be tied to the Ripper crimes is certainly debatable, but it becomes interesting for a couple of reasons: Two of the cannonical Ripper victims had their uteri removed and Tumblety is known to have possessed a uterus collection. He also was an American citizen and generally introduced himself as a doctor. It becomes entirely possible that even if Tumblety didn't commit the murders himself, he may have been connected with at least a couple of them. But at this point, it must be noted that the mysterious visitor to the Pathological Museum's curator can not be positively identified as Tumblety. Like so much in this case, its purely a matter of circumstantial evidence.

There is yet another possible interpretation of the events of London's fall of terror in 1888. It is reasonable to ask whether or not any of the murders were committed by a single sexual serial killer. The five murders most commonly connected have been examined in this work, but questions remain as to whether they were all the work of the same man. Some eliminate Stride from the list, and add Martha Tabrum. The justification is that her body was found at 3:30 A.M. but she was last seen alive, with certainty, at 11:30 P.M. That would have provided her sufficient time to leave the company of the soldier she was accompanying at that time and meet another client.

The murder of Mary Kelly is also somewhat of an anomaly in the group. She was killed indoors, and her body mutilated in a fashion far beyond anything seen in the earlier events. Its entirely possible that this was the climax in the killer's career. The virtual dismemberment represented the collapse of his sanity, and he may well have been institutionalized in the wake of that murder for reasons that were entirely independent of suspicion of murder. But it has also been suggested that Barnett was Kelly's killer, and the horrific nature of the mutilations was a combination of his jealous rage and possible efforts to make the event appear to be a Ripper slaying. Yet another theory suggests that Kelly was not the victim. The mutilation was carried out to destroy any possibility of identification and Kelly fled to America.

This theory has a lot of complications. It suggests that either Kelly knew she was in danger and fled London, or that she probably aided the murder of another prostitute then likely fled London. The idea that she came to America is doubtful since she didn't even possess the means to pay the modest rent on her apartment. Further, Barnett was unemployed, and unable to aid her in any elaborate escape. The entire Royal Conspiracy matter is discredited, so the only remaining possibility is that Kelly participated in the brutal murder of another prostitute then fled London, but probably stayed in England. There is no reasonable motive, so we are left with the probability that Kelly was the murder victim, either at the hands of the Ripper or someone else with an adequate motive. The most likely suspect remains Barnett.

Some time has been spent examining the likelyhood, or unlikelyhood if you prefer, that the "Double Event" was the work of a single killer. Its quite evident that the timeline is problematic, as is the apparent use of different murder weapons in the two slayings. Further, as was demonstrated, it was not only possible that unrelated, violent knife murders could occur on the same night in London; it happened in fact that very night.

There are other significant evidence points suggesting that Stride and Eddowes were killed by different hands. The medical post mortem opinion was that Elizabeth Stride was probably killed by a man who was right handed. Catherine Eddowes, like some of the earlier victims, appeared to be killed by a left-handed murderer. Dr. Phillips, who was involved in a number of the post mortem examinations also offered at the Stride inquest that the wounds inflicted on Stride were very different in character from those found on the body of Annie Chapman.

So at the point of seperating Stride and possibly Kelly from the list, how much is left of the Jack the Ripper legacy? The murders of Annie Chapman and Catherine Eddowes appear similar in that the murders may have been committed to extract specific organs from their bodies. In both cases, the uterus may have been the target. We have already established that a quiet black market may have existed, although the exact nature of the intent to acquire female uteri remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, the murders of Mary Ann Nichols and Martha Tabrum were similar in character and somewhat similar in kind to the attack on Emma Smith. While some mutilation occured, the intent of the killer or killers seemed directed toward extreme violence. This leads us to recall the rumors protection rackets and threats of reprisals by violent street gangs and thugs against prostitutes that didn't pay the required sums.

The possibility of some copycat crimes in the mix can't be ignored either. The Ripper murders represented the first time in history that the popular press could report a series of events of this nature to a widely literate populace. As a result, copycat murders not only occured elsewhere around London, they occured all over England, the United States and other locations in Europe.

The contemporary press was plenty anxious to sensationalize the case. News of the murders very clearly sold papers and the press was so desperate for new stories that they had reprinted accounts of the Krakatoa eruption, which occured a few years earlier, just weeks before the Ripper slayings. Papers reported the string of murders with vigorous detail and enthusiasm.

The implication is that the series of murders that frame the legends of Jack the Ripper may have been little more than a bizzare accident of history. Into a single location ripe for exactly a sensational series of crimes, a confluence of ingredients coincidentally mixed together to produce an entirely fictional monster. Street gangs harrassed and occasionally murdered prostitutes violently. Rumors of a mysterious market for the reproductive organs of dead women circulated, perhaps inspiring a few motivated individuals the trade the lives of desperate women for quick cash. Conditions in Whitechapel were horribly impoverished and explosive and its possible some groups may have been working to bring attention to the situation in extreme ways. Violent murder was not uncommon in the area in any event.

Of course, its also possible that a single sexual serial killer was responsible for some number of the Whitechapel murders. His identity may be known to us in the person of one of the individuals we have mentioned, or he could have been a more anonymous figure whose name and identity is forever lost to history. He burst onto the scene, went slowly mad as was indicated by the increasing ferocity of the killings, then ended up in an institution most likely for reasons other than suspicion of murder.

The case will continue to be researched, and new names will surface as suspects. Most of the time, fingers of suspicion will be pointed at individuals who were almost certainly not responsible for the killings: A significant case in point is Patricia Cornwell's recent accusation of Walter Sickert, which is patently absurd. But all research into this series of murders relies on what few source documents survive and the writings of individuals who viewed source materials that no longer exist. The falling bombs of World War II took a heavy toll on the original source materials.

If the Ripper was a single individual, he is now well beyond the reach of justice. Still, many of us revile an unsolved puzzle. But we must pause to consider that this case still has an important lesson to teach us: One that we would do well to consider deeply and often. We can conjure up monsters from the Id, as a classic science fiction film once warned us. Under the right circumstances, all the ingredients can fall into place and the irrational, incorporeal evil spirits living in the darkness of our own minds and souls can take shape and physical form, manifested by our encouragement.


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Introduction
The Murder of Mary Anne Nichols
The Murder of Annie Chapman
The Murder of Elizabeth Stride
The Murder of Catherine Eddowes
Doubts About the Double Event
The Murder of Mary Jane Kelly
Physical Evidence
The Prime Suspects
A Royal Conspiracy?
Other Murders
Kex's Amazing World