For this blog series I will be continuing it from last semester on cold cases from around the world as well as famous killers from around the world!

Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The killer was also named the Whitechapel Murderer and the Leather Apron. When picking his victims, Jack the Ripper typically targeted women that were prostitutes. He would cut their throats before mutilating their body. The removal of internal organs from 3 of the victims led investigators to believe that the killer had some type of surgical history or knowledge.

There were 11 murders that took place from April 3, 1888 to February 13th, 1891 around the Whitechapel district of London. 5 of the 11 murders are said to have been committed by Jack the Ripper and they were called the “canonical 5.” Experts believe that the slash wounds to the throat and body mutilations were all connected to one person. The 5 murder victims were Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

Victims

Mary Ann Nichols body was found at about 3:40 a.m. on Friday August 21, 1888 in Buck’s Row, Whitechapel. She was last sen walking in the direction of Whitechapel Road. Her throat was severed with 2 deep cuts, 1 in which it severed all the tissue down to the vertebrae. Her vagina has been stabbed twice and her lower abdomen was partly ripped open causing her bowel to protrude.

One week later Annie Chapman was found dead on Sunday September 8th, 1888 around 6 a.m. near the steps of the doorway of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Her throat was also severed with 2 deep cuts. Her abdomen had been cut entirely open, with a section of the flesh from her stomach being placed upon her left shoulder and another section of skin and flesh—plus her small intestines—being removed and placed above her right shoulder. Her uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina were removed.

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both killed in the early morning of Sunday September 30th, 1888. Stride’s body was discovered around 1 a.m. in Dutfield’s Yard, off Berner Street in Whitechapel. She has a single cut measuring 6 inches across her neck that severed her left carotid artery and trachea. She wasn’t found with any mutilations to the body which leave some to believe that she is not a victim of Jack the Ripper or that the murderer was interrupted. Eddowes body was found in Mitre Square in the city of London almost an hour after Elizabeth Stride’s body was found. Her throat was severed once and her abdomen had been ripped open and intestines placed over her right shoulder. The left kidney and the major part of the uterus had been removed, and her face had been disfigured, with her nose severed, her cheek slashed, and cuts measuring a quarter of an inch and a half an inch respectively vertically incised through each of her eyelids.

Mary Jane Kelly was found mutilated in her room at 10:45 a.m. on Friday November 9th, 1888 at 13 Miller’s Court, Spitalfields. Her face wasn’t even recognizable that is how bad she was mutilated. Her throat was severed down to her spine and her abdomen was almost emptied of its organs.  Her uterus, kidneys and one breast had been placed beneath her head, and other viscera from her body placed beside her foot, about the bed and sections of her abdomen and thighs upon a bedside table. The heart was missing from the crime scene.

It is believed that these 5 canonical murders were committed by the same person but it is not proven to be true. The lack of technology in the 1800s makes it really hard to convict killers unless you saw it happen. It is still a mystery to this day as to who Jack the Ripper is.