This week, I am back to my usual topic of infamous serial killers. This week I will be discussing “The Whitechapel Murderer” or “Leather Apron”, better known as “Jack the Ripper”. Let me tell you, his name proceeds him, and it is terrifying.

One of his titles, Whitechapel Murderer, was true to its name in that he was mostly active in the impoverished areas of Whitechapel, London in 1888. Because his murders occurred in/around 1888, not much was very validated or solved about Jack the Ripper, which makes him even more mysterious. His true identity was never found or revealed, meaning he was never caught for what he did. He is believed to have had about five victims, but, again, a lot is unknown or not proven. However, we do know his M.O.(Modus Operandi), or how he killed his victims.

His victim type was mostly prostitutes in the impoverished parts of Whitechapel, London. He killed them in a very gory way, so I guess this is a trigger warning if you do not enjoy gore. (Luckily for you if that is the case, I will not be adding any photos.)

He would start by slitting the victim’s throat, and presumably as they bled out he would start to cut open the stomach area. He also continued with this post-mortum, or after the victim was already dead. He would remove the intestines and organs inside his victims, as they would often be missing when the bodies were found. It was believed that whoever this killer was, he had some sort of surgical experience to have been able to remove things the way that he did.

Since the killer’s identity was unknown, many letters were received in the media of people claiming to be the killer. The name “Jack the Ripper” originated in one pf these letters. Although this letter was found to likely be a fake sent by journalists to keep the story running in the media, the name stuck. A letter was received which is believed to be from the real killer because it contained a human kidney inside, likely having belonged to one of his alleged victims.

It is crazy to me that the Ripper was never caught. Then again, after reading about this case, it seems like not a lot of tools for collecting solid evidence existed or were used during the time period when these murders were happening. I do wonder a bit about his real name and identity, and although he’s gone now, I wonder about an existing bloodline he may have left.