Jack the Ripper was an unidentified British serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.
Victims[]
The large number of attacks against women in the East End during this time adds uncertainty to how many victims were murdered by the same person. Eleven separate murders, stretching from 3 April 1888 to 13 February 1891, were included in a Metropolitan Police investigation and were known collectively in the police docket as the "Whitechapel murders". Opinions vary as to whether these murders should be linked to the same culprit, but five of the eleven Whitechapel murders, known as the "canonical five", are widely believed to be the work of the Ripper. Most experts point to deep slash wounds to the throat, followed by extensive abdominal and genital-area mutilation, the removal of internal organs, and progressive facial mutilations as the distinctive features of the Ripper's modus operandi.
Five victims—Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly—are known as the "canonical five" and their murders between 31 August and 9 November 1888 are often considered the most likely to be linked. The first two cases in the Whitechapel murders file, those of Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, are not included in the canonical five.
Suspects[]
There have been over 100 hundred named suspects but most have been dismissed. However, in 2025, DNA analysis of a bloody shawl from a murder victim, Catherine Eddowes, has been used by historian Russell Edwards to claim the identification of Jack the Ripper as Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish immigrant. While the analysis claims a match between mitochondrial DNA on the shawl and a descendant of Kosminski, the claims have faced significant criticism due to a lack of peer-reviewed data, questionable methodology, and the inherent limitations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is not unique to an individual.
The new tests are not the first attempt to identify Jack the Ripper from DNA. Several years ago, U.S. crime author Patricia Cornwell asked other scientists to analyze any DNA in samples taken from letters supposedly sent by the serial killer to police. Based on that DNA analysis and other clues she said the killer was the painter Walter Sickert, though many experts believe those letters to be fake. Another genetic analysis of the letters claimed the murderer could have been a woman.
In 2006, British analysts created a composite police drawing of Jack the Ripper, depicting the notorious Victorian serial killer with a mustache, a receding hairline and bushy eyebrows. Using the 118-year-old statements of 13 witnesses, a Metropolitan Police analyst created an image of what the prostitute-killer is believed to have looked like. The killer’s image was unveiled on the British television channel Five (pictured above).
He was described as aged thirty-seven, height 5 ft. 7 in., rather dark, beard and moustache; dress, short dark jacket, dark vest and trousers, black scarf and black felt hat; spoke with a foreign accent
Jack the Ripper was mentioned in Dexter: Resurrection as a part of Leon Prater's collection.
Trivia[]
- In 2006, a BBC History magazine poll selected Jack the Ripper as the worst Briton in history.