Jack the Ripper on This Day in History

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This Day In History: Jack the Ripper murdered Mary Jane Kelly on this day in 1888, becoming his final victim in the Whitechapel murders.

At the time of Kelly's death, she was approximately 25 years old, working as a prostitute and living in relative poverty.

The canonical five Ripper victims are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

There have been many theories as to who the Jack the Ripper might have been, including Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, Prince Albert Victor, son of Edward VII and grandson of Queen Victoria, British artist Walter Sickert, a German sailor named Carl Feigenbaum who was executed for murdering a New York woman in 1894, and Whitechapel mortuary attendant Robert Mann. 

Some believe that Jack the Ripper was an American. Richard Mansfield, an American actor working on the London stage was one such suspect. Mansfield was performing in the London production of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in 1888 during the time that Jack the Ripper was murdering women in London. One frightened theatre-goer wrote to the police accusing Mansfield of the murders because he could not believe that any actor could make so convincing a stage transformation from a gentleman into a mad killer without being homicidal. 

American serial killer H.H. Holmes has also been accused to being Jack the Ripper, and the timeline of his killings certainly makes that seem possible, and Holmes' great-great-grandson, Jeff Mudgett, certainly believes so, and he wrote the book Bloodstains to prove it.

Others actually believe that Theosophist Madame Helena Blavatsky may have been the killer. Even Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle faced scrutiny as the possible JTR.

Others, like Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed it might have been a woman, a Jill the Ripper, possibly a midwife. "The idea was that a midwife would be the only type of woman capable of killing in such a gory way. Rumors that Mary Kelly was pregnant at the time of her death fed into the theory, due to a midwife’s easy access to other women’s homes. No one would look twice at a midwife with blood on her clothing, and moreover she could slip away from her crime scenes unnoticed the way the Ripper was notorious for doing."~Emily Rose

Jack the Ripper is featured in hundreds of works of fiction and works which straddle the boundaries between fact and fiction, including the Ripper letters and a hoax diary: The Diary of Jack the Ripper. The Ripper appears in novels, short stories, poems, comic books, games, songs, plays, operas, television programmes, and films. More than 100 non-fiction works deal exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders, making it one of the most written-about true-crime subjects. The term "Ripperology" was coined by Colin Wilson in the 1970s to describe the study of the case by professionals and amateurs.

See also: On Jack the Ripper by John E. Watkins 1919
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2017/12/on-jack-ripper-by-john-e-watkins-1919.html

Jack the Ripper Identified
Unmasking Jack the Ripper more than 130 years after he vanished.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wicked-deeds/201401/jack-the-ripper-identified

Your's Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch
http://www.unz.org/Pub/WeirdTales-1943jul-00083

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Listen to The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper by Maxim Jakubowski

Walter Sickert (the Ripper?) on This Day in History

This Day in History: Renowned Impressionist/Modernist artist Walter Sickert was born on this day in 1860.

"The name of Walter Sickert has been linked to the Jack the Ripper murders by several authors and, over the years, his role in the killings has been said to have varied enormously.

According to some authors he was an accomplice in the Whitechapel Murders, whilst others have depicted him as knowing who was responsible for the crimes and duly informing on them.

But, according to the crime novelist Patricia Cornwell in her 2002 book Portrait of a Killer - Jack the Ripper - Case Closed, Sickert was in fact the man who carried out the crimes that became known as the Jack the Ripper Murders." Source

Jack the Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert - Patricia Cornwell

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Soviet Serial Killer Andrei Chikatilo on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo (the Rostov Ripper) was convicted of 52 murders on this day in 1992. According to one website, Chikatilo has a lot of labels: "Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo, a.k.a. The Rostov Ripper, was a prolific Russian 'vampirist'-type cannibalistic, pedophilic, ephebophilic, necrophilic, and hebephilic serial killer, brief spree killer, and enucleator responsible for at least 52 murders that occurred between 1978 to 1990." Source

There's a lot to unpack there. Ephebophilia is the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. Hebephilia is a mental disorder characterized by a strong sexual interest in children who have not yet reached puberty. People with hebephilia are typically attracted to children aged 11 to 14. Enucleation is the medical term used to refer to the surgical removal of the eyes. 

Chikatilo's trial was the first major media event of post-Soviet Russia and the Russian press regularly published sensationalistic headlines about the murders, referring to Chikatilo being a "cannibal" or a "maniac" and to his physically resembling a shaven-skulled, demonic individual.

He was executed by a single shot to the back of his head. While this method of capital punishment may seem out-dated, the state of Utah still allows for the firing squad. Saudi Arabia still practices beheading with a sword.

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Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, on This Day in History

 

Today in History: English serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, aka Yorkshire Ripper, was arrested on this day in 1981. He was responsible for 13 confirmed deaths and a few other injuries. His was one of the largest and most expensive manhunts in British history and the West Yorkshire Police were criticized for their failure to catch Sutcliffe despite having interviewed him nine times in the course of their five-year investigation. 

It is often used as an excuse that the police couldn't catch Sutcliffe quicker because they lacked the technology that law enforcement now has. However, even today, a staggering number of violent crimes go unsolved. "According to the most recent FBI 'Crime in the United States' report, only 45 percent of violent crimes lead to arrest and prosecution. That is, less than half of violent crimes result in what is known as a 'clearance' of the crime. Property crime clearances are much worse. Only 17 percent of burglaries, arsons, and car thefts are 'cleared.'" Source

Perhaps the low clearance rates in violent crime is due the fact that other crimes are more lucrative, especially where asset forfeiture is involved.

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There have been quite a few bad men dubbed "Ripper" since the original Jack the Ripper in 1888. There's the Russian Rostov Ripper who killed 52 people between 1978 and 1990. Joel the Ripper (Joel Rifkin) killed 17 people. Then there's the Blackout Ripper who killed 4 women in 1942. Between 2001 and 2008 we had the Hollywood Ripper in Southern California. Greece had the Athens Ripper between 1992 and 1995. Michigan had the Ypsilanti Ripper (Co-ed Killer) between 1967 and 1969. Texas had the Dallas Ripper in the early 90's. Long Island, NY had the Craigslist Ripper recently who may have killed up to 17 women. The Atlanta Ripper terrorized Atlanta in the early 1900's and was never caught. 

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