A Murderer From "Hell"

A Murderer "From Hell."

Jack the Ripper has become a name synonymous with the perfect murderer. For decades mankind has wondered, searched, and investigated who he was without avail. "I am down on whores and I shan't stop ripping them till I do get buckled," exclaims Jack in a letter to the police (Chitolie). Despite the fact that there was abundant evidence, the case has yet to be solved. It was not uncommon in the late 1800'f for prostitutes to be murdered, but the brutality of his attacks was such that it brought about attention from the media (BBC). Notwithstanding the victims, weapons, and evidence, jack the Ripper remains an unsolved mystery.

Jack the Ripper has become a name so widely known not simply because it was never solved, but because of his choice of victim. His victims were prostitutes, or at least the conical five. The five are as follows: Mary Ann Nicholls, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly (Wikipedia.com). The victim's injuries were similar in the aspect that they all had some indications that the attacker had a medical background (Barbee). Mary Ann Nicholls was murdered on Friday, August 31, 1888 (Barbee) and was attacked along the throat, revealing the vertebrae. She was also stabbed in the stomach multiple times (Chitolie). Her Body was found at about 3:40 in the morning on a back street in Whitechapel (Wikipedia.com). In the case of Annie Chapman, she was murdered Saturday, September 8,1888 in Spitalfields. Her uterus was taken out of her body and kept by the murderer (Metropolitan). Next was Elizabeth Stride, who lost her life on Sunday, September 30, 1888 on Berner Street in the East End of London (Metropolitan). An attempt was made to remove her ear, but the attacker was interrupted and left the scene (Chitolie). Later the same day, Eddowes was attacked in Mitre Square in London. Her uterus and left kidney were removed and kept by the murderer (Metropolitan). Lastly, Kelley was murdered on Friday, November 9, 1888 in Spitalfields (Metropolitan). Her murder was the most brutal of all, having to take many hours to complete all the injuries. She was believed to be pregnant at the time of her death (Chitolie), and it has been suggested that her heart was removed (Metropolitan). It has been suspected that there were more victims than just these five, but none of them have proved to be killed by Jack the Ripper himself. It has also been concluded that he did not kill after November of 1888 (BBC).

Investigators have concluded that the key weaponry of Jack the ripper involves a razor and possibly a scalpel. The razor was a straight blade, thick and strong enough to penetrate the skin of humans, weather it was by stabbing or slashing. It was also flexible enough to use in removing the insides of his victims. The scalpel is only a possible weapon because of the suspects (Chitolie). Because of the use of these weapons, it was thought that the killer had some knowledge of the human anatomy (BBC). These tools also gave him his name (Rumbelow 3), along with his signature to his letters (Wikipedia.com).

There were many people thought to be the killer, but there are three that are most commonly known and more so related to the killings than any others. The first of the three is Montague Druitt. He was a barrister and a teacher. He was assumed to be insane and he disappeared after the final murder (Britannica 453). He then committed suicide in December the same year (Metropolitan). In the report concerning Druitt, it was written that he was 41 years old, a doctor, and committed suicide after the Kelly murder. When in all actuality, Druitt was 31 years old, not a doctor, and killed himself a month after the Kelly murder by drowning himself. All of this information has made him seem to be an unlikely candidate (Barbee). The second of the suspects is Michael Ostrog; a Russian criminal and physician who was placed in an insane asylum due to homicidal tendencies (Britannica 453). He was also known to be a thief of 55 years old, and released and re-detained by asylums multiple times (Metropolitan). Finally, he was determined to be simply a demented con man, but not the murderer (Barbee). The last suspect most commonly known is Aaron Kosminiski, a Polish Jew and a resident near the site of the murders, known to hate women (Britannica 453). He was placed in an insane asylum for hearing voices in his head. However, it was determined that he was harmless to any others except himself, for he ate only garbage out of the gutters (Barbee). As it turned out, all the suspects had too little evidence to ever be convicted of the crimes, and all died before any other evidence could have