Jack the Ripper — Serial Killer

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SUSPECTS CONSIDERED LATER ON IN HISTORY

The following were not suspects during the investigation, but new discoveries and historical research have since made them so.

James Maybrick

In 1992, Michael Barrett came forth with a diary supposedly penned by James Maybrick, a wealthy cotton broker who died in 1889. Within the pages of this diary, Maybrick confessed to being Jack the Ripper. This could have been the end of the story if questions hadn't immediately begun to arise about the diary's authenticity. Michael Barrett claimed to have acquired the diary from a friend, Tony Devereux, but at the time Barrett disclosed the diary, Devereux was deceased and his family claimed to know nothing about the existence of the diary.

Even without the Ripper angle, Maybrick's tale is intriguing. He had contracted malaria and was taking a combination of arsenic and strychnine to keep his illness under control. Unfortunately, he became addicted to the arsenic, which was ultimately responsible for his death.

Maybrick married a lovely young socialite, Florence (Florie) Chandler. In 1888, they lived in a large mansion outside of Liverpool. Plagued by financial worries, Maybrick's drug addiction worsened. Around that time, Florie discovered Maybrick had a mistress. In the spring of 1889, Florie purchased some fly papers soaked in arsenic. When Maybrick died shortly thereafter, Florie was charged with poisoning her husband. She was convicted and sentenced to be hanged but was released after serving 15 long years in prison.

Maybrick was never a suspect during his own lifetime. It was only after the emergence of the diary in 1992 that he came under close examination. Experts analyzed the diary and found many indications that it was not authentic. For example, the volume in which the diary was written had many pages torn from its beginning, as if it had initially been used for some other purpose. In addition, these kinds of volumes can be purchased in antique shops, and some experts suspect that the ink used was modern. Furthermore, several mentions of the murders in the diary seemed to correspond to old newspaper accounts rather than to personal accounts of the murders themselves.

In 1995, Michael Barrett confessed that the Maybrick diary was a hoax, hand written by his wife from his typed notes. Despite the diary's questionability, however, some continue to believe in its authenticity.

You can read more about James Maybrick and the Maybrick diary on the Casebook Web site.

Walter Sickert

Impressionist artist Walter Sickert did not become a candidate for the Ripper until the 1960s. The rumor that he might have been Jack the Ripper originally stemmed from a series of paintings called the Camden Town Murders, which he created 20 years after the Ripper murders. These, and others of his paintings, bear some uncanny similarities to the Ripper crimes.

Author Patricia Cornwell first became interested in the Ripper case when she was invited to Scotland Yard to research a fiction novel. She decided to write a nonfiction book about the case. In her recent novel,Portrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper -- Case Closed (Berkley True Crime), she concludes that Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper.

Cornwell's goal was to apply modern forensic techniques in an attempt to solve the over-a-century-old crime. She spent six million dollars of her own money and purchased 30 of Sickert's paintings in an effort to prove her theory. While only three Ripper letters had been deemed authentic during the investigation, Cornwell believed modern technology might be able to shed new light on the subject. DNA testing was performed on the backs of stamps and envelopes from 250 possible Ripper letters, which were then compared to Walter Sickert's own personal correspondence. DNA testing in connection with a murder case this old had never been attempted before, and it was difficult. Many of the letters had been sealed under plastic in order to preserve them, which destroyed whatever DNA might have been present. The initial results were disappointing. No trace of human DNA was found.

One letter existed that had not been stored in plastic, so Cornwell arranged for more sophisticated testing, this time for mitochondrial DNA. Though one match was found, the small trace of DNA evidence proved inconclusive.

However, the stationery used on some of the Ripper letters had a watermark from Perry & Sons, the same watermark found on some of Walter Sickert's personal correspondence. That and other clues have convinced Cornwell that Walter Sickert and Jack the Ripper were one and the same. Other experts argue, though, that much of Cornwell's speculation is based on circumstantial evidence.

Cornwell states that mental stress brought on by a physical problem led Sickert to commit the crimes, but there is no solid proof that this was true. Though it is known he had surgery for a fistula of some kind in his youth that may have rendered him impotent and thus caused him to have a deep-rooted hatred for women, there is no factual documentation to back up the specific type of surgery he had. Cornwell states that Sickert, married three times, was impotent and unable to father children, but other sources reveal that Sickert did have at least one illegitimate son, Joseph, who later took on his surname.

The similarities between Sickert's paintings and the Ripper crimes could be an uncanny coincidence, or Sickert may have viewed mortuary photos of the victims. Some experts believe he may have written some of the Ripper letters as a hoax, but he did not commit the actual crimes. There is also some evidence indicating that Sickert was living in France during the time of the murders. Though Cornwell maintains he could have traveled back and forth by ferry to commit the murders, there is no real evidence to place Sickert in London during the time they took place.

The Guardian UK shows one of the controversial paintings in an article about Cornwell's research on Sickert.

JACK: FACT AND FICTION

Jack the Ripper has become the subject of countless works of both fiction and nonfiction and some that are a curious blend of both. Some of these are discussed here.

The Lodger

Alfred Hitchcock's 1926 silent film, The Lodger, was based on Marie Belloc Lownde's book of the same title. A struggling retired couple is glad for the extra bit of money when an eccentric gentleman rents a room in their home. However, the wife soon becomes suspicious when she realizes the lodger's nocturnal disappearances coincide with the murders of prostitutes by a mad killer the papers call "The Avenger." This story does have some basis in fact. The police did investigate rumors of a mysterious lodger who rented a room in a boarding house in London with the address of 22 Batty Street, but the identity of the lodger was never discovered, nor was it ever proven that he had any connection to the Ripper crimes.

From Hell — the Movie

The 2001 movie From Hell, starring Johnny Depp, is a confusing blend of fact and fiction. The movie itself was derived from a work of fiction, a graphic (illustrated comic) novel of the same name written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Eddie Campbell. The graphic novel was based in turn on an earlier book by Stephen Knight, Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution, which embraces the Royal Conspiracy Theory, a theory that has never been proven.

In the movie, some of the events and characters have been changed to enhance the drama. For example, there is no evidence to indicate that the "real" Inspector Abberline was either an opium addict or a psychic. In addition, he and Mary Kelly were not acquainted in real life. The movie also insinuates that Kelly escaped to Ireland and another person was murdered instead. Though there was some speculation at the time that the murdered woman might not have been Kelly because of the severe mutilation to the face, there is little doubt that she was indeed the fifth victim. Though liberties were taken with the events and the characters, the background setting of this movie was highly authentic.

CONCLUSION

"One day men will look back and say I gave birth to the Twentieth Century," the movie From Hell quotes from a purported Jack the Ripper letter. The intriguing mystery of Jack the Ripper still exists today in the form of both popular fiction and scholarly research. Was Jack the Ripper American suspect Francis Tumblety or M.J. Druitt or one of a multitude of others? Is Patricia Cornwell correct about the Ripper being artist Walter Sickert? Did the Ripper actually exist or was his creation part of a government conspiracy and cover-up?

We may never know for sure, but now that you have reviewed all of the facts, what is your opinion? If you go to the Web site www.casebook.org, you can read more information about all of the suspects and form your own opinion. You can join an opinion poll by clicking the suspect's photo of your choice. Scroll down to cast a vote.

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