Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper.
Who was he?
Image source: The Northern Echo
If you don’t already know, Jack the Ripper (or the Leather Apron) was a vicious murderer that roamed London’s Whitechapel district, killing at least 5 women in brutal ways - such as slitting them open and removing internal organs.
Here’s a quick rundown of the “canonical five” - or, the five victims that we’re very sure were done by Jack.[1]
31st August 1888: The body of Mary Ann Nichols was found. The throat was ripped open with two cuts and the abdomen had been slashed open with a deep wound. She was soaked in blood and had intestines around her.
8th September 1888: Annie Chapman’s body found with very similar wounds to Nichols on the neck and abdomen, but Chapman’s abdomen had been entirely opened uterus had also been removed, with intestines spilling onto the road.
30th September 1888: Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes are found, dead, 3/4 of an hour apart. Stride is found to have one clean cut at the neck which severed her main artery, killing her - however she was notably absent of any lacerations to the abdomen. Eddowes, however, was found with her throat severed and abdomen torn open with a long, jagged cut with the intestines spilling out. Later inspection found that part of her uterus and her left kidney had been removed.
Warning: this next description comes with an old image of the corpse, which apparently is too gruesome for some people. Here’s your caution!
9th November 1888: Mary Jane Kelly’s body is discovered in a much more gruesome state than the others - if that is even possible. Her throat had been torn down to the spine so that the spine was clearly visible. The abdomen had been torn open and emptied of organs. Her heart was missing from the scene. Her face had been hacked away, leaving exposed bone and rotting flesh.
Mary Kelly’s disembowelled and mutilitated body. Image source: London MET, unknown photographer.
Even the existence of Jack the Ripper is debated, with some suggesting multiple “Jacks” or one original “Jack” and subsequent copy-cat killers — and others suggesting that he may have killed many more.
“Jack the Ripper” must be the most famous - yet unidentified - person in history.
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