Jack the Ripper tour

The Whitechapel Murders, carried out in the East End of London during the latter half of 1888, mark one of the more gruesome chapters of recent times in the life of the UK's capital city. The perpetrator of these crimes, known to the world as Jack the Ripper, has entered into the realms of folklore for a combination of reasons. Namely the calculated brutality employed in the slaughter of the five prostitutes that have been attributed to him (or her); the apparent lack of a concrete motive for the attacks; and perhaps most importantly, the fact that nobody was ever brought to book for the crimes.

In fact, the identity of this evasive serial killer is a mystery that endures to this day, having become an industry in itself with numerous books, films, and Jack the Ripper tours of London operating to satiate the interest in the macabre that we all share.

A myriad of names have been put forward as suspects in the intervening years (The Guardian newspaper states this as being more than 170), and of these names, one or two are more recognised than others. Such as Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria's own grandson, who it has been claimed was either driven to the killings by the onset of syphilitic-induced insanity; or the killings were ordered on his behalf as part of a 'Royal conspiracy' to cover up a number of dalliances that would've sullied the Saxe-Coburg name.

There is also George Chapman, the primary suspect of Inspector Frederick Abberline, head of the investigation. The fact that Chapman (Severin Klosowski), a Polish immigrant, arrived in London not long before the first murder was committed; resided in the Whitehall area; and travelled to America at the time the murders stopped, where another prostitute was killed in similar circumstances, lends weight to such a theory. There's also a previous record of violence towards women and his poisoning to death of three of his mistresses, the last of which he subsequently hung for.

But a closer look at the well documented list made up of Royalty, immigrants, and crazed surgeons, throws up one or two suspects a little more unorthodox in nature.

Richard Mansfield

Richard Mansfield was an American actor, who'd taken the dual-title role in a reportedly lacklustre production of the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde staged at London's Lyceum Theatre at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders. However his performance as the psychotic Hyde saw him reported as a potential Jack the Ripper suspect by theatre-goers who couldn't believe the character on stage could be played by anybody other than a prolific murderer of women... In the light of such reasoned thinking and to deflect the negative publicity he was receiving, Mansfield was forced into putting on a benefit performance in aid of a women's refuge.

Fogelma

Fogelma was allegedly a Norwegian sailor who ended his days at the Morris Plains Lunatic Asylum, New Jersey. This is according to an article published in the Empire News in 1923. Plagued by fits of insanity he would mutter about his involvement in London's Jack the Ripper murders, citing details that "connected him clearly with the atrocious crimes of 1888". He was also said to be in possession of a number of press clippings regarding the crimes, and although both Scotland Yard and local police were alerted, no further action was taken. Whether a Norwegian sailor named 'Fogelma' actually existed has never been proven conclusively, but it's generally believed that the article was nothing more than an elaborate piece of fiction from the over-active imagination of its writer.

Walter Sickert

Walter Sickert was a famous painter whose works are open to interpretation for their often dark imagery. He was already embroiled in Ripper mythology as part of the aforementioned 'Royal conspiracy'; it being suggested that Sickert had knowledge of the murderous cover-up to protect Prince Albert Victor's reputation and took it upon himself to incorporate clues in his paintings. However, it was later claimed that Walter Sickert was actually Jack the Ripper, firstly in the 1990s and again in 2002 by crime novelist Patricia Cornwell in her book Portrait of a Killer. A number of factors were put forward to support this claim, including the striking resemblance between the positioning and rendering of some of the females in his paintings and the crime scene photographs of the known victims (Sickert's paintings were produced from sketches of things he'd seen firsthand); an alleged misogyny in his work; impotency leading to a hatred of women; and some tenuous similarities between the vast number of "Jack the Ripper" letters and Sickert's own correspondence, including one or two instances where the same watermark is found on the paper.

However, there have been convincing counter-arguments against these and other factors, including evidence that Sickert was in France when the murders were carried out, and the idea that Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper has largely been discredited.

Jill the Ripper

Jill the Ripper is an idea put forward by the head of the investigation, Inspector Abberline. One that theorises that Jack the Ripper wasn't a 'Jack' at all, but a 'Jill'. Whilst the police were hunting for what they thought to be a man, a woman would've been free to commit blue murder relatively unhindered. It is further suggested that a midwife might've been responsible on the grounds that she would not only have a rudimentary grasp of the surgical skills shown in the mutilations but a midwife walking the lamp lit streets in bloodstained clothing wouldn't arouse suspicion. There is also conflicting evidence from an otherwise reliable witness regarding the time of two sightings of the final known victim, Mary Kelly, and her estimated time of death. This supports the theory that 'Jill the Ripper' may have dressed in her victim's clothing to slip away from the scene of this particular crime unnoticed. A Mary Pearcey, who was executed in 1890 for the brutal murder of her lover's wife and child, has been suggested as a possible candidate for 'Jill the Ripper', due largely in fact to the ferocity of the crime she was hung for and her powerful build, which would've made it easy for her to subdue, slaughter, and more importantly, move her victims as some cases suggest. There is no suggestion, however, that she was a midwife.

Sherlock Holmes author and amateur sleuth, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, also held the theory of their being a 'Jill' as opposed to 'Jack the Ripper' and even went on to suggest that in order to avoid detection, it may have been a man dressed as a woman.

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) is known the world over as the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and various other works.

He is perhaps lesser well known as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper mystery. Or so one author would have us believe. A 1996 book by Richard Wallace asserts that Carroll and a colleague named Thomas Vere Bayne were in fact the culprits of these heinous crimes. This is despite clear alibis existing for at least three of the murders (they were either out of London at the time or severely incapacitated). The crux of Lewis Carroll's guilt appears to lie in an obsession with the number 42 (which is linked by some bizarre leaps of logic to the various ages of the known victims) and the clues he left in various books and poems, particularly in the forms of anagrams, such as:

"So she wandered away through the wood, carrying the ugly little thing with her. And a great job it was to keep hold of it, it wriggled about so. But at last she found out that the proper way was to keep tight hold of its foot and right ear."

If you rearrange the letters, omitting one or two and throwing in a couple more for good measure, it reveals:

"She wriggled about so! But at last Dodgson and Bayne found a way to keep hold of the fat little whore. I got a tight hold of her and slit her throat, left to right. It was tough, wet, disgusting too. So weary of it, they threw up – jack the ripper."

This and other damning evidence of Lewis Carroll's guilt (for example, he was alive at the time of the murders) has been dismissed completely by anybody with a grain of good sense and a passing interest in uncovering who Jack the Ripper was.

Of course, the names being thrown into the ring with regular occurrence are purely conjecture. It's pretty safe to say that in the absence of a signed confession backed up by some solid DNA evidence nobody will ever know the real identity of Jack the Ripper. For this very reason it will remain one of those enduring mysteries that capture the imagination of young and old alike.

Luxury Vacations UK offer a wide range of Tours of the UK and London, the stamping ground of Jack the Ripper. An ideal tour that features Jack the Ripper is our East End and Tower of London tour. To find out more, including booking details and availability, call us on (011) 44 (0)20 8669 3666 or fill out our contact form, and one of friendly staff will be happy to answer any of your queries.