Two Jack The Ripper experts believe they have found the identity of the Whitechapel serial killer.
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| A new theory suggests Jack The Ripper was the cart driver who told police he discovered the first victim. |
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| Police discover the body of Polly Nichols |
It has been the subject of macabre speculation for more than 100 years but now two Jack The Ripper experts believe they have found the identity of the Whitechapel serial killer.
Authors Christer Holmgren and Edward Stow believe the most likely suspect for Jack The Ripper is Charles Cross, a cartman who claimed to have found the first victim prostitute Polly Nichols on August 31 1888.
Cross was discovered crouching over the body by a witness Robert Paul.
He told police he had been walking through Bucks Row on his way to Pickfords’ depot in Broad Street at around 3am when he found the body of Nichols.
But Holmgren and Stow believe he could have been the killer, disturbed as he was mutilating the body of Nichols.
Related Articles:
Jack the Ripper: the suspects 31 Aug 2012
Jack The Ripper: The Daily Telegraph's report of Polly Nichols's inquest from 1888 31 Aug 2012
Jack the Ripper: Is this six-inch knife used by Victorian serial killer? 03 Nov 2011
Why does Jack the Ripper still fascinate? 31 Aug 2011
Paul claimed he had seen Cross standing by the body of Nichols when he had arrived but Cross later told police he had been standing away from the body in the road.
And all the subsequent murders took place between his home in Doveton Street in Bethnal Green and his work at Broad Street at times when he would have been walking to work.
Mr Stow said: "We think it Charles Cross, the first person who found that first body. He was seen crouching over Polly Nichols and he wast trying to cover up some of the wounds.
"He hasn't been the subject of a lot of investigation and has only crept up very vaguely in census records.
"We have found out that he gave a false name to the police. His real name was Charles Latchmere.
"The police at the time were looking for some sort of special individual. But most crimes turn out to be someone quite ordinary.
"He walked past every single murder scene on his way to work. He is the best suspect so far."
Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was attacked as she walked home from a night walking the Whitechapel Road.
Her throat was slit twice from left to right and her body mutilated.
The body of second Ripper victim, Annie Chapman, was found on September 8 in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Her abdomen was slashed entirely open, and it was later discovered that the uterus had been removed.
Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were killed in the early morning of Sunday 30 September 1888.
Eddowes' body was found in Mitre Square, in the City of London, three-quarters of an hour after Stride's. The throat was severed, and the abdomen was ripped open by a long, deep, jagged wound. The left kidney and the major part of the uterus had been removed.
The final victim, Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court off Dorset Street, Spitalfields on November 9 1888. The throat had been severed down to the spine, and the abdomen virtually emptied of its organs. Even her heart was missing.
The removal of the organs led the police to suspect he was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat. Suggestions for the culprit included Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria, and Sir William Gull, the Queen's doctor.
Holmgren and Stow made the claims on the anniversary of the first murder at a re-enactment in Bethnal Green.
Cross died in 1920 and was survived by his wife who eventually passed away on 12 September 1940 in Stratford.
Authors Christer Holmgren and Edward Stow believe the most likely suspect for Jack The Ripper is Charles Cross, a cartman who claimed to have found the first victim prostitute Polly Nichols on August 31 1888.
Cross was discovered crouching over the body by a witness Robert Paul.
He told police he had been walking through Bucks Row on his way to Pickfords’ depot in Broad Street at around 3am when he found the body of Nichols.
But Holmgren and Stow believe he could have been the killer, disturbed as he was mutilating the body of Nichols.
Related Articles:
Jack the Ripper: the suspects 31 Aug 2012
Jack The Ripper: The Daily Telegraph's report of Polly Nichols's inquest from 1888 31 Aug 2012
Jack the Ripper: Is this six-inch knife used by Victorian serial killer? 03 Nov 2011
Why does Jack the Ripper still fascinate? 31 Aug 2011
Paul claimed he had seen Cross standing by the body of Nichols when he had arrived but Cross later told police he had been standing away from the body in the road.
And all the subsequent murders took place between his home in Doveton Street in Bethnal Green and his work at Broad Street at times when he would have been walking to work.
Mr Stow said: "We think it Charles Cross, the first person who found that first body. He was seen crouching over Polly Nichols and he wast trying to cover up some of the wounds.
"He hasn't been the subject of a lot of investigation and has only crept up very vaguely in census records.
"We have found out that he gave a false name to the police. His real name was Charles Latchmere.
"The police at the time were looking for some sort of special individual. But most crimes turn out to be someone quite ordinary.
"He walked past every single murder scene on his way to work. He is the best suspect so far."
Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was attacked as she walked home from a night walking the Whitechapel Road.
Her throat was slit twice from left to right and her body mutilated.
The body of second Ripper victim, Annie Chapman, was found on September 8 in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Her abdomen was slashed entirely open, and it was later discovered that the uterus had been removed.
Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were killed in the early morning of Sunday 30 September 1888.
Eddowes' body was found in Mitre Square, in the City of London, three-quarters of an hour after Stride's. The throat was severed, and the abdomen was ripped open by a long, deep, jagged wound. The left kidney and the major part of the uterus had been removed.
The final victim, Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court off Dorset Street, Spitalfields on November 9 1888. The throat had been severed down to the spine, and the abdomen virtually emptied of its organs. Even her heart was missing.
The removal of the organs led the police to suspect he was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat. Suggestions for the culprit included Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria, and Sir William Gull, the Queen's doctor.
Holmgren and Stow made the claims on the anniversary of the first murder at a re-enactment in Bethnal Green.
Cross died in 1920 and was survived by his wife who eventually passed away on 12 September 1940 in Stratford.
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