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Picture of Buck's Row Whitechapel in London's East End (now Durward St) - site of Jack the Ripper's first murder on 31 August 1888. Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols' body was discovered 3 metres back from the corner of the tall brick building.

Take a Ripper virtual tour from the first murder scene. Click on the map below to view all 5 murder scenes and other key locations in the hunt for the world's first recognised serial killer.

Buck's Row Whitechapel

Jack the Ripper's London 1888


View Jack the Ripper Walk, Whitechapel, Greater London UK in a larger map

This link will take you to the key points in London where Jack the Ripper carried out his 5 murders
over 71 days from 31 August 1888 to 9 November 1888. You can use this map to make your own Jack the
Ripper walk around London or to trace the movements of the Whitechapel killer whose identity has
never been established.

Jack the Ripper exhibits go on public display in Scotland Yard's Black Museum in London

Jack the Ripper's letter 'From Hell' and pans Dennis Nilsen used to boil his victims' flesh: 

Police exhibits from some of the grisliest crimes to go on display to the public for the first time.


Scotland Yard's Black Museum has never been open to public in 150 years.


Police have been known to faint at the exhibits which include death masks.


Collection also includes a noose used in the last female execution in UK.


It has been one of the most macabre and inaccessible museums in the world for almost 150 years.

From the infamous 'From Hell' letter reportedly written by Jack the Ripper to the battered old cooking pot used by serial killer Dennis Nilsen to boil his victim's flesh, it houses exhibits from some of Britain's most notorious murderers and criminals.

Now a selection of the 20,000 exhibits is set to go on display to the public for the first time. 


Scotland Yard's Crime Museum, known as the 'Black Museum' for its grisly collection of crime memorabila (such as the collection of vicious weapons pictured)

Scotland Yard's Crime Museum, known as the 'Black Museum' for its grisly collection of crime memorabila, has only been open to serving police officers and a few select guests since it first opened its doors 1874. 

The Metropolitan Police and the Mayor's Office are currently in discussions with the Museum of London to stage the unique collection, which also includes the noose used to hang Ruth Ellis - the last woman executed in the UK.

Other exhibits include death masks of people hanged at Newgate prison and casts of their rope-scarred necks and the severed arms of a murderer, thought to have committed suicide in Cologne, Germany in the 1950s.

The museum has only been open to serving police officers and a few select guests since it first opened its doors 1874.

From the infamous 'From Hell' letter reportedly written by Jack the Ripper to the collection of nooses (pictured) used to carry out executions of some of the most notorious criminals

It also boasts a pommel horse that was put to use in a homosexual brothel frequented by Oscar Wilde.

Sharon Ament, director of Museum of London, has confirmed the incredible exhibition would draw visitors from all over the world. 

The Crime Museum was set up by Inspector Neame in 1874 so new officers could see tools of the criminal trade, such as guns disguised as walking sticks and umbrellas. 

Despite being officially closed to the public, a select group of VIPS have been allowed to view the collection including Gilbert and Sullivan, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.

Several of these visitors, including service officers, have been known to faint at the museum which currently held in room 101 in the Met's Victoria Street headquarters. 


Take a look around Scotland Yard's Black Museum

Now a selection of the 20,000 exhibits is set to go on display to the public for the first time







The Metropolitan Police and the Mayor's Office are currently in discussion with the Museum of London to stage the unique collection which also features the belongings of Charlie Peace - musician, burglar and murdererChief Supt Simon Ovens, chairman of the Met's museum board, told the Independent: 

'The wish is twofold: we're obviously very proud of our history as the oldest police force in the world and to also show the role that the Metropolitan Police has played in London since 1829,' said Chief Supt Simon Ovens, chairman of the Met's museum board.

'It's not up to the Metropolitan Police to act as a censor but I hold very closely in mind the effect it may have on surviving family members of any part of the collection.' 

There have long been calls for the institution to open to the public and last year, a report called on the Metropolitan Police to open up the space to raise funds during a period of major government cuts.


27.12.14

Has Jack the Ripper been identified as Aaron Kominski?

Ripperologists Rip DNA Claim By Amateur Sleuth Saying There’s Just CSI Effect Going On

Aaron Kominski - Was he Jack the Ripper?
Russell Edward's claim of having solved Jack The Ripper Identity has gone viral in just over a day. 

Many people thought that the claims of the amateur sleuth are 100% true, uncovering the mystery that has spanned for more than a century. In his book Naming Jack the Ripper, Edwards said that the infamous serial murderer is Aaron Kosminski who has been one of the prime persons of interests back then. 

Edward's said that they have unmasked the serial killer through the help of science. He worked with scientist Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University.

'Once I had the profile, I could compare it to that of the female descendant of Kosminski's sister, who had given us a sample of her DNA swabbed from inside her mouth.

"The first strand of DNA showed a 99.2 per cent match, as the analysis instrument could not determine the sequence of the missing 0.8 per cent fragment of DNA. On testing the second strand, we achieved a perfect 100 per cent match."

However, for several Ripperologists, the term used to describe a group of people interested on the case, Jack The Ripper identity remains a whodunit. It is still far from being solved and Edward's claims only became viral because of the internet.

"Literally, we see articles like this a couple of times a year, but this one has gone viral," said Stephen P. Ryder, executive editor of "Casebook: Jack the Ripper," an online data base built by Ripperologists.

"There's kind of a 'CSI Effect' going on," Ryder said. "People hear 'DNA,' and they think it's 100 percent solved."

Ryder and many of the members of the forum doubt that Kosminski was indeed the true Jack the Ripper identity because of the difference in physique as described by witnesses.

"If it actually was Kosminski, this guy was a borderline raving lunatic," Ryder said. "This was not a criminal mastermind by any means."

Witnesses described Jack as a heavy-built man while Kosminski, who was 23 when detained, paraded a slight body built.

"Until I see anything more than what I've seen so far, it's like the Patricia Cornwell case," Ryder said.

Could Jack the Ripper have been a Woman?


Not Lizzie Borden, though
 she would be a cool
 suspect too.

In 1888, someone killed five prostitutes in London's Whitechapel district and came to be called "Jack The Ripper".

Since then, everyone from Sherlock Holmes to officers on "Star Trek" have weighed in on who the killer might be. 

The suspects are a Who's Who of people from the period because, apparently, it could just not have been some crazy, unknown sociopath, it had to be a member of Parliament or a famous writer.

John Morris has a new suspect - Lizzie Williams, the wife of the physician Sir John Williams (also a suspect), who he says killed the prostitutes out of anger over being infertile - a positively Freudian idea (Freud was also a fictional suspect). 

Despair over her condition is also what drove her to remove the wombs of three of her victims.

Has Jack the Ripper’s True Identity Been Revealed?

Based on DNA testing of a 126-year-old shawl, the author of a new book being released today claims to have solved one of history’s greatest murder mysteries and unmasked the identity of one of the most infamous serial killers of all time—Jack the Ripper.



In the early morning hours of September 30, 1888, police discovered the mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes, her throat slit and left kidney removed, in London’s Mitre Square. Eddowes had been the second prostitute inside of an hour found murdered in that section of the city, and the slaying bore the grisly signatures of the serial killer who for weeks had been terrorizing London’s East End—Jack the Ripper.

As police completed their work, Acting Sergeant Amos Simpson reportedly made an odd request to take home a blood-splattered shawl—blue and dark brown with a pattern of Michaelmas daisies at either end—found at the crime scene as a gift for his seamstress wife. His superiors granted permission, but not surprisingly, the present was not well received. Simpson’s horrified wife stashed the seven-foot-long fabric found next to Jack the Ripper’s fourth victim in a box. It was never worn, never washed as the search for one of the world’s most notorious killers grew colder and colder. The person responsible for killing at least five London prostitutes between August and November 1888 was never found, and authorities officially closed the file in 1892.


The slayings never faded from public consciousness, however. Legions of “Ripperologists” have developed their own theories over the decades, and the lineup of possible suspects has included Winston Churchill’s father, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” author Lewis Carroll, and Prince Albert Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria and second in line to the British throne. Some have even speculated that Jack the Ripper was in actuality Jill the Ripper, and female suspects include Mary Pearcey, who was executed in 1890 after butchering her lover’s wife and child with a carving knife in a similar manner to the notorious serial killer.

The Victorian-era shawl reportedly taken by Simpson passed from generation to generation of the policeman’s descendants until it was put up for auction in 2007 and purchased by Russell Edwards, an English businessman and self-confessed “armchair detective” who was fascinated by the coldest of cold cases. Although the silk fabric was frayed and aging, it still contained valuable DNA evidence since it was never washed. Now, after more than three years of scientific analysis, Russell says that Jack the Ripper’s true identity has been found interwoven in the ragged, 126-year-old shawl, and he fingers Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski as the serial killer in his new book “Naming Jack the Ripper.”

Edwards enlisted forensic geneticist Dr. Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University in 2011 to study the shawl using a level of analysis that was only possible in the last decade. Louhelainen identified the dark splotches on the shawl as stains “consistent with arterial blood spatter caused by slashing.” He also discovered evidence of split body parts, consistent with a kidney removal, as well as the presence of seminal fluid. Louhelainen found the mitochondrial DNA taken from the shawl matched that taken from Karen Miller, a direct descendant of Eddowes, as well as a female descendant of Kosminski’s sister, Matilda, who provided swabs of mitochondrial DNA from the inside of her mouth.

Police who worked the case at the time of the murders would not have been surprised to see Kosminski’s name linked to the crime. At the time of the murders, Kosminski was among the handful of primary suspects. The youngest of seven children, Kosminski was born in Klodawa, Poland, in 1865. After the death of his father, the family fled the pogroms flamed by Poland’s Russians rulers and immigrated to London’s Whitechapel section in 1881. Likely a paranoid schizophrenic, Kosminski, whose occupation was listed as hairdresser, was admitted into an asylum in 1891 after attacking his sister with a knife. In the mid-1890s, a witness identified him as the person attacking one of the victims but refused to testify. Lacking any hard evidence, police never arrested Kosminski for the crimes. He remained institutionalized until his death in 1919 from gangrene.


Edwards has long theorized that the shawl was of too fine a quality to have been worn by a London prostitute and belonged to Jack the Ripper, not Eddowes. Using nuclear magnetic resonance, another Liverpool John Moores University scientist, Dr. Fyaz Ismail, determined that the fabric’s age predated the 1888 murders and was likely made near St. Petersburg, Russia. The region of Poland where Kosminski was born was under Russian control, and it would not have been unusual for Russian goods to have been traded there.

“I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was,” Edwards told London’s Independent newspaper. “Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now—we have unmasked him.”

Many Ripperologists, however, are not so certain. The report has generated plenty of skeptics, some of whom have noted that the laboratory analysis has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and that Louhelainen was only able to test mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from mothers to children and offers much less of a unique identifier than nuclear DNA. Many people can share similar mitochondrial DNA signatures. Other critics refute the notion that Simpson was even at the crime scene the night of the Eddowes murder and note that the shawl may have been contaminated over the decades since it has been held by many members of the Eddowes family.

In addition, this is not the first time that DNA evidence has supposedly cracked the case. American crime novelist Patricia Cornwell asserted that DNA samples found on the taunting letters sent by Jack the Ripper to Scotland Yard matched those of post-Impressionist painter Walter Sickert. A 2006 study by Australian scientist Ian Findlay extracted DNA from the saliva on the letters and determined that it was likely that the sender was a woman. So even with the latest news, it’s unlikely the debate on Jack the Ripper’s identity will suddenly abate.

Jack The Ripper was 'invented by the press' says retired murder detective ahead of Myths And Mysteries show in Runcorn



Trevor Marriott, former murder detective, is coming to
 The Brindley in Runcorn with his Myths And
 Mysteries show.

A retired murder detective who believes Jack The Ripper was ‘invented by the press’ is coming to Runcorn to discuss the findings of his investigations into famous legends and theories of the unexplained.

Trevor Marriott brings his Myths And Mysteries: The Real Truth show to The Brindley on Thursday, January 29, to present his analysis of the evidence behind topics as diverse as the existence of The Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, Lord Lucan, UFOs and the debate over whether the Apollo Moon landing took place.

Other investigations include mermaids, the yeti and sea monsters.

He will also be bringing his skills to bear in an exposé of mediums and those who claim they can communicate with the dead.

Trevor said his interest in mysteries stemmed from research into Jack the Ripper, the evidence of which led him to the conclusion that the killings were the actions of multiple murderers rather than one.

He told the Weekly News that the notorious serial killer’s nickname was the creation of an ‘over-zealous member of the press’.

Although he carried out the research in 2002, he later took the results on a theatre tour in 2013.

His interest has now broadened to encompass about 40 topics.

He said: “When I started to look at these particular mysteries that have fascinated people for years it soon became apparent that the members of the public have been misled by what they have seen and what they have read in books and documentaries.

“I set about trying to do an impartial investigation into these myths and to look at what evidence support these theories.

“Some are definitive, others are not.

“I think it’s going to be a very interesting show for the public because of the diverse topics I’m going to be covering.”

Speaking about the benefits of his former career’s experience, he said: “When you are working on an investigation as a police officer you have to take an unbiased approach, your role is to prove or disprove and I can bring that to the table with these myths and mysteries.”

Myths And Mysteries: The Real Truth is on at The Brindley at 7.30pm on Thursday, January 29.

Tickets are £12 or £10 concessions.

For more information or to book call 0151 907 8360.

http://www.runcornandwidnesweeklynews.co.uk/

6.1.15


Jack the Ripper: The thrill of history is often all about the erotics of not knowing

When mysteries are wide open, they become flooded with possibility



The signature on a letter dated 29 October 1888 written by a person claiming
 to be Jack the Ripper.  ‘In ­September 2014, the author ­Russell Edwards
 announced he had DNA proof that Jack the ­Ripper was a barber called
 Aaron Kosminski.’ 


The year 2014 turned out to be the one when history got solved, once and for all. In September, the author Russell Edwards announced he had DNA proof that Jack the Ripper was a barber called Aaron Kosminski. The same month, Canadian marine explorers declared they had finally located HMS Erebus– the ship in which the British polar explorer Sir John Franklin was last seen entering Baffin Bay in 1845 in his attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage. And then, to cap it all, we learned this month that Richard III – he of the beetle-black pageboy bob – was actually nearer to blond.

These are all mysteries that have kept history geeks going for generations. Well, perhaps not the one about the colour of Richard III’s hair – although it did make a lovely coda to the discovery of his skewwhiff skeleton in that Leicester car park in 2012. So to have these conundrums solved should result in a kind of ecstatic release, a rush of pleasure. Some philosophers call it the erotics of knowing.

But actually, after that first climax of delight in being able to bang in the final bit of the historical jigsaw, a curious flatness sets in. For a few brief minutes, it’s extraordinary to be able to stare into a photograph of Kosminski and imagine what it might have been like if his was the last face you saw on Earth. Or to be finally able to start to understand what happened to Franklin’s expedition, a hubristic endeavour that ended up with his beleaguered crew snacking on each other once the tinned supplies ran out. But after that comes … simply the detumescence of having nothing left to learn.

The fact is, we need our historical mysteries in order to keep the past fizzing with energy. It’s these tantalising, ticklish absences that pull us in as children to the idea that the olden days are not yet done and dusted. Instead, there’s the lingering possibility that we might be the ones to solve the riddle – or, in the case of Jack the Ripper, the crime. Until, that is, DNA came along and spoiled everything.

My obsession with the Russian revolution started when I was eight years old and saw the film Anastasia on Saturday afternoon television. It’s the one in which Ingrid Bergman plays the Romanov princess, who at the time of the film’s making (1956) was believed to have survived the 1918 slaughter in Yekaterinburg and be living incognito in Europe. Bergman got an Oscar for it.

I instantly became convinced that Anna Anderson, on whom the character of Anna in the film is based, was indeed the Princess Anastasia incognito. What’s more, I – a little girl from Sussex – would be able to prove it. I would travel to America where Anderson now resided and announce the good news to her myself. Together we would live as princesses really should.

In the 1990s, DNA testing proved that Anna Anderson was an imposter. I was devastated and shocked; to be honest, I am still a bit in mourning. Which is why I’m not sure how many more solved mysteries I can bear. For whereas once upon a time it really was possible for an inspired amateur sleuth to solve historical mysteries that had left the experts scratching their heads for decades, what hope is there now? Unless you have the funds to run a state-of-the-art laboratory out of your spare bedroom, you’re pretty much obliged to leave history to the professionals, and watch the results on television.

There is, though, one chink of hope. In October came the news that the identity of Jack the Ripper may not in fact be solved. There was a bungle, apparently, with the way they did the DNA testing. Don’t ask me for the details, but apparently the consequence is that the murderer is no more likely to have been Aaron Kosminski than thousands of others. The mystery is wide open again. At a stroke the past has become flooded with possibility; and the erotics of knowing – and not knowing – are back in play.


29.12.14

Was Jack the Ripper a woman?



One of history’s oldest unsolved mysteries is the identity of Jack the Ripper, the infamous serial killer who stalked and murdered at least five women in London’s East End in 1888.

The brutality of the Ripper’s crimes—as well as Scotland Yard’s failure to solve the case—caused a wave of hysteria in England and inspired gory headlines around the world.

In one of the more recent efforts to crack the long-cold case, an Australian scientist used swabs from the stamps and seals of some of the letters Jack the Ripper was believed to have sent to police in order to construct a partial DNA profile of the sender.

Though the results were admittedly inconclusive, they indicated that the samples were likely to have come from an unexpected source—a woman.

Far-fetched? Maybe not.

Possible Suspects

It’s true that while many theories about the killer’s identity have emerged over the years, some of them more implausible than others (Lewis Carroll of “Alice in Wonderland” fame?), the police only had four actual suspects—all male.

But after a witness said she saw the fifth Ripper victim, Mary Kelly, hours after she was murdered, the chief inspector in the case suggested it might have been the female killer escaping in Kelly’s clothing. Later proponents of this “Jill the Ripper” theory suggest that a midwife (possibly an abortionist) would have had the anatomical knowledge usually attributed to the Ripper, and would have had easy access to her female victims.

As the theory goes, the most likely suspect may be Mary Pearcey, who was convicted and hanged in 1890 for the murder of her lover’s wife and child—and who had used a method similar to the Ripper’s to commit the crime.

http://arynews.tv/en/jack-ripper-woman/

2.1.15

Author claims to have identified Jack the Ripper via DNA testing of a shawl



Jack the Ripper, one of the most notorious serial killers in history, has been identified through DNA traces found on this shawl, according to a book to be published Tuesday. The fabric was taken from the murder scene of Jack the Ripper's fourth victim, Catherine Eddowes. 

In the end, it may have taken a Johnny Depp movie, a shawl and a DNA test to solve the mystery behind one of the most notorious serial killing sprees in London: Who was Jack the Ripper?

British businessman and noted "Ripperologist" Russell Edwards claims to have finally and conclusively identified the serial killer as Aaron Kosminski, a Polish immigrant and barber.

Edwards unmasked his candidate for Jack the Ripper in the Daily Mail and chronicles how he came to the conclusion in a forthcoming book.

Kosminski has long been one of the more credible suspects in the five gruesome murders of women in the London's East End in 1888. Born in central Poland on Sept. 11, 1865, he moved with his family moved to east London in the early 1880s, and lived near the murder scenes, according to Agence France Presse.

He ended up in a workhouse the year after the murders and was described as destitute; a year later, he was discharged but eventually ended up in an insane asylum -- he was thought to have been "seriously mentally ill," Edwards writes -- where he died from gangrene in 1919. A witness had identified Kosminski as the murderer at the time.

Edwards said his interest in Jack the Ripper began after he watched "From Hell," a 2001 film about the murders that starred Depp as a clairvoyant police inspector.

In 2007, Edwards bought a shawl that had been discovered at the scene of the murder of Catherine Eddowes, the fourth Ripper victim. Before Edwards bought it, the shawl belonged to the relative of a police official who had been allowed to take it home to his dressmaker wife, Edwards writes. "Incredibly, it was stowed without ever being washed," and handed down in the family, he said.

A contemporary sketch of Polish
 emigre Aaron Kosminski. 

When Edwards bought the shawl, he subjected it to DNA testing, which confirmed that the blood on it belonged to Eddowes. A UV light showed semen on the fabric. That DNA was compared to that of a Kosminski descendant, Edwards writes.

The identity of Jack the Ripper has eluded Brits for over a century and obsessed everyone from serious academics to armchair detectives. Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor was thought to be a suspect at one point, but it turned out he wasn't near the murders at the time. Other suspects have included Mary Pearcey ("Jill the Ripper"), who had been convicted of murdering her lover's wife; in 2006, an Australian scientist, pointing to DNA results, suggested the killer may have been a woman.

Historian Mei Trow had previously identified mortuary attendant Robert Mann as Jack the Ripper, using "psychological and geographical profiling,"the Daily Mail wrote in 2009. The murder victims' bodies would have been delivered to the mortuary where Mann worked, where he was suspected to have "admire[d] his handiwork."

In claiming that Jack the Ripper was definitely, most assuredly Aaron Kosminski, Edwards has generated serious skepticism; as Agence France-Presse points out, the findings haven't been subjected to the methodology required for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

And the man who invented the DNA finger-printing technique, Alec Jefferys, called for greater scrutiny, telling The Independent it was "n interesting but remarkable claim that needs to be subjected to peer review, with detailed analysis of the provenance of the shawl and the nature of the claimed DNA match with the perpetrator's descendants and its power of discrimination; no actual evidence has yet been provided."

No matter who Jack the Ripper was, he remains one of the least liked figures in British history: Several years ago, in a BBC History Magazine survey, Jack the Ripper was voted the worst Briton of the last 1,000 years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/
8.9.14

Be a ‘Ripperologist’ for a night: How to lead a Jack the Ripper walking tour

A Jack the Ripper walking tour is an essential item on many visitors to London to-do lists. 



TO THE uninitiated it may seem like the swarms of people furtively darting down a non-descript alleyway off Aldgate High Street after dark are involved in the kind of nefarious behaviour that characterised the East End of old.

Exploring the alley itself will not provide much more insight: all that is there is a cobblestoned square surrounded by office buildings and a school playground. The only thing particularly striking about it is that it is a dark place for, one can only assume, particularly dark deeds.

It is precisely this quality that makes Mitre Square one of the City of London’s most abstract and beguiling attractions. Straddling the border of the City and the eastern boroughs, Mitre Square plays a central role in one of the most notorious stories in London’s sordid history. In the early hours of 30 September, 1888, the body of local prostitute Catherine Eddowes was found in Mitre Square. She had been brutally butchered in a matter of minutes on the very cobblestones that cover the square to this day.

She was the fourth victim of the City’s most infamous serial killer of all time. She was the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper.

As gruesome as it may be, ‘dark tourism’ is a subsection of modern travel that has experienced rapid growth in recent years. There is something inappropriately fascinating about revisiting sites that hold such a history of terror and, depending on your views on morality, evil in its purest form. This is what makes a Jack the Ripper walking tour through East London an essential aspect of many travellers’ to-do lists.

World-renowned Ripperologist Donald Rumbelow, former curator of the City of London Police’s Crime Museum, leads one such walk departing from Tower Hill Underground Station. Rumbelow was the man chosen to instruct Johnny Depp on Ripper lore in preparation for his role in the feature film From Hell and speaks with great authority on the wild variety of theories associated with the identity and motives of the murderer lurking in the shadows of 1888.

I took Rumbelow’s tour of the Ripper’s murder sites in the summer, at a time when I was far less confident wandering around areas like Whitechapel, Stepney and Bethnal Green than I would become as the year went on. When my housemates made the passing comment a few weeks ago that they would love to do a Ripper walk themselves, the solution became clear: I would lead my own tour of the East End. I would become, for the night at least, a Ripperologist.

The rendezvous point for the Inaugural Paul Bleakley Ripper Tour was at Crosswall, a stone’s throw from the Tower Hill Station and within walking distance of the first noteworthy sites associated with Jack’s reign of terror: the prostitute’s church St Botolphs-without-Aldgate and the place where Catherine Eddowes met her untimely end at Mitre Square.

My unofficial tour has its first awkward moment on a corner in Goulston Street, the place where the Ripper infamously left a piece of Eddowes bloody apron as he fled the scene of her death. It is on this corner, as I explain some of the more fantastical conspiracy theories related to the Ripper legend, that we cross paths with an official walking tour consisting of around thirty amateur historians trying to crack the case of the Jack the Ripper 124 years after the killing spree ended. The awkward moment was averted when the official tour group takes position on an adjacent corner. I chalk this up as a win for my first tour group in the notoriously competitive industry of Ripperology.

The tour twists and turns its way through the streets of East London, stopping off at the increasingly brutal murder sites on White’s Row (now a parking lot), Hanbury Street (empty office space) and Durward Street (renamed after the street’s original name ‘Buck’s Row’ became synonymous with prostitution and murder). I have tried to cater for everything on my first ever tour as a Ripperologist: we stop on Brick Lane for the standard Bangladeshi curry and I have accounted for the time it would take for a pint at two separate ‘vintage’ pubs along the way.

Following the path of the Ripper is the perfect, albeit disturbing, way to explore the rich history of London’s inner east. On a cold winter’s night it is easy to imagine the foggy alleyways that Jack would have walked, and the terror that would have been felt by every person living in the rough and tumble world of Victorian London.

A letter allegedly sent by the Ripper to chief of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee George Lusk challenged those in pursuit to “catch me if you can”. Over a century later, the hunt is still on. It is up to the amateur historians walking in the Ripper’s footsteps to do the best they can. Answer the call, join the hunt. And get yourself a decent curry along the way.

http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/ripperologist-for-a-night-how-to-lead-a-jack-the-ripper-walking-tour/

Jack the Ripper: Auction of police items nets £18,000




A contemporary newspaper illustration, probably
showing the discovery of Catherine Eddowes

Items belonging to a police officer involved in the Jack the Ripper murders case in 1888 have sold at auction for more than five times their estimate.

PC Edward Watkins was carrying the handcuffs, truncheon, whistle and a notebook on the night he found one of the five murder victims in London.

Each lot was expected to fetch up to £800 at JP Humbert Auctioneers in Northamptonshire.

The items were bought for a total of £17,700 by a private collector.



The handcuffs fetched 10 times the lower
auction estimate of £500

The serial killer, dubbed "Jack the Ripper", murdered and mutilated five women who worked as prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888.

He was never caught but debate about his identity continues to fascinate case enthusiasts.


'Huge historical interest'


The items were each estimated to fetch between £500 and £800.

The handcuffs have been sold for £6,420, the truncheon for £3,950, the leather notebook cover for £4,450, the whistle for £2,600 and a collection of press cuttings for £280.

Jonathan Humbert, from the Towcester-based auction house, said: "It was a sensible estimate for each item, but we didn't have anything to compare it to and the results exceeded our expectations.

"Five women died and you have to be sensitive, but these items are undoubtedly of huge historical interest.

"Sometimes these unusual items just re-write the rule book."



Jack the Ripper murders, Whitechapel 1888 

31 August - Mary Ann Nicholls 
8 September - Annie Chapman 
30 September - Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes 
9 November - Mary Jane Kelly 

Martha Tabram, stabbed to death on 6 August 1888, is considered by some historians to be the first victim.

The auction house said PC Watkins was walking the beat when he found the body of Catherine Eddowes on Mitre Square on Sunday, 30 September, 1888.

She was the killer's fourth victim.

PC Watkins's personal effects were bought from his widow by a private collector in 1914 and it is the first time they have been auctioned.

The buyer wanted to remain anonymous and was going to put the items in a private museum in the UK, the auction house said.

http://www.bbc.com/news

11.12.14

Sensational Jack the Ripper theory: Ripper suspect lies in Toowong grave in Australia

GRISLY HISTORY: Steve Wilson with his assistant,
Tameika Jane Roebuck, has uncovered more evidence
that his Great Great Grandfather was Jack The Ripper.

RESEARCH: Is this the face of evil?
Alleged Jack the Ripper Andrew John Gibson,
also known as Walter Thomas Porriott

FAMILY OUTS RELATIVE AS WORLD'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER
 
 
STEVE Wilson, 55, is convinced he is related to one of the most infamous serial killers who ever lived.

He has spent much of the past 25 years hunting down the truth about his great-great grandfather, Walter Thomas Porriott, a convicted killer and conman who died in Brisbane in 1952.

And he now believes his evil ancestor, who is buried in Brisbane, was Jack The Ripper - the infamous serial killer who stalked Whitechapel in London.

The savage murders of five prostitutes on the foggy streets of London in 1888 were never solved.

Porriott was the name Mr Wilson's ancestor was using at the end of his life. He is said to have married 20 times, usually to fleece his brides of their family money.

He was born Andrew John Gibson in 1870 but the April 1915 Police Gazette listed many aliases


Vandals smash grave of 'Jack the Ripper'
A HISTORIC Brisbane grave belonging to a bigamist killer and one of the many people suspected of being Jack the Ripper has been destroyed by vandals.


Porriott is buried with his last wife, Bessie, but was so reviled even by his own family that his name does not appear on the gravestone, just the words "Bessie and her husband".

The gravestone, with a thin outline of the Ripper etched in the sandstone, sits high on a hill in Toowong cemetery. It was vandalised in August.

"Porriott had a pathological hatred of prostitutes," says Mr Wilson at his Sydney home, where he has books and reams of archival material he says confirm Porriott as the killer.

"When I was eight my grandmother died and we inherited all her things, including all these medical books that belonged to Porriott," says Mr Wilson, a nurse.

"He was an extraordinary conman and fraudster who posed as a doctor for much of his life so he knew a lot about anatomy like the Ripper.

"Porriott wrote a medical textbook called Health and Vigour while posing as a doctor in Sydney in 1914 and in the book he explains his hate for prostitutes. He says they are the cause of all diseases and that they should all be wiped out with "an axe at the very roots of this deadly evil'. "

Porriott was a teenager in England when all five murders were committed. Mr Wilson has a copy of a bad cheque Porriott once wrote in 1892.

He has meticulously compared the handwriting with the infamous "Dear Boss" letter a man signing himself "Jack The Ripper" wrote to London's Central News Agency on 27 September, 1888, after the second murder, declaring: "I'm down on whores and I shant (sic) quit ripping them until I get buckled."

Mr Wilson says "Porriott wrote with a funny-shaped 'n' exactly the same as the Dear Boss letter. It's obvious they were done by the same hand."

Porriott served 44 years in prison for various crimes in Australia, England, America and South Africa.

He sailed from England to Australia on November 9, 1888, hours after the mutilated body of fifth Ripper victim Mary Kelly was found.

In 1951, aged 81, he married 58-year-old spinster Eliza "Bessie" O'Leary and died the following year.

Mr Wilson says there is as much evidence fingering Porriott as the Ripper as there is for the many other suspects.

--------------------------------

OTHER RIPPER SUSPECTS:

Montague Druitt: Barrister, schoolteacher drowned himself in the Thames in December, 1888.

Francis Tumblety: Irish-born conman - was in Whitechapel at the time of all five murders. Hated prostitutes.

Sir William Gull: Physician to Queen Victoria. Murders to cover up Duke of Clarence's love child.
 

www.CourierMail.com.au

18.11.12

COMMENT: Australian Ripperologist Paul Tully says the theory about Walter Porriott being Jack the Ripper cannot be completely dismissed.  As with most - if not all - of the various Ripper theories, there is a wealth of intrigue and speculation but little hard evidence to back the competing claims.  Walter Porriott was a con-man, thief, bigamist and killer and hurriedly left London within a day of Jack the Ripper's last murder of Mary Kelly on 9 November 1888.  If Porriottt's handwriting matches the "Dear Boss" letter's handwriting of September 1888, that would be proof they were written by the same person, although it would not automatically prove the author was Jack the Ripper.  But the "Dear Boss" letter contained previously unreleased information about the murder which would strongly suggest the author was indeed the "Butcher of Whitechapel".  Steve Wilson should be congratulated for being prepared to put his great grandfather's grisly history on the line and his potential alter ego as Jack the Ripper.
 

Jack the Ripper - The Lure of Horrible History


By Andrew Salmon

A friend of mine based in Bukchon, the pretty neighborhood in Seoul noted for its hanok, or traditional cottages, recently told me she was considering instituting a walking tour of the area for foreigners. 

It is a decent idea. Bukchon is built on a human scale, so is appropriate for footwork, and preserves ― albeit in an ersatz manner ― much traditional architecture. And she would be an ideal guide. She is smart, outgoing and attractive and as an entrepreneur, has ideas to market it. 

So what about content? I was surprised, when I suggested talking about the ghosts reputed to walk the area, that she had not considered this for her spiel. And I was gob-smacked, when I suggested that she benchmark ``London Walks," to find she had never heard of them. 

"London Walks" are a series of guided, themed walking tours of various city districts. Rated among London's top tourist attractions, they are world famous.

Walks currently advertised tour the West End, the glamorous theater district; take in the sights of Shakespearian and Dickensian London; seek out Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes; and wander the plush precincts of Kensington, the capital's poshest district.

Yet the most popular walk does not extol "Cool Britannia," showcase the haunts of England's literary greats or tour the neighborhoods of the rich and famous. 

The top tour in the U.K.'s capital takes walkers to dank back alleys and shabby pubs, following in the footsteps of a 19th century serial killer who butchered booze-addled prostitutes in Victorian London's foulest neighborhood. He was never caught, but as the first "serial killer" in popular imagination, became iconic: He is known as Jack the Ripper.

The other consistently popular walk is the Ghost Walk. This after-dark promenade takes visitors through unlit passageways and medieval graveyards, past plague pits and execution sites and even into the cellar of a haunted pub which used to be a cell in London's most notorious prison.

What is my point? 

People are naturally fascinated by the grimmer aspects of folklore and social history. Hollywood has long known that sex and violence sells, but to return to London, walking tours are not the only attraction to market historical blood and guts.

In the waxwork museum Madam Tussauds, the most famed exhibit is the Chamber of Horrors. Inhabitants include such figures as Vlad Dracul and the wife murderer Dr Crippen; exhibits include a bloody guillotine and a torture wheel.

At the Tower of London, the 11th century fortress on the Thames, visitors find the torture instruments and chopping block as fascinating as the crown jewels, and are regaled by gory and ghostly tales by the Yeomen Warders who guide tourists. 

And one of London's most popular (and expensive) attractions is the London Dungeon, which portrays plague epidemics, the Great Fire of London, pre-modern surgery and the Ripper murders. The attraction's concept has been replicated (and localized) in Edinburgh, Hamburg and Amsterdam.

Korea's history is a rich pageant through which monarchs strut, rebels plot and villains scuttle. Yet tourism operators and guides here seem reluctant to present the grimmer, gorier aspects of Korean history, bar atrocities carried out by the Japanese. 

This is particularly true in the palaces. Their pillared halls were once the settings for inter-clan feuds and poisonings, for sibling rivalries and sexual dalliances. Yet among the reams of publicity material presenting the palaces and their architecture, there is precious little information on this fascinating stuff. 

Who killed who? How? What were the harshest aspects of Joseon justice? Who were the eunuchs? What was the surgical procedure? Who chose the concubines? What did their lives consist of? Etc, etc, etc.

Beyond Joseon palaces, recent history offers plenty more bloody meat. The horrors of counterinsurgency and war; the brutal activities of state enforcers during the authoritarian years; the sufferings of the laboring class who created the "economic miracle"; and so on.

None of this is well presented or packaged. Is sex and violence undignified? Do tales of disease and destruction, of bloodshed and oppression, besmirch the national image?

Not necessarily. As the London examples show, displays of gruesome facts and folklore do not denigrate the capital, rather they add another layer to its multi-faceted attractions. 

Moreover, a focus on the gruesome is one way to interest children in history, a subject that is poorly taught and presented. Witness the extraordinary success of the "Horrible History" children's books: Over 25 million have sold in 30 languages. Their titles ("Vile Victorians," "Loathsome London," "Rotten Romans," etc.) suggest their approach: Present history using horror and humor. 

Of course, the London tourist attractions described above are not for children; they are "adults only." But this is an opportunity, not a complication: Segmentation of historical attractions implies wider potential.

Summer is over. When it comes to next year's presentation of Korean historical attractions, I'd respectfully suggest that the nation's tourism czars should examine sex and violence, and consider the promotion thereof.

Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. His latest work, "Scorched Earth, Black Snow," was published in London in June. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk

www.koreatimes.co.kr

17.9.12


Did Jack the Ripper’s family die in 1943 wartime London air-raid disaster?


The identity of Jack the Ripper has finally been unravelled in a dramatic evening at an East End church on the 124th anniversary of the first victim in the Whitechapel Murders.

The Victorian serial killer who butchered at least five women—some say more—on the streets of Whitechapel was named on Friday evening as the father of three members of the Lechmere family who died in the 1943 Bethnal Green wartime air-raid disaster two generations later.

He was a Pickford’s cart driver, Charles Cross, who was identified at the end of a drama staged by the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust at St John on Bethnal Green Church.

Cross was found at the scene of the first Whitechapel murder, in Buck’s Row on August 31, 1888, and told police he was on his way to work at 3.45am when he found Mary Nichols’ body.

But Cross gave a false name—he was really Charles Lechmere, according to Ripper experts Christer Holmgren and Edward Stow.

All subsequent murders were on the route between his home at 22 Doveton Street and his work depot at Broad Street in the City.

He escaped suspicion because police were looking for an educated man with possible medical knowledge.

Lechmere was working class—but his mother cut up carcasses for cats’ meat for a living, so may have had anatomical knowledge from her.

Highlight of the evening was a play starring the charity’s patrons, TV’s gardener Tommy Walsh and former Bucks Fizz member Cheryl Baker.

Sue Lechmere, the great-granddaughter of the man who could have been the Ripper, played the part of prostitute Emily Holland, last person to see Polly Nichols alive.

It raised £2,200 towards the memorial being erected in Bethnal Green Gardens honouring the 173 men, women and children crushed to death in a stampede in a public shelter during an air-raid alert on March 3, 1943.

www.EastLondonAdvertiser.co.uk

4.9.12

 

Horror Photographer Joshua Hoffine Reveals His Newest Nightmare: Jack the Ripper


 

By Doctor Gash
August 30th, 2012


Fantastic horror photog Joshua Hoffine has been busy at work and has just revealed his latest project. Hoffine dug deep into the history of true crime and brilliantly selected Jack the Ripper as his newest subject.

Check out part one of Hoffine's Jack the Ripper two-panel photo project. As always, his vision and attention to detail come through as we enjoy his work. The second part of Jack the Ripper will be released on October 1. For more on this excellent photographer, check out JoshuaHoffine.com. Signed archival prints will be available for purchase though his website. And "like" Joshua Hoffine's Facebook Fan Page.

From the Press Release:

Joshua Hoffine, the internationally renowned horror photographer residing in Kansas City, reveals his latest masterpiece: Jack the Ripper.

Joshua Hoffine's work exploded on the internet and in numerous magazines and news outlets around the world in 2008 when he released his collection of photographs exploring the nature of childhood fears. Since that time he has cultivated a massive cult following for his meticulously staged photographic works regarding, as he puts it, "the psychology of fear."

Conceived as a two-panel diptych, Jack the Ripper depicts the moments "just before" and "just after" a grisly alleyway murder. "What makes Jack the Ripper compelling to me," Hoffine says, "is that nothing is known about him. Because he was never caught, we have no actual information about who he was or why he committed his gruesome crimes. What we have is not a historical or biographical portrait, but a communally imagined idea of Jack the Ripper as an aristocratic predator. As a boogeyman, he graphically symbolizes the idea of the wealthy and powerful preying on the poor."
 
 




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www.DreadCentral.com

 

New Ripper Theory: Was Jack the Ripper a cart driver from Bethnal Green?


Two Jack The Ripper experts believe they have found the identity of the Whitechapel serial killer.


 
A new theory suggests Jack The Ripper was the cart
 driver who told police he discovered the first victim.


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.
 
 
31.8.12

124 years ago tonight Jack the Ripper struck for the first time


Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols murder scene
at Buck's Row (now Durward St)
Whitechapel in London's East End.


In the early hours of 31 July 1888, Jack the Ripper committed the first of his 5 serial killings.

124 years ago tonight, the evil fiend of London's East End despatched Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols from her earthly existence in Buck's Row (now Durward St) Whitechapel.

May she rest in peace.

And may the quest to finally reveal who Jack the Ripper really was continue.

30.8.12

Jack the Ripper's final resting place near Spook Hill, Brisbane?

 
Spook Hill's Satanic Antigravity
As one of Brisbane's oldest cemeteries, Toowong Cemetery has been the subject of too many myths and legends to count. Aside from the usual cookie-cutter haunting ones that you can find in any cemetery in the world (and the occasional tombstone damage, which is more likely the work of teenage Goths than angry ghosts) Toowong Cemetery has its own unique urban legend.
 
Twelfth Avenue, more colloquially called 'Spook Hill', is a sloping road in the cemetery with a special property. Many people have reported that if you park your car in the middle of it, facing uphill, and let it roll, the car will actually roll uphill rather than downhill.
toowong cemetery
It's very likely - not kidding - that Jack the Ripper
is buried here, as well.


Unfortunately, there haven't been any actual ghost sightings on Spook Hill – which is spooky in itself, given the ubiquity of hauntings in Toowong Cemetery – but that hasn't stopped enterprising ghost-hunters from telling stories of their own.
 
Apparently a tombstone near the top of the hill marks the grave of a child who died in a car accident. His spirit draws all cars towards it, with such a powerful attraction that it overcomes even gravity.
 
The 'scientific' explanation isn't much better: there's a natural magnetic lodestone at the top of the hill, strong enough to drag even large metal objects (like cars). Sorry, scientists, but that's too outlandish even for us – we're going to have to go with the car-pushing ghost kid.
 
 

Multiple killer Frederick Bailey Deeming - a Ripper suspect - among the condemned in The Doomsday Book


The Doomsday Book: FREDERICK Bailey Deeming was a multiple killer who showed no remorse for his innocent victims.

Deeming was hanged in May 1892 after being convicted of the murder of his wife, Emily.

Six months earlier the gasfitter had also killed his wife and their four children half a world away in England. Frederick Deeming's notoriety has earned him a special place in the Doomsday Book, the macabre journal kept by jail authorities of deaths behind bars.

Was Frederick Bailey Deeming mad or just plain evil?
Like many serial killers before and after him, the true scale of Deeming's murderous rampages will never be known, especially during his extensive visits overseas.

What is known about the British-born Deeming - widely called the Windsor Murderer - is that he killed his first wife, Marie, and their four children at Rainhill, England, in late July 1891.

He was a very cruel man. He killed his own children, and you don't get anything crueller than that.


Emily Mather was bludgeoned to death by husband
Frederick Deeming on Christmas Eve, 1891.
He finds himself in the Doomsday book.
 
An illustration of the murder of Emily Mather.
 
Then in Melbourne six months later, he disposed of his new wife, Emily, in their rented house at Andrew St, Windsor.

Emily Mather Deeming's body was found buried under the hearthstone in one of the bedrooms. She'd been battered around the head and had her throat cut before being covered in cement.

After the gruesome discovery, British police were alerted and a search of the Rainhill house revealed the bodies of Marie and children Bertha, Marie, Martha and Sidney.

Deeming, 38, was both a fraudster and a murderer. While living in England, South Africa and Australia he lived his life under different names. He also did time for dishonesty.

In February, 1890 he married Helen Matheson in England and was convicted of fraud, but not bigamy.

By the following September, under the name of Williams, he had married the unfortunate Emily Lydia Mather and the two travelled to Melbourne, where they set up house in Windsor.

The marriage would not last the year. On Christmas Eve, Deeming killed Emily, hiding her remains in the scond bedroom.

Three months later, Deeming's evil double life was beginning to unravel when noxious odours filled the house. The owner of the house spoke to neighbours, who told her of Emily's strange disappearance.

Police were called in and the floorboards immediately lifted.

Soon after, the bodies of Marie and the four children were also located - all with their throats cut.

Within weeks, Deeming was picked up in Perth, in the company of another woman he'd met in Melbourne and planned to marry. He'd changed his identity to Baron Swanston, but detectives nailed him when they found some of Emily Mather's belongings, including her prayer book.

Newspaper stories of the time linked Deeming to Jack the Ripper, suggesting that he could be the notorious East London mass killer. Articles were published detailing how he had bought knives in the area.

Deeming, himself, allegedly told fellow prisoners while sitting it out on death row awaiting his execution. The link between Deeming's gruesome work and the Whitechapel killer was his insanity - he had a brain disorder caused by venerael disease - and the use of knives as a murder weapon.

Deeming was executed at the Old Melbourne Gaol. His death mask is on display there and also at the Black Museum at New Scotland Yard.

Deeming's home still 'haunted'

One hundred and twenty years later, the name of Frederick Deeming still sends shockwaves through law-abiding communities.

Sebastian Gurciullo, who curated the Deeming exhibition at the Public Archive of Victoria, told True Crime of the strange phenomena he uncovered while researching the killer's history.

The Windsor house might be haunted.

Mr Gurciullo said he had spoken to the previous owners who told him of the "strange feelings" coming from the house.

"They told me it was quite strange living there. They felt a strange presence. Once they found out the history of the place they felt quite uncomfortable and moved out," he said.

"It's one of the most bizarre and at the same time, disturbing cases I've come across.

"When I contacted them they were really spooked out that all this has happened in their house.

"They were considering leaving at the time.


Ronald Ryan is another of the
condemned faces in The Doomsday Book.

"He was really the serial killer of the age. He's up there with Jack the Ripper.

"He was an international killer, South Africa and South America (where he is suspected of involvement in a number of murders), England and Australia.

"If he'd been willing to do it in England, and if he'd been willing to do it is Australia...who knows?"

But Mr Gurciullo doubts Deeming and Jack the Ripper were one and the same.

"There are similarities in the killings and psycho pathological condition of the two murderers, such as the focus on women. But the killing of the children was out of the character of Jack the Ripper," he said.

"Also, Deeming was doing time when the Ripper killed one of his victims.

"At the time it was an interesting connection. There was a fair degree of public hysteria back then."

Emily Mather's headstone is also a warning to other young women.
 
Mr Gurciullo said he was struck by the ability of Deeming to carry out his crimes on different continents.

"He was extremely devious, but he was also sloppy in the way he approached his crimes," he said.

"A master of disguises, he seemed to be able to easily slip around and change his appearances and personalities, his back story and whatever. He could create a whole new character seemingly without much effort.

"He was a very cruel man. He killed his own children, and you don't get anything crueller than that."

But even after all this time, the unanswered question remains: "Was it a mental condition or was he just so evil. Was he mad...or just bad?"
 
www.heraldsun.com.au
 
22.8.12
 

Jack the Ripper-linked grave trashed in Australia



The shared gravestone of Bessie and Walter Porriott,
at Toowong cemetery, was recently vandalised.


The grave of one of a handful of people who may be Jack the Ripper - London's Whitechapel serial killer of prostitutes in 1888 - has been vandalised in Brisbane's Toowong Cemetery.

The Sydney-based family of English conman Walter Thomas Porriott - known to London's police as Andrew John Gibson - in 1997 accused Porriott of being Jack the Ripper.

A lot of people around the world believe this is the final resting place of Jack the Ripper.

Porriott was a convicted killer who lived in London when the five murders attributed to Jack the Ripper took place.
The shared gravestone of Bessie and Walter Porriott at
Toowong cemetery. Walter is believed by some to
have been Jack the Ripper.


The five Jack the Ripper murders took place between August and November 1888.

Porroitt sailed to Brisbane on November 9, 1888, the day the fifth prostitute was killed, according to Ipswich councillor Paul Tully, who is an amateur historian and Jack the Ripper blogger.

"There is a lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing has ever been proved and probably I think Jack the Ripper will go down in history and no-one will ever be able to identify who he really was," he said.

Despite the FBI in 1988 preparing a profile of Jack the Ripper, no-one has ever been convicted of the killings.

Porriott had served 10 years in jail for killing a woman when he posed as a gynaecologist.

He was buried in Toowong cemetery, on this day 60 years ago - August 30, 1952.

Cemetery records wrongly show his age when buried as 59 - impossible given he fled London 64 years earlier in 1888 - but the conman is considered to have been in his 80s when he died.

His wife Eliza, "Bessie", was 77 when she died on June 26, 1957.

Jack the Ripper's first victim, Mary Anne Nichols, was murdered on August 31, 1888.

Today, Cr Tully - who for four years has been researching his own book about Jack the Ripper - told journalists he did not really believe Walter Porriott was Jack the Ripper.

"There has been vandalism in the cemetery. That is absolutely appalling," he said.

"This is an historic grave. A lot of people around the world believe this is the final resting place of Jack the Ripper."

But Cr Tully does not.

"It is a theory that I don't really subscribe to, but it has never been disproved," he said.

Cr Tully thinks Porriott was evil, but not Jack the Ripper.

"He was an evil man, an imposter, a conman, a fraudster. He served 10 years in jail for the killing of a woman when he posed as a gynaecologist," Cr Tully said.

"But he really did not have the same modus operandi as Jack the Ripper."

Cr Tully this morning said he was unsure exactly when Porriott's grave was vandalised.

"No; it happened fairly recently. The damage is quite recent. But until yesterday I hadn't been here for about a year."

However, Cr Tully said he still has his own idea of who Jack the Ripper was, which he would reveal in his own book.

"My theory relates to a person in Australia who had connections to the Brisbane area and to the northern rivers district of New South Wales," he said.

"It is a theory that I have been pursuing since 2003."

In 1988, the FBI prepared a profile of Jack the Ripper on the 100th anniversary of the killings.


The FBI's 1988 profile suggested Jack the Ripper:
was a white male, 28-36 years of age;
was of average intelligence, lucky not clever;
was single, never married, and had difficulty in interacting with people in general and women in particular;
was nocturnal and not accountable to anyone;
blended in with his surroundings;
had poor personal hygiene, and appeared dishevelled;
was personally inadequate with a low self image and diminished emotional responses;
was a quiet loner, withdrawn and asocial;
was of lower social class;
lived or worked in Whitechapel, and committed the crimes close to home;
had a menial job with little or no interaction with the public;
was employed Monday to Friday, possibly as a butcher, mortician's helper, medical examiner's assistant, or hospital attendant (the proximity of London Hospital was noted in the profile);
was the product of a broken home, and lacked consistent care and stable adult role models as a child;
was raised by a dominant female figure who drank heavily, consorted with different men, and physically, possibly sexually, abused him;
set fires and abused animals as a child;
hated, feared, and was intimidated by women;
internalised his anger;
was mentally disturbed and sexually inadequate;
desired power, control, and dominance;
drank in local pubs prior to the murders;
was seen walking all over Whitechapel during the early morning hours;
did not have medical knowledge or surgical expertise;
was probably interviewed by police at some point;
did not write any of the “Jack the Ripper” letters;
did not commit suicide after the murders stopped.

www.BrisbaneTimes.com.au

30.8.12
 
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