One of the most famous and sordid crime cases in history is, until this day, unsolved and full of mysteries: who was Jack the ripper and why he targeted women in London in the late 1800s.
All we know is that a series of women were killed in London’s Whitechapel in the late 1800s, being the most notorious cases the ones of five victims between 31 August and 9 November 1888. This is known as “the canonical five” mainly because are the most likely to be linked.
To this day, is still unknown and with barely any clues that point to a single suspect. The solving of this case has become of the most interesting in history and has led to a mix of presumptions, rumors, and historical facts about who Jack the ripper truly was. However, there have been some principal suspects that go from an heir to the British throne, to painters, doctors –because it is believed that the ripper had medical knowledge- and even a famous writer.
These are the main historical suspects of being Jack the ripper.
H.H. Holmes
Holmes is best known for being the author behind Holmes Castle in Chicago, a building designed with secret passages and torture chambers for his victims. He declared to have killed 27 women, but experts estimate that he indeed murdered over 300.
He is one of the suspects mainly because his calligraphy matched some of the ripper’s letters as well as his physical description. Some have pointed out that is not crazy to believe that before he started the killings in Chicago, Holmes was in England, specifically in Whitechapel.
Prince Albert Victor
Queen Victoria’s grandson and second in line to the British throne during the 1800s has repeatedly been pointed as a Jack the Ripper suspect.
It is believed that he committed the crimes after he got syphilis from one of the ladies of the night at Whitechapel; others believe that it was because he had a son with one of these women and decided to end the life of all witnesses.
However, many scholars have claimed that this theory is impossible mainly because, at the time of the crimes, he was far away in Balmoral or on a royal trip.
Prince Albert Victor died in 1892 at the age of 28 supposedly from influenza.
Walter Sickert
This Victorian-era painter is one of the suspects for many reasons: he claimed to live in the Ripper’s former home, most of his paintings show violence and misogyny even naming one of the “Jack the Ripper’s Bedroom”. However, despite all these signs, investigators have found evidence that demonstrates that Sickert was in France by the time of some of the murders.
Aaron Kosminski
Maybe one of the most believable suspects, mainly because it was a DNA test that pointed to descendants of Aaron Kosminski.
In one of the cases, remaining pieces of a shawl said to belong to Catherine Eddowes -the fourth of the five canonical victims- were found trails of blood that many years later, was DNA tested. The results matched samples of Kosminski descendants, however they were not conclusive.
Lewis Carroll
Yes, the same Lewis Carroll that wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. There is a theory that claims that it was the writer who committed all of Ripper’s crimes because he confessed through anagrams in his correspondence and literary works like The Nursery Alice.
However, this lacks something. Carroll lived in Oxford when the crimes took place, so many believe that taking the train to London to murder women was too much.
A midwife
There is a theory that Jack was a Jill instead. This claims that the killings showed they were made by someone who had knowledge of anatomy, especially the kind of woman who delivers babies.
Even though this doesn’t sound so crazy, there is not enough evidence.
Dr. Thomas Cream
This so-called doctor actually was known as “The Lambeth Poisoner”, you can imagine why… It is believed that he was responsible for the death of more than 10 of his patients, something he was convicted for.
It was reported that his last words were “I am Jack”, however, there is no proof of this.
Lord Randolph Churchill
A theory claims that Winston Churchill’s dad was behind the atrocious crimes mainly because he was the head of a group of Masons that tried to silence a group of sex workers that were blackmailing the royal family.
A witness description matched Churchill’s appearance: a well dress man with a gold watch chain, dark hair, and mustache. But that is not conclusive.
