The terror that befell London's Whitechapel district in the Autumn months of 1888 remains unparalleled in the anals of crime. Jack the Ripper, a faceless predator whose infamy and guile would be renowned and feared to this day, has become virtual folklore to the people of the East End. More than a century has passed since Jack the Ripper stalked the fog filled, cobbled streets of London, but still latter day detectives continue to speculate as to the identity of the notorious "Whitechapel Murderer". Only a few clues were ever unearthed by the bewildered Police Force of the 1880's, frther whetting the appetitesof present day theorists in their quest for the "Mysterious Monster". At the time of the murders, detectives had never before experienced the apparently motiveless brutality of the world's first serial killer. The increasingly frustrated Police Force, presured by an angry public and QUEEN VICTORIA herself, were to arrest several suspects on flimsy evidence, only to have these lowly scapegoats committed to,lunatic asylums, in a pathetic attempt to rid the streest of the dark assailant. No-one was above suspicion...SIR CHARLES WARREN, Chief of Metropolitan Police, was to be susepcted of his involvement in a "cover up" and even Queen Victoria's own grandson PRINCE EDWARD, was at one stage considered to be a "Ripper Suspect". Although time has allowed hindsight, and numerous suspects have been presented, many are too ridiculous to be considered a viable culprit. The prime suspects who are still to this day eligible for the title of "Jack the Ripper" are as follows.......................

JOHN PIZER
John Pizer was a shoemaker, a Jew who just happened to fulfil the public's view of the Murderer's profile, that being of a butcher, slaughterman or craftsman - a man with acess to 5 inch blades and in possesion of a leather apron. Pizer not only had a stabbing convictin againts him, but also displayed a well known dislike for prostitutes. He unfortunately fitted a dubious description which had been circulated; that of a short man with a dark beard and moustache and a foreign accent. Furthermore the press portrayed Pizer as having a "cruel sardonic look". However,Pizer's solid alibi ended with a compensation payment to him from the libel courts and the frustrated Police Force left once again to chase the shadows. After the death of Annie Chapman and a subsequent inquest, the findings in the pathologists report threw further light onto what was already becoming a very dark and grsily inquir. The Coroner sugessted that the murderer probably had an anatomical knowledge of dissection - this information heightened suspicions against memers of the esteemed medical profession, an accusation angrily refuted by emminent surgeons to such an extreme that the Police dropped this line of enquiry. However, 3 major suspects have since been disclosed based upon this assumption............

THOMAS NEIL CREAM, am American doctor
THOMAS CREAM had also ben arrested in connection with the poisoning of prostitutes and habitually writing to the Police giving false names and false accusations of a number of crimes. Cream was hanged by the neck for the murder of the Lambeth prostitutes in 1892. His departing words were......" I am jack the Ri...." as the rope snapped taut and broke his neck. Suspicions of Cream were raised following revelations that an American had been making enquiries as to the availability of certain organs at medical schools in and around the Whitechapel district. Coupled with this, the letter received by the Police prior to the double killings of Liz Stride and Kate Eddowes noably contained many "Americanisms".Unfortunately however, Cream was actually incarcerated at the time of tha last Muders.

MICHAEL OSTROGG, a Russian doctor
Michael Ostrogg has came under srutiny by the London Police and his whereabouts at the time of the Whitechapel Murders could never be satisfactorily accouinted for. Ostrogg was a slippery confidence trickster who went by the numerous aliases, including that of a Dr. Grant, and also as a former surgeon in the Russian Navy. He spent much of his time in Police custody for various fraudulent and thieving offences. Clearly a compulsive rouge, Ostrogg became a high profile suspect when it was stated in the "Police Gazette" around the time of the Murders that "special attention is called to this dangerous man", after failing to report to the Police on charges of suspicion.

ALEXANDER PEDACHENKO, another Russian Doctor
Another Russian Doctor, ALEXANDER PEDACHENKO was tenuously linked at this time to the murders and it was suggested that "Ostrogg" was one of the many aliases used by Pedachenko. He was considered a Russian lunatic, with distinct criminal tendencies, who had trained as a barbers surgeon and he had since joined the staff of the Maternity Hospital. The Russian Secret Police Gazette, OCHRANA, described Pedachenko as "the greatest and boldest of all Russian criminal lunatics" at at time when Pedachenko was allegedly living with his sister in Walworth. Ochrana cited Pedachenko with the Ripper murders in an attempt to discredit and embarass the Metropolitan Police. This act of propaganda appeared to have succeeded when Sir Charles Warren resigned from the Police Force. Pedachenko was subsequently smuggled back to Moscow by Ochrana, where he was promptly sent to a lunatic asylum for the murder of a woman in St Petersburg. Pedachenko died in the asylum leaving a series of aliases in his wake, but all with slim connections to the Whitechapel murders. It seems he was merely a suspect of convenience for a short time.

PRINCE ALBERT VICTOR - THE DUKE OF CLARENCE
Prince Albert was beleived to have made twilight trips to the East End to undulge in homosexual practices in a brothel in Cleveland Street. He had supposedly learned disembowling techniques on deer hunting excursions and was alleged to have had "syphilis of the brain" thus making him mad enough to commit the Murders. The late crime theorist Stephen Knight claimed that "Prince Eddie" secretly and illegally married Annie Crook, a Catholic girl. Subsequently, to avoid a Royal scandal, the authorities had Annie locked away in a lunatic asylum. She was supposedly pregnant at the time. The key victim to link Royalty with the murders was Mary Kelly, who was evidently nursemaid to the prince and his wife at around this time. She had proposed to blackmail the gorvernment by making her story public knowledge. It was then that the Royal Physician, WILLIAM GULL, allegedly became involved and in an attempt to silence the scandal picked up all possible prostitutes whom Mary Kelly may have informed. He was to pick the women up in the Royal carriage, slaughter them inside the carriage, and then dispose of the body, hence explaining the lack of noise and blood at the scene of the murders. The Royal theories are based largely on conjecture and have only come to light in recent years.

AARON KOSMINSKI - a Jew
The "JUWES" writing however led to another Jewish suspect. Warren had ordered the removal of the writing so as to avoid an uprising from the already agitated immigrant population especially with the false arrest of Pizer still fresh in the mind.
Despite this, a Polish Jew AARON KOSMINSKI, a hairdresser and resident of Whitechapel since 1882, came to the fore. A man with an extreme hatred of women, especially prostitutes, he was clearly the most insane of all the suspects. Kosminski was described as having strong homicidal tendencies and a history of related crimes. Following the night of the double killings, a letter was received by George Lusk, leader of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, stating that the writer had fried and eaten half a kidney, removed from the body of Kate Eddowes. Clearly this man was deranged. The uneaten half of the kidney accompanied the letter in a box. The organ was found to be human and belonged to a woman in her forties suffering from Brights disease - as did Catherine Eddowes. However, the style of writing did not in any way resemble the first "Jack The Ripper" letter received by the police, and was concluded to be the crazed writings of a lunatic. Kosminski was therefore high profile. It was never proven that Kosminski was the perpetrator of these ghastly crimes but he was removed from society in 1890, and placed in the Mile End Infirmary for the insane. Following spells in Colney Hatch and Leaversden Asylums, Kosminski degenerated to the point where he was unable to answer simple questions. He died in 1919 of gangrene of the leg and was medically described as "demented and incoherent".

MONTAGUE JOHN DRUITT
Montague John Druitt was a "gentleman", a successful college debater, keen cricketer and of "good family". It wasn't until 1959 that Druitt, a schoolmaster, was pronounced a probable suspect. Sir Melville Macnaghten's case notes described Druitt as "sexually insane" and it was mooted that even "his own family suspected him of being the Whitechapel Murderer". Druitt's personal circumstances link him with the killings too. He had studied medicine for a time before switching profession to become a barrister and was a very educated man. Any barrister would appreciate the need for a suspect to be well away from the scene of the crime if his case were to be defended with success. Druitt was found playing cricket as far away as Dorset in South West England after the murders of Mary Nichols and Annie Chapman, although his whereabouts in the actual nights of the murders remain unresolved. The primary reason for Druitt becoming a high profile suspect was that he feared he was going insane like his mother before him, In a suicide note Druitt wrote "Since Friday I felt I was going to be like Mother and the best thing for me was to die". The note was discovered on his poerson on 31st December 1888. He had drowned in the River Thames, his pockets full of stones. Druitt was seen alive on 3rd December, 1888, almost one month after the last Murder and 2 days after hsi dismissal from his teaching job in Blackheath. Druitt's death remains a mystery, as does his alleged connection with the Ripper Case. It is true , however, that the Police closed the Ripper file following Druitt's suicide. The dreadful killings perpetrated by "Jack The Ripper" were never repeated beyond Druitt's death. Was this coincidence or conjecture?

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