The Truth Behind Jack the Ripper

Perhaps one of the most infamous serial killers in the last two hundred years is Jack the Ripper. Most folks have heard of him, butfor those who do not, he was an unknown figure who terrorized the dark streets of London by disemboweling women. Since this took place over one hundred years ago, he is undoubtedly already dead, but the identity of the murderer had never been able to be defined. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into the story of Jack the Ripper and what modern forensic science has to say about him and the bloody trail he left behind.

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The Story

In the year of 1888, London was deemed one of the most unsafe places in the world. There were numerous laws being implemented and plenty of public demonstrations and acting out in protest during the day, and at night, women were showing up murdered as well as completely void of their insides. No one knew who was doing it, and this raised the levels of fear in the town even more.
These particular murders ended up being dubbed the Whitechapel Murders. There was eleven in total, but five were eerily similar in style, so they are positive that Jack the Ripper who carried out about half of them.
Jack the Ripper’s signature style was to lure his victim in by way of a fine fruit that only the wealthy had at the time. This fruit was poisoned, and all of the mutilation to the women’s bodies was performed afterwards. He only targeted prostitutes in the very late hours of the night and on weekends. The specific mutilations were so specific, however, that it was thought that it may have been a surgeon. This murderer seemed to pay special attention to the genital, stomach, and face area.
Eventually, cryptic letters containing details only the killer would know began coming into the local newspaper office. These letters were signed “From Hell” and “Jack the Ripper,” thus finally giving the deranged serial killer an official name. The letters were published in the newspaper as a call to any citizens who may recognize the penmanship or style of writing. Enormous cash rewards were offered as well, and though hundreds of folks delivered information to the authorities, nothing led to the actual capture of Jack the Ripper.
Over time, the murders, though still horrifying, became a bit sloppier. Organs were still removed, but the cuts were less straight, implying that they were being carried out perhaps by someone who was aging or had tremors from a disease which we now recognize as Parkinson’s disease. This helped them narrow down the search by a longshot, but the terrible murders still went without ever getting the justice they deserved.
Finally, in 1891, the murders seemed to abruptly stop. Authorities assumed that whoever the killer was must have been aging and then died. The city of London wasn’t very pleased that they had never caught the killer, but they did feel an aura of peace once the theory that the murderer was dead was published.

What Science Can Tell Us Now

Thankfully enough, modern forensics have actually made it so authorities have just about solved the murder. They’ve been able to take the mitochondrial DNA from a shawl that one of the unfortunate victims was wearing at the time of death and compare it to that of the possible suspects from that time. They’ve been able to find that the matching DNA is that of a very local barber named Aaron Kosminski. Quite contrary to what authorities had previously thought, he was actually only twenty-three years old and was an immigrant from Poland.
Of course, the murders had stopped in 1891 as he was admitted to an insane asylum during that time. He had apparently pulled a knife on one of his sisters whom he was living with at the time, but there had been some red flags, according to the file that the asylum had on record. He had been experiencing hallucinations for quite some time. On top of that, he was paranoid by any food that was not dropped on the ground or found in the trash, and also refused to bathe himself. However, the tremors found in the apparent cuts were probably due to him having untreated syphilis. His hallucinations and agitated behavior also was probably brought on by the syphilis as well. Once he was admitted to the institution, he barely ate, and eventually, he died in 1919 inside the asylum from being malnourished

All in all, Jack the Ripper sure made for some great conversation pieces and was the world’s biggest mystery for over one hundred years. Some Jack the Ripper conspiracy theorists were almost a little disappointed when they found out who it was and still formulate theories around the topic. For being only twenty-three years old and being mentally insane, Aaron Kosminski was sure pretty slick to go that long without getting caught, right?!