George “G” Williams
August 14, 2026
During the 1990’s and early 2000’s, George “G” Williams carried out a murderous vendetta against Suge Knight and his Death Row Records.
Jack the Ripper
"Catch me when you can"
In the slums of the East End, a shadowy killer known as Jack the Ripper stalked the cobbled streets of London in search of prostitutes, whose bodies were found butchered and mutilated in the most grotesque manner, their throats cut and in some cases, internal organs removed. The Ripper is believe to have claimed as many as five or more female victims, and these crimes occurred over the course of several months in late-1888, a time which became known as the Autumn of Terror.
Letters sent to the press boasting of the killings were purported to be from the Ripper, whose involvement was suspected in other murders committed around the same. Many suspects have been put forward for the identity of Jack the Ripper, including a doctor, an artist, several men who were held in lunatic asylums and even a woman. The case of the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper remains as enigmatic and mysterious as it does unsolved over 130 years later.
Jack the Ripper: London’s East End
During the 19th Century, London experienced an influx of immigration, that swelled the population of the city, particularly from Irish immigrants and Jewish refugees who were fleeing to escape the pogroms of the Russian Empire. The Whitechapel district was one area that became overcrowded as a result, which in turn led to an increase in poverty, violence and crime.
Because of the growing economical difficulties, many women resorted to prostitution to provide money for their families, and in many cases, to support their own alcoholic addictions. This dangerous and desperate work meant many women were subjected to violence by prospective clients, some of whom sought to take out their frustrations on these vulnerable women, who were often forced to ply their trade at night.
This atmosphere of poverty, crime and desperation, coupled with an overworked and under funded police force, provided the almost perfect conditions for a criminal such as Jack the Ripper to carry out his murderous acts seemingly without detection. His crimes, which many suspected were perpetrated by a Jewish man, led to a rise in anti-Semitism and social disturbance, which had already been prevalent in the East End.
Whitechapel Murders: Martha Tabram
On August 6, 1888, Martha Tabram, a 39-year-old prostitute went out that Bank Holiday Monday with Mary Ann Connelly, also known as “Pearly Poll,” and the two were seen together in the company of soldiers in some of the pubs in the East End. Connelly would later claim that they had picked up two guardsman in the Two Brewers public house.
Tabram and Connelly drank with the Corporal and Private in several pubs, including the White Swan on Whitechapel High Street. At around 11:45, the two women parted ways to ply their trade, with Martha and the private heading in the direction of George Yard, and Connelly and the Corporal walking towards Angel Alley.
At 4:45am, on August 7, 1888, John Reeves left his lodgings in the George Yard Buildings and noticed a body on the first floor landing of the staircase, lying in a pool of blood. Reeves went to find a policeman and returned with PC Barrett. The still unidentified body, that of Martha Tabram, was lying with the legs open in such a manner to suggest that she had been murdered during the act of intercourse.
The victim was found to have suffered thirty-nine stab wounds, that pierced her throat, lungs, heart, liver, spleen, stomach area and abdomen. All of these had been inflicted by a right-handed person with a bladed instrument, that had also been used to stab her breasts and vagina. Despite the circumstances in which she had been found, Tabram had not been raped by her assailant.
The murder of Martha Tabram appeared to lack an obvious motive, as no items had been stolen and she had not been raped. The perpetrator of this crime was believed to have been either the soldier with whom she had met earlier in the evening, or a sailor, as one of the wounds on the sternum had been inflicted with a dagger or bayonet. Police considered the murder of Martha Tabram an isolated incident, with little prospect of catching her killer.
Whitechapel Murders: East End Violence
The murder of Martha Tabram was one of several murders of women that occurred during the years between 1888 and 1891. One of those was the strange case of Emma Elizabeth Smith, whose death has never been given a satisfactory conclusion. During the early hours of April 3, 1888, at approximately 1:30am, Smith was found in Osborn Street in Whitechapel. She had been bludgeoned about the face, causing a cut to her ear, and had been robbed and sexually assaulted.
Taken to London Hospital, Smith told detectives she had been attacked by two or three men, one of whom she believed was a teenager. It was learned that Smith’s attackers had inserted a blunt object into her vagina, rupturing her peritoneum. She soon developed peritonitis and died the following day, without having identified who was responsible for the assault.
At the time, detectives considered the death of Emma Smith to be related to the spate of East End gang violence that occurred daily between young men drawn to a life of crime. It would only be with the later murders attributed to the Ripper, that police added the Smith and Tabram cases to the Whitechapel murder case file.
Jack the Ripper: Mary Ann Nichols
The first murder attributed to Jack the Ripper took place on August 31, 1888, when the body of Mary Ann Nichols was found that Friday at about 3:40am. Charles Cross, a carman, was on his way to work at Pickfords in the City Road, when he came across the body of Nichols. He immediately went and got Robert Paul who joined him at the scene.
“Come and look over here, there’s a woman,” Cross said to Paul. Believing the woman was dead, the men checked and found her face and hands cold, but her arms above the elbows and legs were still warm. When Paul checked, he thought he found a faint heartbeat, claiming “I think she’s breathing, but it is little if she is.” They arrange her dress to preserve her modesty.
As the two men went to summon help, and eventually found PC Jonas Mizen at the junction of Hanbury Street and Baker’s Row and told him what they had found. In the meantime, the body was discovered by PC John Neil, who called out to another officer nearby, PC John Thain. They were soon joined by PC Mizen. The officers called Dr. Rees Ralph Llewellyn, who lived nearby, and who came and pronounces the life of the woman to have been extinct “but a few minutes.”
The victim was soon identified as Mary Ann Nichols by Lambeth Workhouse inmate Mary Ann Monk and this identification is later confirmed by her estranged husband William Nichols, who tells police that she was working as a prostitute at the time of her death. A witness came forward, Mrs. Emily Holland, with whom Nichols had previously shared a bed at a common lodging-house in Thrawl Street, Spitalfields.
Mrs. Holland said she last saw the victim, at approximately an hour before her body was discovered, walking in the direction of Whitechapel Road. Holland describes her friend as “very drunk and staggered against the wall,” and the two women talk for several minutes before Nichols walks away. Dr. Llewellyn noted “that there was a wine glass and a half of blood in the gutter at her side.”
He believed however, that she had been killed where her body was found. The Autopsy revealed the full extent of the mutilations perpetrated to her body. “Five teeth were missing, and there was a slight laceration of the tongue. There was a bruise running along the lower part of the jaw on the right side of the face. That might have been caused by a blow from a fist or pressure from a thumb.”
“There was a circular bruise on the left side of the face which also might have been inflicted by the pressure of the fingers. On the left side of the neck, about 1 in. below the jaw, there was an incision about 4 in. in length, and ran from a point immediately below the ear. On the same side, but an inch below, and commencing about 1 in. in front of it, was a circular incision, which terminated at a point about 3 in. below the right jaw.”
“That incision completely severed all the tissues down to the vertebrae. The large vessels of the neck on both sides were severed. The incision was about 8 in. in length. the cuts must have been caused by a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence. No blood was found on the breast, either of the body or the clothes.”
“There were no injuries about the body until just about the lower part of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. The wound was a very deep one, and the tissues were cut through. There were several incisions running across the abdomen.”
“There were three or four similar cuts running downwards, on the right side, all of which had been caused by a knife which had been used violently and downwards. the injuries were form left to right and might have been done by a left handed person. All the injuries had been caused by the same instrument.” Nichols was buried on September 6, 1888, but her death was not the last in Whitechapel, but rather the beginning of a reign of terror.
Jack the Ripper: Annie Chapman
A week after the body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered and two days after her burial, another body is found on September 8, 1888. Annie Chapman was found at approximately 6:00am, near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of No.29 Hanbury Street in Spitalfields, by John Davis, a carman who lived on the third floor of No.29 with his family.
Davis immediately alerted there other men, Henry Holland, James Green and James Kent in Hanbury Street, and then he went to notify police at Commercial Street Police Station before returning to No.29. Dr. George Bagster Phillips arrived on the scene at around 6:30pm, and made a cursory examination of the body.
“… The body was terribly mutilated…the stiffness of the limbs was not marked, but was evidently commencing. He noticed that the throat was dissevered deeply.; that the incision through the skin were jagged and reached right round the neck… On the wooden paling between the yard in question and the next, smears of blood, corresponding to where the head of the deceased lay, were to be seen.”
“These were about 14 inches from the ground, and immediately above the part where the blood from the neck lay… the instrument used at the throat and abdomen was the same. It must have been a very sharp knife with a thin narrow blade, and must have been at least 6 in. to 8 in. in length, probably longer.”
In his opinion, the wounds “could have been done by such an instrument as a medical man used for post-mortem purposes, but the ordinary surgical cases might not contain such an instrument. Those used by the slaughtermen, well ground down, might have caused them. He thought the knives used by those in the leather trade would not be long enough in the blade. There were indications of anatomical knowledge…”
“… he should say that the deceased had been dead at least two hours, and probably more, when he first saw her; but it was right to mention that it was a fairly cool morning, and that the body would be more apt to cool rapidly from its having lost a great quantity of blood. There was no evidence…of a struggle having taken place. He was positive the deceased entered the yard alive…”
The body has been cut open entirely long the abdomen, with a section of flesh from the stomach placed upon her left shoulder, and another section of skin and flesh, along with her small intestines, removed and placed above her right shoulder. It was also found that her uterus, along with sections of her bladder and vagina had been removed.
This latest ghastly murder, almost too hideous to comprehend, had shocked even veteran police detectives, who attempted to understand why a person would commit such a terrible crime. Police searched for anyone who might have seen something that night, and soon a witness came forward. Elizabeth Long told officers she saw Annie Chapman at around 5:30am.
Long said the victim was in the company of a man, and was standing hard against the shutters of No.29 Hanbury Street. They appeared to be talking, and Long overheard the man say “Will you?,” and Chapman replying “Yes.” Chapman was facing in Long’s direction, with her back towards Spitalfields Market, while the unidentified man had his back to Long, so she never saw his face.
She described him as a dark-haired man wearing a brown deerstalker hat and dark overcoat, and of a “shabby-genteel” appearance. Annie Chapman was buried in secrecy on Friday, 14 September, 1888, with only her relatives, the undertaker and police knowing the arrangements. Meanwhile, the police were unsure if they were dealing with the same killer, or several vicious murderers of defenceless women.
Whitechapel Murders: Police Investigation
On the day Polly Nichols was found slain, Robert Anderson was appointed Assistant Commissioner for Crime of the Metropolitan Police. One of Anderson’s first acts was to appoint Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, a close personal friend, to head the case. Swanson sought out the most capable officer to lead the search for the killer.
He placed Inspector Frederick Abberline, who was seconded back to Whitechapel from Scotland Yard due to his extensive experience in the area. Walter Dew, a detective constable in Whitechapel’s H Division, knew Abberline and believed his knowledge of the area made him one of the most important members of the Whitechapel murder investigation team.
Abberline and his officers received a report from a Mrs. Sarah Colwell, who claimed to have seen spots of blood in Brady Street, which supported the theory that Nichols was possibly killed elsewhere. However, Inspectors Helson and Abberline would both share their belief that Polly had been killed outside the stable gateway in Buck’s Row.
Three days later, the first reports in the press of a man named ‘Leather Apron‘ begin to appear. This came about when police found parts of a bloodied apron next to the body of Annie Chapman. When police began questioning prostitutes of the East End, they heard stories of a man the women referred to as ‘Leather Apron,’ who they said, was supposedly a Polish Jew and bootmaker to often threatened the women in an attempt to extort money.
By September 7, 1888, the name John Pizer was first mentioned in relation to ‘Leather Apron,’ and Abberline’s officers began searching for him. The day of Annie Chapman’s murder, Robert Anderson left for Switzerland on sick leave. He left behind a growing investigation in a series of gruesome murders.
In relation to Chapman’s murder, an eye-witness came forward, a Mrs. Fiddymont, who reported seeing a suspicious bloodstained man in the Prince Albert, while Thomas Ede told police he saw Henry James outside The Forrester’s Arms, in possession of a large knife. These reports, and many others, were actively investigated by the officers of Abberline’s murder team.
On September 9, 1888, a Miss Lyons claims to have shared a drink with a man she suspected to be ‘Leather Apron‘ at the Queen’s Head pub. With the deaths of four women, most of which were seemingly related, Samuel Montagu offered a reward of £100 for the capture of the Whitechapel murderer. That same day, John Pizer is arrested as the infamous ‘Leather Apron’.
Despite the reports against him, John Pizer was released, with Abberline stating, “there was no evidence to connect him with the murder,” in relation to the murder of Polly Nichols. On September 13th, Edward McKenna is arrested in connection with the murders, but is released soon after. Another suspect soon came to the attention of police when a Dr. Cowan and Dr. Crabb informed police of their suspicions that Jacob Issenscmid was the killer.
Jacob Isenscmid was reportedly known about the area as “The Mad Butcher,” and was suspected of committing wild assaults against women. On September 17, Jacob Isenscmid is confined to Fairfield Row Asylum, Bow. Abberline noted in his reports that the description of Isenschmid matched with that of the man seen by witness Mrs Fiddymont and others at the Prince Albert on the morning of the Chapman murder.
Abberline was convinced these men were identical, and most likely the same man. “Although at present we are unable to procure any evidence to connect him with the murders”, wrote Abberline of Isenschmid on 18 September, “he appears to be the most likely person that has come under our notice to have committed the crimes”.
Whitechapel Murders: Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes
In the early morning hours of September 30, 1888, a man entered Dutfield’s Yard off Berner’s Street driving his cart and pony but stopped when the animal refused to go any further. Suspecting something barring his way, and although it was pitch black at 1:00am, Louis Diemschutz, a salesman of jewelry, prodded the object with his whip and thought the body that of a drunk or someone sleeping.
Diemschutz went into the International Working Men’s Educational Club to get some help in rousing the person, and soon returned to the yard with Morris Eagle and Isaac Kozebrodsky. As they approached, the three men could see it was woman whose throat had been cut. Dr. Frederick Blackwell was called and after arriving at 1.16am, he pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
The victim appeared to have a single clear-cut incision, measuring six inches across her neck which had severed her left carotid artery and her trachea before terminating beneath her right jaw. There were no further wounds to the body. Detectives under Abberline immediately began conducting house-to-house inquiries in an effort to catch the Berner Street killer.
The body is later identified as that of 45-year-old Elizabeth Stride, known as “Long Liz,” who had a history of prostitution, and who supplemented her income by cleaning rooms at lodging houses. It was believed the victim most likely died where the body was discovered, and police hoped to catch her killer quickly.
However, just forty-five minutes after the body Elizabeth Stride was found off Berner’s Street in Whitechapel, a report came in that a second body, that of another woman had been found in a corner of Mitre Square in the City of London. This second body was discovered by PC Edward Watkins at approximately 1:45am.
The wounds to the second victim were much more severe, and described by Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown, London police surgeon who was called in at the murder, arriving at Mitre Square around 2:00am. “The body was on its back, the head turned to left shoulder. The arms by the side of the body as if they had fallen there.”
“Both palms upwards, the fingers slightly bent. The left leg extended in a line with the body. The abdomen was exposed. Right leg bent at the thigh and knee. The throat cut across. The intestines were drawn out to a large extent and placed over the right shoulder — they were smeared over with some feculent matter.
“A piece of about two feet was quite detached from the body and placed between the body and the left arm, apparently by design. The lobe and auricle of the right ear were cut obliquely through. There was a quantity of clotted blood on the pavement on the left side of the neck round the shoulder and upper part of arm, and fluid blood-coloured serum which had flowed under the neck to the right shoulder, the pavement sloping in that direction.”
“Body was quite warm. No death stiffening had taken place. She must have been dead most likely within the half hour. We looked for superficial bruises and saw none. No blood on the skin of the abdomen or secretion of any kind on the thighs. No spurting of blood on the bricks or pavement around. No marks of blood below the middle of the body.”
This second victim, whose body bore severe mutilations, was soon identified as that of Catherine Eddowes, a known prostitute who was known for her heavy drinking, a charge of drunken behaviour for which she had been arrested by police at 8.45pm the evening prior to her death by Sergeant James Byfield.
As indicated by level of mutilations carried out on Catherine Eddowes body, it appeared the killer was escalating his murders. Abberline and his murder team had two murders committed on the same night, something that would become known as the “double event.” However, it was strongly suspected that the killer had been interrupted when attacking Elizabeth Stride, as there were no mutilations carried out on her body.
Police began to interview anyone who saw either woman in the hours leading up to their deaths. As they were entering the Bricklayer’s Arms Public House on Settles street, north of Commercial Road, which was almost opposite Berner Street, laborers John Gardner and J. Best saw Stride leaving with “a short man with a dark mustache and sandy eyelashes.”
They described the man as wearing, “a billycock hat, mourning suit and coat”. Best said “They had been served in the public house and went out when me and my friends came in. It was raining very fast and they did not appear willing to go out. He was hugging and kissing her, and as he seemed a respectably dressed man, we were rather astonished at the way he was going on at the woman.”
The two men said Stride was standing in the doorway with the man, and the two were hugging and kissing. The workmen attempted to get the man to come into the pub for a drink but he refused. Best and Gardner then called out to Stride. “That’s Leather Apron getting ’round you.” The two then moved away towards Commercial Road and Berner Street.
“He and the woman went off like a shot soon after eleven,” Best said. William Marshall, another laborer, came forward to state that he saw Stride on Berner Street, standing in the doorway of No.64 on the west side of the street between Fairclough and Boyd Streets.
This occurred at 11:45pm, and Marshall said he noticed Stride talking to a man in a short black cutaway coat and sailor’s hat outside number 63. “They are kissing and carrying on,” Marshall told police. He overhead the man say “You would say anything but your prayers.” Police Constable William Smith reported seeing Stride at 12:35am.
She was in the company of a young man on Berner Street opposite the International Working Men’s Educational Club. PC Smith described the man as “28 years old, dark coat and hard deerstalker hat. He is carrying a parcel approximately 6 inches high and 18 inches in length. the package is wrapped in newspaper.”
According to a Home Office file, Israel Schwartz encountered a man talking to a woman as he turned into Berners Street at approximately 12:45am. “having gotten as far as the gateway where the murder was committed, he (Schwartz) saw a man stop and speak to a woman, who was standing in the gateway.”
“He tried to pull the woman into the street, but he turned her round and threw her down on the footway and the woman screamed three times, but not very loudly. On crossing to the opposite side of the street, he saw a second man lighting his pipe. The man who threw the woman down called out, apparently to the man on the opposite side of the road, “Lipski”, and then Schwartz walked away, but finding that he was followed by the second man, he ran as far as the railway arch, but the man did not follow so far.”
The descriptions given by PC Smith and Schwartz differ vastly, with regards to age, height, clothing and disposition, that it is unlikely are saw the same person. James Brown reportedly saw Stride with a man as he was going down Fairclough Street. He said she was leaning against the wall talking to a stoutish man about 5′ 7″ tall in a long black coat that reached to his heels.
He has his arm against the wall. Stride is saying “No, not tonight, some other night.” This would have occurred shortly before Stride was found murdered, a mere fifteen minutes prior. It is likely this man was Elizabeth Stride’s killer, and that James Brown was the last person to see her alive.
Catherine Eddowes was released from Bishopsgate Police Station at approximately 1:00am, after she was found to be sober. She gives her name as Mary Ann Kelly, and her address as 6 Fashion Street and is released. She then leaves the station and heads back in the direction of Aldgate High Street where she had previously been arrested.
During a time frame of thirty minutes, Eddowes headed towards Mitre Square where she is seen at 1:35am by Joseph Lawende, a commercial traveler in the cigarette trade, who was in the company of Joseph Hyam Levy and Harry Harris, who were leaving the Imperial Club at 16-17 Duke Street.
As they pass the corner of Duke Street and Church Passage, the three men see Eddowes and a man talking. Lawende later tells police Eddowes was standing facing the man with her hand on his chest, but did not appeared to be resisting him. He described the man as 30-years-old, 5 foot 7 inches tall, with a fair complexion and mustache with a medium build.
The man was wearing a pepper and salt coloured jacket, which fits loosely, and a grey cloth cap with a peak of the same colour. He had a reddish handkerchief knotted around his neck, and gave the appearance of being a sailor. Lawende later identified Catherine Eddowes clothes as the same as those worn by the woman he saw that night.
Whitechapel Murders: Ghoulston Street Graffito
An hour after the discovery of Catherine Eddowes mutilated body, a discovery was made in Goulston Street, Whitechapel. PC Alfred Long was patrolling near the entrance to a tenement when he came across at bloodied apron at 2:55am. Above the bloodied piece of clothing, Long saw a message chalked on the wall of the black brick fascia edging of the open doorway which led to the staircase and basement door of #108-119
According to PC Long, the inscription read, “The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.” At 3:00am, DC Daniel Halse of the City of London Police arrived on the scene at Ghoulston Street. He recalled the inscription as the slightly differently, “The Juwes are not the men who will be blamed for nothing.”
PC long, who had patrolled Ghoulston Street previously at 2:20am, reported the graffiti and bloodied apron were not present at that time. Notified of the seemingly anti-Semitic message, and fearing potential riots should the general public become aware, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Charles Warren order it be washed off the wall, which was done at 5:30am.
The bloodied piece of Apron was believed to belong to Catherine Eddowes, cut from the one she was wearing at the time of her death. It was unknown at the time if the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes had been committed by the same person, however police at the time suspected the same killer was responsible for these and the murders of Martha Tabram, Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman.
Because Elizabeth Stride had not suffered the same mutilations, it was strongly suspected that arrival of Louis Diemschutz at Berner’s Street had frightened the killer, causing him to flee. Diemschutz himself said he believed the killer was still present in the yard when he arrived, owing to the odd behaviour of his pony.
Jack the Ripper: Dear Boss Letter & Saucy Jacky Postcard
On October 1, 1888, the day following the “double event,” the morning issue of the Daily News first printed the text of a letter purportedly received by the killer. Known as the “Dear Boss Letter,” it was received by the Central News Agency on September 27, 1888, and was originally believed to be a hoax.
However, when the “double event” murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes occurred, police began to suspect the letter as genuine, especially considering it alludes to the killer threatening to “clip the ladys ears off,” during his next murder. This was apparently carried out as a portion of Eddowes earlobe had been cut off.
“Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn’t you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife’s so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck.
Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it No luck yet. They say I’m a doctor now. ha ha”
A second communication was received at the Central News Agency on October 1, 1888, and made direct reference to the recent murders and also the “Dear Boss” letter, and is believed to have been written by the same person who authored that letter. Known as the “Saucy Jacky” postcard, it makes a direct reference to the “double event,” before it was described in the newspapers.
“I was not codding dear old Boss when I gave you the tip, you’ll hear about Saucy Jacky’s work tomorrow double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn’t finish straight off. ha not the time to get ears for police. thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.
Jack the Ripper”
It is unknown if the “Dear Boss” letter and “Saucy Jacky” postcard were indeed written by the killer, or if they had been authored by a journalist or crank wishing to cause disorder to an already chaotic investigation. Both the letter and postcard made reference to the killer as “Jack the Ripper,” a name readily adopted by the press as a nickname for the elusive and still unidentified killer.
The same day the “Dear Boss” letter and “Saucy Jacky” postcard were published, rewards started to be offered for the apprehension of the Jack the Ripper. The Lord Mayor offered a £500 reward and the Financial News contributed £300 toward a reward for the capture killer, while an additional £100 reward from Sir Alfred Kirby and the offer of 50 militia men to help apprehend the criminal were declined.
Abberline and his detectives found the hunt for the killer one of most difficult investigations the Metropolitan Police had ever encountered. Meanwhile, witnesses and tips continued to be received from the public. That same day, Thomas Coram found a bloodstained knife in Whitechapel Road, with a blade of about 9 inches.
Michael Kidney, a waterside labourer, who lived with and was in a relationship with Elizabeth Stride arrived drunk at Leman Street Police Station and accused the police constable on duty at the time of Stride’s murder, and asked to speak with a detective. This accusation is taken no further, considered the ramblings of a drunken and grief stricken partner of the deceased.
Jack the Ripper: From Hell Letter
Because of growing concern over the recent murders and also the failure of the police to catch the killer, a group of concerned citizen from London’s East End formed the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in September 1888. Chaired by George Lusk, the members patrolled the streets, looking for anyone acting suspiciously.
The main concern was the affect the murders business in the area, and the committee petitioned the Government to raise the reward for information, and even offered their own reward of £50 to anyone who helped catch Jack the Ripper. The committee even hired private detectives who questioned witnesses independently of the police.
On October 16, 1888, a package was sent to George Lusk, that was presumably sent by the killer. It arrived in a three-inch-square cardboard box in his mail, and contained half a human kidney preserved in wine, along with a short letter. Medical reports conducted on the organ by Dr. Openshaw proved inconclusive, but was believed to be similar to the one removed from victim Catherine Eddowes.
The letter, addressed to Lusk directly, read;
“From hell.
Mr Lusk,
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one woman and prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer
signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk”
These letters, many of which are considered either hoaxes or modern forgeries, were sent throughout the months of September and October 1888, one of which was sent to Dr. Openshaw, and read in part; “Old boss you was rite it was the left kidny i was goin to hoperate agin close to you ospitle just as i was going to dror mi nife along of er bloomin throte.”
With the recent murders of Stride and Eddowes, police began receiving more tips and witness statements from the general public, and Abberline and his colleagues struggled to process the mass of information coming in, while their superiors pondered fresh initiatives. With growing pressure to catch the Ripper, Abberline was more determined than ever to catch his prey.
He would often patrol the streets of Whitechapel, even during his off duty hours, until 4 or 5 in the morning instead of going to bed. When he did eventually retire home, he found he was soon being summoned back to Whitechapel to question a suspect. As a result of the strain, he found himself nearly suffering a break down.
His detectives questioned butchers, slaughterers, surgeons, and physicians who were considered primary suspects because of the manner of the mutilations, with police suspecting the killer held some degree of anatomical knowledge. These and many others were investigated and excluded from the murder inquiry.
Psychiatrist L. Forbes Winslow announced to anyone who would listen that he knew the identity of Jack the Ripper. His suspect was a Canadian, G. Wentworth Smith, who was visiting Britain for work. Forbes Winslow went on to claim that it was his insistence on learning the identity to the killer that led to the Ripper stopping his murderous spree.
When his claims came to the attention of Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Donald Swanson himself went to interview the psychiatrist, who presented with his own claims, began to back-peddle and insist that his theory the Ripper was an escaped lunatic was misconstrued. Forbes Winslow himself was briefly considered a suspect before being cleared of involvement.
By October 19, 1888, it is understood that police had already detained as many as eighty people in connection with the Jack the Ripper murders, and investigation the movements of a further three hundred. Even Israel Schwartz, the witness who saw Elizabeth Stride with her presumed killer was questioned by Inspector Abberline.
Police refused to employ some of the more unorthodox methods in their investigation. On October 3, 1888, clairvoyant Robert James Lees offered to provide his psychic assistance to the police in an effort to catch the Ripper, however his offer is refused. The following day, Lees makes the same offer to Scotland Yard, who respectfully decline.
Whitechapel Murders: Whitehall Mystery
During construction on the Victoria Embankment near Whitehall in Westminster of the Metropolitan Police’s new headquarters, that would become known as New Scotland Yard, a horrific discovery was made by a worker in a three-month-old vault that made up part of the cellar. There, he came across a parcel that contained human remains.
Examined by Dr. Thomas Bond, the torso of a female, that was wrapped in cloth, most likely a black petticoat and tied with string, was eventually matched to a dismembered right arm and shoulder that had been discovered previously on September 11, 1888, on the muddy shore of the River Thames in Pimlico. At the time, the press considered the remains part of a prank by medical students.
However, police now suspected that the remains had originated from a murdered woman, whose identity could not be ascertained without recovery of the missing head. It was believed the torso had been placed inside at some time after September 29, 1888, after workman Richard Lawrence had last been inside the unlocked vault.
Later, on October 17, 1888, a left leg, cut above the knee, was found buried near the construction site by reporter Jasper Waring, who with help from a labourer, had used a Spitsbergen dog, with the permission of the police, to locate the remains. The head and remaining limbs of the victim were never located.
At the time, many thought this another victim of Jack the Ripper, who up to this point, was considered to have claimed four or five victims. However, there were clear differences between the body that became known as the “Whitehall Mystery,” and the female victims of Jack the Ripper. One obvious difference was the dismemberment of the Whitehall remains, something that the Ripper never perpetrated in his crimes.
Police ruled out any connection between the cases, and the Whitehall body was never identified. It is now considered part of a separate series of crimes, in which female victims were dismembered, and their body parts distributed at various locations around London. Similar to the unsolved nature of the Ripper crimes, the Thames Torso Murders would also remain a mystery, their perpetrator never caught.
Jack the Ripper: Mary Jane Kelly
In what many consider the crescendo of the Autumn of Terror that was Jack the Ripper’s murderous crimes, police were called to 13 Miller’s Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at 10:45 a.m. on November 9, 1888. There, Inspector Abberline and his men were met by Joe Barnett, a former lover of Mary Jane Kelly, who resided at the address.
Barnett told Abberline that the key to the property had been missing for some time, and the door was fastened by a spring lock that was activated from the inside, but could easily be reached thought the window. Once Abberline and his officers were inside, they were met with a ghastly sight, the body of Mary Kelly lying on her bed, her face “hacked beyond all recognition.”
Dr. Thomas Bond, a police surgeon of some renown from A-Division, was called the murder scene and gave a report on the circumstances of Mary Kelly’s remains. “The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed. The head was turned on the left cheek.”
“The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle and lying across the abdomen. The right arm was slightly abducted from the body and rested on the mattress. The elbow was bent, the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk and the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes.”
“The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.”
“The viscera were found in various parts viz: the uterus and kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side and the spleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table.”
“The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, and on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about two feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed and in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in a number of separate splashes. The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears being partly removed.”
“The lips were blanched and cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features. The neck was cut through the skin and other tissues right down to the vertebrae, the fifth and sixth being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis.”
“The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage. Both breasts were more or less removed by circular incisions, the muscle down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs were cut through and the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.
“The skin and tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation, and part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin fascia, and muscles as far as the knee.”
“The left calf showed a long gash through skin and tissues to the deep muscles and reaching from the knee to five inches above the ankle. Both arms and forearms had extensive jagged wounds. The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about one inch long, with extravasation of blood in the skin, and there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.”
“On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken and torn away. The left lung was intact. It was adherent at the apex and there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substances of the lung there were several nodules of consolidation.”
“The pericardium was open below and the heart absent. In the abdominal cavity there was some partly digested food of fish and potatoes, and similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines.” The gruesome manner in which Mary Kelly’s body had been mutilated indicated that the killer had escalated his crimes to such an extent, that he had set out to destroy the victim by dissecting her body.
After an examination, it was found that the heart was the only organ removed that was missing from the scene, presumably taken by the killer. Abberline later returned to Miller’s Court and conducted a search of the ashes in the grate in Mary’s room, which turned up nothing more than the remnant of some women’s clothing.
The fire had been strong enough to melt the solder between the kettle and its sput, causing it to fall into the grate of the fireplace. Abberline did not believe the reason for the conflagration amounted to the disposal of evidence, but rather the Ripper was compelled to burn items of clothing in order to provide illumination for him to complete his grisly work.
The day after the discovery of Mary Jane Kelly’s grotesquely mutilated body, Dr. Thomas Bond wrote a report that official linked Kelly’s murder with those of four others that had occurred in and around Whitechapel, namely Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. Other murders committed around the same time have long been suspected of being a part of the Ripper murders.
These five, known as the “canonical murders,” are believed to be the work of the same killer, and are generally known as the Whitechapel Murders. The crimes were heavily publicized in the newspapers, with editions of Illustrated Police News often carrying sketches of the victims, as well as what the killer supposedly looked like, who was usually depicted as a Jew.
Jack the Ripper: Suspects
Despite an extensive manhunt, and numerous arrests, Inspector Abberline and his team never filed charges against a suspect for the Jack the Ripper murders. Despite this failure to catch the killer, most police officials had their own favourite prime suspects they considered responsible for the heinous crimes.
Fifteen years after the murders ended, Inspector Frederick Abberline was interviewed by a reporter for the Pall Mall Gazette, in which he was asked about Jack the Ripper., exclaiming “…Scotland Yard is really no wiser on the subject than it was fifteen years ago.” He did offer his own opinion on who he considered was responsible.
When talking about George Chapman, also known as Severin Kloskowski, Abberline said, “…I cannot help feeling that this was the man we struggled so hard to capture fifteen years ago.” He believed the Ripper was “a foreign-looking-man,” and said “It is simple nonsense to talk of the police having proof that the man is dead.”
This was in reference to the suicide of Montague Druitt, a local barrister, whose body was found on December 31, 1888, after he committed suicide in the Thames. Despite his inclusion in Melvin Mcnaughten’s Memorandum as one of his three main suspects, there is little evidence that points to Druitt’s guilt, apart from the timing of his death that coincided with the end of the murders.
The others on Mcnaughten’s list, Aaron Kosminski and Michael Ostrog, are also contentious suspects, given that Ostrog was not known to have committed any violent crimes, despite being a career criminal, while Kosminski was a Polish-Jewish barber who was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum after he threatened his sister with a knife.
although Aaron Kosminski has identified as a suspect named Kosminki, it is generally believed that the Kosminski described by police, actually referred to another Polish Jew called David Cohen, whose real name was possibly Nathan Kaminsky. Cohen was arrested on December 7, 1888, and placed in the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary.
He was later transferred to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, where he was described as “dangerous,” and “physically ill,” and kept apart from his fellow patients. Eventually confined to his bed, David Cohen died on October 20, 1889. The belief that Jack the Ripper was Jewish has continued to remain one of the most popular theories behind his identity.
Others considered as potential suspects include Francis Tumblety, killer Frederick Deeming, the artist Walter Sickert, Mary Pearcey, a killer who some theorize was the suspect Jill the Ripper, and James Maybrick, a Liverpool cotton merchant who was poisoned by his wife on May 11, 1889.
Maybrick came to prominence as a favourite suspect after the publication of the Ripper Diary, which was purportedly written by Maybrick during the Autumn of Terror. However, many experts consider the diary to be a modern forgery, created as a hoax with enough information to ascertain the authored supposed identity as Maybrick.
Jack the Ripper: Post-Autumn of Terror Murders
During the six months after the murder of Mary Jane Kelly, there were no further crimes attributed to Jack the Ripper, and once news coverage began to wane, so too did police wind down the investigation. There were, however, other murders committed after the death of Kelly, with some considered by Ripperologists to be part of Jack the Ripper crimes.
On December 29, 1888, the body of seven-year-old John Gill was found in a stable located behind Mellor Street. The press at the time described the victim as being “indescribably mutilated,” and suffered the dismemberment of both legs along with “The abdomen was slightly open, and the intestines partly extracted.”
Further atrocities were committed on the child’s body, such as “Both ears were cut off,” and “the limbs were tied to the body.” The murder, which became known as the “Bradford Tragedy,” was at first believed to be similar to the other Whitechapel Murders that had occurred over the previous Autumn months.
For many, including the police, the murder of John Gill surpassed even the grotesque nature of some of the Ripper’s crimes. Soon, a suspect was apprehended. The milkman, William Barrett, was taken into custody on suspicion of murder. Despite this, the Bradford Tragedy would remain as equally unsolved as the Ripper’s Whitechapel murders.
The similarly unsolved Thames Torso Murders continued long after Jack the Ripper had seemingly ended his murderous hold over the East End. Further discoveries of dismembered female bodies continued in the following year when on June 4, 1889, the body parts of a woman was found in the Thames over the course of a week.
This victim was the only one of the Thames Torso Murder victims who was identified as Elizabeth Jackson. Others, such as the headless and legless torso of a woman found on September 10, 1889, under a railway arch in Pinchin Street. Much like the Whitehall Mystery, the Pinchin Street Torso Murder remains unsolved and the victim unidentified.
During the early part of the 20th Century, there was speculation that Jack the Ripper had crossed the Atlantic and emerged during a series of murders in Atlanta from 1909 to 1914. The Atlanta Ripper case saw as many as 15-21 victims, who were all Black women who suffered fatal knife wounds perpetrated by an unseen assailant.
The Atlanta Ripper, who was described by one surviving victim as “a large, black man who was powerfully built and neatly dressed,” would mutilate his victims, in a similar manner to London’s Jack the Ripper. Although some posited that the same killer was responsible for both series of murders, there is little evidence that the Atlanta Ripper and Jack the Ripper were one and the same.
Jack the Ripper: Legacy of a Serial Killer
In the decades that followed the Ripper murders, almost 130 years have passed since the serial killer known as Jack carried out his gruesome murders against London’s prostitutes. The identity of the killer has seen hundreds of books released on the subject, with many authors putting forward their own candidate for the elusive Ripper.
From the mysterious “Lodger” suspect, to a Russian doctor sent by the Czar’s Secret Police to Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria, who was at the centre of what has been described as the “Royal Conspiracy,” a convoluted plot that many Ripperologists find difficult to comprehend, and discount as a far-fetched theory, Ripper suspects comprise hundreds of names.
Jack the Ripper has become something of a bogeyman, a shadowy killer who has remained mysterious and attained an almost otherworldly notoriety. He is often depicted as a well-to-do gentleman, in top hat and finer clothing, who preys on the lower class women of the night, satisfying some perverse sexual frustration by mutilating and leaving their corpses to be discovered.
The nickname “Ripper” has lent itself as a moniker that other killers have assumed, either through the press or their own particular modus operandi. The most infamous of these are the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, and the Blackout Ripper who clamied the lives of three women during the blitz. Another unsolved series of murders committed during the 1960’s, saw a killer dubbed Jack the Stripper, who also preyed on prostitutes.
Despite a wealth of knowledge surrounding the Jack the Ripper case, there are still many questions concerning all aspects of what has endured as an unsolved investigation. These include, first and foremost, the identity of killer, which has never been ascertained, but also how many victims were attributed to a single killer, and why he began and ended his murders. These questions, and many more may never be adequately and comprehensively explained.
Written by Nucleus
Share with your friends :
Search for Ted Bundy Los Zetas Nazi Doctors
Related Case files
Read More »
Scissor Sisters
July 28, 2026
In March 2005, body parts were found in an Irish canal that would lead to the arrest and conviction of the infamous Scissor Sisters.
Antoine Leger
July 14, 2026
Antoine Leger, known as the Cannibal of Cerny, committed one of the most grotesque murders in 1800's France.
This content is for Gold, Gold Annual (Discounted), Life Time Membership, and Gold Annual (Free Trial) members only.
Get Free Access to the biggest Criminal Database on the web.
Login Free Trial
Featured Case files
Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping
February 14, 2026
The Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping occurred on February 1, 2026, when the 84-year-old mother of US News anchor Savannah Guthrie vanished.
Atlas Vampire Case
November 21, 2025
The unsolved murder of a Swedish prostitute has become known as the Atlas Vampire case, because the killer drank the victims blood.
Ian Watkins
October 14, 2025
As the lead singer of Welsh rock band the Lostprophets, Ian Watkins had legions of fans, but few could know he was a prolific child abuser.