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-Warning-
These pages contain graphic photographs!
Discretion is advised!
You Are Now the Investigating Officer In This Case
As always, Winter Steel has tried to bring you just the facts and leave the decision to believe or not up to you. Here we have taken it one step further and presented the facts and let you decide who the murderer actually is.
We have decided to lay the facts out in a different manner than is usually seen. The format is as if you were reading actual Police Files as they would be written today.
Every attempt has been made to gather every detail. You must remember that policing practices of 1888 were quite different than they are today and they did not have many of the techniques or the equipment that we have available.
There is great discussion on the number of victims of Jack the Ripper. The London Metropolitan Police Force website lists eleven names and only discards one of these. We have decided to stick with the known and accepted five victims.
"The Game Is Afoot"
| Victim #1 | Victim #2 | Victim #3 | Victim #4 | Victim #5 |
| Mary Anne Nichols | Annie Chapman | Elizabeth Stide | Catherine Eddowes | Mary Kelly |
All statements atributed to witnesses have been taken from police records or transcripts of the Coroners Inquests. Some editing has been done to these to make them more readable but no important information has been neglected and NO additions have been made to them.
There has been much said about the letters allegedly written by Jack the Ripper. I do not think that we can add anything to that. The police have only attributed two, maybe three of them as actually having enough information in them to convince anyone that the murderer wrote them.
It will suffice for us to present the letters, reproduced here in their original form and let the reader figure it out.
Over the years many suspects have been suggested as having committed the murders. Some of them sheer flights of fantasy and not really based in fact.
The prime example of this is the supposed "Royal Connection". The Duke of Clarence was never even considered by the police as a suspect for very good reasons. The major one being that he was not anywhere near the city of London for most of the murders. His duties were such that his agenda was well organized and his where abouts known by those around him at all times. He also does not fit the description of the man seen with some of the women and there is absolutly no evidence of any kind to lead them in his direction.
The police forces of the time had little or no experience with dealing with a "serial" killer. They had probably never even considered the possibility before the Whitechapel murders. With the methods and equipment at hand they did the best they could and had the murders continued it is certain in this writers mind that they would have eventually caught the man.
As it was, the list of suspects was small and well defined.
Jack the Man
There were several very good and credible discription of the suspect the police sought. When all accounts are compared there are some glaring points that stand out.
The murderer was of average height for the time period, 5' 6" to 5' 8" tall. Any one taller than 5' 9" stood out like a sore thumb in Victorian London for the average man was much shorter than today.
He was always seen wearing a hat. Not unusual at the time and given the climate conditions of London a man of his attire would have looked out of place without one. The type of hat varies but it is always one with a brim that hides part of his face.
His style of dress attracted the attention of the normal populace of Whitechapel for he was not dressed as a working man. His clothes were discribed as of being of a better quality than what the average person would wear in that area of the city. Even though they were of a style suggesting a higher place in life they were often discribed as being "well worn" or "shabby". Considering the reasons for his visits to the area I do not think he wore his best clothes.
The suspect was seen with and without an over coat, suggesting that he had some where safe to store it. This means a permanent residence, unlike most of the people in Whitechapel who lived a day by day existance renting their beds by the night.
His clothing is discribed as being "dark", which is also not unusual if the man dressed for his occasional forays with care. At night any blood would not be as easily seen on dark clothing and it would be better to fade into the shadows with while escaping.
Every witness who saw his face mentioned his mustache. At this period in time it was the fashion for men to wear facial hair, so why would they all notice his mustache? It is my feeling that his mustache was neat and well groomed and trimmed, which in Whitechapel would stand out and bring notice to a person. Personal hygiene does not seem to be a priority on many peoples list in this area.
The suspect was also discribed as "stout". In an impoverished nieghbourhood like Whitechapel a well nourished and fed man meant money. He was obviously not a man who missed many meals and this would not go un-noticed.
Several of the witnesses stated that the man did not look like a labourer but more like a clerk. This observation would come from his bearing and gait. Men who have been subjected to hard physical labour most of their lives usually show the strain of it in their stance and walk.
Those that heard him speak said that he spoke with a soft gentle voice.
It was the general conscenses of the doctors who performed the autopsies that the murderer was right handed. This conclusion was the result of the direction and force of the cuts on the victims.
It was also deduced that the murderer had some basic knowledge of anatomy. The skill with which he wielded his weapon does not though suggest an expertise in the area. At best it could be said that the knowledge was rudimentary.
It is also suggested, and with very good reasoning, that the murderer held down a regular day time job. The reasoning behind this is simple, all the murders took place on week ends or days leading up to weekends.
The suspect was also very familiar with the streets of Whitechapel. This may mean nothing as he could have researched his territory during the day time, exploring all the alleyways and streets in relative safety.
So what do we know about Jack the Ripper just from the information contained in these pages?
We know that he was a man of average height, a little over weight. He had a well groomed appearance and wore good clothes for the area. He had a mustache and wore a hat with a brim covering part of his face. He had a soft gentle voice and carried himself like a man who worked in an office. He has a rudimentary knowledge of anatomy suggesting an upper level of education. He is right handed and knows the streets of Whitechapel fairly well. He is probably employed with a job that allows him the freedom to spread his money around the working ladies and the time to enjoy his pleasures.
Everything screams to me, buisnessman or civil servant, but I am not the investigating officer.
You are!
