Jack the Ripper: analyzing the psychology of the famous criminal

April 5, 2024

During 1888, the inhabitants of the district of Whitechapel (London), They lived in terror before a wave of crimes that devastated this working class neighborhood of the late 19th century. XIX.

Five prostitutes killed between August, September and November, and a trail of clues led to the search for a tireless and elusive murderer who mocked the body of police and researchers of the time, who, even today, continues to be positively identified and definitely.

The victims of Jack the Ripper

While it is true that through the passage of time has been known the name of five victims "official" Jack the Ripper, it must be mentioned that he has been attributed to a total of thirteen. All of them were prostitutes who sold their bodies to the sailors who arrived at the East End (as the area where Whitechapel used to be known), in exchange for a few pennies that could provide them with a roof to sleep on in some seedy pension, and, if possible, a loaf of stale bread to be taken to the mouth, avoid spending the nights sleeping in the open or wandering the streets, as many had already done.

Let's see the names and dates of the deaths of the so-called "canonical victims":

Mary Ann Nichols (better known as "Polly" Nichols): murdered on August 31, approximately between 2 and 3:40 in the morning.

Annie Chapman : September 8, around 4:20 in the morning.

Elizabeth Stride : September 30, between 00:45 and 1:07 in the morning.

Catherine Eddowes : also on September 30, between 1:30 and 1:45 in the morning.

Mary Jane Kelly : November 9, between 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning.

Four of the bodies appeared spread out on the street, except for Mary Jane Kelly (the last of the five, who was in a small rental room facing the street). They had been beheaded from left to right of a violent cut that in some cases reached up to the spine and had been made with some type of scalpel or very sharp machete.

They had all had incisions in the abdominal cavity, except for Elizabeth Stride (fourth murdered, which was scathingly nicknamed as "Lucky Liz "), reaching to spread the intestines, the liver and even the uterus.

The possible identities of the murderer

Mary Jane Kelly suffered amputations throughout her body: in addition to removing her nose, ears and breasts, Jack left behind a strip of tattered flesh that was nothing like what was said to be the beautiful and candid young woman.

Due to the shelter provided by the place where his body was found against possible bystanders passing through the area, the experts suggest that Jack was able to unleash his impulses more sadistic and cruel among those four walls, since the state in which the body was left had not been seen in any of the other prostitutes.

Some suspected of being Jack the Ripper

Some of the suspects who have chosen the title of "Jack the Ripper" are:

Walter Kosminski

In favor : Several findings made in September 2014 attribute to this Polish Jew the authorship of the events. He was known to be a sexual maniac that was around the area. According to researcher Russell Edwards, a bloody shawl belonging to Catherine Edowes contained Kosminski's mitochondrial DNA.

Against : The reasons why it could be ruled out as a suspect is that it is a shawl that does not seem like a prostitute of life almost impoverished, in addition to the evidence that can provide this type of DNA do not point to a single culprit.

Prince Alberto Víctor Eduardo

The Duke of Clarence or Eddy, grandson of Queen Victoria and future heir of the Crown.

In favor : In 1970, a certain Doctor Stowell told a writer of the time that forty years ago he contacted Caroline Acland, daughter of the Royal House's personal doctor, Sir William Gull (who is also considered one of the most plausible suspects). According to the statements of the same, his father had found a series of scrolls and manuscripts in which it was reported that the Prince had died in 1892 of venereal disease, specifically syphilis, not an epidemic of influenza as was made official. As it was said, his lust and sexual depravity led him to want to explore the terrains of the macabre .

Against : Unfortunately for those who thought they had unmasked the murderer, it is known that the morning after one of the crimes, the heir was traveling in Scotland.

Sir William Gull and Freemasonry

It is the personal physician of the British Royal Family.

In favor : The theory of the Royal Conspiracy holds that Prince Edward had an affair with a young prostitute named Annie Crook.

It was Walter Sickert (another suspect) who introduced them, without revealing to her the identity of Eddy. Both would end up marrying and having a daughter in secret. To try to cover this scandal that would turn the Crown upside down and leave his heir in doubt, Queen Victoria ordered Annie to be locked up in a psychiatric hospital so that they could practice a lobotomy and could not divulge anything of what happened. It was Gull himself who carried it out. The girl was left in charge of Mary Jane Kelly, a personal friend of the mother, who tried a gross operation of blackmail against the Crown with her four friends. Therefore, Queen Victoria commissioned Mr. Gull (who was an active member of Freemasonry) to eliminate them. Years ago, he suffered an embolism that left him with sequelae in the form of hallucinations.

As the defenders of this conjecture say, Gull was moving inside a horse-drawn carriage driven by a coachman who had to trick the unfortunate victims into going up. Once inside the wagon, Gull did the rest. The coachman's second task was the immediate escape from the place. Two other freemasons (Inspectors Warren and Macnaghten) had the mission of covering up the identity of the doctor so that he could complete his mission and eliminate any evidence he might leave.

Against : In spite of how tempting the tests are (there are those who see signs of Masonic rituals in the murders, such as the fact that the slaughters were made from left to right), it seems that Sir William must be dismissed as the man who he hides behind "Jack the Ripper", since there was a lot of manipulation of tests and dates, not to mention the inclusion and exclusion of characters in the events.

Walter Sickert

Famous Polish painter of the time of Jewish origin.

In favor : According to Patricia Cornwell's book "Portrait of a murderer: Jack the Ripper. Case closed”, we come to the conclusion that this man is the only and undisputed killer of Whitechapel . A difficult childhood due to the almost total amputation of his virile member by a malformation that made sexual intercourse impossible, samples of DNA found in the challenging missives received by newspapers and the Scotland Yard police station, along with clues about the scenes of the crimes found in his paintings and that only the investigators knew, are some of the arguments of those who are in favor of his guilt.

Against : Those who question it allude to the low specificity of mitochondrial DNA as irrefutable evidence, as well as to doubt the criteria of those who see evidence of the homicides in Sickert's paintings.

Towards a sketch of the psychology of Jack the Ripper

The famous former FBI and criminologist Robert K. Ressler , speaks in his book "Serial killers"(2005) of the disorganized type killers:

“A disorganized crime scene reflects the confusion that reigns in the mind of the murderer and presents features of spontaneity and some symbolic elements that reflect his delusions. If the body is found (...), it will probably have terrible wounds. (...) The crime scene is also the scene of death, because the offender does not have enough mental clarity to move or hide the body" (p.127-128)

This corresponds almost entirely to the Jack's profile , whoever it was, since none of the scenarios left behind suggest a pattern of organization (beyond the victimology or the instruments used).

Social origin

In his other book, "Inside the monster: an attempt to understand serial killers"(2010), mentions that the fear caused by this murderer in his time is due to the fact that he was one of the first to choose unknown victims, with whom he apparently had no emotional or family ties. At that time, "(...) the emotional components of violence within the family were understandable, and suggested that investigations into this case led to erroneous conclusions due to this inability to understand violence against strangers. After a visit in person to the scene, he ruled that the police were wrong to look for 'upper class individuals'. According to your inquiries, it was someone from the same social class as prostitutes , due to the places frequented by them and the circumstances surrounding the crimes. Had it been someone of high status, his presence in the area would not have gone unnoticed by the neighbors.

He was a "disorganized killer"

In the same way as in his previous publication, he maintains that "Jack the Ripper" was a disorganized murderer, due to the crescendo in the violence with which he committed his deaths.If he reached the zenith of his mental disturbance, he would surely have been unable to continue committing such acts, with which he "would have ended up committing suicide or being locked up in an asylum". In either case, he would have disappeared from society.

Lastly, it adds the sexual component in the murders, despite the absence of coitus pre or postmortem. As he wrote, "(...) the attack with the knife in the body replaced the attack of the penis." The same author coined the term "regressive necrophilia" to refer to this "practice of resorting to such penile substitutes".

And he continues: "In most serial murders, the knife of choice has been the knife, followed by the method of strangulation and, thirdly, suffocation. Serial killers do not usually use guns, as they kill from a distance and they seek the personal satisfaction of killing with their own hands. " (p.79)

Other evidence in favor of a sexual component is the extirpation of the uterus found in some corpses. Mary Jane Kelly was also removed two breasts, one of which placed his ears and nose, as a grotesque decoration.

Jack the Ripper in popular culture

After 127 years, the case of "Jack the Ripper" continues to generate press . This infamous murderer has become an icon of popular culture and his crimes have led to multiple novels and films in which various hypotheses are considered.

For better or for worse, this character continues to speak today, and we are sure that in the future new evidence will reinforce the hypotheses described here or that will make known other possible culprits of these killings.