The sensational book by British ex-solicitor John Morris, which claims that Jack the Ripper was a woman, has sparked heated debate among historians.
According to the 62-year-old lawyer, the Whitechapel Monster was Lizzie Williams, the wife of John Williams, the royal physician, who is considered the prime suspect in the Jack the Ripper case. Morris believes that Lizzie Williams killed her victims because she could not have children, and the excised uterus is proof of this.
The ex-lawyer also notes that none of the five murdered prostitutes were sexually assaulted, and the personal belongings of one of them, Annie Chapman, were piled at her feet "in a woman's manner." Near the body of another victim - Catherine Eddowes - they found small buttons from women's shoes, and in the ashes of the fireplace of the murdered Mary Kelly, they found the remains of women's clothing - a raincoat, skirt and hat.
Morris believes that Lizzie Williams killed her victims because she could not have children, and the excised uterus is proof of this
Photo: The Daily Mail
Morris also points out that Mary Kelly had an affair with Lizzie Williams' husband, who ran an abortion clinic in Whitechapel.
Lizzie Williams, née Mary Elizabeth Ann Hughes, was born on February 7, 1850, the son of a Welsh industrialist Richard Hughes. She married John Williams when he was 32 and she was 22. Elizabeth could not have children. Shortly after a series of mysterious and terrible murders in London, she suffered a nervous breakdown. She died of cancer in 1912 and was never a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case.
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Recall that Jack the Ripper is credited with the murders of 5 to 11 women, committed in 1888 in the eastern districts of the British capital. In particular, Mary Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Kelly became the victims of the Ripper.
The killer cut the throats of each of the victims. It is believed that the maniac was familiar with medicine - in any case, disfiguring the bodies of the victims with a scalpel, he acted very professionally.
In total, the British police at one time checked about 200 people in a murder case. The list of suspects in this high-profile case was about 10 people. Among them were - American doctor Francis Tumblety, grandson of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence.
The detective discarded some versions at once. So, a certain Aaron Kozminski lived near the place where the terrible events took place. He hated all women and especially prostitutes. One of the witnesses in the Jack the Ripper case allegedly identified him, but only after a year and a half. In addition, it was found that Kozminski did not understand anything about medicine.
The second suspect, George Chapman, graduated from medical school. He killed three of his wives and tried to kill the fourth. Subsequently, suspicions were removed from him, since he killed his victims with the help of poison, and Jack the Ripper acted with a knife. In addition, in the fall of 1888, Chapman was only 23 years old, and witnesses gave more to Jack the Ripper.
The third suspect was Queen Victoria's grandson, the Duke of Clarence. He was suspected because the prince was sick with syphilis. According to the detectives, the disease could lead the duke to insanity, and he became a murderer. In addition, the prince was said to have had a child by a lower-class woman living in the East End, and therefore often visited there. Meanwhile, as established by Trevor Marriott, the prince's diaries contain entries that unequivocally indicate that during the murders of Jack the Ripper, he was not in town.
Another suspect was Francis Tumblety, an American charlatan who, without a license, pretended to be a doctor. He was arrested during one of the murders, but was later bailed and escaped from the investigation in the United States. Marriott believes that the doctor should be excluded, since he had persistent homosexual addictions. Such people would kill people of their own sex, the detective believes.
There is also a version about the ruthless pimps of Whitechapel, who thus punished recalcitrant prostitutes who violated the agreement to work for them. If the priestesses of love betrayed the pimps, then they could be dealt with in the most brutal way. At that time, killing by cutting the throat was common practice.
Jack the Ripper: Case Closed, a book by British historian Professor Andrew Cook, was published three years ago. The scientist suggested that no maniac existed, and his image was created by journalists in pursuit of a sensation.
On the basis of new documents he found in the archives of the London police, Cook established that the terrible Jack the Ripper is only a collective image that united the acts of several criminals.
And in 2004, the popular detective writer Patricia Cornwell formulated her own theory to find out the identity of a terrible serial criminal. The woman in her research turned to the latest methods of detecting DNA and creating an image of the killer using computer technology.
In her book A Portrait of a Killer: The Jack the Ripper Case Closed, the writer suggested that the maniac could have been the artist Walter Sickert, who at the end of the 19th century was the head of the British Impressionists. Examination of DNA traces from letters sent by Jack the Ripper to London police, and from Sickert's messages to his wife, helped Patricia Cornwell arrive at a conclusion about the identity of the two people.
"At best, we have an indication that the mitochondria of Sickert's and Jack the Ripper's DNA may be from the same person," Cornwell cautiously wrote in her book. It is never possible to unequivocally prove this statement, since after his death in 1942, Sickert's body was cremated. There are no other DNA-related samples other than traces of the artist's saliva on postage stamps.
Walter Sickert led a strange life, he constantly changed and disguised his handwriting, traveled often and, for some unknown reason, tried to leave no dates on most of his works and letters. Patricia Cornwell worked alongside Paul Ferrara, director of the Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine in Virginia, to find out the truth. She also used computer technology typically used by forensic scientists to compare the handwriting of Sickert and Jack the Ripper.
The writer also studied Sickert's artwork. For example, according to Cornwell's conclusion, Sickert's sketch, where an unknown person kills his father, mirrors the scene of the murder of the victim of the ripper Mary Kelly. Sickert was also known for using prostitutes as models for his works - as you know, Jack the Ripper killed women of easy virtue.
Let me remind you that one of the latest versions in the Jack the Ripper case was the version that it was a royal surgeon, put forward by his distant descendant.
