The Jack the Ripper case is the loudest of the unsolved crimes of the past …
Today, London's East End is a very respectable area, built up with modern high-rise buildings, shops and cafes. It owes its revival to the Second World War - the bombing destroyed the ancient slums in which terrible things were once happening - violence, prostitution, robbery, theft. It was here, in this quarter, where all the scum of London society - prostitutes, alcoholics, drug addicts - lived for a long time, where a bloody drama unfolded at the end of the 19th century.
On August 31, 1888, in one of the most neglected streets of the East End, the corpse of a forty-two-year-old prostitute, Mary Ann Nicolet, was discovered. It was a completely devastated woman - the
Jack the Ripper case is the loudest of the unsolved crimes of the past … an
alcoholic who takes a few pitiful pennies for her services. But the punishment for her crimes turned out to be too cruel - the woman's throat was cut with a knife with a strong blow from ear to ear, and her stomach was ripped open.
For police officers who arrived at the scene of the crime, murders and stabbing in the East End were considered routine. But they were also struck by the special cruelty with which they dealt with the unfortunate prostitute. The corpse was examined, taken for examination, buried … and forgotten - you never know prostitutes died in these terrible slums. But the nightmare for Scotland Yard and all of London was just beginning.
On September 8, a new corpse with a slit throat was discovered in the East End. The victim of the killer again became a prostitute - forty-seven-year-old Annie Chapman. As in the first case, the examination showed that the murdered woman was not subjected to sexual violence. The victim was again brutally gutted, and its removed entrails lay next to the body. The police established that the killer was familiar with anatomy and surgery - the internal organs were expertly excised.
Scary letters
This death showed Scotland Yard that the police were dealing with a serial killer, most likely seriously ill mentally. An intensified search for a possible murderer began. Several people were arrested on suspicion of murder, and the police claimed through newspapers that the maniac had already been caught. But at the end of September, they whispered in the living rooms of London that an unknown maniac had sent a letter.
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Indeed, an unknown killer wrote a message to the London news agency. Its text, released much later, read: “I hear rumors from all sides that the police have caught me. And they still haven't even figured out me. I hunt certain types of women and will not stop cutting them until they tie me up. The last thing was great work. The lady didn't even have time to cry out.
I love this kind of work and am ready to repeat it. You will soon learn about me again through a funny trick. When I finished the last thing, I took the ink in a bottle of ginger lemonade with me to write the letter, but it soon thickened like glue and I couldn't use it. So I decided that red ink would work instead. Next time I will cut off my ears and send them to the police, just for fun. " The letter was signed, which soon became known to the whole world: "Jack the Ripper".
Soon another letter came to the police. More precisely, the package. It contained half of a human kidney and a note stating that the other half had been eaten by the sender …
By the way, the police were soon inundated with other letters, but they all clearly belonged to amateurs and people with mental disabilities. The original letter of Jack the Ripper is considered to be the first letter …
Man in hat
Waves of fear gripped London. The police were on their guard - reinforced outfits in the East End, armed defenders of the law at every corner, agents disguised as prostitutes … But the measures taken did not help - already on September 30, a new corpse was found
- a forty-four-year-old prostitute Elizabeth Stride.
The woman's throat was also cut, but there were no other traces of violence or mutilation. The police decided that the offender had abandoned the atrocities, but on the same day all assumptions collapsed: another corpse was found - a forty-year-old prostitute Katherine Edous. She was disfigured so that it became poorly well-worn policemen and doctors - her face was disfigured with a knife, her stomach was deeply ripped open, her entrails were pulled out and spread over her body. In addition, both of her ears were cut off.
On November 9, there was another murder, the latest in a series of atrocities. His handwriting was somewhat different from the previous ones. The victim, Mary Callie, a twenty-five-year-old prostitute, was younger than the others and was killed in her own room.
Her corpse was mutilated and disfigured much stronger than the previous ones - the killer felt calmer in a confined space than on the street, and killed his victim with pleasure, without haste … By the way, the autopsy showed that the prostitute was three months pregnant.
Mary's tradesmen by trade claimed that she left last night with a tall, dark-haired, mustachioed man in a hat pulled down low over his eyes. This was the only lead in the search for the killer. But the police, nevertheless, did not help.
Who is the killer?
The police were thrown off their feet in search of the culprit, but he was never found. The series of crimes, however, stopped, and no one knew what was the reason.
Various versions have been put forward of who the mysterious Jack the Ripper was. One of the suspects was Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert, Duke of Clarens. Then in society there was a lot of talk about his madness, strange sexual inclinations, so the candidacy of the prince seemed quite suitable to many. But there was no direct evidence against him. Nevertheless, the royal family chose to send the prince to hell.
The police also searched among the doctors - the corpses were cut very professionally. Jack the Ripper was not found among them, but the killer was still found, who also dealt with prostitutes, though not so inhumanly. Doctor Thomas Neal could not stand interrogations and admitted that he had poisoned several prostitutes - it was previously believed that they died a natural death.
Many fell under suspicion, but all charges fell apart due to a lack of evidence and irrefutable alibis of the suspects.
Then, absolutely fantastic rumors began to circulate around the city: supposedly the killer was a huge monkey walking around London with a knife. The assumption was completely absurd, but nevertheless several circuses and a zoo were closed in the city.
Search a woman
The famous writer Arthur Conan Doyle then put forward an assumption that seemed fantastic - Jack the Ripper was a woman!
His version did not find the proper response - it seemed strange that a lady could deal so brutally with representatives of her sex. Nevertheless, this version has now found its scientific confirmation.
In May 2006, sensational news spread through the media. Ian Findlay, a biology professor from Australia, has conducted a new "investigative experiment."
Killer letter
He used a method of DNA analysis that allows you to "decipher" genes in the remains of even very old living tissues. Only one skin cell is sufficient for analysis.
The professor turned to the National Archives of Great Britain, where the letter from Jack the Ripper is kept. Microscopic remains of the sender's tissue were found on the wax seal of the letter. Findlay with the help of special equipment collected them and brought them to Australia, to his laboratory. The results of the study showed that DNA belongs to a woman!
They immediately remembered about the only woman suspected in the Jack the Ripper case - after all, the female version had not been seriously considered before. In 1890, a certain Mary Piercy was hanged, who killed her lover's wife in a manner similar to the one in which Jack the Ripper killed his victims - she slit her rival's throat. After Professor Findlay's research, it is very likely that this particular lady was the mysterious murderer who kept London at bay at the end of the 19th century …