Jack the Ripper

"One day men will look back and say I gave birth to the twentieth century." Jack the Ripper is possibly the most (in)famous serial killer in history.

Background
"Jack" as he called himself, was active in the Whitechapel district of London, England during the late 1800s. Whitechapel itself was known as a Red Light District of the city; meaning that it was a haven for prostitutes, drug addicts, and gangsters. The London Metropolitan Police estimated that there were 1,200 active prostitutes at any given time, every one of them a potential target of a serial killer.

Leading the investigation were inspector Frederick Aberline and Medical Examiner Thomes Bond. They were unsuccessful in capturing or even identifying The Ripper. It is widely believed that Jack the Ripper was a Freemason, and possibly someone of importance to the Royal Family.

Theories
There have been many theories concerning the identity of The Ripper, mostly involving royal figures, prominent business men, and even a female Jewish immigrant. These include, but are not limited to:


 * George Chapman
 * David Cohen
 * Aaron Kosminski
 * Prince Edward Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale
 * Walter Sickert
 * John Pizer
 * Unnamed female
 * Anastasia Elaine
 * Doctor William Gull
 * An unidentified American serial killer (dubbed "Servant Girl Annihilator") has been suggested by some as a being connected to the Ripper.
 * Lewis Carroll

Modus Operandi
Jack would typically slash the throats of his victims from left to right, then dissect them as they were dying. He would often take an organ or two as a trophy and once sent a kidney to the authorities as proof of his identity. It is reported that the body of Mary Jane Kelly was so grotesquely slaughtered that she was unrecognizable, leading some to believe that the body was not actually of Mary's, but an unknown surrogate. Her body was also posed with the legs parted, as was another victim.

Profile
"I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled."

In the book The Cases That Haunt Us by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, there was a profile of Jack the Ripper made by Douglas and Roy Hazelwood. According to them, the Ripper was a disorganized, paranoid killer. He would have been a white male in his late 20s to early 30s who was raised in a household marked by a passive or absent father and a dominant mother who may also have been promiscuous and/or an alcoholic. He later became an introverted, antisocial loner who set fires and tortured animals as an outlet for his anger. At the time of the murders, he would have been calm, quiet, and and inconspicuous.

If he had a job, he would have chosen one in which he could pursue his interests, such as a morgue worker, butcher, mortician's assistant, low-ranking hospital staff, etc (the way the Ripper cut out organs from his victims suggests some anatomical knowledge). The times of the murders indicate that he would have had days off on certain weekends and holidays and could come and go from his home as he pleased without anyone noticing. He was also probably neither married nor involved in any commited relationship, the majority of his association with women having most likely been prostitutes.

He may have had some physical defect that made him feel inadequate or unattractive. Because of a negative self-image, he displayed paranoid traits and carried one or more knives for self-defense purposes. Prior to the murders, he may have visited pubs and drunk in order to relieve himself of some tension. He may also have been seen wandering on the streets looking for potential victims. It is possible that he was at one point interviewed or questioned by the police.

Known Victims

 * 31 August 1888: Mary Ann Nichols
 * 8 September 1888: Annie Chapman
 * 30 September 1888:
 * Elizabeth Stride
 * Catherine Eddowes
 * 9 November 1888: Mary Jane Kelly

In addition, The Ripper is thought to have killed the following women:


 * 3 April 1888: Emma Elizabeth Smith
 * 7 August 1888: Martha Tabram
 * 20 December 1888: Rose Mylett
 * 17 July 1889: Alice McKenzie
 * 13 February 1889: Frances Coles
 * 10 September 1889 : Unidentified woman

Legacy
There are no documents in the Whitechapel murder file dated after 1896. The murderer or murderers were never identified and the cases remain unsolved.

The poor of the East End had long been ignored by affluent society but the nature of the murders and of the victims drew attention to their living conditions. The murders galvanised opinion against the overcrowded, insanitary slums of the East End and led to demands for reform. On 24 September 1888, George Bernard Shaw commented sarcastically in a letter to The Star newspaper on the media's sudden concern in social justice:

Whilst we conventional Social Democrats were wasting our time on education, agitation and organisation, some independent genius has taken the matter in hand, and by simply murdering and disembowelling … women, converted the proprietary press to an inept sort of communism.

Acts of Parliament, such as the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 and the Public Health Amendment Act 1890, set minimum standards for accommodation in an effort to transform degenerated urban areas. In the two decades after the Whitechapel murders, the worst of the slums were closed down and demolished.

Sensational reportage and the mystery surrounding the identity of the killer or killers fed the development of the character "Jack the Ripper", who was blamed for all or most of the murders. Hundreds of books and articles discuss the Whitechapel murders, and they feature in novels, short stories, comic books, and films of multiple genres. There is even an entire science dedicated to the Ripper murders called "Ripperology".

Some modern-day serial killers have been compared to the Ripper (a name which is sometimes part of their nicknames). An example is an unidentified English serial killer active between 1964 and 1965 nicknamed "Jack the Stripper", so named because all of his known victims were prostitutes who were found undressed, having suffered head injuries, died of various causes and been dumped in the Thames. Another is Peter Sutcliffe, "The Yorkshire Ripper", another English serial killer who also targeted prostitutes. He would strike them from behind with a blunt object and then stab them.

Criminal Minds


Jack the Ripper is first mentioned in "Sex, Birth, Death", when Nathan Harris tells Reid he has read a lot of Ripper-based literature, mostly comics. Later, Nathan is shown writting Ripper-related fanfiction on his laptop. Sarah Danlin ("Jones") copycatted the Ripper, going as far as sending her own "Dear Boss" letters to the New Orleans PD. At least one of Eric Olson's ("Zoe's Reprise") copycat murders was also based on the Ripper (though that victim was raped while the Ripper never did so with any of his victims). Frank Breitkopf's murders were somewhat similar; while his victims were dying, he would dissect them, prolonging their pain. The victimology of the two is similar, as both men targeted those unwanted in society. Coincidentally, AJ Cook, who portrayed JJ, had the starring role in Ripper: Letter From Hell, a film about a forensic psychology student being terrorized by a Ripper copycat.