- Question
Who was Jack the Ripper?
Jack the Ripper was one of the most notorious serial killers in history. In 1888, the Ripper was suspected of brutally killing at least five women in and around the Whitechapel district in the East End of London. The Ripper killings were the focus of an intensive police investigation and garnered enormous attention from the public and media, but the case went unsolved, and the identity of the Ripper remains a subject of widespread debate over a century later. So who was Jack the Ripper? Was he one of the contemporaneous suspects, or one revealed by historical and scientific research? Was he even a man - or, for that matter, was he real at all?
Montague John Druitt
This position names Montague John Druitt as Jack the Ripper. It argues that Druitt was a leading suspect at the time—some senior police believed him guilty—and that the Whitechapel murders stopped abruptly after his suicide in late 1888, pointing to him as the killer.
Seweryn Klosowski (George Chapman)
This position names Seweryn Klosowski — known as George Chapman — as Jack the Ripper. It points to his being a convicted serial killer who lived in Whitechapel at the very time of the Ripper murders, and who went on to poison several women, as grounds for the identification.
Aaron Kosminski
This position names Aaron Kosminski as Jack the Ripper. It points to his being a prime suspect of contemporary police inspectors, and to later DNA analysis of a shawl said to belong to the Ripper's fourth victim, which proponents argue ties Kosminski to the crimes.
Walter Sickert
This position names the painter Walter Sickert as Jack the Ripper. It argues that clues to his guilt appear in his own work and correspondence—pointing to letters supposedly sent in the Ripper's name and paintings said to depict the murderer's crimes.
Jill the Ripper
This position advances the theory that Jack the Ripper was in fact a woman—'Jill the Ripper.' It argues a woman would have been better positioned to commit the murders and slip away unnoticed, suggesting a midwife as a likely culprit and citing witnesses who described a female suspect.
No single person was Jack the Ripper
This position holds that 'Jack the Ripper' was not a single person. It argues that the marked differences between the Whitechapel murders — the lack of a consistent modus operandi — suggest the killings were the work of several hands rather than one lone serial killer.