The Nation’s Favourite Serial Killer – Jack the Ripper

Ever since the brutal Whitechapel murders in 1888, one question has gripped the nation – who is Jack the Ripper?

No other crime has gripped a country quite like the murders of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly, collectively known as the ‘Canonical Five’.

The Jack the Ripper files have fascinated the nation for well over a century and, with new theories introduced year-on-year, the interest is unlikely to fade away anytime soon.

The Mystery

For the past 129 years, the British public has attempted to piece together the mystery – something which the London Metropolitan Police never got close to doing while the Ripper held his reign of terror. When the first of Jack the Ripper’s victims, Mary Ann Nichols, was found dead at 3.40am on Friday 31 August 1888, no one could have foreseen the chain of events that would begin to unravel.

The legend of the killings has grown so much over the years and decades proceeding that the mystery remains ingrained in British history. Countless theories and investigations have taken place; with so-called ‘concrete evidence’ used to ‘definitively’ unveil the identity of Jack the Ripper – although various individuals have been ‘revealed’ to be the infamous murderer.

Jack the Ripper Suspects

Experts that have studied the case files have put forward in excess of 500 suspects, some more convincing than others, although there are a few names that do appear more than others.

Due to the incisions found on the victims, it was widely believed that the killer had a medical background. This caused many to point the finger to the surgeon Sir John Williams, including his great-great-great-great nephew Tony Williams.

Others believe the killer to be Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski, including author Russell Edwards as part of a forensic investigation in 2014. Kosminski arrived in England in the 1880s before the Whitechapel murders and was institutionalised in an insane asylum in 1891.

With many theories circulated as to the identity of Jack the Ripper, it is impossible to list all of those linked to the murders in one way or another, which might answer why Scotland Yard was unsuccessful in bringing the killer to justice.

Take the Tour

Although we will never definitively prove who the killer was, it is possible to retrace the footsteps of the events of 1888 in Whitechapel on the Jack the Ripper Tour.

If you think that you can succeed where Scotland Yard failed, book your spot online today or call 078 0306 7544.