There will probably always be debate about exactly how many people the murderer we know as ‘Jack the Ripper’ killed. Since we do not know who Jack the Ripper was, the question of how many victims did Jack the Ripper have can never be answered with complete accuracy.
Some believe that he had more victims than the ‘canonical five’, while other researchers exclude some of the accepted victims – some even go as far as to dispute whether a serial killer was at work in and around Whitechapel at all, putting each murder as the work of a different hand.
However, what caused the police investigators in 1888 and most researchers, historians and ‘Ripperologists’ since then to attribute the murder of five women to one murderer was the similarity in the way the women were killed and what was done to their bodies after death. In brief, the women were subdued, lowered to the ground, had their throats cut and then their bodies were mutilated. This was developed as the accepted ‘modus operandi’ of the killer, and the canonical five victims all bear at least some aspects of this form of killing and behaviour.
That the women were at least subdued, if not rendered unconscious or dead, before the more horrific injuries were inflicted on them is generally – but not universally – agreed.
The evidence includes the lack of loud shouts or cries heard from the victims, even when other people were nearby, the fact that all the knife wounds and mutilations were inflicted with the victim lying on their back on the ground with no signs of struggle, and the lack of blood spray at the murder scene. These suggest that the victim was already dead or very nearly so when the ‘Ripping’ was carried out.
The bodies of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman and Elizabeth Stride showed possible signs of strangulation or asphyxiation. Nichols’ neck had bruises on each side, consistent with fingers applying intense pressure. Both Chapman and Stride were found with handkerchiefs tied around their neck – although a common fashion item, both were noted to have had the knots pulled tight.
The doctor who examined Annie Chapman believed that she had been asphyxiated with the handkerchief and either killed or rendered unconscious. The post-mortem analysis of Liz Stride was that she had been pulled to the ground by her handkerchief and subdued.
None of the victims had bruising or damage to the back of their head, showing that they did not fall limply to the ground, but that once they were subdued or unconscious the murderer held them and lowered them to the ground.
Evidence suggests that in all three cases, once the victim was laid on the ground on their back the neck was cut with a single swift, deep and clear incision, severing the arteries. This would have caused near-instant death for Nichols and Chapman, but the murder of Elizabeth Stride in Dutfield’s Yard was interrupted by the arrival of Louis Diemschutz. Stride’s carotid artery was only partially cut, which would have caused a slower (but still quite rapid) drift into unconsciousness before death.
Catherine Eddowes’ body showed no obvious signs of strangulation or gripping around the throat, but the cuts to the neck and the severing of the carotid artery were also present. Mary Jane Kelly was so extensively mutilated after her death that the exact order of the wounds was hard to discern, but the examining doctor also concluded that she had been killed by a knife cut to her neck, severing the right carotid artery.
In all five cases, the fatal cut was administered from the victim’s right-hand side, and in four cases (the exception being Kelly), the cut was on the left side of the victim’s neck. This implied that the murderer was leaning over the victim from their right-hand side. Combined with the pre-mortem strangulation or asphyxiation, this has been interpreted as a deliberate methodology to reduce the amount of blood spray and keep blood off the murderer’s clothes. This would allow an easier escape and reduce suspicion and the risk of capture.
All the post-mortem analysis on the five victims suggested that the same knife (or very similar instruments) had been used – a sharp, narrow knife with a blade of about six inches in length.
After the victims’ death, the evidence suggests that the murderer shifted position, straddling the body over the thighs or feet. Some degree of mutilation followed the murder.
That the Ripper subdued or rendered his victims unconscious before killing them with a method that was both quick to carry out and would lead to near-instant death strongly suggests that the death itself was not what motivated the murders. The murderer wasn’t set on inflicting pain or suffering on his victims. Beyond the fatal throat cut, it was the post-mortem degradation and mutilation that seemed to be his true purpose. These show a definite escalation in extent and savagery as the five murders progressed, all with a focus on the victims’ faces and reproductive organs. This strongly suggests a sexual or misogynist aspect to the murderer’s actions.
Mary Ann Nichols had stab wounds and slashes on both sides of her pelvis and stabs in her genitals. Her abdomen had been mutilated with a deep and jagged wound on her left side and three or four similar cuts on the right. These had been made in a violent, downward thrust.
Annie Chapman had flaps of skin removed from her abdomen, through which her small intestines were removed and placed above her right shoulder. Her uterus, the upper part of her vagina, most of her bladder and part of her abdominal lining had been removed and were not found with the body.
Because the murderer was disturbed during his crime, Elizabeth Stride had no mutilations inflicted on her after death – her body showed only the fatal gashes to the throat and neck.
Catherine Eddowes’s face was disfigured with a series of slashes. Her entire abdomen was cut open from the pubic area to the breastbone and her intestines were removed and placed above the right shoulder. She had extensive cuts around her genitals and groin. Her womb was cut through and removed, and her left kidney was removed and missing.
Mary Jane Kelly suffered the most extensive and horrific actions after her death, which can only be reasonably described as evisceration. This significant increase in the extent and savagery of the actions, coming after the already clear escalation from Nichols to Chapman to Eddowes, has been cast as the murderer’s increasing derangement or loss of control (possibly ending in his death or suicide, hence why Mary Jane Kelly was the last of the canonical victims), enabled by the fact that this was the only one of the murders to take place indoors, allowing the Ripper both privacy and time.
Her face was virtually obliterated by knife slashes. Both breasts were cut off. Flesh was stripped from her thighs, her abdomen was cut open and all the internal organs in the abdomen were removed. The flesh and organs were placed around her body (the uterus and kidneys under her head) and on a nearby table in her room. Her heart was removed and was not found at the crime scene.
Although the murder spree of 1888 was widely known as the ‘Whitechapel Murders’, and the Whitechapel district remains closely identified with the Jack the Ripper murders, not all of these crimes actually took place in Whitechapel. In fact, of the five canonical victims, only two were committed within the official boundaries of Whitechapel. Although other ‘non-canonical’ murders, such as that of Martha Tabram, did take place in the district before and after the ones ascribed to Jack the Ripper.
Mary Ann Nichols was murdered in Whitechapel, on a pavement in Buck’s Row (now named Durward Street). Elizabeth Stride was also killed in Whitechapel, in Dutfield’s Yard off Berner Street (now Henriques Street).
Annie Chapman’s murder, in the back yard of a house on Hanbury Street, was outside both the historic and modern boundaries of Whitechapel, in what is now Spitalfields. Mary Jane Kelly was also killed in Spitalfields, with her room in Miller’s Court being off Dorset Street, often classified as ‘the worst street in London’ and close to the Ten Bells public house. Catherine Eddowes was killed in the City of London, in Mitre Square in Aldgate.
You’ve read how Jack the Ripper operated and what he did to his unfortunate victims. And you know where these infamous crimes took place. But seeing these places, even in the context of the modern East End, and standing where these unfortunate women lost their lives, is quite different. Our tours, led by expert guides, will walk you on the same streets as the victims, pointing out the buildings and features that remain from those dark nights of 1888. And where the past has been obliterated by modern development, our RipperVision projection technology can bring it back. See and learn more for yourself on one of our tours. Contact us to learn more and see what tours we offer.
![Jack-the-Ripper-Suspect[1]](https://thejacktherippertour.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Jack-the-Ripper-Suspect1.jpg "Jack-the-Ripper-Suspect[1]")
