Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper – Would the Mystery Have Been Solved?

Is it merely a coincidence that the character of Sherlock Holmes was created by Conan Doyle in 1887 – the year preceding the gruesome Whitechapel murders in 1888? Certainly, it could have been a match for the ages – fiction’s most celebrated sociopath versus history’s most revered psychopath – Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper. Who would have come out on top? 

As 22 May is known as Sherlock Holmes Day, we ask if the detective had been more than a figment of the imagination of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, would the identity of Jack the Ripper be a mystery at all?

Holmes and his dear friend Dr John Watson formed an alliance so powerful that 221B Baker Street has been turned into a museum of the two characters that have been portrayed by countless actors. When you walk out of the underground station on Baker Street, you will be greeted by a statue of Sherlock Holmes, a deerstalker, and all – a further testament to Doyle’s works.

Could Sherlock Holmes Solve the Jack the Ripper Mystery?

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

Just one of the many famous quotes of Sherlock Holmes, this one taken from The Boscombe Valley Mystery, first published in Strand Magazine in 1891.

Holmes was famous for refusing to rule out any possibility unless presented with absolute concrete evidence to prove otherwise. Due to the nature of the injuries found on the bodies of Jack the Ripper’s victims, the obvious assumption was that the killer had a surgical background.

Would Holmes have arrived at the same conclusion as the many others before him? Or would the detective regard such an obvious fact to be, in fact, nothing more than a deception on the way to revealing the true identity of the killer?

A Battle of Great Minds – Sherlock vs Jack the Ripper

There is no doubt that Jack the Ripper was more than a common opportunist. Otherwise, the killer would have been found out long before completing the infamous Whitechapel murders. But in a battle between Sherlock and Jack the Ripper, would the killer have had the mind to outsmart Holmes, who prided himself on seemingly always being one step ahead, and at least two in front of Scotland Yard (which he would have taken great pleasure in boasting)?

We have already highlighted how the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Canonical Five murders overlapped. Holmes first appeared in 1887, just a year before the killing in Whitechapel, with Doyle continuing to write stories up until 1927. It is almost inconceivable that the author did not at least use elements of the morbid reality in which he lived as inspiration for his stories. In a world where fiction and fact overlap, Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper may well have come face to face down a dark alley one evening.

The Final Problem

The truth is that we will never know if Holmes and Watson would have brought the killer to justice. In fact, some conspiracies believe the man behind the detective to be Jack the Ripper himself.

How plausible is it that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the brainchild of both the most famous detective and killer that Britain has ever seen? Decide for yourself by taking the tour where you will visit historic locations and be informed of all its gory details.