Joseph Barnett was the one-time boyfriend of Ripper victim Mary Jane Kelly. He is the only suspect who is known to have a direct link with one of the victims.

Born on 25th May 1858 at 4 Hairbrain Court, Whitechapel, Barnett’s parents were John and Catherine Barnett who had originally moved from Ireland to settle in Britain, where John took up work offloading ships by the London docks. Some years later, John would become a licensed fish porter in Billingsgate Market.

By 1871, Joseph Barnett followed in his father’s footsteps and gained his fish porter licence. Joseph was also registered on the census as living at number 4 Osborn Street, in the heart of what later became known as Jack the Ripper’s stomping ground.

In 2015, a new name in the form of Francis Craig was raised as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case, but who was he? And could he really have been the killer?

With numerous theories released year on year as to whom the killer could have been, it is difficult to take many with more than a pinch of salt. However, there is one theory that refuses to disappear after coming to light in 2015 as a result of Dr Wynne Weston-Davies’ book on Mary Jane Kelly, the last of the Canonical Five.