4. The identity of Jack the Ripper, the serial killer of Whitechapel, remains a secret to this day despite more than a century of investigation
Jack the Ripper, also known as the Whitechapel Murderer or Leather Apron, was an unidentified serial killer responsible for the murders of at least five women in the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The victims, all female prostitutes, were found murdered, with their throats cut – in addition to facial, abdominal, and genital-area mutilation, and the posthumous removal of internal organs. Due to the latter activity, it became widely assumed that the killer possessed a detailed anatomical knowledge and possibly surgical training. It is presumed the murders stopped as a result of the killer’s death, incarceration, or emigration, but this is merely conjecture as the true identity remains unknown to this day.
In total, more than 100 suspects have been suggested as potential “Rippers”, among which in modern “Ripperology” include barrister Montague John Druitt, barbers Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski and Aaron Kosminski, the latter of which was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum in 1891, and boot-maker John Pizer. Contemporaneous speculation, in contrast, focused on an entirely different set of suspects ranging from Thomas Hayne Cutbush, a medical student institutionalized in 1891 after suffering syphilitic-induced delusions, and Frederick Bailey Deeming, who would emigrate to Australia in 1891 after murdering his entire family and later claimed in a prison-penned book prior to his hanging to be the Ripper.
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