10. Some believe the killer was identified and covered up by the government
Over the more than one hundred years which passed since the Whitechapel Murders, the theory emerged the police knew the identity of Jack the Ripper. Higher-ups in the government quashed the revelation of the killer to the public. The reasons for the alleged cover-up vary widely, depending on the theorist’s determination of the killer’s identity. Favored by conspiracy theorists, evidence of a police cover-up is scant. Yet it allows the Jack the Ripper mystery to enter into the realm of political and sexual scandal among the powerful, at the expense of the poor. Not until the 1960s did the theory emerge that one of Queen Victoria’s nephews, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, committed the crimes. The theory alleges he obtained the aid of his coachman in both killing his victims and disposing of their bodies. It became one of the favorite Ripper theories.
Another theory contends the five so-called canonical victims were engaged in blackmailing the Royal Family over the illegitimate birth of a prostitute’s child. The theory contends the Royal Family sent a surgeon, Dr. William Gull, to dispose of the five, with the eviscerations and mutilations serving to distract the police. Some supporters of the theory link the plot directly to the Queen, though most limit its reach to lesser members of the Royal Family. Though Scotland Yard discovered the killer’s identity, Cabinet ministers directed the information remain secret. There are those who contend the cover-up is still practiced today. They cite missing evidence from police files, and files which remain secret, to support their contention. Though intriguing, the deliberate suppression of the killer’s identity by the police and government remains doubtful. So does a link between the murders in Whitechapel and the Royal Family.