18. Some claimed – falsely – to have been Jack the Ripper
Frederick Deeming ran away from a troubled home at the age of 16, going to sea before settling for a time in Sydney, Australia. There he developed the habit of stealing from his employers, for which he served six weeks in jail. In 1887 he was charged with fraud. Released on bail, he disappeared for a time. Subsequent investigations into his crimes revealed he had been active in various scams in South Africa before returning to Britain in 1889. While there he murdered his wife, along with their four children, burying them under the floors of their house in Rainhall, near Liverpool. Having only recently arrived, he told anyone questioning the whereabouts of the four victims they were his sister and her children, and had only been there to help him settle in to his new home. Shortly after, he remarried under an assumed name.
In 1891 Deeming and his new wife relocated to Melbourne, with Deeming still using an assumed name. On Christmas Eve, 1891, Deeming murdered his wife, burying her body under a hearth in their home. After he was caught by Australian authorities, police in Liverpool investigated the missing woman and four children there. Deeming was tried, convicted, and hanged in Melbourne. Before he died, he wrote an autobiography while in jail. In the autobiography, which authorities burned, he allegedly claimed he was Jack the Ripper. He repeated the claim to fellow inmates and guards. However, the extensive investigation by Australian authorities revealed he was not in London during the time of the Whitechapel Murders. Nonetheless, Ripperologists continue to present Deeming as Jack the Ripper today. Some contend the evidence supports no other suspect as well as the wife murderer and scam artist.