Lizzie Williams
Was Jack the Ripper really Jill the Ripper? While most Ripper theories point directly toward male suspects, John Morris’ Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman suggests a very different suspect profile, and suspect. Lizzie Williams was the wife of an obstetrician and abortionist, Sir John Williams. Her husband has also been suggested as a possible Ripper suspect.
Morris’ evidence for a female Ripper is relatively scarce. He points out that none of the Ripper victims were raped, and suggests that the positioning of their possessions was feminine. Buttons from a woman’s boot were found near one of the victims, and burnt female clothing was found in the fire where Mary Kelly was found. These items have not been connected to any of the victims. Morris suggests a personal link, believing that Sir John Williams was having an affair with Mary Kelly. According to Morris, Lizzie had a nervous breakdown not long after the last murder.
Murder does not happen without motive. Lizzie’s only possible motive, suggested Morris, was her own infertility. He connects her infertility to the removal of the uterus in three of the Ripper victims.
Most Ripper scholars do not believe that the crimes were committed by a woman. In addition, modern profilers believe that the killer was male. Women who kill rarely do so with this degree of extreme violence; poisoning is far more common. While the victims were not raped, Jack the Ripper has been widely thought to have been a sexual sadist, taking pleasure in his acts, particularly mutilation.
There are a number of other issues with the Lizzie Williams theory. As a woman of the upper classes, Lizzie Williams had limited personal freedoms, and certainly lacked the freedom to wander around Whitechapel in the wee hours of the morning. She had no medical training. There is, in fact, no reason to suggest or believe that Lizzie Williams had the ability or access to be Jack the Ripper.