Ripperologists

By: Anjel Guyde

We all have this fascination of wanting to know the “unknown”.  We want all the puzzles solved, the missing found and criminals held accountable.  When it comes to Jack the Ripper, everyone thinks they know the answer.  On Amazon, there are almost 3,000 books on Jack the Ripper alone. 

Crimes that took place in the Whitechapel District in London in 1888 where murders by the famous “Jack the Ripper”.  An organized Serial Killer that brutally butchered women who were mostly prostitutes.  An Organized Serial Killer is one that carefully picks the victims and brings the tools to kill the victims and brings them back with him when they leave the crime scene area.  This was a calculated man that found his victim, lured her into a place where he felt comfortable and then sliced her throat.  With the slicing of the throat you do so for two main reasons, to kill quickly and to stop the victim from screaming.  If he cut the throat from behind, there would be blood spatter in front of the victim and across any wall or building.  If he cut her throat from the front, he would be soaked in blood.  I would have to say that most were cut from behind. 

We don’t know exactly how many victims “Jack the Ripper” had killed, but we can estimate with at least five to eleven women were killed by “Jack the Ripper” during the times of April 3, 1888 to November 9, 1888.  There are two women that were killed that are not included in the original five victims and they are Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, but these two were the first to be killed in the Whitechapel Murder Files. 

For even an organized serial killer, the first victim would have been the most traumatizing and the killer probably wouldn’t have gone to the extremes as he did with his other victims.  With the first victim, the Ripper probably would have been close to an area where he lived or worked so if someone came by, he would have a safe place to escape too. 

Emma Elizabeth Smith was robbed and sexually assaulted and she had a blunt object placed inside her vagina and she died the next day from peritonitis, on April 3, 1888.

Martha Tabram was killed by being stabbed 39 times on August 7, 1888.  There was no obvious motive for her murder.  Martha was stabbed mainly in the throat and abdomen.  Now since her throat wasn’t slashed, it is still a possibility that the “Ripper” was just beginning of his horrendous crimes.

Some may not except these two victims as a victim of “Jack the Ripper”, but I beg to differ.  It shows the crimes increasing and becoming more grotesque.  Also, the “Ripper” will venture out into different  territories that he may not be so familiar and most likely he will go further out from where he lives because he doesn’t want to be caught and being in different areas, he would have a better chance of not being caught because police departments might have had heightened security in the areas that were already hit.

Serial Killers will normally start out smaller crimes and work toward a more threatening and causing more harm, as his ego would become more excessive, inflated and would feel more powerful over all people, men and women, especially the police.  So you would expect that each victim would have more drastic wounds.  Serial Killers do not go from extremely dramatic killing to simply strangling someone.  The killer would not get that same kind of thrill as he did before. 

The other women were part of the “Ripper’s” victims due to the nature of their wounds.  Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapmen, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly.  Now, the last victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was the worst victim because she was in a room that would allow the killer longer time without being seen or heard and he could take his time within the killing and could completely desecrate the Mary Jane Kelly’s body.

It is possible that “Jack the Ripper” knew these women.  It’s possible that he was rejected by these prostitutes and he eventually took his rage out on them. 

The point to all of this is that this particular case will never be solved.  There is no evidence, no witnesses and no DNA to work with.  There is no evidence that “Jack the Ripper” ever wrote a letter or any letter.  Without having a photo of what was written on the wall over Catherine Eddowes dead body that stated:

“The Juwes are The

Men That Will not be Blamed

For nothing.”

There is no way to realize that the writing is the same or could be compared to anyone else’s handwriting samples since it was ordered to wash that off of the wall.  Without that proof of the real “Jack the Ripper’s” handwriting skills, you cannot use the letters that were sent to the police and the newspaper because most of them have been found to be fraudulent.  So now you have nothing to state or to use to prove that you know who the identity of the real “Jack the Ripper”.

Patricia Cornwell had stated with the title of her book, “Portrait of a Killer, Jack the Ripper, Case Closed”, she had spent many painstaking hours and over $6 Million dollars of her own money on collecting DNA samples of the letters.  She even states that the #1 fact is Most, if not all, of these “Ripper” letters are considered to be hoaxes.  She had approximately 600 Ripper letters to go through during her investigation.  Even though she believes that she found the real killer as being Walter Sickert, again there is no proof or evidence to him being the real killer.

Then I fell across a book called “Bloodstains” by Jeffrey Mudgett.  He believes that his Great Great Grandfather, Herman Webster Mudgett aka Dr. Henry Howard Holmes aka H. H. Holmes was “Jack the Ripper”.  Although H.H. Holmes had traveled all over the United States, I have yet to find that he ever left the country, especially going to Europe.  H.H. Holmes was a very cunning man whom was attractive to very pretty ladies.  If someone he didn’t like someone who came to rent a room in his Chicago Hotel, he would simply turn them away.  Holmes was very organized especially when he created his Hotel from Hell.  He created a variety of rooms that would seal someone in their room and he could add gas to the room to kill that person from Carbon Monoxide poisoning to sealing up a person in a safe until they ran out of Oxygen.   One woman he was going to perform an abortion on her, but instead he chloroformed her and began to dissect her body along with dismembering her.  He had in at least 2 cases, extricating the body from all skin, organs, muscles, all the way down to the bones.  Once he had the bones, he meticulously wired all of the bones together and will sell the skeleton to a medical school for approximately $200 for a full skeleton.  Holmes was interested in being a doctor and did go to school  and graduated medical school at the age of 24 at the University of Michigan.  Holmes mainly killed for money through life insurance policies.  Holmes was inflicted to carry out his crimes due to his greed for money.  He might marry a woman for the land she owned and once she was married, she disappeared.  Holmes would go and sell off the property and collect the money.  He was a mastermind of defrauding people out of their money and items they owned all for greed.

Bloodstains

Now, Mr. Jeffrey Mudgett, who wrote “Bloodstains” and is now attempting to prove that his Great Great Grandfather is the famous “Jack the Ripper”.  He has tried to use letters that Holmes allegedly wrote against some of the “Ripper Letters”.  When you have compare handwriting skills, you have to look at each letter and how it started and stopped.  Are their extra loops or a specific way that someone writes one particular letter.  Now, when you look at the two letters, the handwriting looks familiar, but they are not.  For a handwriting expert to report on this would be very difficult since that style of writing was over 100 years old.  But, once again, there is NO PROOF that “Jack the Ripper” ever wrote one letter!

Mr. Mudgett’s handwriting sample:

Mr. Mudgett believes that Holmes was overseas during the time of the killings in the Whitechapel District in London.  There is NO PROOF that Holmes was ever in Europe.  Back in the last 1800’s the only way to get to London would be by way of a Steamship which would take almost 6-7 days on board before reaching Europe.  H.H. Holmes at that time was married to Myra/Myrta Belknap in Minnesota in 1887 while Holmes was finishing his “Castle” in Englewood, Illinois.  Myra/Myrta and Holmes had a child together, Lucy, who was born in October 1888, which means that she had to have been conceived by January 1888. 

Again, let’s look back at the dates of the “Jack the Ripper” killings:

Emma Elizabeth Smith  Died April 3, 1888

Martha Tabram            Died August 7, 1888

Mary Ann Nichols        Died August 31, 1888

Annie Chapman            Died September 8, 1888

Elizabeth Stride             Died September 30, 1888

Catherine Eddowes       Died September 30, 1888

Mary Jane Kelly            Died November 9, 1888

Now getting a room on a steamship is very costly, approximately $150-$350 for a one-way passage, that would mean that Holmes would have traveled at least twice to Europe, making it four complete trips that would have cost him approximately $600-$1,400, during the time his daughter was born.  Holmes would not have stayed away from his “Castle” for almost a year, nor his new wife almost after conceiving his child.  I have not found one thing Mr. Mudgett has stated to prove to me that this is the same man that created such horrendous crimes in another country.

Holmes was convicted of killing 27 people and was hung until dead in the Moyamensing Prison on May 7, 1896.  The Castle itself was burnt down in August 19, 1985 and where the Castle once stood is now a Post Office that will be closing down soon at 63^rd & Wallace in Englewood, Illinois. 

Mr. Mudgett is trying to get paranormal tours down in the basement of the Post Office, but most of that was not part of the original “Castle” property.

Mr. Mudgett is trying to prove that Holmes is “Jack the Ripper” and is creating his second book called:

“The Sequel… Two Plus Two = 5…  The Trial of H. H. Holmes as JTR!”

Seriously, anyone that believes that his Great Great Grandfather was “Jack the Ripper” has got be delusional.  Show me the proof and not make accusations in attempts to sell more books that you cannot even get in a real book store.  Mr. Mudgett states that he found this through his Great Great Grandfather’s writings, but he never has shown even one page to anyone to check the handwriting.  He will only show a small sampling.  There is only one picture of Herman Webster Mudgett and he states that he even looks like the sketches.  Of course he does, back then most men had the same kind of mustache and wore hats, just like Holmes did in those times.

The point is that finding out who the real “Jack the Ripper” will never be solved because there is NO EVIDENCE to prove who he was.  Show me the proof, real physical proof and maybe I’ll consider it, but there is nothing to be found.  It will always remain a mystery, let it stay that way.

Mr. Mudgett needs to find a new topic to write about, maybe one that he can prove his facts before stating anything that can be proven otherwise.

This article was originally posted on SciFake.com