The Real How Jack the Ripper Worked

I'm Josh Clark with me as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant. I love England. Yeah, we're partying outside of the Britannia Pub. It's Saturday September alright, Chu, Yeah, I feel a little funny in my modern clothes, but everyone seems to accept us. Yeah, they're pretty wasted, Chuck, and I think they've noticed yet. Yes, uh we uh, we came back here because we're about to stumble upon the second victim of Jack the Ripper, and please don't hold

it against us. Part of our contract for use of the way back machine, so we can't actually prevent any historical occurrence from happening. Right. Doc Brown says that we could not prevent the crime, so we won't even try. Yeah, so, uh sorry Annie Chapman, but uh it sounds like here we go, Chuck. Did you hear that. Yeah, that's the end of Annie Chapman. Let's get over there. You want to yes, crime scene? Uh number two? Okay, let's run over Chuck. Hang back, man, let the cops do their work.

But I just want to show you a couple of things. Why, by the way, are we at victim number two and not victim number one? Well, victim number one was the one that kicked all kicked off the canonical murders. But Annie Chapman, who whose dead body we're looking at right now is um she's she her wounds and what happened to her is much more characteristic of Jack the Ripper. I just kind of wanted you to get an impression. I am impressed. Then, Yeah, some bad things happen to

this poort today. Okay, hang back, Chuck, let's let the let's let the cops do their work. They're they're starting you. I just want to show you a couple of whiles to spare with me for a second. Yeah, it's pretty bloody, um, but there's a there's actually a lot of detail, Um that these investigators are eventually going to pick up one which will be in an m O. Should you suggest something at this point or do you just want to hang back? I think we should hang back. But um

noticed that, um this is any Chapman. She was a casual prostitute. Yea. Um, now what does that mean? It means that she she made ends meet by engaging in prostitution. So I'm sorry, by the way, miss Chapman's a bad standing here like this, but yeah, it's true though. UM So if you'll notice, Chuck, she's on her back and her um her she she's been bled out of her throat unfortunately. Yeah. But one thing I want you to notice, and this is going to become a uh I guess

characteristic of the Ripper murder. Sure calling card if you will. Sure her legs. Do you see how they're been at the knee. They're arched up and then they're laying off to the side. Yea, it looks like some sort of childbirth thing. Actually have a theory about that, we'll get too later. Theory. Okay, yes, all right, Well that's pretty much all I wanted you to see. These guys are um, we're we're witnessing an exercise and futility. These guys are never going to figure out who did this. But yeah,

it looks like she's been cut up pretty good. Yeah, so you want to get out here? You Okay, I'm feeling queasy. All right, Well, let's get out of here. They could just be the mead, all right, let's get to the way back machine. Chuck. Okay. So Chuck, how how do you feel? Uh? Nauseous, a bit hungover? You look sober as day. Yeah, yeah, that's frightening. Yeah. So, Chuck, that was Annie Chapman. Yeah, it was um. And she is the second of what they call the canonical murders

or the Ripper murders, right, yeah, the White Chapel murders. Right. So in the fall of from August thirty one to November nine, there were five murders um that are among the grizzlier murders ever committed in Great Britain, possibly anywhere. And there were other murders, but these are attributed to

one Jack the Ripper. Yes, that's right, Chuck. Um, these five, as we said, the canonical murders, uh, at the time and throughout history since then, these five are definitely attributed using m O and UM, comparing the bodies, that kind of stuff, which we'll get into later. It's possible that

there are other murders UM. In particular, there was one woman who was murdered on August seven, remember the first one, UM, Maryanne Paulie Nichols was murdered on August thirty one, So it's possibly yet another first victim named Martha Tabrum, who was a murdered prostitute. Uh, and he may have um

started practicing on her. Hers was a little less precise than you'll remember Annie Chapman's was, right, Yeah, I think so so she she The reason people think that she might be an extra ripper murder um is that her legs were spread, if you'll notice that, like you said, in the childbirth position. Uh, most of the women, if not all, of the canonical murders were found like that a theory and that we'll get to that though. All right,

So chuck um London, let's talk about the backdrop. Yeah, London's East End at the time very poor, extremely poor, and um the pubs were open all night and uh, a lot of alcoholism, a lot of disease, a lot of opium. As you know, it's not a very pleasant place to be. No, it's not um, but there are families trying to make it here. Again, it's it's mainly just poverty. Yeah, a lot of like you said, casual prostitution. There was a lot of that going on, just to

make ends me absolutely. One of the things that makes the Ripper murders stand out so much is that this this they weren't the only people that we murdered. There was some really brutal crimes committed around that same time. Yeah.

Not a great place to be, no, but it really says something about the Jack the Ripper murders and the grip that it had on the people um in London's East End Um that they stood out against this backdrop, this horrible, bleak, violent backdrop, and in a way actually people have later on talked about how it sort of exposed this dirty secret of the poverty in London and kind of brought it to light more so than anyone

else could at the time. Yeah, I think the murder I think George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, said that Jack the Ripper Um succeeded where social reformers had failed by shining a spotlight on the living conditions in London's Easton. That's one way to do it. Yeah, and he had a whole lot of other impacts. He was a lot of firsts in a lot of ways. We'll talk about that a little bit. Well, let's go over the victims,

the canonical victims. Chuck, Okay, how much detail you want to go into here, because it is grizzly, as much as you'd like, but as much as you can stomach. Well, the first, like you said, was Maryanne Polly Nichols, and she's forty four. She was an alcoholic, like most of her cohort victims. Yeah, that was definitely a m The the common thread for all the women is that they were either drunk at the time or were known to

love the liquor. Right, And the other through line there is that they were all known to be prostitutes, at least casually here and there, And a lot of people suspect that Jack, you know, he some people thought he may have like hated prostitutes, but it was probably just an easy mark. A drunk hooker sure would be an easy person to kill at five thirty in the morning in London. Definitely it's actually a drunk hooker in need of money and need exactly. Yeah. So, uh so Polly

was the first one. She was killed at about or she was found at three in the morning. Yeah, severe lacerations in her throat and further incisions and uh to her neck and violent lacerations to her abdomen, which makes her um a lot like Martha Tabroum. She was stabbed I think thirty nine times to her abdomen. Yeah, they're

all slightly different, I noticed. But if you look at it, especially if you start with Martha tab Roam and go all the way up to his last known victim, Mary Jane Kelly, it's almost like a pro You can see the progression. First it's all just rage, and then it becomes much more methodical after he gets more uncomfortable with what he's doing. True, So we talked about Annie as well. We witnessed Annie. Yeah. Uh. Then I think next was Elizabeth Stride, Lizzie Stride. She's forty five and um, she

was drunk at the time. She also engaged in casual prostitution and UM, but she was seeing alive um refusing a proposition right, and she also was seen speaking with a man and holding a parcel with in like a newspaper parcel. Yeah, this man pops up several times actually in the canonical murders. Yeah, the shabby genteel that was actually yes, um So, she's last seen at twelve thirty five am on Sunday, September, and five minutes later she's found in UH, a dark alley off Burner Street called

Dutfields Yard. Her legs are very familiarly by now pulled up to her toward her body, knees in the air spread, and she has a krichief tied around her neck. Yes, but she interestingly was not mutilated, which suggests to historians that he may have been interrupted before he could complete his whole thing right, And they definitely think he was interrupted because about an hour or so later, another ripper

victim turns up, Katherine ETOs. She was forty six and she was a heavy drinker as well, but she was intelligent and educated. And actually I just read a thing last week where they just discovered, Yeah, the census records, I believe, just like a week ago, revealed some of these UH people for the first time in their backgrounds weren't as grizzly as you might have thought a lot of them were smart and had families and right, but like, um, uh what was her name, Annie Chapman's daughter dying broke

up the family they had. Yeah, they had. When you talk about him, you think, oh, engaging casual prostitution, and we're drunks. They were obviously idiots, you know. But no, these these people had actual, real lives, um, and real things happened to them that led them to these these points where they were murdered by the ripper. Um. And also that that's a really good point, Chuck, because it's really hard for us to put ourselves into that situation

of what it was like at the time. Um. But these were real people dying in really brutal ways, and at the time it was it had a real impact on the collective psyche of the people who lived in London. You know, we're talking um paranoia, mobs forming. Yeah, let me tell you a little story about a guy named Squibby. Okay, there's a man named Squibby. He used to have run ins with the police. He was tattooed from head to

toe is how they described it. And Squibby, Um, you want to go see him, Chuck, Yeah, let's go see Squibby. See him. Yeah, he's a weird looking little guy in it. Do not make eye contact with Squibby, Chuck, you will punch you in the face just as soon as look at you. Okay, Well, Squibby is tattooed from head to toe. He's a short little guy, but real stocking and strong, kind of like Glenn Danzing Uh and he um he

has run ins with the police routinely. There are a couple of detectives who were down um in uh White Chapel around the time of the Ripper murders. By this time that the public had been whipped up into a frenzy and um, they knew Squibby by site. Obviously he's pretty notable guy. Uh. And they had a couple of truncheons each, each one at a trunch and they started

chasing Squibby. Uh. And this crowd apparently who had gathered outside of a think Um Catherine at Oos murder Um saw the police chasing Squibby and just immediately assumed that it was Jack the rippers. So this huge mob formed, right, and they're running through the streets after Squibby and and the police actually they were chasing him because they figured

it was the Ripper and they were going to kill him. Finally, they get Squibby to the police station, and the mob just throngs the station and stays for like several hours until they finally realized it wasn't Jack the Ripper. It's just some guy that's good stuff. Yeah it was. Yeah, So Chuck, while we're here, Um, do you want to just fast forward a few Yeah, mine, since we have the way back, when can you do this one more time? I will be there blindfolded and you can just describe

it to me. All right. Well, Chuck, listen, we're going to go into a place called Miller Court. It's an apartment house. Uh. It's about um ten forty five in the morning, and a rent collector has just found the body of Mary Jane Kelly. Yeah, because he ran screaming from the apartment like we should be doing right now. Well, let's just just steal yourself, Chuck the courage many. Um, We're we're gonna wait for the cops to show up, because um, well this is hands down the worst, uh

the worst mutilation of any of his victims. Yeah, because she's clearly inside here, the only one that's inside. So I guess he had a little more time to get busy. Huh right, yeah, uh, And I didn't bring you back here just to make you vomit, Chuck, Okay, this is uh, this is this crime scene and of itself is very important as far as Jack the Ripper goes, and as

far as the murders go. Right, how so, Well, for one, there's evidence that an ax was used on this poor lady, Yeah, which is unusual for Jack the Ripper, But he also did a lot of He used a lot of surgical precision and removed organs and in chunks of flesh and all sorts of disgusting things. Is you you okay? Yeah, it looks like her face almost has been removed. Here all right over here, buddy, the cops are coming. Okay, okay,

well watch watch right? Did someone just take a photograph? Good? I, Chuck, That's exactly why I wanted you to see this up. That is arguably the first crime scene photograph ever taken in the history of human kind. Yeah, and it's pretty it turned out pretty grainy. But if you ever see it and you're aware of what happened to Mary Jane Kelly, it's a pretty disturbing photograph. Like if you're just looking at it, it's the you see what the guys working with.

It's not like the most high tech camera around. Sure, there's a sketch artist over there too, there's gotta be a lot of fun. But what we're witnessing right here is the culmination of, uh, this string of murders. This is the last canonical murder as far as anybody knows, that is definitively attributed to Jack the Ripper. Well in most people's minds. So you want to you want to

take off pale, you look a little green. Well, I just feel like we should say before we go, if I'm not mistaken, I see body parts under her head and on the side table, Yes you do. Why did he do that? Uh? He was a sick Oh he was Jack the Ripper. Yeah there there you go, right there. So let's get out of here, buddy. Then what the cop just kind of looked over at us. Yeah, seriously, let's go, So, Chuck, we now have the canonical victims. We've seen two of them. We've talked about the rest

of them. There were some other ones that's that are possible. Um, there's the Whitehall mystery victim, headless, limbless torso that was found actually in the basement of Scotland Yard as it was under construction, um on October two, which is actually

within the timeframe of the Remember murders. But um, they never said that this one is remember And there was a one body found in New York actually that people think that Jack the reper might have fled England, which is why the murders stopped in London and then uh did a little handiwork there in New York City. It's possible, and there's actually a suspect who who was there at the time of the murder of Carrie Brown a k a. Old Shakespeare as she was named because she used to

love to get drunk and quote Shakespeare sonnets. That's nice until she died, right, Um, So there are actually plenty of other ones that are were never definitively attributed to them. But so let's just stick with the five possibly six canonical murders we talked about that, right, So chuck another we have the five bodies. Um, we can put together what's known as a modus operandi A K A and m O and a k A. By the way, it's for also known as his m O Josh. He struck

in the early hours. He struck on weekends, which Chuck wise, is significant well because it would lead the detectives to believe that he probably had a was a regular guy and had a regular workday job, and was probably single because because he wouldn't have aroused suspicion from the wife by leaving it, you know, all hours of the evening and Chuck, that's that. That also kind of sounds like, well,

maybe his wife is loyal. No. People were neighbors were turning in neighbors for suspicious activities, saying my neighbor's jack ripper um. People were going absolutely not so they think that he was single or else somebody would have come for and been like, my husband's been going out and coming back with blood on his clothes on the night of the Ripper murders. I have a theory that he was previously married and his wife couldn't give him a child.

That's what I think. That's where the childbirth positions came up. Chuck, my friends has just turned into a budding ripparologist. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Other clues Josh, he h strangle all but one of his victims initially that was the method of death. UM. And then he would um put the throat. He would cut their throat and remember he cut from left to right because he was like right handed, and he would he would kneel on the victim's right side and cut so that the blood spurted

away from him and largely drained out of the carotid artery. Yeah, my ideas, he probably led them out so when he was doing all his handiwork, he wouldn't get sprayed and there wouldn't just be blood everywhere. So right now, that that suggests number one, a working knowledge of anatomy. Um number two, somebody who is clever and doesn't want to get caught. That's a huge one. UM. Back in White Chapel, uh And during this time the police were working on

the theory that he was clearly a raving madman. And it was actually a really bad time to be insane in White Chapel because a number of people were just committed. They be picked up during police drag nets and taking

do insane asylums for the rest of their lives. UM. The police spent a lot of time in Whitechapel, chasing squibby um corralling the insane and interviewing suspects, and modern forensic investigators today believe that Scotland Yard or the Metropolitan Police probably interviewed the Ripper at some point but let them go because they were looking for somebody crazy and they don't think that Jack the Ripper was. They called them frightening lee normal today. Yeah exactly, so Chuck, what

are some other clues? Well they into and oh six they Scotland Yard actually put together a physical description that's two thousand six, just a few years ago. Uh they reckoned he was between twenty five and thirty five, medium height, stocky and a resident of Whitechapel and like you said, very much normal. And uh in the FB I actually did a psychological profile. This is the case that just

won't die. Oh no, I mean ripparologists. It's I literally looked the other day and there were four or five new possible suspects within the past like year that people are still naming. Who will get to in a minute, Yes we will. And um, let's talk about the FBI profile. Special Agent John Douglas is who did this. He said

he was opportunistic like you. Yeah, like you said, I just say that I'm an opportunistic killer, right, Like, like I said, with the drunk prostitutes being a pretty easy mark, right, they also think that Well. Douglas also suggests that, um, he was a lust killer, which is not to be confused with any level of sexuality. Yeah, he did not

have sex with any of these women. No, but some people do think it's possible that Jack the Ripper was a cannibal, and possibly that some of the stuff he took along with, um, all right, weren't just trophies but were food as well. Oh wow, Actually there's a letter called from the from Hell letter, the controversial from Hell letter. Oh yeah, there are a lot of letters. Um, there were a couple of hundred, from what I understand, sent

to the cops, sent to the press. All the way up until the nineteen sixties, they were still getting letters from the right, right. Um. A couple of women were actually prosecuted for fraud for writing um, fake Jack the Ripper letters. Um, there was there was one letter out of these many hundreds that a lot of ripporologists today believe actually was written by Jack the Ripper. It's called the Dear Boss letter, dear boss, I'll keep on hearing the police have caught me, but they won't fix me

just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. I joke about leather apron gave me real fits. I am down on horse and all shot. Quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work. That last job was I'll get the lady no time to score wheel? How can they catch me now? I love my work and I want to start again. You will seem hear of me

in my funny little games. I'll save some of the proper red stuff and a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with, but it went picklock blue and I can't use it. Red ink is fit enough. I hope the next job I do, I shall clip the ladies ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly. Wouldn't you keep this letter back until I do a bit more work and give it out straight. My knife is so nice and sharp. I want to get to work right away if I get a chance.

Good luck yours, truly, Jack the ripper, don't mind me giving the trade name PS wasn't good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands. Curse it. No luck as yet they say, I'm a doctor now and chuck. One of the reasons why this letter is so significant. Number one, it's the letter that gave um the name Jack the Ripper to the killer. And number two, um it made a reference to taking

a piece of his next victim's ear. Right. Well, that letter was received September and on septem Catherinetto's was found. Remember she was the second victim in the same night, and part of her ear was removed. Now wasn't published before that it was, which I mean you could you can definitely take that as evidence that what that the Ripper read about it and decided to take the ear.

But because there there's a historian this was actually this year he wrote a book is named Dr Andrew Cook, and he thinks that there were a bunch of different killers. And he actually, uh allegedly says that Frederick Best was a reporter for the Star newspaper and he said he forged the Dear Boss letter. Really yes, he said he forged it, invented the name Jack the Ripper to uh sell newspapers because there were a new startup newspaper and they were about to close their doors, and their sales

just like went through the roof after this letter. So that's what he alleges there. There are also a lot of Ripper oologists believed that none of the letters um were written by Jack the Ripper, and that they were all pretty much made up by the press or made

up by crazy people or whatever. But none of that the letters were written by Jack the Ripper is another way to look at it, right, And he uh unearthed interview given by a guy named Percy Clark, and he was the assistant police surgeon in Whitechapel, and he said, quote, I think perhaps one man was responsible for three of them.

I would not say he did the others. And then another senior investigating officer said the same thing that he didn't think that the last victim, that Kelly, was a victim of the Ripper, but a copycat killer as well, who knows. Yeah, well that's the point though, isn't it. I mean, like if if if you're looking for one murderer on Dreden hundred and twenty years on, UM, that's

difficult enough. Imagine looking for three or five killers twenty years on One of the other reasons why this is this case will likely never be solved is a lot of the evidence has just gone Um. They investigated Jack the Ripper for three years and then finally closed the case as unsolved, and around the time and probably before then, UM, cops working the case or cops that had access to the evidence room just took evidence as souvenirs from mentos UM.

I believe a lot of the records, if not all, the records were destroyed in a fire, um or destroyed because they had reached their shelf life of being kept as as records. So I mean, there's there's really not a lot of evidence anymore now. And you know, this was clearly a different day they they would have caught him today, probably pretty easily. Maybe that's what I think it's possible. So let's talk about some of the suspects. Well, there's more than a hundred that have been named throughout

the years. I've read a hundred and seventy different people named a suspect. Well, and there's it looks like three or four new ones a year now still, so right, do you want to talk about the most recent one? Man? Uh? Yeah, there was a discovery Channel show. Uh, it was on last week where a historian name my Trow used modern forensics and he identified one Robert Man and this one. Actually. See, that's the thing. Anytime I read like I thought Walter

Siccret was after hearing that Cornwall lady talk about secret being. Well, we'll get to him. But my point is, any time I've I've seen a show or special, I come away thinking, oh, well that was Jack the Ripper and make a real convincing argument. Yeah. Um. I went on casebook dot org um, which I wrote how Jack the Ripper works, the article that we based this podcast on. Um, And I defer humbly to the people who run and go on face

or casebook dot org um entirely different. If your interest has been the least bit piqued by this, I I strongly recommend well number one going to housetuf first dot com to read the article, but then number two going to case books because they have everything right. So um, I went onto casebook to see what they thought of Man, and sure enough, like the the the I don't think the documentary had even premiered yet, and everybody had read the Man's book. Um, and we're just tearing him apart,

which coincidentally is the second book to be titled Case Closed. Yeah, which I think is pretty funny. Everyone says I found it case Closed. And ripparologists don't take very kindly to this kind of thing. They these these people are amateur historians, amateur criminologists, um, all rolled into one, and they just this is just what they do. Uh, and a lot once in a while somebody will come along and do some research, write a book and slap case Closes on

the title, and they do not like that. Well, let's let's go over man real quick. Uh. He was a morgue attendant in Whitechapel. He was a an inmate at a prison when he ran the More, or he was an attendant at the More. He was he was in charge of receiving bodies I think, yea, specifically the bodies of the people that they believe he killed three of them. And uh, interestingly, well they say damning Lee in this article.

He he actually undressed Polly Nichol's body with his assistant, and he was under strict orders not to do anything like that. And a lot of people say that this is why, you know, he may have been trying to admire his his handywork there, show it off to his buddy. And I think somebody made a point on casebook that this would probably be the first time that the body revisited the killer rather than the other way around. The problem with Man that I, as I understand it was

that he was an inmate in a prison. Pretty much as simple as that. Even with a tremendous amount of freedom that he might have had with a job, he would have still had that job at the isn't could he have just come and gone as he pleased, um, to go murder women, especially on weekends. So um, I think that was the biggest problem that I ran across with Man. And also his testimony was discounted at the time because his boss basically said this man is prone

to fits and his he's not to be believed. But modern what the forensic psychologist at Liverpool University said in terms of psychological profiling, he's one of the most credible suspects from recent years and the closest we may ever get to a plausible psychological explanation. So who knows? Once again, case closed? But is it so now Cornwall? Yeah, let's get to Cornwall. She had a particularly um, let's say, difficult relationship with reparologists. Yeah, they don't like her, and

good reason. She plamed Walter Sickert. He was a painter, very famous painter at the time, and he was known for painting nudes of women. Who were they butchered or were they just depends on your interpretation, wide open for interpretation. Some people said they were dead women, dead nude women. But when you look at like, what's the one painting

Camden Town Murder. Yeah, it's called the Camden Town Murder and it's a naked woman on the bed and there's a man sitting on the edge of the bed with his hands in his face, and he looks like he's overcome with guilt for just murdering the woman. But what is the alternate title of that painting? What shall we do for rent? Was the was the alternate title, which if you look at it through those eyes, it could be a depressed man and his wife. You know she

was naked, sure, but who wasn't. And uh, from what I understand about Walter sicker I would not put it past him, um to be fully aware that he was toying with the public with stuff like this. Then enjoying it, but it doesn't necessarily mean he was a murder. Um Cornwell was one of the ones who titled her bookcase close um. And she apparently strode into the world of reparology a fairly arrogantly, one could say, um. And she used to I guess on her book to her lecture

to her. When the book was released, it was heavily attended by ripporologists who were looking to rip her a new one um, and she did not like them one bit. She compared them to trek eas Um, very demeaningly and uh. She also it came out that during the course of researching the book, she purchased a secret painting for a substantial amount of money so she could tear it apart to look for clues. She found nothing, and the curator of a major secret collection in London called her monstrously

stupid for doing that. So I was always amused by that. Yeah, she kind of hung her case on. She collected h M d NA mitochondrial DNA, and she was able to rule out comparing it to the letters that were sent Um that of of the people could not have been responsible, but Walter Sickert could have, and the other thing with the mitochondrial DNA is. She'll tout that the people are excluded.

She doesn't really point out that that's still left about fifty thousand other people that could have been the murder. She made it sound like everyone but Walter Sickert has been absolved. Well. On the other side, Walter Sickert was very well known as a prolific writer of letters to the editor, right, um, and so he very well may have written a ripper letter. But that's a huge leap in logic to say that he wrote a ripper letter. So he he was so chuck. My money's not on

Walter Sickert. Um. And he's not the only famous person to be named as a suspect. Lewis Carroll, Yeah, was suggested as a suspect. I don't think by any any of the police. No, they pulled they supposedly pulled anagrams from some of his books that everyone else is like, come on, um. Prince Albert Victor was thought to be maybe some diabolical madman and the the went mad with syphilis.

Yes that's what they say, yeah, um. And the entire royal family has been implicated in another theory, The Freemasons the Freemasons. Can't forget them. They're implicated in everything, aren't they. Um. But then there's some lesser known people who usually actually make better suspects than you know, the entire royal family, Right, Chuck, I would say so, and they actually would. They end up naming officially three suspects in the actual case before

they closed it. Right. Police commissioners Sir Neville McNaughton UM wrote in eight eighty nine who he thought the three best suspects were in In his final report, he wrote, UM, he named Michael Ostrog, a Russian physician and convicted thief, Montague John Drewett, who was a physician um and who was found drowned in the Thames uh the December after the murders, And Aaron Kasminski, who was an insane man um and these were mcdalton's three top picks. UM. Unfortunately,

probably not. Michael Ostrog was found in two thousand two in a book by Philip Sugden UH that he was actually in police custody during the time of the murders in Paris. Um. Montague John drew It possibly UM if he died in December, that would definitely explain why the murders ended suddenly. And then Aaron Kasminski, Um, he was he was in He was crazy, but he wasn't violent at all. Um. And most people don't think it was him. I shouldn't say most people. There are some that probably

think it's him, but I don't personally. My money instead is on Severing Klazowski. George Chapman, Alright, why do you think he did it? Well, let me retract that he's I don't know enough about it to say that he is. He's my leads huspect from the people I know of he's he's my lead suspect. He was a man who had a nasty little habit of poisoning his wives, and

he did it to three of them after the Ripper murders. Uh. He was finally caught on the third one because somebody finally figured out, Hey, this guy's wives are in no way related to one another, and yet they keep dying from this mysterious illness. And they um, they found that he had poisoned one, exhumed the other two, and he was convicted of all three. Uh. And this was in the United States, but he'd been living in Whitechapel at

the time. During the murders. Um he had a he was trained as a physician, UM and he moved to America and lived in New Jersey at the time that that one New York possible Ripper murder took place. So the the big question is, if Klausowski was the guy, why would he change his m o so drafted drastically from butchering women to reasoning lives. That's I don't think anyone's ever switched gears like that. But out of all of them, out of all the Ripper suspects, he's the

only one that has been convicted of three murders. He's the only known serial murderer in the bunch, which is why my my money's on him. That's a good one. Who's your favorite? I like them, Robert Man, That makes sense. That's that's who my money's on. That's I think there's you said. A hundred hundred and seventies suspects have been named, and again, if you're interested in this, go onto casebook.

They have detailed descriptions of every single suspect. But let's talk about the legacy left by the Ripper Chuck, Yeah, I mean it was it was probably the first crime scene photo ever taken. Yeah, it was the first big, um, I think, international murder case that was known throughout the world.

It was the first case of symbol the now well known symbiotic relationship between a serial murderer and the press, where the press gives the serial murder um, you know, infamy that that he or she requires, uh, and then the serial killer gives the press, you know, fodder for articles. And I think further uh, I think the Zodiac killer sent letters to the editor and that became kind of

a thing for serial killers to do later on. Yeah. Um, and this is one of the first times that comparing the bodies to establish an m O it has been used basically. Um. You can argue that the the um all modern forensic techniques started kind of piecemeal, but they all started with the Ripper murders. I would agree with that, right. And like we said before them Ripper murders shown a light on the living conditions in the East End of London, uh and led to real change. I think sanitation was

introduced largely. Um. There is a lot more interest in the plight of the poverty stricken than there had in before. And Chuck also, there's clearly a pretty big legacy left behind in the form of ripparologists, um countless TV shows, movies, UM from Hell from Hell. That was. That was unsettling. You know, there's a video game coming I heard and Jack the Ripper is going to be a superhero that

fights demons. Yeah, he's a he's actually an anti hero, but he's misunderstood the killings were it was it demons or vampires, both all manner of EMPs and lesser demons. It's gonna be awesome. Yeah, and there's a conference every year, right, I don't know if it's every year, but um, this year. Actually it was just last week in London, first time they ever had it in London, and they rented a pub for the entire weekend. So that's that. Sounds like

an awesome conference so far. Yeah, they have speakers and from seven to eleven every night is entertainment and disco disco Jack the Ripper Conference Disco. So that sounds like a nice way to end this, an upbeat way to end this, which, if you consider it, is highly ironic because this definitely are grizzliest podcast yet. Yeah, it's not gonna get any more grizzly. Yeah, so obviously We did this one for Halloween, so I have a safe and

happy Halloween everybody. And if you have any ideas about who Jack the Ripper might be, and if it's not your neighbor, that would be fantastic. You can put it in an email send it to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics, does it how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you