- Colin Wilson - The Outsider.

I've just finished reading the Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden.  First of all, apologies to my friends who are constantly having to put up with the same genre of writing with me; you must be bloody sick of it.  But my fascination of serial killers is like your interests in fantasy, Buffy and anime etc.  I'm hoping i can reach out to a wider audience - hopefully someone out there knows something about the atrocities and wants to share his or her views about seminal lust murderer and the world's most famous unsolved crime.

If you have some idea about this topic read on; if you want to be introduced read on.  Otherwise tell me to get over it :)

For those who don't know, in a time before fingerprints and DNA, a series of hideous murders of prostitutes took place in the East End of London - Whitechapel - between 1888 to 1891.  The total was nine.  Jack the ripper is inequivocally responsible for five of these butcherings in which he would strangle the victim; slash her throat disembowel her and, in two cases, disfigure her face.  These took place from the end of August to 13th Nov 1888.  The official victims were called Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Liz Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Kelly.  A woman called Martha Tabrum was the first victim who was stabbed to death - a different modus operandi.  And in 1891 Alice McKenzie and Frances Cole were murdered in a similar fashion to the five predecesors only they were thought to have been done by a copycat killer.  We don't know.

Okay, the suspects.  I'm not going to bore you with the details of the murders.  In this next section i'm assuming the reader has knowledge of this.  If not, research some more.

Montague John Druitt, the barrister who failed at teaching, was alleged to be sexually insane.  Mental illness ran in his family.  His body was found in the Thames River on the 31st Dec 1888, and was dated back to having jumped around the time the final victim - and the most grizzly - Mary Kelly was slaughtered.  His family was convinced that he was the Whitechapel murderer.  Now there are objections to Druitt.  Jack the Ripper lived in close vicinity to Whitechapel.  Druitt did not, but it wasn't impossible for him to make the trips and return early morning.  Jack the Ripper had anatomical knowledge.  With the removal of Kate Eddowes's kidney Dr Phillips believed that not only did the Ripper possess anatomical knowledge, but surgical skills.  Not a strong case for Montague.  My argument to this is that, based on Dr Bond's allegations about the Mary Kelly murder, the Ripper had no anatomical knowledge.  Neverthless, Montague's early days at college exposed him to anatomy.  Plus in the case of Andrei Chickatilo, he removed the wombs of his female victims so meticulously that they thought the killer was a surgeon.  As it turned out he knew nothing of the sort.  Could the same be said about Druitt?  Finally serial killers do not committ suicide.  Sir Melville McNaghten inferred that after the horrible crime of Mary Kelly the Ripper was appauled and threw himself in the Thames.  Well, the Zodiac and the Green River Killer were never discovered.  Did they suicide?  One thing is certain.  When Montague Druitt died the murders ceased.

A lot of evidence points George Chapman as being the Whitechapel murderer.  I'm not so sure.  I'm unsettled as to the lengthy cooling off period he had after Mary Kelly.  After Kelly he moved to New York where a prostitute was murdered in a similar fashion. Mmm.  Police believed it was unlikely to be Chapman.  From this point until 1903 he poisoned three of his 'wives' in which he was hanged for them in 1903.  He never confessed to being the Ripper when he had the chance.  One would think he would.  He wouldn't gain any financial advantages in murdering his 'wives'.  But going from slaughtering to poisoning doesn't sit well, especially over such a long time.  And many dissimilarities occurred among witnesses' descriptions.  But Chapman did possess anatomical skill.  He had the same medical qualifications, the appearance, the cunning and cruelty to have been Jack the Ripper.

Two more suspects Aaron Kosminski and Michael Ostrog.  Many ripperologists believe Kosminski was the Ripper.  The Polish Jew who had contempt for prostitutes.  Once caged in a lunatic asylum the murders ceased.  Except he was admitted two years after Mary Kelly, in which he refused to work; ate bread from the gutters and drank tap water.  The murders were too disciplined to have been committed by such individual.

The Mad Russian Michael Ostrog was a con man and trickster whose whereabouts on each night of a murder were unknown.  McNaghten believed he was 'unquestionably a homicidal maniac' but his sources on this were unreliable.  The most likely witnesses said they saw a man in his thirties and was average sized.  Ostrog was probably 55yrs and five foot and would have towered over Kate Eddowes.  It was too unlikely to be Ostrog.

Well there you have it: a tiny fraction of what's out there on the subject.  I'm calling myself a Druittist.  Information on him is limited.

 So many theories are present for each suspect - there are many more.  I think i should really settle for the fact that Jack the Ripper was a sailor who came and went.

If you've read this far you must be interested.  Hopefully you know something.  If you do pleeeeeaaaaase write back; i'm busting to hear your arguments. 

Cheerio.