The identity of Jack the Ripper has taken a fresh turn as an expert has pointed to a little-known fact that could reveal who carried out the horrific killings.
137 years ago, the streets of Victorian London were left terrified after the murders of five women between August 31 and November 9, 1888.
The grisly murders of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly are near universally considered to have been committed by one man.
While several theories and names have been put forward, the true identity of the individual behind the Whitechapel and Spitalfields slayings remains a mystery.
Polish Jew Aaron Kosminski, who worked as a barber in London after arriving in England sometime in the 1880s, became the focus of suspicion after potential DNA evidence was found on a silk shawl near one of the victims’ bodies.
However, historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook have taken on the task that has stumped Scotland Yard and sleuths since the late 19th century on their award-winning The Rest of History podcast.
In his analysis, Mr Holland explained that the places of work that could be found near the shocking killings potentially held a key clue in unmasking the Ripper.
“Nichols was murdered next to the largest knacker’s yard in the East End, which operates all through the night,” the historian explained, suggesting the crimes occurred during the killers’ twilight commutes.
The infamous murders continue to fascinate people 137 years later
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“If you’re a knackerman, a slaughterman or a butcher, you’ve got knives, anatomical expertise and a reason to have blood all over you,” he posited.
More than fitting the location of the slayings and providing a convenient alibi, Mr Holland believed the grisly work of the men in those industries fit with a long-held observation about serial killers’ behaviour.
“People say about serial killers that they show an interest in torturing and killing animals from childhood,” he said.
Research shared by the US Department of Justice found that there was a definitive link between animal cruelty and serial killers, including some of the country’s most infamous examples, such as Jeffrey Dahmer and Edmund Kemper.
The five murders were committed in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields area
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“If you do that, then working in a knackers’ yard, a slaughterhouse or a butcher’s would be an obvious job,” Mr Holland suggested.
The historian then looked to the increasing brutality of the Ripper’s murders, suggesting the killer gradually expanded from what he knew from his work.
“What you get with the ripper’s murders is an escalating sense of frenzy,” he explained.
“So it would make sense, it seems to me, that you go from slicing up horses to increasingly horrific mutilations of women.”
Listeners will have to wait until December 22 to hear the conclusion of the theory on Jack the Ripper’s identity shared on the podcast.
However, both Mr Holland and Mr Sandbrook have already ruled out some of the more famous candidates for Jack the Ripper.
These included Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, who was not in London when the crimes were committed.
Other names rubbished were the then monarch’s physician, Sir William Gull, and the cricketer WG Grace.
Speaking of Dr Gull, Mr Holland said he was a “pioneer in the medical treatment of anorexia, so he deserves to be better remembered than as a candidate for being Jack the Ripper”.