by Erin St John

Created on: April 10, 2007   Last Updated: September 30, 2007

London's East End played host to the modern world's first serial killer in the fall of 1888; the notorious Jack the Ripper killed at least five women in poverty-stricken area of London known as Whitechapel. Despite the large number of theories and the infamy of the crimes, the case still remains unsolved to this day.

Although eleven women were violently murdered in Whitechapel between April 1888 and February 1891, generally only five murders are commonly credited to Jack the Ripper: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. All prostitutes working the dark streets of London's tenements, the women suffered vicious, grisly attacks. The Ripper slashed their throats, and in all five murders except Stride's, mutilated the bodies. (In the cases of Chapman, Eddowes, and Kelly, the killer also removed - and kept - organs.)

What terrified Whitechapel residents was the Ripper's ability to commit a gruesome murder and slip away from the crime completely undetected. This area of London in the late 19th century was incredibly overcrowded, and the idea that this could occur with policeman on patrol and without anyone seeing the murders was frightening indeed.

The Ripper's first three (accredited) murders occurred outside the City of London, the one square mile of financial and business center that constitutes what was once medieval London. The City of London had its own police force, and the rest of the sprawling metropolis was patrolled by the Metropolitan Police. Whitechapel directly abuts the City of London, and it was believed that the killer originally used this dual jurisdiction to avoid capture: committing the murders in Whitechapel, he fled directly into the City, where the Metropolitan Police could not follow. By the fourth murder (Eddowes), the Ripper became more confident, killing his victim within the City of London, in Mitre Square. With both police forces as well as Scotland Yard on the case, he only committed one last murder - that of Mary Jane Kelly - at 13 Millers Court on November 9, 1888.

Many theories exist as to who exactly the Ripper was. The killer sent a number of letters to the police, taunting them, and it is from these letters that we get the name Jack the Ripper. A letter dated September 25th was sent to the Central News Agency, remarking on a story about a possible suspect 'Leather Apron'. Passed onto the Metropolitan Police, it was written in red ink and signed Jack the Ripper. The name, probably

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