Jack the Ripper

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Jack the Ripper is one of the most well-known serial killers of the ages. Although everyone knows the name, “Jack the Ripper,” nobody really knows of his true identity. When the murder victims were found the press and the detectives could never put a name with the crime.

Jack the Ripper is a mythic figure comparable with Frankenstein and Dracula. The Rippers first three murdered whores, in 1888, were believed to be by the same person. These murdered victims all seemed to occur around the Parish Church of Saint Mary, also called “the White Chapel.” (Fido…1)

Jack the Ripper,” was the name given to an unidentified serial killer in the White Chapel district of London in 1888. The name came from a letter left at the crime scene, written by someone claiming to be the killer. The letter was believed to be a joke and thought to be written by a reporter in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the investigation.

It was said that Jack the Ripper would leave letters exclaiming him as the murderer. Sometimes the letters were put in poetic form, while others exclaimed in detail what he had done. The letters were neatly crafted and found pleasantly disturbing, but no one knew who they were from. Investigators and many others thought the reason for these letters was to scare or even play with the emotions of the victim’s family and friends. It is said that all the murders had a letter teasing the officers into outrage. (Fido…10)

One of the most famous letters, was the “From Hell,” letter. This letter was received by George Lusk of the White Chapel vigilance committee. The letter included half of a preserved kidney which Jack the Ripper had taken from one of his victims. (“Jack … i)

Jack’s main victims were typically female pros...

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.... Their throats were cut and their abdomens were ripped. They were all murdered around the White Chapel area, and were all relatively close to one another.

As the killer was never truly found, the investigation turned into a historical research. It was so prominent that the research of Jack the Ripper became known as Ripperology. So whether the world will ever know the true identity of the killer of all killers, it will always be in study.

Works Cited

Evans, Stewart & Paul Gainey. Jack the Ripper First American Serial Killer. New York:

Kadansha American, Inc. 1995.

Fido, Martin. The Crimes, Detection, and Death of Jack the Ripper. United States:

Barnes &Noble, Inc. 1993.

3.64.1/Fido

Gardiner, Dorothy. “Jack the Ripper”. Encyclopedia Americana. 15 vol.

R

“Jack the Ripper”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper.9,sept. 2011.

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