In a case like this, there’s no end to the theories.
Jack the Ripper was even claimed to be a woman. Mary Pearcey, a midwife and covert abortionist, was apparently the only female suspect mentioned at the time. She was hanged for murder in 1890, but not for the Ripper’s crimes. “I am not guilty of this, but the punishment is just,” were her enigmatic last words.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was one of the several mystery authors who have made suggestions as to who-done-it. He speculated that Ripper might have been a woman as she could have pretended to be a midwife and therefore able to be seen in public, wearing bloody clothes, without raising suspicion.
The few eyewitnesses that came forward appeared to be targeting racial or ethnic groups. They described the murderer as dark-complexioned, black beard, black coat and foreign looking.
This description fit many of the newly migrated Jews living in the East End in 1888.
One Polish Jewish barber was anonymously accused by, allegedly, another Jew who didn’t want to be identified because he didn’t want to be known as speaking against another Jew.
Interestingly, two Jews from the ghetto that was Whitechapel, were taken into custody by the police and put in mental institutions. There were no trials for them. They were sentenced, only by private police opinion, to the miserable dungeons, the wretched holes, the legendary madhouses of the times, for life.
Were they mad or were they foreign?
There are also theories that our Jack was a Mason. Some of the letters appeared to have Masonic references and inside knowledge of the secret group. The pieces of apron discovered at the scenes could certainly recall the lambskin apron used in Masonic rituals.
A journalist at the New York Times theorized that—writing of one victim, Mary Jane Kelly, observed in 1888 “This crime scene is like the strictures of Ezekiel.” He is a primary Biblical figure in this Protestant secret society, the Freemasons. That journalist suggested that everyone consider what Ezekiel would have one do to whores, including taking their guts out and burning them.
A great grandson exposed his long dead relation as Jack with confirmation from a great-great grandson. Consider: why would you try and expose a possibly profoundly mentally disturbed family member, long after their death, when you can not offer them up for arrest and cannot prevent any further crime?
But we live in a shock culture. Will it be fun to have solved the question of Jack the Ripper’s identity by revealing him as a relative? Will there still emerge some item found on one of the victims, that at this late date will reveal its secrets through forensic evidence,possible tying one of the accused to the crime through science?
Still, if an avid Jackofile solves the mystery of Jack’s identity, will it help us understand what makes a Jack murder and butcher his victims? The puzzle still exists, on so many levels.
In London, in 1888, everyone and no-one was Jack. One’s neighbor could be Jack. You could be Jack when you signed his name. You could whisper to the police that the crazy man who doesn’t belong in your neighborhood –is Jack. He has vanished amid theories, accusations, fake letters. Many were accused and harassed in the name of Jack.
We still have many who search. They are writers, academics, amateur detectives, relatives with an attic supposedly full of clues. He cannot be brought to trial.
His victims will not rise from the dead. Is it time to lay Jack to rest?