True identity of ‘Jack the Ripper’ may have been revealed

Researchers believe they have finally cracked the identity of notorious London serial killer Jack the Ripper 130 years after his heinous crimes.

The murderer who brutally killed five women in Whitechapel in 1888 became one of the most infamous criminals in history and still brings tourists to London today.

Though theories abound over who carried out the killings, no proof of the Ripper’s identity has ever been produced.

But now a new book claims that an apparent ‘confession’ found beneath the floorboards of a Liverpool cotton merchant’s bedroom is authentic.

James Maybrick, a Victorian businessman, was seen by some as the most likely suspect after a memoir found in his home 25 years ago included him admitting to being the Ripper.

The memoir includes the line: ‘I give my name that all know of me, so history do tell, what love can do to a gentleman born. Yours Truly, Jack The Ripper.’

But critics questioned how the book came to be found and whether the claims were genuine.

Robert Smith, the author of a new book, 25 Years of The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The True Facts, has now researched the discovery and believes the book is authentic.

He told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The new and indisputable evidence, that on March 9, 1992, the diary was removed from under the floorboards of the room that had been James Maybrick’s bedroom in 1889, and offered later on the very same day to a London literary agent, overrides any other considerations regarding its authenticity.

‘It follows that James Maybrick is its most likely author. Was he Jack the Ripper? He now has to be a prime suspect.’

Five women were killed in Whitechapel in 1888; Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly.

Another historian, Withnail and I author Bruce Robinson, recently claimed in another book that Maybrick’s brother, Michael Maybrick, was the Ripper.

He claimed both of the Maybricks were Freemasons and the organisation protected him from being brought to justice.

Other recent theories have suggested a meat cart driver called Charles Allen Lechmere should be considered a suspect because he early route to work coincided with locations of Ripper killings.

Numerous individuals have been accused of being the serial killer.

At the time, police suspected the Ripper must have been a butcher, due to the way his victims were killed and the fact they were discovered near to the dockyards, where meat was brought into the city.

There are several alleged links between the killer and royals. First is Sir William Gull, the royal physician. Many have accused him of helping get rid of the prostitutes’ bodies, while others claim he was the Ripper himself.

Another book named Queen Victoria’s surgeon Sir John Williams as the infamous killer. He had a surgery in Whitechapel at the time.

Another theory links the murders with Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence.

At one point, cotton merchant James Maybrick was the number one suspect, following the publication of some of his diary which appeared to suggest he was the killer. However some believe the diary to be a forgery although no one has been able to suggest who forged it.

Other suspects include Montague John Druitt, a Dorset-born barrister. He killed himself in the Thames seven weeks after the last murder.

George Chapman, otherwise known as Severyn Kłosowski, poisoned three of his wives and was hanged in 1903.

Another suspected by polive was Aaron Kosminski. He was admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum and died there.

Dr Thomas Neill Cream, poisoned four London prostitutes with strychnine and was hanged.

Some of the more bizarre links include Lewis Carroll, author of the Alice in Wonderland books, who taught at Christ Church until 1881 – which was at the forefront of the Ripper murder scenery.

Winston Churchill’s father – Lord Randolph Churchill – has also been named as a potential suspect.

Crime writer Patricia Cornwell believes she has ‘cracked’ the case by unearthing evidence that confirms Walter Sickert, an influential artist, as the prime suspect. Her theories have not been generally accepted.

While author William J Perring raised the possibility that Jack the Ripper might actually be ‘Julia’ – a Salvation Army soldier in The Seduction Of Mary Kelly, his novel about the life and times of the final victim, that it was perhaps not ‘Jack’ the Ripper, but ‘Julia’ – a Salvation Army soldier.

• 25 Years of The Diary of Jack the Ripper : The True Facts by Robert Smith is available from www.mangobooks.co.uk at £25 + £3.40 p&p from 4th September

Source: dailymail.co.uk