The scene takes place in London, on the night of August 31, 1888, around 3:40 a.m., in the Dickensian district of Whitechapel.
A carter discovers the still warm corpse of Mary Ann Nichols.
A few days later, on September 8, a certain John Davis came across the horribly mutilated remains of Annie Chapman.
As the population began to panic, the Central News Agency received a letter beginning with the words: “
Dear Boss
”.
The missive is signed “
Jack the Ripper
”.
The worry increases even more.
On the night of September 30, the police reported two new murders carried out using the same method of operation.
Hence their qualification as “canonical”.
The victims ?
Elizabeth Stride, who lies on the ground with her throat slit, and Catherine Eddowes whose abdomen has been cut open and emptied of its contents.
Same terrible fate reserved for Mary Jane Kelly, tortured on November 9 in her small room at 13 Miller's Court.
His heart was not found there.
Five monstrous crimes that will fuel all the fantasies over the decades and fuel all the controversies.
Who is hiding behind this abominable character?
"I'm Jack"
Journalists immediately took up the affair, in England and abroad.
Unheard of for a serial killer!
Faced with media pressure, the authorities are deploying major means.
No less than two thousand people were interviewed for the purposes of the investigation.
Arrests are increasing.
There are around a hundred of them.
Among the suspects: butchers, breeders, surgeons, neighbors or individuals infamous for their deviances.
All avenues are considered.
Because the murders take place on weekends and public holidays, inspectors deduce that the perpetrator belongs to a wealthy social category.
Also readSerial killers, crimes, “cold cases”... What does our interest in news stories say about us?
Like the rich and scheming Francis Tumblety, an alleged doctor responsible for the death of one of his patients?
Or the barrister Montague Druitt, some of whose ancestors suffered from mental disorders, or even the bootmaker John Pizer who had the habit of bothering prostitutes?
For lack of evidence, they are released.
Ditto for the Russian crook Michael Ostrog or the worrying Aaron Kosminski, interned in the asylum in 1891. Same false leads with William Henry Bury, who strangled his wife on February 4, 1889, or doctor Thomas Neill Cream who allegedly uttered these words before his execution for another assassination: “
I am Jack
”.
Back to square one.
Enough to allow many other theories to flourish, more or less convincing, and to maintain the legend of Jack the Ripper.
State of dementia
According to author Richard Wallace, Lewis Carroll is the culprit because he would refer to the affair in his writings.
Hypothesis dismissed out of hand by specialists.
Just like the one which led to the guilt of William Withey Gull, one of Queen Victoria's doctors who was allegedly the executioner of a plot.
The goal ?
Avoid the revelation of the existence of a child that Prince Albert Victor de Clarence would have had with a prostitute.
In the 1960s and 70s, rumors directly pointed to the son of Edward VII as the culprit.
He would have acted in a state of dementia.
A scenario still ruled out, the man having solid alibis.
Walter Sickert: Manchester Art Gallery / Bridgeman Images
Can we say the same about the impressionist painter Walter Sickert (1860-1942), disciple of Whistler and friend of Degas, known for his extremely dark paintings, such as his nudes with such ambiguous poses?
An artist with an eminently tortured mind, who has the particularity of having signed an oil painting representing the criminal's room where he himself would have stayed...
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