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A silver pocket watch flashes from your coat pocket. Your finger deftly unlocks it.
The time, shortly after 2am. The waning morning is quiet. The cobbled streets of Whitechapel stretch ahead with the overbearing buildings illuminated only by candlelight. Nary a soul walks the streets. The only others? Drunkards and women of the night. You walk behind the latter right now. A woman beaten down by the oppressive attitude of a society determined to ignore what happens on the streets.
She leads you away from the main road and down an alley. She looks behind herself, flashing a smile in your direction.
"You've got a nice long hair, ain't ya?" she comments. "And what a mortifying beard!" You flash your pearly white teeth in the charismatic way you're known to do, a charming smile that would make any woman swoon. You both reach a dead end to the labyrinthian alleyway and, well, what ensues after is far too improper to recount. As you depart the scene of extremely erotic lovemaking, you look back at the woman and reply calmly, "That's about it. See ya."
You are Charlie White, somehow sent back in time to Victorian-era London, and this is The Red Thread. You weren't expecting that, were you?
That's what you get for not showing up to a recording, Charlie. You get put into the Jack the Ripper's role. Did you? Wait, hold on. Did Charlie murder the woman? No, no, no, no. I wouldn't go that far. I didn't want to go that far. He just had a quick 30 seconds. Yeah, he had, you know, he made love, let's say. He went back in time to make love with this woman. The idea of him in Victoria-era England. That's about it. See ya.
I should have got you to do the voice. I cannot voice act for the life. I can't, like, do voices. Well, I can't either, but Charlie's pretty easy. Because he normally talks at, like, a normal cadence like this. And then his voice kind of, like, it's like that. Just drops down. A little bit, yeah. But that's about it. See, it's easy. Because he does it in the same, like, he does it at the same time every bit. Have you seen the videos where they'll take, like, a hundred of his videos and play the outro all at the same time? Yeah.
Yeah. So it's like a bunch of people talking. It's always the exact same. That's about it. See ya. Yeah. Anyway, as the story might, as the beginning story might have alluded to, Charlie is not here this week. He's busy on a time traveling journey back to Victoria era London. Of course. He may as well be because he's not here. He's busy. I did think it was suspicious. So you were like, hey guys, good for an episode Tuesday. We're talking about Jack the Ripper. And he was like, uh, I'll be gone. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, very suspicious. Very suspicious man that Charlie is. Definitely makes me doubt how well perceived he is by the internet because he's clearly up to no good. He's out there having sex with hookers and potentially killing them. Yeah, let's just defame him while he's not here. Let's just beat up our friend. That's a great idea.
This is all jokes. By the way, Charlie, you can't sue me. It's parody or satire or some kind of defense. Now, that would be a crazy episode. You two are in a lawsuit and I'm here like, today we're going to look at the Charlie Jackson lawsuit. Yeah, it's just you. It'll just be you on the red thread from then and you just got to determine which of us is guilty. Yep, and both of you are in the call, but I access your microphones. So I'm like...
You're one minute up, Charlie. Let's hear from you. We're talking this week about Jack the Ripper. I don't think anyone in the audience has requested this one, but I felt like doing it because it's such a big kind of story, obviously. This dude, Jack the Ripper, is kind of like the grandfather of serial killers. I don't think serial killers existed before Jack the Ripper. There was no such thing as murder before him. He kind of invented it.
really a visionary if you think about it well ahead of his time yeah and everyone knows this everyone knows of jack the ripper but do you know what really happened do you actually know the chronological history of jack the ripper because that's what we're going to be diving in today as well as some of the more popular theories about who the identity of jack the ripper is believe it or not his name was not jack that was a nickname given to him by the police uh there is more kind of
theories about who he is, but I mean, it's been, what, 140 years since Jack the Ripper, so I don't think there's ever going to be a definitive answer as to it. All theories. Yeah, how aware of Jack... I mean, you've got to be deep into the trenches of Jack the Ripper lore. I feel like I'm pretty well-informed. I know all the stuff about the murders and the theories and whatnot. I think I remember all of the...
The suspects of who it might be. Jack the Ripper is interesting because, like you said, he was the first one
I mean, he wasn't the first person to kill multiple people, but he was the first one to kind of gain notoriety as like an elusive figure who committed murder, stuff like that. Yeah, it was kind of like he grew alongside the rapid industrialization of the Western world, basically. So because everyone was so condensed in a tight space and growing quickly together, then his notoriety is kind of tied to that. He was the first one to
But before that, you know, early 1800s, 1700s, if you killed a lot of people, you were just kind of, you know, a weird guy. Yeah. A bit strange. Yeah, an oddity for sure, but like not the boogeyman that Jack the Ripper was really. Yeah, yeah. He kind of, like you said, he's the first serial killer in the way we think of the term today. But yeah, I'm familiar with the case. It's an interesting one. I have some theories about...
I think he was that I'll talk about at the end. Yeah, that's where this is going, Jackson. I'm going to make this into... It's like, actually, the church. No, like, why he committed the murders. Like, what...
group stuff like that oh okay he's motives huh i know theories around his motives that's why he might have let's be definitive here you know his motives i know yeah because i myself know charlie white and he is like you know you get you get that guy going a little after midnight and he's talking about all these regrets and the bodies and what it's you know what the blood smelled like stuff like that he's a really troubled guy but i think i could piece together why i did it
Yeah, the audience should be prepared for about two and a half hours of defaming Charlie as much as we possibly can. Yeah, but he's not here. What's he going to do? Show up? Yeah. He's not even at this Discord call. Jackson, call me one-on-one. He can't get in here. He's like beating on the glass right now. But no, we're going to call him a serial killer.
That's what friends do. Just so a subreddit can later make a whole thread about how we hate each other. I'm waiting for that. Just so I can comment, yeah, I hate Charlie on it. I'll really feed into it. Absolutely.
Alright, so before we continue about Jack the Ripper, though, don't want to take too long on this preamble because it's already a pretty stacked episode in terms of what we've got in the document. But we do have show notes with sources. So if you want to learn more about Jack the Ripper, there's a link to the document below that goes over everything we talk about during the episode, along with sources and pictures and stuff like that. I didn't include... Because there are pictures. I think there are actual pictures of the crime scenes or some of the bodies, at least. I'm not sure how...
they did that in the 1880s. How old are cameras? I don't know how old cameras are. You could take photos back then. You had to do the whole flash pan thing, remember? Yeah, I didn't know if that was early 1900s or if it did extend into the 1800s. No, you could take pictures. There's pictures of the Civil War. Of battlefields and stuff. Yeah, you could get pictures of it.
I'm foggy on the chronological history of cameras. I think, if I had to guess, it was like, first cameras probably came around like 1830s, probably. It's like, you have to go inside the little booth, and it makes a giant flash, and then that basically imprints the image over the lens, like burns it into the photo, effectively. Actually, I absolutely should have known this. I should have known this, because you've got cameras in Red Dead Redemption 2, and that takes place in the early 1800s, so...
I mean, I'm an idiot. But yeah, show notes, show documents. In your defense, you are Australian. Yeah, cameras still don't exist. No, show notes down below. You can go find the link below and read along with the sources and stuff like that. There's also links to our show on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. And we really do appreciate comments.
comments and subscribing and rating us on those platforms. So if you could, that'd be great. But yeah, you can listen to the Red Thread however you want to, wherever you want to. And also this episode is kindly brought to you by the lovely MeUndies.
I personally would never be caught dead in Victorian era London without wearing my incredible pair of MeUndies, so I highly suggest you go check them out. More from them later on. But that's all the show notes from me for this episode, and we're going to get right into discussing Jack the Ripper. Also, I will say, just for the sake of history, the first camera was invented in 1816.
Yeah, you were right. You said around that. Well, I just wanted to prove that I was right. And the oldest existing photographs from 1826. So, I just want to sound cool. Now, Jack the Ripper. Wait, wait, wait, wait. How was the camera made in 1816, but then the first photograph was in... Extant. Extant. Like, we still have it. Oh, right.
Wow, so there's 10 years of photos that just vanished? Well, keep in mind, it was like a chemical process in 1816. You basically had chlorine and this piece of film that was burned onto. They probably deteriorated, yeah. Okay, so to start off, let's give a brief synopsis of Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper is one of history's most infamous serial killers whose gruesome murders in the Whitechapel district of London during the autumn of 1888 shocked the world.
He targeted female sex workers and he would perform horrific mutilations on the victims, as we're going to go into, suggesting an advanced level of anatomical knowledge and a deep-seated hatred for women. I think that much is obvious. You don't go around killing a bunch of women without deeply hating them. I don't know. Let's hear him out. No, I don't want to hear Jack the Ripper out. Did anyone ask why he might have done that?
I don't want to know why. Despite extensive investigations and widespread public fear, the identity of Jack the Ripper remains unknown. But that's not entirely true. I mean, we just talked about how it's Charlie. So, yeah, I mean, a bit of an error. We know now, but at the time I get it. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't even know who Charlie was back then.
Trouted in mystery and subject to endless speculation and theories that kind of capstones what the whole Jack the Ripper situation was. Just a lot of theorizing over the last century.
The case has captivated historians, criminologists, and the general public for over a century, making Jack the Ripper an icon of criminal law and a symbol of Victorian London's underbelly. They are for, and I am using they there because there is a theory going around that Jack the Ripper is actually Jill the Ripper and a woman. So I'm going to use they. They are for all intents and purposes, a time capsule of what serial killers were once like before the modern era that brought with it new investigative breakthroughs.
It's true that there's a bunch of serial killers operating in America at any given time in the modern era, right? They still do exist. Yeah, for sure. The issue is there's not... I think people... Okay.
So there are definitely people out there who have killed multiple people, hiding them and stuff like that, right? I don't see an abundance of people who want people to know that
that they're killing a bunch of people, right? You know what I mean? Like Jack the Ripper may not be a good example, but take, for example, like a Son of Sam thing or Richard Ramirez, right? The idea of like they kind of live off of the... Infamy. The infamy, yeah, the notoriety they're gaining. I don't see that as much. What I do see is those people who want notoriety and infamy, nowadays spree killing is much more popular.
I say popular like it's a trend. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean. It seems if someone wants to become infamous in the eyes of the law really quick, rather than doing a series of murders, they'll go on one rampage. Yeah, true. That seems to be way more common. And I think it's that same mindset put back decades prior that created a lot of serial killers. So we still have the same kind of evil. It just looks a bit different, I feel. Yeah, the aspect, the form has changed, basically. Yeah.
I think it's because, well, I mean, think about it this way, right? If what these people want, and there's exceptions, like, I don't think, there's obviously some level of personal, either, you know, sexual interest or need for violence or whatever. But in some cases, like Jeffrey Dahmer, I think he was just, like, evil, you know, and, like, he was trying to make zombie people and he would eat them and stuff like that. He wasn't necessarily looking for infamy, but a lot of these guys were. So... Yeah, it depends on motive.
Yeah, it depends on motive. And after Columbine, I mean, look at how much attention that garnered. So if you want to get really infamous really quickly, you do something like that.
Yeah, with the proliferation of media and stuff, the notoriety goal. If you had the notoriety goal, then obviously, you know, you had to up the spectacle to some degree if you wanted to capture headlines. I mean, honestly, nowadays, if there was a headline that was like, oh, this guy killed four people, we'd probably brush past it, you know? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I think that's what happened.
Serial killers probably do exist in America still somewhat prevalent in a prevalent capacity. But I also think obviously with the way technology now works and surveillance, it is getting a lot harder for them to keep killing over an extended amount of time without being caught.
And so I think we don't see those kind of long form serial killers to this day. And I think there's also an effort probably on the police part to not sensationalize them as well, maybe out of fear of, you know, encouraging. Which is a good idea. I think you even see that right now more so with spree killing. Yeah.
I think. Sure, the internet still does it, but compare, like I mentioned earlier, Columbine or something like that, how much the faces were thrown around and they were talked about and analyzed versus nowadays where it's kind of like, yeah, someone did this, let's talk about the victim.
you know yeah which is a good change which should especially because like you said these people want the notoriety that's that's the motive generally speaking for these kinds of spree killers so it went from everyone knowing like a dylan and eric to i can't remember like out of the last several tragedies i don't think i remember any of the names you know so which is a good change i think
Absolutely. But it also could be a concerning aspect where maybe people don't know the names or don't remember the names because it's happening so much more. That is also true. That is. I guess when you phrase it that way, yeah, maybe. Yeah. It's potentially an issue. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, obviously it is an issue, but like potentially that's the issue. It's potentially an issue that's happening. The only one, honestly, I remember is Steven Paddock, the Vegas guy. And I only know that because of all the conspiracies around it.
Oh, I don't know. I don't actually know the conspiracy around that. Oh, boy. No. Well, how deep does it go? Anyway, it goes pretty deep. Yeah, Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper. He wasn't around London in 1888 with an M4 rifle or anything shooting people.
He was stabbing people. Before we get into it, though, let's go over the time period and location. So, yeah, before we go over a chronological explanation of the murders, so we are going to go over a timeline. I believe it is important to explore the time period itself because it was so long ago. And, you know, I don't want to go in there with our modern understandings of crime and society, which can, like, kind of flavor the perception. So it's important. Time period is 1888. The late 19th century was during the reign of Queen Victoria...
which is obviously why it was called the Victorian era. This period was marked by rapid industrialization and urbanization. So everyone, with the advent of these factories and industrialization, everyone came together in these kind of city centers and industrial sectors of cities to live in squalid conditions, packed in sardines, to work 18 hours a day in their factory of work.
I'm using the term employment loosely. You've probably got the perception of what that was like. A lot of child labor. Early areas of industry. Like the kickoff of it. Just an awful existence, really. There were significant social issues, including poverty, unemployment, and social inequality. The gap between the wealthy and the poor was visible. You could just...
very clearly say even more than probably uh you can see it today policing was less effective by a massive amount compared to modern standards the metropolitan police i think they're also known more commonly as like scotland yard right or is that the building where they were located in i think scott i'm pretty sure scotland yard was the name of the uh investigators
Okay. Regardless, Metropolitan Police I'm using interchangeably with Scotland Yard. Okay, so Scotland Yard, you are right, is the name of the headquarters, but because that was where they were located, that was also the name given to all investigators. It's kind of a nickname. So yeah, it became a nickname colloquially. For the 32 boroughs of London. So yeah, this would count.
Yep. The Metropolitan Police established in 1829 was still developing its methods and strategies for crime prevention investigation. And of course, Sherlock Holmes was only just on the scene at this time and couldn't realistically be expected to stop every crime. So that's probably why Jack the Ripper got away with it for so long. Sherlock Holmes was still new to the investigation scene.
And we also have the location, which was Whitechapel, which was located in the east end of London. Did you know? I'm assuming you would know. Whitechapel still exists to this day. It's still there. You can visit Whitechapel right now if you're in London. It's a suburb in London.
Back then, it was known for being a densely populated, impoverished area. The district was home to many working class citizens, including immigrants and the poor living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. The area had high rates of crime, including petty theft, violence, and of course, prostitution. Many women turned to prostitution due to economic desperation, which of course, you still see that
To this day, the living conditions were notoriously harsh in Whitechapel, with many residents living in squalid lodgings referred to as DOS houses, or simply on the streets themselves. So DOS houses, from what I understand from reading about it, were basically just like buildings with as many people crammed into them as possible. Just like...
yeah pretty pretty bad lodgings not nice places yeah no not nice have you heard uh that like some nights for like hotels or whatever they would stretch a rope across a room and people would just lay over the rope to sleep yeah yeah or like uh what do you call them like hammocks and stuff like that yeah that's where the term hangover comes from actually oh really yeah because if you were super drunk you could pay like a nickel to hang over a rope for the night holy shit really yep
Interesting. Well, I learned something this episode. That's good. You can still go to like Whitechapel and stuff like that because it was just an area of London, you know, that got that I assume it got better. Yeah.
I would hope so. It's still the exact same. I'm sure we'll talk about, wasn't that the other name for Jack the Ripper? It was like the Whitechapel Ripper or the... Yeah, there were a bunch of nicknames that they gave him. They called them all kinds of stuff, yeah. Yeah, I'm sure Whitechapel Ripper probably was one of them. All right, so before we get into the timeline, we're going to now talk about the chronological killings. Just a quick word from the sponsor of this episode, MeUndies. You know me. I am...
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Isaiah, would you like to start with Mary Ann Nichols? I would love to, absolutely. Especially because we have the same last names, you know, could have been me, I guess. Oh, true. Yeah. All right, so. That's an awful realization. Yeah, yeah. I have that sometimes when I read about murder cases, it's something like, huh, I do that.
Well, you just kind of have to sit with it. People talk about serial killers and stuff like that a lot. It is tragic to think about really the concept of removing a soul from the earth, right? Like how wicked that is. Reading these stories, I get that it's interesting, obviously, in a morbid way. It definitely is interesting. But it's also like I just cannot stop myself from imagining these...
people that are removed from existence basically because of the selfish desires of another person. And imagining them as like, you know, friends and family and stuff like that. I just couldn't imagine it. It's just awful stuff, obviously. So Marianne Nichols is believed to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper. She was a mom to five children in a relationship that fell apart in 1880 due to her problems with alcohol. It was two years after the end of her marriage when she started as a sex worker to earn money.
On the night she was killed, which was August the 31st, she had been leaving the frying pan pub, which...
I forget in my head that 1880 isn't that long ago. So pubs then, I guess, were named the same thing they would now, right? Yeah. I mean, they're probably named that way now because of the historical kind of... That's true. Historical pubs that they derived from. They wouldn't change it. That just took me out for a second and I imagined like a TGI Fridays. Yeah.
She was killed. She was seen leaving the local TGIF. She must have been an outback. The frying pan pub, which was on brick street where it is assumed she spent most of the money she had, she had on her.
Mary had later gone to her Doss house, low cost lodge, also known as a flop house, where she was turned away as she didn't have enough money for the night, which was four pence or about 430 pounds in today's money converted for inflation. And to clarify, that's four pounds, 30 pounds.
They call it cents. What do they call the remainder? I don't know what they call the remainder. Pennies? 4.3 pounds. Whatever that is. Weird British people. $4.30, by God. I think it's like $6 American dollars if you want to put it in 3D units. It's like $6. Like six bucks, yeah. So that tells you how destitute this woman was. Oh, yeah.
From this, it's thought that she then went back onto the streets to earn some more money where she ultimately met her fate. I mean, Jesus Christ, what an awful existence. Such a tragic, tragic story. Having to go out and, you know, prostitute yourself just to afford, you know, a flop house for the night. Yeah. Just awful. And I understand some people like, you know, um...
enjoy working in sex work and stuff like that, but that's clearly not... It's a mother of five who can't afford anything, so she has to sell her body for money. That is tragic. That is so sad. Definitely a big difference between people who choose to do this for work, choose to do it for easy money, or the notion of easy money anyway, and people who literally have no other option or feel that they have no other option. Just extremely sad.
It is very sad. In the East End, a car driver discovered the body of a woman laying on the streets at around 3.40 a.m. She was in front of an entrance of a building later renamed Durward Street in Whitechapel. Mary was on her back, her legs laid out straight, and her skirt above her knees, and her eyes were wide open. The man who discovered her, Charles Allen Cross, was seen by another driver, Robert Paul, who came over to see what Charles was looking at.
Mary's face was still warm, but her hands were cold. They went and searched for a policeman who, when found, was told, quote, she looks to me to be either dead or drunk, but for my part, I believe she's dead.
I mean, not to diminish the good word of Charles Alan Cross or anything like that, but how would you possibly believe that she was drunk if she was laid out straight, eyes open, and she wasn't responding to any kind of prodding or talking to her or anything? I mean, like...
in the 1880s people weren't super well educated normally right so it's like you see someone on the ground like eyes glazed over laid back it's like maybe people can you know look that way when they're drunk who knows unless because it doesn't mention they saw blood or they didn't have any mention of anything like that so it's like maybe this girl just got like hammered now she's lying out in the street and even he did say like uh for my part i think she's dead yeah yeah yeah
If she's drunk like this, I've never seen it before. So, yeah. Yeah, true. Also, how many nights have you been out and you're just like, oh, a body? No, your first thought is like, that guy's had too much, right?
Yeah, true. I mean, yeah, but that's the modern. Okay. Yeah, true. I was gonna say it's the modern time, but I don't think it would be that different then either. Yeah, because I get I like there's been a couple times like walking around New Orleans where I've seen someone on the street and I'm like, is that a body?
Because I'm strange. And then it's like, oh no, that guy's just gone. It's just way too much. Or like a homeless person's sleeping. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that was probably extremely prevalent in Whitechapel at the time, 1880. Probably, especially considering how packed everyone was. Yeah, yeah.
A local doctor was called and inspected the body around 4 a.m. Upon closer inspection, he initially discovered that Mary had a deep slash to her throat and that she had probably died just around 30 minutes prior. Can we talk about the response time there really quickly? Because this is what impressed me in the 1888. So she was found at 340 a.m. And then 20 minutes later, a cop is on the scene with a local doctor.
Like, that's pretty incredible to me. Had to be near each other or generalizations in time, you know? Yeah, I mean, it could be just, like, bad reporting of the times. But even within 30 minutes, that's pretty good. For the time, like, yeah, I'm sure it would be pretty hard to beat that in modern times, sure. Yeah, it's pretty good. Give credit where it's due. They did, in fact, confirm that body was a body pretty quick, so...
Mary's body was quickly moved to a nearby mortuary where they were able to take a better look at her injuries. The slashes to her throat reached her vertebral column and were inflicted from left to right. Oh man, that's like, I didn't know it was that deep. Very deep. Which speaks to a level of deep hatred.
Yeah. Yeah. Like that's basically a decapitation. Yeah. Um, which also funny enough, it was how Nicole Simpson, uh, was found. So it's crazy that the random stranger who killed her, you know, hated her that much. Hmm.
Maybe OJ Simpson was a time traveler. Maybe OJ knows who did it. We should ask him. Well, we can't know. Yeah. I guess we'll never know. The slashes to her throat reached her column. She had bruises on her face, which could have been from being punched or the pressure of being held while the killer slit her throat. She had multiple deep wounds across her abdomen and her valves were beginning to protrude from her body. Killer had stabbed her vagina twice.
Yeah, I kind of agree with you. There is intense levels of hatred going on here beyond just wanting to kill someone, right? The stabbing of the vagina would also corroborate the theory that this is due to a deep hatred of women in general. Yeah. The doctor, Dr. Llewellyn, gave his testimony, which was reported in The Times on the 3rd of September. And the testimony reads as follows.
Five teeth were missing and there was a slight laceration of the tongue. There was, oh man, gosh, this poor woman. There was a bruise running along the lower part of the jaw on the right side of the face that might have been caused by a blow from a fist or pressure from a thumb.
There was a circular bruise on the left side of the face, which also might have inflicted by the pressure of the fingers. On the left side of the neck, about one inch below the jaw, there was an incision about four inches in length and ran from a point immediately below the ear. On the same side, but an inch below, and commencing about one inch in front of it, was a circular incision, which terminated at a point about three inches below the right jaw. That incision completely severed all the tissue down to the vertebrae.
The large vessels of the neck on both sides were severed. The incision was about eight inches in length. The cuts must have been caused by a long bladed knife, moderately sharp and used with great violence. No blood was found on the breast, either of the body or the clothes. There were no injuries about the body until just about the lower part of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. The wound was a very deep one and the tissues were cut through.
There were several incisions running across the abdomen. There were three or four similar cuts running downwards on the right side, all of which have been caused by a knife, which have been used violently and downwards. The injuries were from left to right and might have been done by a left-handed person. All the injuries had been caused by the same instrument. What's crazy about this is her body was discovered on the street. So he, Jack the Ripper,
Must have done all this on the street unless he took the body out there, carried the body out there to be displaced. Yeah, it had to be. I mean, maybe it was like in an alley or something and maybe he dragged it out. But otherwise, yeah, it would have to be just on the street, which it doesn't take a lot of time to do that. Right.
To do what part? The dragging the body out? The killing. Like, to slash a throat and then stab all over. He probably could have done it in, what, 30 seconds? I don't know. That seems like a long time to me to do it in a public setting. Correct, but it is 4 in the morning.
Yeah, but it's also in an area of Whitechapel. And lights back then were not what they were today. If it was night outside, it was really dark. There was just like candlelights every, you know, however many. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's possible. I think it just also speaks to a confidence that the, you know, Jack the Ripper may have had. Or maybe it was entirely impulsive and he just cannot control himself. Yeah.
Yeah, that's true. It could just be... It speaks to something. It doesn't mean he thought it out that well. Yeah. Yeah. So this next one is September 8th, Annie Chapman. Did you say the date for the previous one? It was August 31st, 1888, right? Yep. So August 31st was Mary Ann Nichols. And then September 8th, so about a week later, was Annie Chapman.
So just over a week later, the killer struck again. Annie Chapman was 47 years old and like Mary Ann Nichols, she had become a sex worker to make ends meet. She had been in a marriage, but it also had ended due to drinking problems. She had three children, the oldest dying of meningitis at an early age and her youngest disabled. When the marriage fell apart, her husband would give her 10 shillings, which is 53 pounds and 81 poundlings or whatever it's called.
a week so that much a week to help her but when he later passed away and he had no money coming in she would crochet and tried to sell wait how do you pronounce that crocheted crocheted flowers she handmade but it wasn't enough to live that is just that broke my heart reading well this is depressing i know it's so sad like i'm just imagining like you know my grandma crocheting or something and
It's just sad. She's trying to provide for a disabled kid by selling flowers she knits. And she's like, okay, well, I guess I'll go into prostitution. That's so sad. There's so much evil in the world, man. It's so sad. I'm sad.
Thanks, man. What a great idea. Where's Charlie? Let's make fun of that guy again. Ha ha. Ha, Charlie. Actually, that is a note that we often get on the show is like you're talking about serious things and you guys are laughing too much. But man, if we didn't, if we couldn't find ways to laugh. We have to. You want us to just sit here the whole time and be like, wow, that's
Like I get it. I get it. It does sound kind of insensitive sometimes, but also like I don't want to actually break down into tears during the episode. I would defend us a little bit and say that we never joke at the expense of the tragedy. We joke at the absurdity of
of either investigators ignoring clues or the obviousness of evidence or something like that. Or the perpetrators doing absolutely stupid things. Yeah, or the courts getting something wrong. We're never making jokes about this mother who was murdered and stuff like that. I think that sometimes it's good to highlight the absurdity in these situations. Yeah.
because I mean situations like that continue so pointing out the ridiculousness of it even to a hilarity I think I don't see anything wrong with if we were sitting here making jokes about the victims yeah like insulting Eddie Chapman yeah yeah or if like we were like well I guess you shouldn't have you know gone into prostitution or whatever something like that I would get it but no like I think the stuff we make fun of is fair game because otherwise like you said what you just want to be sad the whole time
Yeah, I mean, it's also my way, I don't know about you specifically, but it is my way of coping with just really depressing things. 100%.
Now that's me and Jackson. Charlie has told us in confidence that he loves making fun of victims. I believe his quote was, nothing makes me happier than laughing at someone who died. I don't agree with that, but you can take that up with him when he comes back. Where was I? Annie was found. Back to the sad stuff.
And he was found in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street. One of the 17 people who lived in the three-story house, John Davis, found her in the early morning. The brutality of the murder had increased. Her neck was slashed twice, so deep that it went to the spine. A large cut was found displayed across her abdominal section and her intestines had been removed and then put on her shoulder, which became a bit of like a calling card as well in the future murders.
But I think this was the first time that he had actively done this. So her intestines had been removed and then put on her shoulder. Other organs such as her uterus and part of her bladder had also been removed from her body, which is kind of why he got the nickname The Ripper, because he was ripping body parts out.
Annie had actually been seen just half an hour before the body was found. About 5.30am, a woman walking down the street saw Annie and a shabby man in front of 29 Hanbury Street. The man had apparently said to Annie, quote, will you? End quote. And she replied, quote, yes.
While we don't really know what the conversation was about, many theorize this was likely or could have been her killer, due to obviously proximity of time and him being the last seen person around her. Noises were also heard around 5.40am, 20 minutes before her body was found. A resident of the house next door, number 27, heard a thump and a woman whispering, quote, no, end quote.
But there were often sounds and disturbances throughout the street, so he didn't think much of it until Annie's body was found. So someone actually heard
heard her whispering no and i would imagine if she was whispering she was probably already you know under attack maybe so like he was stopping her from shouting somehow like a hand over her mouth or something like that also if you're like stabbed in the lungs you normally can't scream or let out a loud noise but you can whisper sometimes so maybe that was it you know okay yeah that could be it
The murders began to gain traction with the press reporting on it and chaos began to take hold around the heap area. People were scared. It was around this time that the name Leather Apron began to describe the killer. So he was known as Leather Apron at the start of this, which is not a really catchy nickname, but that's what he was known as.
Why leather apron? I'll get into it in a second. Many men in Whitechapel at the time worked in trades such as slaughtering or shoemaking in which they wore leather aprons. So that was common at the time. There was an early suspect in the murders, John Pisa, who had the nickname Leather Apron as he was a shoemaker.
When police spoke to local sex workers, they spoke of this man by his nickname and told officers that they were scared of him. He was known to be aggressive and would demand money off the sex workers and beat them up if they refused. This got its way to the news. Wait, he would demand money off the sex workers? He's got it the wrong way around. You're meant to give them money. That's how that works. He sounds like just an awful person who's like, I'm going to hook up with this person and then I can rob them.
Oh, true. So he was having sex with them, then stealing the money off them. Because what are they going to do? Fight back? Go to the police? Just an awful, awful person.
This got its way to the news, who began to spread news on the suspect, heightening the fear around the name. And then this is a quote. Leather Apron, the only... Oh, sorry, no, this is an article from the newspaper The Star, which was released on the 5th of September, 1888. And the headline reads, Leather Apron, the only name linked with the Whitechapel murders, a noiseless midnight terror. And then I'm going to read the article itself, or at least a highlight of the article, to kind of paint what the perception was in the media at the time. So this is a quote.
Leather Apron, by himself, is quite an unpleasant character. If, as many of the people suspect, he is the real author of the three murders, which, in everybody's judgment, were done by the same person, he is more ghoulish and devilish brute than can be found in all the pages of shocking fiction. He has ranged Whitechapel for a long time. He exercises over the unfortunates who ply their trade after twelve o'clock at night, a sway that is based on universal terror.
He is a character so much like the invention of a story writer that the accounts of him given by all the street walkers of the Whitechapel district seem like romances. The remarkable thing is, however, that they all agree in every particular. Ever since the last murder, the name Leather Apron has been falling repeatedly on the ears of the reporters. His expression is sinister and seems to be full of terror for the woman who described it.
His eyes are small and glittering. His lips are usually parted in a grin, which is not only not reassuring, but excessively repellent. He's a slipper maker by trade. This article is just like... His hair's whack, his shoes whack, his girl whack. He's got no style. He's a slipper maker by trade, but does not work. His business is blackmailing women late at night.
There was something he's like, this guy's unemployed. He sucks. He stinks. He got no money. He got no... In a second, it's going to be like, he only wears white t-shirts. Yeah.
His voice is very monotone. His voice is very monotone. A number of men in Whitechapel follow this interesting profession. He has never cut anybody so far as known, but always carries a leather knife, presumably as sharp as leather knives are want to be. What a weird sentence. He carries a knife sharp as knives can be.
Knives are known to be sharp. This knife, a number of the women have seen. His name, nobody knows, but all are united in the belief that he is a Jew or of Jewish parentage. His face being of a marked Hebrew type. What the heck? No, there was a very anti-Semitic undertone to Whitechapel at the time. Yeah, well, it was the 1880s. Yeah. So, obviously, the suspect was immediately Jewish.
But the most singular characteristic of the man and one which tends to identify him closely with last Friday night's work is the universal statement that in moving about, he never makes any noise. What he wears on his feet, the women do not know, but they all agree that he moves noiselessly. His uncanny peculiarity to them is that they never see him or know of his presence until he is close by them.
So, I mean, he was known to be like a panther that stalks late at night, basically. Like, very quiet man. I, okay. It's funny looking at these old letters and stuff like that. Because nowadays we have like, hey, we've got like a century of like, you know, the press. Like, when you're allowed to say something, when you're allowed to talk about suspects, you know, stuff like that. And it's funny to see before any of that.
You could just make an article that's like, hey, there's this guy who lives nearby and I think it was him. And my evidence is that people also think it's him and he's a Jew. I mean, yeah. The article basically amounts to, hey, this guy sucks. Everybody says so. He probably killed those people. Yeah.
Like, sure, if all the stuff about, like, he would rob sex workers is true. Yeah, awful guy. But that doesn't mean you're like, he did it. This man right here. Get him. Again, like, the sensationalization. I don't even know if that's a word. But, yeah, the building up of this guy in the article. Like, he's a person that stalked the night noiselessly and stuff like that.
The article writers were obviously having a lot of fun with this, I think. Yeah, yeah, of course. His knife is as sharp as knives want to be. It's very dramatic, which, of course, it is a dramatic event, but they're obviously building it up. John Pisa, so that guy that we were just describing, was arrested on the 10th of September when he was at his home on Mulberry Street. The police were quite certain that John was leather apron
which is Jack the Ripper. We're using Leather Apron at the moment because Jack the Ripper hasn't been invented yet. The name hasn't come around. Yeah, it hasn't been like focus tested into the perfection that is Jack the Ripper. So he's currently known as Leather Apron. And he seemed to match some of the criteria. But after extensive questioning and cross-checking alibis, John was released and deemed innocent. I'm not sure exactly what evidence they found that deemed him innocent, but he was released eventually. And yeah, they deemed him innocent.
So after Leather Apron is done away with, on September the 27th, we have the Dear Boss letter. So at the Central News Agency in London on the 27th of September, an inconspicuous letter was received. It was titled Dear Boss, and this would bring with it the first mention of the moniker that is still used today, Jack the Ripper. Dated for the 25th of that month, the letter reads...
Dear boss, I keep on hearing the police have caught me, but they won't fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track.
That joke about leather apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now? I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with, but it went thick like glue and I can't use it.
Red ink is fit enough, I hope. Ha ha. The next job I do, I shall clip the lady's ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly, wouldn't you? Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work. Then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp, I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good luck. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper. Don't mind me giving the trade name.
P.S. Wasn't good enough to post this before. I got all the red ink off my hands. Curse it. No, like yet. They say I'm a doctor now. Ha ha. I don't know what that means. The endings. Yeah. They say I'm a doctor now. Ha ha. I think what he's saying when they say I'm a doctor now is because people probably heard about the organs being removed and were like, oh, he must be a doctor. Yeah. So he's probably saying like, oh,
Oh, they think I'm a doctor. It's a strangely casual ending to the letter, though. I mean, it's all very casual. The PS. Yeah, yeah. That's so weird. It also reminds me of the Zodiac Killer, that kind of bravado. Yes. That's exactly what I was thinking. The same kind of cadence and attitude about the whole thing. The like, oh, isn't this fun, police? You and I are going to play a game. Like that attitude. It's all just a game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's very interesting. Wasn't good enough to post this...
Oh, he's saying that this letter's arriving late because he had to give it time for the ink to come off his hands. Because he didn't want to get spotted with red ink on his hands after the letter goes out. Okay, I see. Yeah, that makes sense. And since writing at the beginning, he had heard someone mention that Jack the Ripper must be a, or sorry, the leather apron must be a doctor. So that's why he says they say I'm a doctor now. I see.
He also says, I am down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Which is very, I mean, yeah, obviously hates women and sex workers. Yep, what a stand-up guy. The letter was passed on to the police two days later. They were skeptical if it was actually written by the killer. It was made public October 1st alongside the Saucy Jack postcard. Which is something we'll get into eventually. Yeah.
It's not funny. Saucy Jack definitely isn't funny. But while they were looking over and reading this letter, another two women were attacked by Jack the Ripper. Yeah, so just real quick. So this letter was held onto by the police and
and then released after the next two murders. Yeah, because they probably were... I'm sure they had a bunch of people being like, ha-ha, I am the Leather Apron, stuff like that, because that stuff's been going on forever. Yeah, and there were many documented ones in this case as well, like people writing in that were very evidently not who they claimed to be. Right, so they want to keep it, you know, a level of, you know, kind of secrecy.
until there's confirmation so it makes sense why they didn't release it right away there's also no information in it that would help anything right no no not at all i mean you could say you could say you could even if you want to argue well in the ps he says that he's not a doctor it's like yeah but he could just be saying that he could yeah there's no what what's why is the assumption that he's going to be honest and true exactly that's like saying because he names himself jack the ripper his first name must be jack no yeah that's
Obviously, this serial killer that disembowels people is a very honest man. Yeah, of course. He seems like a stand-up guy. We should trust him. Next up, we have the September 30th killing of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, also called the Double Event. So Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were murdered in the early hours of the 30th in London City.
Elizabeth was found first around 1 a.m. in the morning at a place called Dutfield Yard. She was discovered by a steward from a surrounding club whose pony he was riding abruptly drew back, alerting the rider to something on the road. Elizabeth's throat had been slit. She was lying on her side, but her clothes were not touched, and there were no other significant wounds found on her body, leading many to believe that the killer was interrupted by the steward.
That would make sense because, you know, assuming it is the Ripper who killed her, he didn't have time to do the stuff he did with the second victim or even the first.
Yeah, yeah. It makes sense to me. It sounds like because these women aren't making any noise or screaming besides the whispered no, he's probably just killing them outright at first and then mutilating the bodies, if I had to guess. That's what my assumption would be as well. But I mean, if the second woman, Annie Chapman, if her story is true...
Or the theory around her story is true. She was found talking to that individual before. If that is the individual that would become Jack or was Jack the Ripper. Yes. The one talking to her outside the house and then they went inside the house or whatever. Yeah. I mean, he didn't outright kill her. Oh, no. I mean, I think that the mutilation is happening after the death.
Oh yeah, I agree. It's not like he's cutting them open while they're still alive and stuff because none of the women are screaming, making noise, stuff like that. It sounds like he's slitting their throats and then doing it. I do think he's a very calculating and efficient killer as well. I think he would know exactly how to target and kill as quickly as possible so that he would have more time. He has some level of aptitude, yeah. I think so.
And I think he's very opportunistic as well. I think he definitely knows when to strike or when best to strike. Yeah, I agree. Police officers were called to the hectic scene. People were standing around trying to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth, but little did they know that the killer was still on the streets lurking, looking for another victim.
Forty-five minutes after Elizabeth was found, another officer, Constable Watkins, walked down Mitre Square where he noticed something strange on the ground. What he found was the horrifically mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes. Catherine had been disemboweled, her intestines drawn out and placed over her right shoulder. The killer had mutilated her face, cutting all across, over her eyes, her nose, and cheeks and mouth.
There was a massive slice across her neck. Her larynx severed just below her vocal cord to the bone. Clotted blood was across the pavement and around her neck and arm. Notably, her right outer ear and lobe was cut off. Something that was mentioned in the previous Dear Boss letter that Jack the Ripper sent to Central News that was still, at this point, unreleased. Which proves the validity of the first letter.
Yeah, so that was definitively proven to be from the Jack the Ripper, which is why that nickname was obviously continued. That's why it stuck, because he referred to himself as Jack the Ripper in his first letter, yeah. Just before 3am that night, a fragment from Edo's apron that she was wearing was found covered in blood and fecal matter at the base of a stairway at a tenement on Goulston Street at Whitechapel. It was found by... I don't know if that means that he shit on it, or if, like, he just...
Dirtied it in the streets maybe or something? No, what probably happened is when you remove someone... Okay, this is very graphic. When you remove someone's intestines, you have to cut it out at where the rectum is, basically. Right? Yeah.
So as you're pulling that out, it's going to spill, basically. Yeah. I didn't consider that. That's such a lovely image. Yeah. I thought he was just... My assumption from reading that was like he was insulting the memory of her, so he just shit on her scarf. It's not impossible. You know, it would depend on how. But if I had to guess, it's probably from the disemboweling. Yeah. That would make more sense. Definitely.
Just before 3 a.m. that night, a fragment from Ed O's apron. It was found by Officer Alfred Long, who had passed the area just 25 minutes earlier. He was adamant that it was not there when he passed by earlier.
When Officer Long stood up, he noticed chalk on the wall above the apron. A clue. It read, quote, The Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing. I've read that about three times and I still can't make sense of it. Like what that means. The Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing. I can't stand double negatives. I think he's saying he's...
to not blame the Jews? Okay, so if we assume the double negative is meant to be there, he's saying that the Jews are not to be blamed for something they didn't do, right?
Or if he's saying they will not be blamed. I think it's the opposite. The Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing. From my assumption right now reading that, he's saying if they're being blamed, it's not for nothing. They're being blamed for a reason. It could also be he's saying that regardless of what he does, because Jack the Ripper was mentioned as being Jewish in the paper,
He could be saying that the Jews are going to be blamed for it regardless, maybe. What a weird statement, regardless. Well, I mean, clearly he's wanting to play with the police in his public image, right? So, I mean, like, he probably read the paper and he either is Jewish or isn't, but he wanted to, you know, express that with the chalk on the wall.
All part of his game. He's not going to give anything that's actually a clue per se. He just wants to play. It's a red herring probably. Yeah.
The area the message was left had a large Jewish community and the police were very concerned with the rise of anti-Semitism that had been going around in the city due to the murders. Yeah, and maybe the fact that the paper said, well, we don't know a lot about him, but he is Jewish, so be on the lookout. Like, maybe that had something to do with the anti-Semitism. Yeah, that could have played a part in it. I mean, it was already an anti... Sure, yeah, yeah. It was still... I mean, it was the 1880s. Everyone was prejudiced against someone. But yeah, that didn't help.
There were conflicting opinions between the city police and the Metropolitan Police on whether the graffiti should be erased. The Metropolitan wanted it gone, fearing the consequences and unrest it would cause. City police were not as they deemed it a crucial piece of evidence, at least wanting it photographed. I think that's a good compromise, right? Like, take a picture of it, and then... Yeah, I'm assuming, though, that it was unable to be photographed because...
due to the time of setting up a camera at that time period. Maybe they didn't have access to that camera easily. And also, you need a lot of lighting for that kind of thing. Well, I guess that's what the flash pans for. Anyway, but this would mean it would have to stay up until sunlight, meaning people would see it. Eventually, Sir Charles Warren, a police commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, arrived and demanded that it needed to be taken down immediately, which was contested as a controversial decision.
I don't know. See, normally I'd be like, no, don't touch any evidence. But I honestly don't know what they could get from that. Maybe the writing, you know, like the handwriting, like write it down. I don't know. I think all evidence should be photographed at least. Yeah, I think it should all be photographed for sure. But in 1880, what do you think they could have gotten out of that?
I also agree. I also default with you that evidence should be cataloged. I don't know what they could get from it. But you're also in the middle of a Jewish community where it seems there's like a bunch of violence against them already. It's an incitement to some degree. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know. I would still err on the side of keeping the evidence and photographing it. And maybe, I'm not sure of the architecture of the area or anything or how possible this would be, but just cordoning it off until you could remove it safely while still retaining the evidence. Just keeping people away from the area, maybe. I don't know. But they took the option of removing it.
Interestingly enough, there's a theory surrounding the message that links the wording of Jews, which he spelled as J-U-W-E-S, to Freemasonry. Now we're getting into the good stuff. Some interpretations suggest that Jews, as it's spelled, could refer to the three figures in Masonic legend who end up killing Hiram Abeth, the architect of Solomon's Temple. The three Jews being Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum.
The theory suggests that the Ripper had some connection to Freemasonry or was using Masonic symbolism, but others simply believe this to be a message intended to incite racial or religious tension in the area. Yeah, so what do you think? So there's two different ways to look at it. We'll talk about it more as we get near the end. The Freemasonry connection is fascinating.
However, Freemasonry, especially in England in the 1880s, was way more predominant than it is now. Like right now, it's reserved. I mean, really,
Any secret government control thing is relegated elsewhere. It's not like what it used to be. But at one point, it was the community for thinkers. That's why the founders of most nations, including America, were Freemasons. It was a high society club that it has the reputation for now. So if Jack the Ripper was a...
pretty like smart person who like had some understanding of biology of how to get away with murder stuff like that exactly like a doctor there is a solid chance he was freemason or freemason adjacent so naturally he maybe would spell jews the way that freemasonry does in their legends of like solomon's temple and stuff like that the question is does that relate to the murders
Like, I think there is a clue there for investigators on tracking down who this person could be. Even if he wasn't Freemason, the higher ups in society might have writings that reference Jews with that spelling. So it could or could not be a clue to who the perpetrator is. But the question we have to ask is, does that mean part of his motivation was through Freemasonry or not? Hmm.
Let's briefly go back up to the Dear Boss letter, just to kind of provide supplementary evidence to what you're talking about right now with how he is possibly, you know, at least an educated person of high standing, let's say, like a doctor or something adjacent to that.
I found the Dear Boss letter written extremely well, surprisingly well for what I would assume... For the time. Yeah, it is the time. The handwriting is very legible and very nice. Almost aristocratic. He's clearly educated. Yeah. And not like super offensive spelling or anything like that. Like very...
And plus, this was the 1880s. Literacy wasn't that common, much less good handwriting and grammar, right? So there is some level of education here. Yeah, pointing to an educated person. Yeah. And again, not just that, the handwriting itself. I think it's very neat and orderly and...
It reminds me of the kind of writing that you would see from an aristocrat. So I definitely think it's someone of... Well, personally, I definitely think it's someone of a higher standing in society. Mm-hmm.
which is interesting. I agree. It could be someone that obviously had Freemasonry connection. So it's not even insane. I mean, like put it this way. I think it is impossible that Jack the Ripper didn't at least know of the Freemasons, right? Yeah. And if he was highly educated, there's a good chance he was one of them. Again, the question is, does that relate to the killings or is that just like a clue as to his identity, right?
Or it's entirely possible that it just, it's not even like he is a Freemason or he is Freemason adjacent or he doesn't know of the Freemasons. But this, this connection that we're talking about right now with, with spelling the Jews, J U W E S is completely unrelated. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, honestly, he could have just been reading a book or something where someone said the word Jews and that person was a Freemason and spelled it that way. Yeah, true. So, October 1st, the Saucy Jack postcard arrived, or Saucy Jackie, that this postcard arrived. Another letter was received by the Central News, dated for the 1st and received the same day. A postcard arrived smeared with what appeared to be blood and red pen. It read, quote, I was not codding...
Dear old boss. I think kidding. I was not cutting. It's about cutting C O D D. Coding is a old word. Hold on. Play a joke or play a joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it is kind of, it's probably where kidding is derived. Yeah, yeah, probably. I was not codding dear old boss when I gave you the tip. You'll hear about saucy Jackie's work tomorrow. Double event this time. Number one squealed a bit. Couldn't finish straight off. Had not the time to get ears for police. Thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again. Jack the Ripper.
Man, that is haunting. Yeah. So the reason why the first one, it was too dangerous for him to stay around. He determined that it was too much of a public scene and she had made too much noise. Yeah. I mean, he outright says it there, right? Like, sorry, I couldn't get the first one. She was too loud.
Yeah. So I had to go find another victim. And yeah, so that's why he went and killed the second individual is because he really wanted that ear as proof that he, you know, he's the real deal. So yes, that confirms without a doubt that both of these letters are him because, you know, they've no one else would know that.
I don't think that would have been possible though. Yeah, I disagree.
given how hard that would have been to pull off in a quick kind of time I see no way unless a cop saw the letter and wanted to go do his own killing which would be an absurd coincidence I see no way that he gets in one letter that's like I'm going to get an ear from the next one and then before that letter ever hits the public he's like oh sorry I had to kill a second one to get that ear here you go yeah I agree
Alright, so after that, on October 16th, so two weeks after, we have the From Hell delivery. So, around two weeks later, the apparent Jack the Ripper sent a delivery to the chairman of Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, George Lusk. Accompanying the letter was half of a preserved human kidney. Oh, George was a leader in civilian efforts in catching the killer. It was dated from the 15th, arriving to Georgia Day later. It read, quote,
From hell, Mr. Lusk, Soar, I send you half the kidney I took from one woman, preserved it for you to their... That seems much more...
like jumbled writing legible and incorrect writing yeah i took from one woman preserved it for you to gather peace i fried and ate it was very nice i may send you the bloody knife that took it out if you only wait a while longer signed catch me when you can mr lusk
I mean, immediately, the handwriting is very different to what we've previously seen. Spelling's way off. Even just the kind of tone, I think, is different. I fried and ate the liver, or the kidney, I mean. Yeah, this seems... I don't know if I would call it a hoax. He says it's from hell in the beginning, you know? Yeah, I don't personally subscribe to the theory that this one is actually Jack the Ripper.
George Lusk initially thought it was simply a sick joke, assuming the kidney may have been from some sort of animal. However, in showing other people on the vigilance committee, they disagreed with his assessment. The kidney was taken to a local surgery where an assistant doctor, Dr. Reed, thought the kidney to be human.
There were many hoax letters going around that, quote, came from Jack the Ripper. But many think the From Hell letter to be authentic, especially considering the contents it came with. One of the victims, Catherine Edo's kidneys, was removed by the killer.
Some also thought that the kidney was acquired by medical students and they sent the letter as a prank. Upon examination, Dr. Openshaw thought the person whom the kidney came from was a woman who suffered from Bright's disease and was an alcoholic who died within the last few weeks. But this also has been disputed with lots of conflicting media and news reports.
I, again, the spelling seems weird. Maybe if he was in a rush to read, to write it, but I don't think so. Him saying that he fried and ate the kidney seems weird.
The only way I would accept this as being Jack the Ripper is if I had known that Jack the Ripper either had a heckling height kind of attitude shift or he fell down some stairs and hit his head. It's so different to what had previously come. It's strange. It's definitely strange. Not to say he isn't capable of that evil, but it just doesn't match him that much. And also the fact that...
I'm not going to say maybe it is an animal kidney. I have heard stories about that where back then they were like, oh, this is definitely from a person. That turns out it's like a monkey kidney or whatever. But a doctor examined it and says it seems to be from a woman who died of Bryce's disease, wasn't murdered. It is pretty telling that back then they didn't think it was from like a murder victim.
Yeah, true. Dr. Openshaw actually received a letter himself on the 29th of October, but many believe it to be a hoax. It read,
Old boss, you was right. It was the left kidney. I was going to hopper rate again. Okay. Yeah, this isn't him. I was going to hopper rate again. Close to you. Hospital. Just as I was going to draw my knife along of her blooming throat. Then cusses across her blooming throat. This is how most people like spoke or sounded at the time.
Her blooming throat, them cusses of copper, spoiled the game. But I guess I'll be on the job soon and we'll send you another bit of innards. Jack the Ripper. Yeah, so you see the kind of class difference from the original letters? That's what I mean. This sounds like a person on the streets kind of thing.
sending in a letter. Again, there were a ton of hoax letters. This sounds like someone's like, oh, this guy's publicly the medical investigator or this guy's publicly trying to stop him. I'm going to send him the funny letter and I got half a kidney. I said I ate. Yeah. Yeah. And then he finishes letter by saying, oh, have you seen the devil with his microscope and scalp? You'll look in at a kidney with the slide cocked up. Yeah. No.
No, I don't. I don't believe that there's any actual correspondence from Jack the Ripper apart from those two first letters. This is a 19th century troll. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So then we come to November 9th. Mary Jane Kelly. You can take this one. It's the last victim. All right. So on November the 9th, we have the killing of Mary Jane Kelly. Many believe that Mary Jane Kelly was Jack the Ripper's last victim.
Mary married at 16 and became a widow just a few years later when her husband died in a mining explosion. Shortly after this, she became a sex worker. Man, these are sad. She would spend time with well-off gentlemen and even accompany some to Paris. She adopted the name Marie Jeannette. For a short period of time, Mary's life began to stabilize. She met a man named Joseph Barnett and formed a relationship with him in 1887.
They built their way up to live in a nice small room on Dorset Street. However, Joseph lost his job and to get by, Mary went back to working as a sex worker to Joseph's disapproval. That is so sad. This time period sounds awful. This time period sounds like the worst time in human history. Just from these stories, these small little stories that have come out from this.
They were never able to resolve this and ended up going their separate ways after a few heated arguments. They did manage to remain on good terms after this, however, and Joseph helped Mary with a little bit of money when he was able to. He last saw her the night before she was murdered. There are two confirmed sightings of Mary the night of her death, and two unconfirmed. The disputed sightings of Mary drinking with another woman at a pub called Tin Bells. The other sees Mary leaving a place called Britannia very drunk with an unknown man.
But at 1145, Mary was definitely seen by someone she knew, a woman called Mary Ann Cox, looking incredibly drunk, going into her room with a man who is described to be blotchy-faced and carrying a beer. She could be heard in her room singing for a long time, long enough that other residents contemplated going in and complaining. At 2 a.m., another man who knew Mary, George Hutchinson, saw her on Commercial Street.
Mary politely asked George if he had any money to spare, but he didn't. She simply then said goodbye and left when he saw her being approached by a very well-dressed man. They shared a laugh and began to walk together. George followed the pair and watched as they went up to Mary's room. George stayed outside waiting, but after around 45 minutes, he ended up leaving. What the fuck? What are you doing, George? Why are you stalking, basically? Why was he hanging around outside for 45 minutes?
That's strange behavior. Okay, there's two options. Either George... I don't know George's character, so forgive me for the slander. Either George knew...
that mary was a sex worker and then upon seeing a well-dressed man is like oh is this like a politician perhaps or a banker or something the blackmail angle who's yeah yeah maybe he's going to sex workers so i'm going to check out that or something about him tipped off george and he was like he may not have good intentions uh yeah so he goes or third option he was a perv
who was like, oh, I can... Yeah, I'm gonna be a peeping Tom. Yeah. Also, again, very well-dressed man was last seen with her, which kind of corroborates the theory that this was a wealthy or very educated man. Educated man, yeah. I mean, I think he has to be to some degree, right? For the killing and the stuff, yeah. Yeah. Uh...
45 minutes he ended up leaving shortly after this around 4 a.m two residents of the house where mary resided are alleged to have heard someone shout murder but they ignored it as it was common to hear such things in the area apparently yeah as as you do as you do oh yeah the old murder call of 4 a.m classic white chapel yeah happens every morning just like the rooster's crow
hold on so at the last person who sees her before George is Mary and Cox who sees her around midnight and then she goes up to her room and then two hours later she's seen at 2 a.m. right yep
And then he follows her back and then ditches after 45 minutes. And around 4 a.m., someone hears someone yell murder. Yep. So there's a solid like two hours there with this guy. Potentially. He was with the guy for two hours. George didn't hear anything in the 45 minutes he was here. So realistically, there's about an hour gap. Right? Yes. I would imagine the person yelling murder wouldn't be her. Right? Probably. Who else would it be?
I mean, maybe there was some like homeless person walking by who saw the body or something, right? No. We'll continue. The body discovery. Yeah, I'll continue. Mary had rent overdue and on the morning of the 9th of November, her landlord, John McCarthy, asked his assistant to go to her room to collect. It was just before midday and Thomas Bauer knocked on the door to no response. Cautiously, he went around to look through the window but saw the glass was broken.
He peeped into the room and saw Mary laying on her bed, gutted and slashed apart. Mary's murder was tragically gruesome. Her left arm was partially removed, her breasts and features on her face entirely cut off. Organs were cut out of her and strewn across the room, but her heart was missing. Her neck was severed to the spine and the bed she lay in was soaked in blood. She was 25 when she was murdered.
This was the last murder thought to be performed by the Ripper. You're seeing the kind of... What would you call it? Increase in severity of the injuries over time. Organs across the entire room. Heart missing. Yeah. He's obviously getting more confident. And if what you said is true and there's an hour's worth of time also unjustified for or unaccounted for, I mean...
It seems like he used all this time to really live out his fantasies. Dress up the scene, yeah. Yeah, and since she was found in a room, I was thinking she'd be found on the street, which is maybe why someone yelled murder, but being found in a room... He had privacy this time, a lot of privacy. Yeah, the options are either she yelled murder or the people were lying.
Yeah, or they could have heard some... They could have genuinely heard murder and they were right. It's like people shout that a lot for some reason at the time. I don't know. Especially when there's a serial killer on the street, right? Who knows? Two kids could be walking down the street like, oh, murder, whatever. Or it's the thing that happens all the time and the police are like, did you hear anything? And they're like, yeah, someone yelled murder outside. So who knows?
But yeah, it seems that the killing is very elaborate at this point. It's honestly like Hannibal Lecter levels of making an exhibit out of it, almost. Yeah, just super fucked up. It was already fucked up, but it progressively got more and more fucked up over the course of the murders. But that is the final murder. The final murder that at least has been definitively attributed to Jack the Ripper.
And so now let's go into the suspects and theories. First off, why did he stop?
So I think that's important to kind of discuss because there was a month there, or about a month, where he spree killed, basically. He killed five individuals in short succession, two on the same night, but then it just vanished. He just kind of stopped. There was no correspondence from him. There was nothing that could be directly attributed in the area to him. So why did that happen? Why did he stop? So one of the main theories, or...
One of the most prevalent theories about that is that he died. So according to Statista, the life expectancy in the United Kingdom in 1880 was just 43 years old. So it's not crazy to think that the murderer just simply died. Diseases were rampant with people dying from smallpox, measles, whooping cough, diarrhea, and many more such diseases at the time. A man traveling the early mornings of the time likely didn't have the best life expectancy in the first place.
especially at the time period and the location. So, you know, it's possible that he just straight up died and that's why it stopped. Also, he was seeing sex workers, so maybe he got an STD and died from that. Yeah, I think this is the most likely scenario because...
Like, there's other explanations, sure. But someone like Jack the Ripper from everything we know about serial killers in the modern age, they're not going to stop. Yeah. He was very obviously impulse-driven. I don't see any single way that impulse would have stopped. The majority of the time, if they make their first kill, it's like an addict, right? They're going to keep going back. Yeah.
Yeah. And that's why we see the kind of increase in severity from the murder mode. He keeps getting more into it as time goes on, not the other way around. Yeah. He's seeking that high over and over again and trying to push it further.
But regardless, another theory potentially is he went to prison for another crime. So Jack the Ripper may have been caught for another crime committed, or it's even speculated that he may have been sent to a mental institute for mental health reasons. He could have lived the rest of his life locked away, never telling of his secrets and what he had done in the past to anyone. But I don't think that's likely because could someone as boisterous and confident and proud of his deeds as Jack
you know, the Ripper truly have gone without telling a soul of his exploits eventually. Like, I don't think so. I think there would have been more letters. Especially when he's caught. I feel like he would have bragged about his, like, prison cell inmates or...
Or, you know, mental institute people. I don't know. Okay, so I'll make a slight, like, kind of devil's advocate for that. What if he is, like, a high-ranking member of society or something, right? What if he loves his, like, pride and presentation of that?
And even if he is happy with like this alter ego he's created of Jack the Ripper and loves it, what if he doesn't want his public image to be defamed?
like he wants to have both sides of it right like imagine if he was like channeling charlie right now i'm channeling charlie it's like how bruce wayne and batman are different he doesn't there you go that's it make it a batman you got it you know you know it would be a more apt pop culture reference the difference between uh chancellor palpatine
And Darth Sidious. Yeah, the Rule of Two. That's what he always brings up, right? Yeah, that's what he always brings up, the Rule of Two. But more specifically, how Palpatine was a public figure within the Republic, but also had the Darth Sidious. Yeah, he was doing...
Doing gross things on the side. Yeah, so that's how we're going to make this into a Star Wars episode. How long does it take two white guys to bring up Star Wars? An hour and 20 minutes. That's a long time. Hey, that's a long time. That's pretty good for us. Well, when there's three of us, it's multiplied. That's why it happens quicker. The efficiency. Yeah, yeah. So anyway...
the i think it is possible he could get caught or something or live out his life and not mention it uh so him never bringing it up i think could be explained however the fact there were no more murders i think can't be explained i think he would have kept killing yeah
I mean, look at, for example, like a Ted Bundy figure, right? Like, I think that guy was content to kill until he died of old age, right? But after he gets caught and his reputation is defamed, then he goes out with it. If he was caught for something else, if this Jack the Ripper was caught for something else, I think he would have died with it. So do you think that's a likely reason?
That he was imprisoned? I think it's possible. I think the dying is more accurate because I think if you put Jack the Ripper in prison for five years, he's going to get out and he's going to kill again. So he'd either have to go to prison for something that's basically a life sentence or he died. I think dying is more likely. Yeah, personally, I subscribe to the dying theory more so. Yeah.
And then another one is too many police patrolling the area so the murders had caused a frenzy and the public was scared, especially the night of the double murder. The police strongly believed that the killer might do something like that again. Around 500 police and informants were sent to the streets questioning suspicious people, keeping an eye out for any unusual activity. Everyone in the public was suspicious of everyone and the killer may have deemed it too risky to continue on his rampage, forcing him to stop or to relocate to a different area entirely. He may have
have also nearly been caught, which if true could have scared him into stopping. I don't agree with that. I don't think that would have stopped him from killing at all. I think it may have made him pause. Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. It may have made him wait, but again, the impulse would have been too strong. And I think we would have seen him again. What's a really scary possibility. And I've thought this before about Jack, the Ripper is what if he just stopped like letting them find the bodies, right? Ooh,
But I feel like he liked them finding the boy. I think that was part of it. I think he did too. But I think if he was smart, like, you know, if we're saying he's like an educated guy, the number of police increasing in the area may have made him go, I should stop flaunting it as much. But I still need to get this urge out of me.
So maybe, I mean, like, honestly, police at the time, even police nowadays to some degree, you know, if a sex worker goes missing, you know, things happen. They just don't report it. And if there's not an elaborate body to be found, a lot of times they won't look into it. Yeah, I mean, I assume that was even more prevalent back then. I could only imagine before, like, modern record keeping. Absolutely. Yeah.
God damn it. It's sad. Okay. You're welcome. Hold on. Hold on. Let me make it better. If we look at Jack the Ripper and his two sides, it's kind of like the rule of two. Yes, thank you. I'm happy again. Star Wars. I'm clapping for Star Wars. Yay. That's about it. See ya.
Alright, let's get into the suspect now. We're forgetting that Charlie actually killed all these women. Yeah, I mean, we're humoring. We're humoring the process. It's all going to come back to Charlie. We all know that Charlie actually... We're building up for a compelling case against Charlie. That's what this all is. We're pinning these six murders on him. Six murders from 140 years ago on our friend Charlie. Yeah, you want to take the suspects? Yeah, so...
The suspects. Number one, Montague Jean Druitt. I think it's Montague. I think I'd pronounce it Montague. Oh, Montague? I'm not sure, but that's how I would pronounce it. That makes sense. I know the name Professor Montague. I don't know where from, but the name's familiar. Montague was a favorite suspect at the time of the murders. He was an assistant schoolmaster at a boarding school in southeast London when he was dismissed from the position. The reason why is still unknown.
It was a month later, on December 31st, that someone found his body in the River Thames. Oh, a few days into the new year, testimony revealed that a letter had been found in his home. It described that Montague had lately been feeling like he was going to be like his mother. His mother had severe mental illness and being declared as insane.
and that the best thing for him to do was die. That's sad. That's sad, like realizing that you're succumbing to the same fate as your mentally ill mother. It is sad, especially like mental illness before modern medicine and understanding because it was either like God was cursing you, which is an insane take, or like, oh, sorry. Sorry.
I guess that's just you now, right? And you're not at all equipped to handle it. So it's either an asylum or you die. Your choice. The timing of his death lined up with when the killing suddenly ceased. The police, specifically Sir Melville McNaughton, Assistant Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police, heavily theorized that Montague was involved with the murders. This has led many to believe that he could well have been Jack the Ripper.
But a lot of the connections are more circumstantial than direct evidence. And so Melville McNaughton's memorandum... Man, that's a while. Melville McNaughton's memorandum. I'm so happy you read this one. I would have fucked that up so bad. Where he lists Montague... And Melville's McNaughton's memorandum of Montague...
It sounds like a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style novel or something. He list-montered you at the monastery on Monday. Yeah.
I love alliteration. He gets a few key pieces of information wrong. He lists Montague as being 41 when he was actually 10 years younger. Melville speaks of Montague's brain giving away altogether after what happened to Mary Jane Kelly on the 9th of November. But actually, he was still working as a barrister and teacher until the end of November, where his dismissal is most likely what sent him on a spiral to take his own life.
Montague's family has been said to have believed him of being the killer or very suspicious of him, but this is all hearsay and he didn't have any direct links to the area where the killings happened in Whitechapel.
I don't know, though. Like, yeah, there's not much evidence towards him being the killer. But if he was a barrister and a teacher, he's probably pretty well off and also pretty educated. I mean, that qualifies him, but I don't think it was because what's happening here is confirmation bias. You have a timeline of when the killing stopped.
So the police start looking for people who died around that time. And it's like, oh, here's an educated man who took his own life and was maybe mentally ill. But that doesn't set someone writing like I should take my own life. So I don't end up like my mom is not the same guy who sent a letter laughing to the police about cutting off a woman's ear. Are you sure? Like maybe maybe if he was going insane, he would have killed people. I'm saying it seems unlikely.
Yeah, I'm not saying that he's the killer either. It's just I could see the argument for it. I don't know. Like the implication that he was relieved from school. Maybe they suspected him of something. I feel like that would have been made more public. You may have known the connection in the area. Again, I just think this is like the police grasping at straws after the killings quit.
Okay. All right, so this next one is Aaron Kaminsky. Aaron Kaminsky was a Polish Jew who is thought to have been originally born in Russia in 1865 and then immigrated to Germany with his sisters at 15 years old. He then made his way to Whitechapel, London, working occasionally as a barber. In 1890, he was admitted multiple times to Miles End Old Town Workhouse with claims that he had been...
I don't know what that is by the way it might be a prison or like a like where they send you to do the hard labor maybe it's probably a labor facility old town workhouse I don't know yeah
Anyway, he had been sent there with claims that he had been showing threatening behavior and using a knife towards women. He was then transferred between multiple mental asylums, and it's reported he would hear voices and would be scared to eat or drink anything from other people, and he also refused to bathe. He ended up passing away from gangrene in 1919.
Aaron was also named in... Oh God, I'm going to have to say it now. Aaron was also named in Sir Melville McNaughton's memorandum, but there have been some interesting developments regarding him in recent years. In 2014, a study was conducted that claimed DNA evidence linked Aaron to Catherine Eddowes, which was Jack the Ripper's fourth victim. The study looked at a silk shawl that was found by Catherine, like found by her. How do I say this?
It was found located next to her, we talked about before, where her body was discovered. Found in proximity of her. Yeah, yeah, not she found it. The shoal believed to be covered in blood and semen. When looked at, those investigating the shoal found that DNA taken from it matched a living relative of Aaron, which they published in Journal of Forensic Science. This
This has, however, been met with some criticism because there are key bits of information missing from the paper, like specific genetic variants compared between the samples, instead represented by coloured boxes and graphics. The authors have argued back that this is to protect the privacy of the living relatives and also makes the paper easy to understand for those who are just simply interested in reading about true crime.
There is also the fact that the shoal could have been contaminated over the years or could have come from someone else living in London at the time. The evidence isn't strong enough to close the case of Jack the Ripper, but it certainly is compelling. Yeah, what do you think about that one?
No dice. Don't go. No dice? No dice. I'm a hard man to please. Oh, man. What do you need? What do you need to... Here's what I need. I don't think someone who... Like, sure, he wasn't... He doesn't have to be a doctor to remove organs from people, but someone who is that well-read, someone who...
thought about his crime someone who is that i deal with it i don't think it's the same guy who uh gets into drunken arguments and like threatens women in public i think he is very clean cut i think he's very intelligent and he knows how you wouldn't be able to tell you wouldn't be able to tell that you wouldn't be it wouldn't be the guy who's yelling and threatening women with knives yeah actually i i didn't consider that i agree i think he's far too methodical and
and in control this guy's too reckless and i looked up what the the uh the workplace house is it's effectively like a labor house that you stay at like a light sentencing uh so it's not a guy who's in and out of jail for effectively like drunken disorderlies or whatever right um
Yeah, I don't think it's him. I think that the DNA can be explained for a lot of things. Something not mentioned here is after DNA evidence gets so old, it degrades a lot. So you're not seeing like, oh, this is a one-for-one match of DNA. You are seeing, well, it could be, you know, 20% of the population who have this genetic code, which is a much broader thing than saying a match. Yeah.
Even if somehow his DNA showed up on the victim, it's explicitly mentioned that he would often go to women of the night or threaten women or stuff like that. It's not impossible they crossed paths, but no, I don't think he's Jack the Ripper. Yeah, I agree with that. All right. You want to take Michael Ostrok? Yes. So next we have Michael Ostrok. So.
Not much is really known about Michael Ostrug as he kept a pretty private life. He was born in Russia sometime in the 1830s and arrived in the UK in the 1860s. He was a petty thief, committed scams and robberies, and in 1863 spent 10 months in jail for attempting to rob the University of Oxford. What an odd choice for a robbery. I mean, I guess they would have a lot of like really expensive antiques and stuff. Yeah, maybe they have like relics or something. A lot of... Like, what is it?
It's something like 90% of thievery, at least in the modern day, is proximity-based.
Right. So it's the majority of people like just walking and they see something and they're like, oh, I should steal that. Right. Yeah. It's not like people are like, I'm going to go across town to this area and perform a hit. It's like, oh, yeah, it's like, oh, there's a purse I can take. It's always stuff like that. So maybe this guy was just like at the university. I was like, sure. Yeah, I'll do it. Yeah. Why not? Yeah.
His whole life was spent in and out of prisons around the country. His most severe crime being attempting to fire a gun at a police officer while resisting arrest. He was released from prison during March in 1888, not long before the murders began.
um i now i did say all that stuff about i don't think that he'd be in and out of prison like yelling threatening people no no no i'm just saying that it's not impossible he never committed a crime beforehand because you see i mean look at modern serial killers how many of them as kids like hurt animals or something like that yeah that's possible this is different this guy's like trying to fire guns at police officers yeah that i don't i still don't think ostrog is him uh
But I don't want my previous statements to be like, oh, this guy never committed a crime before the murders. There probably were. He was just better at hiding it, I think. Yeah. Michael spent a few years bouncing between prison and asylums until 1904 when he went quiet.
There are no more reported sightings of him and the rest of his life is unknown. Did he pass away or choose to live his life more secretly? The phrasing of someone from 1904, did they pass away, is funny. It's like, could he be 189 years old? Did he die ever? We'll find out. He's truly a Sith Lord. He's still living to this day.
He wasn't spotlighted as a suspect until he was also named as a suspect in Sir Melville McNaughton's memorandum. Man, this memorandum's got everybody named. It's got mileage. A lot of names in that book. In 1894. But he did say that Michael was the least likely to be the murderer in his opinion.
Only Michael, Aaron Kosminski, and Montag John Druitt were named in this document. But even though Michael lived a life of petty crime, there's no real conclusive evidence to tie him to Jack the Ripper. And he committed a robbery in France during September of 1888, landed him in prison there. This was around the time of the murders. So many have concluded it's safe to rule him out as a suspect. Yeah, I don't think it was him. Yeah, neither. His photo looks interesting, though. It looks like he's getting electrocuted.
because his hair is like standing up yeah that's very good yeah I like that that's a good picture very interesting fellow there was one guy I remember when I first read about all this who I thought it was yeah we'll probably get to him in a second but yeah I don't think any of these guys are
It might be this next guy, George Chapman. Yeah, I think what happened is the police, again, no one had ever dealt with this kind of serial killer, right? At least not to this scale of like, oh, I want to kill people and I want the news to know about it and I'm going to be sneaky, like whatever. So I think what happened is they're like, okay, someone's a murderer. Who do we have on the docket for murder? People who tried to murder and the mentally ill. It's probably one of them.
Like, I don't think it was anyone the police thought it was at the time. No, I think he was too well composed and probably a, you know, not a public figure per se, but like someone in the upper crust of life. And also, I think he probably just died. And that's what stopped it. I think that's the most definitive thing for me personally. Yeah.
But regardless, let's go on to George Chapman or Severin Klosowski, as he was also known. Severin Klosowski, later known as George Chapman, was originally born in Poland, moving to England later as an adult. While he is a suspect of the Jack the Ripper murders, George actually was convicted of three murders spanning between 1897 and 1902.
George was a junior surgeon assisting doctors in procedures from the age of 14. If I would go into surgery and my doctor's 14, if my surgeon's 14, I'm getting the hell out of there. Well, it's a surgeon assistant to be fair.
In 1888, at 14, you should have one dead wife and two kids with meningitis. You're grown. Get over it. This guy's an accomplished 14-year-old. Anyway, he also continued to work as a nurse until 1886. It's not exactly known when George arrived in the UK, but records show he probably arrived around February 1887, settling in East End, London, and working as a barber.
Wasn't someone else working as a barber as well? Yeah, it was... Aaron Kaminsky, right? Yeah, yeah, the Polish Jew guy, yeah, Kuzminski. A lot of barbers. Mm-hmm.
He had a wife in Poland, but married a woman called Lucy Badeski, whom he met in London. They had two children and moved around a bit before they made a sea change to the United States, moving to New Jersey. They would have explosive fights, one turning violent in 1892 when Lucy was attacked by George in her sleep. She was pregnant at the time and he threatened to kill her.
After this, Lucy moved back to London and lived with her sister, giving birth to their daughter. George eventually returned also where he ended up meeting another woman, sorry,
So this guy's already not very great to women. Let's just put that out there. Doesn't have the best track record with women.
George fatally poisoned three. Yeah, that's without getting to this point. George fatally poisoned three of these. Yeah, this guy, not a big fan of women. Yeah. He then would go on to murder three. Typical misogynist behavior. Yeah, just disgusting.
George fatally poisoned three of his mistresses, Mary Isabella Spink, Bessie Taylor, and Maude Marsh. He used Tartar emetic, a compound available to purchase at a nearby chemist that can cause a very painful death. So it wasn't just that he killed them. He chose like one of the most painful ways possible for them to die.
Okay.
After the last failed business, George began to manage a pub and it was around this time that he killed Mary. Not long after, he met Bessie. Bessie was hired to be the restaurant manager at the pub, but she and George quickly became a couple. But the pattern began again, with George becoming violent towards Bessie, even threatening her with a gun. She started to mysteriously become ill and to avoid suspicion, George moved them to Hetfordshire for a short period of time.
When they returned, Bessie began to deteriorate and died in 1901. At the time, George was leasing a place called Monument Tavern, which he tried to burn down. This guy is just absolutely loose cannon. Yeah. So he tried to burn this place down, most likely to gain some sort of insurance on the property, but was unsuccessful. This guy, I think, is a possibility, honestly. I don't think so.
You don't think so? Seriously? I'll be honest. I'll be honest. I don't think so. Keep going, but I'll explain it to you. Man, he's obviously like pretty well off because he's like buying businesses and running businesses. So he's... I'm not saying impossible. I'm not saying impossible. I'm just saying... I don't know. Okay.
See, he's also charismatic and charming to a certain degree, which he would have needed to be. I don't think so. Right. Yeah.
It would have been the guy who tried to burn it down several times. Couldn't possibly be the guy, you know, with a matchbook. The monument tavern did burn down and they moved to Southwark. It was here that Maud was poisoned as well, mysteriously. How were people not piecing this together? People were starting to become suspicious of George after the third poisoning.
They were beginning to become suspicious of you. I just had three mistresses that all died of tragic tarmac poisoning. I don't see what the problem is. Who among us has not lost three mistresses? And a tavern. Don't forget the tavern. And the tavern also.
So yeah, Maud's family wanted a second opinion on her death. Mary and Bessie's bodies were exhumed and investigated where it was discovered that they had died from poisoning. Even though he killed three women, he was only charged for the murder of Maud Marsh and was hanged on the 7th of April, 1903. Now, that makes sense because that's how most old trials worked, right? Because the penalty for any murder was hanging.
So if you killed a hundred people, they'd be like, okay, well, he definitely killed this one, right? Okay. Get the rope. Yeah. Cause it doesn't shake. I think it was, uh, might've been the Fisher guy. Um, the moon maniac as he was called, uh, the, the guy who like killed like a hundred kids or whatever. Um, I'm pretty sure they just convicted him of one and killed him. Yeah. Right.
An inspector named Frederick Abelini strongly believed that George was Jack the Ripper, even commenting when he arrested George. So George had said, quote, you've got Jack the Ripper at last. No, no, it was the inspector.
inspector it wasn't the inspector said that wait hold on the inspector name i don't know you wrote this an inspector name it says oh oh even commenting that okay frederick when he got arrested said you've got jack the ripper i see okay yeah so i think he was saying george the george said that guy that's arrest yeah yeah so he said you've got jack the ripper at last
He was suspicious of George for a while, previously interviewing his previous partner, Lucy, who had informed him that George was out for long periods of time during the night. Some believe George is a strong suspect, myself included. He was an incredibly violent man towards women and did arrive in Whitechapel around the time of the murders, which happened to stop when he moved to the United States.
There is also some speculation he killed a woman called Mary Brown, oh sorry, Carrie Brown in New York. She was brutally murdered and mutilated as well, but it's unsure if he arrived before she was killed or after.
It's also unusual for a killing to change their MO, poisoning to brutal killings with a knife. And there are some details that cause some doubt, such as George not completely knowing English and not being well involved in the community in Whitechapel. So that's the main thing for me, is him not knowing English very well, apparently. And as we discussed before, the letters that were sent were well-versed in English. So that is a point against it. But everything else... Like we pointed out, even...
The phrasing of like the way he says Jews points to high English society at the time. Right. So, yeah, I think I don't think it was him.
And that's entirely why you don't think it's him or is it just a gut feeling? Okay, so don't get me wrong. George Chapman's evil, right? Marrying women, abusing them, and then taking mistresses, abusing them, killing them. He's evil, but he's a different kind of evil. Chapman strikes me more as the kind of guy who we probably know some case of in the modern day who beats on their wife, is vicious, hates himself, hates the world, takes it out on people who he can. Right? Um...
And those guys are typical. Again, I'm not a criminologist. I'm not an expert. I'm a YouTuber, right? I'm the lowest form of opinion that exists. But in that low form of opinion, as someone who just reads about a lot of this stuff, that evil is very reactionary.
It's very like, I want this woman because I want to hook up with her. I don't like her. I'm going to beat her. I'm going to do stuff. It's like tries to burn down his own place. It's not the kind of guy who is like a well-versed, educated person who commits these elaborate murders and then mocks to the police. I don't think the same guy who poisons women when he gets tired of them to move on to another is the same guy who's disemboweling women and using it to mock authorities.
I don't know. I'm not convinced by that argument, personally. I think they're both impulsive to a certain degree. I'll say that they're both impulsive, sure, but I think Jack the Ripper is a more calculated impulse than what Chapman's exploring. Now, I will say, I think Chapman's the most likely so far. Poisoning is a very calculating way of killing people. No, I mean like the manner, not the method, I mean like the manner of the murders.
Because his was more so like, I'm through with this girl. Let's get her out of the way. While Ripper hunts down women with the intention to kill them. Well, did he though? Or was it more impulsive? Like he just came across women in the street and then... I think going out at four in the morning and specifically finding sex workers and the period of time that these killings happened in, some as short as a 20 minute changeover. Yeah, I think he was going out to kill them.
Oh, no, I think he was definitely going out to kill. But I think the manner in which he did so was definitely like impulsive. Like he was killing the first person that he could basically or multiple women in the same night. I mean, I mean, you could argue it as an impulse, but I think it's more so like I am going to go kill someone tonight. Let's see who I can find. You know? Yeah. I mean, who's to say he didn't encounter other sex workers and was like, this place is too crowded. Can't do it here. Or
Or like, I should wait. Because the only ones that we have stories of are the people who died, right? That's why their stories got remembered.
Yeah, no, I definitely... So, okay, I do think he was calculating and he was also very aware of what he could and couldn't get away with at the time. So it wasn't like he just immediately stabbed the first person he saw. And we see that from the fact that he knew that on the night of the double murder, the first victim, he wouldn't have time enough to stick around and disembowel them. I would say if he was entirely impulsive, he would have, you know, risked that and stuck around and disemboweled. Let me put it this way. Chapman sounds like a...
Not so well educated wife beater who doesn't speak good English. The Ripper sounds like a highly educated man who knows exactly what he's doing. Okay. I mean, that's my difference. I will say Chapman is the most convincing so far, but I still don't think it's him. All right. Well, let's see if James Maybrick is more convincing to you. You can take it. All right. So a journal made its way through friends of friends before it ended up in the hands of Michael Baird in 1992.
In the journal are no names, but through the references and crucial information, it became clear that it was the journal of a man by the name of James Maybrick. James was a Liverpool cotton merchant who described in detail how he saw his wife with another unknown lover sending him into a murderous rage. James described killing and mutilating five sex workers, ending with the words, I give my name that all know of me. So history do tell.
What love can do to a gentle man born. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper. I think this is him. Really? This is the one? Yeah.
This is the one? I mean, that's pretty straightforward. If true. We'll see. We'll see. If Jack the Ripper was the world's very first, like, incel gentle sir, I'm going to fucking lose it. No, no. Is that not exactly what he sounds like? Think about it. You have an individual. You know, honestly, not to... This isn't really pop culture, but he reminds me of Elliot Rodgers. Remember? Yes. Yeah.
The guy who like hated women so much that he just shot up. I think he killed four people, right? Like Jack the Ripper going out to target women who he knows he can get away with killing in the act of and that society has like stuck their nose up against. He goes out and he brutalizes them as much as he can. He like stab, literally stabbing them in their womanhood, right? And pulling out their organs. It is a deep, deep hatred of woman. So I would,
fully expect the perpetrator to either have some mommy issues or some issues with a wife or something like that and or women in general yeah women in general yeah despises women probably because of some story he has with one so here's what it is right and this is like with again like with
things like Elliot Rodger like they perceive women as having some level of power over them that's unfair yeah so through killing they take the power back so that because they feel some emotional or maybe societal oppression from women that they have self-appointed this is how they need to take it back physically because that's where they can you know have the power right some power exactly it is a way to like dominate physically which
Which is common with a lot of murder cases, but especially someone who targets women the way that this guy does. In my opinion, Jack the Ripper had to either be like a sexual deviant, which I don't think so, or like an intense disparity of women in general, which I think is more likely. And that's what James Maybrick sounds like here. Also, I think that...
that Jack the Ripper was too smart to give himself away. Like I said, he probably valued his reputation. He had a lot of money, was well-to-do, but I fully believe that Jack the Ripper would have boasted about it to himself. And the letters we see he writes to the police is very well-worded. He wants to talk about it. I absolutely believe the guy would have kept a diary or something like that. And what do we see about James Maybrick?
He had a bad interaction with a woman. He was a cotton merchant who was very well-to-do and kept a diary to himself where he describes murders and claims himself to be Jack the Ripper. All three of those check out for me. Yeah, I mean, that's very compelling. Yeah, if it's an actual authentic diary. Yes, this is all assuming it is in fact an authentic diary, of course. It wasn't until this diary became known to the public in 1992 that James became a suspect, but the authenticity of the diary is heavily disputed.
Firstly, the origins are unknown. Michael Barrett first said that he had received it from a friend, but later the story would change to the diary being in his wife's family for as long as she could remember. There were also scientific tests on the ink that produced inconclusive results. Some tests suggest that the ink could be modern, while others have been able to definitively date it. I mean, again, that's just, that's going to be that way with anything. It's not foolproof, right? Yeah, yep.
People were also skeptical of how the diary was written, believing it to be much more modern than how it would have been written in the 1880s. And there were small errors in details and references that did not match up with the dates that the murders happened. I would need to know specifically what those errors were. Right. Same. I didn't go into detail with that in the document. Also, but with the quote, I give my name that all know of me. So history do tell what love can do to a gentle man born. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper.
Does sound pretty similar to the kind of language that he would have used. It sounds like he's mythologizing himself, right? Well, yeah. So I'm going back to the original letters that were sent to the police. I'm saying it's kind of like the same language that he uses. It's the same flowery speak, sort of, of what we know the Ripper to be. It doesn't seem too different to me, anyway. It checks out there.
Again, all this is assuming and the small error in details. I could see him like if he is writing about this and he does at least doesn't expect anyone to read it after he's dead. Maybe the murder was at 340 a.m. And then he writes in his diary. I killed her around four like that. Good. I could see that. Yeah. Like, how would he know? Yeah, exactly. How would he know? It was 1888.
In 1994, Michael Barrett confessed that he had forged the diary and even provided details of how he had done so with his wife. The statement was later retracted but caused a large shadow of doubt to be placed over the diary's authenticity. Again, I would just have to know more details. If the diary's fake, then I think the person who faked it is on the same track I am of like...
Who is... The kind of individual. Like the profile who would likely be the Ripper. And he's like, oh, I'm going to make a fake diary. But if the diary is real, then... To me, this would be the most likely. To me, that's pretty definitive. Yeah, because in my head, it's like, okay, what we know about serial killers now. Because think about every serial killer we find nowadays. They always keep memorabilia.
They always like take personal gratification, but they never broadcast it so they can keep getting away with it. And again, this guy was rich. He spoke good English. He was well-to-do. He was educated. He had all of the women in the past had despised women, a deep rooted misogyny. Well,
That understanding of him could have come from the diary. You're right. That comes from the diary. So again, the entirety of if this guy did it or not to me is dependent on the diary. And him saying that he forged it and then saying he didn't, who knows why.
It'd be kind of fucked up if he didn't do it. And this guy in the 90s, like, 90s, has just been smirching some good cotton merchant back in the day. Yeah, just like, all he's done, what's he gonna do? Just some random ass cotton merchant. Like, oh, he hates women. He was a cuck. Like, some dude fucked his wife. Yeah, this guy's a loser. I hate him. Yeah. Killed five women. I will say about him, James Maybrick, that...
if he was like the cotton merchant and everything, he almost definitely was in or involved with the, with the Freemasons. Cause a business owner of that degree would absolutely be the kind of like high society member. Who's a part of it. Yeah. I mean, I do agree with you. I think if the diary is, it's so hard to prove that the diary is authentic. If the diary is real, he did it. I think. Yeah. Yeah. In my opinion.
I don't think that this kind of guy would lie about it either. Assuming he wasn't a killer, I don't think he would have a secret diary he never told anyone about where he talks about murdering five women and calls himself Jack the Ripper. Yeah, I agree. But there's another piece of strange evidence found. A pocket watch. Discovered at an auction by a watch repairman in 1993 in Liverpool, this particular watch had a very unusual engraving on it.
Inside the watch were the initials of the five most widely believed Jack the Ripper victims. MJK, EC, EA, and MK. Again, the initials of the women mentioned earlier. And the phrase, I am Jack, engraved. Additionally, the initials JM were inscribed, which some interpret as standing for James Maybrick.
After being analyzed, investigators found that these engravings were certainly not recent and probably done quite a while ago, but it is difficult to determine exactly when they were done. This also, I think, matches up personal memorabilia that no one else will see, but let's rest with you, the satisfaction in your crimes. It matches up with like modern serial killers that were found. It is super strange that it would also have the same initials.
I mean, this is compelling stuff, definitely. The only issue, I would believe this way more if Michael Barrett hadn't confessed that he had faked it. I will say that sometimes I would have to look at Michael Barrett's case. There's false confessions in criminal cases, right? There's people who are like, yes, I murdered this person, and then years later with DNA, they didn't. That kind of thing does happen. So maybe he was pressured by family. Maybe they're getting a lot of hate for it.
uh maybe he had a bunch of like journalists coming at him like asking him questions he was like i want this to be over with him retracting the confession later kind of implies that maybe he was pushed to pressure and maybe he said it in a one-off interview or something like that or he could have been and then decided to go back on it again it's it's a toss-up damn it's so tricky to know it's
It is the most compelling one, definitely. I think James Maybrook from everything we've read so far. And to close out about James, James was murdered by his wife in 1889, reportedly by poisoning. His wife, Florence, was arrested several days after he died and ultimately deemed guilty of murder.
She was originally sentenced to death, but this was changed to life in prison where she served until she was released in 1904, then passing away in 1941. And look at that. If James was murdered in 1889, the final murder took place on November 9th of 1888, meaning that it is within months of the final killing. Of him dying. Yeah. Of him dying.
which would explain why he didn't keep murdering because had it not been for his death, I think he never would have stopped. Fuck, that's compelling. Oh, man, that's probably the most compelling one. Yeah, I think it's him.
Assuming the diary is correct. If the diary comes out later is like definitively fake, then I think someone has the same thought process I did and decided to invent the character of who he's most likely to be. But if it's not James, then I think it is someone a lot like James who was Jack the Ripper. Yeah, that's fair.
She was originally sentenced to death, by the way, changed her life in prison, but she only served about, what, 10 years at the most? 14 years. Yeah.
Okay. Interesting. I think, I think that is because of the mention above that, um, his wife was with another lover, sending him into a murderous rage that he became furious by. Right. So if all this is true, then she probably argued that her husband was abusive or angry and violent. And she felt the murder was to keep her safe, which a woman saying her, especially in 1889, a woman in court saying that she was afraid her husband was going to kill her. Um,
probably swayed the court's opinion, if I had to guess. Yeah, that's a good point. Also, kind of, if he was Jack the Ripper...
Kind of nice to know that a woman killed him eventually. You know, actually, that would be some cosmic justice, wouldn't it? Yeah. He was poisoned by his wife who started this whole hatred of him. Yeah. And plus, it would make sense if this is Jack the Ripper, that he has a deep hatred of women, but he's also very rich and a public figure, so he can't murder his wife. That'll bring too much tension. Yeah, he's unable to take it out on his wife in that way. So he takes it out on other women.
Who kind of personify what he deems his wife is like a whore, basically. He kills women because he saw his wife as a whore because she slept with another man. So he goes out and he kills sex workers because it personifies what he wants to do. That rage and that anger he wants to take out on his wife, which his wife probably saw in brief instances and ended up killing him to defend herself. Yeah, that's compelling.
Yep. All right. I think it's him. After the first paragraph, I'm like, yep, that's him. Yeah, you were straight into it. I respect that. As soon as I saw the part about he had a personal journal, he was well-to-do, rich, high society, educated, and hated a woman in his life. Yeah, that ticks all the boxes. It all clicks. Did you know about him beforehand?
Yes, this was the guy I remember because I remember the journal being found years later. I remember when I first researched it, hearing about the journal and being like, oh yeah, I think that's him. But now I definitively, yes, absolutely. Okay, let's go to the next one. Francis Tumblety.
Awesome name.
Francis was arrested a few times in the United States where police thought he was complicit in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Sure. Imagine if Jack the Ripper was involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. That would be insane. Yeah.
Bro, that'd be crazy. It would be absolutely insane. I believe it. Yeah, fuck the other guy. Who was the other guy? James Maybrick? Nah. We're on Francis Tumblety. Francis Tumblety was the one that did it. So police linked him to David Herold, who was an accomplice of John Wilkes Booth, who you may know as the guy that shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head.
But Francis denied any ties to him and was released as there was no real evidence that tied him to the assassination plot. He was also arrested for pickpocketing, but his victim, who was an employee of the U.S. District Attorney, allegedly attempted to blackmail him. Francis notably had a strong hatred towards women, but especially sex workers. He apparently collected uterus in preserved jars. Fucking weirdo. And at one dinner party, boasted to his male guests that they came from...
Quote, every class of woman. People who knew him thought of him as possibly Jack the Ripper. There wasn't any proof he visited the areas of the murders or that he was violent, even with his obvious hatred for women. He didn't seem to be on the police's radar of suspects either. Only Chief Inspector John Littlechild, head of the Irish branch, mentioned his name in a letter to a journalist at the time.
So that one's not very compelling to me at all. I'll think so. I don't think Jack the Ripper expressed any of his hatred to women or anything outside of to himself and through the murders. Um,
I mean, just from what we know about modern serial killers, right? Like not to bring him up. I know every serial killer is different. It's not like there's one guy, but from the common types like Ted Bundy or whatever, right? The dude hated women, despised them. But to his wife and those around him, he was an incredibly loving husband, kind guy, because he took that hatred and he put it somewhere else, right? He didn't let his own life get affected by it for as long as possible.
Yeah, it was kind of like compartmentalizing both sides of his personality. Yeah, I don't think Jack the Ripper had uteruses in a jar and was like...
uh yes i actually used to be a fake medicine man and i also hate women you don't think he would have had trophies to some degree uh no well hold on i think he would have had trophies i don't think he would have had them on display to people who come to his house oh yeah yeah true he wouldn't be like bragging about i absolutely think he probably had trophies for sure and which is why the pocket watch engraving so compelling to me um
But I don't think they'd be trophies that anyone else would pick up on if they were public, and he most likely kept them to himself. Yeah, I think so as well. You can take the next one, Walter Sickert. Then we have Walter Sickert. So...
Walter Sickert had a hatred of women from a young age. Many believe this comes from having a fistula of the penis, which he had to go through many painful procedures to fix, which left him unable to be sexually active. I didn't actually look that up. Do you know what a fistula is? I think it's like a hole, right? I think it is a...
I'm just going to look it up. You're brave for looking this up. An abnormal connection between two body parts, such as an organ or blood vessel and another structure. I've heard of this in like the body, like the arteries are like attached to something they shouldn't be. All right, fine. I'm going to do it. Fistula penis. Yeah.
All the pictures are blurred. What could this mean? Why did you make that mistake? Why did you do that? I'm sorry. Why did you look at it? It's going to be the worst pain imaginable to a man. What are you looking at right now? I don't want to see penises.
Oh, it's pictures of the surgery, you know, to get it fixed. And they've just got a rod going straight through the middle to, like, correct it. No. Wait, so is it, like, scoliosis for the penis? No, it seems like it didn't develop all the way and is, like, partially fused to your body. Oh, fuck. And it results from the pictures in the hole being in the wrong place.
god so it's like it's a full-on deformity yeah so imagine like the hole is either on the top or the bottom are you still looking at it yes like yeah i'm looking at a bunch of pictures and like the holes on the top or the bottom and like the shaft itself is kind of stuck on the body like it didn't grow all the way so the way they correct it is they just shove a rod through where it's supposed to be oh and what like build it up around the rod
Well, they just like basically fix the plumbing, right? Like they make the path go where the path is supposed to go and cover up the false one. Jesus Christ, that's horrifying. Yeah, I get why he didn't hook up with people. It looks like, okay, so it looks like most of the, like fistula by definition is just the hole in the wrong place. It looks like it normally occurs with abnormal growth as well. Hmm.
I think. Okay, so this, I mean, that kind of explains why he would have a deep hatred of his penis, maybe. Yeah. But yeah, I don't know. I guess if he... Yeah, at its core, the definition of a urethral fistula is that the hole's in the wrong place, basically. And I'm assuming then women made fun of him for it, and that's why he hated women. It was a sore topic for him. Oh, man. This... Gosh.
You are a lunatic for looking that up. I had to expand my knowledge of it. I shouldn't have gone to images, though. You shouldn't have gone to images, that's for sure. You are a braver man than me. I want to be able to look at my penis in the future. There's some guys out there who that happened to, and I'm in solidarity with you. I'm sorry. You're strong. You're brave.
Especially when you couldn't do anything about it in 1888. It's like, well, that's your life now. Have fun. Oh, man. Horrifying. Well, he did go through many painful procedures to fix them. I can only imagine what that consisted of back then. Back then, yeah. Holy shit. Okay, anyway.
He was obviously an emotionally scarred individual due to this. Yeah, don't blame him. But there are other records and opinions that this isn't the case. And Walter had many mistresses, his wife even naming his cheating as grounds for divorce. And besides, besides this, there isn't much known of how his hatred for women began. So that's interesting. Um,
That he had many mistresses and stuff. At the same time, like, just because someone, like, hates women or has low confidence in their sexual capabilities doesn't mean they don't have sexual experience, right? So, I could see both being true. Yeah, I could definitely see both being true. Especially if he didn't respect women as, like, a person, right? If he saw them more as sexual objects, then I 100% see him, like, cheating on his wife or whatever. Yeah, it's hard to say what the line is between, like...
just disrespect, sorry, deep hatred for them or not viewing, like prioritizing his own sexual pleasure, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I think they go hand in hand, you know, because if you like, if you respect like your wife, you know, then her, you know, emotional needs or whatever, or like, you know, your love for her supersede any sexual desire. Right. So even if you do have like a super high, like need to hook up with random women, your need, your love for your wife has to be pretty low or your respect for her as a person has to be pretty low to cheat on her.
Yeah, but he also was born with a fistula for a penis, so maybe he is just like really mentally fucked up and there's like a lot of trauma. You are right that I am willing to overlook some behavior of what I just saw. You're coming at this with the perspective of a normal penis. Yeah, yeah. This is a man with a fistula penis. From a very privileged position. Yeah. Who knows what the mindset is like. Even then...
Assuming he didn't have any mental deficiencies, you still do have to think pretty lowly of your wife to cheat on her, I think, in any situation. Yeah, probably. Again, assuming, I mean, who knows what was going on in his mind. Maybe he did have some extreme sociopathy because of what happened. Who knows?
Yeah. Walter was an artist and did paintings inspired by a murder of a sex worker, Emily Dimmick, which happened at Camden Town in 1908. Huh. That's interesting. Patricia Cornwall, I still don't think it's him, but Patricia Cornwall, who wrote Portrait of a Killer, suggests that these paintings look eerily similar to post-mortem photos from victims of Jack the Ripper.
Walter was apparently also fascinated by the murder, but as with many others, it's difficulty to really pinpoint him to the crimes. I could also see that, that Jack the Ripper liked, like, you know, maybe collecting newspaper things about Jack the Ripper. I could see that.
I mean, obviously Jack the Ripper was reading the papers, right? Because he knew that he was called a doctor. He knew the stuff. The leather thing. Yeah. The leather apron thing. He was keeping track of things. Yeah. That PS, they think I'm a doctor now. Ha ha. Like that seems pretty, you know. He may not have been in England when they were committed with him possibly being on a holiday in France instead.
Patricia Cornwall was very adamant that Walter was the killer. She even funded a DNA test on the stamps that Walter had possibly licked, comparing them to the letters from Jack the Ripper. Everyone needs a hater like Patricia Cornwall in their life to keep them grounded. Yeah, this guy, anciently, she's like, it was him. Look at his spit. It was him. Look at the stamps. I've got these stamps, please. She's funding it. She's like holding charity balls to fund DNA tests to prove that he was the killer. Yeah. That's dedication. Yeah.
From this did provide a possible match to the letter received by Dr. Openshaw, but the DNA testing was focusing on mitochondrial DNA, which one to 10% of the population could share. So it doesn't narrow the results solely down to Walter.
Also, there's a bunch of factors that go into mitochondrial DNA, like ethnicity, region of living, stuff like that. So it is a greater chance than 10% that two people who lived in the same city would share this mitochondrial DNA, right? Because 10% of the population is factoring in the whole world. Like, yeah, a guy from China, a guy from Africa, and a guy from England probably won't have the same. But two guys from London, there's a decent chance they'll have the same mitochondrial DNA.
Yeah, it's not conclusive to any... Yeah, it's not like a home run. Letters that Walter wrote were also found to be on the same papers as two of the ones sent by Jack the Ripper. So they had the same paper. Interesting. A strange coincidence, but the paper was widely available at the time. Damn. Foiled again. I don't think...
maybe Walter was like sick in the head you know the fistula stuff like that hated women and then took an interest in painted stuff similar to I don't think Jack the Ripper would have uteruses in a jar people could see and I don't think he would make public paintings of his victims yeah I think that's a bridge too far I think that's too dumb for someone who displayed prowess like Jack the Ripper
Yeah, it doesn't seem like it would... Again, going back to James Maybrick, I think his form of keeping trophies and stuff was probably more likely to be what Jack the Ripper actually did. Engraving a watch. Something that only you look at. As opposed to this kind of more grandeur-inspired kind of way of building up the mythos of Jack the Ripper. I don't know. I don't see that being likely. Mm-hmm.
A watch that is shut all day and every now and then when you check the time, you're the only eyes that see it. That sounds exactly like it. Yeah. I don't think Jack the Ripper was kind of inviting the idea that he was Jack the Ripper. And, you know, I also really like the theory that it was James because him being poisoned by his wife, who he despised. Yeah, it's just so sweet. It fits. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, it's like poetic justice almost.
So miscellaneous suspects, there were a bunch of other ones that I didn't cover in detail. So there are others confessed to the murders, like Frederick Deeming, who moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1892. Frederick had murdered his wife merely a year prior and apparently told reporters in Australia that he was responsible for the last two murders. There is also Neil Cream, awesome name, who was sentenced to death for killing four sex workers. As he was being hanged, some allege they heard him say, I...
And this is quote, I am Jack as the trap fell and he died. I guess that could be proof. Some think it could have been Mary Percy, nicknamed Jill the Ripper, who shared a lover with another woman and ended up murdering her and her baby 18 month old daughter in 1880.
Another man, Sir William Gully, was suspected in a royal cover-up orchestrated to protect Prince Albert Victor. The theories often depict Gull, Sir William Gully, as part of a Masonic or Masonic... Is that how you pronounce it? Masonic, yeah.
or as the killer himself. But there is no historical evidence to support these claims, making them widely regarded as fictional and speculative. Or some even suspected Louis Diemschutz, the assistant who found Elizabeth Stride's body. And there is also Joseph Barnett, who was in a relationship with Mary Jane Kelly and had a lot of jealous and controlling tendencies.
But, I mean, I could throw out names after names after names after names, and none of them will be as conclusive or as evidence-laden as we would want. It's just there would be so many names to throw out there, so many people with circumstantial evidence. Of course. And we've gone over a lot of them. I think out of the ones we've described tonight,
Probably the most likely James Maybrick, as well as, for me, George Chapman. Those, I think, are the most likely. It's entirely possible as well that it's someone completely that's flown under the radar, hasn't even been suggested, and they just died after the murders and they've faded into history. If the diary is real, I think it's James. If it's not real, then it's none of the suspects.
Okay, really? Yeah, that's how I feel. I could see possibility maybe it was a police officer. I remember reading a theory when I was doing my look at it a while back that it was the mention that it was basically a hitman for the Masons because maybe these Masonic figures... I think there was some reports that were unverified that a couple of the women were pregnant. So...
There's the idea that maybe important figures within Masonic Lodges impregnated women, so they had them taken care of, done under the farce of being a serial killer, so that there wouldn't be attention pointed back on them. I don't think so, though.
the just because of the brutality we see a natural climbing of like again because of modern serial killers i think we just see a modern serial killer in 1888 um i don't think that's true but i do think uh that he was probably involved with the maces to some degree just because most educated high society people were
I don't think it was because of the Masons he did the killings. I think he was a part of it. The person who makes the most sense for that is the cotton manufacturer, James, having his intense personal hatred of women, dying at just the right point in the timeline for it to make sense, keeping personal things like a diary and potentially the pocket watch for it, never making mention of it outside of that. It fits too well, I think. So if that diary's real, it's him.
Yeah, I agree with that. I would agree that if the diary is real, it's him. And if the diary isn't real, then it's probably someone that we've never heard of. But of course, who we really know it was, is Charlie White. Yep, that's it. It's conclusive. Watch. In 20 years, time travel's going to be a thing. Charlie's going to have 800 million subs, so...
He's going to be the first one to get attested and we'll never see him again. And what happens is he went back to 1888. No one would believe him, but he used his knowledge of where culture was going to, you know, build a cotton empire. And then he was so frustrated with never returning back to the red thread that he began to kill people to take this frustration. Yeah. He, the loot is to him. I mean, look at that picture of him. Look at him. Does that not look like a fit? Charlie would pull off.
Yeah, in like 50 years. It kind of looks like him in the eyes. Like, look at the eyes. Can you not see that guy being like, that's about it. See ya. Yeah. The top hat, the mustache. That guy doing YouTube vlogs. Incredible. There's also something about, yeah, to me, it's James Maybrick. Not only do I like the idea of his wife poisoning him, like, you know, a man who, if he was Jack the Ripper, spent so much time
Like infesting himself with this hatred of women and the power he has over them to be overpowered and murdered by a woman. It fits. And also like there's something about his eyes, man. Yeah, he looks so strange. Bug light. There's a distance to it almost. It's like you're looking at him, but you're not. You're looking at the front of him, not all of him.
Okay, wait, what does that mean? It's like when you look at him, all the pictures I'm looking at, it's like you're seeing a projection of the front. But it's like there's something behind the eyes, man. Like there's a mask? Yeah, yeah. He looks creepy. He definitely looks creepy. I can't tell if it's just because of the time, basically. I don't know. It's honestly like...
It's honestly like the way people describe people they think are demons. You know? Of like, he had these empty eyes. He looked through me or whatever. He looks... Yeah. He doesn't look human. He looks like he is trying to be. Yeah. I think it was him. Yeah. I mean, I think he's very compelling. It's very compelling. I just wish that the diary was proven to be real.
Somehow. I don't even know how you would do that. Yeah. Again, if the diary's real, it's him. And if not, someone found a really good candidate and then attached a fake diary. Alright, that's going to do it for this episode of Red Thread, digging in deep to the Jack the Ripper or Charlie the Ripper, whichever one we're going to go with. Thank you very much for listening. Oh, I didn't even think about this. I didn't even think about this. James and Jack.
oh yeah his name is james he picks an alias that also starts with a j so that the initials the monograms all that he gets to have the personal satisfaction of it um even actually james maybrick yeah okay yeah yeah so yeah he gets to have the satisfaction of j of that put everywhere but it's a fake name jack the ripper james the ripper
Yeah. Is this a bad time to let you know that my middle name is James and my first name is Jack to some degree? Jackson? No, he's left. I wasn't going to kill you, Isaiah. I wasn't going to kill you.
All right. That's going to do it for this episode of Red Thread, though. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you to my girlfriend for helping with the research. Thank you to Zaya for the editing, um, editing work. Thank you to the whole team. Thank you. I thank you, Isaiah, for showing up. Uh,
Thanks to Charlie out there somewhere doing on the field research for us. Thanks to Charlie for killing five women so that we could have this video. Yeah. Thank you, MeUndies, for sponsoring this episode. And thank you to everyone out there for listening to the Red Thread. We really do appreciate it. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Let us know your thoughts below. Yeah. Comment, rate the show, all that stuff. Thank you very much for watching Red Thread. You got any last words?
Charlie is James. Yeah. Proven. For a fact. Allegedly in Minecraft. It's not alleged. Well, you're in Australia, so you go ahead. It's not alleged. It's true. I fear the Charlie Mafia. Okay. Oh, yeah. I forgot his audience. It's not him. I'm joking. All right. I'm joking. That's the word. Yeah.
Thanks, guys. Thank you very much for listening. We'll see you next time. Goodbye.
