Michael Ritchie
English III
Mr. Howard
March 18th 2012
Who was Jack the Ripper, Really? Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the last part of the 19th century. He was responsible for at least five brutal murders, and some experts attribute more killings to his total. While these murders were never actually solved, there is much evidence to suggest that the true identity of Jack the Ripper. The real serial killer was actually Walter Richard Sickert. Walter Richard Sickert was one of England’s greatest impressionist painters. “He was born and raised in Munich. His father was a great writer, and his mother was a very bad alcoholic. Walter at a young age underwent a series of penis surgeries which may have left him impotent. He suffered from fistula this is a hole in your penis”(Cornwell chapters 5 through 6). So this ment that sickert was unable to have intercourse.Sickerts artwork was one of the greatest clues to his crimes. His paintings are menacing and threatening towards women of a lower class. In other words, prostitutes. A few of Sickerts paintings resemble some of the Rippers crime scenes. The ripper may have been a man who had a hate for women, because of his own sexual inabilities or problems. Sickert was a master of disguise and could of easily of lured a prostitute to her death and then escaped without being noticed. He had an unhealthy fascination with the human body that went far and beyond a normal person would. The ripper liked to write letters and disclose certain items in the letters at time. A lot of the letters were a hoax to keep the media buzzing. Over the course of the ripper murders, the police, newspapers and others received many hundreds of letters regarding the case. Some were well intentioned offers of advice for catching the killer but the majority of them were useless. “To date three ripper letters and eight Sickert letters have the A Pirie & sons watermark”(Cornwell chapter 15). In his letters the ripper would describe what he did in the murders. Mutilations cutting off the nose and ears, ripping up the body, and cutting out certain organs such as the heart or kidneys. A lot of his letters he left his signature as “Nemo” which was walter sickerts stage name when he was an actor. He would write his letters in red ink I guess to symbolize blood. Forensic document examiners have argued that it is not possible for one person to write in so many different styles. Walter sickerts knew about water marks and he knew about paper he was a good writer so he was more than capable of writing these letters. He would tease the police leaving blanks were his name was and were they could find him. Hundreds of letters claimed to have been written by the killer himself, and three of these in particular are prominent: the “Dear Boss” the “Saucy Jerky” and the “From Hell” letter. The name “Jack the Ripper” was first used in this letter by the signatory and gained worldwide notoriety after its publication. The “From Hell” letter came with a small box in which a detective discovered half a kidney, preserved in spirits of wine. The”Saucy Jacky” had similar handwriting to the “Dear Boss” letter. It mentions that the two victims were killed very close to one another. “Double even this time” which was thought to refer to the murders of Stride and Eddowes. Police officials later claimed to have identified a specific journalist as the author of both the “Dear Boss” letter and the postcard. The journalist was identified as Tom Bullen in a letter from chief inspector John George Littlechild. He admitted later he had written letters to keep business alive. There have, over the years been more than a hundred suspects who may or may not have been Jack the Ripper. Joseph Lawende, had passed through the square with two friends shortly before the murder, and he described seeing a fair-haired man of shabby appearance with a woman who may have been Eddowes. Some of that description matches the description of Walter. Suspects proposed years after the murders include virtually anyone remotely connected to the case by contemporary documents, as well as many famous names, which were never considered in the police investigation. Walter Sickert preferred female studio models obese or emaciated, and the lower their social class and the uglier they were, the better. This is evident from his frequent references to women as “skeletal” or “the thinnest of the thin like a little eel” and in the big women with wide hips and hug breasts that he always puts in his other people could have the chorus girls but save him the hags (Cornwell chapter 4). Walter sickert attacks usually involved female prostitutes from the slums whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to the proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge which sickert does. Five of the eleven Whitechapel murders, known as the “canonical five” are widely believed to be the work of the Ripper. Most experts point to deep throat slashes, abdominal and genital-are mutilation removal of internal organs, and progressive facial mutilations as the distinctive features of Jack the Rippers trademarks. The canonical five murders were perpetrated at night, on or close to the weekend, and either at the end of the month or a week or so after. The mutilations became increasingly severe as the series of murders proceeded. Except for that of Stride, whose attacker may have been interrupted? The five murder victims were Mary Nichols murdered on August 31st 1888, Annie Chapman murdered on September 8th 1888, Elizabeth Stride murdered on September 30th 1888, Catherine Eddowes also murdered on September 30th 1888, and lastly Mary Kelly murdered on November 9th 1888. Kelly is generally considered to be the ripper’s final victim, and it is assumed that the crimes ended because of the culprit’s death, imprisonment, institutionalization, or emigration. “His reign of terror lasted twelve or so weeks that means he wasn’t at large for a very long period of time” (crownwell chapter 3). The investigation following the murders was a huge one there were so many suspects and so much ground to cover. The authorities were subjected to a constant barrage of press criticism, for the inability of the police to bring the killer to justice. London’s Metropolitan police service estimated that there were 1200 prostitutes and about 62 brothels in Whitechapel. Over 2000 people were interviewed, “upward of 300” people were investigated, and 80 people were detained. “A major flaw in the investigation was the labyrinth like layout of the area where the murders were occurring, made up as it was of lots of tiny passageways and alleyways, few of which were lit up by night”(crownwell chapter 15). In conclusion to this Jack the Ripper also known as Walter Sickert will go down as one of the greatest mass murderers of all time that was never caught. Walter Sickert was a very evasive and smart man one of the only people smart enough to pull this off. Jack the Ripper was one insane man and I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could do what he did. But this will go down as one of the most famous unsolved cases of all time.