Serial Killers Book

In the Daily Mirror on Sunday there was a magazine about Britain's worst serial killers, the magazine had a double paged spread on Jack the Ripper. I found the article very interesting and I learnt many facts about Jack the Ripper from the magazine. Above and to the side are pages from the magazine which I scanned about Jack the Ripper.
More than 120 years ago Jack the Ripper murdered five women, all prostitutes in their 40's they are the known victims though the suspected total is 7-11 women in three months, even though during the 1800's there was no modern technology like we have now but it is surprising that Jack the Ripper was not caught, as there was police and vigilantes that patrolled London's East End. Also, I found out about the injuries e.g. Mary Ann Nichols died on the Friday night of August 31 where her body was found with a four inch and eight inch gashes from her throat to neckbone and the inquest recorded that the "lower part of the person was completely ripped open", Annie Chapman was next to die at 6am on Saturday the 8th of September her throat cut to the spine. Part of her intestine had been thrown over her right shoulder and her womb and bladder was "entirely removed". Three weeks later the killer struck twice in 45 minutes, Elizabeth Stride's body was not mutilated because the killer had been disturbed by a man leaving a political meeting. Isreal Schwartz who later told police he saw a man assault Stride but he ignored the incident believing it was a domestic dispute, I found this really shocking as he did not even try to stop the abuse. Jack the Ripper then found an alternative victim who was Catherine Eddowes who was a mother-of-four, Constable Watkins who saw Eddowes body said she was "ripped up like a pig in the market". Eddowes face and chest had been mutilated, her intestines cut out and thrown over her shoulder, her womb and left kidney removed. The killer had sliced of her nose and earlobes and slashed her checks too. Again, there was a witness. Cigerette-Seller Joseph Lawende's description of a shabby man, aged around 30, with fair skin and peaked cap which was almost the same description as the first witness of Jack the Ripper. On Friday the 9th of November Mary Kelly was murdered, Jack the Ripper slashed her neck to the bone, front, back and sides, hacked at her face and cut off her breasts. He then emptied Mary's abdomen and placed her womb and kidneys under her head. Police found her intestines and spleen on the floor and the skin and muscle which had been carved from her thighs on the table. More women were murdered in Whitechapel and the cases added to the Ripper file up to 1891. The mystery of Jack the Ripper has never been solved though Sir Robert Anderson, assistant commissioner for CID, who claimed to have solved the crime wrote "I am almost tempted to disclose the identity of the murderer... but no public benefit would result from such a course" I found this statement very weird as he says he knows who the murderer was but he will not say. Jack the Ripper is still well known to this date as there are hundreds of books have been written, policemen published memoirs, dozens of DVDs produced and there are guided tours and unbelievably Jack the Ripper toys.
There was information about the suspects and Jack the Ripper as well, Dr Edward Bond who examined the final victim, Mary Kelly, wrote of the killer: "The character of mutilations indicate that the man may be in a condition sexually that may be called satyriasis. It is possible that the homicidal impulse may have developed from a revengeful or brooding condition of the mind, or that religious mania may have been the original disease". It will never be known if Jack the Ripper had "satyriasis" - permanent sexual arousal - but the nature of his mutilations were plain to use.
The suspects who were thought to be Jack the Ripper were Aaron Kosminski a Polish Jaw, aged 33, who suffered from from "mania" "delusions" and "hallucinations". He once threatened to kill his sister and was declared insane by his family in 1888 on grounds of "self-abuse". Scotland Yard chief Sir Melville Macnaughton said Kosminski had a "great hatred of women". Francis Tumblety an American doctor who was gay, hated women and was a notorious "quack". He was in London at the time and had an obsession with female reproductive organs. Tumblety fled to France in November 1888 following his arrest for homosexuality then returned to America. James Maybrick a Liverpool cotton merchant who confessed in his diary. Historians questioned its authenticity and the published admitted forging it. Forensic analysis showed the inks used were not available until the 1970s and the handwriting does not match his will. Seweryn Klowoski who was a Polish barber who later poisoned three wives and was hanged in 1903. He was known for his hatred of women and could have been capable. But modern criminologists are doubtful about his guilt as serial killers rarely change a successful method of killing. The last suspect was Prince Albert Victor the son of King Edward VII who has been the subject of many conspiracy theories. In one, the Prince went mad after contracting syphilis from a prostitute. Others suggest he had an illegitimate daughter with a Catholic shopkeeper and Government agents killed those who knew.
I found the article really interesting and I did not know this information before. I find it amazing how Jack the Ripper remained unmasked still do this day and there are theories that Jack the Ripper had died after the murders or perhaps he emigrated or was committed to an asylum. I think that Jack the Rippers identity will never be discovered.