Who was Jack the Ripper? a South African Historian Thinks He Has the Answer

Was Joseph Silver the True Identity of Jack the Ripper?

The mystery of Jack the Ripper, London's most notorious murderer, has captured people's attention all over the world since the late 1800s. Though many theories abound as to who Jack the Ripper really was and why he murdered five prostitutes in Whitechapel in the late 1800s, his true identity has never been discovered, and possibly never will.

The savage butchery exhibited by Jack the Ripper spread fear throughout East London, and his exploits have inspired many works of fiction, bloody movies, a pub or two, and hundreds of nonfiction works speculating the true identity of Jack the Ripper.

Now, Charles van Onselen, a historian from South Africa. presents a new theory as to the identity of Jack Ripper, stating that the murderer might have been a man by the name of Joseph Silver.

Joseph Silver was a Polish immigrant who resided in Johannesburg in 1898, approximately 10 years after the famed Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper. Previous to that, he was serving a jail sentence for burglary, and before that, he was in Whitechapel, at the same time the murders were being committed.

Many Ripperologists have wondered why the murders suddenly stopped, some theorizing that Jack the Ripper meant to kill only the five specific victims, others claiming that Jack the Ripper fled the country. But it could also be possible that the true Jack the Ripper was arrested for another crime and never identified as the murderer, as Joseph Silver was for burglary, and that is why there were no more murders.

During his time in Whitechapel, Joseph Silver kept himself occupied by running a brothel and acting as a pimp, and so would have been familiar with the prostitutes in the East London area. Later, in Johannesburg, he came to be known as the "King of the Pimps" and was said to have taken delight in terrorizing women.

Charles van Onselen has published a book entitled "The Fox and The Flies: The World of Joseph Silver, Racketeer and Psychopath", in which he details his theories on the the true identity of Jack the Ripper being that of Joseph Silver in the latter part of the book. Of course, many Ripperologists deny the claim.