What Everyone Should Know About Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper Wasn’t Particularly Prolific

Today Jack seems like a mere amateur as a serial killer. In light of the massive number of victims linked to serial killers like John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper barely rates a blip on the scale. That’s not meant to say that every life isn’t precious; most assuredly it is, but Jack the Ripper is considered to have five definite victims and perhaps as many as thirteen. More likely he was responsible for at most seven murders, however.


Where and When?

London’s Whitechapel district in 1888. Several possible victims were killed in 1889, but most of those are not generally thought to be authentic Ripper victims. Whitechapel at the time was a quite unsavory place; it was populated by the poor and was the working site of an estimated 1000 or more prostitutes.


So, What Does Ripping Someone Really Mean?

Jack the Ripper is famous today for two reasons. One, he was never caught. And two, the singularly horrific nature of his crimes. The Ripper specialized in bodily mutilation. Victimization include the slashing of necks, the removal of internal organs, and in one case a very precise dissection that must have taken a fair amount of time. He did not sexually assault his victims.


Didn’t Jack the Ripper Send Letters To The Police?