Profile of Jack the Ripper

Communication and More Death

Nothing much of significance to a profile occurred until a note arrived at the Central News Agency on September 27 and was forwarded to the police. The author, beginning "Dear Boss" and signing, "Yours Truly, Jack the Riper," claimed that he "loved" his work and would continue to kill. In retrospect, many experts came to believe this message was the work of a tabloid journalist trying to drum up further sensation, yet the gruesome moniker stuck. Since we don't know who actually wrote it, we can't discount it.

The Ripper's "Dear Boss" Letter

By the end of that month, on September 30, there were two victims on the same night, within a fifteen-minute walk of each other. The Ripper slashed the throat of Elizabeth Stride, 45, only a few minutes before she was found, then disemboweled Catherine Eddowes less than an hour afterward.

Stride was found, still warm, in a poorly-lit court around 1:00 A.M. near the raucous late-night partying of a gentlemen's club. Those who found her moved her and saw a lot of blood on the cobblestones. Her throat had been cut, and as the police searched for someone wearing bloody clothing, they heard about a second murder in Mitre Square — Catherine Eddowes. It seemed that the killer had completed with her what had been interrupted with Stride.

Mtire Square

The setting was a place of high risk, as the Square had three separate entrances and a night watchman on duty. In addition, a police officer lived in a house near where Eddowes was left and every fifteen minutes, the Square was patrolled. The officer had walked through at 1:30 A.M. and the place was empty. Fifteen minutes later, he came across Eddowes, on her back with her left leg extended and her right bent.

Her arms were straight by her sides, palms upward, and she had been mutilated more than the others: cut from the rectum to the breastbone, she'd been disemboweled, with her intestine pulled out and placed over her right shoulder. It was smeared with an unusual substance and a two-foot piece had been cut and placed along the left side of the body. The left kidney had also been removed and was missing, and the victim's face was oddly mutilated. Two upside down Vs were cut into her cheeks, pointing toward the eyes, her eyelids were nicked, and the tip of her nose was cut off. One earlobe was also clipped. And, of course, as with the other victims her throat was slashed with a six-inch cut. However, the blood had not spurted. In fact, she'd been cut several times through her clothing, which had caught much of the blood. A bloodstained apron was also tied around her neck.

The autopsy examination indicated that Eddowes's throat had been cut while she was on the ground and the mutilations were postmortem. The doctor estimated that the knife used had a six-inch blade, and there was reason to believe the killer had skill. Not only had he deftly removed the organs, but he'd taken time to carve the face. Yet it was all done within the fifteen-minute frame when the patrol was absent. Not only that, the victim had been in police custody until just before she died. Found drunk earlier that evening, she'd been held in a cell until she was sober, around midnight. Released, she'd walked toward Mitre Square.

After the autopsy, police found part of the apron, that had been tied around her neck, lying a third of a mile away from the murder scene, with apparent stains from a knife being wiped on it. Nearby, a message was written on a wall, "The Juwes are not the men that will be blamed for nothing."

More information was learned about Stride: She had a record of arrests for drunkenness and often went by other names. She also claimed she suffered from fits. At age 44, she lived with a man with whom she had frequent arguments. That did not assist with identifying her killer.