Profile of Jack the Ripper

One More?

By January 1889, the murders appeared to have ended, and Sir Melville Macnaghten of the criminal investigation division, speculated that the killer's extreme indulgence may have caused a "brainstorm," compelling him to commit suicide.

Nothing else of this nature happened until July 17, 1889, when another woman was murdered late at night in the streets of Whitechapel. The victim lay on her right side, with her skirt drawn up to her waist. When discovered by a constable around 1:00 in the morning, she was still warm. Her name was Alice McKenzie and she was a heavy drinker and possibly a part-time prostitute. She lived with a man, by all reports, peacefully. The cuts on her throat appeared to have been made from left to right, perhaps two stabs, although it was difficult to determine. There were also superficial cuts on the throat, made by a knife that was smaller than that used in the Ripper murders. Bruises on the chest indicated that the killer had held her down while he stabbed her from above. On the right side of the abdomen was a jagged incision, along with superficial scratches, and a stab wound to the mons veneris. All were postmortem.

During this time, a surgeon felt moved to draw up a description of the type of man they might be looking for, and it's instructive to see what he said.