Whitechapel Murder Victims

Whitechapel Murders committed by Jack Though there have been many murders and disappearances committed by Jack, the most famous and well known are the murders in Whitechapel. These murders are better known as the Jack the Ripper murders which is where he gets his name from. No one knows why Jack did not hide the bodies of his victims in this case nor is it known why Jack mutilated his victim’s abdomens and in some cases stealing some of the victims organs or body parts.

Victims
Mary Anne Nichols - Killed on Friday the 31 in August of 1888. Jack murdered Nichols by slicing open her throat with his claws, after this he nearly severed the lower part of her abdomen. Nichols’ body was discovered around 3:40 a.m.

Annie Chapman - Killed on the Saturday of September the 8th in 1888. Chapman was killed by Jack using the same method that he used to kill Nichols, however this time Jack had used his claws to slice her abdomen open entirely and for reasons unknown he had taken her uterus. Chapman’s body was discovered at 6 a.m. near a backyard doorway in what is now called Durward Street. An eyewitness came forward and reported seeing Chapman with a dark haired man of “shabby genteel” in appearance around 5:30 a.m.

Elizabeth Stride - Killed on Sunday the 30th of September 1888. Jack murdered Stride by severing the main artery on the left side of her neck. Unlike many of the other murders that Jack committed during this period Jack was unable to mutilate her abdomen for what only could be assumed is that he was interrupted. This left Jack frustrated as he was unable to get what he came for, this might have been the cause for Jack committing another murder on the same night after he killed Stride. Multiple witnesses have reported seeing Stride with a man. However the descriptions of the man varied from each person but two descriptions from some of the eyewitnesses stand out as similar to Jack in appearance. Several of these eyewitnesses claimed that the man was dark haired and shabbily dressed, as Jack is always reported to have long black hair and a large tattered black coat. This description is also exactly the same as the man that was reportedly seen with Chapman. Stride’s body was discovered around 1 a.m. in Dutfield’s Yard off what is now called Henriques Street.

Catherine Eddowes - Killed on the same night that Stride was killed, Jack killed her by severing her throat before ripping open her abdomen and removing her left kidney and most of the uterus. The reason that this second murder that was committed the same night that Jack killed Stride is that when Jack was interrupted from mutilated Stride and possible stealing some of her organs, leaving Jack frustrated over being unable to finish what he started (which is still unknown what his purpose for these killings as they are more complex than any of Jack’s other murders). This frustration over the failure with Stride led to Eddowes death.

Mary Jane Kelly - The last known murder committed by Jack in Whitechapel, Kelly’s murder is by far the most gruesome. Mary Jane Kelly was murdered on Friday the 9, in September of 1888. Jack’s method for killing Kelly was far more violent than any of his other victims; Jack killed her by severing her throat down to the spine and then ripped open her abdomen and emptied it of its organs, taking the heart. Jack then eviscerated her body, and hacked away at her face with his claws leaving her body so mutilated that it didn’t resemble a human anymore.

Violence Escalation
Each of the murders that Jack committed in Whitechapel, London the mutilations done to the victims increased in its brutality with each victim. By the end of Jack’s killing spree the mutilations inflicted on his victims were so severe that the last victim Mary Jane Kelly was unrecognizable a person. There are very few explanations for this increase in mutilations, the one that is the most probable is that the more people Jack killed and the more he mutilated his victims the more thrilled he became.

Obsession
Ever since Jack committed these murders, Jack has never been able to replicate the thrill that he had during these murders. Because of this Jack has been known to select victims that bear resemblance to the victims that he had killed in Whitechapel. As with all of his killings Jack revisits the site where he killed each of his victims, for reasons unknown Jack has focused on the last victim that he killed in Whitechapel. Mary Jane Kelly, the victim that was the most mutilated out of all his victims, maybe it’s because it gave him the most thrill out of all the other victims or maybe there is another hidden reason for his obsession with Kelly, for that only Jack knows the real reason for this obsession.

Legacy
After Jack committed these murders he took on the name of Jack after what he called himself in the letters he sent to the news. Jack has also stuck close to his method of killing his victims in later years modifying his method only slightly (see Jack- Modus Operandi for more details).