Ever since I learned the origin of the idea of five “canonical” Jack the Ripper victims, I’ve dismissed it. It was the opinion of one man, Sir Melville Macnaghten, who, to be fair, presumably knew more about the Whitechapel Murders and the victims than we do.

But unlike many Ripperologists, I have an exceedingly low opinion of the Metropolitan Police in 1888, and my opinion of the City of London Police is little better. London policing in the late Victorian era was corrupt, primitive, and incompetent. The true purpose of policing the East End was not to solve crimes, or prevent them. It was to confine the poor and their troubles to the slums, maintaining “order” so the rabble would not inconvenience the wealthier inhabitants of the West End. The rich were the beneficiaries of the policing of Whitechapel, not the people of Whitechapel. The true purpose of policing today is basically the same. I vividly remember the Rodney King Riots in 1992, when the LAPD abandoned South Central Los Angeles to chaos so they could form a line protecting Beverly Hills and the Westside.

So I don’t place much faith in the opinions of the contemporary police, not even the much-lauded Frederick Abberline. Scotland Yard and H Division didn’t care about the murders of impoverished, homeless, socially disgraced alcoholic women whom they just assumed were prostitutes—not until the explosion of press outrage after Annie Chapman’s murder. Then they put on a show of police activity for public consumption, but I don’t think their attitudes towards the victims changed at all. And even with heavy police patrols and vigilance committees and scores of self-described citizen “detectives,” The Ripper came, killed, and fled at will—violently, silently, and invisibly. It was rank incompetence combined with apathy.

All that said, while I don’t trust police opinions, it cannot be ignored that the cops in 1888 knew much more about the murders and possible suspects than we do. Their conclusions must be treated skeptically, but they cannot be ignored.

So Macnaghten identified five victims out of the eleven Whitechapel Murders as “Jack the Ripper” victims, determining that the other six were killed by other people. I don’t agree with his assessment. I don’t think Stride was murdered by the same killer as Nichols, Chapman, and Eddowes, but I think Tabram was. Kelly I go back and forth on, but I tend to think the Ripper killed her.

“No one ever saw the Whitechapel murderer; many homicidal maniacs were suspected, but no shadow of proof could be thrown on any one.”

– The Macnaghten Memorandum

There are five canonical victims. Having detailed my opinions above, I nonetheless ask—why aren’t there five canonical suspects? I think there should be, if for no other reason than symmetry.

But how to whittle a lengthy suspect list down to five? First, I decided since Macnaghten chose the canonical victims, he gets to pick canonical suspects—the three he favors in the Memorandum. One of these is a very good suspect; the other two I personally consider rather weak candidates, but they are taken very seriously by other Ripperologists, and were actively investigated by the contemporary police. They deserve to be canonized.

That leaves two slots. I reviewed as many suspects as I could—all the suspects listed by casebook.org, some that were suggested in the forums, and some I found online. I made notes about the ones I thought were compelling or interesting, and then cut it down to just candidates who were taken seriously by the police at the time. Again, Scotland Yard sucked, but they knew more than we do.

I chose the best two to add to Macnaghten’s suspects. Here are brief descriptions of my personal Five Canonical Suspects.

Montague John Druitt

The first Macnaghten suspect:

“A Mr[.] M. J. Druitt, said to be a doctor & of good family—who disappeared at the time of the Miller’s Court murder, & whose body (which was said to have been upwards of a month in the water) was found in the Thames on 31st December—or about 7 weeks after that murder. He was sexually insane and from private information I have little doubt but that his own family believed him to have been the murderer.”

– The Macnaghten Memorandum

Druitt is taken very seriously by Ripperologists, almost entirely on the basis of Macnaghten’s opinion. He was an Oxford graduate, barrister, and schoolteacher who played a lot of cricket. Druitt was employed by a boarding school; on 30 November 1888, he was suddenly fired for unknown reasons. (Many Ripperologists have come to the conclusion this was because he was gay, but there is no evidence for this.) On 31 December, his body was found in the Thames, a presumed suicide.

And that, believe it or not, is everything we know about Montague John Druitt. He was not a doctor, despite what Macnaghten wrote—not a good sign. If Druitt was indeed “sexually insane,” and his family suspected him of being The Ripper, any evidence of this is long gone. At least four other contemporary authorities claimed that The Ripper had been identified, and drowned in the Thames; none mention Druitt by name, but he seems to be who they were talking about. So it wasn’t just Macnaghten’s opinion.

I don’t think, based on what we know, that Druitt merits much consideration. But I hereby canonize him.

“Kosminski”

The second Macnaghten suspect, and a much better candidate:

“Kosminski— a Polish Jew—& resident in Whitechapel. This man became insane owing to many years indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great hatred of women, specially of the prostitute class, & had strong homicidal tendencies: he was removed to a lunatic asylum about March 1889. There were many circumstances connected with this man which made him a strong ‘suspect[.’]”

– The Macnaghten Memorandum

Macnaghten gives no other information about Mr. Kosminski, and neglects to mention his full name. In his 1910 memoir, Sir Robert Anderson, Assistant Commissioner CID during the Autumn of Terror, says he believes The Ripper to have been a Polish Jew, who had been positively identified by a witness who refused to testify (it has been suggested this was a Jew who wouldn’t give evidence against another Jew). Then, in his personal copy of the memoir, Anderson’s close friend Detective Inspector Donald Swanson wrote in the margins, “…the suspect was sent to Stepney Workhouse and then to Colney Hatch and died shortly afterwards—Kosminski was the suspect.”

In 1987, Ripperologist Martin Fido searched asylum records for any inmates called “Kosminski.” He found just one, an Aaron Kosminski.

Aaron Kosminski was a Polish Jew who emigrated to England circa 1882. He worked as a hairdresser in Whitechapel, and lived on the edge of that neighborhood. In 1891, Kosminski was institutionalized after he threatened his sister with a knife—first at Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, and then the Leavesden Asylum. He died in 1919.

The argument for Kosminski is that he was a local, he was mentally ill, and a witness saw him. One problem is that, according to his doctors, Kosminski wasn’t actually violent. Also, he wasn’t committed until 1891—so why did he stop killing in 1888?

In 2014, a shawl supposedly found on Catherine Eddowes’ body was tested for DNA, and was proclaimed to have both Eddowes’ DNA and Aaron Kosminski’s. But a variety of problems render this “evidence” useless. The shawl has no provenance—there’s no evidence it was Eddowes’ (in fact it’s unlikely an “unfortunate” would wear such an expensive garment); there’s no record of where it was stored for 120 years or who handled it; and the testing only compared mitochondrial DNA from the shawl with that of descendants of Eddowes and Kosminski. Mitochondrial DNA can be used to exclude a suspect, but not to prove an identity. And it’s been alleged that the shawl was handled by Kosminski descendants before it was tested. What’s more, the DNA research hasn’t been peer reviewed.

There’s no proof that Aaron Kosminski was Macnaghten and Swanson’s “Kosminski,” although I tend to think he was. While there were undoubtedly multiple Polish Jews named Kosminski in Whitechapel in 1888, I very much doubt that more than one went to a lunatic asylum. Still, the identification is mere supposition.

Finally, while it’s very Victorian to think masturbation will drive one criminally insane, it won’t. Still, “Kosminsky” is a strong (or less weak?) suspect, and deserves canonization.

Michael Ostrog

The third Macnaghten suspect:

“Michael Ostrog, a Russian doctor, and a convict, who was subsequently detained in a lunatic asylum as a homicidal maniac. This man’s antecedents were of the worst possible type, and his whereabouts at the time of the murders could never be ascertained.”

– The Macnaghten Memorandum

Ostrog (c. 1833–?) was a con artist and thief who used numerous aliases and claimed to be both a count and a doctor. He is known to have committed many petty crimes, but never a murder. Ostrog was committed to the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum in 1891; he was last mentioned alive in 1904, and the date of his death is unknown.

One Ripperologist discovered prison records showing Ostrog was jailed in France during the Autumn of Terror. He was too tall (5’11”) to be the individual seen by witnesses, and it is unclear if he was Russian or Polish, and if he was Jewish.

Weak. But maybe Macnaghten and Swanson knew things we don’t.

Severin Klosowski/George Chapman

George Chapman (1865 – 1903) was born Severin Antoniovich Klosowski in Poland. He was trained as a surgeon in Warsaw. He emigrated to England in 1887.

In London, Klosowski worked as a hairdresser under the name Ludwig Schloski. In 1890, he was employed at a barber shop at the corner of Whitechapel High Street and George Yard. The next year, after the death of their baby, Klosowski and his new wife moved to New Jersey, where he threatened to murder her with a knife. She fled to Whitechapel, and he followed—but they broke up soon after.

Between 1893 and 1894 he assumed the name of George Chapman, taking the surname of his girlfriend (no relation to Annie Chapman). He worked as a hairdresser and barkeep. Chapman successively pretended to marry three women, murdering each one with poison and becoming known as the Borough Poisoner. He was hanged for his crimes in 1903.

When an Inspector Godley arrested Chapman for the murders, Frederick Abberline, lead investigator of the Whitechapel Murders, told him, “You’ve got Jack the Ripper at last!”

“I have been so struck with the remarkable coincidences in the two series of murders that I have not been able to think of anything else for several days past—not, in fact, since the Attorney-General made his opening statement at the recent trial, and traced the antecedents of Chapman before he came to this country in 1888. Since then the idea has taken full possession of me, and everything fits in and dovetails so well that I cannot help feeling that this is the man we struggled so hard to capture fifteen years ago…”

— Frederick Abberline, quoted in The Pall Mall Gazette

Abberline’s points were:

• The murders started after he arrived in England, and stopped when he went to America.
• There were said to have been similar murders in America.
• Chapman was trained as a doctor, and used poison to kill his “wives.” indicating medical knowledge. The Ripper may have had medical training.
• He tried to murder his legal wife with a knife.

Ripperologists have made additional points:

• Chapman was a known serial killer.
• Chapman had regular employment. Since the five canonical murders were all committed on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, it is assumed the Ripper had a job.
• Chapman was single in 1888, leaving him free to prowl the streets at night. His legal wife confirmed he in fact did this when she knew him.
• Based on his many relationships and affairs, it is suggested that Chapman had a strong sexual drive. The Ripper was said to be “sexually insane.”
• He was a violent misogynist, having beaten four of his “wives” and killed three.
• Chapman was a foreigner; The Ripper was described as one on several occasions.
• On the other hand, Chapman/Klosowski was only 23 in 1888; several witnesses described Ripper suspects as older. These suspects spoke English, and it is believed that Klosowski’s English must have been poor or non-existent in 1888.

It has also been pointed out that Chapman’s MO (poisoning) was very different than The Ripper’s (jugulation and evisceration). For a long time, it was believed that serial killers did not change their methods. We now understand this to be false.

I think Chapman is one of the strongest (least weak) suspects, particularly as a proven serial killer.

“The Lodger”/Francis Tumblety

So like anything truly interesting, this one’s complicated.

Stories that one landlord or another rented a room to a strange man who turned out to be Jack the Ripper have percolated ever since the murders. Rumors, novels, and even an Alfred Hitchcock movie have been based on this story.

Self-described “practical detective” and amateur Ripper investigator Forbes Winslow claimed a lodging house keeper named Callaghan told him he’d rented a room to a “G. Wentworth Bell Smith,” who Callaghan claimed was The Ripper. Winslow said he went to the police in 1889—they gave the story no credit.

Famous painter, Ripper enthusiast, and nonsensical “suspect” Walter Sickert claimed to have rented a room in Camden its landlords said had been rented by Jack the Ripper.

In October 1888, Scotland Yard investigated the story of a man in London who abandoned his rented room and left behind a black bag, the contents of which raised the suspicions of police. He had apparently been “slumming,” hanging out in the East End.

On Batty Street, one block from Berner Street, the site of the Stride murder, a tenant asked his landlady to wash a bloodstained shirt, and then disappeared. This was investigated by the police, who, according to two Ripperologists, covered up the affair. They claim this man was Francis Tumblety.

Tumblety’s date and even nation of birth are up for debate. In 1848, young Tumblety was selling pornographic literature in Rochester, New York, and was soon conducting “disreputable” business at a drug store. In Canada in 1857, he was posing as a doctor, and was arrested for selling drugs to induce abortion—he was not charged. In 1860 one of his patients died while taking Tumblety’s medicine. He fled to Boston.

HIs behavior became strange—he started wearing a military uniform, and was known as a local eccentric. By the time he lived in St. Louis, he became increasingly paranoid and viciously misogynist. Because of a poor choice of pseudonym, he was briefly detained as a possible Lincoln assassination conspirator.

Tumblety traveled widely in the 1860s and ‘70s, and rumors accused him of homosexual relationships, which were illegal at the time.

In November 1888, Tumblety was arrested in London for “gross indecency” and “indecent assault,” both of which were Victorian euphemisms for gay relationships. He was charged in connection to the Whitechapel murders on the 12th, three days after the Mary Jane Kelly murder. He made bail on the 16th, and subsequently fled to France and then New York.

The NYPD found Tumblety, but did not arrest him. There was no proof he was Jack the Ripper, and the “gross indecency” charges were not extraditable. It was widely reported he was in New York, but no one could do anything. He fled New York City under the eye of the NYPD, and died a wealthy man in 1903. In 1913, Scotland Yard Chief Inspector John Littlechild called Tumblety “a very likely suspect.”

Ripperologists have made the following key points concerning Tumblety:

• He had a hatred of women and prostitutes.
• He was in London during the Autumn of Terror, and may have been the Batty Street Tenant.
• Tumblety had medical knowledge, from posing as a doctor and from his collection of preserved human body parts, which included quite a number of uteruses in jars.
• He was contemporaneously considered a Ripper suspect by Scotland Yard, and was even detained for it.
• There were no more canonical murders after he fled England.

Some think if Tumblety was a homosexual he could not have been the Ripper, under the belief gay serial killers only murder other gay men. There is no basis for this assertion.

Tumbelty is a very good suspect. He deserves to be canonized.

Some other suspects I found compelling include a pretty good choice, William Henry Bury, and a number of weaker choices—Joseph Barnett, Carl Feigenbaum, Jacob Levy, and Alois Szemeredy.

What do you think? Who would your five canonical suspects be? What would your criteria be? Let me know!