Understanding the Jack the Ripper

Serial murder is an ancient crime with premodern roots as documented in my book, Monsters, Legends or Serial Murderers. Jack the Ripper was the first modern serial murderer and probably the most well-known and infamous serial killer of all time, thanks in large part to the Jack the Ripper correspondence.

This correspondence included mostly postmarked letters, but also postcards, telegram and telegraph forms, and other modes of writing. They were sent to a variety of recipients, such as Scotland Yard, the Criminal Investigation Division, the London Metropolitan Police, Sir Charles Warren, Inspector Detective Abberline, newspapers like the Times of  London and magazines like the Weekly Digest.’

Typically beginning with the salutation “Dear Boss,” the letters taunted the police, bragged about the killer’s invulnerability, reveled in the details of past murders and predicted the location and time of future murders. Derision was typically directed against the Crown, the police, newspapers, Sir Charles Warren and Scotland Yard.

These letters became infamous due to a confluence of circumstances. The invention of printing from moveable type created written mass communication in the form of the Penny Press just as the social disruption produced by industrialization produced new crimes.

It was theorized that the avalanche of letters began with one written by a newspaperman and published in his newspaper under the name, “Jack the Ripper.”  Serial publications like daily newspapers required serial stories, and lurid and sensational crimes like serial murder fit the bill quite nicely, to be sure.

Beginning in September of 1888, letters were received. From a half-dozen in that first month to several score a month through the end of 1888, and including 1889 and even later letters, approximately 250 written messages were produced and transmitted. A large number of the letters contains artwork, and at least one out of every four letters were bloodstained, probably usually animal blood.