Thomas Hayne Cutbush

Thomas was a a violent man with serious mental health issues; he suffered syphilis and paranoid delusions. He was first mentioned by The Sun newspaper in connection to the Ripper investigation. On March 5th 1891, Thomas was detained as a wandering lunatic at Lambeth Infirmary. Florence Grace Johnson was stabbed by Thomas and he also attempted to stab Isabelle Frazer Anderson. Thomas was arrested for this and declared insane and was sent to Broadmoor Asylum. He was also the nephew of a senior Met Police Officer, which could explain how he got away with the murders, had he been the Ripper. Thomas’ Uncle, Charles Henry Cutbush shot himself as he stated that he knew all along that Thomas was the Ripper.

Montague John Druitt

Druitt was a doctor that went missing after the death of Mary Kelly. However, it is debated as to whether he was actually a doctor. He was sexually insane and it is alleged that his own family believed him to be the Ripper. Druitt was a Barrister and also worked as a schoolmaster at George Valentine’s Boarding School but was dismissed in November 1888 for unspecified ‘serious trouble’. His body washed up in the Thames on December 31st 1888, at the age of 31 and the coroner’s verdict was that he died from suicide by drowning whilst of unsound mind. Druitt left his brother a suicide note that stated he was scared he was going insane, like his mother and it would best for him to die. It is most likely that Druitt killed himself due to his dismissal and not because he was guilty of the Ripper Murders.

Aaron Kosminski

Kosminski was described as a Polish Jew and a Whitechapel resident. He was insane and had a strong hatred for women, especially prostitutes. It is also alleged that he had strong homicidal tendencies however, this is refuted due to the fact that when he was in lunatic asylums, he showed no violent tendencies. The only time he showed slight violence is when he picked up a chair to throw at an attendant. In March 1889, he was taken to a lunatic asylum and many believed he died not long after. However, this is untrue, Kosminski died in 1919. High ranking officers in the investigation believed that Kosminski was the Ripper, although there was not a lot of evidence against him. There was a witness against Kosminski, however they were also Jewish and refused to give evidence as they didn’t want another Jewish person to be hanged. Kosminski was a schizophrenic, delusional, paranoid and incoherent person that believed a higher power spoke to him.

Micheal Ostrog

Ostrog was a Russian doctor and convict who was detained in a lunatic asylum as a homicidal maniac. His whereabouts during the murders could never be ascertained, however it is possible that he was imprisoned in France at the time. He was a petty thief and con artist but the only recorded act of violence from Ostrog was in 1873 when he pulled a revolver on a police officer. He was described as having a clever head, good education and polished manners. The Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum registered Ostrog as a Jewish Surgeon and he was discharged from the asylum on March 10th 1883 and disappeared. Ostrog was then apprehended in April 1891 and was described as suicidal but not dangerous.

George Chapman

George Chapman was originally born Severin Klosowski and qualified as a Junior Surgeon in Poland in 1887. Klosowski’s arrival in England coincided with the start of the murders. He had lodged in George Yard where the first murder was committed and the UK ripper murders ceased when he went to America. On his arrival in America, similar murders started up there. Carrie Brown’s body was found mutilated in a hotel room in New York, very similar to the Ripper MO. However, no other murders of the time seemed to fit into the same category.

In 1889, Klosowski married Lucy Baderski and became a barber in Whitechapel then moved to America. He met another woman named Annie Chapman but she left him in 1894 and he changed his name to George Chapman. He then met Mary Spink who died in 1897. Bessie Taylor died February 1901. Maud Marsh died October 1902. George Chapman was arrested, tried and executed for murder by poisoning in April 1903.

Francis Tumblety

Tumblety was described by others as an American Quack. He was arrested in connection with unnatural offences in 1888 and was remanded on bail but he skipped bail and went to Boulogne. Tumblety sailed to New York where he was kept under surveillance. He collected specimens, which included uteri, and he also fiercely denounced all women, especially ‘fallen’ women. People that knew Francis believed him to be Jack the Ripper. It is also believed that he committed suicide. However, there is no evidence he ever visited Whitechapel or that he was violent and he didn’t match descriptions.

James Maybrick

In 1992, a Liverpool Scrap Merchant produced a journal that was believed to have belonged to James Maybrick, a Liverpool Cotton Merchant. Within the journal, Maybrick referred to his wife as ‘the bitch’ and ‘the whore’ due to an affair that he believed she was having. Due to his anger and frustration, he commenced a murder spree. The journal ends, “I give my name that all know of me, so history do tell, what love can do to a gentle man born. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper”. However, there is no actual proof that James was the author of this journal and the forensic assessments of the journal came back as in-conclusive. Not all of the info in the journal is factually correct and appears to be copied from the press reports. In 1993 Albert Johnson purchased an antique gold watch which had the victims initials, J. Maybrick and ‘I am Jack’ scratched on the back.

The Royal Ripper – Prince Albert Victor

Prince Albert is another suspect. He was insane due to contracting Syphilis of the brain. He was a keen deer hunter and would’ve possessed the anatomical knowledge needed to disembowel his victims. One of the theories is that Albert went crazy because of the Syphilis and became a killer. However, there has been evidence that Albert wasn’t around at the time of the murders. Another theory is that Albert had a secret and illegal marriage with a Catholic woman, Annie Crook and they had a daughter. When the Royal Family found out about this, they had Annie incarcerated in an asylum and given a lobotomy to destroy her memory. However, Annie had already told some of her friends. One of these was Mary Kelly, the rumor is that she fled to the East End and plotted to blackmail the goverment with a group of prostitutes. So, to silence the women, the Prime Minister – Robert Cecil – found them, dragged them into a carriage, mutilated them and dumped the bodies. However, medical evidence does not support this theory.

Walter Sickert

Walter Sickert was an artist that painted scenes of murdered women. Many authors have named Sickert as a suspect but most only mention him as a possible accomplice. Patricia Cornwell believed that Sickert was in fact the ripper and she applied modern day forensics to the case. Using the stamps from the ripper letters and stamps/letters she believed Sickert had licked, she found a possible match. However, the DNA comparisons focused on mitochondrial DNA so this can be shared by 1%-10% of the population so it’s not a unique match to Sickert. Cornwell also claimed that childhood operations had left Sickert impotent and with a pathological hatred of women. However, these claims were denied by the hospital and his first wife divorced him due to his adultery with several mistresses and he also fathered a child. Sickert may not have even been in England at the time, there are rumors that he may have been in France.

Thomas Neill Cream

Thomas Neill Cream was a doctor who specialised in abortions. He was previously imprisoned in Illinois for poisoning the husband of his mistress. He then came to the UK and killed again, for which he received the death penalty. He was hanged at Newgat Prison in 1892. Cream is a suspect as legend states that the last words he said before his death were, “I am Jack the…”. However, he was imprisoned at the time of some of the murders and it’s unusal for a serial killer to change the way in which they kill.

Dr. Henry Howard Holmes

H.H.Holmes was an American serial killer who killed 27 people (possibly up to 200) in his murder castle. In 1888, Holmes travelled to London with an assistant. This puts Holmes in London during the murders and when he left, the murders stopped. The theory is that he was grooming his assistant to become a serial killer too. Elizabeth Stride was seen with two men before she was murdered. H.H.Holmes wrote a diary claiming to have killed prostitutes whilst in London.

Mary Pearcey

There is also the theory that Jack the Ripper was in fact Jill the Ripper. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed that it could be a woman posing as a midwife, this would explain why a she would be walking around covered in blood and nobody would bat an eyelid. Mary Pearcey murdered her lover’s wife and child. Ian Findlay, an Australian scientist, stated that swabs from the ripper letters showed that the murderer could be female.

Other Possibilities

■Lewis Carroll – Author, classes as a sexual deviant/Paedophile – Photographed children nude or semi-nude. 

■William Henry Bury – Murdered and mutilated his prostitute wife and lived in Whitechappel

■John Pizer – Leather Apron – Assaulted and blackmailed prostitutes

■Frederick Bailey Deeming – Sailor – Murdered two wives and four children

■James Kelly – Stabbed his wife to death – thought she was a prostitute who gave him venereal disease

■Charles Cross – First on Scene