Who was Jack the Ripper?!

My interest in the subject was reanimated after seeing a television series starring Michael Caine. Could this be a true and correct reconstruction of   the crimes that happened in Whitechapel in 1888? I was determined to find out!

It must be said that conducting research into this subject was difficult in extreme. Not only do I (the researcher) live in another country from (hat in which the murders took place, but I also live in another century. Separated by half a world and a^ hundred years does not make for an easy task^ Also, assuming that the identity of (he Ripper';

could be discovered, there was little chance of bringing him to justice. With these thoughts in' mind, I ventured forth to the local library.

What I found were three books on the subject:

The Crimes, Detection & Death  of Jack The Ripper; Jack the Ripper, the Bloody Truth; and The Ripper Legacy, The Life and Death of Jack the Ripper (perhaps the authors were paid based on the length of the title). Each book gave a descrip�tion of the murders (they all agree that there were at least 5 by the same hand), a rundown of previ�ous theories (by which they meant that all previous theories are wrong) and then trium�phantly proclaimed the mystery solved. Considering that all three books and the television had different answers, it has to be that someone was wrong (or perhaps even all four!).

And now for those readers totally ignorant of the Ripper, a bit of the background. In the year 1888, five prostitutes were brutally murdered in Spitalfields and Whitechapel, both inner city sub�urbs of London. They were Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Marie Kelly. All women were killed in the period between August and November of that year. All victims were mutilated in various de�grees by someone using a fool long knife or equivalent instrument. In each case the murderer killed and then vanished with a minimum of clues. The "Ripper" was never caught and his identity was never revealed.

Spitalfields and Whitechapel were slum areas of London in which the poor and down-and-out lived. �migr�s from Central and Eastern Europe and Asia settled there. There were hundreds of brothels and pubs serving both the local clientele and visitors from the middle and upper classes who enjoyed whoring and slumming it. Unem�ployment, crime and disease were rife.

There were two police forces involved: the City, which had authority over the central city area of London; and the Metropolitan, which had au�thority over the rest of the metropolitan area. The murders took place on the boundary of their juris�dictions, causing friction between the two forces.

At the lime and down the years, there have been many theories about the identity of the Rip�per. Some thought him to be a mad immigrant, a mad butcher/leather worker (after the name "leather apron"), a mad doctor/lawyer (driven sex�ually insane by too much masturbation), a Russian secret agent, a friend of the Duke of Clarence, (he Duke of Clarence himself. Freemasons and even black magicians were also suspected.

Now, let's look at the conclusions of the three books mentioned.

Martin Howclls and Keith Skinner think that Montague John Druitt did it. He worked as a school teacher in Blackheath and then as a lawyer in London in premises not far from the murders. His corpse was found in the Thames some weeks after the murders. He is named as a suspect by a policeman who joined the force six months after the murders took place. While their evidence is not that strong about Druitt being the Ripper, it does suggest that he was killed by his family or "friends", who thought he was the Ripper.

Mclvin Harris thinks Dr Roslyn D'Onston did it. He was a black magician who succeeded in convincing two women he lived with, that he was the Ripper (but perhaps this was just a means of keeping them in line). Harris docs a marvelous job of debunking and demolishing other theories about the Ripper (he also wrote a book called "Sorry, You've Been Duped!") but his evidence about D'Onston is anecdotal and hinges upon the Doctor spelling the word JUWES correctly.

Martin Fido thinks that Nathan Kaminsky (alias David Cohen) did it Fido's book is the most re�searched and detailed. His argument is the Police Commissioner of the time did know who the mur�derer was, but didn't say as it would serve no cause to do so. Why? Because this suspect (as supposed by Fido and the Commissioner) was placed in an insane asylum at the same time the murders ceased and died the next year. Fido docs some extensive detective work to match Nathan Kaminsky with asylum inmate David Cohen. While this is a reasonable approach (and explains why the murders stopped) it is the least satisfying as we don't know any real detail about the sus�pect

The TV series presented Sir William Gull as the murderer, as accompanied by a cab driver called Netley. After reading the above books 1 knew (hat this was clearly wrong, as it was a variation of the "Freemasons Conspiracy" as proposed by Stephen Knight. This was thoroughly debunked by Harris and Fido. Also, it got a lot of the details WRONG.

It seemed then, that I was left none (he wiser for my investigation into the subject. Many theo�ries were proposed, but none could be conclusively proved due to the passing of time. Was Jack's identity to remain a mystery to me? I thought so, until a chance event proved me wrong.

Carol was reading another library book one evening while I was watching television. I asked what she was reading and she replied that it was a book about London's Japanese community. I thought nothing of this at the time. Then, the next day Carol remarked that it was a little known fact that there had been a Shinto mission in East Lon�don in the late 1880's. Having just read about this period my interest was raised and I browsed through the book. It was there that I (with Carol's help) made the astonishing discovery that solved the riddle of who was Jack the Ripper.

There was on one page a photo showing the registry of an East London mission. Just barely legible (in Japanese and English scrawl) were the title of the mission and the some of the names of those registered there. The title was "Orange Blos�som Temple, George Yard". This was a street in Spitalfields. Two of the names listed were: Eliza�beth Stride and Janet Kelly. These were (he names (Janet is an alias of Marie) of two of the Rippers victims. Could there be a connection?

I read further and discovered that some of the overseas missions had developed cults of their own that deviated from pure Shinto and were closed down either by the local authorities or by Japan. One such was the Orange Blossom Temple in London (in George Yard between Wentworth and Whitechapel Roads), which in 1888 was burnt to the ground three times and finally closed in De�cember of that year. Slowly the pieces fell together. By a process of inventive induction I have found the identity of Jack the Ripper.

Yes, after one hundred years the truth was fi�nally out. Jack the Ripper was not one man, but five women!

All five of the "victims" had converted to Shinto as promoted by the local mission. Unfortu�nately for the women the high priest .was one Warui Jingu (who was rumoured to be an exiled Samurai), spreading his own brand of corrupted Shinto. This cult snared hundreds of Asians living in the east end and a few Europeans as well. All of the "victims" were prostitutes and were used by Jingu to gain revenue for the Temple.

After a number of attacks on the mission, in�cluding one in which it was burnt to the ground, Jingu planned counter demonstrations to show the public that (he Temple could not be intimidated. One by one he ordered his prostitutes to commit sepaku - ritual suicide. They were chosen because they were European and hence would make a greater impact than if a fellow Japanese or Chi�nese died. If you look at a map of the area, the location of the temple is approximately at the center of the murders.

Each woman was accompanied by either Jingu or an assistant to their place of death. Each would then ritually disfigure, mutilate and disembowel themselves for the honour of Jingu, much as in the same manner Buddhist monks set themselves alight during the Vietnam war this century. After each suicide, the atten�dant would collect the ritual swords and quickly leave. This pattern was followed for the first four "murders".

In consistence with this pattern, it is interest�ing to note how certain possessions of Annie Chapman were laid at her feet, in an ordered and ritual manner.

It is interesting to note that on the night that both Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were murdered, graffiti was found near Eddowes' body that read:

The Juwes arc The men
That Will not
be Blamed
for nothing

This was quickly written down and erased be�fore any photographic record was taken. Could it be that the word "Juwcs" was actually a misspell�ing of "Jingues", a term used to describe Jingu's followers? Perhaps this was not written by a Eu�ropean hand. This would explain the awkwardness of the grammar.

'Kate the Contortionist' was one alias that Catherine Eddowes was known by in the district (no doubt referring to sexual prowess). It was due to these startling abilities (hat she was able to cut out her own kidney while dying a hideous and painful death. The kidney was of course mailed to Mr Lusk (a local vigilante) with a "suicide" note.

The fifth (and last) suicide was different. The book notes that Jingu disappeared about early No�vember in 1888. One can only speculate, that in his madness, Jingu had forgotten one important item in the suicides - leaving a suicide note. When Jingu finally realized this he may have visited Marie Kelly only to discover himself to be too late and that she too had committed suicide. In a fit of rage, he finished the job and then�vanished. Per�haps in his despair he committed suicide and joined his ancestors. We will never know.

I had been up late one Friday night studying this work for clues and finally went to bed. On the Sat�urday I awoke very late and discovered the book had gone. Cathy, Carol's friend had been staying with us and as afavour she returned some library books that were due that day. The missing book was one of these. When I approached the library the following Monday, I was told that they had no ref�erence of any such book in any of their records.

Perhaps, through some strange twist of fate, the book was misplaced on (he shelves and a com�puter glitch erased its record. Perhaps, there are still followers of Warui Jingu out there prepared to steal such things and cover up afterwards. 1 dare not think of such things as this leads into all sons of engrossing conspiracy theories. Perhaps I will never know, but at least I know now the identity of the Ripper. He doesn't have one, as he never existed.

So there you are, the true identity of "Jack the Ripper". Contrary to what was said in the first paragraph, the name of the "man" is not revealed in this paragraph. Now you (referring to all those who decided to read this paragraph after reading the first) will have to read the whole article.