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Archive of the Unknown: Jack the Ripper… the Phantom Who Cut Through the Fog of London and Evaded Justice
Welcome back to the “Archive of the Unknown,” where we travel back in time to chase the specters that haunt the dark alleys of history, refusing to reveal their faces. After wandering deep in the ocean with the Malaysian flight, we return to dry land, specifically to London in 1888. That year, the fog was not the only thing enveloping the impoverished Whitechapel district; there was also a terror walking on two feet, clad in a long coat and carrying a black bag, leaving behind traces that time has not erased. Prepare to walk through the narrow, cobblestone streets, as we delve into the world’s most infamous and mysterious criminal case: the file of Jack the Ripper.
The story begins on a cold August night when the body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered in one of Whitechapel’s dark alleys. This was not an ordinary murder; the brutality and surgical precision with which the crime was committed were chilling. Victims followed one after another within a few short weeks: Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and finally, Mary Jane Kelly.
Five victims known as “the canonical five” were all killed in the same manner: throat slit ear to ear, followed by meticulous dismemberment and the removal of internal organs, skills only possessed by a professional surgeon or an expert butcher, all in the dead of night and near police patrols that heard not a single scream.
As London sunk into a pool of fear, press and police offices began receiving mysterious letters written in red ink, mocking investigators’ inability to catch the killer. One of these letters, signed with the infamous name “Jack the Ripper,” enclosed half of a human kidney, which the killer claimed to have eaten the other half, assuring that the murders would not stop. The Whitechapel district turned into the stage for the largest manhunt of the Victorian era; police dogs were employed for the first time, thousands of citizens volunteered for patrol, and hundreds of stories spread about a man wearing a top hat vanishing into the fog as soon as anyone approached him.
But the question that still baffles scientists and historians after more than 130 years is: Who was Jack the Ripper? Theories abound, and the list of suspects stretches into the hundreds. Some accused Aaron Kosminski, a Polish barber living in the area who suffered from mental disorders, with recent DNA analyses suggesting a shawl found near one of the victims leads back to him, despite skepticism about the accuracy of these results. Others have gone so far as to implicate members of the British royal family, specifically Prince Albert Victor, alleging his involvement in an illicit affair that the palace wanted to cover up by eliminating witnesses. Some even believed the killer was a distinguished doctor or even a woman with a warped mind against society.
In 1888, precisely after the murder of the fifth victim, the crimes abruptly ceased as they had begun. Jack the Ripper vanished, leaving behind only legends. Did he die? Was he imprisoned in a mental asylum? Or did he simply decide to stop killing after satisfying his twisted desire? His case remained “open and unresolved” in Scotland Yard’s records, making Jack the Ripper the archetype of the modern serial killer, the man who demonstrated that fog can conceal secrets that the light of truth can never penetrate. Thus, we close the file on the “Unknown Surgeon of London” in the Archive of the Unknown, leaving the echoes of his footsteps resonating in the alleys of Whitechapel, a reminder of evil that was never defeated.
