Historical Events  People
Jack the Ripper

Alternate:
Jack the Ripper killed 7 women

Current:
Jack the Ripper killed 5 women

Officially, how many victims?

Jack the Ripper's crimes still send shivers down the spine today. It was a hard life for most Londoners back then, and there were many murders in the extreme-poverty stricken streets. Officially, the police have records 5 as being done by him, but most people remember 7, and some 11. Many records from the investigation were destroyed in the London blitz of WW2.

The press were all over the killings, and, as today, eager to dramatise and exaggerate anything they thought would sell more newspapers. Whilst not as extreme as the hoax War of the Worlds Mandela Effect, it is conceivable they reported more murders as being "by Jack" for this purpose.

The murders were never solved, and although the police did link others to the official 5, that is the number on record.

Whitechapel murders

More than 2,000 people were interviewed, and 80 detained. Even a vigilante group was formed comprised of concerned citizens, who patrolled the area at night. This was partly due to the people's dissatisfaction at the police handling of the situation. At the time, he wasn't called Jack the Ripper because it wasn't coined until later. He was called the Whitechapel Murderer and sometimes the Leater Apron.

Victims

His victims were mainly prostitutes from poor areas, and he cut their throats before mutilating their abdominal areas. He removed certain internal organs in a manner which suggested a strong knowledge of anatomy, which led the authorities to believe he had some kind of medical training. The name Jack The Ripper came from the signature of a letter the police received during the source of these murders, before then he'd been referred to a The Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron. That letter is now believed to be a hoax and might even have been written by journalists in order to whip up more public frenzy and sell more newspapers.

The five victims known to have been definitely killed by Jack the Ripper are known as the "canonical five". 

However, interest in the case is such that new evidence and theories are still being investigated to this day. As recently as 2019 new DNA evidence is being examined. The lack of motive, and the savagery of the murders, is the key to keeping this terrifying eposide in London's past in the public eye.

It may be that with this ongoing interest, some of the 11 murders in total might become attributed to the Ripper, rather than the office 5 as at present.