A classmate of mine told me in all earnestness on Friday that Mr. Ripper traveled to the US after his last murder in London to continue his spree. I have never heard this particular theory, but my classmate is convinced there is evidence to back this up.
So does anyone know of any evidence to support (or better yet, debunk) this?
No one knows for a fact who Jack the Ripper was, or what he did prior or subsequent to the Whitechapel murders. Anything in this regard is pure speculation.
Your classmate is probably referring to Ripper suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety. Since as noted the identity of JtR is unknown it is impossible to say with absolute certainty either that JtR never came to the US or that JtR did.
It’s true that nobody knows for certain whio the Ripper was. However the prime suspect at the time was one Francis Tumblety, an American living in London. He returned to America shortly after the last Ripper murder. The murders certainly stopped when he left, butn they had only been going on for a few weeks before that. Most serious commentators consider him the most likely suspect.
I’ve heard other theories about who JtR was, but I can’t remember why the man we’re talking about here was ruled out. Sorry I don’t remember better. For that matter, it was a special on TV (though it was a thorough one), so that may be a strike against it.
Writer Patricia Cornwell claimed to prove that JtR was Walter Sickert in her book *Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed *.
… unfortunately her conclusions have been described by some as, to coin a phrase, a load of bollocks.
There’s a rather good site here which has lots of info about the Ripper murders, the police investigations and London in general in the 1880’s. It also has a discussion board where people can rehearse all the theories about JtR’s identity.
Dr Tumblety is mentioned among the suspects but he doesn’t seem to cut the mustard among the Ripperologist fraternity.
I read Patricia Cornwall’s book. I think she makes a case (with mitochondrial DNA) that Sickert may have sent some of the Ripper letters to the police, but the particular letters in question are not believed to have been authentic. IOW, Cornwall’s evidence shows that Sickert may have amused himself by writing some hoax Ripper letters, but it doesn’t really show that he committed the murders.
Your classmate might also have been referring to the 1891 Ripper-esque murder of a New York prostitute called “Old Shakespeare,” the perpetrator of which was never found. At the time, many people said it was the Ripper, although of course there’s no proof one way or the other.
Cite?
My sister, a fan of Cornwell’s fiction, gave me a copy of her Jack the Ripper book. My response: Not only does she not make a dispositive case (ie: a case made so thouroughly as to convincingly rule out all other explanations), she doesn’t even make a plausible case for her theory. It is, as seosamh noted, bollocks.
So IOW, there weren’t any murders in the US following the Ripper murders that fit Jack’s MO?
The impression I got from my classmate was that there were just tons of murders that were done by Mr. Ripper and that I was the last person on earth to have heard about it.
Nope. Just one, as mentioned above.
Probably just played this PC Game
I seem to recall that in one the books I’ve read on the subject, a note that one “possible” was hung for murder in the US some years later, and his last words were “I was Jack the–”.
I can’t recall either his name or the source.
That was Dr Thomas Neil Cream: From Wikipedia:
I read a semi-interesting (but probably fictional, alas) that Jack wasn’t actually a mass-murderer, but targetting a specific fallen woman who was his mother. (Hiding a tree in a forest, or something, as Pirot might have said.)
Of course he did!
Haven’t you people read the Batman “alternative world” graphic novel Gotham by Gaslight?
I believe that support for Dr. Tumblety as the prime suspect for Jack the Ripper comes mainly from the book “Jack the Ripper: First American Serial Killer” by Stewart Evans and Paul Gainey.
Stewart Evans was a historical consultant for the movie From Hell, even though the Alan Moore book is based on another, entirely different book and theory. However, in the special features for From Hell they go into possible suspects for JtR and put particular emphasis on the Evans and Gainey theory. Specifically, they claim that a series of murders were committed in the Caribbean in the “style” of JtR.
Conclusion: Your friend watched From Hell on DVD with the special features and fell for their version of the Tumblety theory.