He was the first serial killer of modern times, but his identity was never discovered. This pseudonym was attributed to the murderer who killed at least five prostitutes in London, England, between August and November 1888. “The name Jack the Ripper appeared in letters sent to the police. The publication of some of these letters, in the hope that someone would recognize the handwriting, increased the killer’s fame”, says historian Robert Haggard, of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, in Charlottesville, in the United States. It has never been proven whether the letters were actually written by the criminal or by someone trying to pull off a prank. The sinister nickname “Ripper” was justified by the fact that the victims were mutilated and had their viscera exposed. The failure to solve the murders led to the resignation of the London Police Commissioner.
The suspicion also arose that the police were withholding information to protect the criminal, who was someone from high society or even a member of the royal family. Last year, DNA tests carried out on the letters supposedly sent by Jack raised the hypothesis that the British painter Walter Sickert would have written them, being the real killer. But the argument was considered inconclusive by historians.
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