Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper is the name attributed to an unidentified serial killer who claimed the lives of at least five women in the Whitechapel district of London, England in the Autumn of 1888. The five women who are considered canonical Ripper victims were all prostitutes working in London's East End and include Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Mary Jane Kelly. Several other victims who were murdered around this time have also been linked to Jack the Ripper, but there is not enough evidence to assertively link them to Jack the Ripper. The mystery surrounding the murders and the individual who committed them has sparked the public consciousness and debate rages to this day over the true identity of Jack the Ripper.

One of the more popularly touted Ripper suspects was Sir William Gull, personal physician to Queen Victoria. The theory of his involvement was popularized in the 1976 Stephen Knight book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution. The Gull theory was also presented in the 1991-1998 graphic novel series From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. The book series was made into a movie in 2001 starring Johnny Depp with Alien star Ian Holm in the role of Jack the Ripper.

In fiction
A fictionalized version of Jack the Ripper was presented as the central antagonist in Nicholas Meyer's 1979 film Time After Time. Actor David Warner plays John Leslie Stevenson, a colleague of noted author and futurist H.G. Wells who is secretly Jack the Ripper. When Wells invents an operable time machine, Stevenson steals the technology and travels forward through time to the 1970s to continue killing. Wells, played by Cat People star Malcolm McDowell follows Jack the Ripper across time to hunt him down and bring him to justice.

Another version of Jack the Ripper was a key villain in the 1997-1998 Timecop television series. Ian Pascoe, played by actor Tom O'Brien, was a time traveler from the then near future of 2007 who traveled back in time to November of 1888 and killed Sir William Gull, aka, Jack the Ripper. He took the Ripper's place and was responsible for murdering prostitute Catherine Eddowes. TEC agent Jack Logan traveled back in time to capture Pascoe, but the intelligent murderer eluded him, jumping back into the timestream at the last possible moment.

Logan encountered Pascoe a second time when the latter traveled to the year 1958 in a bid to slay actress/starlet Rita Lake. This time however, Pascoe was captured and brought back to TEC headquarters.

Ian Pascoe escaped imprisonment soon after and took Logan's colleague as a hostage. He escaped into the timestream back to Chicago in the year 1928. Logan pursued them and assumed the role of Treasury Department officer Elliott Ness. The two fought one another on the fire escape of a tall building, but Pascoe inadvertently activated Logan's temporal watch, generating a chronal rift. He plunged through the rift and escaped once again.

The Ripper murders were referenced in the 1998 Doctor Who novel Matrix. The cosmic entity known as the Valeyard was believed to have been behind the murders in order to power the Dark Matrix, which fed on the life energies of the dead women in order to generate a physical host form for the Valeyard. The Seventh Doctor, along with his companion, Dorothy Gale "Ace" McShane, combatted the Valeyard's scheme when the Dark Matrix was trapped inside the TARDIS.

An alien Silurian named Madame Vastra once made the claim that she had captured and devoured Jack the Ripper. She considered him "stringy, but tasty all the same". Whether Vastra truly committed such a feat is unknown.

On Smallville, an immortal mad scientist named Curtis Knox has appeared at different key points in history. A photograph from 1888 implies that he may have been Jack the Ripper.

Legacy
The Showtime series Penny Dreadful makes reference to Jack the Ripper, though it is set three years after the Ripper murders. In the first episode, "Night Work", a vicious murder takes place, leaving some to believe that the Ripper might still be at large. The back-end of the season however, revealed the true perpetrator, who was not Jack the Ripper. A likeness of Jack the Ripper was presented in wax at Putney's Family Waxworks in season two.

The British period drama Ripper Street, was inspired by the infamous Jack the Ripper murders, and used actual historical figures and events and presented them in fictional stories. The series actually takes place following the murders, but "Ripper Fever" still hangs heavy in the air, and as other murders are committed, there are those left wondering if Jack has returned.

Actor Jimmie Walker provided the voice for Soap Beatty on the 1996 video game Ripper, which draws inspiration from the legend of Jack the Ripper.

Ripper victims
Although the list of Ripper victims have been theorized to rise as high as twelve, or even fifteen, there are five specific women who are considered the canonical five victims. It has been established through evidence that these five women were all murdered by the same person.


 * 1) Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols (43) - August 31st, 1888 - Found at Buck's Row (Durward Street).
 * 2) Annie Chapman (47) - September 8th, 1888 - Found at 29 Hanbury Street.
 * 3) Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride (44) - September 30th, 1888 - Found at Dutfield's Yard at Berner Street
 * 4) Catherine "Kate" Eddowes (46) - September 30th, 1888 - Found at south corner of Mitre Square.
 * 5) Mary Jane Kelly (25) - November 9th, 1888 - Found at 13 Miller's Court, Dorset Street.