10 Outrageous Jack The Ripper Suspect Theories

Was he a children's author? A Satanist? German?

Some call him The Whitechapel Murderer. Some call him Leather Apron. Most call him Jack The Ripper. All we know is...well, actually, for a historical figure so famous and with so much ink spilt over, we really don't know a whole lot about the serial killer who stalked the sex workers of impoverished 1800s London. People can't even agree on how many people the guy killed, as some stick with the so-called "canonical five" whilst others lump in every gruesome murder of a prostitute they can think of (including one that happened in 1891...in New York). The most enduring mystery of all, however, is who Jack The Ripper actually was. It's one of the longest unsolved mysteries in the history of the Met, and not one they intentionally covered up for once - or did they...? Academics, historians and billy-no-mates on the internet alike all have their pet theories on who exactly "Jack" was, employing an alchemical blend of analysis, hearsay, and just grabbing random names out of the hat. The most recent fingered culprit is Polish barber Aaron Kosminski, whom some rich dude with too much time on his hands apparently confirmed with some dodgy-sounding DNA tests. There's a bunch of reasons the Kosminski evidence is probably crapola (for one thing, if he was serious - and serious about the "pioneering" technology used - he probably wouldn't have announced it in the Daily Mail), which is good for us, because it means we can keep wildly speculating about who the Whitechapel Murderer really was. Children's author? Satanist? German? All of those and more are included in our ten most outrageous Jack The Ripper theories. Which people actually believe. Seriously.
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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/