10 Theories About The Identity Of Jack The Ripper

Inspector Frederick Abberline, a key figure in the investigation, also suggested a female killer was possible, after one victim was claimed to have been seen walking in Whitechapel even after she had been killed. Abberline believed it possible the killer had taken the victim's clothes.

There was one female suspect at the time of the Ripper murders: Mary Pearcey.

Pearcy had something of an unfortunate existence, and by the late 1880s was involved with Frank Hogg, who cheated on her as much as she herself had cheated on him. Despite their gallivanting, Pearcy became enraged when her lover got another woman pregnant, then wed her as Hogg continued his relationship with Pearcy. She was so enraged that she lured Phoebe Styles to her home on the promise of tea, then slashed her throat, nearly decapitating her, and smothered her infant child — whose body she then tossed into the street.

The murderess was hanged in 1890, and was claimed to have stated that “My sentence is a just one, but a good deal of the evidence against me was false.” She also instructed her solicitor to place an add in a Spanish newspaper, which read "M.E.C.P. Last wish of M.E.W. Have not betrayed.”

While "M.E.W." is likely to stand for Mary Eleanor Wheeler, her birth name, the rest of the message has never been explained.