the name of an unidentified murderer of at least seven women, all prostitutes, in the East End of
London,
England, between August and November 1888. The murders
constitute one of the most notorious unsolved
mysteries of
English crime. In each
murder, the
victim's throat was slashed and the
body mutilated in a manner that suggested the murderer had considerable
knowledge of human
anatomy. The
police received taunting
notes from a person
calling himself "
Jack the Ripper" and put great
effort into identifying and capturing the
killer, all to no
avail. A sizable literature has grown up about
Jack the Ripper and one of the theories
advanced as to the murderer's identity was that he was a
doctor.
nickname of an unknown
criminal, to whom is attributed a
series of gruesome murders in the east end of
London (1888 - 89).