General Chat

A 55 year old from Newcastle who has been researching her family tree believes she may have uncovered Jack the Ripper amongst her ancestors.
A distant relative with a knowledge of butchery and a history of violence towards women left Whitechapel in London at the same time the murders ended and moved to Hartlepool changing his name.
Strangely he lied about his London background claiming he had moved from Devon and his relative says he was clearly running away from something.
Forensic expert Norman Kirtlan who has spent years investigating the murders say the new suspect named as William Belcher is the most credible suspect to date.

The case will be featured in Fred Dineage's ' Murder Casebook' on Crime & Investigation network at 9.00pm on 5th November

Funny you should say that....there was a case in the newspapers, at the time of the ripper murders, about similar murders in the north east? After reading them, a few years ago, I noted the similarity with the White chapel murders and the fact that they had stopped in that particular area. I did wonder why the two had not been linked.

Had seen the trailer for this programme and thought
it would be very interesting to watch.

Emma :-)

Not sure if it was Belcher, but remember an investigation of the various suspects on a TV programme fairly recently. Thye came up with a very likely person.

They have often said he or she must have had a good knowledge of surgery. Wasn't some of the cutting a bit too fine and meticulous for a butcher? I must try and revisit the evidence, because so much has been written and considered since these atrocities.

The husband of one of my ancestors was a suspect, just because he wandered about in the evenings and spoke to working class women. He was a lawyer by profession and a poet. He would have had great difficulty in carving the Sunday roast, I would have thought.

That's very strange, Susan. I wonder if we will discover the truth after all this time

I only wish I could remember where the newspapre clippings are.......will have a look when I have more time :-)

There were also similar murders on the continent at that time and a possible Jewish conection (graffiti on a wall nearby that suggested a Jew had committed the offences - supressed by police and immediately removed because there was a lot of anti Semitism at that time in East End). Recently a man with a very German name has been put in the frame. And a Polish Jew called "Kominski" has long been a likely suspect.

Yes, the north east link seems new and interesting.

Every few years a new theory comes up.

And one of the best claimed that he did far more murders that those he was attributed to.

And when you think about it that is right. Very few serial killers of this nature start with that level of violence straight away.

With no sophisticated criminologists and lets be honest, fully trained police with some savvy, those crimes were never going to be solved unless they stumbled on the Ripper in action. The crime scenes were never kept, public and police trampled all over the place. It was a shambles compared to the policing methods of today.

I shall be watching and will enjoy as usual.