All language subtitles for The UnXplained s04e14 The Hunt for Jack the Ripper.eng

WILLIAM SHATNER:
A shadowy killer stalking women in the night.

Who savagely
mutilated his victims

and left a bloody legacy

that shocked the world.

There have been many serial
killers throughout history.

But perhaps none is more
infamous than Jack the Ripper.

Yet, almost 140 years
after terrorizing

the streets of London,
the mystery still remains...

Who was Jack the Ripper?

How did he evade justice?

And why does
he still fascinate us?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Over the course
of nine harrowing weeks,

the city was rocked by a series

of horrific murders...

...committed by
an unknown killer.

The scene
of these terrible crimes

was a neighborhood of
London known as Whitechapel.

LYNN PICKNETT:
This one smallish area at the East End of London,

Whitechapel, was a magnet

for not only
the very poor people,

people who had menial jobs,

for example,
but also the actually destitute.

The people
who had reached the very

bottom rung of the ladder.

Who had nothing but the clothes
they stood up in, often.

And, basically, you had

domestic violence,
theft, and murder.

Whitechapel was
an area where you had

a lot of homeless drifters.

You had what were known
as the common lodging houses,

and this is
where the drifters ended up.

It cost fourpence
for a common lodging house.

You paid it to the keeper
of the lodging house,

and then you could get your bed.

PICKNETT:
Fourpence sounds like a very small amount of money.

But if you had nothing at all,
it was quite something.

Society had very stringent
rules about women earning

or having money, so many women
turned to prostitution

as a way to make
ends meet in those days.

Because there was literally
nothing else for them to do.

MARK SAFARIK: If you look at
Whitechapel in the late 1800s,

you have women
who would not normally engage

in prostitution

sometimes hawking
their bodies to make

any kind of money just to get,
perhaps, a bed for the night.

So these would be
high-risk victims.

Under the cover of darkness,
going with people

they don't know

into dark remote areas
of alleyways

becomes
highly dangerous for them...

...very low risk
for the offender.

It's a deadly combination
for these women.

SHATNER:
In the early morning hours

of August 31, 1888,

two delivery men were walking
to work in Whitechapel,

when they made
a gruesome discovery.

They found the body of
43-year-old Mary Ann Nichols

lying dead
on the bloody pavement.

SETH KOVEN:
Mary Ann Nichols had been married, had children.

But her marriage had
fallen apart through alcoholism.

By the early 1880s,
she had turned to sex work

in order to earn her living.

When Mary Ann Nichols'
body was found,

um, at first, it looked like...

a simple murder.

Her skirts were up as though
she was committing

an act of prostitution
at the time she was killed.

That's not particularly
unusual for London in its day.

However,
when the body made its way

to the coroner, and further
investigation was carried out,

they found that this was
a murder and a mutilation.

And that raised some questions.

SHATNER:
Just eight days

after the murder
of Mary Ann Nichols,

on September 8, 1888,

the body of another woman,
Annie Chapman,

was found lying in the courtyard

of a Whitechapel tenement.

ADAM WOOD: Annie Chapman had
previously been married to, uh,

a man named John Chapman,
but they separated

and then eventually
she found that he had died.

She had tried
selling items and taking

in crochet work, that sort
of thing, to support herself,

but eventually she became
more and more reliant

on casual prostitution to get
her money for a nightly bed.

DONNELLY: When Annie
Chapman's body was found,

there was no doubt

that a horrible
mutilation had taken place.

And now it made police

begin to wonder
whether these two

horrible acts, one week apart,
in the same part of the city,

could well have been done
by the same twisted individual.

NATE HENDLEY:
This is a killer who hated women

and wanted to do
maximum damage to them.

So it immediately gives off this
sort of this cinematic image

of this sinister character
in a black coat

going through the London fog,

walking on cobblestones
at night.

SHATNER:
The notion that a predator

was targeting sex workers
in the Whitechapel district

set off a frenzy
in the London newspapers.

DONNELLY:
There were 158 daily newspapers

in London, and they were all in

competition for sales.

So when the press got ahold
of this case of murderers,

it was exactly what
they needed for the new

readership that
they were trying to get.

You have to remember,

at the time
these murders were taking place,

Sherlock Holmes mysteries were

the bestselling thing
on the planet.

And everybody wanted
to sink their teeth

into a nice, juicy mystery.

LYNNE McNEILL:
Unfortunately, in the late 1800s, we see a real effort

from the media to let
a cult of personality form.

And as much as we abhor
violence and murder and killing,

there are some ways
in which the serial killer

becomes this sort of folk hero
of psychological deviance

that terrifies and intrigues us.

And so it's a delicate balance
to make sure we're not

glorifying something that
really shouldn't be glorified.

WOOD: The media drove
the horrific nature

of the crimes
in a sensationalist way.

Whitechapel was obviously
in depths of degradation

and-and poverty,
and yet, it was literally

two streets away from the, uh,
the Bank of England, which was

headquarters of the empire
at that time.

And so that become,
very quickly,

a national issue
and a national concern.

SHATNER: In the aftermath
of the two brutal murders,

the London police were unable
to identify a prime suspect.

As a result,
they chose to cast a wide net

in their search for the killer.

More than 300 people were
placed under investigation,

and 80 of them were
brought in for questioning.

WOOD: Chief inspector
Donald Swanson, who was head

of the investigation from
Scotland Yard, wrote a report

at that time saying that
potential suspects range

from the highest in the land,
Queen Victoria's grandson,

um, right down to East End
butchers and slaughtermen.

There was no shortage
of candidates.

There were all sorts of people,

from Sir William Gull,

Queen Victoria's physician,

to her grandson,
Prince Albert Victor,

or somebody acting
on his behalf.

Even Joseph Merrick,
the Elephant Man.

Largely on the grounds that
he lived at the London Hospital,

which was
quite near Whitechapel.

So there are vast numbers

of candidates being put forward.

Some laughable,
some quite plausible.

SHATNER: As the police scrambled
to identify the man

who murdered Mary Ann Nichols
and Annie Chapman,

the vulnerable residents
of Whitechapel braced themselves

for more attacks
by the unnamed killer.

KOVEN:
On the streets and corners

of Whitechapel,
the reaction to the murders

changed drastically with the
discovery of the second victim.

And it led to the creation

of watch groups patrolling
the streets of East London.

Poor women were on high alert,
vigilante groups formed

in order to find out
who this murderer was.

Over the years, there have been
countless theories

as to who committed
the Whitechapel murders.

Yet so far, the answer
has remained elusive.

But many researchers
believe an important clue

can be found by examining
a mysterious letter

that may have been written

by Jack the Ripper himself.

SHATNER: Three weeks after
newspaper headlines announce

the brutal murder of
Jack the Ripper's second victim,

Annie Chapman, the city
remains gripped by fear.

As police investigators
frantically

round up possible suspects,

a mysterious letter arrives

at London's Central News Agency

that appears to be
from the killer himself.

It is written in red ink,
riddled with spelling errors

and, strangely,

begins
with the words "Dear Boss."

The Dear Boss letter
was addressed to the "boss,"

Central News Office City
uh, uh, or London City.

And it read...

And it really became a big
news story because of that line.

SHATNER: The Dear Boss letter
concluded with the words,

"Yours truly,

Jack the Ripper."

The Boss letter
is interesting because

it is the first letter
apparently having been written

by Jack the Ripper,
where he gives himself a name.

Communicating with the public is
not an unknown

phenomenon with serial killers,

because it makes them
feel superior.

It's sort of
this narcissistic view

of them being so much smarter
than law enforcement.

"I can do what I want and you
are not gonna identify me."

SHATNER: The Central News Agency
handed the Dear Boss letter

over to police investigators,

who decided not
to release it to the public,

for fear of inciting even
more panic throughout London.

But then, two days after
the letter had been received,

on September 29,
the Ripper struck again.

And this time,

he killed two women

in a single night.

On the night
of 29 of September 1888,

two women were murdered
in the same night

within an hour of each other,
less than a mile apart.

Elizabeth Stride was murdered
in a yard on Berners Street.

She was found lying
on the ground

with her throat cut,
but no mutilations.

And then half a mile away,
within the hour,

Catherine Eddowes was
murdered in Mitre Square.

Her throat was cut
and she terribly mutilated.

And the feeling is
that the Ripper was

interrupted in the killing

of Elizabeth Stride,
so he fled the scene,

but his lust for blood
wasn't sated,

so he sought another victim,

found Catherine Eddowes and,
and killed her in Mitre Square.

SHATNER:
After Jack the Ripper claimed his third and fourth victims,

the police had no choice but
to publish the Dear Boss letter,

in the desperate hope that

the public could
help them find the killer.

But, unfortunately, the letter
did little to solve the case.

Instead,
it caused the fear across

London to actually increase,
and ensured

that Jack the Ripper's
infamous name

would go down in history.

KOVEN: Part of what made
that letter horrifying

is that it was understood
to have been written

and mailed before
the murders were committed,

anticipating them.

When the murders occurred,
it thus, for many,

confirmed that
the Ripper manipulated the media

in order to gain attention
for his gruesome crimes.

SHATNER: But, curiously,
not everyone is convinced

that Jack the Ripper was
the real author

of the Dear Boss letter.

In fact,
some believe that the letter

was actually
an invention of the media.

There was a very famous
journalist at the time

called George Sims,
and he used to write a column

for a Sunday newspaper
called The Referee.

It was called
the Mustard and Cress column.

And George Sims
actually wrote in the column

the following week
that the Dear Boss letter

was written by an enterprising
London journalist.

And effectively, his argument
is, when that letter was sent,

the hysteria in the media
and the general fear

of the Whitechapel murderer,
had started to die down.

And there is a theory
that a newspaperman thought,

"We need to get more sales."

"So what better way
to get sales?

We'll get
a letter from the killer."

SAFARIK:
The Boss letter was released by the police to the public.

Now, they were hoping
that somebody might recognize

the writing style or the,
or the handwriting itself.

But all it did was really
complicate the investigation.

Because then you had hundreds

of people writing in,
in the same

style as Jack the Ripper,
claiming to be Jack the Ripper,

claiming to know
who Jack the Ripper was.

WOOD: The Dear Boss letter
encouraged readers

and people out there
to send in their own letters

signed Jack the Ripper,
most certainly from hoaxers,

people just looking
to waste police time.

And every single letter,
no matter how ridiculous

it-it seemed at face value,

had to be looked into
by the police.

SHATNER: Most of the letters
sent to the police

were dismissed as hoaxes.

But some experts believe that,
despite the skepticism,

the Dear Boss letter was,
in fact,

written by
Jack the Ripper himself.

And as evidence, they point
to a passage in the letter

detailing a trophy

he would take
from his next victim.

The Dear Boss letter read,
"Next time I operate I shall

clip the lady's ears off,
and send it to the police."

And consequently,
within 24 hours,

the police now found the
horrifically mutilated body

of Catherine Eddowes
and the killer

cut the earlobes as well.

SHATNER: Do Catherine Eddowes'
nicked earlobes prove

that Jack the Ripper wrote
the infamous Dear Boss letter?

More than 130 years
after the letter was sent,

there's likely
no way to be certain.

Yet modern
forensic experts studying

the Dear Boss letter
have used it to help develop

a criminal profile
of Jack the Ripper.

And it paints
an extraordinarily dark picture

of the shadowy killer.

We know that there were almost

no sightings of Jack the Ripper.

And even in
the sightings that existed,

the descriptions are very vague.

So you're left with behavior.

He's organized,
and he's engaged in planning.

That requires
a slightly older individual.

This is a guy who probably
prefers to be by himself.

So his job would probably entail

a job that-- where he could
work by himself, isolated.

Could be a hospital worker.

Could work
in maybe a butcher's shop.

Or work
as a mortician's assistant.

I think he lives in
the Whitechapel area,

because he's very familiar
with the routines of the police.

And that's why
he's a successful killer.

Did Jack the Ripper
remain unidentified

because he was clever enough
to outsmart investigators?

Perhaps.

But some researchers support
a different theory.

They claim that
the police never caught

Jack the Ripper because
there was a conspiracy

to conceal his identity.

SHATNER: As the city gathers
for its annual

Lord Mayor's Day celebration,

the caretaker of a tenement
in the Whitechapel district

peers through
an apartment window

and makes a gruesome discovery.

He finds
the savagely mutilated body

of Jack the Ripper's
fifth victim...

...25-year-old sex worker
Mary Jane Kelly.

WOOD:
When he looked through,

he found an absolutely
horrific spectacle.

He saw a massive pile of
bloody flesh lying on the bed,

on the bedside table,

almost unrecognizable
from Mary Kelly.

PICKNETT:
The murder of Mary Jane Kelly,

the last known Ripper victim,

was different for some reasons
from the others.

One is that Mary was
the only full-time prostitute

among the canonical victims.

The other is that
it happened indoors.

She rented her own place.

Although she was
incredibly behind with the rent.

29 shillings, that was a lot.

She was seen with a man,
actually,

shortly before

she just disappeared
forever into the house.

And this man came
and tapped her on the shoulder

and said something, and they
both laughed and walked off.

And she obviously
invited the man

into her room.

But, sadly, there were
no details about the man.

SHATNER:
The murder of Mary Jane Kelly marked the first time

that the London police took
photographs of a crime scene.

It was such a horrific attack,

that there was
a new determination

to catch Jack the Ripper

before he struck again.

The city was in an uproar.

They were calling
the police incompetent,

that they
couldn't catch this guy.

I think one of the reasons

that they took photographs
actually at the scene

is that they recognized

there's some dynamic here
we need to capture.

They were under
a lot of pressure

to solve these cases,

identify this individual.

I think anything
that would help them to do that,

um, was gonna be
in their best interest.

SHATNER: The use
of crime scene photography

in Mary Kelly's
murder investigation

was an invaluable tool
for detectives

trying to identify
Jack the Ripper.

But why weren't pictures taken

at the scene
of the previous four murders?

Well, according to one theory,

it could have been due
to a conspiracy

to conceal the Ripper's identity

because he was
potentially a member

of a powerful secret society

known as... the Freemasons.

CHRIS RULI: Freemasonry has
its origins in England.

It's a secret society based on

the Enlightenment values of
the liberal arts and sciences.

Individuals who are Masons,
they're not just

this small group of guys who
are sort of on the sidelines.

There are prominent individuals.

Freemasonry was rampant

through the establishment
of Victorian England.

There were Freemasons
absolutely everywhere.

Through the royal family,

through the government,

through the aristocracy,

through the church,
through local councils,

and in the police, of course.

If Jack the Ripper had been
a Freemason,

in particular, if
he had been a member

of an influential lodge,

it's more than likely
he would have been protected.

SHATNER: But what evidence
is there to suggest that

Jack the Ripper was a Freemason?

Some researchers point
to a curious message

left near by the murder scene
of Jack the Ripper's

fourth victim,
Catherine Eddowes.

PICKNETT:
When the police were called

to the horrendous discovery

of Catherine Eddowes' body,

according to the description
in the police records,

on the wall nearby
somebody had written,

"The Juwes are the men that
will not be blamed for nothing."

But Jews are spelt J-U-W-E-S.

The spelling
kind of summoned to mind

Jubela, Jubelum, and Jubelo,

who were three legendary
assassins in Masonic law.

McMAHON:
According to Masonic ritual,

these three men--
Jubelo, Jubela, Jubelum--

killed the chief architect

of King Solomon's Temple
in Jerusalem

3,000 years ago

because
of the city's wickedness.

And their murder
of the chief architect

is re-enacted in Masonic rituals

as part
of the Master Mason ritual.

And so the spelling of "Juwes"
was the thing that really

struck the police
as a deliberate misspelling

that's meant to mean something
central to Masonic belief.

SHATNER: Could
Jack the Ripper have scrawled

the graffiti message
to let other Freemasons know

that he was a member
of their secret society?

It may sound far-fetched,

but, incredibly, the actions

of the lead investigator
in the case

suggest that
this theory could be true.

McMAHON: During the course
of the police investigation,

Charles Warren,
the London police chief,

took the controversial
and rather odd decision

to wipe the graffiti
off the wall.

Now why did he do that?

Maybe one of the reasons
is that Charles Warren,

as a Freemason,
saw this on the wall,

and thought, "Oh, no, no way

"am I having these murders
in the East End

connected to Freemasonry."

And so he wiped that off.

JONES:
There's a lot of people who say

the connection between Jack
the Ripper and the Masons was

that the Masons
orchestrated the murder

of the prostitutes
who were blackmailing a member

of the royal family,
Prince Albert Edward Victor,

who's Queen Victoria's grandson,

the heir presumptive
to the throne of England.

In a nutshell, the theory is
that Prince Albert Edward Victor

did frequent brothels,

and he'd had a child by a girl
named Annie Elizabeth Crook.

And she told a particular group

of prostitutes her secret.

And they then set about
blackmailing the royal family.

KOVEN: The speculation
seems far-fetched,

but the Jack The Ripper
murderer unfolds

during a mania
for what is called "slumming."

When wealthy, elite people
went to the precincts

of the poor on a night out
to enjoy themselves.

At dens of inequity,
sites of prostitution,

and East London was famous
for the dangerous

proximity of both wealth
and sexual exploitation.

JONES: According to the royal
family conspiracy theory,

the Freemasons were then brought
in to murder the prostitutes,

who were blackmailing
the royal family.

Consequently, that's why police
were made to erase the graffiti,

to take away any suspicion
from the Masons.

Is it possible that
the case of Jack the Ripper

remains unsolved
because there was a conspiracy

to protect his identity?

Perhaps.

But there are some who argue
that the killer was never

found in England
because he was actually...

an American.

SHATNER:
Two months before the horrific Whitechapel killing spree began,

an American named
Francis Tumblety arrived

in the city, although this was
not his first trip to London.

For more than a decade,
Tumblety had sold a number

of medical remedies in both
the United States and England,

and had also claimed
to be a doctor

and treated numerous patients,
in spite of the fact

that he was not
a licensed physician

and had no formal
medical training.

And there are those who
believe that this dishonest,

self-proclaimed doctor was,

in fact...

Jack the Ripper.

PICKNETT:
Francis Tumblety was an American

so-called "Indian herb doctor."

In other words,
he basically was a quack

who went around selling

alleged remedies, cure-alls,

uh, preying on the gullible.

And he was over in London

during the time
of the Ripper murders.

DONNELLY:
Tumblety was horribly

misogynistic,
'cause it seems that

early in his life,
he had, uh, married young.

Found out later that the woman
he married was a prostitute

and had continued prostitution
after they were married.

And so he would often espouse

hatred toward all of womankind,

and especially prostitutes.

He was
a-an unpleasant character.

He used to host dinners,
at which his great

party trick was
to pass around anatomical

specimens in glass jars--

of female body parts,

including uteruses.

And Tumblety's name
has been connected

with the whole Ripper murders

because he was
a larger-than-life

unsavory character.

SHATNER: As London was shaken by
the first four Ripper murders,

investigators began
to suspect that

Francis Tumblety could be
the killer.

DONNELLY:
Several of the medical examiners who looked at the mutilated

bodies of the victims did
comment that the killer

seemed to possess some
rudimentary medical knowledge.

And we know
that Tumblety was known

in the States to have
performed at least, uh, one

abortion that went,
uh, fatally wrong.

And was wanted by the police in

both the U.S. and Canada

for passing himself off
as a fake doctor.

McMAHON: There is no doubt
that the London police

viewed Francis Tumblety
as a key suspect.

They looked at his
attitude towards women.

They looked at his desire
to be taken seriously

as a surgeon and his odd
collection of uteruses,

and they believed that Tumblety
could have been Jack the Ripper.

SHATNER: According
to London police records,

Tumblety was questioned
about the Ripper murders.

But he was ultimately released
for lack of evidence.

Then, shortly after the Ripper's
fifth and final victim,

Mary Kelly, was murdered,

Tumblety left London
and returned

to New York City.

Some historians believe
that the timing

of these events is
no coincidence.

When Tumblety first arrives,
um, in London,

right after he gets there,
the Ripper murders begin.

And right after he leaves,
they stop.

While we don't know exactly

where Tumblety was
or exactly what he was doing,

there was a woman
who ran a lodging house

at 22 Batty Street.

And that is about
a ten-minute walk

from each of the crime scenes.

She had a lodger and...

she referred to him
as an American doctor.

There were rumors that
she had found a bloody shirt

uh, after this lodger had
returned late at night,

covered in gore.

And then the lodger took up
new residence

at the Charing Cross Hotel.

The day after
the last Ripper murder,

the lodger
from the Charing Cross Hotel

disappeared
without paying his bill.

But left behind
a small black doctor's bag.

Once it was turned over
to the police

and the contents were examined,
inside they found

some herbal medicines,
some clothing,

little bit of jewelry,

and, um, some pornography.

Which Tumblety is known
to have sold.

Now it's hard to know
for certain because this is just

a theory, but based
on the timeline

and the nature
of this individual,

it is quite possible
that he could have been

involved in the Ripper murders.

SHATNER: The London police
may have had trouble proving

that Francis Tumblety--
the so-called American doctor--

could have been Jack the Ripper.

But upon his return
to the United States,

the press had no such trouble
convicting him

in the court of public opinion.

And many people came
to believe that Tumblety

was the real Ripper.

STEWART EVANS: There's
an interview with Tumblety

that appeared in newspaper
reports on 29 of January 1889,

the year after the murders,
when he's actually interviewed

by a reporter who puts it to him
that he's Jack the Ripper.

And his replies are
very, very interesting.

He claimed the only reason
the stupid English police

arrested him is because
he's American.

And in his own words,
the killer wore a slouch hat,

according to descriptions, and
he said, "I wore a slouch hat."

And so there's an accumulation
of what one might call

circumstantial evidence
with regard to-to Tumblety.

SHATNER: Is it possible
that Francis Tumblety

was Jack the Ripper?

Many researchers believe
the evidence is compelling.

And as proof,
they point to a curious object

that was in Tumblety's
possession when he died.

When Tumblety died in 1903,
he was in hospital run by nuns

in St. Louis, and certain things

were found on his person,
which included

a plain brass ring,
almost like a curtain ring.

And the only Ripper victim

who actually lost anything

of a substantial nature
was Annie Chapman.

And she'd had such a ring,
a plain brass ring,

stolen off her finger
by the killer.

So with regard to Tumblety
actually being Jack the Ripper,

for a lot of people now, he's
the favorite Ripper suspect.

Was the most notorious serial
killer in English history

actually the American
doctor Francis Tumblety?

It's certainly a theory
worth considering.

But many researchers believe
the best way to solve

the mystery of Jack the Ripper's
identity

is to utilize something that
19th-century investigators

couldn't even begin to fathom:

DNA evidence.

SHATNER: At Lacy Scott
and Knight Auction Centre,

a 19th-century silk shawl
sells for $6,500.

An extraordinary amount for
such a seemingly ordinary item.

But this is not
a typical garment,

because in 1888 it was found

on the body of Jack the Ripper's
fourth victim,

Catherine Eddowes.

And it may be stained
with the blood

of the Ripper himself.

SAFARIK:
The shawl was reported

to have been collected by
a Metropolitan Police Officer

who took it from the scene.

It's reported to have been
handed down among

many generations
of different people.

And it was bought
by an individual who wanted

to conduct mitochondrial
DNA tests on the shawl.

And his goal was to identify
Jack the Ripper

with forensic evidence.

SHATNER:
More than a century after Jack the Ripper's unsolved murders,

could modern forensic science

finally identify the killer?

According to many researchers,

it's a distinct possibility.

It's amazing now
with DNA analysis that crimes

that are sometimes
decades old can be solved.

We've recently had
a number of cold cases

that have been solved
through DNA evidence.

Often for cases going
back 20 years, 30 years.

It's an incredible tool in
crime solving if done properly.

GRANDE:
There's this idea that the Jack the Ripper case

is unsolvable because

a lot of the evidence from
that time has been destroyed.

But there was blood
and semen on the shawl

that was ostensibly worn
by Catherine Eddowes.

So new DNA testing techniques

could allow
a sample to be tested

to identify Jack the Ripper.

SHATNER:
In 2020, a paper published

in the Journal
of Forensic Sciences

announced that experts
were able to analyze

the blood found on the shawl.

They determined that the DNA
was a close genetic match

to the descendants
of a man named Aaron Kosminski.

And, incredibly,

it turns out that Kosminski

was one of the top suspects

in the Ripper case.

GRANDE: Many people have
a favorite suspect

in the Jack the Ripper case.

And there's a lot
of people that believe

that Aaron Kosminski was
Jack the Ripper.

If we look at the evidence
connecting Aaron Kosminski

to the crime, we see
that he lived in the area.

He was young,
he was almost in the age range

for the profile
of serial killer at age 23.

PICKNETT: Kosminski was
a Polish Jew, an immigrant.

He was a barber.

But in those days,

if you're a barber
you also were a surgeon.

I mean, doing dentistry
and bits of surgery.

So he would have the knives.

He would know about anatomy.

Which sounds
so absolutely spot-on

to prove this person was
actually Jack the Ripper.

But, sadly,
he had been called in

as a suspect by the police

but let go.

JONES: Kosminski appears to have
been the prime suspect

for Scotland Yard detectives.
Dr. Robert Anderson,

who was
the assistant commissioner

and the head of the criminal
investigation department,

he does say in his memoirs

that they knew
who Jack the Ripper was

and he was
a low-born Polish Jew,

living in the heart of the area.

A copy of his memoirs
went to Chief Inspector Swanson,

who was the detective
who had the job of assessing all

the information that's been
brought in on the case.

And his copy
of Anderson's memoirs,

in the margin, Swanson scrawls
the name Kosminski.

SHATNER: Is it possible
that the DNA collected

from Catherine Eddowes'
bloody shawl proves that

Aaron Kosminski was
Jack the Ripper?

Perhaps.

But not everyone agrees
with that theory.

SAFARIK:
There's a lot of debate

on either side of this argument

about the strength
or validity of this shawl.

And it is probably
the last piece

of potential forensic evidence

that really exists in this case.

Eddowes barely had
any money at all.

Did that shawl
actually belong to her?

There's lots of debate
about whether it did or didn't.

There's debate about
what is actually on the shawl?

Is it blood?

Is it other types
of body fluids?

HENDLEY: You have to keep
in mind storage, for one thing.

This shawl has been stored
somewhere for over a century.

Also, you have to keep in mind

that just because this suspect's

DNA is on the shawl,
maybe he visited

this prostitute, so it's
an interesting puzzle piece

but until there's more
further evidence,

I would still
be a little skeptical

whether the mystery
has been solved.

Was Aaron Kosminski
really Jack the Ripper,

as the DNA evidence suggests?

It's a compelling theory,
but one that's hard

to prove since
the killer is long dead.

What is it about London's
most famous unsolved crime

that continues to keep
the memory of Jack the Ripper

still very much alive?

SHATNER: Every day, hundreds
of people eagerly participate

in what are known as

-Jack the Ripper walking tours.
-(indistinct chatter)

For a small fee,
tourists can view

the sites of all
the Ripper murders

to learn
some of the history about

the notorious killings

and their
mysterious perpetrator.

The tours are so popular
that they are offered

seven days a week by at least
ten different companies.

But why is the public still so

fixated on the case
of Jack the Ripper,

almost 140 years
after he terrorized London?

PICKNETT: The Jack the Ripper
killings happened in 1888.

And we're well
into the 21st century,

and it still grabs us,
it still fascinates us.

And it's just actually
escalating, if anything.

We sit there, and we think
this is a great puzzle

to be solved and somehow,

we don't think
about the hideous,

sordid reality
that real women died.

KOVEN: The Ripper case remains
so gripping and fascinating,

first and foremost,
because it's an unsolved case.

But perhaps a real tragedy
about our ongoing fascination

with this case is not just
that it's an unsolved case,

but that it is a crime of sexual
violence against poor women.

Sadly, the Ripper story is
a kind of renewable resource

of dark fears about poverty,

about unloosed female sexuality,
and about male power.

The Ripper played
on those anxieties,

and that remains an object

of extraordinary fascination
for people today.

McNEILL: Serial killers
from the past are safe,

are fascinating, and they're
not gonna come get us.

Here we have
a series of killings,

there was a definite pattern.

The type of women
who were being murdered,

the way they were murdered,
lends itself

to that desire to say,
"This is too purposeful.

I have to be able to make it
make sense in some way."

And that drive to make
sense of one of the most

insensible things we have,
the wanton and willful

murderer of other people,

is a really
strong drive that we have.

SHATNER: The enduring
worldwide fascination

with Jack the Ripper
is undeniable.

But ironically,

some researchers suggest that,

despite his notoriety,

it's possible
that Jack the Ripper

never existed
in the first place.

DONNELLY: Jack the Ripper
is often referred to

as the first serial killer.

But the fact
that the Ripper was never caught

or identified could be
because the police were

trying to prove
that many of these victims were

the work of a single individual.

SAFARIK: We had a lot
of eyewitness testimony

about Jack Ripper,
but most of it

was poor.

Most of it was seen in
darkness from great distances.

None of the eyewitness
testimony ever

identified
a particular individual.

So if you don't have
witnesses and you don't have

a confession and you really
don't have any evidence

that supports
any particular individual

130 years later,

I don't know
that it's absolutely clear

that Jack the Ripper
was just one person.

He could have been
a lot of people.

Was Jack the Ripper
a deranged serial killer

who terrorized London?

Or were the grisly
murders carried out

by a number of different people?

Perhaps one day,
modern forensics,

or some long-lost
piece of evidence,

will reveal the truth,
but until then,

the mystery of Jack the Ripper

will remain unsolved and...

unexplained.

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