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In Search Of... Season 3 # 5, JACK THE RIPPER
In
Autumn 1888 one of the most baffling murders happened in London when Mary
Nichols was brutally killed. More murders followed and the killer sent
letters to the police giving himself a name because he was sure they’d never
catch him: Jack the Ripper. About 7.000 women were homeless at the time and
all murders occurred in an area 1 ½ square miles.
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Due to overcrowding of houses people sometimes paid to stay in a lodging house for one night. Women could easily be persuaded to follow a man to a quiet place in desperation for some money.
Books
were written about the murderer who arranged personal items at the feet of
his victims in an order not understood by anybody finding it. A note
scribbled at a nearby wall where his fourth victim was found was washed of
personally by the chief of police who was a freemason. It is speculated that
it might have indicated a close tie to freemasonry. The Duke of Clarence,
second in line to the throne, was the only freemason
suspect.
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Sir William Gull, the royal physician, maintained a detailed medical history of the family and a diary of his patient’s entire life. When freemason Dr. Thomas Stole obtained that information about the Duke of Clarence in 1970, though bound to an oath, he stated in a paper and in a BBC interview that the Duke indeed was Jack the Ripper. 7 days later he recanted in the London Times. Within a week he was dead. The diary and the medical papers were burnt. Now all facts relating the Duke to the murders had been destroyed. The Duke of Clarence died 4 years after the murders in medical confinement. No reason for his death was ever given.
