Message #259250

[Keira Kensington]

From Wiki:

James Kelly
Posted Image This suspect was first identified in the well-researched Prisoner 1167: The madman who was Jack the Ripper, by Jim Tully, in 1997.[60]

A retired NYPD cold-case detective named Ed Norris examined the Jack the Ripper case for a Discovery Channel program called "Jack the Ripper in America." In it, Norris builds a compelling case that James Kelly was not only Jack the Ripper's real identity, he was also responsible for multiple murders in cities around the United States after his reign of terror in London.

James Kelly (no known relation to the Ripper victim Mary Kelly) (20 April 1860 – 17 September 1929) murdered his wife in 1883 by stabbing her in the neck. Deemed insane, he was committed to the Broadmoor Asylum, from which he later escaped in early 1888, using a key he fashioned himself. The timing of his escape would have allowed him to be in London just in time for The Ripper's murders. Kelly was an upholsterer by trade, and an upholsterer's knife would produce the types of wounds found on the majority of the victims. After the last Ripper murder in London in November 1888, the police searched for Kelly at what had been his residence prior his wife's murder, but they were not able to locate him. In 1927, almost forty years after his escape, he unexpectedly turned himself back in to officials at the Broadmoor Asylum. He died two years later, presumably of natural causes.

Before his death, Kelly gave an accounting of where he had been during the years since his escape. The typed declaration was unearthed by the Discovery Channel in research for the program "Jack the Ripper in America." In it, Kelly said he had "been on the warpath" since leaving the asylum. He claimed to have traveled to London, which would have put him in that city right at the time The Ripper began his murderous rampage. He said he later traveled to America aboard an Anglo-German steamer called the Zaandam that sailed from Rotterdam to New York. Research by the Discovery Channel at Britain's National Maritime Museum confirmed the ship not only existed, it sailed from Rotterdam to New York on October 7, 1890—two years after the last Ripper murder in London. That would have put Kelly in America during the time frame in which similar murders occurred on American soil, including the gruesome murder in New York of prostitute Carrie Brown, who was killed in April 1891. Crime scene photos revealed Brown's body had a large 'X' carved in it, which Norris speculated was actually a Roman numeral, as Brown would have been Kelly's tenth victim (counting his murdered wife). Kelly's statement placed him in more cities in the United States in which other murders occurred that bore a resemblance to the horrific killings in London. Local newspapers at the time even speculated that The Ripper may have come to America and been responsible for the brutal slayings. Norris compared photos of Kelly with the physical description of The Ripper given to police in London at the time of the murders and found Kelly was a close match.