Jack the Ripper: a timelineAugust 31, 1888
The Ripper's first victim
Mary Ann Nicholls, the Ripper’s first victim, is murdered in Buck’s Row, Whitechapel.
September 8, 1888
Second victim
Annie Chapman, the second victim, is murdered in the back yard of 29, Hanbury Street.
September 30, 1888
"Double event" murders
The so-called “double event” of two Ripper murders on one night. The body of Elizabeth Stride is found in the early hours in Dutfield’s Yard, Berners Street, now known as Henriques Street. Within an hour, the fourth victim Catherine Eddowes is slain in Mitre Square.
September 30, 1888
"Dear Boss" letter
On the same day a news agency received a message - known as the “Dear Boss” letter – which is thought by some to have been by the killer himself.
October 9, 1888
Ripper on the move?
The Liverpool Echo revealed it had received a letter claiming that the Ripper was about to strike in Dublin. The following day, it reported on a second letter which refuted the first claiming instead the “Whitechapel purger” was going to New York.
November 9, 1888
A fifth gruesome discovery
Mary Jane Kelly, which according to a new book was the pseudonym of Elizabeth Weston Davies, was found horribly mutilated in her room in a Whitechapel slum.
1913
Ripper fiction
Marie Belloc Lowndes publishes The Lodger, a novel based on the Ripper murders. Adapted for the screen five times - firstly as an early silent move by Alfred Hitchcock – it helps secure the Ripper’s enduring place in popular fiction.
1965
Chief suspect revealed
Author Tom Cullen reveals that Sir Melville Macnaghten of Scotland Yard regarded Montague John Druitt as the chief suspect.
1974
Another book, another suspect
Another book, by Donald Bell, sets out evidence for Neill Cream being the Ripper.
1975
Seminal Ripper research
Key text The Complete Jack the Ripper by Donald Rumbelow is published.
1987
Detective notes revealed
The Daily Telegraph reveals for the first time contents of notes by Chief Insp Donald Swanson, a Ripper detective, naming Aaron Kosminski as the Ripper.
1990
Crime novelist wades in
Theory published by Jean Overton Fuller that renowned artist Walter Sickert was the killer. Patricia Cornwell, the crime novelist, later spends millions of pounds attempting to prove Sickert’s guilt.
1995
New suspect emerges
Authors Stewart Evans and Paul Gainey reveal Frances Tumblety as a major suspect after discovering a 1913 letter from a Special Branch officer in an antiquarian bookshop.
2011
Police informants are protected
Scotland Yard wins a legal battle to keep secret four thick ledgers containing details of police informants from the Victorian era, including some who provided tip-offs relating to the Ripper. Police argue informants’ names must remain secret forever.
2014
Forensic hopes are dashed
Russell Edwards claims to have solved the Ripper mystery – and proved Kosminski’s guilt - through DNA analysis of a shawl belonging to Catherine Eddowes, but the forensic techniques used are later undermined.
2015
New theories emerge
Two books are published in 2015 with new theories: Wynne Weston-Davies' book The Real Mary Kelly says the Ripper’s final victim was his great aunt, Elizabeth, and Jack the Ripper was her estranged husband Francis Craig, while Bruce Robinson's suggests a Masonic cover-up helped songwriter Michael Maybrick commit the crimes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11899901/jack-the-ripper-mystery-solved.html
