New Book Claims Jack The Ripper Was A Woman
Via Birmingham Mail
In 1888, Jack the Ripper slaughtered five women and terrorized East London. It's the ultimate whodunit, and former lawyer John Morris claims to have solved it in his new book, Jack The Ripper: The Hand Of A Woman. It posits that the Whitechapel Monster was not actually a Jack at all, but a Welsh-born woman named Lizzie Williams. According to the 62-year-old Birmingham author, Lizzie came "unhinged" because of her inability to have children and started butchering other women, removing the uterus from three in a misguided attempt to fill the womb-shaped hole in her heart.
Morris and his late father, Byron, examined thousands of medical and legal documents before arriving at their conclusion, but Ripperologists (yes, that's actually a thing) are unimpressed with the theory. "[S]uch a theory flies in the face of long-held beliefs," said the author. "There's absolutely no doubt that the Ripper was a woman. But because everyone believes that the murderer was a man, all the evidence that points to a woman has always been ignored."
Morris's suspect was married to abortionist and royal physician Sir John Williams, who was himself a prime suspect in the murders. The Ripper's last victim, Mary Kelly, was having an affair with Lizzie's husband. So woman scorned and all that. Shortly after the bloody spree ended, Lizzie had a nervous breakdown. She died of cancer in 1912 and was never questioned about whether or not she spent her spare time butchering prostitutes.
The book, published by Seren, is not the first to suggest a female suspect. Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle suggested the same, but no one listened to him either. So, is Morris on to something here?
Photo via Seren
News by Kimberly Turner
Kimberly Turner is an internet entrepreneur, DJ, editor, beekeeper, linguist, traveler, and writer. This either makes her exceptionally well-rounded or slightly crazy; it’s hard to say which. She spent a decade as a journalist and magazine editor in Australia and the U.S. and is now working (very, very slowly) on her first novel. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two cats, ten fish, and roughly 60,000 bees.
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Comments
looks like an interesting book, one way or the other. love to hear new theories on pretty much anything...
It sounds like a great theory. It is a definite, interesting possibility and could explain why no one has really gotten close. They are too busy looking for a man.
Lizzie Borden. Lizzie Williams. Why not?
I'd love to read this, I've always been fasinated with stories of Jack the Ripper.