Mystery Files (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Jack the Ripper - full transcript

NARRATOR: The most infamousserial
killer of all-time--

Jack the Ripperterrorizes the backstreets

of Victorian London,
slashingand mutilating his victims.

But for over 100
years, the Ripper

has never been identified.

Now, modern criminal
profiling is

unearthing clues,
which couldturn the case on its head.

Recreating the crime
scenes and trawling

the files to reveal the
keysuspect that everybody missed--

we open the MysteryFiles
on Jack the Ripper.

[theme music]



In the years 1888
to 1891, 11 women

are killed in the
notorious White

Chapel area in east London.

Five of the murders bear
horrific similarities,

so are attributed to the
same anonymous murderer.

The victims are
all prostitutes--

Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman,
Liz Stride, Catherine Eddowes,

and Mary Kelly.

This intense killing
spree of streetwalkers

runs from August to
November, then it

stops as abruptly as it starts.

Over the years there have beenmany
theories about the killer,

from the Freemasons to arural
physician, and even one

of Queen Victoria's grandsons.



But despite these five
murdersbeing reexamined hundreds

of times before, investigators
believe each of them

still holds hidden clues
to the real culprit.

Pat Brown is now applying21st
century profiling

techniques to the Ripper case.

PAT BROWN: Criminal
profiling is really

about doing everything
scientifically,

examining all the
evidence--the physical evidence

and the behavioral evidence,
and then determining

exactly what happened
at the crime scene

and exactly what kind
ofperson committed that crime.

NARRATOR: The murdersstart
on August 31st, 1888.

Mary Ann Nichols is found inBuck's
Row, across the road

from the London Hospital.

He throat is cut,
and her groinand torso repeatedly stabbed.

It seems a motiveless crime.

But profiler Pat Brownthinks
the location concealed

something about the killer.

PAT BROWN: The London
hospital treated

a lot of people for syphilis.

And they had kind of had
an emergency room there.

So it is interesting thatshe
was near the hospital.

NARRATOR: Syphilis
is rife in London,

and White Chapel,
the haunt ofcasual prostitutes and migrant

workers, is no exception.

Professor Bob Peckitt is
a forensic psychiatrist.

BOB PECKITT: Jack
the Ripper might

have suffered from asexually
transmitted disease

such as syphilis.

Now syphilis was certainlyendemic
amongst the community

in the East End of London,
not limited to the prostitute

community.

NARRATOR: In the 1880ssyphilis
has no known cure.

It can lead to
madness and death.

PAT BROWN: It's
possible that Jack,

having gone to the hospitalfor
treatment for syphilis

was very frustrated
when he came out.

NARRATOR: Prostitute
Mary Ann Nichols would

be an easy target for his rage.

The second fatality,
Annie Chapman,

is found nine days later
on September the 8th,

less than a kilometer
away in Hanbury Street.

Like Nichols, she is a
middle-aged prostitute.

And like Nichols,
her throat is cut.

But when the police
examined Chapman's body,

they find it's been slicedopen
and her uterus is missing.

BOB PECKITT: The questionof
the body parts is,

of course, very perturbing.

Men who commit this
sort of offense

take trophies to remind them,
to produce an immediacy,

a tactical physical
and sensual connection

with the crime and the victim.

NARRATOR: But removing awoman's
uterus is very unusual.

BOB PECKITT: In this
case, the perpetrator

is worked up from thestabbing
and the mutilation

to removing whole body parts.

And not only body
parts, but the very

central essence of womanhood.

NARRATOR: The slashing
ofanother street worker shocks

the nation.

The press sensationalizedthe story.

They immediately connect
Annie Chapman's murder

to the Nichols case.

Although the term serial killeris
not coined until the 1930s,

journalists report on
WhiteChapel's mass murderer

and whip up hysteria
around the case.

Alan Moss, from the
Metropolitan Police,

is an expert on the Ripper case.

ALAN MOSS: I think the
press interest actually

started escalating with
each of these murders,

particularly as it gotinto
August and September

when they seemed to be happening
with alarming frequency.

And these all built up to
anenormous amount of publicity

and coverage in the newspapers.

NARRATOR: Letters
from the killer

are even faked by reportersto
push up their circulation.

One of these, sent on
September the 25th,

is how the murderer
gets his name.

It is the press who dub
him, Jack the Ripper,

because of the
distinctive mutilation

he inflicts on his victims.

[scream]

Just three days after the
letterarrives, panic in White Chapel

reaches unprecedented levels,
as two male prostitutes

are slain on the same night.

Elizabeth Stride was
killed about an hour

before Catherine Eddowes.

Her throat was cut,
andthere was a general belief

that the murderer had
beendisturbed by people who were

coming to a nearby
social club, and had

left the victim, and then goneon
to murder Catherine Eddowes.

NARRATOR: Even though
ElizabethStride is not mutilated,

her crime scene can
stilloffer critical leads

for criminal profilers.

Stride was killed
rightoutside the International

Working Men's EducationalClub,
here on Berner Street.

Now what's important about this

is that serial killers
oftentimes kill where

they just happen to be at.

NARRATOR: The club house
ishost that night to a meeting

about Judaism and socialism.

At the time, housing
and working conditions

are the main rallying
pointsfor East End radicals.

But there is also a lotof
anti-Semitic sentiment

in White Chapel,
so theevent could have been heated.

If Jack was over at
thisparticular meeting that night,

the rally, it would
get him riled up.

So as he comes out
and he's furious--

yes, society's treated me badly.

He sees the prostitute
and attacks.

NARRATOR: Pat Brown believesfurther
clues to the Ripper's

identity can be gleaned
from his second murder

on the night of
September the 30th--

Catherine Eddowes
in Mitre Square.

People ask, is there
reasonfor a criminal profiler

to go to a location.

And the answer is yes.

Even though this
happenedyears and years ago,

and this isn't the
original crime scene--

but we can see enough
thatwe can really understand

why Jack picked this location.

From this spot he can
lookstraight down that passageway

and see if that police officeris
coming, because he's

got a viewpoint right here.

NARRATOR: Eddowes murder
is truly gruesome.

Her throat is cut,
her body disemboweled,

and for the first time,
thevictim's face is slashed.

Some experts have
claimed that this

shows Jack's increasing frenzy.

But Pat Brown has
another perspective

on how the scene plays out.

He put her toward this
wall because he knew

he wanted to cut her
throat and he wanted

the blood to go away from him.

[scream]

He was trying to
strangle her-- put

her in like a
sleeper hold, which

basically knocks people out.

[screams]

But what is happening
is she was struggling.

He's moving her like that.

He's got his knife
in his hand and he's

trying to keep control of her.

And finally he does.

She passes out, and he goes
andhe cuts her throat like this.

But as one can see if
one turns the head,

you can see there is
a damage to the face.

So most likely all the facedamage
came from the struggle,

as he was trying to
bring her to the ground.

NARRATOR: Catherine
is finally dead,

but Jack is not yet fulfilled.

For the second time,
the Ripper removes

the deceased woman's uterus.

PAT BROWN: What Jackthought
from Eddowes when he

took her organs was her uterus.

And that's the
most important one.

I think that's
what he was after.

He took that from
Chapman as well,

and if he had had timeperhaps
he would have done

so with Nichols and Stride.

But he wanted that uterus.

NARRATOR: Jack has
vanished by the time

Eddowes is found by the police.

He leaves two more clues--

a piece of Eddowes
apron is discovered

in a neighboring street.

And on a wall above it
arewords scrawled in chalk.

It is thought at the time
tojust be anti-Semitic graffiti.

So as not to associate
it with the Ripper

and incite racialviolence, it's immediately

removed by the police.

But a fresh examination ofthe
words noted in the police

reports of the day
reveals it may well have

been the work of the killer.

Donald Rumbelow has
publishedextensively on the ripper case.

The writing on thewall in Goulston street--

what was written insidethis
doorway were the words,

"the Jews are the men that
willnot be blamed for nothing."

My own feeling is that it
waswritten by Jack the Ripper.

There was the message.

There was the bloodstainedapron
from Catherine

Eddowes on the floor below it.

So I do believe that messagewas
written by Jack the Ripper.

NARRATOR: An inability tofeel
remorse and accept blame

is typical in psychopaths.

Earlier that night,
theWorking Men's Club meeting

may have inflamed Jack's
sense of injustice.

The Stride incident wasoutside
a particular club that

had a Jewish rally that night.

Now Jack took this to heart.

If he was there he mightstill
have that in his head.

So he still has that rage
hewants to tell society about.

And he thinks,
everybodyblames me for everything.

They're blaming me for nothing.

And so he goes to
write on the wall.

NARRATOR: Pat Brown agreeswith
Rumbelow, that the words

are scrawled by the killer.

And she feels the spellingand
grammatical mistakes

are also consistent
with Jack's brain,

deteriorating due
to venereal disease.

I believe it was just
Jack sort of losing

his own cognitive
skills and he was

writing that, both from
hissyphilis and from his rage.

NARRATOR: Ms. Stride's murder,
outside a Jewish socialist

rally, and the
writing on the wall,

lead Pat to believe
that the Ripper

may be a Jewish tradesman.

But religion is just
assensitive now as in 1888.

Serial killers
come from all races.

They're white, they're
black, they're Hispanic.

They're everything,
because quite

frankly psychopathy doesn'tknow
just one group of people.

So in this particular instance,
I think that Jack the Ripper is

Jewish, but his being
Jewish has nothing to do

with being Jack the Ripper.

NARRATOR: Pat Brown'sprofile
is taking shape--

a Jewish tradesman sufferingfrom
a degenerative brain

disease.

Here at London's
Police Headquarters

there are more clues.

This book belongs
to Scotland Yard,

and it's never been filmed.

It was written by the headof
the Ripper investigation.

Noted at the back there's aname
of who officers at the time

suspected the Ripper was.

He's called Kosminski,
amentally ill Jewish immigrant.

BOB PECKITT: I have
here some of the records

from Colney Hatch Asylum,
whichis a large mental hospital

in London.

It's closed now.

These are copies of
therecords of Aaron Kosminski.

Now the admitting
medical officer

says that he was guided,
and his movements were

altogether controlled,
and that he knew

the destiny of all mankind.

Now these are really
quite typical phrases

or statements used by peoplewith
paranoid schizophrenia.

NARRATOR: But
Kosminski'sserious schizophrenia

actually leads the
modern-dayexperts to believe he

could not have been the Ripper.

BOB PECKITT: I think
thatKosminski was an ill man.

And I think that his disorderwould
have robbed him of much

of the ability to
plan and carry out

a sequence of events like this.

I don't think that AaronKosminski
was Jack the Ripper.

NARRATOR: Kosminski
is never charged.

The police investigation
is stalling.

After four horrific
murders, there

is immense public pressure.

But the climate of fear
is about to intensify.

On November the 9th,
sixweeks after the double-killing

of Elizabeth Stride
and Catherine Eddowes

seem to have signaled the
endof Jack's orgy of killing,

25-year-old old
prostitute, Mary Kelly,

is hacked to pieces in her bed.

[screams]

But the nature of thecrime
brings criminologists

to question if it iscommitted
by the same man who

took the lives of the
four other victims.

This particular case is
sodifferent from the other four,

you have to wonder if
it is the same person.

The other four were
all outdoor crimes.

This was an indoor crime.

The other four were done
in just a few minutes.

This one, he took his time.

NARRATOR: Kelly's murder
takes place inside--

the crime scene
left undisturbed.

By recreating the room
throughphotos and police reports,

Pat Brown deduces that
sheprobably knew her killer.

What I find interesting
isthe clothing on the chair.

This is Mary Kelly'sclothes,
nicely folded up

and placed there.

Now if Mary had beencoming
in with her client

and it had been Jack,
andJack usually is in a rush.

Jack just likes to jump
out, grab the woman,

and he kills her within seconds.

And yet we see her
clothesfolded on the chair.

So either she took
all her clothes off

while this man waitedpatiently,
then they got in bed

and then he killed her.

Perhaps she was
already in her frock.

Somebody knocked on the door.

She knew who it was.

She lets him into the room,
and something goes wrong

and he kills her.

NARRATOR: Kelly was
last seen alive at 2 AM.

Witnesses claim to have
caughtsight of her with two clients

already that night.

And from her clothes and
boots inside the room,

it looks like she was
ready to go to bed.

But she did not go to sleep.

The dots show the locationof
Mary's body parts.

Underneath her head is a breast,
a kidney, and her uterus.

Her liver is between her feet.

Her spleen to the side of her.

On the table are piles of
fleshfrom her abdomen and thighs.

The black dot represents
her heart that

is recorded as simply missing.

Kelly's face is
horribly disfigured.

She was almost unrecognizable.

Her mutilated featuresreinforced
Pat Brown's view

that she knew her killer.

PAT BROWN: There was a sheet
that was laid over her.

It seemed to look like
itwas laid over her face.

There were cuts in it.

And if it was somebody
who knew Mary,

he wouldn't want to look
at her when he did that.

He could do, just
this kind of thing

and not have to actually
see what he was doing.

[screams]

NARRATOR: The
newspapers had described

how Jack's previousvictim,
Catherine Eddowes

had her face slashed.

This new twist is
reportedin graphic detail.

Mary's uterus is also
left at the scene.

This is the organ Jack
prizesand most often takes away.

I think Jack the Ripper
committed only the four

outside scenes, and
this one, Mary Kelly,

was done by somebody elsewho
just wanted us to believe

that Jack did this too.

There is one final vitaldifference
between Mary Kelly's

death and the four
other fatalities

attributed to the Ripper
that could have hindered

police in their quest
to crack the crimes

and identify the killer.

The police reports from
the earlier murders

speculate that the way
the bodies are cut up

indicates the Ripper
could be a butcher.

Whereas Kelly's autopsy
reportrecords that the perpetrator

has no anatomicalknowledge, throwing police

off the possible killer's scent.

I've always felt that itwas
somebody like a butcher

or a slaughter man who's
got the necessary skills

to extract these organs.

PAT BROWN: Well who
could walk through

the streets more easily witha
little bit of blood on him

than a butcher?

NARRATOR: Following
this line of inquiry,

there is a suspect who has
beenmissed by the investigators--

a man the police at the
time were aware of it

but chose to ignore.

When I look at all
the possible suspects

that we know of,
the one I really

look at very, very closely is
aman by the name of Jacob Levy.

Now Jacob Levy was a butcherand
he was a Jewish tradesman.

NARRATOR: Jacob matches
PatBrown's profile of the Ripper's

race and profession,
but healso fits with another theory

the police used to
solve modern crimes.

Geo-profiling techniquespredict
that the killer lives

within the circle of murders.

Jacob Levy lived on
Fieldgate Street,

then moved to a butcher'spremises
on Middlesex Street.

Both are in the Ripper's
killing grounds.

PAT BROWN: If you have
abutcher shop and a key to it,

you can slip right back
through the streets,

right under Middlesex,
which is right in the middle

of these crimes, slip
into your butcher shop.

You can hide your littletreasures
in the butcher shop

and then wash up and
go straight home.

NARRATOR: An analysis of
astatement given by his wife

suggests his mind is
in a disturbed state.

PAT BROWN: His wife said, yes,
I was having problems with him.

He was failing in the business.

He wasn't doing his
job anymore, and he's

wandering all over the
streets all night long.

I don't know where he is.

NARRATOR: Before
the killings, Levy

had been jailed forstealing
meat from his boss.

It seems a minor offense,
but psychiatrists think

it could be another indicator.

BOB PECKITT: There
would be signs.

Perhaps he would tell
liesfor no apparent reason

or cheat people out
of small trifles.

He might be dishonest
in petty ways,

stealing small sums
from employers.

NARRATOR: And
investigations have

now also discovered that
JacobLevy had venereal disease.

He was a married man with
somechildren, but he had syphilis.

NARRATOR: Jacob's
death certificate

confirms that he
dies from syphilis,

which he could have contractedon
the streets of White Chapel.

Syphilis takes his life
in 1891, just two years

after the Ripper killings.

In his final medical report,
heclaims to hear strange noises,

and says he's compelled
to do immoral deeds.

Hearing noises, orvoices, urging you to act

is a symptom of psychosisfrom
late-stage syphilis.

And syphilis could
also be a reason

why the fourth prostitute,
Catherine Eddowes

may indeed have been the
Ripper's last victim.

The disease would
eventually rob him

of the ability to
carry out these well

orchestrated attacks.

But there is another
equally credible

reason why he might havestopped
killing so abruptly.

A fellow local
Jewishtradesmen, an eyewitness,

called Joseph Hyam Levy.

DONALD RUMBELOW: Joseph Levywas
sort of one of the three men

who saw Eddowes
with her murderer.

He appeared very unhelpful.

He said that he couldn't
identify anyone.

But whenever he was
spoken to, he almost

gave the impression
that he knew a lot

more than he'd actually said.

PAT BROWN: It's reallyinteresting
when Joseph Hyam

Levy didn't really want
to describe the man

that could be Jack the Ripper.

I believe it's because
he recognized that man,

and that man could
have been Jacob Levy,

because they're both butchers.

They were working
right near each other.

NARRATOR: Joseph Levy's
butcher's shop is only

55 meters from the suspect's.

Joseph kept very quiet,
but he did give the police

one intriguing
piece of information

that now seems to point
thefinger at his colleague.

The one interestingthing
that Joseph Levy did

say about Jack the Ripper
wasthat he was just three inches

taller than the victim,
Catherine Eddowes.

Jacob Levy was five footfree,
and the victim, Eddowes,

was five-foot.

NARRATOR: Joseph's
estimateddifference of three inches

is less than that given
by other eyewitnesses.

But they gave actual heights,
which are harder to judge.

His description matches Jacob.

As investigators
have now revealed,

he also fits many
of the criteria

modern criminal profilerswould
expect to see in Jack.

PAT BROWN: My conclusion
thatJacob Levy was Jack the Ripper

and committed the four
outsidecrimes, I'm fairly sure about.

All the evidence does
supportthis more than anybody

else out there.

NARRATOR: This new
Ripper candidate

has the perfect motive
if he contracted

syphilis from prostitutes.

He also lives right in
themiddle of the murder sites.

He has a shop near the crimesto
clean up and hide organs in.

His death certificate proveshis
illness is sufficiently

advanced for him to be
classified as clinically

psychotic, and he is a
Jewishtradesmen, adept with a knife

and with a basic
knowledge of anatomy.

The evidence makes
a compelling case

for Jack the Ripper
being the butcher

of White Chapel, Jacob Levy.

[music playing]