OK, this is a question that's been going for a little under 200 years. What is Jack the Ripper's real name? He was considered one of the most imfamous criminals in history, and the mystery of his real name adds on to the mystique of this legend. I've heard many allegations but i'm always looking for new opinions. So, what do you guys think?

There are about 20 threads on JTR, if you check out some of them you'll hear just about every theory there is!

Five or six years back I decided to make a list of all known Ripper suspects.

I gave up at 150.

Sorry to disillusion you my friend,but since the first murder was in 1888,I hardly think the question has been around for a little under 200 years,more like 119 years.

Short answer: no one alive knows.

Though it's a popular theory that it's the most likely suspect and that there were copy-cat killers.

http://www.casebook.org/suspects/

I could never understand why any of those self proclaimed psychics never came up with the answer.

well, it is a highly debated on who it was. one thing though: the person WAS familiar with internal biology since the murderer was able to remove organs with such percision that it rivals todays lasers. my dad had to study the case when he went in for his lieutenants course, and he said it has a lot more depth than any one from the public knows.
he said it showed him
"People from all walks of life, even the rich and secret."
its pretty cool. i'm still trying to weasel info about it out of him.

I can't find the book right now, but Patricia Cornwell wrote a book a couple of years back and said Jack the Ripper was an artist/actor by the name of Walter Sickert.

I've seen articles about this...though not read the book (yet)....I believe she put forward some strong arguements,with some 'evidence'.

Kind of fits, doesn't it......A Sick Wally..?

It was very convincing........it had numerous pictures of his paintings that were very similar to crime scenes and his handwriting compared to handwriting from all the letters JTR sent to the editor. Just remembered, I think it was called "A Portrait of a Killer".

i was watching this thing which had a load of people trying to work out who JTR was and they said he was not familiar with biology. it was on five ages ago

To keep from starting yet another thread on this:
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OHANNESBURG, South Africa - An eminent South African historian believes he has stumbled on the identity of Jack the Ripper.

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if(window.yzq_d==null)window.yzq_d=new Object();window.yzq_d['ljuOQELEYuM-']='&U=13bq0hgvt%2fN%3dljuOQELEYuM-%2fC%3d571921.10592332.11211305.1442997%2fD%3dLREC%2fB%3d4495406';Charles van Onselen said at first he wasn't sure he wanted to publicize the conclusions he drew when he noticed parallels in the century-old, unsolved Ripper case and the background of Joseph Silver, who terrorized women as "King of the Pimps" in Johannesburg.

"I was left with a choice: I have got intelligent speculation, which I think is pretty long way down the track to proving that this guy was the Ripper. Do I include or exclude it?

"If I include it, it buggers up the book and people get excited for the wrong reasons. If I exclude it and a really sharp professional spots it ... I had to explore this possibility," he said, sitting in his tree-filled garden, about 3 miles from where Silver reigned, in a city still regarded as one of the most crime-ridden in the world.

The publicity around van Onselen's "The Fox and The Flies: The World of Joseph Silver, Racketeer and Psychopath", published in April, has made much of Silver being Jack the Ripper, the notorious Victorian serial killer who murdered at least five East London prostitutes in 1888.

But van Onselen, an acclaimed biographer who specializes in South Africa's criminal history and who took nearly three decades to research the book, only makes his Ripper case in the final 25th chapter, written in the last 36 months.

While the book has been well-received, reaction from "Ripperologists" has been skeptical as van Onselen makes his case on circumstantial evidence.

To his doubters the author said: "How many coincidences do you want to mount up in your mind simultaneously until you start saying this is a real possibility?"

Clicky
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Yet another theory.

Jack was a sicko, he should never have been spoken about for he did not deserve anything, not even the mention of his name. heveam forbid they ever find out his name. How would ya be if you named you kid, Jack Bloggs,hed have a bad time at school now wouldnt he!!!!!!

My vote for the real Jack is Joseph Barnett, who was dating the last woman to be killed.

http://www.casebook.org/suspects/barnett.html

I know who Jack the Ripper was .

Well ??? Don't torture us, spit it out!

OMG, keep at it, keep at it !!!

I remember watching a show on the History channel Called "the Ripper revealed" or something along those lines. Basically is said the man they thought was Jack the ripper and was widely accepted as an escaped mental patient who eventually was caught and put back in the Insane ward(which was why the murders stopped). The reason they never pinned the murders on him was kinda stupid though. They said everyone in the scottland yard new it was him and figured the case closed because "he would not see the light of day again". His name though I would have to look up.

When I was very little, my parents told me that it was rumoured to be a royal personage. That (according to specualtion) was why it was never "solved". Supposedly all the files were to be opened a while back, but not all of them were let out and a whole bunch were blacked out. So, here is a really old conspiracy theory that has not been laid to rest, at least for some.

Yes I just looked up Prince Albert Victor and he is the man that the history channell listed as the "known jack the ripper". He was put into a mental hospital after several of the murders appearantly because the royal family knew it was him commiting the crime and he escaped to kill the final one before they caught him again. He died of "softening of the brain" but they say he had a serious syphilis infections (which made him crazy). The murders were never pinned on him to prevent slander of the royal name. This one makes the most sense to me because it explains all the mysterious questions totally logicaly and provable.

He gets my vote.

Maybe he's actually using he's real name. Maybe he's real name is "Jack." The answer could be infront of us all this time.