Modern Mysteries

Has serial killer Jack the Ripper's identity been revealed at last ?

By T.K. Randall
July 20, 2023 ·  43 comments

Image Credit: James Wilson Carmichael It's one of the best known and enduring murder mysteries the world has ever known, yet more than 120 years after Jack the Ripper's killing spree through the streets of London, there has never been a definitive answer as to who he really was.

Enter Sarah Bax Horton - a former police volunteer whose great-great-grandfather was a policeman who, more than a century ago, was at the heart of the investigation into the man himself.

Her own investigation has revealed compelling evidence that Jack the Ripper was in fact Hyam Hyams - a cigar maker who happened to live in the middle of the area in which the murders had taken place.

An epileptic and an alcoholic, he spent a considerable amount of time in mental asylums and was even arrested after attacking his own mother.Horton believes that his medical records match him to the physical characteristics of the murderer.

"In the files, it said what the eyewitnesses said - that he had a peculiar gait," she said.

"He was weak at the knees and wasn't fully extending his legs. When he walked, he had a kind of shuffling gait, which was probably a side-effect of some brain damage as a result of his epilepsy."

It was Hyams' mental and physical decline that prompted him to kill, she argues.

As things stand, however, it's difficult to determine whether she has genuinely cracked the case or not.

Source: Yahoo! News | Comments (43)

Tags: Jack the Ripper