Table of Contents
It was a mystery that lasted more than 130 years, until recently.
Researcher Mark Edwards believes he has definitively identified Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski as Jack the Ripper.
This week, descendants of Ripper victims backed Mr Edwards’ legal bid for a new inquest into the death of Catherine Eddowes, the fourth Ripper victim.
Eddowes was horribly mutilated by the killer, her entrails ripped out and left dangling around her neck.
But she wasn’t the only desecrated victim of the most famous serial killer in history.
Below, we reveal the gruesome details of each of the Ripper’s five “canonical” victims.
Researcher Mark Edwards believes he has definitively identified Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski as Jack the Ripper.
Mary Ann Nichols
The first murder definitively attributed to the Ripper was that of Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols.
His mutilated body was discovered at 3.40am on 31 August 1888 on Buck’s Row in Whitechapel.
The 43-year-old prostitute, who had five children with her ex-husband William, was discovered with two savagely slashed deep throat blows.
A knife blow had reached his vertebrae.
Nichols had also been stabbed in the genitals and her abdomen had been cut open, leaving her intestines protruding.
The body of the destitute mother and sex worker was first seen by Charles Cross, a Carman. Another man, Carter Robert Paul, joined him moments later.
After feeling his hands and face, Paul believed Nichols was still breathing.
Then, instead of going to look for the police officer who was known to be on duty in the area, the couple continued on their way to work.

Mary Ann ‘Polly’ Nichols was discovered at 3.40am on 31 August 1888

A depiction of the discovery of Nichols’ remains by police officer Jonas Mizen.
They eventually met up with another officer, to whom they told what they had found.
By then another police officer, PC John Neil, had found Nichols’ body.
In their investigation, which appeared in newspapers, it was noted that Nichols also had five missing teeth, a laceration on his tongue and a bruise on his jaw and face.
Nichols’ murder led police to conduct extensive investigations among local prostitutes.
They gave details of a man who had been aggressively trying to get money from them.

Bucks Row, now Durward Street, east London, where the body of Mary Ann Nichols was found dumped in the sewer

The Illustrated Police News edition of September 8, 1888, describing the investigation into Nichols’ murder.
Annie Chapman
Just a week after Nichols’ murder, the Ripper turned his attention to 47-year-old Annie Chapman.
Chapman was a widow and mother of three who had occasionally turned to prostitution to survive.
His body was found in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields, shortly before 6am on September 8.
Chapman was found lying on her back, with her dress pulled up to her knees.
Her intestines had been placed over her left shoulder and her uterus and parts of her bladder had been removed.
The doctor who examined her body said her killer appeared to have demonstrated “anatomical knowledge” in the way parts of her were cut off.
Her autopsy also reported “disease of the lungs” and said Chapman’s remains showed “great signs of deprivation” and that she appeared to have been “poorly fed.”


Just a week after Nichols’ murder, the Ripper turned his attention to 47-year-old Annie Chapman. Chapman was a widow and mother of three who had occasionally turned to prostitution to survive. Above: A post-mortem photograph of Chapman (left), photographed on the right in 1869.
Elizabeth Stride
The Ripper’s next two victims were found within an hour of each other in the early hours of September 30.
The first of these was Elizabeth Stride, the only one of the Ripper’s victims who was not mutilated.
That fact has led many to suggest that Stride was murdered by her boyfriend and not the Ripper.
But Stride is accepted as one of the serial killer’s five “canonical” victims: those. It is argued that the Ripper was disturbed before he could desecrate Stride’s body.

The Ripper’s next two victims were found within an hour of each other in the early hours of September 30. The first of these was Elizabeth Stride, the only one of the Ripper’s victims who was not mutilated.

The cover of the September 21, 1889 issue of Puck magazine depicting the mysterious Jack the Ripper.
The 45-year-old man, originally from Gothenburg, Sweden, was discovered in Dutfield’s Yard in Whitechapel.
The Ripper had killed her with a single incision in the neck that severed the left carotid artery and trachea.
Dr. George Bagster Phillips, the same doctor who had examined Chapman and Kelly’s remains, performed Stride’s autopsy and was present at the scene.
Stride’s murder sparked a mob to protest the ongoing killings and the police’s inability to catch him.
The Ripper became public enemy number one.
Catherine Eddowes
Catherine Eddowes’ body was discovered at 1.44am on the corner of Miter Square in London’s East End on September 30, less than an hour after Stride’s.
PC Edward Watkins, who came across Eddowes’ body, told reporters “a more gruesome sight than I had ever seen before”.
Eddowes, a 46-year-old mother of three, had been arrested that night for being drunk and disorderly.
She was released from prison less than an hour before being murdered.
PC Watkins described how it was “difficult to discern the injuries to the face because of the amount of blood covering it”.

Catherine Eddowes’ body was discovered at 1.44am on the corner of Miter Square in London’s East End on September 30, less than an hour after Stride’s. His entrails had been torn out and left hanging around his neck, and his head was almost separated from his body.
Eddowes’s shirt had been pulled up over her chest to expose a cut from the top of her groin to her chest.
His entrails had been torn out and left hanging around his neck, and his head was almost separated from his body.
It was the murder of Eddowes that would lead historian Russell Edwards to claim that he had finally definitively identified who the Ripper was.
At an auction in 2007, she came across a shawl said to have been found in Eddowes on the night of her murder.
It was stained with blood and semen. Further investigations by Mr Edwards revealed how the shawl was torn from Eddowes’ body by Acting Police Sergeant Amos Simpson as he was taken to the mortuary.
The shawl remained in the policeman’s family and was later sold at auction by his great-great-nephew.
DNA testing carried out at Mr Edwards’ request matched the DNA on the bloodstains to that of a descendant of Eddowes, proving the shawl was authentic.
Tests performed on the semen showed that it was that of Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish immigrant from Poland and a long-time Ripper suspect.
The researchers compared it to the DNA of one of his sister’s descendants.
Edwards laid out his findings in his book Naming Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Reveal.

Contemporary police drawing of the body of Catherine Eddowes

Police discover the body of one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, probably Catherine Eddowes

Another edition of the Illustrated Police News after ‘two more horrors in Whitechapel’
mary jane kelly
The most terrible of the Ripper murders was the last.
Mary Jane Kelly had been horribly mutilated, with parts of her body, including her sexual organs, scattered around her room.
Dennis Halsted, a doctor at the London Hospital, examined his remains and reported that they had been cut with “great surgical skill.”
The 25-year-old prostitute was discovered in her rented room at 13 Miller’s Court in Spitalfields on November 9, 1888.

The most terrible of the Ripper murders was the last. Mary Jane Kelly had been horribly mutilated, with parts of her body, including her sexual organs, scattered around her room.

The 25-year-old prostitute was discovered in her rented room at 13 Miller’s Court in Spitalfields on November 9, 1888.
The fact that her murder took place away from prying eyes allowed the Ripper to do exactly what he wanted with her body.
The police officers who found his remains suffered nightmares that tormented them for the rest of their lives.
At the Kelly inquest, Dr Thomas Bond described the full horror of how Kelly was mutilated.
She told how her face had been cut beyond recognition, her breasts had been removed and her liver had been placed between her feet.
Kelly had also had her heart removed.
There was extensive press coverage of his funeral, but no family members attended.
It was a tragic farewell for the Ripper’s final victim.