Jack the Ripper - the notorious serial killer - is thought to have at least killed five women in the latter half of the Victorian era, in Whitechapel London. However, there has been speculation and debate since those notorious Whitechapel Murders happened.
What Where The Whitechapel Murders? The Whitechapel Murders were a series of murders that happened from 1888 to 1891. Eleven women in total, were murdered in Whitechapel between 1888 and 1891, all of these eleven women have been linked to Jack the Ripper at one point or another. In other words, all of the eleven victims in the Whitechapel Murders have, at one point or another, thought to have been killed by Jack the Ripper. Most historians today believe that Jack the Ripper killed five, possibly six, of these eleven women. At the time of the murders however, there wasn’t the same clear consensus and many thought that all eleven women were victims of Jack the Ripper.
Alice MacKenzie and the Whitechapel Murders
Alice MacKenzie was one of the Whitechapel Murders victims. She was murdered in the early morning hours on the 17th of July, 1889. Her murder took place in Castle Alley in Whitechapel. Alice MacKenzie was found murdered and mutilated by PC Andrews in Castle Alley at around 12.50am that morning. Her murder compared to Jack the Ripper’s murders in several ways: . She was murdered in the early morning hours . She was mutilated . It’s thought that she may have been a prostitute All of these things were consistent with Jack the Ripper’s murders of the Canonical Five. The Canonical Five were the five women believed to have been murdered by Jack the Ripper in the Autumn of 1888. Alice MacKenzie’s murder was similar to the Canonical Five murders, and her murder took place just a few months after the murder of Mary Jane Kelly (Mary Jane Kelly is assumed to have been Jack the Ripper’s final victim).
Was Alice MacKenzie A Victim Of The Ripper’s?
Given the similarity of the Canonical Five murders, and Alice MacKenzie’s murder, it must be wondered: ‘Was Alice MacKenzie a victim of Jack the Rippers’? At the time of the murder, there was disagreement between those involved in the Whitechapel Murders case as to whether or not MacKenzie was a Ripper victim: some of them believed she was, while others believed that she was. Sir Robert Anderson - a senior police officer at the time - didn’t believe that Alice MacKenzie was a victim of Jack the Ripper’s. His position was supported by the doctor at the scene of the murder: Dr Phillips was the doctor at the scene of the murder of Alice MacKenzie, he did not believe that she was a victim of the Ripper.s. Sir Robert Anderson, on the other hand, was not at the scene of the crime, and was not even in the country at the time, therefore, his knowledge of the murder was second hand. Compared to that of PC Munro, who had first hand experience of the murder of Alice MacKenzie, disagreed with Sir Robert Anderson. PC Munro believed that her murder was ‘’identical with the notorious Jack the Ripper’’ murders of the previous years. Given that Alice MacKenzie was murdered in a similar fashion, looked similar to the other victims, was murdered at a similar time and was thought to be in the same profession, it is hard to disagree with PC Munro’s sentiment that Alice MacKenzie’s murder was identical to the other Jack the Ripper murders - it was an identical murder to the Canonical Five murders. This assertion is also supported by Dr Bond, who was also involved in investigating the murder of Alice MacKenzie at the time. As Dr Bond simply put it: ‘’I see in this murder evidence of similar design to the former Whitechapel murders’’. A Change In Perspective If Alice MacKenzie was indeed a victim of Jack the Ripper’s, then it changes our whole perspective on the case. It would mean that Jack the Ripper did not stop murdering at the end of Autumn 1888 - one of the main questions that have been asked about Jack the Ripper, is: ‘’Why did he stop murdering after Mary Jane Kelly? Did he die? Etc’’ If Dr Bond and PC Munro were right, that Alice MacKenzie was a victim of Jack the Ripper, then it changes our view about the list of Jack the Ripper suspects we have. For example, it would rule out suspects like Druitt, who died sometime in November 1888, therefore he couldn’t have murdered Alice and therefore, wouldn't be the Ripper. What if the reason that we haven’t discovered who Jack the Ripper was, because we have been looking in the wrong places all this time? Is the key to the Ripper’s true identity, lurking in the shadows of Castle Alley? Sources: https://www.casebook.org/victims/mckenzie.html https://www.casebook.org/police_officials/po-monro.html https://www.casebook.org/police_officials/po-ander.html https://www.casebook.org/suspects/druitt.html
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