Jackie The Ripper? Famed Serial Killer May Have Been Female, Historian Posits
I swear to God we’ve heard this one before, that Jack the Ripper may have actually been not a night-stalking male predator at all, but rather a woman who evaded capture… perhaps due to the fact she was totally a chick.
Whoever was responsible for the serial and vicious murders of prostitutes in London more than a century ago, it’s safe to say that that person totally got away with it. But one expert- a “Ripperologist”- in Wicklow, Ireland posits that the killer may have been Lizzie Williams, a Welsh-born woman married to royal physician Sir John Williams.
According to historian John Morris, Williams has been overlooked due to the fact she was female and the brutality of the crime led many to believe a woman couldn’t have been responsible. But, he says, her grief over being infertile drove her to the vicious crime- and in his new book Jack The Ripper: The Hand Of A Woman, Morris contends that the fact that none of the five victims were sexually assaulted and that three of them suffered reproductive organ trauma bolsters his theory:
“The case for a woman murderer is overwhelming, but unfortunately it does not sit well in some quarters where such a theory flies in the face of long-held beliefs… There’s absolutely no doubt the Ripper was a woman. But, because everyone believes that the murderer was a man, all the evidence that points to a woman has been ignored.”
Not long after the murders occurred over a period of ten weeks in 1888, Williams experienced a nervous breakdown. She died of cancer in 1912, and authorities never questioned her regarding the deaths.
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About the Author
Kim LaCapria Kim LaCapria is a writer and editor based in New York. A longtime information junkie, she began blogging full-time at the Inquisitr in 2009. Prior to that, she worked as a marketing assistant in the cosmetics and skincare industry. In addition to her writing for fortytwotimes, she also writes for Medacity and The Inquisitr. Kim is also a contributor for SocialNewsDaily, Indyposted, and TotallyMoney. In the past, she contributed to Lipstick and Luxury and managed social media accounts and blogs for several small and mid-sized businesses.
