A recent book makes the bold claim that it has solved the case of one of history’s most prominent serial killers.
With five documented victims, Jack the Ripper terrorised Victorian society in the nineteenth century by striking in the dead of night on the streets of London.
Although there have been many candidates throughout the years, one of the reasons his story has endured for so long is the fact that, after all this time, we still don’t know who he (or she) was.
There has been a lot of work put into trying to identify Jack the Ripper, but there are many suspicions and no one can seem to come to a consensus on a specific offender.
Aaron Kosminski, a Polish immigrant to London who has some DNA evidence pointing towards him and who was also the person police initially believed to be the murderer, has been one of the case’s top suspects.
A recent book, however, asserts that it reveals the identity of Jack the Ripper and assigns Hyam Hyams as the perpetrator.
He was a Whitechapel-area cigar manufacturer who suffered from epilepsy and alcoholism. He would have been in his 30s in 1888, the year of the verified Jack the Ripper murders.
She combed through medical records and witness reports, according to author Sarah Bax Horton, whose great-great-grandfather participated in the initial investigation into Jack the Ripper.
She argues that some ailments Hyams experienced match up with descriptions of the serial killer in her book One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, she stated: “For the first time in history, Hyam Hyams’ distinguishing physical attributes can be used to identify Jack the Ripper as Hyam Hyams.
“He was particularly violent after his severe epileptic fits, which explains the periodicity of the murders.
“In the files, it said what the eyewitnesses said – that he had a peculiar gait. He was weak at the knees and wasn’t fully extending his legs.”
Of course, this is just one theory among many as to the true identity of the serial killer, though if it really was Hyams then what happened next might explain why Jack the Ripper seemingly stopped after a few months.
In December 1888 he was sent to the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary and spent much of the rest of his life incarcerated in asylums.
He was described as ‘violent and dangerous’, while in 1889, just 10 days after being discharged from Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, he was sent to the City of London Lunatic Asylum after stabbing his wife, before being transferred back to Colney Hatch a few months later.
From 1890 until his death in 1913, he was kept incarcerated in Colney Hatch.
