Jack the Ripper mystery finally SOLVED? Murderer was 'estranged husband of Mary Kelly'
ONE of the greatest murder mysteries in history could be a step closer to being solved after new evidence emerged claiming Jack the Ripper's final victim was in fact his estranged wife.
By
TOM BATCHELOR
PUBLISHED: 12:52, Sat, Aug 1, 2015 | UPDATED: 13:15, Sat, Aug 1, 2015
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Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper is thought to have murdered five people
As the body of one of the serial killer’s victims is set to exhumed, a new study suggests the Ripper was Francis Spurzheim Craig, a 51-year-old reporter covering inquests in the East End of London.
Researcher Dr Wynne Weston-Davies claims Craig’s intimate knowledge of how the police worked from covering the courts allowed him to get away with his crimes.
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But he believes the first four murders were simply a “cover” for his real intended victim - his wife who embarrassed him by secretly returning to prostitution a few months after they married in 1885.
After hearing the new theory, the Ministry of Justice has said it will grant an exhumation license for the grave of Mary Jane Kelly – the first of the
Ripper’s victims to be dug up.
Dr Weston-Davies claims to be the great-nephew of Ms Kelly, an East End prostitute and the Ripper’s last known victim.
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The corpse of Annie Chapman, murdered by Jack the Ripper at Hanbury Street, September 8, 1888
According to his research, Craig’s career as a journalist was damaged after he was exposed as a plagiarist for stealing reports from another newspaper while he was editor of the Bucks Advertiser.
Craig is also thought to have
suffered from schizo-typal personality disorder, or STPD
It is hoped Ms Kelly's exhumed body will go some way to substantiating the author’s claims – and
revealing once and for all his true identity.
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Jack the Ripper was the subject of many newspaper articles in the 1880s
Dr Weston-Davies – who is also a qualified surgeon – said: “The only way of absolutely proving that the Ripper’s final victim was my great aunt is to exhume Mary Jane Kelly’s body.
“We will then attempt to extract DNA from her bones or teeth and compare them with DNA from myself or my brother who, as far as I know, are her only living relatives.”
The author says he discovered the link and the potential identity of the Ripper during research at the National Archives at Kew, south-west London, four years ago.
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He claims in his new book, The Real Mary Kelly, that divorce papers that were filed at the time prove his links with Elizabeth Weston Davies, the real name of Mary Jane Kelly, and Francis Craig, her killer.
Dr Weston-Davies has also located what he believes may be the only surviving image of the face of the Ripper – a sketch of an inquest into the murder of one of his earlier victims.
He said: “There’s a sketch of a scene from the inquest of Annie Chapman which shows a man sitting on the front bench, the one reserved for the press.
“I think this is very possibly Francis Craig, and therefore the only surviving image of Jack the Ripper.”
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A London street where one of Jack the Ripper's murders took place
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