Here's Jack the Ripper a Crime Monthly Special ITV circa 1990 introduced by Paul Ross. The Programme comes to the same conclusion as the recent book by Russell Edwards (Published 2014) about the likely candidate who carried out the 5 Ripper crimes as a Polish immigrant called Aaron Kosminski. described as "a Polish Jew & resident of Whitechapel, insane owing to many years indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great hatred of women, specially of the prostitute class, & had strong homicidal tendencies; he was removed to a lunatic asylum about March 1889. There were many circumstances connected with this man which made him a strong suspect." Inspector Swanson added that Kosminski "was sent to Stepney Workhouse and then to Colney Hatch and died shortly afterwards." Philip Sugden chased down Kosminski's records and found a lot of discrepancies between police statements and the hospital records. According to Sugden, "Kosminski was not committed to Colney Hatch in 1889 but in 1891. And far from dying shortly afterwards, he lived for another 28 years. Dr. Houchin, when he certified Kosminski's insanity, described his behavior: " He declares that he is guided & his movements controlled by an instinct that informs his mind; he says that he knows the movements of all mankind; he refuses food from others because he is told to do so and eats out of the gutter for the same reason." A man named Jacob Cohen claimed that Kosminski took a knife and threatened his sister's life. However, Maurice Whitfield, Relieving Officer for the Western District of Mile End Old Town, who prepared papers for the doctors at Colney Hatch, described Kosminski as not dangerous to others or suicidal. Crime Monthly was a Monthly series investigating the inside stories behind solved and unsolved crimes it ran on ITV London from 1989 until 1996. Jack the Ripper is the best known name given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was widely disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story. Within the crime case files as well as journalistic accounts the killer was known as "the Whitechapel Murderer" as well as "Leather Apron". Attacks ascribed to the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and letters from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard. The "From Hell" letter, received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, included half of a preserved human kidney, supposedly from one of the victims. Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper". Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper, and his legend solidified. An investigation into a series of eleven brutal killings in Whitechapel up to 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888. Five victims: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly, all murdered between 31 August and 9 November 1888, are known as the "canonical five" and their murders are often considered the most likely to be linked. As the murders were never solved, the legends surrounding them became a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are now over one hundred theories about the Ripper's identity, and the murders have inspired multiple works of fiction.

• published: 19 Sep 2014
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