Macnaghten lists three suspects:

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(1) A Mr. M. J. Druitt, said to be a doctor & of good family–who disappeared at the time of the Miller's Court murder, & whose body (which was said to be upwards of a month in the water) was found in the Thames on 31st December–or about 7 weeks after that murder. He was sexually insane and from private information I have little doubt but that his own family believed him to have been the murderer.

(2) Kosminski–a Polish Jew–& resident of Whitechapel. This man became insane owing to many years of 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.'

(3) Michael Ostro, a Russian doctor, and a convict, who was subsequently detained in a lunatic asylum as a homocidal maniac. This man's antecedents were of the worst possible type, and his whereabouts at the time of the murders could never be ascertained.

Those were the Scotland Yard suspects. A more important name was added in 1970 when Dr. Thomas Stowell claimed that he had identified the murderer from the private papers of Sir William Gull who had been the Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria. Throughout the article Stowell referred to his suspect only as 'S.' He dropped enough clues to show that he was accusing the Duke of Clarence of being the murderer. He would not admit this as he said he did not want to embarrass the royal family. He died within a few days of making his theory public and his notes were burned by his family.

These then are the key documents and on them the theories continue to be built. The range of suspects is breathtaking. Jack the Ripper has been identified as being a Bible-thumping lodger, failed barrister, a doctor avenging his son killed by a syphilitic prostitute, the poisoners George Chapman and Neill Cream (despite the fact that the latter was in prison until 1891), a mad Russian sent by the Tsarist Secret Police to discredit English police methods, a Jewish shochet or slaughterman, a future King of England, Queen Victoria's doctor, a Royal tutor, back-street abortionist, sailor, policeman, midwife, Australian wife murderer, and Jill the Ripper!

The permutations seem endless. Until more hard evidence is found the speculations are bound to get even wilder. Perhaps the last word should be left with an anonymous rhymster:

I'm not a butcher,
I'm not a Yid,
Nor yet a foreign skipper.
I'm just your own light-hearted friend,
Yours truly–JACK THE RIPPER.

This article was written by Donald Rumbelow and originally appeared in the June/July 2001 issue of British Heritage magazine.

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