The Rest Is History – Episode 628: Jack The Ripper: The Killer Unmasked (Part 5)

Release Date: December 22, 2025
Hosts: Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook

Episode Overview

In this climactic fifth part of their Jack the Ripper series, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook dive deep into the enduring mystery of the Ripper’s identity. They review the myriad suspects, theories (both serious and outright outrageous), and what these reflect about Victorian society—and about our collective hunger for sensational stories. With detailed analysis, historical context, and doses of wry humor, they scrutinize popular candidates, weigh contemporary police opinions, and ultimately offer their own reasoned conclusions on who Jack the Ripper may actually have been.

Main Themes

• Why Jack the Ripper Endures: The case’s unsolved status has led to a proliferation of theories, most reflecting our societal anxieties and desire for larger-than-life villains.
• Theories and Suspects: From aristocrats to artists, quacks to conmen, and even anonymous butchers, the episode scrupulously sifts info and motives behind each suspect.
• The Power of Sensation and Mythology: The Ripper legend is as much about narrative needs of an age (then and now) as it is about hard evidence.
• How History Investigates Crime: The interplay between cold facts, psychological profiling, and the cultural imagination in examining historical mysteries.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Allure of Sensational Theories

• Reflecting on 'From Hell' (03:05 - 05:00)
  The hosts play a clip from the film "From Hell," noting how its melodramatic depiction fits society’s yearning for a dramatic culprit.
  • Tom: “It kind of illustrates the way in which the story of Jack the Ripper is so sensational, so melodramatic, that people want a solution that is as sensational and melodramatic as the crimes themselves…” (05:00)
  • Dominic: “People love the idea that it has a suitable killer to match the melodrama of the moment…” (06:08)

2. What We Actually Know

• Victim and Witness Details (08:49 - 12:46)
  • Limited evidence suggests a local white man, 20s–30s, “shabby genteel,” often with a moustache, and not strikingly upper-class.
  • All murders occurred late at night or early morning, supporting the idea of someone local or regularly present at odd hours.

3. Outlandish Theories and Notorious Suspects

The “Mad” Theories (14:20 - 21:13)

• Curses and Ghosts:
  • E.g., the “Mitre Square Monk’s Curse” (15:31): “That’s bonkers.” — Dominic (15:31)
• Famous Victorians:
  • Gladstone, Lewis Carroll, WG Grace, Lord Randolph Churchill, Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man), Boston Corbett: All dismissed as incompatible due to alibis, not fitting witness accounts, or simply being absurd.
  • “He’s a lovely bloke. Right. He’s a really, really lovely guy. He’s not going to have done it.” – Dominic, on Merrick (18:56)

The Royal & Aristocratic Suspects

• Prince Albert Victor (Prince Eddie) & ‘Royal Conspiracy’
  • Detailed the postwar “Dr. Stowell/Masonic conspiracy” theory, as adapted in "From Hell" and made notorious by Stephen Knight’s "Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution" (27:26 - 32:55).
  • Theories require “impossibly sensational” elements—royals, Freemasons, secret children, mass coverups.
  • “Gull was not a mason […] Sir William Gull had had a very serious stroke in 1887. He was incredibly obese and he was 71.” – Tom (32:55)
  • “It would just have seemed so absolutely ludicrous.” – Dominic, on William Gull as suspect (32:55)

The ‘Artistic’ Theories

• Walter Sickert
  • The painter linked by unlikely circumstantial evidence and relentless pursuit by crime writer Patricia Cornwell (33:22 – 39:57).
  • “There are a couple of other big problems with the Walter Sickert Thesis: number one, Walter Sickert lived until 1942. Is it plausible that he carried out these killings in an escalating frenzy and then just stopped and never did anything like it again?” – Dominic (39:03)

4. Serious Suspects: What Police Believed

Abberline’s and MacNaghten’s Shortlists (43:26 – 72:42)

• George Chapman (Severin Kwasowski):

  • Polish barber, serial wife-poisoner, but key differences in MO make the theory unlikely.
  • “I struggle to see how it makes sense.” – Dominic (51:49)

• Aaron Kosminski:

  • Polish-Jewish barber, later ended up in asylums, but described in records as nonviolent, passive, and with no anatomical skill.
  • “There is absolutely no evidence for that whatsoever. McNaughton There is either misinformed or he's repeating gossip or he's just making stuff up.” – Dominic (58:32)
  • Overhyped due to dubious DNA analysis: “The DNA evidence for Richard III was the gold standard. […] The shawl proved Kosminski had been the Ripper was absolutely the worst.” – Tom (60:34)

• Montague Druitt:

  • Barrister and teacher, committed suicide soon after the last murder. Favorite of MacNaghten, but with little supporting evidence and implausible suicide psychology.
  • “There is apparently no example of a serial killer being so ashamed of a killing spree that he or she then commits suicide.” – Tom (64:50)

• Michael Ostrog:

  • Colorful Russian-born conman and thief, but no violent history, not plausibly connected.

5. Modern and Peripheral Suspects

• James Maybrick (“Diary” suspect):

  • Diary and pocket watch are “palpably fake” artifacts likely concocted in the 1990s. “That's laughable.” – Dominic (75:54)

• Francis Tumblety:

  • Quack American doctor, eccentric, misogynist, but lacks evidentiary and physiological fit.

• “Known to the Victims” Type Theories:

  • E.g. Joseph Barnett (Mary Jane Kelly’s partner), George Hutchinson, Charles Lechmere (“discovered” Polly Nichols’ body) all proffered as possible, with Lechmere favored for his likely routes but no direct evidence.

Conclusion: Who Was Jack the Ripper?

The hosts’ verdict (84:54 – end):

• Dismissed all named suspects as improbable based on available evidence.

• Tom’s favorite hypothesis: An anonymous slaughterman or butcher, likely employed in a Whitechapel knacker’s yard, to explain the anatomical skill, access to blood-stained clothing, and presence during peak hours of the crimes.

  • “If I had to, to name someone, I, you know, if I was Inspector Abberline, I would have, I think, interrogated the workers in that knacker's yard quite intensively.” (91:48)

• Dominic’s conclusion:

  • Likely a local man, late 20s-40s, mustachioed, possibly a butcher or slaughterhouse worker—someone comfortable with the East End, able to “present himself as sane,” social enough to lure victims, but not so mad as to be immediately suspicious.
  • “What happened to him? Probably arrested for some other violent crime, or died in the great flu pandemic.” (94:04)

• Closing note:

  • “The mystery is solved. No one ever needs to discuss Jack the Ripper again.” – Dominic, tongue firmly in cheek (94:28)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “[People] want someone who is spectacular, dramatic, preferably famous.” – Tom Holland (05:00)
• “The Ripper, people want it. I think people love the idea that it has a suitable killer to match the melodrama of the moment…” – Dominic Sandbrook (06:08)
• “The more I think about it, [Boston Corbett] looks an increasingly plausible suspect.” – Dominic, jokingly, about the man who shot John Wilkes Booth (19:38)
• “Gull was not a mason, Lord Salisbury wasn’t a mason … it’s just not happening.” – Tom Holland, debunking the Masonic conspiracy (31:17)
• “There is no evidence at all that Kosminski has any anatomical knowledge … or record of violence toward women.” – Dominic (58:38)
• “I don’t think you can be in the MCC and also be a serial killer. I think that’s the rule.” – Tom, on Druitt (65:42)
• “He’s a kleptomaniac and a massive bounder!” – Dominic, on Ostrog (70:25)
• “Did Jack the Ripper walk around with his name on a pocket watch and initials of his victims? Come on.” – Dominic (75:54)
• “I think much more likely to be someone completely anonymous.” – Tom, on the true profile (85:57)
• “If you have made it this far, thank you very much. We will be burying Jack the Ripper … and we will not be returning to exhume them for a while.” – Tom Holland (94:43)

Important Timestamps

• [03:05] – Opening ‘From Hell’ film audio; discussion of myth-making
• [08:49] – Recap of key witness and location details for suspects
• [14:20] – Launch into “mad”/outlandish suspects
• [20:27] – Royal conspiracy: Prince Albert Victor and “the Final Solution”
• [33:22] – Walter Sickert and the artistic suspects
• [43:26] – Police suspect lists: Abberline’s and MacNaghten’s favorites
• [58:38] – In-depth analysis of Aaron Kosminski
• [61:37] – MacNaghten’s “top suspect” Montague Druitt
• [70:25] – Michael Ostrog, the conman
• [75:11] – James Maybrick and the forged “Ripper diary”
• [79:33] – Francis Tumblety, the quack and misogynist
• [82:41] – Modern “known to victim” and “anonymous” suspect theories
• [91:33] – Tom’s knacker’s yard theory
• [94:04] – Dominic’s butcher hypothesis; pandemic theory for why killings stopped
• [94:59] – Episode closing and final words

Tone and Language

• Conversational and witty, laced with erudite references, detective skepticism, and a constant awareness of the Ripper phenomenon as both a historical and mythological puzzle.
• Quotes are often dryly humorous, sometimes satirical regarding the more fantastical theories, and always rooted in a keen desire to balance storytelling with historical rigor.

Summary

This episode serves as both an encyclopedic debunking of nearly every famous (and infamous) Ripper theory and as an insightful meditation on why the legend endures. Tom and Dominic persuasively argue that the most likely perpetrator was an anonymous local man—a butcher or slaughterhouse worker rather than an aristocrat, prince, or genius gone mad—whose anonymity is the very reason the case continues to fascinate. The hosts close with a tongue-in-cheek “case closed,” inviting listeners to ponder just how much history’s greatest mysteries owe to our own desires for meaning, drama, and closure.