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Jack (not his real name) was born in 1861 in Hertfordshire, but the family moved to London whilst he was young.
In his teens he met the love of his life and they had plans to get married, banns were read, but the marriage was delayed. His girlfriend, who by then went by Jack’s surname, fell pregnant but he never saw his son. One fateful day he and his intended had a huge row over his lazy ways and the fact that he pawned her best dress without her knowing. During the row, he attempted to strangle his girlfriend’s sister, then having thrown his fiancée to the floor he grabbed a knife from the table and drew it across her throat causing serious injury that required hospitalisation. She begged for mercy and, thankfully, on this occasion, our man relented.
At his trial the Judge said that it was lucky he was not being tried for murder – as it was he received 7 years imprisonment in 1881. Whilst inside, he still harboured thoughts of his love and thought that they could make a go of it again upon his release. One day he received a letter that made it clear his one-time fiancé had met and married someone else. What’s more his son was being brought up with another man’s name. He kept his seething resentment hidden until his release on license towards the end of 1886.
He tried to find his lost love and his child, but struggled. After all, they had a different name now. He asked around the people she might have known but none would give him the information he needed. Unable to contain his anger any longer, he embarked on a killing spree which resulted in the deaths of a number of prostitutes in the Whitechapel area where he resided at the time. All these murders had some connection or other with his ex-fiancée. People known to her, names similar, places similar and, of course, the throat injuries – at any rate his ex could have been in no doubt that he was the murderer and would have got to her too if he could.
It was all too much – Jack was then in and out of asylums and got in trouble for using threatening behaviour. He also may have enjoyed a short lived marriage but I don’t know what happened to his wife. He died, still a very troubled man, in 1910 at the age of 49. His son died in Belgium during the First World War.
This is simply a story that has some basis in reality and some quite remarkable real life co-incidences, not included above. Our Jack was 28 at the time of the Ripper murders – so he couldn’t be JTR, could he?
In his teens he met the love of his life and they had plans to get married, banns were read, but the marriage was delayed. His girlfriend, who by then went by Jack’s surname, fell pregnant but he never saw his son. One fateful day he and his intended had a huge row over his lazy ways and the fact that he pawned her best dress without her knowing. During the row, he attempted to strangle his girlfriend’s sister, then having thrown his fiancée to the floor he grabbed a knife from the table and drew it across her throat causing serious injury that required hospitalisation. She begged for mercy and, thankfully, on this occasion, our man relented.
At his trial the Judge said that it was lucky he was not being tried for murder – as it was he received 7 years imprisonment in 1881. Whilst inside, he still harboured thoughts of his love and thought that they could make a go of it again upon his release. One day he received a letter that made it clear his one-time fiancé had met and married someone else. What’s more his son was being brought up with another man’s name. He kept his seething resentment hidden until his release on license towards the end of 1886.
He tried to find his lost love and his child, but struggled. After all, they had a different name now. He asked around the people she might have known but none would give him the information he needed. Unable to contain his anger any longer, he embarked on a killing spree which resulted in the deaths of a number of prostitutes in the Whitechapel area where he resided at the time. All these murders had some connection or other with his ex-fiancée. People known to her, names similar, places similar and, of course, the throat injuries – at any rate his ex could have been in no doubt that he was the murderer and would have got to her too if he could.
It was all too much – Jack was then in and out of asylums and got in trouble for using threatening behaviour. He also may have enjoyed a short lived marriage but I don’t know what happened to his wife. He died, still a very troubled man, in 1910 at the age of 49. His son died in Belgium during the First World War.
This is simply a story that has some basis in reality and some quite remarkable real life co-incidences, not included above. Our Jack was 28 at the time of the Ripper murders – so he couldn’t be JTR, could he?
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