Could the Whitechapel Murderer have been a Police Officer?

[Michael W Richards]

In the last few years there have been quite a few breakthroughs of cold cases where the perpetrator has been revealed to be a Police Officer. Joseph DeAngelo was identified as a serial killer thanks to DNA. The French have also recently identified Francois Vèrove as the Paris serial killer of the 1980's. It has raised an interesting train of thought for me- was the Ripper a Police Officer. The night of the Double Event was almost miraculous. To a man almost every Policeman even years later were dumbfounded that he had evaded capture. Is there a possibility the killer was a cop- aware of the patrols in particular. Could he have used a badge or some other type of Police ID to avoid detection as he made his escape? Or was he just incredibly lucky? What is also interesting is that some of the recently identified Police serial killers also stopped killing quite suddenly. They then for years lived quite normal lives. I suppose in a way that might even be a feather in Charles Cross cap(I don't believe he was the killer mind you). Just a thought.

Yes. It has not been ruled out by any stretch. Since we have the overlap of certain officers in multiple Ripper cases it remains possible.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Sunny and Boris,

Very little is impossible in this case so I’d certainly say that the possibility exists. Maybe it was a Constable who’d been dismissed from the force? He’d have possessed the knowledge of police beats and known the streets and as the Mitre Square murder was a closest run thing, as far as avoiding running into a PC, maybe a former City Of London PC? I don’t know if anyone’s ever researched sacked COL police officers?

Ive offer wondered what I’d have done, if I was the killer, to improve my chances of getting away? I think that I’d have taken a few good swigs of whiskey then I’d have rubbed some of it on my face. Any sight of a police officer dashing toward the scene of a crime I’d have leaned against a wall drunkenly singing to myself. How many Constables in the position would have stopped to deal with yet another Whitechapel drunk reeking of whiskey? And would they even have bothered mentioning seeing him at any point? Probably not I’d say.

[bolo]

Hi Sunny Delight, all,

a policeman in uniform walked his beat at day or night and was overseen by a patrolling inspector or sergeant. During the day, he was supposed to walk near the kerb in order to watch the streets and pavement and during the night, he walked on the inside and had to check doors and locks for safety. No breaks were allowed during a shift, even though quite a few members of the force knew a way around this, for example by having a pint on the backdoor of a pub which usually lasted no more than a couple of minutes.

Officers in plain clothes sometimes followed the uniformed men on their beats or were positioned at certain hot spots. During the Ripper scare, the number of plainclothes was greatly increased by the Met and later on City police after the murder of Eddowes. They were usually sent out in groups of three and stood in close contact during their shift.

This tells me that it would have been rather difficult for a policeman on the beat to step aside and do his own thing. The murder spots also lie in various police station boundaries so the presence of a constable from, say, Aldgate in Mitre Square probably would have risen some eyebrows, same with the other murder locations.

Grüße,

Boris

[Sunny Delight]

In the last few years there have been quite a few breakthroughs of cold cases where the perpetrator has been revealed to be a Police Officer. Joseph DeAngelo was identified as a serial killer thanks to DNA. The French have also recently identified Francois Vèrove as the Paris serial killer of the 1980's. It has raised an interesting train of thought for me- was the Ripper a Police Officer. The night of the Double Event was almost miraculous. To a man almost every Policeman even years later were dumbfounded that he had evaded capture. Is there a possibility the killer was a cop- aware of the patrols in particular. Could he have used a badge or some other type of Police ID to avoid detection as he made his escape? Or was he just incredibly lucky? What is also interesting is that some of the recently identified Police serial killers also stopped killing quite suddenly. They then for years lived quite normal lives. I suppose in a way that might even be a feather in Charles Cross cap(I don't believe he was the killer mind you). Just a thought.