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What Is the Most Famous Unsolved Murder Mystery? · Murder Files Unsealed

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Speaker 1: There's something almost primal about a mystery that just won't.
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Speaker 2: Be solved, isn't there definitely that feeling of a locked box,
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something history just hasn't given up.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. We humans, we just crave closure, right, And
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when the facts run out, that space the unknown, well
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it just grabs our imagination, it really does.
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Speaker 2: And it's more than just you know, missing facts. It
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becomes a kind of narrative vacuum.
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Speaker 1: A vacuum how so, Well.
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Speaker 2: When a crime like this stays unsolved forever, we tend
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to fill that empty space. We pour in our fears,
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our craziest theories, decades and decades of just speculation.
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Speaker 1: Right, And if you look at the whole history of
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like modern true crime, one name just towers above the rest.
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It's basically the foundation Jack the Ripper, Jack the Ripper. Yeah,
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you could argue it's the most famous unsolved murder mystery ever.
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It's haunted London and really the whole world for well
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over a century now.
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Speaker 2: And what's really striking is just how long it's lasted.
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I mean, it's endurance. We've had other awful baffling cases, sure.
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Speaker 1: The Zodia at Killer, the Black Dahlia.
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Speaker 2: Right, the ax Man of New Orleans even, but none
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of them have hit that same level of.
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Speaker 1: Global fame, that cultural saturation exactly, or.
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Speaker 2: Just the sheer longevity that the Ripper has.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so let's dig into that. Our mission today, this
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deep dive. It's not really about who the Ripper was.
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We're trying to figure out why, why does this mystery
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hang around? We want to get past the basic facts,
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look at the sources and really understand that mix the history,
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the social context, the psychology that pushed these horrible killings
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into becoming this huge cultural touchstone.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we need to figure out why the Ripper's shadow
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feels so much bigger, so much scarier, and just more
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universally known than say, any other modern bogeyman. It's like
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a masterclass in myth making.
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Speaker 1: That's the core question, absolutely, And to get that legacy,
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we have to start where it all began, late summer
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autumn eighteen eighty eight, London's Whitechapel district. Let's taint that
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picture first, because the setting is so crucial. Here, the
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East end of London in eighteen eighty eight. I mean,
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it was like a totally different world compared to you know,
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the fancy parts of Victorian London.
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Speaker 2: Oh completely, our sources, they describe White Chapel as just
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sheer poverty, unbelievable over crowding, so much human misery packed
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into one place.
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Speaker 1: They called the housing rookeries, didn't.
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Speaker 2: They that's the term. Yeah, These tightly packed, falling apart tenements,
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disease everywhere, no privacy.
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Speaker 1: It was grim and this environment that created this, this
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perfect storm of chaos, right absolutely.
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Speaker 2: You had this population that society had basically written off,
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people living hand to mouth and common lodging houses, just
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trying to survive day by.
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Speaker 1: Day, which also meant they didn't trust anyone in charge.
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Speaker 2: Especially not the police. There was this deep, deep suspicion
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of authority.
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Speaker 1: And into that whole mess, the killing start fast, terrifying, and.
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Speaker 2: We usually focus on what historians call the canonical five victims, right.
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Speaker 1: Mary and Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherinetto's and Mary
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Jane Kelly.
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Speaker 2: Those are the five generally agreed upon. And the timeline
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is just chillingly brief.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, barely ten weeks end of August to early November
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eighteen eighty.
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Speaker 2: Eight, right August thirty first for Nichols November ninth for Kelly.
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That intense concentration of just brutal violence in such a
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small area, it caused immediate total panic.
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Speaker 1: People were horrified, obviously, but it was the way they
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were killed, the extreme violence, that really turn it from
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just you know, a string of murders into this global headline.
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Speaker 2: Exactly. The victims they were all female sex workers, already
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living on the absolute fringes of society, incredibly vulnerable.
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Speaker 1: And the method consistent.
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Speaker 2: A quick slash to the throat probably knocked them out
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or killed them almost instantly, and then severe mutilation after death.
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Speaker 1: Those details about the mutilation, they're critical to the story.
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Sources point out that specific organs.
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Speaker 2: Were removed, Yeah, and removed with a kind of precision. Yeah,
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that suggested quote anatomical knowledge.
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Speaker 1: Okay, but what did people at the time think that
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meant anatomical knowledge? Like was he a doctor, a butcher,
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some skilled craftsman.
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Speaker 2: Well, that detail was really the big fear factor, wasn't it.
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It separated the ripper from just you know, a common thug.
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The general feeling back then, backed up by the autopsy
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reports we had, was that the cuts were too precise,
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especially the removal of say, a kidney from Catherine Netto's
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or the uterus in other cases, it seemed like more
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than just amateur hacking.
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Speaker 1: So not just random slashing.
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Speaker 2: There was some method, definitely seemed like it. It strongly
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suggested the killer knew about human anatomy, maybe medical training, surgery,
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even specialized butchery perhaps, but the surgical feel of it
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was what really amped up the fear.
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Speaker 1: Ah, So it created this image not just a brute,
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but maybe someone educated, someone hiding in plain sight.
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Speaker 2: Exactly a sophisticated predator, maybe hidden amongst the masses, rather
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than just some desperate random attacker. That distinction is absolutely
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crucial for the whole myth making process later on.
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Speaker 1: And yet despite throwing recent versus at it, Scotland Yard
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just failed completely failed to catch them. Why what was
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wrong with the investigation back then?
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Speaker 2: Well, the challenges were immense, both technologically and just in
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terms of how things were organized.
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Speaker 1: Technology.
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Speaker 2: First, yeah, forensics as we understand it today, it basically
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didn't exist. Fingerprinting wasn't really a practical tool yet DNA
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science fiction and crime scenes, well preserving them wasn't really
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a thing.
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Speaker 1: Plus London's environment.
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Speaker 2: Right, dark alleys, gaslight, constant fog and rain, any potential
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evidence could just vanish instantly.
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Speaker 1: And what about the police themselves.
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Speaker 2: The structure that might have been an even bigger problem
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actually Scotland yard the Metropolitan Police, they were often disorganized,
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lots of internal squabbles.
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Speaker 1: Turfed four, especially with the City of London police right
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where some of the murders.
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Speaker 2: Happened exactly Stride and ETOs were killed where their jurisdictions met,
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which caused massive confusion. There wasn't good central coordination. You
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had witnesses giving conflicting story, worries, evidence getting lost, orders
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getting mixed up. It was a bit of a mess.
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Speaker 1: So you've got victims nobody really cared about, a chaotic environment,
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and police who are just structurally not ready for this.
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Speaker 2: It really was the perfect storm for a killer like
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this to operate almost freely. He could strike fast in
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those packed dark rookeries and just melt away back into
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the crowds, back into the fog, total anonymity.
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Speaker 1: So the investigation it was kind of doomed from the start,
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not for lack of trying maybe, but just the sheer difficulty.
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Speaker 2: Pretty much trying to track one cunning person in that
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sprawling chaotic city using nineteenth century methods, it was an
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almost impossible task.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so the crimes themselves laid the groundwork for the terror,
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but the timing, the historical moment, that's what really cemented
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the fame.
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Speaker 2: Right, absolutely, these murders hit right at a pivot point
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in history, the peak of the late Victorian era, a
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time of immense national pride but also staggering hypocrisy, and.
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Speaker 1: The killings instantly became this kind of brutal social commentary devastatingly.
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Speaker 2: So, yeah, the West End all fancies celebrating the Empire's
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wealth and progress and then bam, the Ripper case just
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rips back the curtain on the East End shows the
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unbelievable neglect the poverty.
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Speaker 1: It really highlighted the gap between rich and poor massively.
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Speaker 2: And especially the plight of poor women who had absolutely
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no safety net, none at all.
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Speaker 1: Did the wealthy West End feel guilty or just scared.
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Speaker 2: A bit of both, I think, but mostly fear. The
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sources show this sudden, intense spotlight on the squalor in Whitechapel,
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but it wasn't really framed as oh, we need social reform.
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Speaker 1: It was more like panic panic that the darkness might spread.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that the poverty, the depravity hitting away in the
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East End could somehow creep westwards. It really shook the
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empire's self image, a crisis of conscience maybe.
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Speaker 1: And you can't ignore the look of it all either,
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the visuals.
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Speaker 2: It's definitely not the fog, the gas light flickering on
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wet streets, the stark contrasts between you know, high society
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silk and utter destitution. It gave the whole thing this
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instant gothic, almost cinematic quality.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a visual language that modern cases just don't have.
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Speaker 2: That gothic allure is unique. But here's where things get
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really crucial for the rippers fame. This horror story lands
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exactly when mass market, sensationless journalism is exploding, Ah.
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Speaker 1: The penny press. This is when newspapers stopped just reporting
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facts and started actively, you know, shaping the story totally.
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Speaker 2: We're talking about papers like The Star, the pal Mall.
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Speaker 1: Gazette reaching huge audiences for the first time exactly.
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Speaker 2: Printing got cheaper, so suddenly working class people could afford newspapers.
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And these papers discovered pretty quickly that fear sells boy does.
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Speaker 1: It self, so they started publishing really graphic.
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Speaker 2: Stuff, graphic sometimes totally made up accounts. They fueled speculation,
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kept the panic going practically hour by hour.
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Speaker 1: But how do they shape the story beyond just.
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Speaker 2: The gore by creating the brand? That's the key. The
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press needed something simple, something catchy, to hang all the
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fear onto. And then supposedly the first letter from the killer.
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Speaker 1: Arrives, the dear Boss letter.
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Speaker 2: Right, and the signature on that letter Jack the Ripper.
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The paper seized on it instantly.
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Speaker 1: Wow. So the media actually gave the killer his name,
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the name that stuck forever.
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Speaker 2: Pretty much, whether the letter was real or not, and
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many think it wasn't, the press ran with the name.
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It turned him from just some anonymous monster into a character,
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a cultural figure.
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Speaker 1: That act of naming, of branding him, that was the game.
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Speaker 2: Changer, absolutely critical. Our sources point to this as maybe
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the first time ever that a serial killer became this
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huge international media sensation. The name Jack the Ripper. It
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just instantly screamed danger, mystery, menace. It's at the template
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for how the media covers crime really right up to today.
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Speaker 1: That's incredible. The media didn't just report the story, they
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essentially created the icon. They needed a villain for their narrative,
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and the Killer's brutality and evasion gave them the perfect
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sellable monster.
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Speaker 2: So if we shift now to this sort of psychological
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side of it, why it still grips us that power
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of anonymity. It's probably the single biggest factor keeping the
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Ripper legend.
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Speaker 1: Alive because he just vanished, vanished.
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Speaker 2: Without a trace. No one has ever been definitively identified.
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Speaker 1: Which means he's not really a historical person, is he.
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He's more like a blank slate, exactly.
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Speaker 2: A blank slate for us to project onto. We fill
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that void with our own fears, our own theories. He
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becomes whatever we imagine the worst kind of evil to be.
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Speaker 1: And that projection it was fueled by those letters, right,
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the ones supposedly from the kill.
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Speaker 2: Was actively stoked by them.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, those taunting communications became legendary. Hundreds of letters poured
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into newspapers, police stations. It created this bizarre public dialogue
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between the monster and the city.
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Speaker 2: But hang on, didn't investigators figure out pretty quickly that
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most of those were fakes, like journalists or just cruel pranksters.
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Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, the vast majority were hoax Is no question. Yeah,
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but did that stop the press? Not likely, not a chance,
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real or fake. They were amazing headlines, sensationalism gold. But
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two pieces of mail really stand out for their impact,
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genuine or not.
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Speaker 2: The Deer Boss letter which gave in the name.
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Speaker 1: And the from Hell letter.
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Speaker 2: Ah. Yeah, that's the one that really cemented the image
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of this cold, calculating monster because it.
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Speaker 1: Came with half a human kidney.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, the sources confirmed this was the most visceral, the
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most terrifying communication. The writer claimed the kidney was from
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Catherine Edo's. One of the victims said he'd fried and
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eat it.
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Speaker 1: That's just beyond physical violence, it's psychological torture completely.
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Speaker 2: It implied calculation, keeping trophies, a total lack of humanity,
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a grotesque level of contempt.
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Speaker 1: And that act, real or not, it elevated the ripper,
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didn't it From just a local menace to this symbol
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of chaos, the ultimate unknown.
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Speaker 2: Taps right into that primal fear. We have the sophisticated
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predator hiding in plain sight.
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Speaker 1: And all of that, the fear of the mystery. The letters.
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It eventually led to this whole field and study, righty yiparology.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that whole dedicated subculture, amateur sleuths, professional historians, people
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who've spent decades, lifetimes even trying to crack this one
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hundred and thirty plus year old cold case.
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Speaker 1: What do ripperologists actually do well?
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Speaker 2: They meticulously come through everything that survives old victorian police files,
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newspaper archives from eighteen eighty eight, parish records, health records,
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coroners reports, anything they can find.
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Speaker 1: So it's like this endless historical detective.
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Speaker 2: Work, perpetual detection, and that's what keeps the case alive
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in public discussion. Every time some researcher finds a forgotten
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memo or proposes a new angle on an old suspect, Boom,
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the whole Ripper story gets dragged back into the spotlight.
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Speaker 1: And popular culture keeps recycling it too.
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Speaker 2: Constantly, you see the Ripper pop up everywhere, early stage flays, novels, movies.
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Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell is a huge one.
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Speaker 1: The film adaptation too.
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Speaker 2: Right, The story just gets retold and reimagined again and again.
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It never gets a chance to just settle down and
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become purely history. It stays active.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So it's clear the rip holds this really unique position.
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But let's make those comparisons concrete. The sources seem pretty clear.
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Other cases are awful, yeah, and fascinating, but none really
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matched the Ripper, not in scope, not in how long
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it's lasted, not in just global cultural impact. It's like
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the Ripper case didn't just happen. It wrote the rule
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book for how we mythologize serial killers.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you can really see that template when you compare
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it to cases that have some of the same elements
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but just don't quite hit that same perfect storm.
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Speaker 1: Where should we start? Black Dahlia probably America's most famous
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single unsolved killing.
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Speaker 2: Good place to start. Elizabeth Short nineteen forty seven, Los Angeles.
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Speaker 1: Horrific crime, brutal body cut in half, drained of blood,
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that awful Glasgow smile carved on her face, the sheer horror,
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the media frenzy. It feels similar to the Ripper.
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Speaker 2: Initially, the parallels are definitely there. Sensationalist press check the
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only newspapers went wild with the tragic story of this
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young woman wanting to be a stre But there's a
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key difference in the structure.
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Speaker 1: It was just one murder, one victim.
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Speaker 2: Awful, yes, but a single murder just doesn't create the
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same level of sustained panic, the same mythological weight as
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the Ripper's series of attacks over those two intense months.
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Speaker 1: And the whole vibe is different to the esthetic totally.
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Speaker 2: Ripper is Victorian London Gothic fog, universal fear. Black Dahlia
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is pure twentieth century l a noir, Hollywood glamour gone wrong.
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It's iconic in the US, definitely, but that noir setting
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doesn't have the same kind of timeless global dread as
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the Ripper's London.
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Speaker 1: Okay. Next up the Zodiac Killer California, late sixties, early seventies,
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maybe the closest modern parallel in terms of playing games
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with the media.
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Speaker 2: Very close in that respect. Zodiac claimed five definite victims,
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bragged about maybe dozens more, Just like the Ripper or
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whoever wrote those letters. He used letters and codes to
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taunt the police and the press.
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Speaker 1: He wanted fame through fear, just like the Ripper narrative suggests.
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Speaker 2: He absolutely did. But Zodiac added that extra layer the
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cipher codes.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, some still unsolved.
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Speaker 2: Today, right, which adds this kind of intellectual puzzle element.
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Maybe that the loops, the raw gut level fear slightly
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compared to the Ripper, and his victims were different too,
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often young couples in lonely places, not necessarily the most
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vulnerable poor in a crowded city.
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Speaker 1: But the biggest difference has to be the era right
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Zodiac was modern.
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Speaker 2: Crucial difference. Zodiac operated in an age with much better forensics,
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even if they were basic by today's standards, So his
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ability to evade capture feels more frustrating, more like a
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failure of the system.
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Speaker 1: Whereas the Ripper getting away while is eighteen eighty eight,
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you can almost excuse it because the technology just wasn't there.
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Speaker 2: That's a really key insight. The Ripper's escape feels almost
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understandable given the limitations. The Zodiac's escape, despite dedicated task
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sources and modern techniques, feels harder to explain. It makes
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it harder to build him into that perfect, almost supernatural
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monster figure.
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Speaker 1: So even though Zodiac inspired movies and books, the cultural
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impact feels narrower more for true crime.
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Speaker 2: Fans generally, yeah primarily North American focus doesn't have that
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same global historical weight as the Ribber.
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Speaker 1: Okay, one more comparison, a case that had the brutality
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the victim type, but just didn't hit the big time.
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The Cleveland Torso murders.
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Speaker 2: Ah, the Kingsbury Run murders nineteen thirty five to nineteen
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thirty eight, truly gruesome.
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Speaker 1: At least twelve bodies right yeah, dismembered, totapitated found in Cleveland.
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Victims were marginalized people, transient sex workers very similar to
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the Rippers.
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Speaker 2: Victims, very similar profile, and somebodies even showed signs of
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chemical treatment. Plus it was investigated by elliot ness.
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Speaker 1: Wow, so you've got the horror, lots of victims, similar victimology,
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even a famous cop on the case. Why isn't the
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Cleveland Torso murderer as famous as Jack the Ripper?
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Speaker 2: This case really highlights how important that media branding is.
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The Cleveland killer he never got a catchy name, No.
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Speaker 1: Torso terror or Kingsbury cutter.
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Speaker 2: That's stuck, nothing that caught on globally like Jack the
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Ripper or even Zodiac and no letters, crucially, no taunting
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letters to the press or police. Without that direct communication,
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the killer couldn't shape the narrative, couldn't become this interactive
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figure of dread. The crimes were horrifying, infamous, locally, but
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without the median aim and the taunting, it just lacked
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the ingredients to become this enduring global myth.
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Speaker 1: So Ripper stays on top because it had everything. The brutality,
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the timing with social change, the explosion of the sensationalist
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press right then, and the lack of nineteenth century tech
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meant he got away clean, the perfect unsolved storm.
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Speaker 2: And that lack of closure means the debate never stops.
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The sheer number of theories is what keeps the case
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constantly simmering. Sources say, what over one hundred different suspects
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proposed since eighteen eighty eight.
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Speaker 1: Over one hundred. That alone guarantees it stays alive. The
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mystery just keeps feeding itself exactly. Okay, let's get into
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some of those main suspects, because that hunt for an answer,
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that need for closure, it's a huge part of ripperology.
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Starting with the name that caused a big stir relatively recently,
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Aaron Cosminsky.
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Speaker 2: Right. Cosminsky. He was a Polish Jewish immigrant, lived in Whitechapel,
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worked as a barber. He was actually committed to an
18:10
asylum not long after the murder stopped.
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Speaker 1: And he was already a suspect back in the day,
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wasn't he?
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Speaker 2: In police files he was mentioned as being identified by
18:18
a witness, but that witness apparently refused to testify against him.
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But his name really blew up again in twenty fourteen
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because of that controversial DNA study.
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Speaker 1: Ah, Yes, the shawl claimed they found DNA linking Cosminsky
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to a shawl supposedly from Catherine Edo's. But you called
18:33
it controversial. Why why don't historians and scientists just accept it?
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Speaker 2: Well, the criticism focuses almost entirely on the shawl itself
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and the DNA methods. First, the shawl's history its providence
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is incredibly shaky. It was supposedly taken from the crime scene,
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but it wasn't stored as evidence. It passed through private
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hands for over a.
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Speaker 1: Century, So contamination risk.
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Speaker 2: Massive contamination risk. Think of how many people might have
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handled it. Second, the DNA analysis used mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA.
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Speaker 1: Which isn't unique like nuclear DNA exactly.
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Speaker 2: mtDNA craises maternal lineage. It could potentially match thousands of people,
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not just one specific individual. And then the full DNA
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sequences weren't published initially for other scientists to properly scrutinize.
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Speaker 1: So scientifically speaking, it's just not solid proof.
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Speaker 2: The consensus is fascinating, maybe suggestive, but absolutely do not
19:26
conclusive proof. Far too many questions about contamination and the
19:29
limitations of mtDNA.
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Speaker 1: Which of course just throws fuelback on the fire. The
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debate restarts instead of ending. Okay, who else is a
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major historical contender?
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Speaker 2: Another name that comes up a lot straight from police
19:39
documents of the time is Montague drew It.
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Speaker 1: Montague drew It. He was a barrister, a school teacher right.
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Speaker 2: And crucially, his body was found drowned in the River
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Thames in late November eighteen eighty eight, very shortly after
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Mary Jane Kelly, the last canonical victim, was murdered.
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Speaker 1: What made the police suspect him back then?
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Speaker 2: He was specifically named at a confidence memo written years
20:01
later by a high ranking police official, Assistant Chief Constable
20:05
Melville McNaughton. McNaughton pointed to Drewet's supposed mental instability and
20:11
most importantly, the timing his death coincided almost exactly with
20:15
the killing stopping.
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Speaker 1: But the evidence was all circumstantial.
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Speaker 2: Entirely circumstantial location, timing, alleged instability, but the fact that
20:24
a top cop warned him gives the theory historical weight.
20:27
It keeps Drewett firmly in the Ripper discussion.
20:30
Speaker 1: Okay, moving into theories that are maybe more out there
20:33
but still persistent, we have to mention the artist Walter
20:36
Sickert Ah Sickart.
20:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, that theory got huge publicity, thinks of the crime
20:40
novelist Patricia Cornwell. She really pushed it hard.
20:43
Speaker 1: Her argument was based on his paintings and letters.
20:46
Speaker 2: Yeah. She argued his dark, moody paintings held coded confessions,
20:50
and she tried to link his handwriting and even paper
20:53
water marks to the Ripper letters. Claimed his art revealed
20:56
his guilt.
20:56
Speaker 1: But sources say historians pretty much dismissed this one.
20:59
Speaker 2: Why Well, mainly because there's just no hard historical evidence
21:04
connecting sicret to the actual crimes. Critics argue Cornwell misinterpreted
21:09
artistic themes, stretched circumstantial links way too far, and relied
21:14
on evidence that just wasn't verifiable.
21:16
Speaker 1: The theory hangs around.
21:18
Speaker 2: It does, probably because it fits that appealing narrative of
21:21
the killer being someone sophisticated. Maybe artistic hiding a dark secret.
21:26
It taps into that same vein as the anatomical knowledge idea.
21:29
Speaker 1: And then there's the ultimate Ripper conspiracy theory, the royal
21:32
connection Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria's grandson.
21:36
Speaker 2: Right the most sensational and easily the most debunked theory.
21:40
It usually involves variations. Either the Prince was the ripper,
21:43
driven mad by syphilis maybe, or the murders were done
21:46
by others to cover up some scandal involving.
21:48
Speaker 1: Him, like a secret marriage to a commoner or something
21:50
like that.
21:51
Speaker 2: Exactly stories involving blackmail, freemasons, the highest levels of government
21:56
covering things up. It's got everything for a great conspiracy story.
22:00
Speaker 1: It definitely taps into that idea of the killer being powerful, untouchable,
22:04
protected by the establishment.
22:06
Speaker 2: That's the appeal. But serious historians they've thoroughly debunked it.
22:10
They can place Prince Albert Victor elsewhere documented locations on
22:14
the dates of several of the murders. There's just no
22:16
credible evidence.
22:17
Speaker 1: But the fact that the suspect list can stretch all
22:20
the way from a poor immigrant barber in Whitechapel to
22:23
the Queen's own grandson. That huge range just shows why
22:27
the mystery is fundamentally uncrackable. It keeps regenerating interest because
22:32
the possibilities seem almost endless.
22:34
Speaker 2: So when you pull it all together, all these factors,
22:36
the reason the Ripper still fascinates us. It really seems
22:38
to be this perfect storm, a mix of historical timing
22:41
and just deep seated human psychology.
22:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, number one has to be that basic human need
22:46
for answers, for closure. Our brains just hate leaving a
22:49
puzzle unsolved.
22:50
Speaker 2: We did test that gap in the.
22:52
Speaker 1: Story, right, So when a case like the Ripper ends
22:55
so violently, so abruptly, with this giant question mark just
22:59
hanging there forever, we can't help but try to fill
23:02
it with theories, with stories, with this constant search for
23:06
the answer.
23:07
Speaker 2: And these big unsolved mysteries, they always end up reflecting
23:10
something about the society they happened, and don't.
23:12
Speaker 1: They Absolutely, the Ripper case, maybe more than any other,
23:16
just drag the dark side of Victorian London into the light,
23:20
That institutional neglect of the poor, the hypocrisy.
23:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, the crime forced society back then to face really
23:26
uncomfortable questions about justice, about class, about how vulnerable women
23:31
were treated.
23:31
Speaker 1: And it was the media catching fire right at that moment,
23:34
that took this local tragedy and blasted it into this
23:38
enduring global legend.
23:39
Speaker 2: From those nineteenth century newspapers creating the Jack the Ripper
23:42
brand right up to today's true crime podcasts and documentaries.
23:46
Unsolved mysteries are just irresistible content, and the Ripper is
23:49
the original, the archetype and psychologically that idea of the
23:53
faceless killer, the anonymous predator. It taps into our deepest fears,
23:57
doesn't it. The monster hiding.
23:59
Speaker 1: Among us, the ultimate it's bogey man.
24:01
Speaker 2: He represents that hidden evil, someone capable of the worst
24:04
acts imaginal, but who can just blend back into the crowd.
24:07
That's terrifying. It's the ultimate expression of that Victorian dread,
24:12
the darkness lurking just beneath the civilized surface.
24:15
Speaker 1: So what strikes me pulling it all together, is that
24:18
the Ripper is the gold standard. Yeah, but not just
24:20
because of the whore. It's because he was first. He
24:22
had that unique historical moment, the media explosion and the
24:26
mystery guaranteed by the lack of technology.
24:29
Speaker 2: Precisely, he established the pattern. Cases like the Dahlia or Zodiac.
24:34
They inherited parts of that pattern, the media frenzy, the anonymity,
24:37
but they didn't have that same perfect convergence. Yeah, that
24:40
specific gothic setting right at the dawn of mass media,
24:43
that is unique to The Ripper.
24:45
Speaker 1: Okay, so the final takeaway here, Jack the Ripper isn't
24:48
just some old crime story. It's really a foundational cultural moment.
24:52
It created the serial killer archetype as we know, It
24:55
set the stage for media driven crime reporting, and maybe
24:58
even fueled our whole ongoing obsession with true crime.
25:02
Speaker 2: The impact is huge. Yeah, the Ripper's legacy, it kind
25:05
of forces every new generation to think about the limits
25:08
of justice, the possibility of ultimate evil escaping completely. The
25:12
fact that the most infamous villain of that average is vanished.
25:16
That's a scary idea that ensures will probably never stop
25:18
talking about him or being scared by him.
25:20
Speaker 1: Which leaves us with the final thought for you, the listener,
25:23
to consider. We know the technology back in eighteen eighty
25:25
eight made solving the case incredibly difficult, maybe impossible. It
25:29
was a failure of the tools available. So you have
25:31
to wonder would the fascination be quite the same if
25:34
it happened today, or is it precisely that lack of
25:38
closure that fundamental, inescapable mystery of him just disappearing, is
25:42
that the real secret to his enduring hunting power