The great-great-granddaughter of a British police officer who investigated the Jack the Ripper murders says she has discovered the identity of the notorious 19th-century criminal who killed prostitutes in east London.
The identity of Jack the Ripper, who killed at least six women in the London borough of Whitechapel in 1888, remains one of the biggest unsolved court cases in the UK.
In a book to be published next month, Sarah Bax Horton claims, based on medical records, that the killer, who inflicted horrific mutilations on his victims, was a local cigar maker named Hyam Hyams, who suffered from epilepsy and alcoholism, it says. the Sunday Telegraph.
Witnesses at the time had described the suspect as an individual in his 30s, with a stiff arm and knee problems.
Bax Horton found medical records showing that Hyams, who was 35 in 1888, had sustained an injury that prevented him from “bending or straightening” his left arm.
The documents, taken from hospitals and asylums, also indicate that he had a knee problem and that he suffered from a severe form of epilepsy, with regular seizures.
The author also found similarities between her height and complexion and the descriptions of the witnesses.
In September 1889, the man, who died in 1913, was permanently admitted to an asylum.
Bax Horton, whose great-great-grandfather was officially investigating the case, concluded that Hyams’ physical and mental decline, compounded by alcoholism, led him to commit the murders. Previously, he had attacked his wife and his own mother with a meat cleaver.
Hyams’s name was on a “long list” of possible suspects but, according to the author, his profile as a potential Jack the Ripper had “never been fully explored before.”
According to the Telegraph, Paul Begg, an expert on the case, supports his hypothesis and describes Horton’s investigation as a “well-researched, well-written and much-needed book” to get an idea of ??who the character who sowed terror in London could be.
His book ‘One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper’ will be published in August.
In 2014, businessman and author Russell Edwards claimed that the criminal was Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish immigrant who had come to the UK to work as a barber. But his thesis, based on DNA, was refuted.
The Jack the Ripper case made a veritable industry flourish, with books, exhibitions and guided tours through the streets where his victims were murdered.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
