Jack the Ripper was a notorious serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the fall of 1888. He brutally butchered at least five women over a period of three months. Each victim’s throat was cut and body mutilated in a manner that suggested the killer had some knowledge of human anatomy.
The murderer self-identified as “Jack the Ripper” in a series of notes written to police. In one particular message he actually mailed half a kidney extracted from one victim to law enforcement authorities. Police made strenuous efforts to catch the taunting killer, but to no avail. Their failed attempts led to public outrage, which resulted in the resignation of London’s police commissioner.
Now, 134 years after the infamous crimes, the suspected face of the notorious serial killer has finally been revealed once police made a stunning discovery while examining old archives, the New York Post reported.
Although his true identity was never discovered, the only known facial composite of the killer has now been disclosed to the public.
The image of Jack the Ripper was found etched into the handle of a wooden walking stick. It was owned by the police detective who spent years attempting to catch him. The artifact was found among dozens of other historical relics.
Scotland Yard Detective Frederick Abberline was removed from the renowned serial homicide investigation in 1889 after failing to find the terrorizing killer who tormented the streets of London’s East End.
The chilling image is the only reported facial composite of Jack the Ripper, whose identity remains a mystery more than a century later.
For years, the wooden cane had been stored at the Police College in Bramshill, Hampshire, UK and was an artifact that was feared lost when the institution was closed in 2015. Yet it was rediscovered by staff members searching through memorabilia at the College of Policing’s headquarters in Ryton, West Midlands, The Post reported.
The image of Jack the Ripper was found carved into a wooden cane owned by a Scotland Yard detective. (College of Policing)
A spokesperson for the College of Policing confirmed two staff members made the fascinating discovery while looking through artifacts placed into storage following Bramshill’s closure. The cane with the image of the morose murderer has gone on display to highlight advancements in police technology.
“Finding this cane was an exciting moment for us,” Antony Cash, the college’s content creator, said.
“Jack the Ripper is one of the biggest and most infamous murder cases in our history and his crimes were significant in paving the way for modern policing and forensics as it caused police to begin experimenting with and developing new techniques as they attempted to try and solve these murders, such as crime scene preservation, profiling and photography.
“This walking cane is such a fascinating artifact which represents such a historically significant time in policing.
“It’s amazing that we can put it out on display here in Ryton, alongside the original newspaper cuttings, so that our officers can see first-hand how far we’ve advanced in policing since then.’’
Detective Abberline received the cane as a rather unusual gift after he was removed from the case, according to The Post.
The detective retired from the Metropolitan Police in 1892 after serving the agency for 30 years. He passed away in 1929 without ever knowing Jack the Ripper’s real identity, a fact that remains shrouded in mystery to this day.
