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20 biggest historical mysteries that will probably never be solved.

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Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.

Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved women working as prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of the East End of London. Their throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to speculation that their killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and numerous letters were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard from individuals purporting to be the murderer.

The name "Jack the Ripper" originated in the " Dear Boss letter" written by an individual claiming to be the murderer, which was disseminated in the press. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax and may have been written by journalists to heighten interest in the story and increase their newspapers' circulation. The " From Hell letter" received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee came with half of a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims. The public came increasingly to believe in the existence of a single serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, mainly because of both the extraordinarily brutal nature of the murders and media coverage of the crimes.

Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper, and the legend solidified. A police investigation into a series of eleven brutal murders committed in Whitechapel and Spitalfields between 1888 and 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888. Five victims- Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly-are known as the "canonical five" and their murders between 31 August and 9 November 1888 are often considered the most likely to be linked. The murders were never solved, and the legends surrounding these crimes became a combination of historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory, capturing public imagination to the present day.

Background

Women and children congregate in front of one of the Whitechapel common lodging-houses close to where Jack the Ripper murdered two of his victims[1]

In the mid-19th century, England experienced an influx of Irish immigrants who swelled the populations of the major cities, including the East End of London. From 1882, Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire and other areas of Eastern Europe emigrated into the same area. The parish of Whitechapel in the East End became increasingly overcrowded, with the population increasing to approximately 80,000 inhabitants by 1888. Work and housing conditions worsened, and a significant economic underclass developed. Fifty-five per cent of children born in the East End died before they were five years old. Robbery, violence, and alcohol dependency were commonplace, and the endemic poverty drove many women to prostitution to survive on a daily basis.

In October 1888, London's Metropolitan Police Service estimated that there were 62 brothels and 1,200 women working as prostitutes in Whitechapel, with approximately 8,500 people residing in the 233 common lodging-houses within Whitechapel every night, with the nightly price for a coffin bed being fourpence and the cost of sleeping upon a "lean-to" or "hang-over" rope stretched across the dormitory being two pence per person.

The economic problems in Whitechapel were accompanied by a steady rise in social tensions. Between 1886 and 1889, frequent demonstrations led to police intervention and public unrest, such as Bloody Sunday (1887). Antisemitism, crime, nativism, racism, social disturbance, and severe deprivation influenced public perceptions that Whitechapel was a notorious den of immorality. Such perceptions were strengthened in 1888 when the series of vicious and grotesque murders attributed to "Jack the Ripper" received unprecedented coverage in the media.

The sites of the first seven Whitechapel murders - Osborn Street (centre right), George Yard (centre left), Hanbury Street (top), Buck's Row (far right), Berner Street (bottom right), Mitre Square (bottom left), and Dorset Street (middle left)

The large number of attacks against women in the East End during this time adds uncertainty to how many victims were murdered by the same individual. Eleven separate murders, stretching from 3 April 1888 to 13 February 1891, were included in a Metropolitan Police investigation and were known collectively in the police docket as the "Whitechapel murders". Opinions vary as to whether these murders should be linked to the same culprit, but five of the eleven Whitechapel murders, known as the "canonical five", are widely believed to be the work of the Ripper. Most experts point to deep slash wounds to the throat, followed by extensive abdominal and genital-area mutilation, the removal of internal organs, and progressive facial mutilations as the distinctive features of the Ripper's modus operandi. The first two cases in the Whitechapel murders file, those of Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, are not included in the canonical five.

Smith was robbed and sexually assaulted in Osborn Street, Whitechapel, at approximately 1:30 a.m. on 3 April 1888. She had been bludgeoned about the face and received a cut to her ear. A blunt object was also inserted into her vagina, rupturing her peritoneum. She developed peritonitis and died the following day at London Hospital. Smith stated that she had been attacked by two or three men, one of whom she described as a teenager. This attack was linked to the later murders by the press, but most authors attribute Smith's murder to general East End gang violence unrelated to the Ripper case.

Tabram was murdered on a staircase landing in George Yard, Whitechapel, on 7 August 1888; she had suffered 39 stab wounds to her throat, lungs, heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and abdomen, with additional knife wounds inflicted to her breasts and vagina. All but one of Tabram's wounds had been inflicted with a bladed instrument such as a penknife, and with one possible exception, all the wounds had been inflicted by a right-handed individual. Tabram had not been raped.

The savagery of the Tabram murder, the lack of an obvious motive, and the closeness of the location and date to the later canonical Ripper murders led police to link this murder to those later committed by Jack the Ripper. However, this murder differs from the later canonical murders because although Tabram had been repeatedly stabbed, she had not suffered any slash wounds to her throat or abdomen. Many experts do not connect Tabram's murder with the later murders because of this difference in the wound pattern.

Canonical five

The canonical five Ripper victims are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

The body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered at about 3:40 a.m. on Friday 31 August 1888 in Buck's Row (now Durward Street), Whitechapel. Nichols had last been seen alive approximately one hour before the discovery of her body by a Mrs Emily Holland, with whom she had previously shared a bed at a common lodging-house in Thrawl Street, Spitalfields, walking in the direction of Whitechapel Road. Her throat was severed by two deep cuts, one of which completely severed all the tissue down to the vertebrae. Her vagina had been stabbed twice, and the lower part of her abdomen was partly ripped open by a deep, jagged wound, causing her bowels to protrude. Several other incisions inflicted to both sides of her abdomen had also been caused by the same knife; each of these wounds had been inflicted in a downward thrusting manner.

29 Hanbury Street. The door through which Annie Chapman and her murderer walked to the yard where her body was discovered is beneath the numerals of the property sign.

One week later, on Saturday 8 September 1888, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered at approximately 6 a.m. near the steps to the doorway of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. As in the case of Nichols, the throat was severed by two deep cuts. Her abdomen had been cut entirely open, with a section of the flesh from her stomach being placed upon her left shoulder and another section of skin and flesh-plus her small intestines-being removed and placed above her right shoulder. Chapman's autopsy also revealed that her uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina had been removed.

At the inquest into Chapman's murder, Elizabeth Long described having seen Chapman standing outside 29 Hanbury Street at about 5:30 a.m. in the company of a dark-haired man wearing a brown deer-stalker hat and dark overcoat, and of a "shabby- genteel" appearance. According to this eyewitness, the man had asked Chapman, "Will you?" to which Chapman had replied, "Yes."

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were both killed in the early morning hours of Sunday 30 September 1888. Stride's body was discovered at approximately 1 a.m. in Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street (now Henriques Street) in Whitechapel. The cause of death was a single clear-cut incision, measuring six inches across her neck which had severed her left carotid artery and her trachea before terminating beneath her right jaw. The absence of any further mutilations to her body has led to uncertainty as to whether Stride's murder was committed by the Ripper, or whether he was interrupted during the attack. Several witnesses later informed police they had seen Stride in the company of a man in or close to Berner Street on the evening of 29 September and in the early hours of 30 September, but each gave differing descriptions: some said that her companion was fair, others dark; some said that he was shabbily dressed, others well-dressed.

Contemporaneous police drawing of the body of Catherine Eddowes, as discovered in Mitre Square

Eddowes's body was found in a corner of Mitre Square in the City of London, three-quarters of an hour after the discovery of the body of Elizabeth Stride. Her throat was severed from ear to ear and her abdomen ripped open by a long, deep and jagged wound before her intestines had been placed over her right shoulder, with a section of intestine being completely detached and placed between her body and left arm.

The left kidney and the major part of Eddowes's uterus had been removed, and her face had been disfigured, with her nose severed, her cheek slashed, and cuts measuring a quarter of an inch and a half an inch respectively vertically incised through each of her eyelids. A triangular incision-the apex of which pointed towards Eddowes's eye-had also been carved upon each of her cheeks, and a section of the auricle and lobe of her right ear was later recovered from her clothing. The police surgeon who conducted the post mortem upon Eddowes's body stated his opinion these mutilations would have taken "at least five minutes" to complete.

A local cigarette salesman named Joseph Lawende had passed by a narrow walkway to Mitre Square named Church Passage with two friends shortly before the murder; he later described seeing a fair-haired man of medium build with a shabby appearance with a woman who may have been Eddowes. Lawende's companions were unable to confirm his description. The murders of Stride and Eddowes ultimately became known as the "double event".

A section of Eddowes's bloodied apron was found at the entrance to a tenement in Goulston Street, Whitechapel, at 2:55 a.m. A chalk inscription upon the wall directly above this piece of apron read: "The Juwes are The men That Will not be Blamed for nothing." This graffito became known as the Goulston Street graffito. The message appeared to imply that a Jew or Jews in general were responsible for the series of murders, but it is unclear whether the graffito was written by the murderer on dropping the section of apron, or was merely incidental and nothing to do with the case. Such graffiti were commonplace in Whitechapel. Police Commissioner Charles Warren feared that the graffito might spark antisemitic riots and ordered the writing washed away before dawn.

The extensively mutilated and disembowelled body of Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at 10:45 a.m. on Friday 9 November 1888. Her face had been "hacked beyond all recognition", with her throat severed down to the spine, and the abdomen almost emptied of its organs. Her uterus, kidneys and one breast had been placed beneath her head, and other viscera from her body placed beside her foot, about the bed and sections of her abdomen and thighs upon a bedside table. The heart was missing from the crime scene.

Multiple ashes found within the fireplace at 13 Miller's Court suggested Kelly's murderer had burned several combustible items to illuminate the single room as he mutilated her body. A recent fire had been severe enough to melt the solder between a kettle and its spout, which had fallen into the grate of the fireplace.

Official police photograph of the body of Mary Jane Kelly as discovered in 13 Miller's Court, Spitalfields, 9 November 1888

Each of the canonical five murders was perpetrated at night, on or close to a weekend, either at the end of a month or a week (or so) after. The mutilations became increasingly severe as the series of murders proceeded, except for that of Stride, whose attacker may have been interrupted. Nichols was not missing any organs; Chapman's uterus and sections of her bladder and vagina were taken; Eddowes had her uterus and left kidney removed and her face mutilated; and Kelly's body was extensively eviscerated, with her face "gashed in all directions" and the tissue of her neck being severed to the bone, although the heart was the sole body organ missing from this crime scene.

Historically, the belief these five canonical murders were committed by the same perpetrator is derived from contemporaneous documents which link them together to the exclusion of others. In 1894, Sir Melville Macnaghten, Assistant Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police Service and Head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), wrote a report that stated: "the Whitechapel murderer had 5 victims-& 5 victims only". Similarly, the canonical five victims were linked together in a letter written by police surgeon Thomas Bond to Robert Anderson, head of the London CID, on 10 November 1888.

Some researchers have posited that some of the murders were undoubtedly the work of a single killer, but an unknown larger number of killers acting independently were responsible for the other crimes. Authors Stewart P. Evans and Donald Rumbelow argue that the canonical five is a "Ripper myth" and that three cases (Nichols, Chapman, and Eddowes) can be definitely linked to the same perpetrator, but that less certainty exists as to whether Stride and Kelly were also murdered by the same individual. Conversely, others suppose that the six murders between Tabram and Kelly were the work of a single killer. Dr Percy Clark, assistant to the examining pathologist George Bagster Phillips, linked only three of the murders and thought that the others were perpetrated by "weak-minded individual[s] ... induced to emulate the crime". Macnaghten did not join the police force until the year after the murders, and his memorandum contains serious factual errors about possible suspects.

Later Whitechapel murders

Mary Jane Kelly is generally considered to be the Ripper's final victim, and it is assumed that the crimes ended because of the culprit's death, imprisonment, institutionalisation, or emigration. The Whitechapel murders file details another four murders that occurred after the canonical five: those of Rose Mylett, Alice McKenzie, the Pinchin Street torso, and Frances Coles.

The strangled body of 26-year-old Rose Mylett was found in Clarke's Yard, High Street, Poplar on 20 December 1888. There was no sign of a struggle, and the police believed that she had either accidentally hanged herself with her collar while in a drunken stupor or committed suicide. However, faint markings left by a cord on one side of her neck suggested Mylett had been strangled. At the inquest into Mylett's death, the jury returned a verdict of murder.

Alice McKenzie was murdered shortly after midnight on 17 July 1889 in Castle Alley, Whitechapel. She had suffered two stab wounds to her neck, and her left carotid artery had been severed. Several minor bruises and cuts were found on her body, which also bore a seven-inch long superficial wound extending from her left breast to her navel. One of the examining pathologists, Thomas Bond, believed this to be a Ripper murder, though his colleague George Bagster Phillips, who had examined the bodies of three previous victims, disagreed. Opinions among writers are also divided between those who suspect McKenzie's murderer copied the modus operandi of Jack the Ripper to deflect suspicion from himself, and those who ascribe this murder to Jack the Ripper.

"The Pinchin Street torso" was a decomposing headless and legless torso of an unidentified woman aged between 30 and 40 discovered beneath a railway arch in Pinchin Street, Whitechapel, on 10 September 1889. Bruising about the victim's back, hip, and arm indicated the decedent had been extensively beaten shortly before her death. The victim's abdomen was also extensively mutilated, although her genitals had not been wounded. She appeared to have been killed approximately one day prior to the discovery of her torso. The dismembered sections of the body are believed to have been transported to the railway arch, hidden under an old chemise.

Frances Coles was found with her throat cut under a railway arch in Whitechapel on 13 February 1891.[96]

At 2:15 a.m. on 13 February 1891, PC Ernest Thompson discovered a 25-year-old prostitute named Frances Coles lying beneath a railway arch at Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel. Her throat had been deeply cut but her body was not mutilated, leading some to believe Thompson had disturbed her assailant. Coles was still alive, although she died before medical help could arrive. A 53-year-old stoker, James Thomas Sadler, had earlier been seen drinking with Coles, and the two are known to have argued approximately three hours before her death. Sadler was arrested by the police and charged with her murder. He was briefly thought to be the Ripper, but was later discharged from court for lack of evidence on 3 March 1891.

Other alleged victims

In addition to the eleven Whitechapel murders, commentators have linked other attacks to the Ripper. In the case of "Fairy Fay", it is unclear whether this attack was real or fabricated as a part of Ripper lore. "Fairy Fay" was a nickname given to an unidentified woman whose body was allegedly found in a doorway close to Commercial Road on 26 December 1887 "after a stake had been thrust through her abdomen", but there were no recorded murders in Whitechapel at or around Christmas 1887. "Fairy Fay" seems to have been created through a confused press report of the murder of Emma Elizabeth Smith, who had a stick or other blunt object shoved into her vagina. Most authors agree that the victim "Fairy Fay" never existed.

A 38-year-old widow named Annie Millwood was admitted to the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary with numerous stab wounds to her legs and lower torso on 25 February 1888, informing staff she had been attacked with a clasp knife by an unknown man. She was later discharged, but died from apparently natural causes on 31 March. Millwood was later postulated to be the Ripper's first victim, although this attack cannot be definitively linked to the perpetrator.

Another suspected precanonical victim was a young dressmaker named Ada Wilson, who reportedly survived being stabbed twice in the neck with a clasp knife upon the doorstep of her home in Bow on 28 March 1888 by a man who had demanded money from her. A further possible victim, 40-year-old Annie Farmer, resided at the same lodging house as Martha Tabram and reported an attack on 21 November 1888. She had received a superficial cut to her throat. Although an unknown man with blood on his mouth and hands had run out of this lodging house, shouting, "Look at what she has done!" before two eyewitnesses heard Farmer scream, her wound was light, and possibly self-inflicted.

"The Whitehall Mystery" was a term coined for the discovery of a headless torso of a woman on 2 October 1888 in the basement of the new Metropolitan Police headquarters being built in Whitehall. An arm and shoulder belonging to the body were previously discovered floating in the River Thames near Pimlico on 11 September, and the left leg was subsequently discovered buried near where the torso was found on 17 October. The other limbs and head were never recovered and the body was never identified. The mutilations were similar to those in the Pinchin Street torso case, where the legs and head were severed but not the arms.

"The Whitehall Mystery" of October 1888

Both the Whitehall Mystery and the Pinchin Street case may have been part of a series of murders known as the " Thames Mysteries", committed by a single serial killer dubbed the "Torso killer". It is debatable whether Jack the Ripper and the "Torso killer" were the same person or separate serial killers active in the same area. The modus operandi of the Torso killer differed from that of the Ripper, and police at the time discounted any connection between the two. Only one of the four victims linked to the Torso killer, Elizabeth Jackson, was ever identified. Jackson was a 24-year-old prostitute from Chelsea whose various body parts were collected from the River Thames over a three-week period between 31 May and 25 June 1889.

On 29 December 1888, the body of a seven-year-old boy named John Gill was found in a stable block in Manningham, Bradford. Gill had been missing since 27 December. His legs had been severed, his abdomen opened, his intestines partly drawn out, and his heart and one ear removed. Similarities with the Ripper murders led to press speculation that the Ripper had killed him. The boy's employer, 23-year-old milkman William Barrett, was twice arrested for the murder but was released due to insufficient evidence. No-one was ever prosecuted.

Carrie Brown (nicknamed " Shakespeare", reportedly for her habit of quoting Shakespeare's sonnets) was strangled with clothing and then mutilated with a knife on 24 April 1891 in New York City. Her body was found with a large tear through her groin area and superficial cuts on her legs and back. No organs were removed from the scene, though an ovary was found upon the bed, either purposely removed or unintentionally dislodged. At the time, the murder was compared to those in Whitechapel, though the Metropolitan Police eventually ruled out any connection.

Investigation

Inspector Frederick Abberline

The vast majority of the City of London Police files relating to their investigation into the Whitechapel murders were destroyed in the Blitz. The surviving Metropolitan Police files allow a detailed view of investigative procedures in the Victorian era. A large team of policemen conducted house-to-house inquiries throughout Whitechapel. Forensic material was collected and examined. Suspects were identified, traced, and either examined more closely or eliminated from the inquiry. Modern police work follows the same pattern. More than 2,000 people were interviewed, "upwards of 300" people were investigated, and 80 people were detained. Following the murders of Stride and Eddowes, the Commissioner of the City Police, Sir James Fraser, offered a reward of £500 for the arrest of the Ripper.

The investigation was initially conducted by the Metropolitan Police Whitechapel (H) Division Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headed by Detective Inspector Edmund Reid. After the murder of Nichols, Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore, and Walter Andrews were sent from Central Office at Scotland Yard to assist. The City of London Police were involved under Detective Inspector James McWilliam after the Eddowes murder, which occurred within the City of London. The overall direction of the murder enquiries was hampered by the fact that the newly appointed head of the CID Robert Anderson was on leave in Switzerland between 7 September and 6 October, during the time when Chapman, Stride, and Eddowes were killed. This prompted Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren to appoint Chief Inspector Donald Swanson to coordinate the enquiry from Scotland Yard.

Butchers, slaughterers, surgeons, and physicians were suspected because of the manner of the mutilations. A surviving note from Major Henry Smith, Acting Commissioner of the City Police, indicates that the alibis of local butchers and slaughterers were investigated, with the result that they were eliminated from the inquiry. A report from Inspector Swanson to the Home Office confirms that 76 butchers and slaughterers were visited, and that the inquiry encompassed all their employees for the previous six months. Some contemporaneous figures, including Queen Victoria, thought the pattern of the murders indicated that the culprit was a butcher or cattle drover on one of the cattle boats that plied between London and mainland Europe. Whitechapel was close to the London Docks, and usually such boats docked on Thursday or Friday and departed on Saturday or Sunday. The cattle boats were examined but the dates of the murders did not coincide with a single boat's movements and the transfer of a crewman between boats was also ruled out.

"Blind man's buff": Punch cartoon by John Tenniel (22 September 1888) criticising the police's alleged incompetence. The failure of the police to capture the killer reinforced the attitude held by radicals that the police were inept and mismanaged.[139]

Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

In September 1888, a group of volunteer citizens in London's East End formed the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. They patrolled the streets looking for suspicious characters, partly because of dissatisfaction with the failure of police to apprehend the perpetrator, and also because some members were concerned that the murders were affecting businesses in the area. The Committee petitioned the government to raise a reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer, offered their own reward of £50 (the equivalent of between £5,900 and £86,000 in 2021) for information leading to his capture, and hired private detectives to question witnesses independently.

Criminal profiling

At the end of October, Robert Anderson asked police surgeon Thomas Bond to give his opinion on the extent of the murderer's surgical skill and knowledge. The opinion offered by Bond on the character of the "Whitechapel murderer" is the earliest surviving offender profile. Bond's assessment was based on his own examination of the most extensively mutilated victim and the post mortem notes from the four previous canonical murders. He wrote:

All five murders no doubt were committed by the same hand. In the first four the throats appear to have been cut from left to right, in the last case owing to the extensive mutilation it is impossible to say in what direction the fatal cut was made, but arterial blood was found on the wall in splashes close to where the woman's head must have been lying.

All the circumstances surrounding the murders lead me to form the opinion that the women must have been lying down when murdered and in every case the throat was first cut.

Bond was strongly opposed to the idea that the murderer possessed any kind of scientific or anatomical knowledge, or even "the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterer". In his opinion, the killer must have been a man of solitary habits, subject to "periodical attacks of homicidal and erotic mania", with the character of the mutilations possibly indicating " satyriasis". Bond also stated that "the homicidal impulse may have developed from a revengeful or brooding condition of the mind, or that religious mania may have been the original disease but I do not think either hypothesis is likely".

There is no evidence the perpetrator engaged in sexual activity with any of the victims, yet psychologists suppose that the penetration of the victims with a knife and "leaving them on display in sexually degrading positions with the wounds exposed" indicates that the perpetrator derived sexual pleasure from the attacks. This view is challenged by others, who dismiss such hypotheses as insupportable supposition.

In addition to the contradictions and unreliability of contemporaneous accounts, attempts to identify the murderer are hampered by the lack of any surviving forensic evidence. DNA analysis on extant letters is inconclusive; the available material has been handled many times and is too contaminated to provide meaningful results. There have been mutually incompatible claims that DNA evidence points conclusively to two different suspects: Aaron Kosminski (a Whitechapel barber) and artist Walter Sickert. The scientific methodology used to advance both of these claims by their proponents has also been criticised.

Speculation as to the identity of Jack the Ripper: cover of the 21 September 1889 issue of Puck magazine, by cartoonist Tom Merry

The concentration of the killings around weekends and public holidays and within a short distance of each other has indicated to many that the Ripper was in regular employment and lived locally. Others have opined that the killer was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat who ventured into Whitechapel from a more well-to-do area. Such theories draw on cultural perceptions such as fear of the medical profession, a mistrust of modern science, or the exploitation of the poor by the rich. The term "Ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper case in an effort to determine his identity, and the murders have inspired numerous works of fiction.

Suspects proposed years after the murders include virtually anyone remotely connected to the case by contemporaneous documents, as well as many famous names who were never considered in the police investigation, including Prince Albert Victor, artist Walter Sickert, and author Lewis Carroll. Everyone alive at the time is now long dead, and modern authors are free to accuse anyone "without any need for any supporting historical evidence". Suspects named in contemporaneous police documents include three in Sir Melville Macnaghten's 1894 memorandum, but the evidence against each of these individuals is, at best, circumstantial.

There are many, varied theories about the actual identity and profession of Jack the Ripper, but authorities are not agreed upon any of them, and the number of named suspects reaches over one hundred. Despite continued interest in the case, the Ripper's identity remains unknown.

Over the course of the Whitechapel murders, the police, newspapers, and other individuals received hundreds of letters regarding the case. Some letters were well-intentioned offers of advice as to how to catch the killer, but the vast majority were either hoaxes or generally useless.

Hundreds of letters claimed to have been written by the killer himself, and three of these in particular are prominent: the "Dear Boss" letter, the "Saucy Jacky" postcard and the "From Hell" letter.

The "Dear Boss" letter, dated 25 September and postmarked 27 September 1888, was received that day by the Central News Agency, and was forwarded to Scotland Yard on 29 September. Initially, it was considered a hoax, but when Eddowes was found three days after the letter's postmark with a section of one ear obliquely cut from her body, the promise of the author to "clip the ladys ( sic) ears off" gained attention. Eddowes's ear appears to have been nicked by the killer incidentally during his attack, and the letter writer's threat to send the ears to the police was never carried out. The name "Jack the Ripper" was first used in this letter by the signatory and gained worldwide notoriety after its publication. Most of the letters that followed copied this letter's tone, with some authors adopting pseudonyms such as "George of the High Rip Gang" and "Jack Sheridan, the Ripper." Some sources claim that another letter dated 17 September 1888 was the first to use the name "Jack the Ripper", but most experts believe that this was a fake inserted into police records in the 20th century.

The "From Hell" letter

The "Saucy Jacky" postcard was postmarked 1 October 1888 and was received the same day by the Central News Agency. The handwriting was similar to the "Dear Boss" letter, and mentioned the canonical murders committed on 30 September, which the author refers to by writing "double event this time". It has been argued that the postcard was posted before the murders were publicised, making it unlikely that a crank would hold such knowledge of the crime. However, it was postmarked more than 24 hours after the killings occurred, long after details of the murders were known and publicised by journalists, and had become general community gossip by the residents of Whitechapel.

The "From Hell" letter was received by George Lusk, leader of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, on 16 October 1888. The handwriting and style is unlike that of the "Dear Boss" letter and "Saucy Jacky" postcard. The letter came with a small box in which Lusk discovered half of a human kidney, preserved in "spirits of wine" ( ethanol). Eddowes's left kidney had been removed by the killer. The writer claimed that he "fried and ate" the missing kidney half. There is disagreement over the kidney; some contend that it belonged to Eddowes, while others argue that it was a macabre practical joke. The kidney was examined by Dr Thomas Openshaw of the London Hospital, who determined that it was human and from the left side, but (contrary to false newspaper reports) he could not determine any other biological characteristics. Openshaw subsequently also received a letter signed "Jack the Ripper".

Scotland Yard published facsimiles of the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard on 3 October, in the ultimately vain hope that a member of the public would recognise the handwriting. Charles Warren explained in a letter to Godfrey Lushington, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department: "I think the whole thing a hoax but of course we are bound to try & ascertain the writer in any case." On 7 October 1888, George R. Sims in the Sunday newspaper implied scathingly that the letter was written by a journalist "to hurl the circulation of a newspaper sky high". Police officials later claimed to have identified a specific journalist as the author of both the "Dear Boss" letter and the postcard. The journalist was identified as Tom Bullen in a letter from Chief Inspector John Littlechild to George R. Sims dated 23 September 1913. A journalist named Fred Best reportedly confessed in 1931 that he and a colleague at had written the letters signed "Jack the Ripper" to heighten interest in the murders and "keep the business alive".

8 September 1888 edition of the Penny Illustrated Paper depicting the discovery of the body of the first canonical Ripper victim, Mary Ann Nichols

The Ripper murders mark an important watershed in the treatment of crime by journalists. Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer, but his case was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy. The Elementary Education Act 1880 (which had extended upon a previous Act) made school attendance compulsory regardless of class. As such, by 1888, more working-class people in England and Wales were literate.

Tax reforms in the 1850s had enabled the publication of inexpensive newspapers with a wider circulation. These mushroomed in the later Victorian era to include mass-circulation newspapers costing as little as a halfpenny, along with popular magazines such as The Illustrated Police News which made the Ripper the beneficiary of previously unparalleled publicity. Consequently, at the height of the investigation, over one million copies of newspapers with extensive coverage devoted to the Whitechapel murders were sold each day. However, many of the articles were sensationalistic and speculative, and false information was regularly printed as fact. In addition, several articles speculating as to the identity of the Ripper alluded to local xenophobic rumours that the perpetrator was either Jewish or foreign.

In early September, six days after the murder of Mary Ann Nichols, The Manchester Guardian reported: "Whatever information may be in the possession of the police they deem it necessary to keep secret ... It is believed their attention is particularly directed to ... a notorious character known as 'Leather Apron'." Journalists were frustrated by the unwillingness of the CID to reveal details of their investigation to the public, and so resorted to writing reports of questionable veracity. Imaginative descriptions of "Leather Apron" appeared in the press, but rival journalists dismissed these as "a mythical outgrowth of the reporter's fancy". John Pizer, a local Jew who made footwear from leather, was known by the name "Leather Apron" and was arrested, even though the investigating inspector reported that "at present there is no evidence whatsoever against him". He was soon released after the confirmation of his alibis.

After the publication of the "Dear Boss" letter, "Jack the Ripper" supplanted "Leather Apron" as the name adopted by the press and public to describe the killer. The name "Jack" was already used to describe another fabled London attacker: " Spring-heeled Jack", who supposedly leapt over walls to strike at his victims and escape as quickly as he came. The invention and adoption of a nickname for a particular killer became standard media practice with examples such as the Axeman of New Orleans, the Boston Strangler, and the Beltway Sniper. Examples derived from Jack the Ripper include the French Ripper, the Düsseldorf Ripper, the Camden Ripper, the Blackout Ripper, Jack the Stripper, the Yorkshire Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper. Sensational press reports combined with the fact that no one was ever convicted of the murders have confused scholarly analysis and created a legend that casts a shadow over later serial killers.

The 'Nemesis of Neglect': Jack the Ripper depicted as a phantom stalking Whitechapel, and as an embodiment of social neglect, in a Punch cartoon of 1888

The nature of the Ripper murders and the impoverished lifestyle of the victims drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, insanitary slums. In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished, but the streets and some buildings survive, and the legend of the Ripper is still promoted by various guided tours of the murder sites and other locations pertaining to the case. For many years, the Ten Bells public house in Commercial Street (which had been frequented by at least one of the canonical Ripper victims) was the focus of such tours.

In the immediate aftermath of the murders and later, "Jack the Ripper became the children's bogey man." Depictions were often phantasmic or monstrous. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was depicted in film dressed in everyday clothes as a man with a hidden secret, preying on his unsuspecting victims; atmosphere and evil were suggested through lighting effects and shadowplay. By the 1960s, the Ripper had become "the symbol of a predatory aristocracy", and was more often portrayed in a top hat dressed as a gentleman. The Establishment as a whole became the villain, with the Ripper acting as a manifestation of upper-class exploitation. The image of the Ripper merged with or borrowed symbols from horror stories, such as Dracula's cloak or Victor Frankenstein's organ harvest. The fictional world of the Ripper can fuse with multiple genres, ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Japanese erotic horror.

Jack the Ripper features in hundreds of works of fiction and works which straddle the boundaries between fact and fiction, including the Ripper letters and a hoax diary: The Diary of Jack the Ripper. The Ripper appears in novels, short stories, poems, comic books, games, songs, plays, operas, television programmes, and films. More than 100 non-fiction works deal exclusively with the Jack the Ripper murders, making this case one of the most written-about in the true-crime genre. The term "ripperology" was coined by Colin Wilson in the 1970s to describe the study of the case by professionals and amateurs. The periodicals Ripperana, Ripperologist, and Ripper Notes publish their research.

In 2006, a BBC History magazine poll selected Jack the Ripper as the worst Briton in history.

In 2015, the Jack the Ripper Museum opened in east London. It attracted criticism from both Tower Hamlets mayor John Biggs and protestors. Similar protests occurred in 2021 when the second of two "Jack The Chipper" fish and chip shops opened in Greenwich, with some patrons threatening to boycott the premises.

References

1. ^ Life and Labour of the People in London (London: Macmillan, 1902-1903) Archived 3 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine (The Charles Booth on-line archive) retrieved 5 August 2008

2. ^ Keppel, Robert D.; Weis, Joseph G.; Brown, Katherine M.; Welch, Kristen (2005), "The Jack the Ripper murders: a modus operandi and signature analysis of the 1888-1891 Whitechapel murders", Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 2 (1): 1-21, doi:10.1002/jip.22

3. e.g. , 8 September 1888, quoted in Begg, ^ Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 155-156 and Cook, p. 62

4. ^ Davenport-Hines, Richard (2004). "Jack the Ripper (fl. 1888)" Archived 25 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Subscription required for online version.

5. Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 193-194; Chief Inspector Swanson's report, 6 November 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, pp. 185-188

6. Letter from Charles Warren to Godfrey Lushington, Permanent ^ Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, 6 November 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 183-184

7. ^ Letter from Thomas Bond to Robert Anderson, 10 November 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 360-362 and Rumbelow, pp. 145-147

8. Interview in the ^ East London Observer, 14 May 1910, quoted in Cook, pp. 179-180 and Evans and Rumbelow, p. 239

9. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 245-246; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 422-439

10. Evans and Rumbelow, pp. 218-222; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 551-568

11. The name "Fairy Fay" was first used by Terrence Robinson in ^ Reynold's News, 29 October 1950, "for want of a better name".

12. Canter, David (1994). Criminal Shadows: Inside the Mind of the Serial Killer. London, England: HarperCollins. pp. 12-13. ISBN 0-00-255215-9.

13. Inspector ^ Donald Swanson's report to the Home Office, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 205; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 113; Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 125

14. Inspector Donald Swanson's report to the ^ Home Office, 19 October 1888, HO 144/221/A49301C, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 206 and Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 125

15. Robert Anderson to Home Office, 10 January 1889, 144/221/A49301C ff. 235-6, quoted in Evans and Skinner, ^ The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, p. 399

16. See also later contemporary editions of ^ Richard von Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis, quoted in Woods and Baddeley, p. 111

17. Marks, Kathy (18 May 2006). ^ "Was Jack the Ripper a Woman?" Archived 12 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine The Independent, retrieved 5 May 2009

18. e.g. ^ Frederick Abberline in the Pall Mall Gazette, 31 March 1903, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 264

19. Whiteway, Ken (2004). "A Guide to the Literature of Jack the Ripper", Canadian Law Library Review, vol. 29 pp. 219-229

20. ^ Donald McCormick estimated "probably at least 2000" (quoted in Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 180). The Illustrated Police News of 20 October 1888 said that around 700 letters had been investigated by police (quoted in Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 199). Over 300 are preserved at the Corporation of London Records Office (Evans and Skinner, Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 149).

21. ^ Wolf, Gunter (2008), "A kidney from hell? A nephrological view of the Whitechapel murders in 1888", Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, 23 (10): 3343-3349, doi:10.1093/ndt/gfn198, PMID 18408073

22. ^ Jack the Ripper 'Letter' Made Public Archived 1 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, BBC, 19 April 2001, retrieved 2 January 2010

23. Letter from Charles Warren to Godfrey Lushington, 10 October 1888, Metropolitan Police Archive MEPO 1/48, quoted in Cook, p. 78; Evans and Rumbelow, p. 140 and Evans and Skinner, ^ Jack the Ripper: Letters from Hell, p. 43

24. e.g. ^ Manchester Guardian, 10 September 1888, and Austin Statesman, 5 September 1888, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, pp. 98-99; The Star, 5 September 1888, quoted in Evans and Rumbelow, p. 80

25. ^ Ackroyd, Peter, "Introduction", in Werner, p. 10; Rivett and Whitehead, p. 11

26. ^ Dew, Walter (1938). I Caught Crippen. London: Blackie and Son. p. 126, quoted in Begg, Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History, p. 198

27. Evans, Stewart P. (April 2003). "Ripperology, A Term Coined By ...", ^ Ripper Notes, copies at Wayback and Casebook Archived 16 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine

28. ^ "Jack the Ripper is 'Worst Briton'" Archived 3 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 31 January 2006, BBC, retrieved 4 December 2009

29. ^ Khomami, Nadia (5 August 2015). "Jack the Ripper Museum Architect Says He was 'Duped' Over Change of Plans". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.

30. ^ Bennett-Ness, Jamie (17 August 2021). "Locals Boycott Greenwich Chippy Named 'Jack the Chipper'". News Shopper.

External links

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Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.

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Georgia Guidestones

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Who killed JFK?

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The murder of Joanna Yeates

Joanna Yeates murder: the full truth may never be known

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The case began as a missing-person inquiry, made more poignant and newsworthy because the young woman had disappeared during the festive period.

But after Joanna Yeates's frozen body was discovered on a snowy roadside verge on Christmas morning, it became a huge murder hunt and a story that gripped the UK and international media.

The solution to the mystery turned out to be simple: the 25-year-old landscape architect was killed by her neighbour, the Dutch-born engineer Vincent Tabak.

To the torment of her loved ones, however, the truth about exactly what happened on the night of 17 December last year in Flat one, 44 Canynge Road, Bristol, may never be known.

Tabak waited until the last possible moment - when he was in the witness box - to offer his version of events.

He claims Yeates invited him into her flat and made a flirty remark as they chatted in the kitchen, which encouraged him to make a pass at her.Tabak says she screamed, and to stop her he gripped her throat with his right hand and put his left over her mouth. After about 20 seconds she slumped lifelessly to the floor.

The police and prosecution believe there are huge holes in Tabak's account. They think this was a sex attack and that Tabak might have derived a thrill from the act of strangling his neighbour, from having her at his mercy and under his control.

They have suggested Tabak might have been spying on Yeates and may have found an excuse to knock on her door that night rather than being spontaneously invited in.

The attack may have started in the hallway, which was found in a chaotic state. It could have continued in the bedroom: one of the earrings Yeates is thought to have been wearing was discovered beneath the duvet. There is also the possibility that something may have happened after Tabak carried Yeates's body back to his own flat. Certainly, according to the prosecution, there was a delay of more than an hour before he put her body into the boot of his car and drove it away.

Finally, what police and pathologists discovered when they examined Yeates's body suggested more went on than Tabak admits to recalling.

She had suffered 43 injuries, including wounds to her face, throat and arms. Though her jeans had not been tampered with, her T-shirt had been pulled up above her breasts and part of her right breast exposed. A sample of Tabak's DNA was found on her chest, however scientists could not establish what it came from.

The bottom line is that nobody apart from Tabak can say what happened - and he claims his memory of exactly what happened remains sketchy.

Not at all sketchy are the last known moments of Yeates's life. They have become all too familiar. She vanished eight days before Christmas after leaving the Ram pub on Park Street in Bristol, where she had been enjoying after-work drinks with work colleagues. It was cold and snow and ice lay thick on the pavements.

Yeates bought a tomato, mozzarella and basil pizza from a supermarket and picked up two bottles of cider from an off-licence. Police believe she got back to her Clifton flat, which was already decorated in readiness for Christmas, at about 8.45pm.

Within moments - at about 8.50pm - partygoers heading to a nearby house heard two screams. And then silence.

Yeates's boyfriend, Greg Reardon, returned from a weekend away on the evening of Sunday 19 December to find Yeates missing, though her mobile phone, keys, purse and coat were there.

At 12.45am he dialled 999 and less than four hours later a police officer banged on the door of Flat two. Tabak answered and denied all knowledge.

His denial led to - in Tabak's own words - a "week of hell" for Yeates's family and friends. Over the next seven days police and family issued a series of increasingly desperate appeals for help in finding her.

On 23 December police revisited Tabak and carried out a routine search of the flat he shared with his girlfriend, Tanja Morson, to check Yeates was not there. He joked to friends that they must have thought he had stashed her in a drawer.

Tabak and Morson, the daughter of a Harvard-educated lawyer, then left Bristol to spend Christmas in Cambridge at her parents' home.

On Christmas Eve, Detective Constable Karen Thomas, a member of the police's major crime investigation team, spoke to Tabak by telephone about his movements on the night of Yeates's disappearance. He told her he was in all evening before driving in the early hours of the morning to pick up Morson after a work party.

He was able to say he did not know Yeates. She and Reardon moved in at the start of October 2010 and he left for a business trip in California on 6 November, only returning on 11 December, six days before the killing. They were in effect strangers.

On Christmas morning, at about the time Tabak and Morson - who remained ignorant of her boyfriend's crime - were opening their gifts, Yeates's body was found by a dog walker, covered in leaves and a pile of snow next to a quarry wall at Longwood Lane, Failand, three miles from Clifton. It looked as if the killer had tried to heave the body over the wall. Had he succeeded Yeates could still be a missing person.

The media interest became a frenzy. One tabloid suggested Yeates may have been held captive for several days before she was killed. Another theory was that she may have been dumped at the scene alive and died of hypothermia. The public was fascinated by the details. What had happened to the pizza, which was never found? Why had she bought two bottles of cider? Was she meeting someone? Was the killer waiting for her at the flat? Why was there no sign of a break-in?

Only Tabak knew the truth and he was not telling. On 28 December he and Morson drove via Eurotunnel to the Netherlands where they were to spend new year with Tabak's family.

There was no escape from the Yeates story in the Netherlands. On 30 December, Tabak and Morson watched a television news report of the arrest of Joanna Yeates's landlord, the former public school teacher Christopher Jefferies, over the killing.

At this point Tabak made a huge mistake. Spotting a chance to frame Jefferies, he contacted Avon and Somerset police and suggested the landlord had been out and about in his car on the night of Yeates's death. The murder team sent DC Karen Thomas to Amsterdam and on New Year's Eve she spoke to Tabak at a hotel near Schiphol airport for six hours.

For the first time, Tabak's behaviour seemed suspicious. He talked to her about Jefferies but seemed, in Thomas's words, "overly interested" in the forensic examinations police were carrying out. Tabak also gave Thomas a different version of what he had done on the night of Yeates's disappearance, explaining that he had gone out twice, once to take photographs of the snow and the second time to go to Asda.

He also suggested he may have once set foot in the hallway of Yeates's flat, not when she was there but when he was chatting to Christopher Jefferies before Yeates disappeared. Thomas asked him to provide a DNA sample and fingerprints so they could be eliminated if they were found in the flat. Tabak appeared concerned but cooperated.

Jefferies was released on police bail on New Year's day and Avon and Somerset police found themselves on the back foot, having to deny they were back to square one.

Tabak, of course, assumed the net was closing in. When he and Morson drove back to the UK on 2 January, Tabak expected to be arrested as soon as he cleared customs. Every day he waited for the police to knock on his door. He began to drink and take sleeping pills. He thought about jumping off Clifton suspension bridge.

The knock finally came on 20 January - three weeks after he spoke to police in Amsterdam. He was told that his DNA had linked him to Yeates's body.

He tried to blame the laboratory that had carried out the testing, suggesting it was insecure, even that a scientist may have been paid to set him up.

But the DNA evidence was damning and 30 days after killing Joanna Yeates, Vincent Tabak appeared before Bristol magistrates charged with her murder. In May at the Old Bailey he admitted manslaughter but denied murder.

In court he told his extraordinary story during two days in the witness box. How, after Yeates's death, he had bundled her body into his car boot before going shopping to Asda for beer and crisps and texting his girlfriend that he was "bored". He accepted that, following the killing, he had researched subjects such as the difference between murder and manslaughter and the definition of sexual assault. But he repeatedly said he could not remember how Yeates had come by her 43 injuries - beamed on screens around the court - or even whether she had been frightened.

Privately, detectives believe Tabak can recall what happened in Yeates's flat perfectly. They think he calculated that there was no point in denying that he had killed her but gambled that the detectives would not be able to prove he meant to do so.

Avon and Somerset police may now have some questions to answer. Why did they not look into Yeates's next-door neighbour more closely until he contacted them with supposed information about Christopher Jefferies? Did they preserve the scene of the crime properly in the early days? Why did it still take three weeks for them to arrest Tabak after he gave his DNA sample?

The police deny they were slow in getting to Tabak, saying he left the Bristol area before Yeates' body was found. Officers also revealed that it was "early January" when they had an "interesting development" regarding Tabak's DNA sample and possible links to Yeates' body. Confirmation took more time.

Of course, in the end, the death of Joanna Yeates and the continuing agony her family must suffer partly because so much remains unclear is down to Vincent Tabak.

"He is a clever young man who thinks he can play a clever game," said one senior police source. If he is playing a game, it is a cruel one for those who were closest to Joanna Yeates.

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Joanna Yeates murder: the full truth may never be known

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Vincent Tabak, who delayed giving his version of events until the trial, claimed his memory of the night was patchy

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Marie Devriese: The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart       

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Marie Devriese: The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart       

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The Zodiac Killer

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Zodiac killer | History, Murders, Movie, Letters, Suspects, & Facts

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Zodiac killer, unidentified American serial killer who is believed to have murdered at least five people in northern California between 1968 and 1969. The case inspired the 1971 action film Dirty Harry, which starred Clint Eastwood, and it was the subject of the critically acclaimed David Fincher film Zodiac (2007).

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Noor De Jonge:Well-known gruesome murder of British family in the Alps remains a mystery

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Noor De Jonge:Well-known gruesome murder of British family in the Alps remains a mystery

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Scientists have discovered a long-buried branch of the Nile river that once flowed alongside more than 30 pyramids in Egypt, potentially solving the mystery of how ancient Egyptians transported the massive stone blocks to build the famous monuments.

The 64-kilometre-long river branch, which ran by the iconic Giza pyramid complex among other wonders, was hidden under desert and farmland for millennia, according to a study revealing the find on Thursday.

The existence of the river would explain why the 31 pyramids were built in a chain along a now inhospitable desert strip in the Nile Valley between 4,700 and 3,700 years ago.

The strip near the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis includes the Great Pyramid of Giza - the only surviving structure of the seven wonders of the ancient world - as well as the Khafre, Cheops and Mykerinos pyramids.

Archaeologists had long thought that ancient Egyptians must have used a nearby waterway to move the giant materials used to build the pyramids.

"But nobody was certain of the location, the shape, the size or proximity of this mega waterway to the actual pyramids site," lead study author Eman Ghoneim of the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the United States told AFP.

The international team of researchers used radar satellite imagery to map the river branch, which they called Ahramat - "pyramids" in Arabic.

Radar gave them the "unique ability to penetrate the sand surface and produce images of hidden features including buried rivers and ancient structures," Ghoneim said.

Surveys in the field and cores of sediment from the site confirmed the presence of the river, according to the study in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

The once mighty river was increasingly covered in sand, potentially starting during a major drought around 4,200 years ago, the scientists suggested.

The great pyramid mystery

The Giza pyramids stood on a plateau roughly a kilometre from the banks of the river.

Many of the pyramids had a "ceremonial raised walkway" which ran alongside the river before ending at the Valley Temples which served as harbours, Ghoneim said.

This indicates that the river played "a key role in the transportation of the enormous building materials and workmen needed for the pyramid's construction," she added.

Exactly how ancient Egyptians managed to build such huge and long-standing structures has been one of history's great mysteries.

These heavy materials, most of which were from the south, "would have been much easier to float down the river" than transport over land, study co-author Suzanne Onstine of the University of Memphis in the US state of Tennessee told AFP.

The banks of the rivers could have been where the funeral entourages of pharaohs were received before their bodies were moved to their "final burial place within the pyramid," she suggested.

The river may also indicate why the pyramids were built in different spots.

"The water's course and its volume changed over time, so fourth dynasty kings had to make different choices than 12th dynasty kings," she said.

"The discovery reminded me about the intimate connection between geography, climate, environment and human behaviour."

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Great Mystery of How Ancient Egyptians Built The Pyramids Finally Appears Solved

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Scientists have discovered a long-buried branch of the Nile river that once flowed alongside more than 30 pyramids in Egypt, potentially solving the mystery of how ancient Egyptians transported the massive stone blocks to build the famous monuments.

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Naomi Beekman: What Is the Scientific Mystery Behind the Bermuda Triangle?

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Naomi Beekman: What Is the Scientific Mystery Behind the Bermuda Triangle?

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Just off the southeast coast of the United States, there lies a span of ocean that's long held a fearsome reputation. Ships traversing its choppy breadth disappear without a trace. Flights routed above the waters blink from radar screens, never to be seen again. The mysterious happenings have conjured stories of supernatural interference, alien kidnappings and an area somehow outside the normal bounds of physical reality. The Bermuda Triangle, it's said, is a haunted place.

That's just one version of the story, of course. The Bermuda Triangle has been the site of a number of high-profile and still-mysterious naval and aviation disappearances. But that those disasters are the result of anything sinister, as opposed to the logical conjunction of environment and statistics, is extremely doubtful.

Still, a number of people have proposed scientifically valid explanations for the disappearances of ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle over the years. The ocean is a dangerous place, after all, and it's not uncommon even today for things to go wrong. In the storm-tossed waters of the North Atlantic, safety is never a guarantee.

Where is the Bermuda Triangle?

The Bermuda Triangle, as it's most commonly defined, stretches between Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico and the island of Bermuda. In all, it encompasses hundreds of thousands of square miles in the North Atlantic Ocean, a huge area. The region also sees heavy traffic from ships coming and going from the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.

The Bermuda Triangle got its name from a 1964 article in the pulp magazine Argosy, which linked together a few disappearances in the region. " The Deadly Bermuda Triangle " didn't offer up any explanations for the occurrences, though it did heavily emphasize the mysterious nature of the area. The article features the disappearance of the U.S.S Cyclops, a Navy supply ship, in 1918, and the loss of a flight of bombers during a practice run in 1945, as well as one of the search and rescue planes sent out after them.

These incidents, and others, have today become part of the lore of the Bermuda Triangle. These stories are often stitched together to hint at something untoward lurking beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the supernatural explanations, a number of more realistic explanations for the phenomenon have been put forward throughout the years, ranging from wayward magnetism to dangerous bubbles.

Dangerous Waters

One agonic line runs from Lake Superior down through the Gulf of Mexico near the Bermuda Triangle. One theory holds that mariners, usually accustomed to accounting for a discrepancy in their compass readings, may make mistakes when very near to the agonic line that lead them astray. Paired with the often shallow waters of the island-strewn Caribbean Sea, navigational errors could lead to boats running aground on hidden shoals.

More recently, some scientists have suggested that ship sinkings in the Bermuda Triangle could be due to massive bubbles released from undersea methane deposits. The seafloor in the region is known to contain large pockets of gas that could be released suddenly, turning the ocean into a frothy soup that swallows ships. A similar process likely created huge seafloor craters near Norway.

Another explanation for the Bermuda Triangle that checks out on paper is the presence of rogue waves. These huge waves can form unexpectedly and rise two or even three times above surrounding waves. As Vice reports , British researchers used lab and computer models to simulate the effects of rogue waves more than 100 feet tall on ships as part of an investigation into the Bermuda Triangle. Ships that were sufficiently long could get caught suspended between two wave peaks with nothing supporting them from below and snap in half, one researcher theorizes. But, while rogue waves are certainly capable of capsizing or breaking a ship, we have no definitive evidence tying them to any of the naval disasters in the Bermuda Triangle.

The Human Factor

Whatever is ultimately responsible for the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, be it psychological or otherwise, it's worth remembering that there's never been any evidence that the region is any more dangerous than anywhere else. So go ahead and take that vacation to Bermuda - but, as always, make sure to wear a lifejacket when you're out on the water. It's just common sense.

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The Scientific Mystery Behind The Bermuda Triangle

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The Bermuda Triangle is a region of the ocean that supposedly has swallowed ships whole, and it has fascinated us for decades. But is there any truth to the tales?

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Luka De Schuyteneer

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Amelie Iacobut: 5-year old’s body found in a suitcase. His mom is accused of murder.

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Amelie Iacobut: 5-year old’s body found in a suitcase. His mom is accused of murder.

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A boy’s body in a suitcase and a mother on the run. What happened to Cairo Jordan?

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Cairo Jordan’s body was found dumped in a suitcase in Indiana in April 2022. It took months to identify him. Then his mother went on the run for nearly two after making disturbing social media posts about demons and exorcisms, reports Rachel Sharp

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The remains of Gwenn Marie Story have been identified after 44 years

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Ilana vandenhaute What happened to the Mary Celeste?

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Ilana vandenhaute What happened to the Mary Celeste?

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In 1885 he deliberately sailed it into a reef to Haiti as part of a plan to defraud an insurance company. When the vessel failed to sink, authorities discovered his scheme. The Mary Celeste, however, was damaged beyond repair, and it was left on the reef, where it deteriorated.

Mary Celeste often erreneously referred to as Marie Celeste was a Canadian built. It was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azorean islands on December 4, 1872.

What happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste?

The Mary Celeste was still loaded with its cargo and supplies. Its passangers had dissapeared, and their fate is still unknown, making the case of the Mary Celeste one of the most mysterious events in the maritime history. The captain was never found.

How deep is the wreck of the Mary Celeste?

She rests at 55 feet depth off the South Shore, with sections of her bow and stern, boilers, anchor and both paddle wheels visible.

Can you dive to the Mary Celeste?

The Mary is the only paddle wreck that has ons of it’s paddles still intact and is a highlight of the dive.

A interesting fact about the Mary Celeste:

The ‘Mary Celeste’ sailed from New York on November 7th bound for Genoa with a cargo of 1701 barrels of American alcohol, shipped by Meissner Ackermann& Co. Value approximately $35 000 the purpose of which was to fortify wine.

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Where is Alexander the Great buried?Kyana Baudewijn

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Where is Alexander the Great buried?Kyana Baudewijn

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The Georgia Guidestones was a granite monument that stood in Elbert County, Georgia, United States, from 1980 to 2022. It was 19 feet 3 inches (5.87 m) tall and made from six granite slabs weighing a total of 237,746 pounds (107,840 kg). The structure was sometimes referred to as an "American Stonehenge". The monument's creators believed that there was going to be an upcoming social, nuclear, or economic calamity and they wanted the monument to serve as a guide for humanity in the world which would exist after it. Controversial from its time of construction, it ultimately became the subject of conspiracy theories which alleged that it was connected to Satanism.

On the morning of July 6, 2022, the guidestones were heavily damaged in a bombing from a vandal, and the debris and guidestones were removed by the local government later that day. In late July, Elberton Mayor Daniel Graves announced plans to rebuild the monument. However, on August 8, the Elbert County Board of Commissioners voted to donate the remains of the monument to the Elberton Granite Association and return the 5 acres (2 ha) of land on which the monument was erected to its previous owner.

In June 1979, a man using the pseudonym Robert C. Christian approached the Elberton Granite Finishing Company on behalf of "a small group of loyal Americans", and commissioned the structure. Christian explained that the stones would function as a compass, calendar, and clock, and should be capable of "withstanding catastrophic events". The man reportedly used the pseudonym as a reference to the Christian religion. Christian said that he wanted to build a granite monument that would rival the British Neolithic monument Stonehenge, which he drew inspiration from after paying it a visit. However, he said that while it was impressive, Stonehenge had no message to communicate.

Joe Fendley of Elberton Granite believed that Christian was "a nut" and he attempted to discourage him by providing a price quote for the commission which was several times higher than any project which the company had previously undertaken, explaining that the construction of the guidestones would require additional tools and consultants. To Fendley's surprise, Christian accepted the quote. When arranging payment, Christian claimed that he represented a group which had been planning to construct the guidestones for 20 years and wanted to remain anonymous. Christian said he had chosen Elbert County because of its abundance of local granite, the rural nature of its landscape, its mild climate, and family ties to the region. The total cost of the project was not revealed, but it was over US$100,000 (equivalent to $400,000 in 2023).

Christian delivered a scale model of the guidestones and ten pages of specifications. The 5- acre (2- hectare) site was purchased by Christian from a local farm owner. The owner and his children were given lifetime cattle grazing rights on the guidestones site. The monument was located off Georgia State Route 77 around 7 miles (11 km) north of the city of Elberton.

On March 22, 1980, the monument was unveiled by congressman Doug Barnard before an audience of between 200 and 300 people. At the unveiling, the Master of Ceremonies read a message to the gathered audience:

In order to avoid debate, we the sponsors of the Georgia Guidestones have a simple message for human beings, now and for the future. We believe our precepts are sound, and they must stand on their own merits.

-  Purported statement of Georgia Guidestones sponsors

Christian later transferred ownership of the land and the guidestones to Elbert County. By 1981, barbed wire fencing had to be erected around the monument to keep cattle out, as they had been using it for a scratching post.

A man who identified himself as Robert Christian published a book titled Common Sense Renewed (1986), which described the ideology of the guidestones. The author wrote:

I am the originator of the Georgia Guidestones and the sole author of its inscriptions. I have had the assistance of a number of other American citizens in bringing the monument into being. We have no mysterious purposes or ulterior motives. We seek common sense pathways to a peaceful world, without bias for particular creeds or philosophies.

Fendley believed that the monument would become a regional tourist attraction. As of 2022, 20,000 annual visitors were reported.

Dark Clouds Over Elberton: The True Story of the Georgia Guidestones (2015) is a documentary film purporting to expose the true identity of Robert Christian. The makers of the documentary claimed to have investigated and interviewed a banker who was involved in the financial arrangements for the construction of the monument.

The monument was controversial even before it was unveiled. Some locals referred to its construction as 'the devil's work'. A local minister warned that "occult groups" would visit the site and that a sacrifice was imminent. A 2009 article also noted that sandblaster Charlie Clamp spent hundreds of hours on the etching, during which time he was "constantly distracted by strange music and disjointed voices".

In 2008, the stones were defaced with aerosol paint and graffiti with slogans such as "Death to the New World Order". Wired magazine called the defacement "the first serious act of vandalism in the guidestones' history". In September 2014, an employee of the Elbert County maintenance department contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation when the stones were vandalized with graffiti including the phrase: "I Am Isis, goddess of love." After the acts of vandalism, security cameras were installed on the site.

Kandiss Taylor, a candidate in the 2022 Georgia Republican gubernatorial primary, called the Guidestones " Satanic" in a campaign ad; her campaign platform called for the monument to be removed.

Footage of the bombing of the Georgia Guidestones monument (July 6, 2022).

On July 6, 2022, an explosive device was detonated at the site, destroying the Swahili/Hindi language slab and causing significant damage to the capstone. Nearby residents reportedly heard and felt explosions at around 4:00 a.m. CCTV footage recorded a vehicle leaving the scene and police investigated the incident. The remaining stones were dismantled by authorities for safety reasons later in the day with a backhoe, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). The Elberton Star reported that digging showed no evidence that there was ever a time capsule located beneath the Georgia Guidestones.

The Elbert County Sheriff's Office investigated the bombing, with assistance from the GBI. On the evening of the bombing, the GBI released a video showing both the explosion, and a vehicle of interest leaving the scene shortly before. No motive has been publicly shared, and no suspects publicly identified. On July 14, 2022, and again on July 25, 2022, the GBI gave an update, with no significant progress on the case being made since the bombing. Prosecutors suggested that as the guidestones were maintained by the county, they were considered a public building, thus their destruction would carry a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

In late July 2022, Elberton Mayor Daniel Graves said the town planned to rebuild the monument exactly as it was, adding "We're just getting geared up and excited about rebuilding them. It's going to happen. It may take us six months to a year to do it, but we are going to do it." On August 8, 2022, the Elberton city council voted to begin legal proceedings to return the five acres of land the monument had been built on to its previous owner, a local farm. The city council announced that the remains of the monument, which had been moved to a third-party location for safety reasons, would be given to the Elberton Granite Association. Both the Elberton Granite Association and the Elberton city council expressed doubt that the guidestones would be rebuilt, but expressed hope that one day it could happen.

A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles was engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the structure from due north, these languages were English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, and Russian. The languages were chosen because they represented most of humanity, except for Hebrew, which was chosen because of its connections to Judaism and Christianity. According to the monument's sponsors, the inscriptions are meant to guide humanity to conserve nature after a nuclear war, which the creators thought was an imminent threat. The inscriptions dealt with four main themes: "governance and the establishment of a world government, population and reproduction control, the environment and humankind's relationship to nature, and spirituality."

1. Cyrillic alphabet inscriptions.

Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

2. The Guidestones as they stood in 2009.

Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.

3. Unite humanity with a living new language.

4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.

5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

8. Balance personal rights with social duties.

9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.

10. Be not a cancer on the Earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

A few feet to the west of the monument, an additional granite ledger had been set level with the ground. This tablet identified the structure and the languages used on it and listed various facts about the size, weight, and astronomical features of the stones, the date it was installed, and the sponsors of the project. It referred to a time capsule buried under the tablet, but blank spaces on the stone intended for filling in the dates on which the capsule was buried and was to be opened had not been inscribed, so it was uncertain if the time capsule was ever actually put in place. During the removal of the monument in July 2022, county officials dug six feet down underneath this tablet to check for a time capsule, but found nothing.

The text of the explanatory tablet was somewhat inconsistent with respect to punctuation and misspelled the word "pseudonym". The original spelling, punctuation, and line breaks in the text have been preserved in the transcription (letter case is not). At the top center of the tablet was written:

The Georgia Guidestones
Center cluster erected March 22, 1980

Immediately below this was the outline of a square, inside which was written:

Let these be guidestones to an Age of Reason

Around the edges of the square were written translations to four ancient languages, one per edge. Starting from the top and proceeding clockwise, they were: Babylonian (in cuneiform script), Classical Greek, Sanskrit and Ancient Egyptian (in hieroglyphs).

On the left side of the tablet was a column of text (metric conversion added):

Astronomic features
1. Channel through stone
indicates celestial pole
2. Horizontal slot indicates
annual travel of sun
3. Sunbeam through capstone
marks noontime throughout
the year

Author: R.C. Christian
(a pseudonyn) [ sic]

Sponsors: A small group
of Americans who seek
the Age of Reason

Time Capsule
Placed six feet [ 1.83 m] below this spot
On
To be opened on

The words appeared as shown under the time capsule heading; no dates were engraved.

On the right side of the tablet was a column of text (metric conversions added):

PHYSICAL DATA

1. OVERALL HEIGHT - 19 FEET 3 INCHES [5.87 m].

2. TOTAL WEIGHT - 237,746 POUNDS [107,840 kg].

3. FOUR MAJOR STONES ARE 16 FEET,

FOUR INCHES [4.98 m] HIGH, EACH WEIGHING

AN AVERAGE OF 42,437 POUNDS [19,249 kg].

4. CENTER STONE IS 16 FEET, FOUR-

INCHES [4.98 m] HIGH, WEIGHS 20,957

POUNDS [9,506 kg].

5. CAPSTONE IS 9-FEET, 8-INCHES [2.95 m]

LONG, 6-FEET, 6-INCHES [1.98 m] WIDE;

1-FOOT, 7-INCHES [0.48 m] THICK. WEIGHS

24,832 POUNDS [11,264 kg].

6. SUPPORT STONES (BASES) 7-FEET,

4 INCHES [2.24 m] LONG 2-FEET [0.61 m] WIDE.

1 FOOT, 4-INCHES [0.41 m] THICK, EACH

WEIGHING AN AVERAGE OF 4,875

POUNDS [2,211 kg].

7. SUPPORT STONE (BASE) 4-FEET,

2½ INCHES [1.28 m] LONG, 2-FEET, 2-INCHES [0.66 m]

WIDE, 1-FOOT, 7-INCHES [0.48 m] THICK.

WEIGHT 2,707 POUNDS [1,228 kg].

8. 951 CUBIC FEET [26.9 m³] GRANITE.

9. GRANITE QUARRIED FROM PYRAMID

QUARRIES LOCATED 3 MILES [5 km] WEST

OF ELBERTON, GEORGIA.

Below the two columns of text were written the caption "GUIDESTONE LANGUAGES", with a diagram of the granite slab layout beneath it. The names of eight modern languages were inscribed along the long edges of the projecting rectangles, one per edge. Starting from due north and moving clockwise around so that the upper edge of the northeast rectangle was listed first, they were English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. At the bottom center of the tablet was the text:

Additional information available at Elberton Granite Museum & Exhibit
College Avenue
Elberton, Georgia

The four outer stones were oriented to mark the limits of the 18.6 year lunar declination cycle. The center column featured a hole drilled at an angle from one side to the other, through which the North Star could be seen. The same pillar had a slot carved through it which was aligned with the Sun's solstices and equinoxes. A -in (22 mm) aperture in the capstone allowed a ray of sun to pass through at noon each day, shining a beam on the center stone indicating the day of the year. University of Georgia Astronomer Loris Magnani referred to these features as "mediocre at best" and sees them as "an abacus compared to Stonehenge's computer".

When commissioning the guidestones, Christian described them as a guide for future generations to manage limited resources, potentially in the face of nuclear war. Yoko Ono said the inscribed messages were "a stirring call to rational thinking". However, the guidestones' inscriptions have also been accused of promoting eugenics and genocide.

The guidestones became a subject of interest for conspiracy theorists. stated that unspecified opponents have labeled them the " Ten Commandments of the Antichrist". Some conservative Christians have called the monument Satanic.

Right-wing activist Mark Dice demanded that the guidestones should "be smashed into a million pieces, and then the rubble should be used for a construction project", claiming that the guidestones are of "a deep Satanic origin", and that R. C. Christian belongs to "a Luciferian secret society" related to the New World Order. At the unveiling of the monument, a local minister proclaimed that he believed that the monument was "for sun worshipers, for cult worship and for devil worship".

Conspiracy theorist Jay Weidner has said that the pseudonym of the man who commissioned the stones - "R. C. Christian" - resembles Rose Cross Christian, or Christian Rosenkreuz, the founder of the Rosicrucian Order. Others who agree with Weidner point to the Rosicrucian's first manifesto written in 1614, which states "The word R.C. should be their seal, mark and character". They also see similarities between the writing on the capstone, and the title of (Rosicrucian) Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason.

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The Georgia Guidestones was a granite monument that stood in Elbert County, Georgia, United States, from 1980 to 2022. It was 19 feet 3 inches (5.87 m) tall and made from six granite slabs weighing a total of 237,746 pounds (107,840 kg). The structure was sometimes referred to as an "American Stonehenge".

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De moord op Elizabeth Short, omstreeks 15 januari 1947 in Los Angeles, Californië, was een geruchtmakende moord op een jonge vrouw, die door de gruwelijkheid heel wat aandacht van de media opleverde. In de media werd zij aangeduid als de Black Dahlia (de zwarte dahlia).

De moord werd tot op heden niet opgelost en werd de bron voor heel wat complottheorieën waarvan er in de loop der jaren velen opgetekend en verfilmd zijn. Zo zijn de films True Confessions (1981) en The Black Dahlia (2006) beide gebaseerd op de moordzaak. Ook in het videospel ' L.A. Noire' loopt de "Black Dahlia" moord als een rode draad door het verhaal.

Elizabeth Short was de derde in een gezin met vijf meisjes. Ze werd op 29 juli 1924 geboren in Hyde Park in Massachusetts. Haar vader maakte minigolfbanen en verdiende daar voldoende geld mee tot de Amerikaanse beurskrach van 1929 plaatsvond. Op een dag liet hij zijn wagen achter op een brug en hijzelf verdween. Algauw dacht men dat de man zelfmoord had gepleegd, maar hij dook later weer levend op.

Short werd vervolgens door haar moeder Phoebe Mae opgevoed. De moeder zocht een klein appartementje in Medford, Massachusetts en ging werken als boekhoudster. Omdat de jonge Elizabeth last kreeg van astma en bronchitis bleef ze enkel in de warmere zomermaanden in Massachusetts, waar ze een baan aannam als serveerster. Tijdens de koude wintermaanden verhuisde Elizabeth naar Florida. Ze werd omschreven als een meisje dat 1,65 m groot was, 52 kg woog en slechte tanden, blauwe ogen en bruin haar had. Op 19-jarige leeftijd verhuisde Elizabeth naar Vallejo in Californië. Daar ging ze bij haar vader wonen. Haar vader werkte ondertussen bij de Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINS). In het voorjaar van 1943 verhuisden ze samen naar Los Angeles. Maar het tweetal kreeg al gauw ruzie en dus vertrok Short. Ze kreeg een baan op Camp Cooke, beter bekend als de Vandenberg Air Force Base. Op 23 september 1943 werd ze door de politie opgepakt omdat ze alcohol gedronken had en ze daar nog niet oud genoeg voor was. Ze werd naar de jeugdrechter in Medford gestuurd.

Daar ging Short weer werken als serveerster om geld te verdienen. In de wintermaanden zocht ze opnieuw Florida op. Daar ontmoette ze Majoor Matthew M. Gordon jr., die bij het leger zat. Gordon vertrok naar India om aan de gevechten van de Tweede Wereldoorlog deel te nemen. In India revalideerde hij van een vliegtuigcrash en schreef hij een brief aan Elizabeth. In de brief vroeg hij haar ten huwelijk. Elizabeth ging in op zijn voorstel, maar Gordon overleed nog voor hij kon terugkeren naar de Verenigde Staten. Later zou Elizabeth het hele verhaal dramatiseren en zou ze beweren dat ze al getrouwd waren en dat ze een kind hadden dat ook al gestorven was. Gordons vrienden beweren dat ze verloofd waren, maar Gordons familie ontkende na de moord op Elizabeth elke vorm van relatie tussen Gordon en Elizabeth Short.

Elizabeth besloot in 1946 weer naar Californië te gaan. Ze ging op zoek naar een vriend, die ze tijdens de oorlog had leren kennen in Florida. Die vriend was Luitenant Gordon Fickling. Hij was gestationeerd in Long Beach. Elizabeth verbleef gedurende zes maanden op verschillende locaties in de buurt van Los Angeles. Ze sliep in hotels, appartementsgebouwen, etc. Nooit bleef ze langer dan enkele weken op dezelfde locatie.

Op 15 januari 1947 werd ze dood aangetroffen. Ze was vermoord maar nooit werd de dader achterhaald. Haar lijk werd in Leimert Park in Los Angeles teruggevonden. Het lichaam was zwaar toegetakeld en in tweeën gesneden. Haar armen waren zo gedraaid dat het leek dat ze haar handen op haar hoofd hield. Haar mond was opengesneden van oor tot oor. Nergens werd er bloed gevonden, wat betekent dat ze ergens anders vermoord was en dat men daar het bloed heeft laten weglopen alvorens het lijk in Leimert Park te dumpen. Na haar dood verscheen in de krant de bijnaam Black Dahlia. Een reporter beweerde dat ze zo werd genoemd door een apotheker, als een verwijzing naar de film The Blue Dahlia (1946). Anderen beweren dat de pers deze bijnaam verzonnen had. Tijdens het onderzoek was er sprake van de ontbrekende week. Dit was de periode tussen 9 januari, de dag waarop ze verdween, en 15 januari 1947, de dag dat haar lijk werd gevonden. Sommige kennissen van Elizabeth beweerden dat ze haar gezien hadden tijdens die week. De politie onderzocht dit en beweerde dat het steeds om misverstanden ging.

Er doen heel wat geruchten de ronde in verband met de moord op Elizabeth Short. Vaak wordt beweerd dat ze een callgirl was. Maar een grand jury stelde duidelijk dat ze geen prostituee was. Ze had ook geen lichamelijke afwijkingen, zoals een genetisch gebrek waardoor ze de genitaliën van een kind zou hebben gehad. Ze was dus, in tegenstelling tot wat soms in de media werd beweerd, in staat om seks te hebben. Bovendien was ze ook nooit zwanger geweest.

Misdaden die kunnen gerelateerd worden aan de Black Dahlia-moord zijn er niet in overvloed. Enkele misdaadauteurs stelden dat er een link was tussen de Black Dahlia en de Cleveland Torso-moorden, ook bekend als de Kingsbury Run-moorden. Hier waren de slachtoffers afkomstig uit een lage sociale klasse. Bijna geen enkel lijk kon worden geïdentificeerd ten gevolge van de zware verminkingen. De lichamen werden ook vaak onthoofd of in twee gesneden. Deze moorden vonden plaats tussen 1934 en 1938, en werden onderzocht door de bekende Eliot Ness, maar ook nooit opgelost.

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De moord op Elizabeth Short, omstreeks 15 januari 1947 in Los Angeles, Californië, was een geruchtmakende moord op een jonge vrouw, die door de gruwelijkheid heel wat aandacht van de media opleverde. In de media werd zij aangeduid als de Black Dahlia (de zwarte dahlia).

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Casper dejonghe : was napoleon killed by poison

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Written by Peter Haugen
Review by Diane Scott Lewis

If King Tut was murdered, why? Did King Arthur really exist? Compelling evidence suggests a Roman general may have been the basis for the Arthurian myth. Were the little princes in the Tower ordered murdered by their greedy uncle, Richard III? He did have the most to gain. Who was the Man in the Iron Mask? We are given several intriguing possibilities. Did Elizabeth I have playwright Christopher Marlowe killed for being a heretic, or did he escape to Italy and ghost-write Shakespeare's plays? Was Napoleon poisoned on the remote island of St. Helena? Or does a recent document uncovered in Ireland finally point to the truth? Edward VIII abdicated a throne for plain Wallis Simpson. What was her allure that ensnared a king? Even Princess Diana's death is examined here: accident or not? Conspiracy theories abound, but in some cases, plausible explanations are given.

These mysteries and others are presented in a wry style by author Haugen. After each chapter, he provides a list of books for further study. I found myself fascinated by some, and laughing at others. An entertaining look into royal history.

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Was Napoleon Poisoned? And Other Unsolved Mysteries of Royal History - Historical Novel Society

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If King Tut was murdered, why? Did King Arthur really exist? Compelling evidence suggests a Roman general may have been the basis for the Arthurian myth. Were the little princes in the Tower ordered murdered by their greedy uncle, Richard III? He did have the most to gain.

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The unsolved killing of Tupac Shakur returned to the headlines this week, after Las Vegas police confirmed that they had served a search warrant in connection with ongoing investigations, almost 30 years after the hip-hop star's death.

Shakur, who used the stage name 2Pac, was shot four times on the night of September 7, 1996, just off the Las Vegas Strip as he sat inside a BMW with then-Death Row Records head Marion "Suge" Knight. Bullets were fired from a Cadillac in the drive-by shooting, and Shakur was hit in the chest, arm and thigh.

Aged just 25 at the time, the "Hail Mary" hit maker succumbed to his injuries six days later on September 13, 1996.

As the 27th anniversary of Shakur's death approaches, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) told Newsweek that it searched a home in Henderson, Nevada, on Monday in connection with the star's murder. A report by 8 News Now said the search occurred near Interstate 11 and Wagon Wheel Drive.

As of Tuesday, no arrests had been made and more information was not readily available. The agency did not state whether a suspect has been identified, or what it was looking for.

LVMPD told Newsweek that it had no further comment about the investigation at this time.

Shakur's murder has remained a mystery, and the ongoing investigation has provided little information about what happened.

In the years since the star's passing, conspiracy theories surrounding the case have abounded, ranging from allegations over who was responsible for his death to suggesting that Shakur is alive and well.

Theories over Shakur's killer were exacerbated by the fact that his death came amid a highly publicized feud with fellow rapper the Notorious B.I.G., or Biggie Smalls. Once friends and music collaborators, the two fell out after Shakur was wounded in another shooting and robbery in the lobby of a New York City recording studio in November 1994.

Shakur publicly accused Smalls and music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs of having prior knowledge of the shooting-allegations they both vehemently denied. The accusation ignited an East Coast-West Coast rivalry that dominated the hip-hop landscape in the mid-1990s.

While born in New York, Shakur was the de facto face of the West Coast, having signed to Los Angeles-based label Death Row Records, while Smalls represented his native East Coast through his affiliation with Combs' Bad Boy Records.

As a result of the feud, some theories saw Smalls accused of organizing Shakur's murder. Smalls, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed in a drive-by shooting aged 24 in Los Angeles, just six months after Shakur died. Mirroring the mystery surrounding the death of his friend-turned-adversary, Smalls' murder remains unsolved.

In 2017, a film about Shakur's life and death titled All Eyez on Me reignited public interest in the case. The film was released on June 16, 2017, on what would have been Shakur's 46th birthday and was named after his 1996 album.

Many believe that Shakur, who was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this year, was killed because of a gang feud. This theory gained traction when the Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. documentary came out in 2018.

In the documentary, former gang member Duane Keith Davis, otherwise known as Keefe D, said he knew the person who killed Shakur. Davis stated that the person who fired at Shakur was sitting in the backseat of his car with his nephew Orlando Anderson.

Davis alleged that Shakur and Anderson had been fighting in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on September 7, 1996. A few hours later, a Cadillac pulled up next to the vehicle that Shakur was in and an unknown person fired into the car, hitting Shakur.

However, Davis didn't reveal the name of the killer because "street code" prevented him from doing so.

LVMPD was aware of the allegations and reviewed Shakur's case in its entirety after Davis made the comments.

Despite his short-lived career, Shakur is considered one of hip-hop's most influential figures and has lived on through his versatile body of work. He has had five No. 1 albums, including the posthumous releases The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996), Until the End of Time (2001) and Loyal to the Game (2004).

Shakur also landed 21 Billboard Hot 100 singles, through such top 10 hits as 1996's double A-side single "How Do U Want It/California Love," the former of which featured K-Ci and JoJo, and "Dear Mama," which was released in 1995.

Citing data from entertainment data company Luminate, the Associated Press reported that Shakur has sold 33 million albums. This number increases to 41 million when track sale and streaming equivalents are included. His tally for on-demand video and audio streams currently sits at 10.1 billion.

Shakur also appeared in the movies Above the Rim (1994) and 1993's John Singleton-directed Poetic Justice, which also starred Janet Jackson. As with his music, there were also posthumous releases, including Bullet (1996), Gridlock'd (1997) and Gang Related (1997).

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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The mystery surrounding Tupac Shakur's death

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Conspiracy theories have abounded since Shakur's murder, ranging from allegations about who was responsible to suggestions that he is still alive.

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Iedereen kent het wel: een moment dat je meemaakt waarvan je zeker weet dat je het eerder hebt beleefd. Oftewel: een déjà vu, letterlijk vertaald vanuit

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The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed.

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Mystery of Micheal Jackson death. Hala Harim

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Mystery of Micheal Jackson death. Hala Harim

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Michael Jackson Death Mystery Remains Unsolved After Autopsy

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Doctors conducted an autopsy on the body of Michael Jackson on Friday but could not immediately determine what killed the “King of Pop,” amid reports he had been injected with a narcotic painkiller shortly before collapsing.