Murder in Whitechapel Trivia Quiz

Answer: Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram

Emma Elizabeth Smith was murdered close to her lodging house on the 3rd April 1888; she survived this brutal attack and was taken to hospital where she slipped into a coma and died the next day from peritonitis. Martha Tabram died on the 9th April 1888; she also lived at a boarding house in George Street close to Emma Elizabeth Smith. Tabram was stabbed 39 times near her home, she died at the scene.

There is no evidence to link these murders with Jack the Ripper, but many Ripperolgists believe that these two killings were the beginning of the Ripper's reign of terror.

Answer: Elizabeth Stride

Jack the Ripper struck on Sunday 8th September at 1am. He was disturbed by Israel Schwartz, who was on his way home. Schwartz gave the police an account of events but he was never called to testify at the inquest on Elizabeth Stride.

Answer: Severin Klosowski

There is no evidence that Klosowski (also known as George Chapman) was Jack the Ripper. Abberline believed he was the Ripper on account of the fact that Klosowski had the anatomical knowledge to carry out the mutilations on the victims; also he arrived in England only a few months before the first killing.

When Klosowski emigrated to New Jersey in 1890, Ripper style murders were being reported, and this strengthened Abberline's belief that Klosowski was the Ripper. On returning to England, Klosowski was eventually hanged at HM Prison Wandsworth in 1903, for the murder of Maud Marsh whom Klosowski had poisoned.

She married him on September 3rd 1901, aged 18 years, but she is not known to be a victim of the Ripper, as Klosowski was never tried for the Whitechapel Murders.

Answer: Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonder land" and "Through the Looking Glass". He was also a mathematics tutor at Oxford from 1855 to 1881, and according to Wallace took an unhealthy interest in young girls. Richard Wallace, a child psychotherapist researched Carroll thoroughly before writing his book, "The Agony of Lewis Carroll" (1990). Wallace believed that Carroll left clues and anagrams in his books linking him to the Ripper crimes, but critics believe Wallace put his own interpretations on words and sentences in the books and there was no evidence to suggest Carroll was the Ripper. Wallace may be somewhat deluded as Lewis Carroll was known not to be in London when some of the Ripper murders took place.

In January 2015 the BBC aired a documentary entitled "The Secret World of Lewis Carroll". The documentary implied he was a paedophile as he took several nude photographs of pre-adolescent girls; this gives credibility to the claims by Richard Wallace in his book that Carroll was a latent paedophile but not to the claim he was a murderer.

There is no evidence he killed anyone or that paedophiles are potential murderers.

Answer: PC John Neil

The body of Mary Anne Nichols was discovered in Buck's Row on Friday 31st August 1888, by Charles Cross on his way to work. He met another man Robert Paul, a market porter also on his way to work; both men went together to report the crime. PC John Neil was patrolling his beat when he came across the lifeless body of Nichols.

Another policeman, PC Thain, alerted by Cross and Paul, joined PC John Neil at the crime scene.

Answer: James Maybrick

Florence Maybrick spent fifteen years in jail for the murder of her husband before she was released. A journal surfaced in 1991, supposedly written by Maybrick and claiming he was Jack the Ripper. Many tests have been carried out on the Maybrick journal including ink analysis, but handwriting experts have concluded the journal was not written by Maybrick.

Answer: Walter Richard Sickert

Florence Pash met Sickert in the 1880s when he painted her several times. She revealed to Jean Overton Fuller that she believed Walter Richard Sickert was the Ripper. Sickert, she claimed, had fathered an illegitimate son named Joseph, and hired a woman to look after the child, a shop girl by the name of Mary Kelly, who had arrived in London from Cardiff.

When Kelly drifted into prostitution due to the poor wage Sickert paid, she began to blackmail Walter Sickert, who murdered her and her friends. Pash also revealed that Sickert had seen all of the Ripper victims in situ, which would have only been possible if he was the killer. Pash also claimed he painted some of the victims and left clues in his work.

Answer: Timothy Donovan

Donovan worked at 35 Dorset Street, in the lodging-house where Annie Chapman lived; he certainly must have known at least two of the other victims, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly who lodged there from time to time. Rumbelow proposed a theory that Timothy Donovan, as manager of the lodging-house would not have aroused suspicion in the women if he approached them.

However it is not possible for Rumbelow's theory to be correct if he believed Donovan was the Ripper. Donovan died on 1st November 1888, due to cirrhosis of the liver, and Mary Lane Kelly died just over a week later on 9th November 1888.

Therefore if Donovan was Jack the Ripper, another killer would have to be responsible for Kelly's murder. Donovan might be a little more obscure as a potential Ripper candidate and very little is known about him.

After years of research Donald Rumberlow is regarded as one of the best Ripperolgists around, and his book (although I have not read it) has been given good reviews.

Answer: 13 Miller's Court

At the time of her death, Mary Jane Kelly was only 25 years old and much younger than the other women murdered by Jack the Ripper. She was so badly mutilated she was barely recognizable.

Answer: John Pizer

A police report on 7th September 1888 identified Leather Apron as John Pizer, a Jewish shoemaker. He had gone into hiding at his brother's home when he became a suspect in the murders. William Thick, the officer who was sent to arrest Pizer, would later (in 1889) become a Ripper suspect himself.