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<\/div>\nA woman has claimed she has uncovered the identity of “Jack the Ripper”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
London: <\/b><\/p>\n
The great-great-granddaughter of a police officer who investigated the “Jack the Ripper” murders in 19th century London believes she has uncovered the killer’s true identity, the Sunday Telegraph reported.<\/p>\n
Sarah Bax Horton has written a book on her research into local cigar-maker Hyam Hyams, who she said closely matches witness descriptions from the time of a suspect seen with the victims.<\/p>\n
The “Jack the Ripper” murders, which saw at least six women killed in the East End of London in 1888, remain one of Britain’s most notorious unsolved cases.<\/p>\n
A whole industry has sprung up around the case, including books, exhibitions and tours around the streets of the Whitechapel district where the women were killed.<\/p>\n
Bax Horton said she had identified Hyams, an epileptic and alcoholic who was in an out of mental asylums, as the likely culprit.<\/p>\n
Witnesses at the time described a man seen with the victims who was in his mid-30s, with a stiff arm, irregular gait and bent knees.<\/p>\n
The author, whose book “One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper” comes out next month, unearthed medical records for Hyams, who was aged 35 in 1888.<\/p>\n
They showed he had an injury that left him unable to bend or extend his left arm, and also dragged his foot and could not straighten his knees.<\/p>\n
There were also close similarities in his height and build to the witness descriptions.<\/p>\n
Hyams had regular seizures due to epilepsy, the notes, taken from hospitals and asylums, indicated.<\/p>\n
He was permanently committed to a mental asylum in September 1889, and died in 1913.<\/p>\n
Bax Horton, whose great-great-grandfather was posted at the headquarters of the investigation, concluded that Hyams, who had previously attacked his wife with a “chopper”, killed because of his physical and mental decline, worsened by alcoholism.<\/p>\n
Hyams’ name had been on a “long list” of potential suspects but she said he had “never before been fully explored as a Ripper suspect”.<\/p>\n
Ripper expert Paul Begg called Bax Horton’s findings a “well-researched, well-written, and long-needed book-length examination of a likely suspect”.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n