Jack the Ripper: British woman claims to have identified serial killer

The great-granddaughter of the British police officer who hunted down Jack the Ripper claims to have discovered the identity of the serial killer who ran rampant in east London at the end of the nineteenth century. It would be a cigar maker, convulsion and liqueur, named Hymes Hymes.

Finally a solved mystery? After investigating the case for a long time, a descendant of a police officer involved in the hunt for Jack the Ripper claims to have discovered the serial killer’s identity. In a book to be published next month, Sarah Box Horton points to a man named Hyam Hyams based on eyewitness accounts. Over the years, dozens of people have been suspected, including members of the royal family and prime ministers.

Epilepsy and alcoholic “wandering madness”

According to the editor’s thesis published in the columns of the Sunday Telegraph, Hyams was injured in an accident which worsened his condition and prevented him from working. He continued to abuse his wife, thinking she was cheating on him, and was arrested after he attacked her and his own mother with a helicopter. Witnesses described a man in his thirties with a stiff arm and bent knees.

In 1888 the author found medical records showing that Hyam Hyams, aged 35, suffered from an injury that prevented him from “bending or extending” his left arm, had problems with his knees and suffered from severe epilepsy. , with regular seizures. At least six women were murdered in the Whitechapel neighborhood between August and November 1888. Medical records collected from several hospitals and asylums show that his physical and mental decline coincided with the period of the murders.

The author concludes that Hyams’ physical and mental decline, exacerbated by his alcoholism, drove him to kill. The killings stopped in late 1888, when Hyams was arrested by the police as a “wandering lunatic”. He was imprisoned the following year at Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum in North London.

Thesis supported by experts

According to the Telegraph, official Jack the Ripper author Paul Beck supports the thesis, which he calls “well-researched and well-written.” “If you want to get an idea of ​​what Jack the Ripper might be like, maybe Hyam Hyams,” he said.

In 2014, a writer-businessman, Russell Edwards, came to the conclusion that Jack the Ripper was Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who worked as a barber and was already considered one of the prime suspects. His thesis based on DNA was challenged.