A 135-year-old mystery finally solved? The great-great-granddaughter of a British police officer who investigated the hunt for Jack the Ripper claims to have discovered the identity of the notorious serial killer of prostitutes who stalked east London in the late 19th century. Dozens of people have been suspected over the years, including members of the royal family and prime ministers.
In a book slated for release next month, Sarah Bax Horton, descendant of a police officer who was at the center of the investigation, names Hyam Hyams based on a description by witnesses. In the Sunday Telegraph, she claims this is the first time that Hyam Hyams, a cigar maker, epileptic and alcoholic who has spent several stays at the asylum, has been referred to as Jack the Ripper.
Physical problems that remain
Hyams was injured in an accident that worsened his condition and prevented him from working. According to the author’s thesis published in the Sunday Telegraph columns, he regularly raped his wife and was arrested after attacking her and her own mother with a helicopter.
Witnesses had described a man in his 30s with a stiff arm and bent knees. The author discovered medical data indicating that Hyam Hyams, who was 35 in 1888, had suffered an injury that prevented him from “bending or extending” his left arm and that he had problems with his knees and suffered from a severe form of epilepsy, with regular seizures. At least six women were killed between August and November 1888 in the district of Whithechapel or Non-Lon.
A “well documented” thesis
Medical records from several infirmaries and institutions indicate that his physical and mental decline coincided with the time of the murders. The author concludes that Hyams’ physical and mental decline, exacerbated by his alcoholism, caused him to kill. The killings stopped in late 1888, about the time Hyams was apprehended by the police as a “wandering lunatic.” The following year he was imprisoned at Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum in north London.
According to the Telegraph, leading Jack the Ripper author Paul Begg supports this thesis, which he describes as “well researched” and “well written.” “If you want to get an idea of what kind of man Jack the Ripper could be, Hyam could be Hyams,” he said. In 2014, author and businessman Russell Edwards concluded that Jack the Ripper was Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who worked as a hairdresser and was already a prime suspect. His DNA-based thesis has been challenged.