Pseudonymous murderer of at least five women, all prostitutes, in or near London's Whitechapel district, from Aug.
7 to Nov. 10, 1888. The throat of each victim was cut, and usually the body was mutilated in a manner indicating the murderer had considerable knowledge of human anatomy. Authorities received a series of taunting notes from a person calling himself Jack the Ripper and purporting to be the murderer. Although strenuous efforts were made to identify and trap the killer, he remained unknown. The unsolved case retained its hold on the popular imagination, becoming the subject of several motion pictures and more than 100 books, as well as a macabre tourist industry in London.