Weekend TODAY continues its month-long series on “Unresolved Mysteries: Discoveries, Disappearances, Unexplained Events.” This week, we explore the unsolved murder mystery of Jack the Ripper.
His walk from the shadows of London's East End into history books was short. A murder spree spanning as few as 10 weeks. It began on August 31, 1888.
He would claim at least five victims in the weeks to come. Leaving Londoners gripped in fear and around the world, leaving generations to ponder one of history's most enduring “who-done-its.”
An insatiable public fascination with the Ripper murders still regularly brings crowds out on a cold winter's night in search of answers in London's Whitechapel district, the East End killing ground of Jack the Ripper.
Over time, more and more pieces of the investigation have made their way into the public eye. The most intriguing and debated — a letter purported to be from the killer himself.
That letter was later regarded as a likely fake. Yet it gave the killer a name. And from that point going forward, the Whitechapel murderer was “Jack the Ripper.”
What do you think?