Assalammualaikum,
Everybody has heard the story of the notorious Jack the Ripper, a serial killer who murdered 5 prostitutes and the notorious serial killer who stalked London's East End, butchering prostitutes and terrorizing the population, may not have been Jack but Jill the Ripper. Moreover, an Australian scientist has used swabs from letters supposedly sent to police by the Ripper to build a partial DNA profile of the killer. The results suggest that the person who murdered and mutilated at least five women from 1888 onwards may have been a woman.
The opinion that Jack the Ripper might be a woman was one assumed by Inspector Abberline himself at the time of the killings. Abberline raised the theory in a conversation with his mentor, Dr. Thomas Dutton after the murder of Mary Kelly. Testimony given by Caroline Maxwell, who lived in the area, was central to the argument. Mrs. Maxwell testified to have seen Mary Kelly not once but twice several hours after doctors believe she had died. Mrs. Maxwell claims she saw Kelly speaking with a man outside the Britannia public house. Mrs. Maxwell vividly described the clothes she saw on the woman she believed to be Kelly that morning as a dark shirt, velvet bodice and a maroon-coloured shawl. Abberline had no reason to distrust this witness and she continued stick to the times and descriptions she had given.
The problem perplexed him, and he later approached Dutton about it, asking - Do you think it could be a case not of Jack the Ripper but Jill the Ripper? Dutton answered that he believed it was doubtful, but that if it were a woman committing the crimes, the only kind capable of doing so would be a midwife.