Was Jack the Ripper ever caught?

[?]

I can't find anything. How was he never caught?
Where can I find more information about him? How come all the street names have been changed too?

[HermioneJG]

He was never caught. He just stopped suddenly though it is possible he was killed as serial killers don't often just stop killing.

[tuffy]

No

[pearlmar]

No. The latest theory is that he was a morgue attendant named Robert Mann.

[Louie]

Jack the ripper was en english serial killer, who brutally killed prostitutes and layed their intestines on the streets of London in the 1800's. He was never caught, and nobody knows who he was!

A strange fact is that people suggest that Jack the ripper was a surgeon. People believe this, because he would perfectly cut open the abdomen of his victims, and he would remove the intestines, like a surgeon would!

[Zøë]

No.

[Eques]

That Telegraph article is ridiculous!

[siddhartha]

I believe he was apprehended but later released for lack of evidence but he could have been anyone!

[Moriarty]

A large part of the problem was that none of the police divisions/forces actually worked with each other. They all had their own jurisdiction or "patch" and jealously guarded it from the others. This was to cause a great deal of difficulty as one of the murders (Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square) fell under the remit of the City of London Police, whereas the other four of the canonical five (Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Mary Jane Kelly) were the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police.

There were no co-ordinated efforts between the two and neither branch were prepared to discuss their findings with the other to begin with. Also the overall direction of the murder enquiries were hampered by the fact that the newly appointed head of the CID, Robert Anderson, was on leave in Switzerland between the 7th September and the 6th October, during the time Chapman, Stride and Eddowes were killed. This prompted the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Charles Warren, to appoint Chief Inspector Donald Swanson to coordinate the enquiry from Scotland Yard. This left many of the detectives on the ground unsure of who was running the investigation, especially when Anderson returned.

Also, the police of 1888 had none of the forensic help that their modern counterparts do. There was no understanding of blood types or grouping; fingerprints had only recently been discovered and were not an exact science and were not permitted in British Victorian courts anyway; the most advanced techniques they had was the recovery of footprints. They did not understand the importance of preserving a crime scene in situ and many policeman would be trampling through it and destroying evidence before an official photographer could arrive. Many of the crime scenes were washed down before any of the major detectives saw them, to prevent the crowds gathering. So really, unless the police caught the Ripper (or any murderer) standing over his victim, covered in blood, the chances of catching him where fairly limited.

What didn't help was the area in which the Ripper operated. Whitechapel was the most densely populated area of the largest city in the world. It was a rabbit warren of dark alleys, unlit tiny streets and dingy cobbled pathways in which a criminal could easily lose themselves. Much of the populace too were no help, as they had a deep suspicion of the police, with one half believing that they were there specifically for the benefit of wealthier Londoners whereas the other half were terrified of them as they were non-English speaking immigrants. No one wanted to speak up - at least not at first.

As for the street names, Buck's Row attracted so much unwanted attention that it's name was changed to Durward Street the same year as the Ripper killings. Berner Street was renamed Henriques Street in the early 20th Century after Sir Basil Henriques who was a popular philanthropist and did much for the poor in the East End and had set up a social club in Berner St. Dorset Street earned the nickname "the worst street in London", so it became Duval Street in 1904 and then was incorporated into Spitalfield's Market in 1928, finally vanishing in the 1960's when it became a lorry park for the market. The building housing the lorry loading bays mark the spot where Millers Court stood. However, both Hanbury Street and Mitre Square still remain with their original names.

[Tiburon]

No - today he surely would be caught