Patricia Cornwell is a hack!

The list supplied by 'Rapaire' is pretty damn all-inclusive.

James Maybrick is one of the later additions to the list (He was the Liverpudlian Cotton Merchant): However a more recent contender has been named ....... one, Sir John Williams. Like Gull he was a physician to the Royal Family, he was a mason, he was also a gynaecologist he also worked on a stipend / voluntary basis at TWO different 'clinics' in Whitechapel and no less than TWO of the murdered women were ex-patients.

It is also demonstrated - though fairly circumstabtial and just a little inconclusively for my liking - that he also had an affair with Mary Kelly (the "last" victim). Born in Ireland, Mary grew up in Wales nearby to where Williams began practising and records show corroboration of her marriage to a Welsh local who was killed in a mine accident (as was THE Mary Kelly's husband).

The author ?Tony Williams - a great nephew of Sir John wrote the book with the original intention of writing a biography. As he turned up more evidence, his investigations led him down the 'Ripper' path. The evidence which set this search off was a box of personal effects of Sir John's located in the National Library of Wales which contained a knife with (apparent) bloodstains) of the EXACT size and configuration the Police Surgeon said must have been used on the Ripper victims as well as a note to an associate begging off an engagement as he was required in Whitechapel on the same night - the night of the death of (I think it was the second murder, from memory).

The evidence he collects also places him in Whitechapel on EVERY night a murder occurred.

The book also explains quite convincingly WHY he stopped when he did.

It gets a little repetitive at times which can be irritating as he occasionally takes several pages to retell evidence he has already taken several pages to tell half-a-dozen times before.

The book is entiltled "UNCLE JACK" and the author is Tony Williams - assisted by Humphrey Price. It's printed by Orion Books of London. The book was recommended to me by a tour guide while we were in London last year who has run a "Jack the Ripper" walking tour of Whitechapel several hundred times. The tour she runs is run by a tour company and is rated the best Jack the Ripper Tour on offer -includes a visit to "The Ten Bells" the pub which the women hung out at (and yes, it's the REAL "Ten Bells" not a replica. The walk finished with a dinner at London's oldest surviving pub - Built in the 16th Century and one of only a few buildings to survive The Great Fire in 1666.

You might also want to visit a site called the "Ripper Casebook" or the "Jack the Ripper Casebook" or some such title - I have it bookmarked and I'll post it when I locate it.

Muttley

The short answer, though, is that supplied by the GUEST who first answered you - - - - - - NO, they don't know who he was for certain; he may not even be ANY of those listed to date. The only one NOBODY believes was the Ripper these days is Prince Albert - though many an anti-monarchist would like to see that one proved.