Body of Jack the Ripper’s Irish Final Victim to be Exhumed for Answers
Irish Central, 19 Nov 2015
Mary Jeanette Kelly, the Irish-born final victim of Jack the Ripper. Photo by: Wales News Service
The body of Jack The Ripper's Irish victim is set to be exhumed following the release of a new theory on the identity of the mysterious Victorian serial killer.
After examining new claims, Britain's Ministry of Justice has indicated it will grant an exhumation licence for the grave of Limerick-born Mary Jane Kelly, also known as Marie Jeanette Kelly.
Kelly, a prostitute, was just 25 when she was butchered to death in 1888 in London's Whitechapel area and is believed to be the fifth and last of the shadowy killer's victims.
It is the first time the remains of any of the Ripper's victims have been exhumed.
Police photograph of the murder scene of Mary Jane Kelly. Photo: City of London Archives / Public Domain
The move follows claims in a new book,
'The Real Mary Kelly', that the Ripper was a man called Francis Spurzheim Craig, a journalist who reported on police courts in the East End of London at the time of the murders.
[As reported in The Telegraph], the book's author, Dr Wynne Weston-Davies, believes Craig killed Kelly, his wife, as an act of revenge after she secretly returned to prostitution shortly after they married in 1885.
He argues that the murders of the four other women acted as "cover" for his act of vengeance – and that his intention was to make the crime appear like the work of a serial killer, rather than a spurned husband.
Dr. Weston-Davies also believes that Kelly – who was raised in Wales after moving from Limerick – was his great-aunt, something he intends to confirm through DNA tests on her remains.
Death certificate for Mary Jane Kelly
The British Ministry of Justice has said it is willing to give the green light to the licence on the condition that Dr. Weston-Davies can produce a letter from a laboratory willing to do the DNA testing and that a notice of the exhumation is posted on the grave for three months.
He said he hopes that by proving Kelly's identity through DNA testing on her remains, the link between her and Francis Craig will be more certain and help reinforce his theory.
Of all the Ripper's victims, the least is known about Kelly, despite repeated attempts to trace her long-lost Irish relatives.
Another Ripper expert, Keith Andrews, believes Kelly was deliberately targeted because she had Irish republican links and may have been plotting a revolution.
Grave of Mary Jane Kelly. Photo: FindAGrave.
The Ripper's identity still remains a mystery – and more than likely will never be known.
One theory is that the serial killer was not so much a psychopath as a trained assassin hired by the British establishment to carry out the brutal murders in 1888.
An illustration shows police officers discovering the body of one of the Ripper's victims