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UK Asylum Releases Ripper Suspect's Notes

Victorian madman's 117-year-old medical records offer new clues

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 19, 2008 7:19 AM CST
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(Newser) – A British institution for the criminally insane has released the medical records of a madman long suspected of being Jack the Ripper, the Independent reports. The documents contain no conclusive proof, but offer enough to keep Thomas Cutbush on the suspect list. The "very insane" young man threatened to get a knife and "rip up" staff, the records state. The descriptions of Cutbush match some eyewitness accounts of the Ripper.

Cutbush went insane around the time the Ripper killings first began. He obsessively pored over medical textbooks and took to wandering the streets, once returning home covered in blood. Cutbush was first publicly named as a suspect by a tabloid newspaper in 1894. The paper speculated that his guilt had been covered up because of strings pulled by his uncle, a police superintendent who shot himself several years after Cutbush had been committed.

A worker stands in front of a screen showing a movie about Jack the Ripper at the exhibition 'Jack the Ripper and the East End' at the Museum in Docklands, London, earlier this year.
A worker stands in front of a screen showing a movie about Jack the Ripper at the exhibition 'Jack the Ripper and the East End' at the Museum in Docklands, London, earlier this year.   (AP Photo/Akira Suemori)
An old police uniform and equipment are seen on display during a press preview for the exhibition 'Jack the Ripper and the East End' at the Museum in Docklands, London, earlier this year.
An old police uniform and equipment are seen on display during a press preview for the exhibition 'Jack the Ripper and the East End' at the Museum in Docklands, London, earlier this year.   (AP Photo/Akira Suemori)
Bucks Row, now Darward Street, east London, where the body of Mary Ann Nicholls, victim of Jack the Ripper, was found lying across the gutter.
Bucks Row, now Darward Street, east London, where the body of Mary Ann Nicholls, victim of Jack the Ripper, was found lying across the gutter.   (Getty Images)
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Broadmoor archives shed light on Victorian crimes
Telegraph (UK)

Description of Cutbush matches Ripper accounts
Telegraph (UK)

Victorian paper pointed finger at Cutbush
jack-the-ripper tour

 
London • murder • insanity • serial killers • Jack the Ripper

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