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Black Dahlia and Jack the Ripper killersAs Polaris noted in one of his recent journal entries, there were some uncanny similarities between the Black Dahlia case and the Jack the Ripper murders that plagued the Whitechapel area of London about sixty years earlier. Intrigued by the observation, the OCE webmasters compared the techniques of the two killers.


A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MURDERS:

Jack the Ripper was a pseudonym that the killer bestowed upon himself in a letter sent to a London-area newspaper, the Central News Agency. Since then, “Jack” has become the world's most famous serial killer and the subject of innumerable books, articles, films and websites.

His reign of terror over the destitute suburb of Whitechapel began on August 31, 1888, when the blood-soaked body of Mary Anne Nichols was found lying on the sidewalk near a stable entrance. The impoverished prostitute had been killed only ten minutes before her body was discovered. The hallmarks of the killer, who would first slash his victim's throat and then mutilate her body were all in evidence.

“...the cuts must have been caused by a long-bladed knife, moderately sharp, and used with great violence,” the coroner's report noted. It would be the extreme violence used by the killer, his need to “rip” his victims apart, that would so intrigue and terrorize the people of London for the next three months.

At least four more women, all alleged prostitutes, would met a similar fate as Nichols - Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly – until the murders finally and mysteriously ended in November 1888. Although the killer would operate in public, allegedly engaging his victims in conversation before luring them to their deaths, no definite description of him was ever forthcoming. Over the years, dozens of “suspects” have been identified but no definitive identification of the murderer has even been made.

Finding Ripper victimThe Black Dahlia Avenger was a pseudonym that this killer bestowed upon himself in a letter sent to the Los Angeles Examiner two weeks after the bisected body of Elizabeth Short was discovered in a quite suburb. (The name “Black Dahlia” was actually coined by a newspaper editor when he discovered that acquaintances of Short's often referred to her by this nickname. The killer added the “Avenger” part, apparently indicating that Short deserved to die for some transgression against him.) This murder has become the most infamous killing in the city's history, due largely to its brutality and the killer's arrogant taunts to the police and press through a series of correspondences.

Although the Dahlia killing is generally accepted as being a single event, some researchers, most notably author Steve Hodel, contend that Short's murder may have actually been the fourth in a series of eight such crimes by the Avenger. He contends that the killer, possibly working with a partner, may have been responsible for up to thirty-one different deaths and assaults in the Los Angeles area between the years of 1943 and 1963. Most amazingly, Hodel builds a convincing if not mostly circumstantial case against his own father, a prominent L.A. physician named George Hodel.

Was the Black Dahlia Avenger knowledgeable (perhaps even an imitator) of the Ripper? Some of the details between the two killers modus operandi would seem to suggest an uncanny connection...

IMITATION OR COINCIDENCE?

Both murderers had strong misogynistic feelings. As the true identity of the Ripper has never been determined, his motivation for killing East End prostitutes remains a mystery, but the brutality of his crimes would indicate a special hatred for women. Likewise, strong misogynistic impulses are obvious in the Dahlia killing, especially due to the torture inflicted upon Short prior to her death. Clearly, both men had a special hatred for women and a pathological desire to punish them brutally.

A knowledge of human anatomy. Both the Ripper and Dahlia killers seemed to have an acute knowledge of human anatomy. The surgical precision with which they mutilated their victims indicated to researchers past and present that both killers were medical professionals.

Both craved publicity. Both killers sent taunting notes to the press and others, issuing new threats or challenging the authorities to catch them. These correspondences reveal maniacal personalities who thought themselves to be above the law or even enforcing their own moral code. In both cases, many of these letters were sent before the victim was even discovered.

The killers named themselves. Both killers created their own monikers – “Jack the Ripper” and “Black Dahlia Avenger” – through their written correspondence with newspapers of the time.

Did the Avenger take his pseudonym from a Ripper movie? In his book, BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER, author Steve Hodel writes: “I submit that George Hodel lifted the term “Avenger” from the 1926 Alfred Hitchcock silent movie THE LODGER, based on the life of Jack the Ripper. Originally Hitchcock wanted – and surely George Hodel knew this – to title the film AVENGER, but was forced to change it before its release. In it, the “Jack the Ripper” character referred to himself as “the Avenger,” a term that clearly lodged itself in George Hodel's young, increasingly perverted mind, to surface twenty years later with the Black Dahlia."

Both killers mailed in proof of their identities. Both the Ripper and the Avenger mailed items to the media or public individuals which proved their complicity in the murders. The Ripper, for example, mailed the partial kidney of Catherine Eddowes to George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, a group of citizens who organized patrols of the London suburb in a desperate attempt to capture the killer. In his first letter to the media, the Avenger supplied Short's identification, birth certificate, an address book and her Social Security card.

Similar mutilations. Both killers displayed a psychopathic need to defile women through their mutilations, including facial mutilations, the removal or butchering of the sexual organs or cutting off the breasts. (The Ripper committed such mutilations in the cases of Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. It is believed that the Ripper intended to more thoroughly mutilate his victims but may have been interrupted in many cases. In what has become known as “The Saucy Jack Letter,” the killer even seems to lament this when he wrote: “Had not time to get ears for police.”)

Both murderers were theoretically linked to other crimes. As with most unsolved serial killings, rumors exist to this day that Jack the Ripper and the Black Dahlia Avenger went on killing for years after their official reigns of terror ended. Steve Hodel linked his father to numerous other slayings in the Los Angeles area throughout the early 1950s. Likewise, the Ripper was connected to various killings in London as late as 1891.

Were there conspiracies to hide these killers' identities? Theorists in both cases have speculated that the reason neither killer was caught was due to their prominent position in society, their connections to important politicians (or royalty as the case may be) and the pervasive corruption of the police who hid their identities in exchange for money, power or to save conceal their own complicity. These theories are particularly relevant for Dahlia suspect Dr. George Hodel and Ripper suspects Prince Albert Victor and royal physician Sir William Gull.
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