The notorious butcher of Whitechapel may have been a famous English poet, a researcher claims.
According to Australian researcher Richard Patterson, the serial killer may have been poet Francis Thompson, the NYDailyNews.com reported.
Thompson, who hinted at a murderous double life in his poems, "kept a dissecting knife under his coat, and he was taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of more than one of the Ripper victims," Patterson claims after conducting a 20 year study into the murders.
The troubled poet was said to have been an opium addict and reportedly had "close links" to at least one prostitute.
The writer may have snapped after a relationship with a hooker went bad.
The secret identity of Jack the Ripper, whose grisly 1888 murders of five London prostitutes made him arguably the world's most famous serial killer, officially remains unknown.
Among the many theories – Jack was a member of royalty, a doctor, a Polish immigrant and quite possibly even a woman!
To delve deeper into the lore of Jack the Ripper, you can line up all the "unusual subjects", here.