Why did Jack the Ripper suddenly stop killing in 1888? We look at the most popular theories — from death or arrest to the eerie idea that he simply chose to stop
Jack the Ripper’s murder spree in 1888 remains one of the darkest chapters in London’s history. The killings began with Mary Ann Nichols on 31 August 1888 and culminated in the horrific death of Mary Jane Kelly on 9 November 1888.
Then, suddenly, the Ripper vanished.
No more mutilated bodies appeared in Whitechapel’s alleys, and the case slipped into legend.
Why did the killings stop? Here are the main theories — each backed by historical context and insights from experts who have studied the case for decades.
Heightened Patrols and Public Vigilance
Following the “double event” of 30 September 1888, when Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were killed within hours of each other, police presence in Whitechapel intensified dramatically.
Detectives flooded the East End, and local residents joined the effort. The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, led by businessman George Lusk, organised nightly patrols armed with whistles and sticks.
Newspapers at the time described the East End as “swarming with detectives and men in uniform” — a visual reminder that the killer could no longer roam unnoticed.
Criminologist Trevor Marriott, a former Bedfordshire detective, has argued that this level of visibility may have scared off the Ripper. The area became a powder keg of suspicion and fear.
Every stranger was scrutinised; every sound in the night investigated. “The killer,” Marriott notes, “would have found it almost impossible to operate in the same way after the double murders, with the streets patrolled and the police under immense pressure to secure an arrest.”
In this view, the Ripper did not vanish by choice, but because the conditions that enabled him were removed.
He Was Imprisoned or Institutionalised
Another theory suggests the Ripper was taken off the streets not by choice, but through arrest or institutionalisation.
The East End was rife with crime and poverty. It is plausible that the Ripper was arrested for an unrelated offence such as theft or disorderly behaviour. Once imprisoned, the murders would have ceased without authorities realising the connection.
Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jewish barber committed to Colney Hatch asylum in 1891, is often cited in support of this theory. Sir Melville Macnaghten, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, wrote in his 1894 memorandum: “Kosminski… had a great hatred of women, with strong homicidal tendencies.”
While DNA-based claims have been hotly debated, the broader idea — that the Ripper was someone confined to an asylum, with no further freedom to kill — remains persuasive.
Other suspects, such as Montague John Druitt and Thomas Cutbush, also met fates (suicide or confinement) that would have brought the killing spree to an end.
He Died
In Victorian London, early death was common. Disease, violence, and poor living conditions often cut lives short, particularly among working-class men — a group from which many Ripper suspects emerged.
The Jack the Ripper Tour blog notes: “Disease and malnutrition were rife in the East End… had the Ripper been from the same social class as his victims, then dying at a fairly young age was not uncommon.”
Ripperologist Paul Begg has suggested that death may be the simplest, most credible explanation: “If the Ripper was a local man of poor health, the chances are high that he simply died. He may have been buried in a pauper’s grave, his name long forgotten, while the legend lived on.”
In this view, the killer never faced justice not due to police failure, but because fate intervened.
He Fled London — Or Even England
Another possibility is that the killer left London entirely.
Whitechapel was a hub of transient populations — sailors, migrant workers, and drifters passing through lodging houses. Trevor Marriott has argued that the Ripper may have been a seaman, disappearing when his ship sailed and returning to kill while in port.
“The location and timing of the killings,” he told The Guardian in 2005, “suggest the killer may have been a merchant seaman.”
If true, the Ripper could have continued his crimes elsewhere, but they would not have been linked. Unsolved murders in New York, Paris, and even South America have been tenuously connected, though never conclusively.
This theory is particularly unsettling because it suggests the killings may not have ended — they simply moved location.
He Was Almost Caught and Went Into Hiding
Some believe Jack the Ripper had a close call with law enforcement.
After the Kelly murder, Whitechapel was in uproar. Police raids were frequent, and the press had whipped the public into a frenzy. The killer may have realised he was being watched, or even questioned by officers, prompting him to disappear.
The Jack the Ripper Tour website summarises this theory: “He came close to capture… faced with a near capture he may have panicked, or perhaps, simply decided to keep a low profile.”
The idea aligns with modern criminal profiling, which suggests that serial killers who narrowly escape detection may retreat into obscurity.
In this theory, the Ripper’s silence stems not from satisfaction, but fear.
He Simply Stopped
The most unnerving theory is that the Ripper stopped because he chose to.
Mary Jane Kelly’s murder was by far the most savage, carried out in the privacy of her room at Miller’s Court. Some experts believe this final act represented the peak of his compulsion.
Having enacted his ultimate fantasy, he may have felt no need to kill again.
Author and Ripper researcher John Eddleston once speculated: “Perhaps, after the death of Mary Jane Kelly, Jack the Ripper simply retired… because he got what he wanted — fame and notoriety.”
While most criminologists argue serial killers rarely stop voluntarily, it is not impossible.
The Ripper achieved both terror and infamy. Perhaps, like a phantom satisfied with his work, he faded into silence.
A Killer Who Disappeared into History
Whether he died, was imprisoned, fled, hid, or simply stopped, Jack the Ripper’s disappearance is as mysterious as his identity.
Each theory carries weight, supported by fragments of evidence — yet none can be proven.
What is certain is that his sudden silence deepened the legend. Had the killings continued, he might have been caught and remembered as just another criminal.
Instead, he became the most infamous killer in history — precisely because he vanished when the world was watching.
