An article on LongReads examines the minority opinion that authorities should have been seeking a woman as the murderer responsible for London’s Jack the Ripper killings. The theory has its origins in the testimony of a local woman who swore she’d seen one of the murder victims hours after her supposed time of death. Upon hearing this story, a chief inspector remembered seeing burned clothing in the fireplace of Mary Kelly’s room. What if the murdered had stolen Kelly’s clothes after disposing of her own, presumably blood-soaked, dress?
The theory has never caught on among conventional Ripperologists, who seem to lack the imagination necessary to picture a woman behind the knife responsible for so many grisly killings. However, we also know that many women’s accomplishments are hidden in a man’s pockets. If we believe women capable of advance mathematical and scientific discoveries, why not murder?
What other male historical figure, real or pseudonymous, could possibly have been a woman? Did Victoria Frankenstein cut her hair so she would be taken seriously as a scientist? What other commonly held belief can be turned on its head by swapping out gender or race (or species).
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