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Was Jack the Ripper really a hate-spreading antisemite?

The author of a new book claims the killer was George Hutchinson, a local labourer, and that his motive was to mislead the public by framing the murders as “Jewish ritual killings”.

April 6, 2017 12:13
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2 min read

Jack the Ripper, rather than simply being a maniac, was actually an antisemite who committed his murders to stir up tensions between Jewish immigrants in the East End and working class Londoners, before fleeing to Australia.

That is the contention of Australian journalist Stephen Senise, whose self-published book Jewbaiter: Jack the Ripper is out this week after almost two years of painstaking research into the infamous Whitechapel murderer.

Mr Senise, who is not Jewish, argues the killer was George Hutchinson, a local labourer, and that his motive was to mislead the public by framing the murders as “Jewish ritual killings”.

Hutchinson was initially questioned by police as a witness to one of the murders, but many historians have concluded he misled officers, with some believing he could have been the killer.