On These Mean Streets I’d think Brian Leno is best known in his role as a maniacal Autograph Hound, but his first appearance as a Guest Blogger back in 2011 featured a side hobby, dabbling in Ripperology.

Of course he has a run of signatures connected to the Jack the Ripper case, and thought to trot out a few to commemorate today’s 134th anniversary.

Here’s Brian:

I’m the early morning hours of November 9, 1888, Mary Jane Kelly unknowingly welcomed Jack the Ripper into her home in Miller’s Court, London.

The Ripper already had killed at least four women, and had butchered them savagely, but he hadn’t, so far, been given the time to really indulge his twisted fantasies upon their bodies.

Mary Jane Kelly would be the unfortunate one. She closed the door and, without realizing it, locked herself in with a killer whose ferocity surely slipped over into insanity as he now had all the time he needed to leave her body in complete ruin.

Her breasts were severed and her liver and kidneys were cut out and scattered in various positions on her bed. Her face was savagely attacked, and he was far from finished.

Anyone who wonders as to why The Ripper still fascinates (if that’s the right word) need only view the grim picture of Kelly as she was found by the police. 

What could have been lurking in his brain, spurring him to commit such atrocities?

Obviously we will never know, but it’s a question that has been pondered now for 134 years and there is no end in sight.

While no one knows The Ripper’s true identity — and don’t kid yourselves, no one ever will —there have been some pretty far out names brought forward, most notably in Mike Holgate’s Jack the Ripper: The Celebrity Suspects.