The Thames Torso Murders: Victorian London’s Other Ripper

Major Crimes in History

As autumn leaves started to fall in 1888, Victorian London was reeling from a series of gruesome murders. Jack the Ripper was slaughtering women and butchering them, leaving a horrific scene behind.

But, shockingly, it was not just the Ripper. What many people don’t know is that at the same time as Jack the Ripper’s spree, there was another serial killer in London murdering and dismembering women in a manner that was every bit as shocking.

The Ripper case and the fascination and fear associated with it have overshadowed what was known as the Thames Torso Murders. Who was this other serial killer, and were these two inhuman predators really one: could he have been Jack?

The Thames Torso Murders

The Thames Torso Murders were a series of unsolved murders and dismemberment of women in London, England, from 1887 to 1889. What made this case difficult was that this was the same that the infamous Jack the Ripper was targeting women in the slums of the Whitechapel district in London.

It is true that the Thames Torso Murders were determined to be unrelated to Jack the Ripper. Almost unbelievably, London had two serial killers murdering and mutilating women at the same time.

This conclusion largely came from the methods of the murders, and what the murderers did to the bodies of their victims. The victims of the Thames Torso Murders were dismembered and lacked the mutilation of the genitals and abdominal area that was the modus operandi of Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper made headlines for the brutality of his killings, but the Thames Torso Murders were every bit as gruesome (British Library / Public Domain)

There are four “canonical” murders attributed to the Thames Torso Murders; however, authorities consider similar murders that occurred in London back in 1873 and 1874, as well as another murder in Tottenham Court Road in 1884. Of the canonical four victims, only one was ever able to be identified.