Jack the Ripper was a twisted Metropolitan Police officer, a historian claims. Author Rod Beattie spent 20 years trawling national archives.
He believes Britain’s most notorious serial killer – who terrorised East London in 1888, slaughtering five women – was an aggrieved police constable.
Mr Beattie says the culprit was Bowden Endacott, a reserve Met Police officer who would have been patrolling the streets of Whitechapel.
The PC’s dark history with prostitutes caused him to erupt in a “frenzy of murderous revenge”, Mr Beattie claims.
When Endacott worked in Devon in the early 1870s he was given a bastardy order, the Victorian equivalent of child maintenance payments, for fathering a child outside of marriage.
The Lancaster Gazette reported that he got a young woman by the name of Rogers “in trouble”. The order was settled before it came to court but Mr Beattie believes it fuelled Endacott’s anger of women.
In 1875 he left Devon to join the Metropolitan Police in London. In 1877 he was the focus of a scandal when he accused a woman out late at night of being a prostitute.
Elizabeth Cass complained of wrongful arrest to Scotland Yard. An inquiry cleared Endacott but he was demoted to guard duty.
Mr Beattie, 72, from Birmingham, believes he decided to take “revenge” on prostitutes. He said: “I was reading an article about the Endacott case and suddenly had a eureka moment. What stronger motivation could there be than having your career ruined by what you thought was a prostitute?
“It just made sense, I went through the archives trying to piece together his history. He was in London for all of the killings. He was stationed at the British Museum but all the Met’s reserves were called up to patrol the streets.
“The murder spree began the year after he lost everything in court. He had a bad history with women. He moved to London after being subject to a bastardy order. I think he finally snapped when he was made to guard the British Museum and went on this frenzy of murderous revenge.
“There is no concrete proof he did it but there isn’t any for any suspect. As a police officer he could go anywhere with-out suspicion. I’m confident it was him. It’s possible the Met knew it was him but didn’t want to damage their reputation.”
Jack the Ripper was never caught and little is known about his appearance. Five women were hacked to death between August and November 1888.
Mr Beattie’s book, Jack the Ripper – The Policeman: A New Suspect, is on sale.
