Jack was a Londoner known as Walter Thomas Porriott who was well known to police as Andrew John Gibson. He lived in London at the time of the murders and then sailed for Sydney just as the murders stopped and The Ripper vanished from the news. Apparently he lived in Brisbane and died in 1952 after a long career as an impostor and fraudster.
It really stands to reason. Not only were convicts sent to the colonies for a range of petty crimes but upper class families often sent their wayward sons to the other side of the world to escape scandal. And where better? At the turn of the last century Australia was a favoured place to escape to and create a new identity. It still is.
As the Ripper was never caught, it could be said that being confined to living out one's life in Brisbane was a suitable punishment.
Read the full story here at the Telegraph.co.uk
STOP PRESS : Now former solicitor John Morris claims Welsh-born Lizzie Williams (left) was the Ripper and says she killed her victims because she could not have children, ripping out the wombs of three in an "unhinged state".
Read more here.
Tommorrow : Is Rupert Murdoch related to the The Ripper?
