Jack the Ripper’s Final Victim: Who Was Mary Kelly?


Disclaimer: The article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.

Jack the Ripper is inarguably one of the most famous serial killers in history. Several reports indicate that he killed multiple women between August and November 1888. However, some claim that he went on to murder more victims and ended his killing spree in 1892. Authorities investigated the murders and alleged that the murderer was linked to five victims. Although he killed all of his victims in a gruesome manner, it is reported that her final victim, Mary Jane Kelly, suffered one of the brutal deaths. However, a few years ago, the UK government permitted the exhumation of her remains after a wild theory surfaced.

According to The Telegraph, in 2015, the Ministry of Justice in the UK noted that it would permit the exhumation of the remains of Jack the Ripper’s final victim, Mary Kelly. After reading a theory written by Dr Wynne Weston-Davies in his book, the ministry decided to exhume her remains. The outlet mentioned the serial killer’s real name was Francis Spurzheim Craig, and he killed Mary Kelly as an “act of revenge.”

The author claimed that Kelly was his wife who secretly returned to prostitution after marriage, which is why Craig murdered her.  Although authorities denied all the previous pleas for exhuming Mary Kelly’s body, Weston-Davies believed that his family connections to Kelly, who could also have been Craig’s great-aunt, might be the reason for the acceptance of the application to conduct DNA testing.

Who was Jack the Ripper’s final victim Mary Kelly?

In the book The Real Mary Kelly, Dr. Wynne Weston-Davies claimed that Francis Spurzheim Craig slayed four women so that no one would doubt him. The author said that Craig murdered them to “cover” his “act of vengeance,” per The Independent. However, in 2017, researchers who planned to exhume her remains clarified that finding Kelly’s remains would be a challenging task. They called the exhumation “impractical” and said it would cost too much, reported Daily Mail. According to the publication, the remains of Jack the Ripper’s final victim are at St Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery in Leytonstone. 

For the uninitiated, authorities never caught Jack the Ripper and no one could identify him. Many believe that the serial killer was a myth, while others think that he killed more than just five women. Several documentaries on Jack the Ripper are available to stream to learn more about the serial killer.