A theory that is sometimes but forward concerning the identity of Jack the Ripper is that he was, in fact, a she and that she was, therefore Jill The Ripper.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the world’s most famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, believed that the reason the ripper was able to commit the murders and then fade from view so effectively was that he used to dress up as a woman after his crimes.
The theory is that, by putting on a dress over his bloodstained clothing, the ripper would be able to hide the inevitable bloodstains that would have resulted from his crimes and that he would, also, be able to move freely through the streets since nobody was looking for a woman.
Another theory that has been put forward is that Jill was a mid-wife abortionist who wasn’t particularly good at performing abortions and she what were supposed to be Jack the Ripper’s murders were, in fact, bungled abortions that were made to look like murders.
As we often say on our Jack the Ripper Tour, the one certainty about Jack the Ripper is that nothing is certain, so, when it comes to this particular murder spree, it is safe to say that anything is possible.
Since we don’t know who Jack the Ripper was we can’t, with any degree of certainty, say what his(or her) gender was.
One thing is certain though. Whoever he or she was, they were able to murder the victims, sometimes (as in the case of the Murder of Annie Chapman’s murder site in Hanbury Street) in very close proximity to other people and not attract any attention as he(or she) fled from the scene of the crime.
So perhaps he was a she or he did dress up as a she in order to make good his escapes.
But, then again, there is such as thing as hiding in plain sight. So, perhaps, the reason he was able to escape so effectively was that he, quite simply, fitted in. In other words Jack the Ripper’s secret was his sheer ordinariness, his ability to blend in and the fact that he was that most dangerous of random serial killers – just one of the crowd!