Was Jack The Ripper A Member of the Royal Family?

The hunt for Jack the Ripper is best begun by saying who he most certainly was not. Without doubt he was not a member of the Royal family. So deeply entrenched is this belief in the popular psyche that, as a Jack the Ripper tour guide who conducts tours on an almost nightly basis through the streets of East London, I can guarantee that on every tour I do several people will come up to me in the course of the evening and ask “is it true he was a member of the royal family?”

The member of the Royal family in question was Prince Albert Edward Victor, Duke of Clarence, Queen Victoria’s grandson and heir presumptive to the throne of England. Prince Albert Edward Victor, or “Eddy” as he was affectionately known, most certainly was not Jack the Ripper. Indeed Royal records show that he wasn’t even in London on the dates of the murders. From the 29th August to 7th September he was staying with Viscount Downe at Danby Lodge, Grosmont, Yorkshire, which would rule him out as the murderer of Polly Nichols who was killed on August 31st.  From the 7th to the 10th of September he was at the Cavalry Barracks in York, Annie Chapman was murdered on the 8th September. Between the 27th and 30th of September he was Abergeldie, Scotland, where Queen Victoria noted that he lunched with her on the 30th. The murders of Elizabeth Stride and Catharine Eddowes occurred in the early hours of this morning, and to have committed the murders and be back in Scotland in time for lunch would be no mean feat today let alone then! He was back in London on 1st November, and on the 2nd he left for Sandringham where he remained until the 12th of November, which would rule him out as the killer of Mary Kelly on the 9th November.

So, nice as it would be to be able to tell people that a deranged member of the Royal family was responsible for the murders of five prostitutes in the East End of London in 1888, the truth is that it most certainly was not a member of the Royal family and in our search for Jack the Ripper we must look at other suspects.