History Mystery

Earlier this week I came across a rather interesting article about one of
the great questions marks in history - Jack the Ripper. A British TV
station, Channel Five, released a sketch of what scientists believed the
infamous prostitute killer looked like. They used 118 year old statements
from 13 witnesses. Apparently there were enough similarities in these
various statements to infer that the witnesses were talking about the
same man. Thus the scientists of the Metropolitan Police released a
computer sketch of a darkhaired man with a receding hairline, bushy
eyebrows, and a mustache. They have also concluded that he was
between 25-35 years old and about 5 foot 5 to 5 foot 7 in height. Former
police commander John Grieve stated that "It's a popular misconception
that nobody ever saw the murderer, that he just vanished into the fog of
London. Well that's just not right. There were witnesses at the time who
were highly thought of by the police." For those unfamiliar with this
historical episode, in 1888 at least 5 prostitutes were found brutally
murdered in the East London district of Whitechapel. The cases were
never solved, and over 200 different men were at one time a suspect,
including a member of the British royal family and the author of 'Alice
in Wonderland', Lewis Carroll. I have always been fascinated by the
unsolved mysteries in history - did Franklin Roosevelt know about
the Pearl Harbor attack? (I think he did) Did Hitler really die in the
bunker, or did he escape? (he died) What is the real story with the JFK
assassination? (no, Lee Harvey Oswald did not do it alone with a magic
bullet). Jack the Ripper did not have anywhere near the historical
consequence that the above mentioned events did, but it is one of those
unsolved cases that still gets press almost 120 years later. It may be due
to the fact that some believed a British royal family member was
involved, thus bringing the case to the spotlight. Look at the Princess
Diana incident. The rumors and whisperings about her tragic death will
never go away as long as people believe that British intelligence was
given orders from above (i.e. the monarchy) to do away with her to
prevent future scandal. We will never know, and thus the speculation
about both cases will never end.