How did forensics experts create a modern profile of Jack the Ripper?
In 1888, a man dubbed Jack the Ripper murdered at least five women in London, all in the same general vicinity, all prostitutes. Each victim was strangled and then mutilated, usually disemboweled and sometimes missing organs when the police arrived. It was a gruesome string of crimes that came to be known as London’s first serial killings. Many experts credit the investigation of Jack the Ripper with starting the criminal profiling field, as the surgeon who assisted in several victims’ autopsies provided police not only with physical details of the crime but also with psychological characteristics that he believed to be associated with the manner of the killings. The surgeon, Dr. Thomas
