Jack the Ripper

British  

noun

1. an unidentified murderer who killed at least seven prostitutes in London's East End between August and November 1888

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Jack the Ripper Cultural  

1. A criminal in London in the late nineteenth century apparently responsible for several ghastly murders by slashing. His identity is unknown.

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Example Sentences

“Smog” is a turn-of-the-century portmanteau word mashing together “smoke” and “fog” to describe the sooty, sulfurous air of the London of Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 26, 2026

He was Jack the Ripper in “Time After Time” in 1979; two years later, in “Time Bandits,” his character was named simply Evil Genius.

From New York Times • Jul. 25, 2022

This Netflix original series chronicles the turbulent investigation, which bore striking similarities to that of the infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper, who committed a killing spree in London in 1888.

From Salon • Dec. 5, 2020

And speaking of Dracula, Kim Newman has been writing alternate histories with vampires ever since “Anno Dracula” made a cocktail of Victorian London, the undead and Jack the Ripper.

From Washington Post • Mar. 11, 2020

“No one even knows who Jack the Ripper really was.”

From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart