The Untold Stories Of The Jack The Ripper Suspects

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

There's only a single female suspect accused of being Jack the Ripper, and she was hanged on December 23, 1890. Evidence she was the so-called "Jill the Ripper" is pretty flimsy, but Ripper or not, Mary Pearcey undoubtedly had a taste for killing.

According to the Old Police Cells Museum, it ran in the family โ€” her father was executed for murder when she was 14. She hooked up with a ton of men off and on, but she really had a thing for a furniture remover named Frank Samuel Hogg. Unfortunately for her, Hogg was married and a father, so Pearcey decided to take care of some business. Mrs. Hogg's body was found first, her skull fractured and her throat cut so deeply she was nearly decapitated. Their daughter, 18-month-old Phoebe, was found the next day. She was strangled.

Suspicion first fell on the husband, as it usually does. Once Pearcey showed up on the radar, it wasn't long before they found bloodstains all over her kitchen, rugs, kitchen knives, and a poker. She insisted to authorities searching her home that she had just been killing mice โ€” bizarrely, she also played the piano and whistled during the search โ€” but no one bought it. She'd been masquerading as Mrs. Hogg's friend for some time, until jealousy got the better of her and an afternoon tea turned deadly. Was she just a jealous lover, or something more?

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCEk3FvbWelo8GwuMNmqq2nop6ytHnJmpqkZaKevbGx0WaqrqugmrC1v44%3D