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On this date in 1903, the wife-poisoner George Chapman was hanged at Wandsworth Prison in the United Kingdom. He had at least three deaths on his record … and, if you fancy, possibly quite a few more...Sugden thought Chapman was a much better Ripper candidate than any of the other suspects he discussed in his book, but that didn’t mean he was definitely or even probably the real Ripper: “That Chapman committed crimes of which we have no present knowledge I can well believe. That he was Jack the Ripper is another matter.”

Murderer possibly a sailor rather than a surgeon, says new bookFor all the blood spilt by Jack the Ripper, and all the ink expended since by authors claiming to know his identity, ripperologists generally agree that with the killing of the prostitute Mary Kelly in Whitechapel on November 8 1888, his frenzied murder spree came to an abrupt end. After that "Jack" - if that was indeed his name - disappeared into the London fog, never to be seen again. But what if the murders continued in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua? And what if, after a break of eight...