The D.B. Cooper Hijacking
The only unsolved air piracy in American commercial aviation history — the ransom, the parachutes, the jump, and the $20 bills that turned up nine years later.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation
Unsolved · United Kingdom
The Whitechapel Murders
What the Metropolitan Police files actually hold on the killings signed "Jack the Ripper" — and what they don't.
More has been written about the Whitechapel murders than about any other unsolved crime, and most of it is speculation. This article does something narrower. It describes what the official record holds — the Metropolitan Police and Home Office files that survive at The National Archives in Kew — so that any reader can see where the documented case ends and the theorising begins.
The files
The police papers sit in the series MEPO 3, the correspondence of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
Archive references
- MEPO 3/141
- "The Whitechapel murders: 'Jack the Ripper'", 1888–1894. Open document. Not digitised; viewable at Kew.
- MEPO 3/3153
- 1888–1889. Includes the letter signed 'Jack the Ripper' dated 25 September 1888 sent to the Central News agency, a Home Office letter and press notice concerning Mary Janet Kelly, and her post-mortem report.
- MEPO 3/3157
- Letter dated 29 October 1888, claiming to be from Jack the Ripper, addressed to Dr T. H. Openshaw of the London Hospital.
- MEPO 3/142
- Letters from individuals signed 'Jack the Ripper', 1888–1891.
- HO 144/220, HO 144/221
- Home Office files on rewards, suggestions for apprehension, and police efforts to trace the culprit.
The letter
The best-known document is the letter dated 25 September 1888, addressed to the Central News agency and signed "Jack the Ripper". It is the origin of the name. The National Archives holds it, and has published an image of it. Whether its author was the killer, a journalist, or a hoaxer has never been established, and the catalogue makes no claim either way.
Papers that went missing, and came back
The catalogue records something unusual about MEPO 3/3153: documents from it were sent anonymously to New Scotland Yard in November 1987, nearly a century after the murders. The archive notes that related material sits in MEPO 3/140–142, 3155 and 3156.
What the record does not do
The files do not name a killer. The 1888–1894 date range on the principal file reflects how long the police kept the inquiry open, not a resolution. No charge was ever laid. Every "identity" offered since — and there are dozens — rests on inference, not on anything in these folders.
Reproduction of items in these files that are the copyright of the Metropolitan Police Service or a third party requires the copyright owner's permission. This site shows no images from them.
Sources
- The National Archives (UK) — MEPO 3/141, "The Whitechapel murders: 'Jack the Ripper'", 1888–1894Primary
- The National Archives (UK) — MEPO 3/3153, letter signed 'Jack the Ripper' dated 25 September 1888, and related papersPrimary
- The National Archives (UK) — 'Dear Boss' letter, imagePrimary
Primary = the investigating or custodial authority's own published record. Links open in a new tab. Last checked 11 November 2026.
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