A second book has named Queen Victoria's Welsh surgeon Sir John Williams as Jack the Ripper, the world's first modern serial killer, who murdered at least five prostitutes in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields areas of London's East End in 1888.
The book - The Fifth Victim - is written by Antonia Alexander, the great-great-granddaughter of the Ripper's fifth and final known victim Mary Kelly.
Kelly's gruesomely mutilated body was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at 10:45 a.m. on Friday 9 November 1888. The throat had been severed down to the spine, and the abdomen virtually emptied of its organs. The heart was missing.
At the time the Spitalfields area of London was a rookery, a slum occupied by poor people and frequently also by criminals and prostitutes. Such areas were overcrowded, with low-quality housing and little or no sanitation. Poorly constructed dwellings, built with multiple storeys and often crammed into any area of open ground, created densely populated areas of gloomy, narrow streets and alleyways. Dorset Street, where Mary Kelly's mutilated body was found, was known as "the worst street in London".
Mrs Alexander points the finger at Sir John Williams, who founded the National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth, and acted as surgeon for the royal family.
It follows a book released last year by Tony Williams, the great-great nephew of Sir John, who also accuses the prominent surgeon of being behind the notorious killings on the cobbled streets of London's East End in 1888.
Ms Alexander's investigation started after she discovered a photograph of a man in a 125-year-old locket contained in Mary's belongings was not of the victim's husband - as she had initially believed - but of Sir John.
The serial killer with Royal connections: Second book claims Queen Victoria's surgeon was Jack the Ripper - and it's written by victim's descendant
- Antonia Alexander names royal surgeon Sir John Williams as Jack the Ripper
- The author claims she is the great-great-granddaughter of the serial killer's fifth and final canonical victim Mary Kelly
Culprit? Royal surgeon Sir John Williams has been named as Jack the Ripper by a descendant of one of the serial killer's victims
A second book has named Queen Victoria's surgeon Sir John Williams as the infamous Jack the Ripper - and it is written by a descendant of one of the serial killer's victims.
Author Antonia Alexander claims she is the great-great-granddaughter of the Ripper's fifth and final known victim Mary Kelly.
She points the finger at Sir John, who founded the National Library of Wales, in Aberystwyth, and acted as surgeon for the royal family.
It follows a book released last year by Tony Williams, the great-great nephew of Sir John, who also accuses the prominent surgeon of being behind the notorious killings on the cobbled streets of London's Whitechapel in 1888.
Ms Alexander's investigation started after she discovered a photograph of a man in a 125-year-old locket contained in Mary's belongings was not of the victim's husband - as she had initially believed - but of Sir John.
'It's part of our family history that Mary had an affair for a number of years with a doctor who had taken her to places like Paris,' said the mother-of-two, who released her book The Fifth Victim earlier this month.
'But the doctor married someone else and Mary also got married so everyone believed the photo in the locket was of her husband.
'But my research has shown she was in fact carrying around the photo of her lover, Sir John Williams.
Born in Gwynfe, Carmarthenshire in 1840, Sir John trained as a doctor in London, working at a number of institutions.
He had a surgery in Whitechapel at the time of the Ripper killings, which claimed the lives of at least five women.
Gruesome: Official police photograph of Mary Kelly's murder scene in 13 Miller's Court, Spitalfields
A life-long collector of Welsh books and manuscripts, he was the principle founder of the National Library of Wales, living at a house called Blaenllynant in Victoria Terrace on Aberystwyth's seafront, which is now the Glengower Hotel, until his death in 1926.
In his book Uncle Jack: A Victorian Mystery, Tony Williams argues that the Welsh surgeon had the medical knowledge to remove vital organs from the victims; that he knew the victims from clinics he ran in Whitechapel, and that pages of his 1888 diary have been removed while other diaries are intact.
He also claimed that Sir John had been devastated he and his Swansea-born wife Lizzie could not have children and was desperate to find methods to increase fertility.
During the Whitechapel murder spree, the Ripper killed women and removed their sexual and internal organs with surgical precision.
The face of Jack the Ripper?: Ms Alexander's investigation started after she discovered a photograph of a man in a 125-year-old locket (pictured) contained in Mary's belongings was not that of the victim's husband, but one of Sir John Williams, who she believes was Jack the Ripper
'The uterus were removed from the victims, and I believe John Williams wanted to understand the function of the ovaries, their relation to fertility and to see if he could use the organs he removed from the women to complete his research,' said Mr Williams.
'He retired from practice in 1903, so why did he keep the surgical knife and glass slides among the personal possessions he left in the library?'
When the killings suddenly stopped, Sir John is claimed to have told friends he'd had a nervous breakdown and retired from London life - moving to Aberystwyth in West Wales.
Mr Williams has uncovered documents showing his ancestor carried out an abortion in 1885 on Mary Ann Nichols - who later became the Ripper's first victim.
Mr Williams even discovered a letter sent by Sir John in 1888 in which he apologises for canceling an evening dinner appointment on September 8 because he had to go to a clinic in Whitechapel.
That was the date the Ripper's second victim Annie Chapman was murdered.
He also matched a knife in Sir John's collection with the pathologist's description of the murder weapon and found that three medical slides from Sir John's collection contained smears from a human uterus.
Ms Alexander said: 'My book centres on the ultimately tragic romance Mary had with Sir John Williams.
'It was a great shock when we found the photo in Mary's locket was that of Sir John.
'It proves the relationship between them.'
The true identity of the Ripper has never been known, with the list of suspects nearly 100-long.
They include the Duke of Clarence, the grandson of the then-reigning monarch Queen Victoria, who is alleged to have learned disembowelling techniques on deer.
Montague John Druitt, a barrister and 'gentleman of good family' wasn't suspected until 1959, when Sir Melville Macnaghten's case notes described him as 'sexually insane'.
It was reported that 'even his own family suspected him of being the Whitechapel Murderer'.
Druitt committed suicide in 1888, drowning himself in the Thames with pockets full of stones.
OTHER RIPPER SUSPECTS
Montague John Druitt, Dorset-born barrister, committed suicide in the Thames shortly after last murder
Seweryn Kłosowski alias George Chapman, poisoned three of his wives and was hanged in 1903
Aaron Kosminski, suspected by police, admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum and died there
Dr Thomas Neill Cream, poisoned four London prostitutes with strychnine and was hanged
Sir William Withey Gull, royal physician named as a member of a masonic conspiracy
Seweryn Kłosowski alias George Chapman, poisoned three of his wives and was hanged in 1903
Aaron Kosminski, suspected by police, admitted to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum and died there
Dr Thomas Neill Cream, poisoned four London prostitutes with strychnine and was hanged
Sir William Withey Gull, royal physician named as a member of a masonic conspiracy
The Fifth Victim, published by Blake Published, is available via Amazon.co.uk priced at £8.27.
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