2001 Alan Moore comic adaptation From Hell attempts to solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper, but puts the blame on a likely innocent man. Ever since his murder spree through London’s Whitechapel district in 1888, the case of Jack the Ripper has fascinated the masses, especially those interested in true crime stories. The identity of “Jack” was famously never conclusively revealed, and will seemingly never be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, despite the occasional claim that someone has done so.
Like with the more recent Zodiac Killer though, part of what makes Jack the Ripper and his crimes so interesting is the mystery aspect, as anyone who does research into the case is liable to finger their own likely suspect. This holds true for most of the pop culture takes on Jack the Ripper, and that’s not surprising, as a crime story where the killer is never caught or identified doesn’t necessarily make for a good dramatic screenplay.
That’s where movies - and graphic novels - like From Hell come in. While the film’s culprit for the Jack the Ripper killings doesn’t get publicly outed, Inspector Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp) does at least find out who he is, and confront him. However, in the process From Hell pins Jack’s murders on a man very unlikely to have committed them in real life.
From Hell Pins Jack the Ripper’s Murders on an Innocent Man
Over the course of From Hell, Abberline eventually figures out that Jack the Ripper’s murder spree is the work of Sir William Gull (Ian Holm), a physician to the Royal Family of England. At a base level, this seems like a decent pick, as police at the time strongly suspected a doctor might be responsible for the killings, thanks to Jack sometimes removing the organs of his victims with surgical precision. However, experts on the subject, including historians, don’t actually believe there’s any real chance Gull was Jack the Ripper.
Gull was in his 70s when the Whitechapel murders occurred, and while an elderly man isn’t necessarily incapable of murder, the sheer physical viciousness with which he did so points to someone more able bodied. Additionally, Gull is noted to have suffered a stroke in the years prior to Jack the Ripper’s rise, which would’ve made him even less physically capable. That said, the idea of Gull being Jack actually rose to public prominence thanks to a discredited, and rather outlandish conspiracy theory involving the Royals and the Freemasons that first gained widespread fame in the 1970s. Many elements of this theory turn up as plot points in From Hell, but there’s no real evidence to suggest the theory is true.
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