Almost Perfect Crimes: The French Jack the Ripper

Twenty years before Jack the Ripper began his brutal murder spree in London there was a series of violent murders of prostitutes in Paris. From 1861 to 1866 eight women and one baby were murdered by a killer who managed to outwit the police. The victims were stabbed so viciously that their heads were almost separated from their bodies. Numerous witnesses described the murderer as a frightening looking man with a strange tattoo but it wasn’t until January 1866 and the attempted murder of an artist that killer was finally caught. His name was Louis Joseph Philippe.