Was Jack the Ripper Poet Francis Thompson?

That's the theory of Richard Patterson, a 45 year-old English teacher from Byron Bay, Australia. He's written two other books on the topic in the 20 years he's been researching Jack the Ripper, one a short non-fiction where he first raised the possibility that the killer was the renowned poet and the other a horror/historical fiction novel published last year.

Apparently his theory has now piqued enough interest that he's in the news today (Mirror, NY Daily News, Huffington Post) announcing that he has a new non-fiction book set to publish, Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect, detailing the evidence for his theory (joining an extremely long list of passionately held theories).

Here's the highlights. From the Mirror article linked above:

Richard, who is an English teacher at various schools in Byron Bay, New South Wales, said: "Thompson kept a dissecting knife under his coat, and he was taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of more than one of the Ripper victims.

Already addicted to opium, the young poet lived rough in the city until a local prostitute is believed to have offered him a place to stay.

Their friendship is thought to have quickly turned into what was Thompson's only romantic relationship.

Richard believes that the mentally unstable poet snapped after she left him.

and from the NY Daily News article also linked above:

"Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives," the author said.

Thompson details the bloody murder of a woman stabbed at a pagan temple by a young poet in his short story, “Finis Coronat Opus.”

“I swear I struck not the first blow. Some violence seized my hand, and drove the poniard down. Whereat she cried ; and I, frenzied, dreading detection, dreading, above all, her wakening, I struck again, and again she cried ; and yet again, and yet again she cried,” reads an excerpt from the 1889 piece.

The man in the poem hears the “sound of dripping blood” as the dying woman’s eyes glare at him in her last moments of life.

“Motionless with horror they were fixed on mine, motionless with horror mine were fixed on them, as she wakened into death,” the poem says.

We'll never know for certain, but interesting theory.

Sounds like the most likely suspect I've ever heard of.