Jack the Ripper may have come to Melbourne

Melbourne newspaper The Age reports that local biomedical scientist Geoff Crawford is currently hunting the bones of an ex-pat Londoner named Frederick Deeming, executed in Old Melbourne Gaol in 1892 for the murder of his wife, because he believes DNA evidence will show that Deeming was the Jack the Ripper. Unsuccessfully defended for his Australian crimes by Alfred Deakin (later to become Australia’s second Prime Minister) the serial killer Deeming was originally a suspect in the Ripper murders but was dismissed. Recently he has been re-implicated. Melbourne already has its fair share of macabre history and the infamy of the resting place of Jack the Ripper may be an interesting addition should the theory turn out to be true.