His book, The Real Mary Kelly, sets out how the Ripper's final victim Mary Jane Kelly - murdered in London's East End on November 9 1888 - was actually the pseudonym of Elizabeth Weston Davies.
The Daily Telegraph today disclosed plans to exhume the body of Mary Jane in the hope that DNA evidence will prove his theory she is Elizabeth. The author says that by uncovering the final victim's true identity he can show that her estranged husband was Jack the Ripper.
His name was Francis Spurzheim Craig.
At the time of the murders Craig was living in Mile End Road, Whitechapel, seven minutes' walk from the scene of the first murder. Aged 51, he worked as a "penny-a-line" reporter covering inquests, courts and crime in the East End, a job that gave him intimate knowledge of police methods.
Dr Weston-Davies hypothesises that Craig carried out the four earlier murders as a "cover" for his true aim: revenge on a wife who had left him and returned to a life of prostitution. "I've already obtained an indication from the Ministry of Justice that they are minded to issue an exhumation licence," said Dr Weston-Davies. "There's some red tape to complete but I believe that exhuming her body will solve the Ripper mystery once and for all.
"I didn't know more than the average person about Jack the Ripper when I started out researching my family history more than 10 years ago.
"My father, who died in 1996, always refused to speak about his family, saying they were a 'bad lot'."
Dr Weston-Davies, 71, said the National Archives papers showed a story "about a woman marrying a man much older than herself, Francis Craig, and how this marriage only lasted a few months, and then turned sour". "It was several years before I made the connection with Jack the Ripper. I ordered Francis Craig's death certificate and then tracked down reports of the inquest into his death.
"It was another bombshell. I realised he had committed suicide by slitting his own throat with a blade, exactly the same way the Ripper's victims had been murdered." Born in 1837, in Acton, west London, Francis Spurzheim Craig was the son of a well-known Victorian social reformer. His father, ET Craig, was a writer and advocate of phrenology - interpreting personality types based on measurements of the skull - a so-called "science" that by the time of the Ripper murders was already falling out of fashion. However, the family moved in influential west London circles, counting William Morris, the socialist and founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, among their friends.
Craig was a journalist, but not a successful one. While editing the Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News, his
career suffered an almost terminal blow when he was caught cribbing reports from The Daily Telegraph, and was exposed as a plagiarist.
It is not known how he met Elizabeth Weston Davies - it may have been at William Morris' social gatherings - but they married on Christmas Eve 1884, in Hammersmith. Just a few months later - on May 19 1885 - she was seen entering a private hotel near their marital home in King's Cross with a "young man ... at 10 o'clock at night".
It was a crushing blow for Craig, who had been unaware of his wife's involvement in prostitution, the book says. She left and went into hiding in the East End. Having tracked her movements, Dr Weston-Davies believes she used the pseudonym Mary Jane Kelly. Francis Craig was a peculiar man by all accounts. The author believes he was suffering from schizotypal personality disorder, or STPD. "A psychiatrist friend of mine has indicated this is the most likely diagnosis," said Dr Weston-Davies, of Cheltenham, Glos. He has now located a forensic undertaker prepared to perform the task of exhuming his great aunt's body.
But because Mary Jane/Elizabeth was buried in a pauper's grave, there are more bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. For example, a notice must be displayed by the grave for three months warning relations that their loved one's grave may also be disturbed.
"I understand there have been previous applications to exhume her body and they were all refused," said Dr Weston-Davies. "I think it is my family connection to her which persuaded the authorities, after months of deliberations. I will proceed with the exhumation depending on the reaction to the book. If someone can show me clear evidence that Mary Kelly was not Elizabeth then of course there will be little point in proceeding."
Dr Weston-Davies highlights other cases when disgruntled men killed innocent strangers to obtain revenge on a specific person. "There is evidence Francis Craig spent a long time looking for her in the East End, even employing private detectives," said the author. "His initial aim - to win her back - turned to hatred."
Mary Jane/Elizabeth was killed at Miller's Court, a Whitechapel slum. After her throat was slit, she suffered heinous disfigurement and - unlike all the other victims - was rendered unrecognisable. "He went to great lengths to ensure that her real identity could not be discovered," said Dr Weston-Davies.
"Elizabeth was only known by her pseudonym. He mutilated her face so her friends and family would never know it was her if the police published photographs of her face.
"He did not want her linked to him."
Dr Weston-Davies, who worked as a general surgeon before moving into medical research, added: "Craig also went to great lengths to remove her heart, going for it through the diaphragm. The heart was never found despite an extensive search by police who arrived at the murder scene the following morning. It's my belief there was a further piece of symbolism in her terrible evisceration.
"She had taken his heart, and now he was stealing hers."
- The Daily Telegraph
