KEY POINTS:
LONDON - An identikit portrait of Jack the Ripper has been compiled from witnesses of the serial murderer as part of a re-investigation into the notorious killings by one of Scotland Yard's most respected former detectives.
A geographical profiler has also pinpointed the London street where the multiple
murderer is most likely to have lived.
Investigators believe the killer, who in 1888 mutilated his five female victims after strangling them, was almost certainly interviewed by police but was discounted because he looked too "ordinary" and unlike the man detectives had suspected was responsible for the savage attacks.
Behavioural profilers have concluded that he was socially skilled, with superficial charm and an ability to blend into the crowd.
Homicide investigators also believe that the Ripper probably killed himself or was jailed for an unrelated offence shortly after he had murdered the last of five prostitutes.
The re-investigation for Channel Five's Jack the Ripper: The First Serial Killer is the latest development in a vast industry dedicated to solving Britain's greatest murder mystery. As part of the new investigation, John Grieve, a former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and ex-head of the anti-terrorist branch, and the force's homicide squad, compiled an image of the Ripper.
Using information from 13 people who claimed to have seen the man they suspect was the killer, Grieve had a computerised identikit, or E-Fit, drawn up. Descriptions that were contradictory were ignored and the image is based on a number of similar witness statements. The man that is believed to resemble the notorious murderer is aged between 25 and 35 and 1.65m to 1.7m tall. He has a large black moustache, close cropped black hair, a pinched face and square jaw.
The murderer, who terrorised residents in the Whitechapel area of east London, was never identified in a police inquiry that was vilified and closed in failure after four years.
But Grieve believes that using modern investigative techniques the police would have caught the killer today.
Based upon the new inquiries he also believes he has an explanation for what happened to the Ripper.
"He could have killed himself - that is what has happened in cases in the past. But I think it is more likely that he came to notice for some other crime and went into the prison system, or possibly into a hospital. There was such a burst of activity you would expect the attacks to flare up later."
The programme consulted Dr Kim Rossmo, of the University of Texas, a pioneer of geographic profiling - a technique that uses previous crimes to calculate where a offender lives. Based on the locations of the killings and sightings, Rossmo concluded that the Ripper was a resident of the square mile area in which he killed. He is most likely to live in Flower and Dean St - a street where police in 1888 had carried out door to door inquiries. In the year before the murder each of the victims had lived within 100m of the street.
Laura Richards, a behavioural analyst who heads Scotland Yard's Homicide Prevention Unit, believes that officers failed to find their man partly because they were looking for the wrong kind of person.
She said: "He's someone who's been overlooked by the very virtue of the fact that he's so ordinary."
Although more than two hundred suspects have been suggested as the Ripper, none of them match the kind of person modern detectives believe committed the crimes.
The programme also attempts to debunk several myths that have grown around the Ripper. There is no evidence that he had any medical training, or that he was an "English gentleman" with a predilection for murder.
DNA testing on a shawl believed to have been owned by Catherine Eddowes, the Ripper's fourth victim, and worn on the night of her murder, failed to reveal any forensic evidence.
Key suspects had violent histories
* One suspect was George Chapman, a hairdresser who fit the Ripper's description. He was accused of poisoning three women, tried to kill his first wife, and was hanged for murder.
* Artist Walter Sickert is said to have confessed to a part in the killings before his death in 1942. Author Patricia Cornwell claimed Sickert's failure to procreate turned him into the Ripper.
* The grandson of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence, was linked in 1962 to the crimes. The claim was that syphilis had caused him to go insane and commit the murders.
* William Bury, an alcoholic who was hanged for the murder of his prostitute wife, lived in Mile End near the Ripper crime scenes. Bury slept with a knife under his pillow and had worked as a butcher. He strangled his wife Ellen and chopped up the body.
* The shoemaker John Pizer was the public's choice for fitting the Ripper's profile. The killer was believed to be a butcher or craftsman who had access to sharp blades and wore a leather apron. Pizer fitted the profile. He had convictions for stabbings and a known dislike for prostitutes.
- INDEPENDENT