With a case such as The Whitechapel Murders and due to the passage of time and the lack of direct evidence to positively identify the killer it should never be labelled case closed. New information and new leads seem to surface just when it is thought all lines of enquiry are at an end.

For many years researchers and the public at large have wondered if there were any police files which had been hidden away and may contain new evidence on the case. In 2008 I discovered the existence of some Metroplitan Police Special Branch records which had never before been made public.

From enquiries made It was found that they contained the names of four new Ripper suspects never before mentioned. It also became clear that Special Branch in 1888 had more than a passing interest in the Whitechapel Murders, and other police documents showed that the police had a suspicion that the Irish terrorist group The Fenians may have also been behind some or in fact all of the murders.

Over a three year period I fought a lengthy and costly legal battle to have them made public but sadly all attempts failed. Despite losing the legal battle to obtain full access to these records the police did finally release the names of the four new named ripper suspects from these documents. One of which turned out to be very interesting and influential name of the day. The police did agree to release all of the records but redacted all proper names from them which made them totally unuseable. Figure 2 shows a page from the register acquired which is un redacted Figure 1 shows the same page with redaction.

It has now been ascertained that the Metropolitan Police have now destroyed both sets of records !!!!!!

Figure 1 Register Extract Redacted	Figure 2 – Register Extract un redcated
Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge