THE REDJAC CHRONICLES: "MEET THE WHODUNIT"

Madame Vastra:

"Send a telegram to Inspector Abberline of the Yard.

Jack the Ripper has claimed his last victim."

Jenny:

"How did you find him?"

Madame Vastra:

"Stringy, but tasty all the same.

I shan't be needing dinner."

'Doctor Who'

At the end of the "Ripper" episode from 'The Outer Limits', Dr. John York was secretly locked away in an asylum by a government convinced that he had been the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. But after York was discovered stabbing the body of Mary Jane Kelly in hopes of killing the alien within her (which we consider to be Redjac), the alien fled that body and inhabited one of the Scotland Yard inspectors working under the supervision of Inspector Frederick Abberline, Inspector Harold Langford.

Redjac/Langford visited York at the asylum and revealed itself to the doctor, telling him that it was going to retire from the Yard and accompany York's fiancee to America. Wiping away the tell-tale green drool from its chin, Redjac/Langford promised York that Lady Ellen would hardly feel a thing.....

Sadly, I believe Langford did butcher Lady Ellen, but it was before either of them ever got the chance to go to America. Redjac would not get to America until 1891.

The computer on board the USS Enterprise said that Jack the Ripper was responsible for the deaths of seventeen women in London until 1891. Ten have been accounted for in this list, with seven to go. Lady Ellen would be on the list as Number Twelve.

So who turned it up to Eleven?

That murder happened even before Mary Jane Kelly, but for some reason does not appear in the ledgers from either the real world or Toobworld. But we did see her corpse in 'The Outer Limits'. She was the mysterious woman in the cream-colored dress who must have been possessed by Redjac after the death of Catherine Eddowes. She went to see Lady Ellen to instill doubts in the young lady about Jack York's innocence and sanity, and then confronted Dr. York in a barn. There she was found by the police, and yet they never included her in the tally of the Ripper's victims... even though Inspector Langford believed her to be one. (Perhaps it was because she appeared - at least to the audience - that she had none of the repugnant wounds usually found on the Ripper's victims.)

Future historians, centuries from now, will eventually determine that the woman in the cream-colored dress was indeed a victim of Redjac.

Here in the real world, there are seven murdered women over that next year and a half in the Whitechapel area who could have been the victims of Jack the Ripper aka Redjac. But two of those women were never identified; today they are only known as "The Whitechapel Mystery" and "The Pinchin Street Murder". Both of them were headless torsos (one found in a Whitechapel police station!) and are now basically considered to be the victims of a different serial killer, known by the unimaginative name of "The Torso Killer".

Hey, Redjac can't be responsible for EVERY murder in Whitechapel!

That leaves five women in the real world who may have been Ripper victims, and their addition to the list brings the total to the seventeen mentioned by the shipboard computer.

In the real world, these are those five unfortunate women:

Annie Farmer (November 20, 1888)

Rose Mylett (December 20, 1888)

Elizabeth Jackson (June, 1889)

Alice MacKenzie (July 17, 1889)

Frances Coles (February 13, 1881)

Once in possession of Inspector Langford, Redjac switched up his technique, going back to the "preferred" method of possessing the murderer rather than the victims.

The alien inhabited Langford long enough to kill not only Lady Ellen, but also Annie Farmer and Rose Mylett. Since the Vorlons hadn't returned to bother it again, Redjac probably felt safe enough to continue using Langford as its vessel. And it would have continued to do so if it hadn't been for that meddling lizard.....

So intent was Redjac on the possibility of another attack from outer space, it never noticed the one from beneath the surface of the Earth. Vastra was a Silurian adventuress living in Victorian London, assisted by her human companion, maid, and lover, Jenny. Somehow, she knew the Time Lord known as the Doctor and may have owed him a great debt.

Madame Vastra tracked down Redjac/Langford and dispatched the killer. And by feasting on the human remains, there was no body left behind to raise questions - especially since Langford had been a Scotland Yard detective-inspector. (You'll notice that Vastra doesn't mention the name of Jack the Ripper for that telegram. It would have caused quite a stir - not only at the Yard but all the way to Whitehall and the Palace.....)

But like the Vorlons, Vastra never noticed the presence of Redjac and so it escaped once again to find a new host.

This time it took up residence in someone who actively searched for it, not to capture or kill it, but simply to observe.

Ian Pascoe was a time traveler who had come back to 1888 to continue for himself the crimes committed by the Ripper, only to find himself as the next host for Redjac. The alien was so surprised by the temporal vortex opened by Pascoe's arrival, Redjac fled its previous host and took over Pascoe's body instead. Only the arrival of a 'TimeCop' named Jack Logan prevented Pascoe from committing any more murders after the deaths of Elizabeth Jackson and Alice MacKenzie.

(Should some future TV series bring yet another Jack the Ripper portrayal to the fray, we will have to re-adjust these theories to fit them all in. With each new arrival of a Ripper - at least in that era - we would have to subtract from the tally for each of the previous fictional Rippers who had more than one kill ascribed to them. Langford's three [until he only had Lady Ellen left, of course], Ian Pascoe's two, and saving Sebastian's five for last.)

With the last murder by Jack The Ripper in London, albeit unofficial, the host of Redjac will never be known by his real name.  (Does anybody know if actor Nicholas Day ever played a doctor in a Victorian period piece.....?)

James Sadler was a drunken lout who had been living with the victim, Frances Coles. On the night of her savage murder, he had been in a high state of dudgeon - having been the victim of a robbery, and being incredibly intoxicated, Sadler threatened violence to any and all, especially to the one who robbed him and to his woman.

Frances Coles was last seen walking off with a man wearing a cheesecutter hat, but Redjac must have met up with her afterwards, because it had now possessed a man in fancy evening wear with top hat. And when he encountered Gary Sparrow, he was carrying a doctor's black medical bag.......

When a constable found her, still alive despite the ferocious stab wounds and having her throat slit, he heard the sound of footsteps clattering away on the cobblestones. But as Coles was still alive - barely - he couldn't just leave her to give chase.

When he was found, Sadler had blood spatter on him, but that was mostly his own from a few beatings he took over the course of the night. He looked good for the murder of Frances Coles because of strong circumstantial evidence, but his labor union got him some good legal representation and he was finally let go, to the cheers of the crowd.

Redjac, who now needed a new scapegoat since Dr. York was imprisoned, was hoping that Sadler would take the blame. But with Sadler's freedom, Redjac saw that opportunity dashed and so it decided that it was time to flee.

By chance, Redjac encountered another time traveler like Pascoe, this time named Gary Sparrow. Seeing the future of 1999 as a chance to open up a whole new world of slaughter, it followed Gary through the portal "back to the future". There it escaped into the night to continue as a new version of the Ripper - only to be run down by a 32 bus and killed.

'Goodnight, Sweetheart' for him, indeed!

However, only Redjac's human host was killed. Unseen by the humans in the vicinity, Redjac fled back through the portal to Victorian London. Since it was practically immortal, the alien could bide its time and let 1999 arrive at its own pace, giving Redjac plenty of time to adjust to the wonders awaiting at the next century's end.

Meanwhile, Redjac knew it was time to finally move on. As it had told Dr. John York while it possessed Inspector Langford, America was indeed "the land of opportunity"......

We'll be looking at Dr. Sir William Gull, the Queen's Royal Physician next time here at Inner Toob, same Jack time, same Jack channel. Dr. Gull was a leading suspect for being the Ripper. In fact, this was the premise of "From Hell", "Murder By Decree" (albeit under a roman a clef), and the TV movie "Jack The Ripper".

He also served Redjac, but in a different capacity.......

BCnU!