Jack the Ripper was actually a woman!

A sensational new book has caused a storm among historians by claiming that Jack the Ripper, Britain's most notorious serial killer, was in fact a woman. Former solicitor John Morris, 62, has named Welsh-born Lizzie Williams as the Whitechapel monster and claims she killed her victims because she could not have children, ripping out the wombs of three in an "unhinged state". Lizzie was the wife of royal physician Sir John Williams, himself seen as a prime suspect by many other crime experts. Morris, from Birmingham, also cites evidence - which has not proved popular among Ripper experts - including the fact that none of the five murdered prostitutes was sexually assaulted; and the personal items of one, Annie Chapman, were laid out at her feet "in a feminine manner". Morris's new book, 'Jack The Ripper: The Hand Of A Woman', was written along with his late father Byron. The men sifted through thousands of medical and legal documents to draw up a compelling case for branding Lizzie the killer. But John, speaking from his current home in Wicklow, Ireland, said their theory has not gone down well with Ripperologists. "The case for a woman murderer is overwhelming. But unfortunately it does not sit well in some quarters where such a theory flies in the face of long-held beliefs," the Daily Mail quoted him as telling the Birmingham Mail. "There's absolutely no doubt that the Ripper was a woman. But because everyone believes that the murderer was a man, all the evidence that points to a woman has always been ignored," he said. The Ripper struck five times during a blood-soaked ten weeks in 1888. The victims - Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly - were all East End prostitutes. Three had their wombs removed, which John believes is significant. He says Welshwoman Lizzie, born on February 7, 1850, was unable to have children and, in an unhinged state, took terrible revenge on those who could. "The conclusion that the desire was to possess the missing (body) part seems overwhelming," Coroner Wynne Baxter said at Annie Chapman's inquest. John also points to the facts that none of the women was sexually assaulted, personal items were laid out at the feet of Chapman in, according to newspaper reports, "a typically feminine manner", and three small buttons from a woman's boot were found in blood near Catherine Eddowes. John believes there's a reason Mary Kelly was targeted - and why the killing spree ended with her death. Lizzie's husband, Sir John, who ran abortion clinics in Whitechapel, was having an affair with her. "There are numerous clues scattered throughout the crimes which, taken individually, may mean little, but when grouped together a strong case for a woman murderer begins to emerge," the author said. Lizzie - nee Mary Elizabeth Ann Hughes - was the daughter of a Welsh industrialist Richard Hughes. The couple were married in 1872, when he was 32 and she was 22. Soon after the grisly deaths, Lizzie suffered a nervous breakdown. She died of cancer in 1912, having never been quizzed by police over the murders. Last November, a knife was unearthed which could be one of the most infamous murder weapons in British criminal history. The razor sharp six-inch blade belonged to Welsh surgeon Sir John Williams, a chief suspect in the notorious Jack the Ripper murders. Sir John - known to his family at the time of the killings as "Uncle Jack" - was the surgeon to Queen Victoria who lived in London at the time of the slayings. He fled the capital after the murders and later founded the National Library for Wales in Aberystwyth. One of his distant relatives found the old black-handled surgeon's knife, which he used for operations, and is sure it is the murder weapon. Tony Williams, 49, Sir John's great-great-great-great nephew, discovered the blade among a stash of possessions left by the Welshman, including three glass slides which contains smears of a uterus. "Why would he leave this behind? I am convinced that this is the knife used by Sir John Williams to murder those women," Tony said. "It is widely known that the person who carried out the killings would have had significant medical knowledge. "Sir John Williams was an accomplished surgeon and routinely performed abortions on women. "He held surgeries all over London at the time of the murders. "Dr Thomas Bond, a pathologist who examined the body of Mary Kelly, said the ripper had used the same six-inch knife in all the murders. "He said it would have been at least six inches long, very sharp, pointed at the top and about an inch in width - a surgeon's knife. "This is the knife that fits the description that I've held in my hand back in the National Library of Wales," he added.