As far an unsolved crimes go, the mystery of Jack the Ripper is one of the most famous. But, one woman is convinced she's found the killer.
Jack the Ripper was a serial killer who murdered at least five women working as prostitutes in the East End of of London in 1888. He was never identified or arrested.
Now, in a viral TikTok video, Kiki Schirr (@schirrgenius) has shared her theory about who the infamous killer was and it's all based on a famous painting.
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The lengthy clip, which has been viewed more than 13 million times, starts with Schirr saying: "We all know that Jack the Ripper killed women, specifically ones that he probably mistook for women of the night."
She then goes on to explain why she believes French painter Edgar Degas was the man behind the crimes.
Schirr claimed that at the time of the murders, Degas had begun to 'really hate women'.
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She explained: "He’d always been a bit of a misogynist, but he was degrading into a horrible, awful, misanthrope of a person that people did not want to be around."
She then added that Degas was 'wealthy, well connected, and he lived in Paris, which was just a short train ride away from London where the murders occurred'.
The artist was apparently known to frequently travel between the two cities and could easily make the trip to commit the killings.
Interestingly, at the height of Jack the Ripper’s murders, Degas is documented taking a trip to the South of France.
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You might think that this would clear his name, but Schirr claimed he wrote more letters to his famous connections during this trip than he did in the five years before or after. She believes he did this to create an alibi for himself.
Schirr also believes that the way the murders were committed backs up her theory.
"He removed several organs and knew where they were and where to cut in the neck in order to cause death because he had a good grasp on anatomy," she said.
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"Well, Degas was a classically trained artist. He had attended human dissections, probably multiple times."
And, Schirr said Degas’ 'obsession with painting ballerinas and women who were not watching,' aren't surprising.
The ballerinas 'were very commonly prostitutes', Schirr claimed.
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She said they were painted in such a way that there were 'dark shadows in the background', representing 'the men trying to arrange a tryst with them later that night'.
"Look at how many of his paintings are all about that woman’s body and have no face," she added. "Look at all of his pastels where the darkest line on the woman is the line cut across her neck.
"Did this artist get away with murder?"
Featured Image Credit: Tiktok/@schirrgenius /Getty Stock ImageTopics: Crime, TikTok, True Crime, Conspiracy Theory