Thomas Neil Cream

Since the first recorded murder, over 200 people have been accused of being the famous London serial killer, Jack The Ripper. Evidence is fleeting and there hasn't been enough over the years to really find an accurate answer. However, it seems like the case should be closed since back in the 1800s, the public got a confession. Well, half of a confession that is.

"I am Jack The….", were some of the last words spoken by convicted serial killer, Dr. Thomas Neil Cream. Before he was put to death by hanging, it was said that he spoke these questionable words. Given Cream's past, it wouldn't be too unlikely if he really was the famous killer. He began his career studying medicine in Canada and eventually attended medical school in London. His death toll began in America and worked its way through Canada and eventually to England. Cream often used chloroform and strychnine to poison his victims who ranged from lovers, patients, prostitutes and acquaintances. He often slipped the poison into the drinks of unknowing prostitutes on nights out and left the scene before it ever took effect. After setting up a medical practice in the red-light district of Chicago, Cream began to profit from giving illegal abortions to prostitutes and purposely killing many of them.

Thomas Neil Cream did not only poison his victims for the fun of it, but their deaths were often associated with blackmail. Sometimes Cream would frame others for his crimes and ask for monetary rewards for giving up their names to the police. He once even poisoned a wealthy man in hopes that his newly widowed wife would share her inheritance with him. The bold criminal even attempted to blackmail members of the House of Commons for the death of yet another one of his poisoned victims.

Cream's greed eventually got him caught when he tried to blackmail two innocent doctors for the death of a woman who was thought to have died of natural causes. He essentially gave himself up in an anonymous letter stating that she had really been poisoned and the authorities quickly released who the real murderer was. After much suspicious behaviour, police began to put Cream under surveillance and found that he often visited prostitutes. The London police contacted members of the force in the United States and were able to find out that Cream had been convicted for murder by poison a few years in the past. He eventually was convicted in London as well and customarily hung at the gallows.

Right before the hanging, Cream was said to have admitted to being Jack the Ripper but many believe that the statement is just a tale, made up by the executioner to gain his own fame for being the man to put the famous Jack The Ripper to death. In fact, records show that Cream was serving prison time during the dates of the Ripper murders so it would be impossible for the statement to be true. However, there is talk about the prison records being faked and of a look-alike serving the prison time for Cream while he was out roaming the streets of London. Whether you believe the confession was true or false, there really is no way to truly know.