Severin Klosowski (George Chapman) (1865 - 1903)

Suggested in: "The Identity of Jack the Ripper" by Donald McCormick

Born as Severin Klosowski in Poland, the son of a carpenter, he was 23 at the time of the murders. He graduated as a surgeon in 1885 from the Hospital of Praga in Warsaw. He moved to London in 1887 and got a job in a hairdresser's. He later set up his own barber's shop. He married a woman named Lucy Baderski in 1889, even though he already had a wife in Poland. This woman arrived in London and strangely lived with Chapman and his new wife for a while before disappearing again.
He argued with Lucy frequently and she later testified that: "On one occasion he held her down on the bed, and pressed his face against her mouth to keep her from screaming. At that moment a customer entered the shop, and Klosowski got up to attend him. The woman found a sharp and formidable knife under the pillow. Later, Klosowski told her that he meant to have cut her head off"

By 1893 the couple had split up for good and Klosowski started using the name "George Chapman". He then got "married" an alcoholic named Mary Spink and they ran a pub together. He beat her up regularly. She also began suffering from severe stomach pains and died in 1897. The nurse commented on Chapman's actions immediately after the death of Mary: "He stood at her bedside, looked down at her body and said 'Polly, Polly speak!" Then he went into the next room and cried. After that he went downstairs and opened the pub."

Chapman then "married" the barmaid Bessie Taylor and again Chapman began to abuse his "wife." Bessie began suffering from the same disease as her predecessor. Her best friend Mrs. Painter would visit regularly and Chapman greeted her on several occasions by saying "Your friend is dead". Bessie died in 1901 from "exhaustion from vomiting and diarrhoea".

Chapman then "married" Maud Marsh, who suffered similar beatings and strange stomach pains. She died in 1902. At this point the authorities became suspicious and ordered an autopsy. Maud was found to have been poisoned. When the other two wives were dug up, they too were found to have been poisoned.

Chapman was charged with the murders of this three wives. The jury took only eleven minutes to come to a decision of guilty. Chapman was hanged at Wandsworth prison on April 7th, 1903.

Chapman murdered several women. He also had a regular job, as did the Ripper (since the murders all occured on weekends). Chapman was single and free of family responsibility, as was the Ripper (to allow for his being out at all hours of the night). Lucy Baderski even goes so far as to say that her previous husband was in the habit of staying out into the early hours of the morning.
Although Chapman was convicted of killing women with poison, not with a knife, Inspector Abberline stated that: "A man who could watch his wives being slowly tortures to death by poison, as he did, was capable of anything; and [he] attempted, in … a cold-blooded manner, to murder his first wife with a knife" John Douglas of the F.B.I. agrees that it is possible for a serial killer to change their modus operandi (method):"Subjects will change their modus operandi as they gain experience. This is learned behaviour".