Jack the Ripper

"Jack the Ripper"
Biological Information
Species	Human
Status	Deceased
Universe Information
Home universe	Earth-1
Current universe	Earth-Prime
General Information
Occupation	Serial killer Doctor (presumably)
Alter ego	Jack the Ripper
Actor	Timothy Lyle

"No one remembers my face."

—Jack the Ripper^[src]

"Jack the Ripper" (fl. 1895), also known as Dr. "White", was a notorious serial killer who operated in Victorian London that was never caught by the police. He was resurrected as an Encore by Lachesis but then permanently slain by John Constantine and Zari Tarazi.

Biography

1800s

In Victorian London, Vandal Savage received tutorage from Jack on how to surgically dissect a human body.

According to Nate Heywood, Jack went on a killing spree in the Whitechapel district of London in around 1895. Although there were some suspects, the identity of Jack the Ripper remained unsolved.

Sometime later, Jack died and went to Hell.

Resurrection

Jack was one of a number of Encores resurrected by Astra, using soul tokens stolen from Neron's vault. Eventually, Lachesis stole Astra's soul collection and sent Jack through time the promise of letting him live again if he could find the final missing fragment of the Loom of Fate. He was dispatched to John Constantine's house in 1910 soon after Constantine and Zari Tarazi arrived there in that era, having successfully summoned the Loom fragment but not knowing where in the house it landed.

Introducing himself as "Dr. White", Jack at first acted pleasantly towards John and Zari as he booked a room. Soon after, Zari came to the "Doctor" asking him to check if she had an illness, to which he agreed. He then began acting strangely as he pulled out a Hell knife, causing Zari to run away.

Back in his room, Jack found Zari terrified, looking for Constantine. He prepared to attack her when Constantine emerged from behind and snapped his neck. Jack then revealed his true nature as he quickly recovered and rose again, but Constantine was quick to knock him down and tie him up. They locked him in a closet and Constantine used a spell to steal his identity, having encountered several other Encores arriving at the house in search of the Loom fragment.

Jack remained restrained until he was found by fellow Encores Bonnie and Clyde Barrow. After explaining things to each other the trio set out after John and Zari, but only found John. They tied him up to interrogate him, with Jack promising he could remove some organs to make John suffer for hours yet not die. Zari arrived in the nick of time and attacked the Encores with a burst of wind, allowing John to free himself. In the ensuing chaotic battle, Jack accidentally stabbed and eradicated Clyde with his Hell knife, and was shot and destroyed himself upon being shot with Black Caesar’s Hell rifle, wielded by John Constantine.

Legacy

A prevailing theory about Jack the Ripper pointed at a suspect named Aaron Kosminski.

In 2013 after Clifford DeVoe gained meta-human power of accelerated thinking, his wife, Marlize DeVoe, asked him who Jack the Ripper was. After pointing at Kosminski, DeVoe shared his own masterfully-crafted (but ultimately incorrect) theory that the Ripper was Catharine Jewell, Kosminski's nurse at Colney Hatch Asylum.

In 2018 when Nora West-Allen debriefed Team Flash on Cicada's modus operandi, Cisco Ramon described him as a "meta-human Jack the Ripper".

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Encore physiology: Jack the ripper was resurrected as a encore, this granted him superhuman abilities such as immortality and other supernatural abilities
  • Immortality: As Encores, they cannot die as long as a chit of their soul is bound to Hell. Their immortality knows no bounds, as they can remain conscious even after each of their body parts are separated. Also, as demonstrated by Genghis Khan, they don't age.
    • Regenerative healing factor: With their immortality, Encores can also quickly regenerate any of their body parts, as long as they are within direct contact of it.
    • Retroactive immortality: As demonstrated by Jack the Ripper after he had his neck broken by John Constantine, Encores have the ability to come back to life after being killed (courtesy of their immortality).
  • Eye transformation: Jack the Ripper was able to make his eyes glow green with Hellfire when he came back to life.

Abilities

• Medical knowledge: Jack the Ripper was a very skilled surgeon, having performed advanced procedures on his victims. In fact, he was capable of altering his own face to the point that he resembled a completely different person and his old face was forgotten.

Equipment

• Hell knife: Jack the Ripper wielded a scalpel-like knife infused with hellfire after being resurrected by Astra, and subsequently sent to 1910 by Lachesis.

Appearances

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Season 1

• "Blood Ties" (mentioned)

Season 3

• "Return of the Mack" (mentioned)

Season 5

• "The Great British Fake Off"

The Flash

Season 4

• "Therefore I Am" (mentioned)

Season 5

• "The Death of Vibe" (mentioned)

Behind the scenes

• In real life, Jack the Ripper was an infamous serial killer known for a loosely connected string of murders committed in Whitechapel, a district in London in the late 1800s. While never convicted or caught, one of the fewer known non-speculative facts about the perpetrator is that he indeed had some medical background due to the victims being surgically dissected.
• There are numerous versions of Jack the Ripper character in DC Comics, with the main one being possessed by the demon Calibraxis.
  • In some cases, Vandal Savage himself is heavily hinted to be the one behind at least some of the Whitechapel murders, the most known example being in DCU Villains Secret Files and Origins #1.
  • In the TV series Smallville, Curtis Knox, a character based on Vandal Savage, was Jack the Ripper.
    • The Arrowverse version of Vandal Savage used "Curtis Knox" as an alias, further cementing the connection.