BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
AI reveals face of Ripper’s Irish victim
(right) Ripper
THIS is what Jack the Ripper’s Irish victim looked like — according to AI.
Jeff Leahy (62) has been fascinated by the infamous serial killer for decades. He produced a mini-series in 2011 and is using AI and historical documents to create visual clues about the crimes.
Jeff used AI to create a face for Limerick woman Mary Jane Kelly — believed to be 25 when she was murdered by the Ripper, becoming his fifth and final victim.
He used Midjourney software to create the images — combining crime scene photos and descriptions and information from newspapers at the time.
Mary’s body was badly mutilated and no full photos of her exist.
Jeff, from Wales, said: “This is the best image of her we’ll get I believe. I was really stunned by how beautiful she was.
“My interest is to bring some humanity back to the victims. They were just women who needed to get money together — either they worked hard scrubbing floors or they went out on the streets.
“It feels really important to me to give them a real face, so they aren’t just remembered as crime scenes.”
Mary — who was born in Co Limerick to a wealthy family — was living in Whitechapel, London when she was murdered at her home on November 9, 1888.
She was seen entering her home with a stranger and was found dead and mutilated the next day.
Jeff said: “The person who came to collect her rent found her — the scene he saw was probably the worst murder scene in history.
“Jack the Ripper had more time because she was in a locked room with him whereas the other victims were on the street. It was horrible.”
Mary married at 16 but her husband died in a mining accident, it is believed. She apparently worked as a prostitute in Paris, but by 1888 was destitute in London’s East End.
Jeff said: “Mary Jane Kelly is hard to do, she’s a bit of a Jack the Ripper mystery because we know so little about her, and she was so much younger than the other victims.”
Sketches
Jeff used six sketches created over the years by people trying to reconstruct Mary’s face.
He used AI to blend them into one picture, then used details from newspapers to refine the image.
He said: “Most say she had blonde hair and some say red — she’s from Irish descent so it could have been strawberry blonde.
“She was said to have had a fair complexion, which might explain the freckles.”