Ep. 52 - Jack the Ripper and the Psychic

Sometimes traditional methods of murder investigation fail and law enforcement seeks unconventional ways to solve a crime. One of those unorthodox ways is asking psychics for guidance. And there have been crimes that have been solved with the help of psychics. The Jack the Ripper case was never solved, but a psychic was brought in to try to help. Most people have probably never heard this piece of the mysterious case. But this psychic just may have solved the crime.

Nancy Grace hosted a show in 2005 featuring psychic detectives. There were two cases highlighted. The first was about a former paratrooper named Dennis Prado that had gone missing. Police couldn't find him and a Sergeant Fernando Realyvasquez decided to use a psychic detective named Annette Martin to find Prado after the police were unable to find him. Martin gave the Sergeant specific details about the case no one could know, so he handed her a map of a park where they thought he went missing. This park was 2,000 acres and Martin circled an area less than two blocks in size where Pardo's body could be found. And she was right. Nancy Grace said, "So, Annette Martin, psychic detective, you not only pinpointed in a 2,000-square-mile area the location of Mr. Prado, but you accurately -- it seems as if you relived his cause of death." Martin replied, "That`s very true, Nancy. I did relive it. And like I had said earlier, it`s like being in a movie. And so the whole process was really very sad for me to see that he had died of natural causes. But I was happy that something -- no one had murdered him. And I was very happy about that."

The second case was about Rose Swartwood who was murdered in her apartment in upstate New York in 1988. Rose was 74-years-old and she had been beaten, raped and stabbed to death. The police brought in psychic detective Phil Jordan when they reached an impasse.

JORDAN: When I talked with Detective Mucci, what I do -- I don`t like to know anything about the case ahead of time, other than the fact that I may be working a homicide, an arson case, a missing person case, or whatever. And then I try to relate to the detective what I call a psychic crime reconstruction. I try to relate what I think happened with the individual at the scene of the crime.

GRACE: When you got there, what did he have you do?

JORDAN: I didn`t go to the scene of the crime, actually. He...

GRACE: No, I mean when you got to Detective Mucci.

JORDAN: Well, he gave me pictures of Rose Swartwood. And I just said what I felt was significant in the course of the case with her death, that it was a brutal slaying and that there was -- I could see her twirling a ring on her finger, like a cocktail ring. And they had no indication that she wore that at that time, as I recall. But I could see her constantly twirling the ring with her thumb. And I could see the individuals that I felt were connected to the crime.

GRACE: And, Detective, what did he tell you about the perps?

MUCCI: Nancy, actually, most amazing to me, we had taken down, without his knowledge, a stack of photographs, mug shots, that we presented to Phil, and asked him if there was any significance with any of the people in the pile of photographs. Obviously, then, knowing who the defendants or who the suspects were, he actually pulled the two suspects out of that pile of photographs.  

GRACE: Mr. Jordan, how many photos did Detective Mucci hand you?

JORDAN: The original photos, I believe he handed me the two photos of Rose Swartwood. And then later on, he handed me a group of -- I don`t -- many mug shots that were involved with the perpetrators of the crime.

GRACE: A thick stack of photos?

JORDAN: Yes, a thick stack, probably 30 or 40, I would say.

GRACE: And out of almost 40 photos, you look through them all and pick out two people?

JORDAN: I looked through them and put two to the side and said, "These are the persons I think you`re looking for."

GRACE: What did you get? Did you get a burning sensation in your fingers? I mean, how did you know who to pick?

JORDAN: For me, it`s very much -- it becomes knowledge to me. Whenever I work a case, I try to stay within my own mind, within my own unconscious mind, and it becomes knowledge for me. It`s like, "These are the two individuals you`re looking for."

GRACE: And to former Detective Mike Mucci, they were the right guys?

MUCCI: They were the right guys.

GRACE: Please tell me what sentence they got.

MUCCI: William Cuddy (ph), 25 to life, Demetrius Moore (ph), 22 to life.

GRACE: I hope they`re enjoying their stay in the penitentiary.

Now let's flask back to 1888 London. Let's do a quick overview of the case. Jack the Ripper was the nickname given to what is believed to have been one unidentified man - although some historians believe a group may have been involved - who murdered at least five sex workers in the impoverished
Whitechapel district of London in 1888. Those victims were Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. The killer slashed the victim's throat and their body was subjected to extensive post-mortem mutilation. The crimes were brutal and the bodies were left in public areas, except for Mary Jane Kelly, who was found in her room. The killer was never caught and the case remains one of history's most famous unsolved mysteries. There were numerous suspects identified over the years, including a Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski, a barrister named Montague John Druitt, and a Russian criminal named Michael Ostrog. People continue to speculate to this day.