Will secret documents identify Jack the Ripper?

The Toronto Star:

An investigator fighting a last-ditch battle for the release of 123-year-old files about police informants believes the secret documents could finally solve the mystery of savage serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Trevor Marriott, who has published his own theories about the Victorian-era prostitute murders, has spent three years and thousands of dollars trying to win the release of four dusty ledgers held by London’s Metropolitan Police Service.

If a tribunal that heard his case last week decides against him, Marriott told the Star on Monday, he knows those historic ledgers will be destroyed and the mystery never solved.

“Some of the material is going to impact the Ripper investigation,” Marriott, a former police detective, said. “It will allow me to fully document the whole Ripper mystery.”

The tribunal should deliver its decision in about three or four weeks, Marriott said. He had previously been refused access under the Freedom of Information Act and by the Information Commissioner.

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