Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name:  Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Richard Ramirez, the Prince of Darkness

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, we discuss Season 5, Episode 23, titled “Our darkest hour,” and Season 6, Episode 1, titled “The Longest Night,” and how they mirror the life of Richard Ramirez.

This episode ends on a cliffhanger and continues into the next season. The BAU is called to Los Angeles to investigate a string of home invasions escalating into homicides. The city is in the middle of a heatwave and rolling blackouts. The killer uses darkness to get his advantage, and security systems go down, making it easy for him to get inside homes. It starts with him murdering a couple during a blackout, leaving their son alive to witness it. That's part of his MO, meaning method of operating. The BAU works with LAPD Detectives Matt Spicer and Adam Kurzbard and realizes that the killings are a part of a decades-long killing spree. The UnSub always strikes during blackouts and leaves a child witness behind. Garcia digs through crime data and finds similar murders years ago across multiple states, proving he was active long ago, stopped, and now returned. They focus on the first recorded blackout murders 25 years earlier. To stop him, local authorities cancel the remaining rolling blackouts, but it backfires, overriding the grid and causing a massive citywide outage. While digging into old cases, Garcia discovers that the UnSubs' first La victims were Joe and Sylvia Spicer, the parents of Detective Matt Spicer. Matt was the child left behind during that invasion. He has a sister, Kristin, and a daughter, Ellie. The BAU realizes the UnSub is tainting Spicer; he sees himself as the “creator” who made Spicer who he is. Now he's targeting Spicer's daughter and sister. When he learns this, Spicer returns to his childhood home with Agent Morgan, but things go horribly wrong. They find Kristin and Ellie tied up and the homeowners dead. The UnSub ambushes Morgon, knocks him out, and when he wakes up, he's tied with duct tape, forced to watch, just like the kids the UnSub leaves behind. Spicer enters and sees the UnSub pointing a gun at Ellie. Morgan pleads for him not to drop his weapon, but Spicer surrenders to protect his daughter. On his knees, he begs for their lives. The UnSub says, “Your sister grew up very pretty.” Spicer asks Morgan to promise Ellie will be okay. Morgan promises. The UnSub confirms it, then shoots Spicer point-blank. Kristin screams as the UnSub drags Ellie away, saying, “I don't usually take kids. This one's just special.” The episode ends with Morgan tied up, Spicer dead, Ellie abducted, and the rest of the BAU cut off by the blackout. The next episode, “The Longest Night,” picks up immediately. The BAE is still chasing the UnSub, who escaped from Spicer's childhood home with his daughter, Ellie. When the team arrives at the house, Morgan refuses medical help and focuses on finding the UNSUB. During her interview with the team, Kristin tells Prentiss the UnSub’s name, Billy Flynn, and that he drives an old, filthy RV. Garcia digs into his past and learns he's been killing for over 25 years. His mother, Nora Flynn, was a sex worker. As a kid, Billy hid in her closet and watched her with clients. When he was 13 years old, he murdered one of the men that his mother was working with. He was sent to juvenile detention and released at 18. His crimes ever since have mirrored his childhood trauma- leaving children alive to relive what he once saw. Flynn forces Ellie to help him with break-ins. When she tries to get help from a homeowner, warning him that she is being kidnapped, Flynn realizes she is trying to tip them off, and he kills the man for not letting her in. Ellie proves smart and brave; she tips off homeowners who then turn into victims, alerts one of the neighbors, and even uses a phone in one of the houses they break into to contact the police. Which they do arrive at the house she called from, but Flynn keeps slipping away, switching vehicles, staying one step ahead. Knowing he listens to the radio updates about his own case, the BAU uses the Emergency Broadcast System to speak directly to him. JJ goes on air, addressing Flynn by name, using Ellie's name to humanize her, and talking about his “mommy issues.” It works; he feels exposed and emotional, knowing that everyone listening can hear about his own personal life and issues. He brings Ellie to a church and leaves her there unharmed. She runs immediately after getting dropped off at a nearby house, pleading for help. After the homeowners alert the police, the team rescues Ellie. The team asks Ellie if she can remember anything about the car she drove in, and she does, helping them track it back to a house he has found. But Flynn takes another couple hostage inside their own home and demands to speak only with Morgan. Inside, Morgan finds him staring at family photos, haunted by guilt and trauma. Flynn confesses to killing his mother, thinking he was saving her, but he's still broken by it. Then he makes a move toward the hostages, forcing Morgan to shoot him. Flynn dies, and the hostages are freed. As the BAU regroups, Prentiss gets a call from the hospital: Kristin's lungs collapsed from her injuries. She didn't make it. When Morgan steps outside, Ellie runs to him and hugs him tight. He kisses her head and tells her the heartbreaking news. His bond with Ellie- built on his promise to Spicer and her strength through trauma- stays with us. It's a reminder that while the BAU can't save everyone, their fight is always for the innocent. 

Richard Ramirez, famously known as the “Night Stalker,” was a serial killer and rapist who terrorized California during a 14-month crime spree from 1984 to 1985. His crimes were characterized by their brutality, sadism, and fascination with Satanism. Born in El Paso, Texas, on February 19th, 1960, Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez grew up in a violent household with an alcoholic father. He was the youngest of 5 children of Mexican immigrants. His home life was very unstable, and he reportedly experienced beatings and abuse. Sometimes, Richard would sleep in a cemetery to escape the violence. At the age of 2, he suffered a head injury from a dresser falling on his head that knocked him unconscious. At the age of 5, he suffered another head injury when he got hit in the head by a swing and again lost consciousness. Years following, he starts experiencing seizures, which are later diagnosed as temporal lobe epilepsy. When he was 12, he was deeply influenced by an older cousin, Miguel, who had served in Vietnam in 1971. At age 13, he witnessed his cousin shoot and kill his wife during an argument. He later described that the crime scene and the sight of murder excited him. These early exposures to violence are often cited in profiling Ramirez’s later behavior. In the mid-1970’s he dropped out of school shortly after his 9th-grade year. In 1978, he moved to Los Angeles and became a habitual drug user, using marijuana and cocaine. Although his first crime is not officially linked to him until 2009, he commits his first known murder around April of 1984, raping and stabbing 9-year-old Mei Laung in San Francisco. This was his youngest victim. Between 1984 and 1985, Ramirez terrorized Southern California and later into the Bay Area. He broke into homes late at night, often entering through unlocked doors or windows. His attacks were completely random, targeting men, women, children, and the elderly. There was no clear pattern to age, race, or background. He used a wide array of weapons, including handguns, knives, hammers, and a machete. He also used strangulation, stomped victims to death, and, in one instance, tortured a victim with an electrical cord. His first known murder happened in 1984, when he broke into a 79-year-old woman's house and attacked her. Over the following months, his spree escalated. At first, investigators had no clue they were dealing with a serial killer. But soon, strange similarities started popping up, like people being attacked in their own homes at night, signs of forced entry, and sometimes, pentagrams drawn on walls. In March of 1985, he attacked a married couple, Vincent and Maxine Zazzara. Maxine's body was mutilated, and he left a pentagram on the wall. The craziest thing about their case was that their bodies were found by their son, Peter, who was alive. Throughout the year, he had killed 2 other families and left their children unharmed, but made them watch. Investigators later realized that this behavior fit his chaotic, impulsive pattern, unlike most serial killers. They believed that leaving some children behind wasn't out of mercy, but it was a part of his twisted desire for control and fear. He wanted them to remember him, just like how he wanted to be remembered, though the panic he caused across California. Police from different counties were comparing evidence and realized they were all chasing after the same person. During these killings, he left behind shoe prints, fingerprints, and eventually, they even got a description of him. One survivor has seen his face. Her name was Inez Erichson. She was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in August 1985. She survived and was able to give a detailed description of him to the police. Detectives also found a unique Avia sneaker print at several crime scenes, one of the key pieces that tied everything together. But Ramirez was always on the move; one night, he struck in Los Angeles, and the next, he was hundreds of miles away in San Francisco. There was no pattern to predict, no clear target, just pure chaos. He became the face of evil, a killer who claimed to follow Satan, sometimes leaving symbols or shouting phrases connected to his beliefs during attacks. Police were desperate to find him, and the pressure was on. Finally, investigators got their big break. After finding a stolen car connected to one of the crimes, they lifted fingerprints from inside. The prints matched a man already in their system: Richard Ramirez. The next day, everything unraveled for him. Ramirez didn't even realize his photo was all over the news when he took a bus through East Los Angeles, but people recognized him. A group of citizens chased him down, beat him, and held him until the police arrived. At his trial in 1989, he was charged with 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. The evidence was overwhelming- fingerprints, stolen items, and ballistic matches. In the courtroom, he stayed defiant, flashing pentagrams on his hand and yelling, “Hail Satan.” He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He never faced execution because he died in 2013 at the age of 53 from cancer while still on death row. The story of Richard Ramirez isn't just about the crimes; it's how terror can grip an entire city, how fear spreads faster than facts, and how ordinary people can be the ones to bring a monster down.

The Criminal Minds episodes “The Prince of Darkness" and “The Longest Night” are inspired by the real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez, also known as the Night Stalker. In the show, the BAU hunts a killer named Billy Flynn in Los Angeles during a blackout. Richard Ramirez committed all of his crimes in Los Angeles, and he did all of them during the night so he wouldn't be seen. They both break into homes at night, kill anyone in the house, and sometimes leave behind a child witness. Ramirez's crimes were far more brutal and chaotic. He terrorized California, breaking into homes, killing and assaulting people of all ages, and leaving behind satanic symbols. Unlike Flynn, he did not choose victims based on emotion or personal history; he attacked completely at random. The show gives its killer a tragic backstory and ends with the BAU taking him down, while Ramirez's story ends very differently. He was identified through fingerprints, recognized by people on the street, and caught by citizens, not the police, at first. In the end, Flynn's story was written to feel psychological and redemptive, but Ramirez's story was pure evil, proving that what happens in fiction is terrifying, but what happens in real life can be even worse. 

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Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name:  Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Episode 2: Dinner is Served 

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, we discuss: Criminal Minds Season 3 Episode 8, Lucky, and how it is based on the true crime killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

In this dark and disturbing episode, the BAU travels to Bridgewater, Florida, after being called in after the torso of a college student, Abby Kelton, is found in the Everglades, a swamp in Florida. The lower half of her body had been eaten by alligators, and there seems to be an inverted pentagram carved into her chest, along with her throat being slit. The BAU turns the body over to the coroner, and the autopsy reveals Abby was force-fed ten severed fingers. The forensics team determines the fingers belonged to 10 different women, none of whom were Abby, hinting at a signature or message from the unsub. This evidence leads the team to think the killer has been active for years. Since each finger belonged to a different woman, the forensics team was able to obtain fingerprints. Garcia, who is their technical analyst, used those fingerprints to identify the women as 10 missing sex workers from the area. This led the BAU to confirm that Ferrel had been killing for some time without being noticed. The number of fingers proved that the unsubs' crimes were not a recent occurrence. The team profiles the killer as a white male in his 30s, socially isolated, and likely previously institutionalized for mental health issues, and is no longer taking medications because of the brutality of his crimes. They called him an “adaptive satanist”, someone who twists religious passion to justify his twisted fantasies, and who's now deliberately trying to get noticed after years of flying under the radar. The unsub's actions suggested an obsession with false Satanic rituals, which are not based on real beliefs but delusions. Rossi, one of the seniors on the team, had expertise on Satanic cults, which was crucial to the case; he believes true ritualistic killings are rare and that the symbolism is often a cover for other violent urges. Agent Prentiss and Rossi go to examine a crime scene where another victim, Tracey Lambert, was abducted. Inside the public restroom stall, they discovered a small stack of books nearly piled on top of the toilet, which is super weird and has very odd placement and is completely out of place for a public bathroom, which immediately drew Rossi’s attention. He explains to Prentiss that this meticulous act of how he ordered the book is something that severely mentally ill individuals often do, because they have chaos in every aspect of their lives, and they are trained to create a sense of order, such as keeping their belongings clean and neat. Prentiss then calls Garcia to have her research local institutions, which directs the team's focus to a psychiatric facility in Bridgewater. Hotch and Reid, the other agents on the team, ask Garcia to cross-reference records of local institutions, looking for patients who had been committed for violent acts, especially with a history of arson. Why? Because the records they needed were believed to have been destroyed in a fire in Hazelwood Hospital for the Criminally Insane, which suffered a fire years earlier that destroyed most of its files. Hotch and Reid visited the burned-out hospital and found out that one staff member, Dr. Lorenz, they needed to talk to, had died in the fire while trying to save a patient's file. Luckily for the team, Dr. Lorenz’s salvaged notes and journal provided the information the team needed. Reid was able to read the doctor’s journal, which documented the institutionalization of a 7-year-old boy named Floyd Feylinn Ferell. The journal said he had been institutionalized for attacking his 9-month-old sister and eating a piece of her flesh. He believed he was possessed by a “flesh-eating demon.” Despite his dangerous history, he was released at the age of 18 against medical advice because that was one of the hospital rules, to release their patients at the age of 18 if they thought they were not a threat to the world anymore. After finding out the potential unsub's name, they found an address, so as they always do, the team, accompanied by local law enforcement, burst into Ferell’s home, where they made a disturbing discovery. When they entered, they found a relatively normal-looking but dirty house. But here's the weird thing, eerie music guided them towards the basement, where they found a gruesome scene. Ferell was found naked in the basement, sitting before a satanic altar with blood everywhere. The team arrested him, and he was weirdly calm, initially refusing to talk when the team asked him where Tracy Lambert was. Along with Ferell, in the basement, there was a large freezer that contained 4 frozen bodies of Ferell’s previous victims, revealing the extent of his cannibalistic history. The team also found a captive woman, unfortunately not Tracy but a woman named Sheryl Timmons, which luckily is still alive, but in a terrified state. Now, let's go back to the beginning of this case, because the BAU found the victim with a satanic symbol carved into her chest, the authorities interviewed Father Marks, the pastor at the local church, to gain a better understanding of the religiousness of the community. Agents Morgan, Rossie, and J.J visit the local church and interview him, wanting to know if there had been any recent incidents of vandalism, threats, or strange behavior reported to the church. Father Marks insisted he was unaware of any suspicious activity that would point to a killer within the community. Speaking of community, when the town gathered for a search party for Tracy Lambert, everyone was there, including Father Marks. In between shifts of the search party, there was food being served to those who had helped, one of the foods being chili, now keep that in mind. Now, back to the arrest of Ferell, when he first got to the station, he refused to talk to anyone but his priest, Father Marks. During his interrogation with Father Marks, he acts remorseful, claiming to feel that God has abandoned him. Father Marks attempts to console him by saying, “God is in all of us.” At that moment, Ferell’s persona completely shifts. He gives a dark, knowing smirk and calmly replies, “So is Tracey Lambert.” Father Marks and the agents understood all at once that Ferrel meant he had served chili during the search party… chili containing Tracey Lambert’s flesh. This moment solidifies Ferrell as one of the show's most disturbing villains, not just for his cannibalism, but for his psychological cruelty. 

Now let's take a look at the Milwaukee Cannibal. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was born on May 21st, 1960, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From the outside, his childhood looked kinda normal, a quiet kid into science, and liked studying animals. But there were early signs that something wasn't right. He became fascinated with dead animals, collecting bones and roadkill just to see how things decayed. As he got older, he became more isolated, started drinking heavily, and by the time he was out of high school, he was already spiraling. He joined the US Army from January 1979 to March 1981 but was discharged for alcohol related issues. His first murder happened way earlier than most people realize, in 1978, when he was just 18. He picked up an 18-year-old hitchhiker named Steven Hicks, who was on his way to a rock concert, and brought him back to his parents' house in Bath Township, Ohio. Hicks wanted to leave, but Dahmer didn't want him to go, so he decided to kill him. He hid the body on his family's property, later disposing of it. Then, for almost 10 years, Dahmer didn't kill again. But that doesn't mean the darkness went away; it was just waiting to strike again. When he started killing again in 1987, it was like something snapped. He met a 24-year-old named Steven Tuomi at a bar in Milwaukee and killed him in a hotel. Then, at the beginning of 1988, he picked up a 14-year-old named Jamie Doxtator, who was one of his youngest victims. He was lured to Dahmer’s grandmother's house and killed there. His first victim, who was ever taken back to his place, was a 25-year-old named Rickard Guerrero, who was killed in March of 1988. Over the next few years, Dahmer murdered 16 more men and boys, ages ranging from 14-33, most of them in Milwaukee. He would meet his victims in gay bars and bathhouses, malls, or just on the street, and he usually offered them money or drinks to come back to his apartment. Once there, he used alcohol and drugs to incapacitate his victims and killed them using strangulation or other blunt-force means. After killing them, he would keep their remains, photos, skulls, and even parts of their bodies. What made his crimes so shocking wasn't just the violence; it was what came after he was killed. Dahmer kept souvenirs, like trophies, and tried to create what he called a “permanent companion.” Investigators also documented acts involving sexual abuse and acts that have been described in press reports as necrophilia and cannibalism. It's one of those cases where reality almost feels too disturbing to be real. But everything started to unravel on July 22nd, 1991. Dahmer met a man named Tracy Edwards and convinced him to come back to his apartment. Edwards managed to escape after a terrifying struggle and ran into the street, flagging down 2 police officers. He led them back to Dahmer's apartment, and what they found inside was out of a nightmare. There were Polaroids of dismembered bodies, human remains stored in the fridge and freezer, and a 57-gallon drum filled with acid. When they arrested Dahmer, that same day, he confessed almost right away, calmly explaining every detail as if he were talking about something normal in someone's everyday life. There is lots of controversy around his case because there were several points where Dahmer could have been caught sooner. In 1988, he was convicted of second-degree sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy but served only about a year in jail. In 1991, one victim, Konerak Sinthasophone, a 14-year-old, actually escaped while drugged and disoriented. Police stopped him on the street, but Dahmer convinced them that Konerak was his 19-year-old boyfriend who'd simply had too much to drink. That's right, after he escaped, Dahmer followed him onto the street. The officers returned the boy to Dahmer's apartment, where he was killed shortly after. The case raised questions about how police handled the investigation, the social marginalization of victims, many of whom were people of color or gay, and how crimes like this can go undetected for so long.  In 1992, he was convicted of 15 murders and sentenced to multiple life sentences, totaling hundreds of years by statute. He was later also tried in Ohio for his first murder and received an additional life sentence. During the trial, Dahmer said he never wanted to hurt anyone again and that he deserved to serve life. But instead, he spent just a few years in prison at Columbia Correctional Institution,  before another inmate named Christopher Scarver, bludgeoned him to death in 1994. Jeffrey Dahmer's crimes left a permanent mark on history, not just because of their brutality, but because of how long they went unnoticed. In the end, it's not just about the killer himself; it's about the lives lost and a system that failed to stop him sooner. Let's remember the victims, not just the name that stole the headlines. 

So when you look at Floyd Ferrell from Criminal Minds, it's pretty clear he's inspired by the real-life case of Jeffrey Dahmer, but the show takes a religious route. Ferrel is portrayed as someone with a violent past who was institutionalised as a kid, which mirrors how Dahmer had a difficult childhood and was interested in things he shouldn't be. But while Dahmer's crimes were methodical and driven by a need for control, isolation, and how he felt a connection to his victims, Ferrell's include fake Satanic rituals, his wanting to share his disturbance with his community, like serving human meat at a search party. The show uses symbolism and profiling to solve the case. In the show, Ferrel was caught because of constant research done within days, while in real life, Dahmer was caught because one of his victims escaped and led the police right to his apartment. In both cases, law enforcement, does take a long time to catch these victims. In the show, the body they find suggests that Ferrell's crimes have been going on for a long period of time, and in real life, Dahmer went on for over a decade, even taking a break for almost 10 years after his first killing. It shows how real life sometimes doesn't need exaggeration to be just as disturbing as something fictional. 

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Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name: Real Cases Fictional Minds 

Episode Title: Episode 1: Jack The Ripper Returns 

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss: Season 2 Episode 18 of Criminal Minds titled 'Jones' and the real case of the famous serial killer of London, Jack the Ripper.

In this episode of Criminal Minds, the BAU is called to New Orleans after a chilling letter arrives, signed by a supposed serial killer who had gone silent for over a year. Back in 2005, before Hurricane Katrina, 3 victims were murdered, their throats slit and organs carefully avoided while being mutilated, suggesting medical experience. Then suddenly… the murders stopped. But in 2007, another body appeared, and with it, a letter to Detective William LaMontagne, taunting the police, just like Jack the Ripper did in 1888. All four murders happened in a tight, 10-block radius, and the victims, all men between 22 and 35, were lured away at night, in public places, then killed with precision. The team quickly realizes this is a copycat killer, mimicking the infamous Ripper, down to the letters addressed to “Boss” and even promising to cut off an earlobe, just like the real Ripper did before his double murder. The profile for a possible unsub? Someone organized, charming, and calculated, but there's one twist. After linking a similar murder in Galveston, Texas, they realize the unsub is actually a woman, the only explanation for how she could lure men away from bars unnoticed. And she's not just a killer… She sees herself as a vigilante, sending a message to wipe away the entire race of men. It turns out, the unsub is Sarah Danlin, a woman who was raped in 1988 at a bar called Jones, and now she's hunting down men who remind her of her attackers. For her, each murder is revenge… justice… and reclaiming control. In the end, the case becomes more than just about a killer copying Jack the Ripper. It's about how trauma, identity, and rage can twist into something just terrifying. This episode demonstrates how Criminal Minds frequently draws inspiration from real-life horrors, such as the Jack the Ripper murders, and transforms them into modern psychological stories.  

• Serial killer and New Orleans who killed 3 victims before Hurricane Katrina
• Taking place in 2007
• A year later, another victim came up and sent a letter to William Lamontagne claiming to be the killer from a year ago
• Killed 3 times then stopped for 18 months before another 
• Ages ranging from 22 to 45
• All 4 murders occurred within a 10-block radius 
• The unsub seems to have experience with the slaughter because he cut around all organs without severing any of them
• All 4 victims were found with their throats slit 
• The unsub wants the police to think he is the modern-day Jack the Ripper lost in New Orleans 
• “The murders were perpetrated in semi-public places after dark. Investigators taunted with letters addressed to ‘boss.’ The only difference is that the case was 100 years ago and the murders took place in London."
• The unsub profile was: agile, friendly, somewhere between 30-35, allure with charm and kill with rage. Believed to be murdering men to gain power. Organized, calculating, might be stalking the victims days before the murder. He is mimicking Jack the Ripper because he has lost his own identity, maybe through years of child abuse or a traumatic event, holds a powerful position at his job, and also might have medical training so considering doctors and EMT's. 
• Their technical analysis found a similar case in Galveston, Texas, where lots of Katrina refugees moved after the event. In the case the victim was missing an organ, her liver, just like Jack the Ripper used to keep from his victims as trophies. 
• 2 team members go to Texas and learn that the victim, Leonard, over there was a soon-to-be husband who was bar hopping during his bachelor party. 
• They learn that the unsub is woman because that's the only way she can lure these men out away from the bar with their friends
• The next victim of this unsub cuts the ear off, “sticking to the Ripper's paradigm, in one letter of correspondence, Jack the Ripper Promised to cut the earlobe off of his next victim and that was the one day he killed twice.” So they learn she is going to kill again that very day after finding this victim's body. 
• The unsub may consider herself a vigilante; the men she is killing deserve to die
• The unsub was a rape victim from 9 years ago at a bar named Jones, now renamed, and she is killing these men because of what happened to her. 
• Sarah Danlin was the name of the rape victim back in 1998

Now, let's take a look at the real notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper. It was 1888 in London, where women would walk alone at night in the streets of White Chapel, something or someone always watching from the shadows. Jack the Ripper is known to have killed five women, known as the “canonical five,” between August and November 1888, before he disappeared without a trace. Jack the Ripper's real identity is still unknown; that's right no one was ever caught or officially named as the killer. The name “Jack the Ripper" came from a letter sent to the police, supposedly by the killer himself, and signed with that name. White Chapel, where his crimes occurred, is in the East End of London, a place full of poverty and crime. Many women there turned to prostitution to survive, making them vulnerable. Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly were the names of the 5 victims, and they all participated in prostitution. All of the women were killed at night, in poorly lit public areas, and the killings were brutal, having their throats slit and their bodies mutilated. Jack the Ripper was more than just a killer; he was a sadistic mutilator, he wasn't just trying to kill; he was trying to send a message. After his killings, he dissected and removed internal organs, like kidneys, liver, and heart. This led some investigators to believe he might've been a doctor, butcher, or someone with medical training. He worked quickly and silently, never getting caught in the act, and leaving almost no clues behind, other than the letters. During the investigation, police received hundreds of letters, many claiming to be the killer. The most famous ones included the words: “Dear boss,” where the name “Jack the Ripper” first appeared, and “From Hell,” which were sent with human organs like the kidney. Over 100 suspects have been proposed over the years, some serious and looked into, some outrageous. Despite endless theories, no one was ever arrested, tried, or convicted. After the murder of Mary Jane Kelly, the killings stopped, and no one knows why. Did he die? Move away? Get arrested for another crime? We’ll probably never know. 

Let's break down the 2. In both stories, the killer targets victims in public places at night, strikes with surgical precision, and leaves behind taunting letters signed by the killer. Even the nickname “Jack the Ripper” is used in the episode, and just like in 1888, the unsub in the episode writes to the police, calling them “Boss,” echoing the real-life “Dear Boss” letters from the Real Jack the Ripper. Both killers are calculated, organized, and seem to want attention just as much as they want control. But here's where the differences hit. The real Jack the Ripper was never caught, never identified, and his victims were women, all involved in prostitution. In contrast, the Criminal Minds unsub is a woman, flipping the script, and she's targeting young men as revenge for a sexual assault in her past. Her motive isn't to cause chaos, it's deeply personal. So while the episode borrows the style, the brutality, and the theatrics of Jack the Ripper, it gives the killer a modern motive and identity. It's not just a copycat, it's a reinterpretation of the notorious Jack the Ripper. 

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Real Cases, Fictional Minds is a student-run Podcast that researches different episodes of Criminal Minds that were based on real-life crime cases. Join podcast host Jaylli Kushi as she breaks down many episodes of Criminal Minds and tells you which real-life cases they were based on. These episodes have been tweaked in their own way to focus more on the criminal profiling aspect of the show, so she will also compare the episodes to see how different they are from the real-life cases.