MARY KELLY'S FOOT

Jack the Ripper mutilated Mary Kelly's body in her room and left her on her bed to be discovered on Nov. 9, 1888. The police took a photo of the carnage. The details of what was done to her were presented at the inquest and in the autopsy report. However, the Ripper did even more horrific things to Mary which were not reported, much more. Why not reported? Too psychotic and too disturbing.

One of the especially horrific acts the killer did which I discovered was to remove Mary Kelly’s eyes and bash in her forehead and remove part of her brain. He then cut her right foot in half and jammed the foot into the opening in her forehead so that the toes were sticking out.

You can see in the photo of Mary that her left foot is visible but her right foot is covered. A cut of the image of Mary's face from the photo is rotated and outlined, showing the toes of the right foot in her forehead.

Comparing the right foot to the left foot, notice they match in size, with her right foot appearing slightly smaller because it is further from the viewer. Also, note the toenails on both big toes are dark, suggesting a match of nail polish.

But why did the killer do this heinous act? He did it because he knew who Mary Kelly was and knew something about her foot and sought revenge.

Vincent van Gogh's brother Theo had a girlfriend named Marie. Theo wrote Vincent about how he took her off the streets and put her up in a hotel. She had a tumor on her foot, and he paid for her to have an operation to remove it. Theo then took her in and nursed her back to recovery. Theo was in love with Marie and wanted to marry her. However, eventually, Marie returned to her old ways and the relationship ended.

Theo was sending Vincent money for all of his expenses during this time. He had to cut back what he was sending Vincent because he had to take care of Marie. This forced Vincent to give up his live-in prostitute and her two small children and move back home with his parents. Vincent blamed Marie for this.

Mary Kelly's ex-boyfriend in London, Joseph Barnett, noted Mary told him she had previously met a Frenchman and went to France with him. She also liked to go by Marie Janette Kelly, instead of Mary Jane Kelly. Theo was making business trips to London from Paris during that time. He was the Frenchman, and Mary Kelly was his Marie.

Later, in 1888, Vincent then tracked down Marie (Mary) and got his revenge. He cut off her scarred foot and placed it in her forehead to symbolically represent she didn’t have the insight to realize deceiving Theo into paying for her operation (which caused Vincent a great deal of difficulty) would lead to her murder.

Desiring to represent what he did to Mary in her room, Vincent painted her as he had left her, but hidden, within his painting IRISES. Cuts from the IRISES painting show the area outlined where he represented Mary's face. In the area of her depicted right eye, he painted a big toe with a toenail, which is shown outlined, to represent her right foot in her forehead.

The devil is in the details!

Vincent van Gogh was Jack the Ripper.

Details covered in VINCENT THE RIPPER, Volume2, coming out in 2026.