Starry Night Is a Jack the Ripper Murder Map

I’ve held onto this discovery for many years. With VINCENT THE RIPPER Volume 1 out there, though, I suppose it’s time to release it to the world.

The night sky is a map of the East End of London.
The stars represent murder sites.
The yellow light along the horizon represents the River Thames.
The Cypress tree represents death and mourning.
The white chapel is an image reference to the Whitechapel District.

Vincent sent his Starry Night painting to his brother Theo on Sept. 28, 1889. He completed his murders with the Pinchin St. Torso kill on Sept. 10, depositing his final victim on his mother’s birthday. Perfection was reached, and the placement of the last star representing his last murder site completed his painting. After it dried, he sent it off.

The year before, in July 1888, just before his trip to London for his first Ripper murder of Martha Tabram, Vincent wrote the following to Theo:

“Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. . . . Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star.”

This quote reveals Vincent was planning to travel for his first Ripper murder. Tarascon was the town he had to take a train to from Arles in order to catch a train to Paris. But this also reveals how Vincent related stars to death and maps.

Vincent van Gogh painted a map of the East End of London representing his Ripper murder sites as stars hidden within his Starry Night painting.

Vincent van Gogh was definitely Jack the Ripper.