Jack the Ripper Scholar Linked to Hooker Killings

A Yorkshire university researcher who boasted of being an expert on Jack the Ripper is being held for questioning in the murder of three prostitutes. Stephen Griffiths, 40, is a post-graduate student studying criminal justice, specializing in homicide. He was picked up by police shortly after parts of one woman were found in the River Aire, and a head was discovered in a backpack. Neighbors said he told them he was working on a doctorate "in Jack the Ripper."

Griffiths describes himself on an Internet site apparently featuring his alter ego "Ven Pariah" as a "demon" who "brought hate into heaven." Griffiths was spotted on a surveillance video tape shortly before one of the victims vanished, a source tells the Telegraph. Griffiths is also being questioned in the disappearance of an additional three woman. All six disappeared in an area where another infamous British murderer, the Yorkshire Ripper, once preyed on prostitutes.
(More Stephen Griffiths stories.)