 Claims that Bury could have been the Ripper began to appear in newspapers shortly after Bury 's arrest . Like Bury , the Ripper had inflicted abdominal wounds on his victims immediately after their deaths , and Bury lived in Bow , near Whitechapel , from October 1887 to January 1889 , which placed him fairly near the Whitechapel murders at the appropriate time . The Dundee Advertiser of 12 February claimed that the Burys ' " neighbours were startled and alarmed at the idea that one whom in their terror they associated with the Whitechapel tragedies had been living in their midst . " The New York Times of the same day connected Bury directly to the atrocities and reported the theory that William had murdered Ellen to prevent her from revealing his guilt , a story picked up and repeated by The Dundee Courier the following day . The Courier alleged that Bury admitted to Lieutenant Parr that he was Jack the Ripper , but Parr 's version of the story says only that Bury said he was afraid he would be arrested as Jack the Ripper . Bury denied any connection , despite making a full confession to his wife 's murder . Nevertheless , the executioner James Berry promoted the idea that Bury was the Ripper . Berry did not include Bury or the Ripper in his memoirs , My Experiences as an Executioner , but Ernest A. Parr , a journalist in the Suffolk town of Newmarket , wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland on 28 March 1908 that Berry " told me explicitly that Bury was known to have been Jack the Ripper " . 
