Since 1888, the slaying of five prostitutes in London by a killer who was dubbed as Jack the Ripper has baffled people and brought mystery and intrigue along with it. But now, a researcher has claimed to have unmasked the identity of the notorious serial killer that committed the crimes over 117 years ago.

According to U.K. based publication the Mirror, 45-year-old Australian Richard Patterson has spent the past 20 years investigating his theory that the true identity of Jack the Ripper was a respected 19th century poet named Francis Thompson.

Patterson claims Thompson not only wrote about murdering people, but he also had close links to one of the prostitutes during the Ripper spree. Couple that with his known credentials to have had surgical experience and Patterson had his main suspect. That was when he began his investigation back in 1997 as a student.

"Thompson kept a dissecting knife under his coat, and he was taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of more than one of the Ripper victims," Patterson said. "He helped with surgery and is known to have cut up heaps and heaps of cadavers while a student."

Thompson did in fact move to London in 1885 with aspirations to become a writer at that time. He quickly picked up an opium habit and had a rough run in the city before taking up a local prostitute's offer for a place to stay.

That was a woman he would end up falling in love with, only for her to later leave him. That of course left him in a state of despair, and it is Patterson's hypothesis this is what caused him to run amok in the city and take out his frustrations on other sex workers around the locale.

It was before and after the documented murders Thompson wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives, which in effect supports Patterson's theory.