Didn't they find out that it actually WAS a Jewish butcher or whatever? The things Jack did only could have been done with SOME foreknowledge, but it doesn't necessarily prove that he was a highly educated man, or at the least that he wasn't in high society and being protected because of it.
The accused was actually a Polish hairdresser. Which is weird, because if I see Sweeney Todd again I'll definitely have a different attitude. Not necessarily the musical or the movie, but the fictional character himself, which dates back to British pulp fiction of the mid 1840s.
It is interesting to note that Sweeney Todd, Varney the Vampire and Springheel Jack were all creations of the same dude, James Malcolm Rymer. Yes, you can make the argument that Springheel Jack had genuine sightings but he was serialized by Rymer.
And "Jack the Ripper" was not the name used at the time of the murders, it was "Leather Apron".
My great grandfather was a Polish hairdresser. He once chased my grandmother around with a straight razor because she was flirting with a boy in the Catskills.
I kind of think "Polish hairdresser" is just another way of saying "angry Polish man that enjoys working with sharp objects."