The pair of researchers are convinced that Colonel Claude Reignier Conder, from Tivoli, was the notorious murderer who killed five prostitutes in 1888 in London.
Mystery has shrouded the true identity of the infamous killer ever since. Many famous Victorians were linked with the case, including writer Lewis Carroll and Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor.
But crime writer Tom Slemen and criminologist Keith Andrews today revealed that they have uncovered new evidence which proves Col Conder was the culprit.
They say clues include cryptic messages carved on the victims' bodies and scrawled on a wall at the scene of a murder in ancient languages which Col Conder knew from working as an archaeologist in the Middle East.
Mr Slemen, 33, who lives in Liverpool, said: "Jack the Ripper was a brilliant 39-year-old British intelligence officer, archaeologist, writer, map-maker and trained killer. The man Keith and I know to be the Whitechapel murderer has lain in Cheltenham Cemetery for 91 years.
"His name was Claude Reignier Conder. He was born in Cheltenham and had many relatives there. I believe he has descendants living in the area today.
"He was not suspected of being the Ripper at the time of the killings and even so-called ‘Ripperologists' will not have heard of him."
Mr Slemen researched the Cheltenham connection from August last year to February this year.
He scoured Public Record Office documents and scanned miles of microfilmed electoral registers.
Mr Slemen and Mr Andrews have visited Col Conder's grave at Cheltenham Cemetery and Crematorium in Bouncers Lane.
The pair also say 19th century Metropolitan Police chief Sir Charles Warren – who was in charge of the hunt for the Ripper – was a close friend of Col Conder.
They claim Warren, who went to school in Cheltenham, knew his friend was the killer but took the secret to his grave when he died in 1927.
Col Conder was born in Cheltenham in 1849 and was regarded as "a local respectable man", says Mr Slemen.
He was a descendant of the French-born Louis Francois Roubiliac, the most celebrated sculptor in 18th century Britain.
He moved to Hackney, London, in the 1860s and served in the Royal Engineers alongside the pre-knighthood Charles Warren, who was then a Captain in the regiment.
Both archaeologists, Conder and Warren gained worldwide fame by excavating hundreds of sites in the Middle East between 1867 and 1882 and wrote an international bestselling book about their finds.
Crucially, they discovered the remains of King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, including artefacts and rings, which Mr Slemen says sparked a chain reaction which led to the gruesome murders.
The rings and other personal items were stolen from Col Conder's house by prostitute Annie Chapman, who was later killed by Jack the Ripper.
Mr Slemen says: "All of his victims had known one another and had all benefited from Chapman's robbery."
He alleges all of the Ripper's victims helped steal or sell the stolen goods.
Col Conder was a trained killer who specialised in close surveillance of his enemy and swooping in silence using ancient techniques, says Mr Slemen.
"He would watch the routines of the patrolling soldiers for hours, sometimes weeks, then attack silently and from behind under the cloak of darkness. The victim's throat was slit before he could make a sound. These deadly skills came in very useful in 1888," he said.
The writer says that Col Conder retired to Cheltenham in the early 1890s and lived in the town until his death after a stroke in 1910. His wife Myra died in 1934 and is buried in the same grave.
Mr Slemen said: "The Ripper took almost three weeks to pass away from a cerebral embolism that left him paralysed and in a state of terror.
"Who knows what vengeful spectres haunted the deathbed of a man who took the lives of five women in 1888 in a sinister and most brutally horrific way?"
Mr Clemen said: "The common misconception about Jack the Ripper is that he went around in a top hat and cape carrying a Gladstone bag full of surgical instruments but the reality is quite different."
The Jack the Ripper documentary in which Col Conder is named as the killer will be broadcast on BBC Radio Merseyside tonight (Fri 13th April) at 9.05pm. Mr Slemen and Mr Andrews hope to publish a book based on their findings.
New Evidence Points To Army Col. As Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an Army colonel from Cheltenham, according to two amateur sleuths.
[Original headline: County soldier ‘was the Ripper']
Gloucestershire Echo, Cheltenham / England - April 13 2001
