Involved with the Ripper murders, the ClevelandStreetAffair? of 1889, and many other sensational crimes. Eventually seems to have come to the conclusion that GeorgeChapman may have been the Ripper. Made the hero of Alan Moore's From Hell, and played by Johnny Depp as an opium-smoking, absinthe-drinking mystic in the film version.
See Casebook: Jack the Ripper for a sketch timeline of Abberline's life.
-- ChrisLehrich? - 23 Dec 2004