He ripped people open. His crimes stopped after only a few victims. The list of potential suspects was one of the largest in history. The news media at the time interfered with proper investigation and clues being found. For the sake of money and sensationalism that were boosting the sales of newspapers at the time. It is believed other victims that there had the possibility of being linked to him were possibly done by copycat killers.
Nothing about the Jack the Ripper makes them good. It is an easier story to digest for most because it takes you to a different time. So it creates a romanticism when traveling back in time to a different era.
Unfortunately crime was quite rampant back then. Which resulted in why there were so many potential subjects. Only one letter is believed to be written by the actual killer. Others are received with speculation as to if it’s from the same killer. Though this does not rule out the possibility of people working together to pull off the murders.
A liver was sent back to the investigators with a bite taken out of it. With the taunting of one of the letters claiming that part of the motivation was for cannibalistic purposes. Though this claim and letter was heavily speculated as well.
Due to the amount of people so interested in the case. The ones investigating the murders had received so many false tips they could not follow up on that it was difficult for them to make any real headway concerning the true identity of the killer or killers involved.
If we take into consideration perhaps the possible meaning behind your post. “He did bad things. But was not a bad guy.” Alluding to the fact that he may have had a good reputation. Was seen as an upstanding citizen. Always helpful. Always giving. And thus was never considered a suspect. But was in fact the one who was committing the murders. I don’t believe the murders would have stopped if that were the case. There was a very clear M.O. with the killings themselves. And the authorities in charge of bringing the killer to justice were nowhere near finding the actual identity of the killer. So there was no reason for the killer to actually stop. So it’s far more likely that the killer was in fact one of the ones on the suspect list.
To be defined as a bad guy usually requires that you consistently do bad or that you do such a level of bad that your reputation cannot be redeemed. If you commit cold blooded murder without any reasonable justification there is no coming back from that. You're a bad guy. If your worst crime was to steal a car in your youth, but you then go on to lead a model life, you could not reasonably be described as a bad guy. Perhaps at the time but not as an everlasting label.
Jack the Ripper WAS a bad guy, whose identity was never revealed. Evidence suggests he was a medically-trained, delusional psychopath, devoid of feeling empathy.
