Benjamin Mercer

Dr. Benjamin Mercer (1855-1888), also known as Jack the Ripper, was an English coroner, werewolf, and serial killer who terrorized London from August to November of 1888. His rein of terror was finally ended when he was killed by half-pricolici Michael Turner in late 1888.

## Benjamin Mercer

Benjamin "Jack the Ripper" Mercer in 1885

## Biography

### Early Life

Benjamin Mercer was born on August 29th, 1855, in London, England. His mother was an alcoholic prostitute and his father was an unknown werewolf, who had a brief affair with his mother in late 1851, resulting in his conception.

Shortly after his birth, his mother abandoned him and he was sent to an orphanage in London's East End. The conditions in the orphanage were barely tolerable, but he had nowhere else to go. The young Benjamin grew up there, and from the age of five, he spent most of his time alone and isolated from the other children his age. This resulted in him growing up to be a very socially awkward person, and he remained this way for his entire life.

Even while young, Benjamin displayed sociopathic tendancies and a curious interest in death both from his troubled upbringing and his werewolf blood. There were numerous occurances where the orphanage staff caught him killing and dissecting small birds and other animals while he was alone soon after he turned eight. When scolded, Benjamin nearly always refused to speak or even acknowledge the presense of the staff.

On September 2nd, 1868, the first full moon since he turned thirteen, he finally learned that he was a werewolf. When the moon began to rise in the late evening, Benjamin was forced into his werewolf form for the first time. Luckily, he was always locked alone in his room at night and was unable to hurt anyone. He didn't know what to call himself at the time, what kind of creature he was, but he was delighted to learn of his abilities nonetheless. Whenever he transformed, he fed on as many animals as he could capture to satiate a strange hunger that arose while in his wolf form.

For the next few years, Benjamin lied low and honed his abilities, sharpening them and learning to control them precisely. By 1872, he had learned how to transform at will, no longer requiring the full moon (though it still had to be nighttime for him to transform). He also taught himself to read and write during his time in the orphanage.

When he turned eighteen in 1873, he was released. Still very obsessed with the concept of death, he decided that he would become a medical coroner. To raise money for a basic medical education as well as to rent a room to live in, Benjamin worked as a butcher. His killing of animals while he was young proved useful in his new profession, and he worked every day of the year, even if appearing sick or injured. By the time he was twenty-one, he had earned enough for a medical tuition at the University of Manchester. He studied there for three years, especially interested in anatomy, before graduating in November of 1879 with the skills of a general practice doctor. His medical skills were basic and unpolished, but he knew enough to begin working. He moved back to London only a few weeks after, and quickly tried to find a job as a medical examiner. He soon applied to a small mortuary called Marley & Adams in London's east end, located in the poor region of Whitechapel, but was denied as there wasn't an open position for him. Not willing to take no for an answer, Mercer decided to kill one of their assistant coroners, Patrick Hopkins, and take his job for himself. On December 9th, 1879, Mercer broke into Hopkin's house and killed him in his sleep by driving a long metal nail into his head. Unable to see any visable damage when they investigated the following morning, police assumed that Hopkins had died of natural causes and no murder was suspected.

Benjamin then reapplied to Marley & Adams on December 14th, and was finally hired as a coroner. A day later, he even prepared Hopkins' corpse himself for burial, as Hopkins was an employee of Marley & Adams and entitled to a burial by the company.

Benjamin was happy with his new jon. The pay was good, and Ben worked well and hard. In early 1880, Benjamin started to dress more aristocratically to fit his new position. He was neither popular nor unpopular with the rest of the staff, he simply did his work and kept to himself.

From 1880 to early 1888, Mercer killed only once per year, as he mainly was focused on work. To satiate his werewolf hunger, he fed exclusively on animals. When he did kill humans, he exclusively targeted the homeless in Whitechapel. He knew they would not be missed, and their deaths would be investigated little. He always struck in his wolf form, and fully consumed their bodies to conceal his crime, also allowing him to grow more powerful as he did so.

### Jack the Ripper

In August of 1888, Benjamin Mercer decided that it was time to come out of the shadows and begin openly murdering. He began targeting prostitutes, as he hoped that he'd find his mother, and wanted revenge on her for abandoning him as a child. On August 31st, 1888, he brutally murdered a woman named Mary Ann Nichols in his wolf form, using his razor-sharp claws. Her body was later discovered at about 3:40 a.m. in Buck's Row, with her' throat having been severed by two deep slashes, one of which cut the tissue down to her spine. The lower part of her body had been ripped open by a deep, jagged wound, along with several other wounds inflicted to both sides of her abdomen.

One week later, on September 8th, 1888, the body of Annie Chapman was discovered at approximately 6 a.m. at 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Like in the case of Mary Ann Nichols, her throat was severed by two deep cuts. Her abdomen had been cut entirely open, and multiple organs had been removed.

The next two victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, were both killed by Mercer on the same day in the early morning hours of September 30th, 1888. The cause of death was deemed to be a single six-inch slash across her throat which had severed both her carotid artery and trachea. During the attack, Benjamin had been inturrupted when a slew of silver coins fell out of Stride's pocket, forcing him to flee. Eddowes's body was found forty-five minutes after Elizabeth Stride was discovered. Her throat had been slashed from ear to ear, and her abdomen ripped open by a long and deep wound similar to Nichols' murder. Her intestines had also been removed and were found draped over her. Both one of her kidneys and a part of Eddowes's uterus had been removed, and her face had been disfigured.

On November 9th, 1888, the incredibly mutilated and disembowelled body of Mary Jane Kelly was found lying in her bed off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, at 10:45 a.m. Her face had been "hacked beyond all recognition", and her throat had been severed down to the bone in her spine. Her abdomen was also almost emptied of its organs, including her heart.

When he killed, he used his long and very sharp werewolf claws to mimic the wounds that a knife would do. The organs he stole from his victims using his surgical skills he used to feed on later, as his bloodlust was becoming insatiable at that point.

Since Benjamin's third murder, the pricolici detective Michael Turner had been investigating the case, recognizing that the police were mistaken, and the wounds had not been inflicted by a knife, but rather by claws. As he closed in on Mercer, the Ripper grew fearful of discovery and set his sights on Michael's brother, Maxwell Turner. He didn't know of Michael's abilities, only that he was a threat to him, and he kidnapped Maxwell on November 14th, and threatened to kill him if he didn't call off his investigation. Michael, sent into a protective rage, quickly tracked down Mercer in a matter of hours, who had made mistakes in his fear. He eventually found Benjamin in the basement of an old warehouse in Whitechapel, where he transformed and quickly killed Mercer, feeding on him afterwards and absorbing his powers. Afterwards, he cut Mercer's heart out and cremated his body, ending his reign of terror permanently.

## Powers/Abilities

* **Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, durability**: Werewolves like Benjamin Mercer are very physically powerful. In human form, he was capable of easily lifting over three tons, much more than a human. While in his hybrid form Mercer was capable of lifting over fifteen tons. His leg muscles were also stronger than a human's, allowing them him to leap almost twenty feet into the air.
* **Superhuman senses**: Benjamin Mercer posessed incredible senses of sight, smell, and hearing, which helped him when tracking victims. He could also detect the heat signatures of victims even in toral darkness.
* **Claws and Teeth**: Both a his claws and teeth were extremely sharp and durable, enabling him to slash through a variety of materials including fabric, flesh, bone, wood, brick, and even some metals. Werewolves like him can also use their claws to crawl along walls at great speed in pursuit of their prey. Their claws could also be used to absorb the power and life energy of other werewolves and therianthropes.
	+ **Infectious Bite and Scratch**: Werewolves can directly turn another person into a werewolf by biting or scratching them. Their bite is also fatal to a vampire.
* **Healing Factor**: Mercer, like all werewolves, was capable of regenerating damaged areas of his body with much greater speed than a human. While in any form, he could heal serious injuries like bullet wounds, slashes, blunt force trauma, and severe burns in mere minutes.

### Weaknesses

* **Silver**: Silver, being pure, would burn him with simply a touch and prevent any wounds from healing while in contact with it. If it entered the bloodstream, silver was extremely fatal to him. Exposure to it can also remove much of his powers. Silver coins were also shown to drive him away, as seen when he attacked Elizabeth Stride. His claws were also unable to cut through silver, even thin layers of it.
	+ **Silver Nitrate**: An injection of silver nitrate directly into the bloodstream of any werewolf, including him, would be extremely fatal.
* **Mercury**: Similar to liquid silver, werewolves are highly vulnerable to mercury. Exposure to it will only weaken him, but if it is poured into even a non-lethal wound, it could kill him in only moments. If poured on a werewolf's cut-out heart and/or inside the mouth of its decapitated head. it will permanently prevent it returning, working similarly to fire.
* **Aconite**: Wolfsbane has powerful anti-evil properties against werewolves and shapeshifters like Mercer and is used in a similar manner as garlic is used for vampires. It will make a werewolf sick and feverish if exposed to it, and a wolfsbane powder also causes suicidal tendencies for any werewolf who inhaled it. If stuffed into a werewolf's head post-decapitation, it will prevent it from returning.
* **Fire**: Fire purifies, and can hurt or even kill a werewolf just as it would a pricolici, vampire, or any mortal being. It can also be used to destroy a werewolf's head and heart to prevent its return to life when killed.
* **Mountain Ash**: He could be contained in a barrier made of mountain ash.
* **Decapitation**: The act of fully seperating the head of a werewolf from its body will also result in death. Similar to the heart, the head must be burned seperately from the body to prevent it from returning. However, pouring mercury in its mouth or stuffing it with wolfsbane is also highly effective.
	+ **Broken Neck**: A werewolf will be instantly killed if its neck is broken.
	+ **Heart Extraction**: If the heart of a werewolf is removed, it will cause instant death. The heart must then be either quickly burned or have mercury poured on it, or the werewolf could return.

* **New Moon**: The New Moon heavily weakens a werewolf like Benjamin Mercer, no matter their power. It saps their energy and life force, resulting in them not being able to defend themselves. They become slow and sluggish, their reflexes return to human levels, and their heightened senses and abilities are severely weakened. Hunters are known to kill or easily capture werewolves during this time as they are so weak during a new moon.
	+ **Lunar Eclipse**: Benjamin was completely vulnerable during a lunar eclipse. If a partial eclipse, his powers were only weakened similarly to a new moon, but a total eclipse removed his abilities entirely, making him unable to call upon his powers or change forms.