Jack the Ripper plotted the black magic murders of his victims from a Brighton pub, a new book claims.

Satan-worshipping Robert Donston Stephenson has been named as the mystery killer who has eluded historians just as he did the police 114 years ago.

Author Ivor Edwards also accuses Stephenson of preparing for the Ripper killings in London's East End with a murder in a Brighton hotel.

Stephenson, a trained surgeon, was living above The Cricketers pub in Black Lion Street, Brighton, in the first half of 1888.

The pub was a well-known haunt for prostitutes, Stephenson's preferred company.

It was also Stephenson's last home before his move to Whitechapel in east London on July 26, 1888. Just days later, the first of the Ripper's prostitute victims was found dead in a side street.

Mr Edwards' book, Jack The Ripper's Black Magic Rituals, explains how the murderer's motive was to violate the Christian cross by the way he killed and positioned his prostitute victims.

The first victim was 45-year-old Mary Ann Nichols, whose mutilated body was found on August 31, 1888.

Between then and November 9 four more women were found dead within a mile area - Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catharine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly.

All five victims were prostitutes and all were horrifically mutilated. The Ripper removed their hearts, kidneys, genitalia and wombs.

Many have assumed the killings were sexually-motivated.

But Mr Edwards says police at the time and historians since have overlooked signs of occult ritual murder.

Mr Edwards realised the first four victims were carefully laid facing north, east, south and west.

He found joining the sites together created two equilateral triangles, a sacred symbol used in occult doctrine to worship Satan.

Adding in the site of the fifth discovery he concluded the murders were planned on a map according to an ancient geometric symbol called vesica piscis.

This was a fish-like sign worshipped by the early Christians.

Mr Edwards said the organs the Ripper removed were those often used in black magic rituals. For example, a prostitute's uterus would be used in candles.

He said: "He wanted to bring into play supernatural forces and manipulate them to his own ends through the occult. He thought this ritual would give him power."

Stephenson, also known as Dr Roslyn D'Onston, wrote extensively about the murders for the Pall Mall Gazette under the alias Tau Tria Delta.

His article referred to a process by which a sorcerer could obtain "the supreme black magical power" by following a similar course of action to Jack the Ripper.

And he said the Ripper murders marked the points of a profaned cross over London.

He was arrested at least twice in connection with the murders but was released without charge.

But Mr Edwards also sheds light on another of Stephenson's alleged murders.

Edmund Gurney, a psychic researcher, received a letter in June 1888 urging him to travel to Brighton. He left without telling family or friends the reason.

He checked into the Royal Albion Hotel in Black Lion Street on June 22, 1888, but was found dead the following morning with a chloroform pad over his face. The coroner's verdict was accidental death.

But Mr Edwards claims Gurney was murdered because he was investigating Madame Bravatsky, a well-known occultist and friend of Stephenson.

Mr Edwards said: "Gurney died of an overdose of chloroform, a drug Donston Stephenson was known to carry and was addicted to.

"He was staying just a two-minute walk from the hotel. I'm saying there's a very strong possibility he murdered Gurney.

"The day after the inquest he left Brighton and moved to London, which is when the Ripper murders started."

Stephenson, then aged 47, signed himself in as a private patient at the London Hospital in Whitechapel.

He was there for 134 days from July 1888 to December 1888, covering the period of the five murders.

Stephenson complained of neurosthenia, a condition whose main symptom is excessive fatigue.

The cure lay in rest and fresh air.

But Mr Edwards, 56, questions why Stephenson would move from a healthy seaside resort to dirty east London.

He also suspects Stephenson killed his wife, Anne Deary, the previous year.

Stephenson had been ostracised by his wealthy family after marrying Deary, his mother's maidservant, in 1876.

Deary disappeared in 1887 and was never seen again.

There were suspicions a dismembered body found in a canal near their Brighton home that year was hers.

Stephenson published a book called The Patristic Gospels in 1904 but then disappeared without trace. No death certificate has been found.

Mr Edwards himself was a career criminal for 30 years, notching up convictions for burglary and robbery.

He said: "My time in prison means I've met many killers and has given me more of an insight into their minds."

Cuttings and pictures about the Ripper are on display above the bar in The Cricketers.

Mr Edwards' book goes on sale next month, published by Blake Publishing.