Historical Serial Killer: Jack The Ripper

[Mason]

It was an alien from planet X.






















Aw c'mon, someone had to say it.

 

[tim]

Druitt. He has everything going for him..........
Read Daniel Farson's book.
http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/non-fiction/farsonbk.html

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread but I recently taped and watched the Is It Real? episode about modern attempts to identify Jack the Ripper (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0909644/) and found it absolutely fascinating.

Watching it, several things came to mind. One: how much of a modern serial killer he was. Killing prostitutes, targeting writing taunting letters to the police, possible rape, one or several MOs, the media frenzy, the killings suddenly stopping...he might have been from late 19th century London, England and we might be from 21st century America but he could have been any one of the serial killers we see on the news or read about in the paper. Guess crime never, ever changes and serial killers always have the same profile and serial killings always have the same template.

Two: How much of a legend he became only because he was never caught. In the imagination of the public, he became a folkloric figure on the level of Sweeney Todd and a criminal genius when he was probably your average and very ordinary serial killer. Had he been caught at the time, he'd probably be discovered to be a creepy unshaved half literate working class slum dweller with 6 kids and a bad cold and the whole thing would be completely forgotten today. He would hardly even be newsworthy as a serial killer in today's world, having only killed 5 victims. As with most serial killers, the killings probably stopped because he died, went to prison, moved or stopped only to resume somewhere else (but the police of the time possibly never linked one spate with another.) Because he was never caught and the public's image of him as a caped menace rising out of the fog was never dispelled, he got to be a Victorian folklore figure. The truth is always so much more humdrum and mundane than we would like to think. My guess why the killings stopped? Jack the Ripper died of TB or got gin poisoning.

 

[I Ratant]

Clarence? Whos that?

Might I also add, that, it is a posibility that the infamous Jack the Ripper might have been a woman! If I can get a full name I will add it to my list of suspects. some of them sound like the killer yet, none seem to be. I wish i had more information about the murders from the autumn 1888, but I dont so I will need as much information as I can muster.

.
The full name?
Mrs. J. Ripper.

 

[dudalb]

I suspect that the Ripper was somebody who we have never heard of.


I strongly recommend this book as being the most objective on the topic,and it has the advantage of being written by an actual detective:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Jack...3951/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249424060&sr=8-1

The point that RUmbelow points out is that modern CSI techniques did not exist, even fingerprints were not commonly accepted.
i

Oh, brother: Not the Illuminati/Pope/White House/Windsor/British Royalty conspiracy again! No, I don't buy it.

You forgot the Masons were in on it too!
Seriously, I agree that theory is big bunch of nonsense. But because is is the "sexiest" and most sensational it is the most popular, particularly with filmmakers,novelists, and Comic Book Writers.
As for Cornwall, she took a theory that had been around for years and tried to portray it as something she 'Dsocovered". She should have stuck to fiction...


Agreed that the whole

 

[Ian Osborne]

I suspect that the Ripper was somebody who we have never heard of.

Exactly. None of the proposed candidates are a perfect fit for the crime. Druitt is closest IMHO, but most experts think the Ripper was local to Whitechapel, but Druitt lived in Kent.

And the conspiracy theories, involving royalty, famous artists, the Freemasons and probably Aliens from the Planet X, can all be dismissed as frivolous.

 

[dudalb]

I also strongly recommend this "Jack The Ripper Walk" next time your are in London.
http://www.walks.com/Homepage/Jack_the_Ripper/default.aspx

There are lots of imitatiors but this one is the best..particularly if Donald Rumbold is giving it.

What is nice is they time the evening walks so that when you get out of the modern construction area (the area where the first two murders occured was leveled during the Blitz and is all modern consturction) into the older section where the original buildings are still standing,darkness is starting to fall. A lot of fun.

 

[dropzone]

As a patriotic American, I always liked Tumblety.

FTR, casebook.org has all you might want and (shudder) more about Saucy Jack.

 

[Marduk]

The ripper was an American!

Not included on your list was Dr Francis J Tumblety. A UK Channel4 documentary made a convincing case for Tumblety, most of the evidence being presented by a member of Scotland Yard after new information had come to light in 1994.

There are some links about him here:

http://www.casebook.org/suspects/tumblety.html
http://www.prairieghosts.com/ripper.html

He gets my vote.

Totally agree, the fact that he collected uterus's and used them to illustrate his after dinner lectures on the decadence of fallen women was the clincher for me.
no one seems to have heard of him, apart from Littlechild who messed up his chance to arrest him and then decided not to mention his existence to the public, can't think why


on another note my favourite ripper movie is the made for tv version with Michael Caine "youre gonna hang John Nettley"
hehehe

 

[blue sock monkey]

On the lighter side (if I can use that phrase regarding this subject), there's Rick Geary's Jack the Ripper: A Journal of the Whitechapel Murder, done in graphic novel style.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Man, I loves me some Jack the Ripper!

I think I've supported every name listed here at one time or another. Methinks there's a little bit of conspiracy theorist in each of us and this is such a perfect outlet.

It'll fairly well never be proven as there's no DNA evidence and mostly likely no written evidence a la a deathbed confession/diary. Plus, it pretty much has no impact on any still living person. It's all to foster our interest in a great spooky/macabre topic, so I have at it and pretty much read everything that someone comes up with and watch every movie or tv show I can get my hands on. At the end of each, I'm ready to believe in whomever they are promoting.

 

[Talby]

Haven't you guys seen the movie? It was Ian Holm all along!

 

[timhau]

Bilbo Baggins slashed his way through Whitechapel with Sting!

Seriously though, I'm firmly in the "it was some nobody we've never heard of" capm. I bet if someone invented a time machine and we could go back and see who it was, we'd be in for a serious letdown.

 

[whatthebutlersaw]

Well, I am very keen on Ripper-lore, so keep it coming. I find it very interesting with the interaction between the explosion of written media and the Ripper-myth. The sheer amount of hoax letters sent to police and media says so much about the human nature.

And I also back the noneofthenamed theory.

 

[Cainkane1]

I forget the name but there was an american sailor in London at the time of the murders and when he shipped oout the murders stopped. The sailor was caught killing prostitutes in America and was hung. I still doubt it was him. The world is full of lunatics and prostitutes are perfect targets.

 

[timhau]

I don't think there's any evidence to indicate that Jack the Ripper was well-endowed.

 

[Careyp74]

I don't think there's any evidence to indicate that Jack the Ripper was well-endowed.

still, we can't rule out the sailor just because of his extra portions

I have the Patricia Cornwell book, never got to reading it. I like her other books, this one is not a novel, it is documentation on her investigation into the murders.

 

[Information Analyst]

Totally agree, the fact that he collected uterus's and used them to illustrate his after dinner lectures on the decadence of fallen women was the clincher for me.
no one seems to have heard of him, apart from Littlechild who messed up his chance to arrest him and then decided not to mention his existence to the public, can't think why

I always thought (well, since I saw the long-aforementioned documentary) that Tumblety fits better than any other theory, simply because you don't need any conspiracy to explain him, other than the Metropolitan Police brushing him under the carpet once he was clearly off their beat after they missed the chance to nab him.

 

[Big Les]

Killing prostitutes..

The killings were unusual, sure, but violence against prostitutes was common at the time.

...targeting writing taunting letters to the police..

Only one letter is considered likely to be from the real Ripper. All of the other hundreds were almost certainly hoaxes.

...possible rape...

I don't think I've ever seen this suggested. Granted forensics were primitive.

Had he been caught at the time, he'd probably be discovered to be a creepy unshaved half literate working class slum dweller with 6 kids and a bad cold and the whole thing would be completely forgotten today.

Agreed! And to the gist of your point, in fact.

Exactly. None of the proposed candidates are a perfect fit for the crime. Druitt is closest IMHO, but most experts think the Ripper was local to Whitechapel, but Druitt lived in Kent.

Why do you (and Larsen I see) think that Druitt is the most likely suspect (and I take your point that none are especially likely)? I can't see that there's any more circumstantial evidence against him - possibly less. If it weren't for MacNaghten, he wouldn't have even been on the Ripperologist's radar.

I'd agree with those saying or implying that none of the mooted suspects is likely to have been him. The whole field of Ripperology is, whilst fun, essentially a waste of time.

 

[Ian Osborne]

Why do you (and Larsen I see) think that Druitt is the most likely suspect (and I take your point that none are especially likely)? I can't see that there's any more circumstantial evidence against him - possibly less. If it weren't for MacNaghten, he wouldn't have even been on the Ripperologist's radar.

There's little more than circumstantial evidence against any of them, but one thing we've learned over the years about serial killers, is they don't stop until they're caught or killed. Druitt committed suicide and the killings stopped. Coincidence? Probably, but when it comes to Ripper suspects, this alone makes him one of the taller dwarves.

I'd agree with those saying or implying that none of the mooted suspects is likely to have been him. The whole field of Ripperology is, whilst fun, essentially a waste of time.

I'm shoulder to shoulder with you on that one.