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I was really intrigued by Dan Norder’s article in the latest Ripper Notes about how JtR seemed to be responding to false accounts of his depredations by acting them out in later murders.
Dan has discovered an interesting pattern by researching erroneous newspaper accounts of the murders. It seems that when one of JtR’s murders was reported with wrong details (usually even more lurid than what actually happened) Jack was incorporating those details into his next killing.
When the false “Dear Boss” letter was made public after Chapman, Jack actually did cut off Eddowes ears. But that is just one example.
I had always thought of Jack as someone not interested in what the media was saying about him, and not wanting attention. John Douglas' profile fed into that assumption.
I was reminded of Dennis Rader who certainly had, as part of his motivation, media attention.
It has been pointed out that we have always had SK's among us and that would lead one to disbelieve the role of the media.
I wonder now, though, if the proliferation of SK's has something to do with a pathological symbiosis between the media and the SK.
JTR emerged as newspapers emerged.
It also adds to our skimpy info about him. He could probably read. That is a bigger issue than you might think. During the 60's I had a roommate who was illiterate. She was British by birth and she told me that the educational system there was so deeply affected by the class system that children from lower class families often were shortchanged and could not read. Before I blast the whole of the British education system I must say that this was only one person’s opinion. Of course in the U.S. our education system is not as egalitarian as it should be either.
In another incarnation I spent a number of years as a public school teacher. I noticed a subset of children who had a rather peculiar behavior problem. They were so hungry for attention that they would misbehave. In their value system it was better to be punished than ignored. It was very difficult to manage these kids because if you tried to ignore them they would just escalate the behavior until it was so outrageous that you had to respond. This, of course, reinforced the behavior. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth I finally stumbled on something that worked. You would watch them like a hawk until you saw good behavior, even if it lasted only a few seconds. Then you would interrupt the lesson and praise the child. I laid the butter on with a trowel. That worked better than punishment to bring these kids into line.
What happens with kids like that when they grow up?
Dan has discovered an interesting pattern by researching erroneous newspaper accounts of the murders. It seems that when one of JtR’s murders was reported with wrong details (usually even more lurid than what actually happened) Jack was incorporating those details into his next killing.
When the false “Dear Boss” letter was made public after Chapman, Jack actually did cut off Eddowes ears. But that is just one example.
I had always thought of Jack as someone not interested in what the media was saying about him, and not wanting attention. John Douglas' profile fed into that assumption.
I was reminded of Dennis Rader who certainly had, as part of his motivation, media attention.
It has been pointed out that we have always had SK's among us and that would lead one to disbelieve the role of the media.
I wonder now, though, if the proliferation of SK's has something to do with a pathological symbiosis between the media and the SK.
JTR emerged as newspapers emerged.
It also adds to our skimpy info about him. He could probably read. That is a bigger issue than you might think. During the 60's I had a roommate who was illiterate. She was British by birth and she told me that the educational system there was so deeply affected by the class system that children from lower class families often were shortchanged and could not read. Before I blast the whole of the British education system I must say that this was only one person’s opinion. Of course in the U.S. our education system is not as egalitarian as it should be either.
In another incarnation I spent a number of years as a public school teacher. I noticed a subset of children who had a rather peculiar behavior problem. They were so hungry for attention that they would misbehave. In their value system it was better to be punished than ignored. It was very difficult to manage these kids because if you tried to ignore them they would just escalate the behavior until it was so outrageous that you had to respond. This, of course, reinforced the behavior. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth I finally stumbled on something that worked. You would watch them like a hawk until you saw good behavior, even if it lasted only a few seconds. Then you would interrupt the lesson and praise the child. I laid the butter on with a trowel. That worked better than punishment to bring these kids into line.
What happens with kids like that when they grow up?
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