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I had seen the theory of Lawson Tait before but the article below was the fullest version I could find on Casebook:
Bucks County Gazette
Bristol, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
17 October 1889
Another Whitechapel Theory
Dr. Lawson Tait, a London surgeon, has put forward a theory in regard to the fiendish Whitechapel murders which is ingenious enough to figure in one of Poe's weird stories.
He says first, the murderer is an epileptic maniac, and does the murders while the fit is on, being unconscious of the crime afterwards. Second she is, not a man but a woman, who gathers her splashed and bloody skirt around her waist under her shawl immediately after the deed is done, and so escapes detection. Then, since women are "always at the washtub" she easily washes out the stains and is not detected. Third, the murderer is some one employed in a slaughter house, and familiar with the way in which animals are slaughtered in London. The Whitechapel victims have had their throats cut from behind, and have then been eviscerated in the exact manner in which a London butcher begins to dress a sheep. The cuts are long and slashing, unlike those made either by a surgeon or a novice. There are known to be women employed occasionally about the London butcher shops. It is here, according to Dr. Tait, that detectives should search for a true clew.
However, I have come across an article which outlines his ideas in greater detail:
Birmingham Daily Post
21 September 1889
A representative of the Pall Mall Gazette had yesterday an important interview with Mr Lawson Tait, of Birmingham, apropos the theory that Jack the Ripper was a woman. Mr Tait said:-
"My opinion is the police fault lies at the beginning. Their investigations, I suggest, have been blocked by the question of sex. Looking at the subject as a surgeon, the first conclusion is that the whole murders in Whitechapel, Battersea, and Chelsea, are the work of one and the same individual. Secondly, the crimes are the work of a lunatic; the absolute motivelessness of the whole business shows this. Then the operator must have been a person accustomed to use a sharp knife upon meat. The work was done by no surgeon; a surgeon cuts in a niggling kind of way. The murderer in these cases has worked in a free, slashing manner. The criminal must have been a butcher, and a London butcher. The cuts would have been made quite differently if the operator had hailed from Dublin or Edinburgh. What ought the police to do? They should find out what licensed slaughter houses are in the neighbourhood, who are in charge of them, what persons (male and female) have access to the slaughter houses after workmen go home. Slaughter houses are about the only spots in which the work could be done with any great probability of non discovery. Could not the criminal there kill and cut up the victim, putting the remains in a cloth and disposing of them at leisure? The police are accustomed to meet slaughter house men with bundles of tripe and offal going to and fro constantly. On Tuesday I got a cab and went through the district where the remains have been found, and to me nothing is more likely than that "Jack the Ripper" is some big strong woman engaged at a slaughter house in cleaning up, and now and then in actually cutting up meat. In a number of instances the women, when found, were hardly dead. The police promptly made a circuit round the neighbourhood; no man was arrested, but they did not look for a woman. It must be clearly understood that whoever was the criminal would be thoroughly splashed with blood. A man who thus besmeared himself could not possibly have got clear away in the time. yet the thing would be perfectly easy for a woman. All she has to do is to roll up her skirt to the waist, leaving her petticoats, and fold up the shawl that is over her shoulders and tucked it in at her middle, then she might pass through a crowd with the very slightest risk of detection. As to washing the blood dyed garments, what would a man do? Plunge them into hot water, with the result that the blood coagulates, won't come off, and stains the clothes. And where he is to get hot water, or how is he to pour away the bloody water undetected? A woman is always at the washing, and she would put clothes in cold water, when, with a little soap and rubbing, they would become clean, practically unstained, and she would go unsuspected. An important point is to be noted in connection with the fiendish disembowelling of bodies, and with reference to the particular place at which the incisions have been begun. It is no wild slashing done without method by a novice. Having cut the victim's throat from behind with all the force and completeness which the position would render possible, the operator, simply by an act of unconscious cerebration, goes to work in regular butcher fashion. Having slit the calf's neck, the next thing to be done is to make an incision at the bottom of the abdomen, and lay aside the various organs in the very fashion reported at the inquests as having been done. There is scarcely any place but the slaughter house where the cutting up could be done without leaving evidence of the crime. Hair is one of the most useful matters in the detection of crime. The last woman murdered had her hair cut through. Now there must be some of that hair in the gratings and the corners of the slaughter houses. Then there must be bits of cartilage. Why? Becuase the criminal is not a skilful butcher, nor likely to be in regular employment. He hacks right through with his sharp knife. Those little bits of hacked cartilage on microscopic examination would prove human."
Bucks County Gazette
Bristol, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
17 October 1889
Another Whitechapel Theory
Dr. Lawson Tait, a London surgeon, has put forward a theory in regard to the fiendish Whitechapel murders which is ingenious enough to figure in one of Poe's weird stories.
He says first, the murderer is an epileptic maniac, and does the murders while the fit is on, being unconscious of the crime afterwards. Second she is, not a man but a woman, who gathers her splashed and bloody skirt around her waist under her shawl immediately after the deed is done, and so escapes detection. Then, since women are "always at the washtub" she easily washes out the stains and is not detected. Third, the murderer is some one employed in a slaughter house, and familiar with the way in which animals are slaughtered in London. The Whitechapel victims have had their throats cut from behind, and have then been eviscerated in the exact manner in which a London butcher begins to dress a sheep. The cuts are long and slashing, unlike those made either by a surgeon or a novice. There are known to be women employed occasionally about the London butcher shops. It is here, according to Dr. Tait, that detectives should search for a true clew.
However, I have come across an article which outlines his ideas in greater detail:
Birmingham Daily Post
21 September 1889
A representative of the Pall Mall Gazette had yesterday an important interview with Mr Lawson Tait, of Birmingham, apropos the theory that Jack the Ripper was a woman. Mr Tait said:-
"My opinion is the police fault lies at the beginning. Their investigations, I suggest, have been blocked by the question of sex. Looking at the subject as a surgeon, the first conclusion is that the whole murders in Whitechapel, Battersea, and Chelsea, are the work of one and the same individual. Secondly, the crimes are the work of a lunatic; the absolute motivelessness of the whole business shows this. Then the operator must have been a person accustomed to use a sharp knife upon meat. The work was done by no surgeon; a surgeon cuts in a niggling kind of way. The murderer in these cases has worked in a free, slashing manner. The criminal must have been a butcher, and a London butcher. The cuts would have been made quite differently if the operator had hailed from Dublin or Edinburgh. What ought the police to do? They should find out what licensed slaughter houses are in the neighbourhood, who are in charge of them, what persons (male and female) have access to the slaughter houses after workmen go home. Slaughter houses are about the only spots in which the work could be done with any great probability of non discovery. Could not the criminal there kill and cut up the victim, putting the remains in a cloth and disposing of them at leisure? The police are accustomed to meet slaughter house men with bundles of tripe and offal going to and fro constantly. On Tuesday I got a cab and went through the district where the remains have been found, and to me nothing is more likely than that "Jack the Ripper" is some big strong woman engaged at a slaughter house in cleaning up, and now and then in actually cutting up meat. In a number of instances the women, when found, were hardly dead. The police promptly made a circuit round the neighbourhood; no man was arrested, but they did not look for a woman. It must be clearly understood that whoever was the criminal would be thoroughly splashed with blood. A man who thus besmeared himself could not possibly have got clear away in the time. yet the thing would be perfectly easy for a woman. All she has to do is to roll up her skirt to the waist, leaving her petticoats, and fold up the shawl that is over her shoulders and tucked it in at her middle, then she might pass through a crowd with the very slightest risk of detection. As to washing the blood dyed garments, what would a man do? Plunge them into hot water, with the result that the blood coagulates, won't come off, and stains the clothes. And where he is to get hot water, or how is he to pour away the bloody water undetected? A woman is always at the washing, and she would put clothes in cold water, when, with a little soap and rubbing, they would become clean, practically unstained, and she would go unsuspected. An important point is to be noted in connection with the fiendish disembowelling of bodies, and with reference to the particular place at which the incisions have been begun. It is no wild slashing done without method by a novice. Having cut the victim's throat from behind with all the force and completeness which the position would render possible, the operator, simply by an act of unconscious cerebration, goes to work in regular butcher fashion. Having slit the calf's neck, the next thing to be done is to make an incision at the bottom of the abdomen, and lay aside the various organs in the very fashion reported at the inquests as having been done. There is scarcely any place but the slaughter house where the cutting up could be done without leaving evidence of the crime. Hair is one of the most useful matters in the detection of crime. The last woman murdered had her hair cut through. Now there must be some of that hair in the gratings and the corners of the slaughter houses. Then there must be bits of cartilage. Why? Becuase the criminal is not a skilful butcher, nor likely to be in regular employment. He hacks right through with his sharp knife. Those little bits of hacked cartilage on microscopic examination would prove human."