Francis Thompson, Virchow’s Technique, and Bond’s Misreading

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi!
If I might wade into this discussion: I am not sold on Thompson, even if he is one of the strongest suspects based on his medical skills, but Richard is correct in that we can take many front row suspects, like e.g. Bury, Kelly, Deeming, Hyams, Maybrick, off the list since they had no skills on the level of the Ripper. The Ripper had substantial medical and surgical experience, Mitre Square would never have been happened like it did without it.
Myself I have Klosowski as prime suspect, for several reasons. Among them the fact that Klosowski studied medicine on the continent and not too far away from Virchow´s group in Berlin and he had knowledge of Antimon as a poison which was truly rare in Britain back then.

And yet there are surgeons that disagree with you.

[Herlock Sholmes]

This isn’t a debate. It’s Richard trying to twist the evidence to make Thompson fit.

[Patrick Differ]

This isn’t a debate. It’s Richard trying to twist the evidence to make Thompson fit.

No one knows who the Ripper was. There appears to be objectivity in the discussion and I dont personally see anything wrong with the argument content. Constructive counterpoint is debate. Everyone has favorite suspects but the only concrete evidence besides location are the bodies themselves. I didnt see where any of the murders were described as having a Y incision. The Virchow method would be considered as solid evidence of a medical man. That was not the case is my only point based on description and sketches.

[Herlock Sholmes]

No one knows who the Ripper was. There appears to be objectivity in the discussion and I dont personally see anything wrong with the argument content. Constructive counterpoint is debate. Everyone has favorite suspects but the only concrete evidence besides location are the bodies themselves. I didnt see where any of the murders were described as having a Y incision. The Virchow method would be considered as solid evidence of a medical man. That was not the case is my only point based on description and sketches.

The problem is when the evidence is tampered with to suit. An important example is that Richard states it as a fact that Thompson was staying at the Providence Row refuge at the time of the murders. Anyone not knowing the facts would look at that and think “hey that’s a really important point.” It’s just misinformation and i think that it should be called out. For the record we really don’t have a jot of evidence that Thompson ever stayed there. All that we have is from his writing when he said that he’d seen the men queueing outside the place. Nowhere, ever, is it stated that he went inside. He may have stayed there at some point though Patrick. No one could call it impossible or even unlikely. But ‘might have’ isn’t enough to justify Richard’s stating of it as a fact and he not only states it as a fact he even says that it was during the murders and the only reason he does this is because we know that Thompson is searching for his girlfriend in Autumn/September. We don’t know where he stayed though but we know that he did use dosshouse at times when he had the money and he often slept rough. ‘Might possibly have done’ should be stated as fact.

[Fernglas]

And yet there are surgeons that disagree with you.

Hi Herlock!
Those surgeons who disagree with me are among the old ones, who themselves had widely varying levels of competence in the surgical ward (it is telling that those who regularly operated like Brown and Phillips, were convinced the Ripper had considerable knowledge and skill) and among the modern doctors you have to search long and hard to find one who will say the Ripper was an amateur and those are mostly the contrarians for contrary´s sake.

Anyone with a bit of medical knowlege and even those without, looking at the reports can see that the Ripper was no hack. You simply cannot fake what he did under adverse circumstances. A person without the needed knowledge and skill cannot get the steps for a "coursebook 1888" like kidney extraction right, especially not in the dark and crouching/kneeling on the street.
That we still have this debate going on, shows very much the capacity of humans to deny what is pretty obvious to see when it does not fit their theories.
I personally think the Ripper added to his culpability and magnitude of guilt by using his talents for such evil! A person this fast and precise under pressure could have helped save many lifes in a hospital, instead he became a serial killer.