What is it we're looking for?

[Ryan_Miller]

Having followed the case for a good while, I have begun to wonder what other peoples interests in the case are. Are the majority more interested in finding the suspect, finding a motive, learning of the women, the history, or for any other reason? Not much will be resolved here, but it's a question I've had for some time.

[Limehouse]

Having followed the case for a good while, I have begun to wonder what other peoples interests in the case are. Are the majority more interested in finding the suspect, finding a motive, learning of the women, the history, or for any other reason? Not much will be resolved here, but it's a question I've had for some time.

Hello Ryan,

That's a good question. I have a long-standing interest in the case because of my long-term interest in the social history of London, particularly the east end. I am less interested in suspects because I believe we will never identify the killer and I believe a continous focus on suspects distances us from the victims. However, I have argued against the candidacy of various suspects on this site, including Barnardo and Sickert because I find the accusations levelled at them unfounded and unfair.

I think Jack interests a lot of people because he is an eternal mystery who keep inventing and re-inventing himself (well, really, it's done for him by the researchers) but through the investgation of Jack, researchers have unearthed a huge amount of interesting information about how some people lived and behaved at this time. For me, this is interesting because my own grandparents on my mother's side were actually living (as children) and in the east end of London at the time of the murders.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Ryan!

I was asking this same question in a different form after I joined in 2006.

Probably we are trying to enlighten the mystery somehow in our minds. Despite knowing, that we will never catch him. My guess for the reason; he was a perfect nobody, a man in a crowd!

The same thing happened to me as with Limehouse (though not having any known British relatives ): I noticed, that four of the canonical five were originally fairly well-off and seemed to have no other choice than prostitution because of the women's chances of the contemporary society. Mary Jane Kelly then?! She will obviously always be the mystery-queen of the victims, because she covered up her tracks so wisely, that no-one will ever find the "real" one among Mary Kellies of the time!

All the best
Jukka