Alleyways and Larger Areas

[Chava]

I've long noticed that the Ripper's victims were almost all killed in larger confined spaces after having passed with their killer through tight alleyways. This is certainly true of Chapman and Kelly, and somewhat true of Stride. Eddowes was killed in Mitre Square--which is quite large but still confined as a square--and I seem to remember that to get there she had to walk through an alley from the Bishopsgate area. Nicholls walked down (quite narrow) Buck's Row before being killed at the gates of a fairly large stables. So she almost but doesn't quite fit these parameters.

I'm no parlour psychiatrist, but the correspondences with an act of sexual intercourse are fairly obvious. I wonder if the victims 'picked themselves' in that they took the killer through these kinds of circumstances that allowed him to indulge in his sick version of sex. One might argue correctly that these were exactly the kinds of places a street whore might take her client for a bit of privacy. But there were other places as well--dark shop entrances; Spitalfields Church Yard; the narrow alleyways themselves. No Ripper victim is found in these kinds of places. I can't believe that's a coincidence. I wonder how many other whores may have saved their own lives by taking their homicidal punter into Itchy Park!

[bluecedar]

Don't say whores, say prostitutes. You don't want to sound like Jack the Ripper!

[The Grave Maurice]

Your location theory is interesting, Chava, but, as you say, it doesn't work for all the victims. Perhaps it would help if you told us which of the Whitechapel murders you believe are attributable to JtR. For example (and this is just from memory) it seems to apply to Chapman, Eddowes, Kelly (sort of), and McKenzie (sort of), but not to Smith, Tabram, Nichols, Stride, Farmer, Mylett, and Coles.

[Sam Flynn]

Don't say whores, say prostitutes. You don't want to sound like Jack the Ripper!

Don't say prostitutes, say "casual prostitutes" or "vagrants". You don't want to sound like a Ripperologist!

[Sam Flynn]

I've long noticed that the Ripper's victims were almost all killed in larger confined spaces after having passed with their killer through tight alleyways.

You'd have struggled to go anywhere reasonably private in that part of town without having to pass through a tight alleyway, Chava.

[Chava]

I agree, Sam. But it's not just the tight alley! I think a lot of whores would have taken their clients into those alleys for privacy. But the victims took the killer through the alleys and out into a broader but confined space.

Maurice, it seems to apply to Tabram, sort of. Chapman certainly. Kelly certainly. Stride more-or-less depending on how narrow Berners St was. Eddowes, again more-or-less depending on whether she went through an alley into Mitre Square, which I seem to have read that she did. Nicholls is a stretch, although Buck's Row was narrow, and she was killed at a point in the street where there were stables, so she was killed just before the larger space. I think the killings ended with Kelly, but I remain convinced that she, of all the victims, did know the killer and had some kind of prior relationship with him. That murder has always seemed more personal to me than the others.

[perrymason]

Don't say prostitutes, say "casual prostitutes" or "vagrants". You don't want to sound like a Ripperologist!

Please....these women were merely "unfortunate", as the Mary Jane character says in From Hell, "Oh Yeah...we're just a great big mass of very unlucky women"...or something to that effect.

Cheers.

[The Grave Maurice]

Eddowes fits your theory perfectly, Chava. Church Passage was considerably narrower than the walkway that is there today, and Eddowes defininely must have walked down it.

As to some of the others, I'm not so sure. I mean, Kelly went down a claustrophobia-inducing tunnel and was killed in a tiny room. Your theory might apply were she killed outside in Miller's Court itself. Likewise with Stride: Berner Street was, I assume, the same width as the present-day Henriques Street, i.e., the same width as the other minor thoroughfares in the neighbourhood. However, your theory would apply if, as Trevor Marriott has touted on another thread, she had died at the back of Dutfield's Yard where it widens out. Same with Nichols. Buck's Row/Durward Street is admittedly rather narrow; but Nichols was killed right on that narrow street in front of a wooden gate. Your theory would come into play had she been murdered just a minute's walk farther along in front of the Board School, where the street broadens out into a thumping great courtyard-like area.

Anyway, all that doesn't matter. What I like is that you are trying to come with a new angle. I much admire that.

[perrymason]

I neglected to mention that in all of the first 4 Canonical murders, the killer had more than one way out. Bucks Row was open ended, the yard at Hanbury backed on to many yards once the fence was scaled, Dutfields Yard had the gates and the side entrance to the club, plus a possible ladder exit at the back of the yard, Mitre Square was entered by three lanes or passages, one a carriageway, and then there is Millers Court, room 13. With one door and two windows leading to a single exit archway, narrow and 24-25 feet long, with him working with his back turned to both room exits.

Best regards all.

[Sam Flynn]

I neglected to mention that in all of the first 4 Canonical murders, the killer had more than one way out.... the yard at Hanbury backed on to many yards once the fence was scaled

Sure, "once the fence was scaled" - but isn't that rather stretching a point, Mike? If anyone had emerged from that passageway into the yard, Annie's killer was as good as cornered.

[perrymason]

Hi Sam,

I thought it fair to differentiate between a wall of wood that is scalable, to a wall of brick or stone, that opposite Marys window, is 2 stories tall, and a dead end with stone walls to the right. One he could scale without equipment....and if truly cornered could likely crash through.

Your point is fair though, the yard at Hanbury was a box with a single street access.

All the best Sam.

[Sam Flynn]

One he could scale without equipment....and if truly cornered could likely crash through.

If he'd had more control over the situation - or at least more sense - then he wouldn't have chosen to mutilate her so close to the back step. Whether he could have crashed through the fence or not, the fact remains that anyone coming through the back door would have been almost on top of him.

[Redsmith]

If a man driving a horse and cart tailed a woman into a yard, the horse and cart would: partly or wholly block her egress; partly or wholly obscure what was happening behind it; allow anyone standing on the vehicle to see over walls and perhaps even track the progress of a policeman on his beat. The presence of the horse would also provide an easily dismissed licit source for any sound of scuffling etc.

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Dominic,
Although your point is perfectly reasonable,there are no references at all to any horse and cart being heard or seen at any of the murder scenes. There is a mention in one of some men seen saddling horses a little way away,but this was after the murder and at the time the body was found,if I remember correctly.

[Redsmith]

Hello, Natalie.

Just thinking out loud; but I would mention that very familiar things tend to be noticed only by their absence.