What If?.......................

[CraveDisorder]

What if sometime this year Scotland Yard discovered some more Ripper documents previously thought lost that conclusively proved who Jack was? What if it did turn about to be some sort of cover up and his name was revealed as something like 'Albert Butler' a pretty run of the mill person from around Whitechapel who developed problems in his adult life etc etc. What if we had pictures of 'Albert' and pretty much knew the whole story!

I was wondering how the above scenario would affect everyone? Would we really want to know who he was? Isn't the chase better than the catch? Sure there would be initial excitement, world headlines but when that died down what then?

Isn't it almost better that jack is lost to history and we can all investigate and hypothesise knowing that in all likelihood we will never know?

Just wondering thats all, interested to know what you all think..................

[amarti9]

The thing truth is noone if not a large majority would not believe it. Look what happened to Patricia Cornwell. She was unfairly scrutinized harshly by critics. Even though she claims to have DNA evidence and all. Even if they had a written letter of confession from a top suspect there will be doubts.

For all we know we may very well know who the killer is but who is going to believe us?

I think anything short of videotape evidence will cause doubt.

[Jeffery]

Don't know about you, but I don't think I'd be wrong to take video evidence from 1888 with a pinch of salt.

Just kidding.

And I wholly agree with you on the fact that nobody would buy it. But I have to ask, how exactly was Patricia Cornwell's theory unfairly scrutinized? Isn't that what critics are supposed to do?

Meaning no disrespect, of course.

[kensei]

Last year, the infamous skyjacker D.B. Cooper was very possibly identified after more than three decades as a former military paratrooper named William Gossett (now deceased). I'm sure some will disagree but I happen to believe it was indeed him, and I feel an enormous sense of satisfaction about this mystery being solved, no disappointment at all. I think it would be the same with Jack the Ripper (provided of course that it happened in some way that truly was incontrovertible).

[miss marple]

Amarti9
Don't wanted to get started on Sickert here, but really people don't believe Cornwall because a a lots of her 'facts' were plain wrong, she has no understanding of the period and the milieu in which Sickert lived and she used a lot of supposition. She has no DNA from Sickert, he was cremated. And Sickert was in France at the time of the murders. Miss Marple

[Jay Batsford]

I will never be proven beyond a doubt who JTR really was! To much time has passed and far to many suspects are on the table. The best experts in the world can profile him till there blue in the face! At that time and in that place it could have been any number of people living in the whitechapel or London for that matter! We can narrow down the suspects from the ones that where put forward by the police at the time and the ones that have been put forward over the last 80 odd years! To be honest looking at his FBI profile and evidence from documentaries about what drove him to some extent to commit these crimes! I fit some of the crtieria to be a serial killer!!!!!!!! I aint......But everyone has the potential under the wrong conditions to do terrible things! History is dominated by those that have done evil things! The new series on ITV points out one real puzzle to me.... Why has no one ever copied the deads of the most well known serial killer in history? or is there some disturbed person out there thats thinking hhhhmmmmm?

[ChrisGeorge]

What if sometime this year Scotland Yard discovered some more Ripper documents previously thought lost that conclusively proved who Jack was? What if it did turn about to be some sort of cover up and his name was revealed as something like 'Albert Butler' a pretty run of the mill person from around Whitechapel who developed problems in his adult life etc etc. What if we had pictures of 'Albert' and pretty much knew the whole story!

I was wondering how the above scenario would affect everyone? Would we really want to know who he was? Isn't the chase better than the catch? Sure there would be initial excitement, world headlines but when that died down what then?

Isn't it almost better that jack is lost to history and we can all investigate and hypothesise knowing that in all likelihood we will never know?

Just wondering thats all, interested to know what you all think..................

First of all no one at Scotland Yard is going to discover an old Ripper document. The Met files on the case have been moved en masse to the Public Record Office at Kew, now the National Archives.

Chris