Religious connections ?

[brummie]

I have just been reading on the board in the section on Francis Thomson and saw this: "In all five murders the nearest landmark is Christ Church of Whitechapel. It was built in 1714 and completed in 1729. It still dominates the surrounding street-scape with its portico and spire." It also goes on to link all 5 cannon murders with catholic feast days, if this is the case surely this would provide the explanation for the irregular gaps between murders and strongly suggests we shoukd be lokking for a religious maniac?

[brummie]

This Thompson guy seems to be getting more and more interseting, just seen this on another website: Http://www.geocities.com/darkly_burning/.
"While Francis Thompson was a vagrant, he formed a friendship with a prostitute.
In the summer of 1888, upon hearing of his publication in the ‘Merry England’, Thompson returned to the streets to seek her out. Everard Meynell detailed the final conversation, between Thompson and his secret admirer, and her growing resemblance to his late mother and his sister who died at infancy.


'After his first interview with my father he had taken her his news "They will not understand our friendship." She said, and then, "I always knew you were a genius." And so she strangled the opportunity; she killed again the child, the sister; the mother had come to life within her.'

She was never heard from again. " Does anyone know if we have a name for this woman?

[miss marple]

Feast days

Brummie,
As everyday of the year is the feast day of some saint or another, the connection between feast days and murders is tenuous.
Miss Marple

[Sam Flynn]

Agreed, Miss M. Besides, the contention that Christ Church was the "nearest landmark" is dodgy in itself... possibly another example of the "Ripper-centric" view of the world to which we sometimes become susceptible when discussing this case.

[brummie]

Agreed, Miss M. Besides, the contention that Christ Church was the "nearest landmark" is dodgy in itself... possibly another example of the "Ripper-centric" view of the world to which we sometimes become susceptible when discussing this case.

Not withstanding that, Thompson still seems to be of the right profile most ofton associated with the ripper.Brought up in a deeply religious background in a family of sisters and very close to his mother, unhappy about his father remarrying. A drug addict who seems to have failed at everything he tried, the army, the pristhood, medical school where he seems to have had a penchant for dissection. As an author in various poems and stories he wrote about the hunting down, murder and mutilation of women. It is also known that he was searching for a prostitute he had become obsessed with, who he felt bore a resemblance to his mother, in the summer of 1888. All of this I believe makes him a stronger cndidate than most others.

[Sam Flynn]

Not withstanding that, Thompson still seems to be of the right profile most ofton associated with the ripper.

That may or may not be true, Brum, but it seems that there have been several "right" profiles over the years - low-class immigrant, mad doctor, middle-class smack-head, crazed religious/social reformer, spurned lover with an inferiority complex... and so forth.

The danger with these stereotypes is that they are so numerous that you can find one to fit, or make one fit, almost any given suspect. Worse, so little is generally known about the lives of those suspects that there's a tendency to fill in the gaps to fit the "profile". For the unwary it becomes difficult to separate fact from speculation, especially if the latter is "legitimized" by a convincing profile.

Problem is, what if that profile is wrong?

[Uncle Jack]

I have also found Francis Thomson of interest, even though I tend to try and ignore the "celebrity" suspects. I am more inclined to look into Dr. Barnardo as the "religious maniac" theory due to him being questioned the night of the double event.