Does anybody here feel the same way I do?

[Steve S]

Didn't one of the Krays shoot someone in a pub in Whitechapel? A little off-topic, but still.

The Blind Beggar...That's the pub,not the victim........

[richardnunweek]

Hi,
I would admit feeling sadness, for the way those poor women lost their lives, at the hands of a crazed lunatic, one can not imagine the sheer horror they would have experience in their last seconds.
Although I would love to know who the Ripper was, contempt is what i feel for him/her.
Regards Richard.

[Mike Covell]

I feel sorry for the victims, and cannot imagine the horror that they must have experienced in their final moments, and also at how they lived their lives.

Anyway, I am changing my name,

Your's

Mike Shipman West Sutcliffe the First.

[Bob Hinton]

My Point

Ronnie Kray was a murderous psychpath and the worst type of criminal because he glamourized crime and murder making it seem a credible career prospect. How many young idiots have followed in his footsepts? So I would have to ask you, what is your point exactly?

Did you make the mistake of thinking that I chose his name because I have a warped sense of liking for the man?

Nothing could be further from the truth!

My point is exactly the one I made, it seems to have been clearly understood. Please enlighten us, why did you choose the name?

[RonnieKray]

This post is clearly not about why I chose my username.

[Mascara & Paranoia]

Re: the victims' deaths (the murder, not the mutilations), I doubt they'd be horrified exactly, but more panicky and confused as to what the hell this man's doing to them. Apart from the strangulation (though given the timeframe Jack had to work with, the same thing could be said here), they would've been killed in a matter of seconds. I think they'd be in a blind panic more than anything. I doubt thoughts of 'why' or even that this man was the Ripper would've registered.

[halomanuk]

I think the thought that 'this man is the ripper ' etc could well have flashed automatically into the mind of the victim if not during then certainly before the attack,as a curious thought, but as to 'why' and other thoughts then no - it would have been a fight for survival purely alas.

[BLUE WIZZARD]

Mascara & Paranoia,

He cut the throat so they would not scream, that tells me, he was not sure if his victim was dead when he strangled them, cutting the throat may have been just a precaution.

A case in point was the Green River Killer, he thought she was dead but she began to move again.

BTK said the same thing and then added, he was surprised at how hard it was to strangle them to death.

Jack was a seasoned killer long before the first Whitechapel victim.

BW

[Mascara & Paranoia]

Oh, right, I should've been more clear, I just meant that while they were being strangled the victims' still might not have even registered the thought that they were being killed by the Ripper, as even though that's not how he killed them or how he even intended to kill them, he wouldn't have strangled the women for any longer than a handful of seconds before slashing their throat, and then that's when the blind panic would kick in, and then their thoughts would've 'shut down' (not literally) and switch onto autopilot to thoughts of survival, despite being dead within another handful of seconds. So their deaths may not have even been all 'that' painful because of how quick they were and the initial shock they would've experienced (which also would've been the very last thing they'd have experienced).

[brummie]

I think we should all feel a degree of sympathy for the victims, but also for all the other inhabitants of the Eastend, forced to live there lives in such squalor and degradation and forced into prostitution just to survive. Thank goodness social reform was just around the corner. If Jack did nothibg else he focused the minds of the power brokers on the plight of the Eastend poor when they preferred to ignore it.

[RonnieKray]

I am glad there are people around here that do spare a thought for the victims and indeed the wider community.

For me however all though desperate social conditions have subsided due to the welfare state in the UK the propensity to drink, smoke or take drugs has not changed very much. I think the drink in 1888 absolutley guaranteed you lived in misery as many of the women would sell their body to buy drink. today there are prositutes that will do it to buy drugs - no real difference.

[Mascara & Paranoia]

Touché.

Though, although I do feel a degree of empathy for them, I find it physically impossible to fully feel anything for them because of the simple reason that ever since I first read about the victims (sometime in 2007), they were just pictures and products of Jack's. Sad but true. But I do have respect for them as individuals and they seemed like likeable characters in their own right; Polly with her bonnet, Annie fighting over soap, Kate drunkenly impersonating fire engines et cetera.

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

In fact, when I wrote my Ripper book for the Swedish market, tears rolled down my face during the chapter about Eddowes. I am quite an oversensitive person, and the worst thing for me - and what really gets to me - in any murder case is the life stories of the victims rather than gory medical details or crime scene shots. Because it is at that point the people comes alive and you make a personal connection.

All the best

[Celesta]

Ok...that's from the boys...now,from a female's persepective!

Of course I have sympathy with "the girls"...no question about it....

I prefer to call them that...than "the victims".

I have sympathy..and I have love for them...I have no problem at all with the fact that they lived over a hundred years ago..blimey..I've hit almost half of that,and most of my life feels like it happened yesterday.

Having read about them over time..I feel like I know them.

In a way..they are long lost friends.

ANNA.

Hello Friend,

I agree with everything you said here, and if you hadn't beat me to it, I would have said it myself.

Bestest,
Cel

[perrymason]

I feel its safe to say that had these women lost their lives eating berries while hop picking....the parameters of the sadness would be reserved for the lives they had to live...not the deaths they suffered.

In this case tragically we have to take in everything that was East London at that time including their deaths....and it sometimes makes me want to shower and get fresh air, let alone deal with sadness and empathy for them.

Best regards all.