Jack the Ripper Tech

[sdreid]

Hi all,

The place to discuss recent developments that Jack and his pursuers had at their disposal.

Starting off with forensics:

Crime scene photography-Received limited use
Tracking dogs-Considered but not used
Bertillion's-May not apply unless some unidentified suspicious person was captured
Chemical poison testing-As far as we know would not apply
Fingerprinting-Had been discovered but no one had figured out its importance for crime solving

Is that it or other additions?

[sdreid]

On Jack's side of the ledger:

Mechanized rapid transit-For a get away, train speeds were approaching 100 mph by 1888. There were also other forms of mechanized transportation, such as steam boats, nascent automobiles, submarines and even primitive airships but none were rapid. The submarine sounds quite stealthy though.

Electronic communication-If Jack had an accomplice, they could have used the telegraph to coordinate plans. In the same vein, there were also some telephones in the city at the time, although the London phone book was basically a pamphlet. That said, I believe there was a business just a couple of doors down from 29 Hanbury that was equipped with a telephone.

Machine gun-Had been invented but not Jack's style.

[Graham]

Why didn't Abberline, Swanson & Co just summon The Terminator from the future to sort it all out for them? That would've been the easiest way to nail the Ripper.

Graham

[sdreid]

Ah yes, I forgot about that secret time machine as well as the invaders from Mars.

[Graham]

Hi Stan,

According to my (secret) source of information, there were 13000 telephone users in the entire UK in 1884, so maybe double this number by 1888. One of the first subscribers to the telephone was W S Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame, but it is recorded that when he lifted his newly-installed receiver and listened for a moment, he growled, "There's no bugger there!"

Cheers,

Graham

[sdreid]

Hi Graham,

On the old "crashbook", I believe someone posted the entire London phone book for 1888. If I recall, there were only a half dozen or so that were private residences - the vast majority were businesses.

[Sam Flynn]

One of the first subscribers to the telephone was W S Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame, but it is recorded that when he lifted his newly-installed receiver and listened for a moment, he growled, "There's no bugger there!"

... a bit like Alexander Graham Bell's answerphone message:

"This is Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the first telephone. If you've invented another telephone, please leave a message after the beep."



(Credit to Graeme Garden.)

[sdreid]

The record:

Phonograph-This could have been used to record witness and suspect statements as well as coroner's hearings. In the case of that latter, I've heard that this was even suggested although the idea was rejected. Wouldn't that have been something for all of us to listen to today?

Le Prince even had a primitive motion picture camera but it was only good for a couple of seconds.

[Graham]

Abberline: I say, Swanson, do you really believe that this cocoa-tin will assist us in the swift apprehension of the Whitechapel Fiend by means of this new-fangled telephonic communication?

Swanson: It might if you keep the string tight, you useless flatfoot.


Graham

[sdreid]

Justice, if he'd been caught:

In England, you just had hanging recently modernized to the long drop.

The only other "civilized" forms of execution methods used in the world at the time, that I can think of, were the guillotine and the firing squad. The electric chair was well under development but was never used anywhere but The United States and The Philippines.

[Graham]

The long drop had been around for quite a while prior to 1888, but sometimes it was so long that the prisoner ended up in two halves under the gallows...odd it is that the USA never quite got the hang of hanging (pun intended) as did the Brits.

The guillotine was typically Gallic - slice the head off quick, pick it up by the hair and ask it if it could recite a line or two of Rimbaud. It's said that the famous Parisien executioner Jean-Claude Le Chop would place a cigar under the blade, alongside the neck of the condemned, to save him the trouble of clipping it later at the post-decapitation piss-up.

As for the chair - "Have you any last words, Mr Kemmler?" "Yes, pedal faster, you bastards!"

Graham

[sdreid]

Kemmler was REALLY granted a final smoke.

[sdreid]

Bertillion's-May not apply unless some unidentified suspicious person was captured

Of course, this is new all over again today under the name biometrics.

[perrymason]

Hi gents,

What of these "telephone" boxes that were set up throughout the East End that Fall as a trial for police use....does anyone know if they used them even once?

We know they didnt use crime scene photography for 80% of the Canonicals, we know that they didnt try fingerprinting for clues even though it was not admissible in court yet, we know that they washed off a potentially important clue from a wall before recording it with a photo, we know that the bloodhounds were not used in an active role the night of any murder....and we know that Dutfields Yard was washed down by 6am....meaning they did all their onsite inspections by artificial light.....so.....

Even had they better tools, whose to say they would have used them properly, or at all?

Best regards Stan, all.

[sdreid]

Again it doesn't apply in this case but another forensic science that was developing at this time was firearm ballistics.