Just jack, or others?

[The Rookie Detective]

17 years later....time for a thread bump up.


Interesting discussion

[Tani]

I think Annie Millwood (Sat 25 Feb 1888) and Ada Wilson (Weds March 28 1888), moreso the former, are good candidates for being early Ripper attacks. Ada Wilson specified robbery as a motive but that may not be the whole truth, if she does not want to disclose prostitution. Serial killers generally don't start where they end, so I wouldn't expect Annie Millwood to end up like MJK. I include Tabram (Tues 7 August 1888) as a Ripper victim and I think the first three victims being stabbed and then his MO shifting to strangling and throat cutting is not a large leap. Strangling stops blood flow, leading to less blood spray and mess. Stabbing is a far messier way to murder someone and, as Ripper may have discovered, not as effective a method as if often thought - not even stabbing in the throat (Wilson). Tabram may have been his first successful murder and that took 39 stabs; that's a lot of blood and a lot of effort. Polly Nichols was killed just 24 days after and then the spree aspect started once he found an effective MO. It's also apparent that the kind of knife he used changed.

Stabbing to the legs, in the case of Annie, seems odd though. I'm not sure why that would have been the case, unless this were just meant to be an attack and not a murder. How do you stab someone's legs while a person is standing unless you are crouching or kneeling? Seems more likely she was lying down in the way a prostitute might. She was also stabbed in her lower torso, which seems Ripper-like. She may have struggled as he was stabbing her and moved, so the knife caught her legs.

I also believe Alice McKenzie is a Ripper victim (#39)

I think Frances Coles has been well enough explained by Sadler.

As for Torsoman I'm on the fence. I believe Ripper is capable of this but for me it's the way he disposes of the bodies that makes the difference. Why would Ripper leave the bodies where they are in some cases and then trash the others? It seems odd to me. One torso was found in October 1888, which could put to bed any theory of wounded Ripper from Eddowes. I'm not invested in that theory myself although I am partial, and it must be taken into account. Torsoman also suggests the killer had a private place where he could dismember bodies - why could he not take the others there, that he had to murder them in the street? Unless these women were unwilling to go and thus Ripper hadn't time to turn into Torsoman and remove limbs. I'm not sure, but I err towards not the same person and the South East was just unlucky at this time. We also don't know where Torsoman may have lived; it could have been Kent, whereas Ripper seems to be a Whitechapel local.