JTRs knife discovery

[redjac]

if it were ever found and had the DNA of the victims on etc and it was proved 100% it was the knife (and the only one in the murders) how much money you think something like that would be worth and how important? it would be like the holy grail of murder weapons...

if you think about it - it must be somewhere. like in someones possession or buried away somewhere

you ever get that feeling when you lose your car keys or something and you look and look and finally you give up and sit down and suddenly it hits you - the keys whatever must be somewhere - and you can picture them almost - alone, waiting...then maybe later you find them

thats the feeling i get when i think of stuff like the JTR knife

[sdreid]

Hi Red:

It's hard to say what that knife would be worth because, if we knew whose knife it was and I think that would be likely, then the case would be solved and that would grossly reduce interest in the events.

[TomTomKent]

Hi Red:

It's hard to say what that knife would be worth because, if we knew whose knife it was and I think that would be likely, then the case would be solved and that would grossly reduce interest in the events.

I think there may not be a monetary value as such. An argument could be made that the hostoric atrifact would be declared a national treasure and a modest compensation offered to ensure the knife is retained by a suitabe museum.

However it must be stressed that it is unlikely one knife can be tied to all the murders. It would not be a definate proof of who Jack was, but instead proof of one murder naming the most likely suspect for the remainder of the series.

[Rubyretro]

if you think about it - it must be somewhere. like in someones possession or buried away somewhere

Surely compared to the number of victorian knives, comparatively few are still in existance ?

What happened to them ?

I imagine that the handles rot (if they're wood), the blades break, rust away,
and end up in fragments at the bottom of a dump.

[niko]

Surely compared to the number of victorian knives, comparatively few are still in existance ?

What happened to them ?

I imagine that the handles rot (if they're wood), the blades break, rust away,
and end up in fragments at the bottom of a dump.

Hi Rubyretro, Victorian knives are not that difficult to find. Look at me I unburried a Victorian french cook's knife which was in circulation in the late 1800's. The wooden handle is in perfect condition, it is made from Ebony wood, the blade is made of steel. The floor where I unburried the knife I think has favored it's conservation, due to the high quantity of grease mixed with the soil, one thing that is baffleing me and making me think are the three notches carved into the side of the knife's wooden handle, all the best. Agur.

niko

[claire]

Grief, I'd sincerely hope it would be worth nothing at all. The fetishisation of the murders themselves is quite disturbing, to my mind.

[Rubyretro]

Grief, I'd sincerely hope it would be worth nothing at all. The fetishisation of the murders themselves is quite disturbing, to my mind.

Your reply certainly makes me 'pause for thought', Claire :

-first of all it's obvious that The Knife, should it be found ( and I don't believe that it has been, or will ever be conclusively prooved to be), would be worth a fortune to collecters. I think that is a fact, and I don't believe that it would be classed as 'Treasure Trove', and belong to the Country, as Tom suggests.

-I can certainly understand why you think that the 'fetishisation' of the murders is disturbing....believe Me, the very last thing that I could ever stand actually giving houseroom to (I'm actually shuddering as I type this) would be the Ripper's knife. Or the murder weapon of anyone at all. I'm certainly not a 'feng shui' type , nor a 'pretty-pretty flower 'person -I have a luminous plastic skeleton in the corner of my room (but that is a traditional 'memento mori' -it's thumbing your nose at death..in one sense...but not glorifying murder).

-Yet, we're all guilty on Casebook -especially assiduous members- of a fascination with JTR. Of course we have 'other reasons' for being here -and I'd have no trouble listing mine. Yet we are 'guilty' of perpetrating the term 'JTR' by participating in these forums. Therefore, we are upping the price of that theoretical 'Knife for Sale' (the more interest there is in something, the more the price rises).

-I remember that you attacked me once, Claire, because I admitted that there was a 'danger' of 'admiring' Jack for 'getting away with it' very cleverly.
I felt very bad then, and misunderstood. I basically totally agree with your point of view...but there is an ambiguity in the why, exactly, we find these crimes so fascinating...and by extension the perpetrator of these crimes.

I think my dream would be -if I knew for certain that I had that knife (this is a pure fantasy)- to contact other members of Casebook (and particularly Fisherman, or other people with whom it would be fitting to 'bury the hatchett), and just destroy the knife forever, irreversably. Then go and 'party' to celebrate Life. With no risk that the knife would ever end in a
Collection to be gloated over, nor in a museum to give people any sort of thrill.

I really hope that knife is in shattered rusty shards some way down a rubbish dump (which it probably is).