The Insidious Nature of this Case

[Jonathan H]

What fascinates me is that primary sources, by people who were there, claim the mystery was solved, despite the culprit not being charged -- let alone convicted.

Subsequent secondary sources beginning in the 1920's rebooted the case as an unsolved mystery which had baffled the entire constabulary, and which of course baffles us today.

This creates the redundant notion of Jack the Ripper 'suspect' books, when what you really have are some secondary sources arguing that some of the primary sources are reliable; that the case was indeed probably solved at the time.

To John Wheat

The pop caricature of the top-hatted toff with medical bag and opera cloak, cemented by Griffiths and Sims as the 'drowned doctor' [alleged] chief police suspect of the Edwardian Era, became detached as the decades passed from the tormented suicide in the river.

[Robert]

I think if you hear about the case early enough, and think about it long enough, it becomes almost a question of personal nostalgia - like trying to remember the first 2 or 3 years of your own life, which are always inaccessible.

[John Wheat]

I think the area, time in which the murders were commited have something to do with the fascination with this case. The myths about Jack the Ripper as well. E.G. A top hated gent using the barely lit back alleys to murder prostitutes in the East End of London.

[Archaic]

It's a "tip of the tongue" case. We have just enough information that we feel like we know what happened, and if we could just find one more clue, make one more connection, interpret on more piece of data that we can solve it. Like the answer is on the tip of our tongue.

Wow, I wish I'd said that! Well put, Errata.

I think the Whitechapel murders also pose an enormous question: Why?

Why would any human being want to do such horrible things to other human beings? Who was the killer, what was his motivation? Why did he do it?

Trying to grasp what happened and make some kind of sense of it really sucks us in.

Best regards,
Archaic

[ChrisGeorge]

It's a "tip of the tongue" case. We have just enough information that we feel like we know what happened, and if we could just find one more clue, make one more connection, interpret on more piece of data that we can solve it. Like the answer is on the tip of our tongue.

Well said, Errata. Very true. And of course we might add that this aspect of the case is the very reason why so many authors have broken into print with what they believe to be the solution to the case when they make a few assumptions and leaps of logic that supposedly tie all the loose threads together. And why, as well, the case is perhaps a trap and graveyard for many authors of books on Jack the Ripper suspects when they try to make such connections.

Best regards

Chris George

[Sally]

It's a "tip of the tongue" case. We have just enough information that we feel like we know what happened, and if we could just find one more clue, make one more connection, interpret on more piece of data that we can solve it. Like the answer is on the tip of our tongue.

Yes. The other thing is that its a broad field; partly because the evidence is scattered and inconclusive, partly because side avenues are inevitable in the study of anything if it continues for long enough.

The sheer diversity of interests and theories that are apparent in Ripperology indicates that it has a widespread appeal for a a multitude of reasons. The downside is that barring the discovery of a big game-changer, nobody will ever be able to agree on who the Ripper was

The other other thing is that there are avenues of research still to be explored, which gives us the impression that the case could be solved, one day.

How realistic that is, is hard to call.

[Rubyretro]

It's a "tip of the tongue" case. We have just enough information that we feel like we know what happened, and if we could just find one more clue, make one more connection, interpret on more piece of data that we can solve it. Like the answer is on the tip of our tongue.

Well put !

[Errata]

It's a "tip of the tongue" case. We have just enough information that we feel like we know what happened, and if we could just find one more clue, make one more connection, interpret on more piece of data that we can solve it. Like the answer is on the tip of our tongue.

[lynn cates]

why?

Hello Fireskin. Perhaps the fascination lies in the fact that the inquest records are missing, the witness reports are sometimes suspect, and, above all, the vast disparity between how the case looked originally and how it has come to look today?

Cheers.
LC

[fireskin]

Being new to Ripperology, I find myself pondering why..

Why is it so fascinating? Why am I sucked in so irrevocably?

I can't stop reading and studying and theorizing.. GAH!