The "Invisible Man" effect.

[RivkahChaya]

A quote I love from US TV's Law & Order: SVU: "Even psychos can usually pass a psych exam."

Since I worked in social services for a long time, I know some people who have been in charge of administering and scoring preliminary exams for people who have requested or been referred for services. That quote is very true. "Psychos" are aware of what the stereotypes are, as much as non-psychos, but those questions are on the test, because there are there to catch fakers-- questions like "Do you hear voices other people don't hear?" Genuinely psychotic people who are trying to duck the system say "no," while fakers say yes, because everyone who isn't Amish (and even probably half of them) know that psychotic people "hear voices." On the other hand, odd things that people with certain kinds of mental illnesses answer "Yes" to with high predictability, while non-ill people rarely answer "Yes" to are odd, because they aren't necessarily associated with features of the illness. My favorite example is "Does all food taste the same?" For some reason, people with schizophrenia nearly always answer "Yes," to that, while physical conditions that make things taste the same, or dull a person's sense of taste are very rare, so few non-schizophrenics answer yes, including the fakers, who said they heard voices.

No one has actually studied why schizophrenics overwhelmingly answer "Yes," to that question, because for the purposes of this particular test, it doesn't matter. It may be that schizophrenics overwhelmingly lie on that question. All that matters is the predictive reliability of the question, and because there is such a clear separation of groups there, it's on the test.

It's not the only question. It's a test with hundreds of questions, and there is an interview as well. The worst that happens is that someone scams the system who isn't really unwell, although if someone is that desperate, one wonders how "not unwell" they are-- or that a truly unwell person slips through the cracks, because he doesn't want help, which is sad, but in the end, you can't make someone take it.

[RavenDarkendale]

Yeah, I can see that out of soldiers. With policemen I think the draw that ropes people in who wash out or simply cannot pass the psych exam is the authority that goes with being a policeman. They think that the officers can just pull anyone over for any reason, that they can slam people around just to be doing it, and that if they shoot someone there will be no consequences. They view a policeman's job as a license to do what they want to whom they want whenever they want. They cannot understand due process, probable cause, the need for search warrants, accountability for every shot fired in the line of duty, etc

I recall a tale sometime back of a policeman who dragged a pregnant woman out of the car and proceeded to rough her up so badly she a;most lost her baby. The cruiser cam captured the whole thing and the cop was busted back to the bottom. One cop real life drama show ran an episode where a man with a hatchet was screaming and threatening everyone and one cop shot and killed him. The other officers tackled him and he was charged with murder.

"With great power comes great responsibility" as Spiderman's Uncle Ben once remarked

[Paddy]

Policemen

Before my Henry Cox became a policeman he was a plumber. He had certain connections ie grandfather was an excise officer. His father was a printer with his own newspaper. From what I gather Henry was quite bright too.
I would have thought that connections helped ! I am sure there would have had to have been some sort of psychological assessment too....

Pat

[RivkahChaya]

So, stick with me-- how easy was it to become a policeman in 1888?

First, if the "lots of serial killers are wannabe policemen" holds true going back to Victorian time, and I realize it may not,

AND

it was far easier to become a policeman, because the psychological screening was not as rigorous,

is it possible JTR was a beat cop?


BTW, my own experience in the military, is that there are always a few men (it's always men) who wash out in training, because they joined the military believing that they'd get to kill a lot of things, and that the Army was generally cool with killing-- you know, like if a squirrel ran across the berm during rifle training, everyone would think it was funny if you took pot shots at it, and instead, you ended up confined to the barracks, and possibly getting recycled through training, with counseling statements in your file (pretty much the worst they can do; you can't be courts martialed in training, unless you murder someone-- pretty much the worst that happens if you assault someone is that you get discharged and turned over to civil authorities; it's not even a dishonorable discharge, if you are still in training).

[RavenDarkendale]

Isn't it the case that a lot of people who end up being serial killers, or at least serial violent felons, have applied to the police academy, and failed? or been accepted, but washed out? and have followed the investigations into their own crimes, which brought them to the attention of the authorities in the first place?

Is that a modern phenomenon, derived from a normal, general interest by most people in crime as narrative, detective fiction, following news stories as they develop, which is a 20th century phenomenon, or is it something that might have gone on in 1888?

Quite so. Bundy applied, actually studied law (he defended himself), I think BTK had tried to become a policeman, and possibly John Wayne Gacy. Serial killers like to involve themselves in the investigation which is why anyone who discovers a body has to be a suspect. I know here in my area not long ago a wannabe policeman mounted lights in his car to pull over and rape women.

We are conditioned to trust policemen, which makes for a serial killer ruse that works well...

[RivkahChaya]

in the same way a lady will say she is staying alone, even if her butler and maids are with her (or at least according to Father Brown).

Isn't that the origin of the joke "the butler did it?"

I saw an episode of a TV crime/lawyer show, where one of the lawyers was deaf, and had an interpreter. There was a murder committed, and the interpreter did it, in the end. I really enjoyed that, since I was an interpreter myself, at the time. I won't say more, so it won't be a spoiler.

As far as this being something that comes up on TV, it reminds me of Roger Ebert's (a well-known film critic in the US) rule of "conservation of characters" in solving TV and movie crime. Because TV and film has a budget, that allows for only so many paid actors, any character that doesn't seem to have a place-- who is redundant, doesn't move the plot along by being a key witness, for example, or isn't a de riguer character, like the detective, the person who finds the body, etc., is probably there to be revealed as the killer at the end. Prime example is the US version of The Killing on AMC-TV. Another example was an episode of a show I won't name (because of spoilers) where a person was mauled by a bear, but the investigator declared it a murder, and called in two "bear experts," a veterinarian, and a zoologist. Of course, one of the bear experts did it. You just don't need two.

And of course Policemen would pass unsuspected. I consider this relevant because on actually lived in Mitre Square.

Isn't it the case that a lot of people who end up being serial killers, or at least serial violent felons, have applied to the police academy, and failed? or been accepted, but washed out? and have followed the investigations into their own crimes, which brought them to the attention of the authorities in the first place?

Is that a modern phenomenon, derived from a normal, general interest by most people in crime as narrative, detective fiction, following news stories as they develop, which is a 20th century phenomenon, or is it something that might have gone on in 1888?

[Fisherman]

Nope. That is not what I am hinting at. I am saying that the evidence tells us that at one stage, the police would have thought that the killer could well have been one of their own or an imposter clad in police uniform.

Shall I explain, or do you want to try and work it out yourself? Let me know!

The best,
Fisherman

[TomTomKent]

I feel pretty certain that the police for a short time did believe that a man clad in police uniform was the killer. It would only have lasted some hours, though, but they must have thought that this was so at one stage.

Fisherman

Would a Police uniform be needed or a Police whistle blown a few times in a quiet spot far enough away from your intended target to distract attention a while?

[Fisherman]

And of course Policemen would pass unsuspected. I consider this relevant because on actually lived in Mitre Square.

In the case of all the murders people didn't have to go very far to find a constable; the beat cops walked their beats, passing through the areas every day and every night; and the timing of Catherine Eddows' murder and mutilation was timed to the patrolman's beat. Then there was the torso found on the grounds of the construction site for the New Scotland Yard building . Not saying it was a corrupt policeman, but it could have been.

I feel pretty certain that the police for a short time did believe that a man clad in police uniform was the killer. It would only have lasted some hours, though, but they must have thought that this was so at one stage.

Fisherman

[Errata]

I would think a passed out drunk would be the ultimate invisible man. First of all, people genuinely might not see him if he had keeled over into garbage or something. But also, we deliberately don't see them because we are afraid of making eye contact that would lead to interaction, and possibly a request for money. We scan for threat when walking alone, and depend on posture, expression, and quality of movement to alert us to danger. Some guy sprawled out next to a stoop snoring immediately gets dismissed as a threat. And if the cops find some guy passed out close to the murder scene who is apparently not covered in blood, they will dismiss him as a suspect. Especially if it takes several dunkings into a water barrel to wake him up.

[RavenDarkendale]

And of course Policemen would pass unsuspected. I consider this relevant because on actually lived in Mitre Square.

In the case of all the murders people didn't have to go very far to find a constable; the beat cops walked their beats, passing through the areas every day and every night; and the timing of Catherine Eddows' murder and mutilation was timed to the patrolman's beat. Then there was the torso found on the grounds of the construction site for the New Scotland Yard building . Not saying it was a corrupt policeman, but it could have been.

[Fisherman]

So, thanks to the recent BBC series reminding me how brilliant the Father Brown stories are I have been listening to the Colonial Players adaptions on the drive too and from work, making a point of revisiting my personal favourite "The Invisible Man".

For those of you who have not read the stories (they are very affordable on Kindle, so go redeem yourselves pronto) or listened to their quirky radio adaptions the "Invisible" man is a postman who seems to slip into or around crimescenes where "nobody" was seen because those being questioned either did not register such a common site or did not consider a Postman to be who the detectives may mean when asked "did anybody come this way?" in the same way a lady will say she is staying alone, even if her butler and maids are with her (or at least according to Father Brown).

There of course has long been speculation that the Whitechappel murderer may well have been exactly such an anonymous or unnoticed soul, with several suggestions of who may or maynot slip outside of the notice of witnesses.

Not wishing to identify a suspect, but exactly which jobs or uniforms would act as such urban camoflague at the time of the murders? Who would avoid notice as being part of the background furniture around the crime scenes?

The man I am researching, Charles Lechmere, would be the perfect fit here. He was a carman, and he had good cause to walk the streets at the times of the murders.

On the night of the Nichols murder, we know that Lechmere together with another carman, Robert Paul, approached and spoke to a PC (Jonas Mizen), and we also know that Mizen got the impression that he was a carman, judging by his clothes and appearance. So the PC immediately sorted Lechmere into a category of people that had reason to be out and about on his way to job at around 3.45 in the morning.

Moreover, after the murder had been discovered, the policemen who had been on beats adjacent to Buck´s Row were asked whether they had seen any person of interest entering or leaving Buck´s Row at the relevant hours - and the PC:s all agreed that no such person had been around!
This means that Mizen would have ommitted to mention Lechmere and Paul, presumably because he judged them totally unconspicious.

Lechmere, of course, proved to have been alone at the murder spot with the victim. When he resurfaced, a couple of days after the murder, he claimed to have found the body.

Would that fit your bill, TomTom...?

All the best,
Fisherman

[K-453]

Close to the crime scenes, and at the right time, often "one or two labourers on their way to work" were spotted, or "men who looked like they were on their way to work".

All those men looked pretty much the same, wearing drab clothes, and caps or hats that cast shades over their faces. Especially at night, when there was only a bit of light from the street lamps.

One of them probably preferred to keep his hands in his jacket pockets.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Ginger

I think you may well be right that certain folk would be less visible - however I'd take issue with the carter with his horse and cart...I think someone might've noticed a horse and cart in the early hours of the morning!

You'll be getting any remaining royal conspiracists salivating!

All the best

Dave

[Ginger]

A woman, especially one who appeared to be of a similar estate to the victims, would pass un-suspected, if not un-noticed. A carter with his pony and cart would probably be part of the background. The milk man and the baker's man, if they delivered in those neighborhoods (I suspect they didn't), would be abroad at those hours. Around the markets you'd have lots of 'invisibles' early in the am, waiting for the day to start. Publicans would be cleaning and locking up late at night, and probably invisible, but they're pretty much bound to a locale, and would be conspicuous if they were out of place.