All through the night?..Or..Jack the Imsomniac

[PC Fitzroy-Toye]

Night whatchman? working the vampire shifts maybe with a site he could bunk from do his deeds and be back for change over he would get income, alibi and time for hunting.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Just a thought.....Even if we look at the bare minimum of accepted victims,(Nichols,Chapman and Eddowes), it means our chap's activities varied from 0130-ish to 0530-ish.....Did he roam the streets all night?....Which opens up a lot of other thoughts about employment/domestic situation....

Before electricity had reach most homes in the Western world, people did have a different sleep pattern. They would often sleep in two 4 hours cycles.

Especially in a neighborhood where people worked 12 hours a day. they would come home, eat a little, and go to bed because they were exhausted. They would wake up 4 hours later and do some chores, go out, or do whatever their lives was about. That's why I guess public houses and stores were open in the middle of the night.

[Ginger]

Before electricity had reach most homes in the Western world, people did have a different sleep pattern. They would often sleep in two 4 hours cycles.

Interesting. A few years back I quit bothering with TV, and my sleep cycles became very similar to that. I get home from work, eat, go to bed, then I'm up again in the middle of the night to poke around for a few hours (usually reading or internetting in bed, sometimes a snack), before I go back to sleep.

[K-453]

We tend to think of "Jack" as walking around for hours in search for victims, but it's also possible those murders happened during sudden fits - he slipped out of the house, did his deed, and was back after 30 minutes or so. Think of the Mitre Square murder, how fast everything happened.

All those crimes happening in a small area, and "Jack" still sticking to this area when it was already swarming with police, fit to someone whose cruising radius is limited, because a) he had to be back home to avoid suspicion, and b) quickly slipping back into his bolt hole minimised detection.

[Rosella]

Surely, unless he had transport of some kind, Jack's cruising radius would be fairly limited anyway? Walking miles wouldn't have been an option if you were going to work a full twelve hour day later, or the next day.

How JTR met his victims is quite an interesting speculation, really. Did he drink in local pubs, see a woman there who might be an option and then follow her out onto darkened streets? Did he walk along more well-lit thoroughfares and then follow a likely candidate and chat her up?

[Amanda]

Unless...

Possibly Jack was involved in criminal activity (burglary, for example) during the night and early morning hours and thus had no "day gig" or "straight job". Perhaps in the course of "casing" or committing other crimes, he came across opportunity to commit murder. Perhaps he was a part of the East End late-night culture and didn't attract attention or perhaps was furtive enough not to be noticed.

Unless Jack was a man of independent means and didn't need a day job...

Amanda

[gnote]

Surely, unless he had transport of some kind, Jack's cruising radius would be fairly limited anyway? Walking miles wouldn't have been an option if you were going to work a full twelve hour day later, or the next day.

How JTR met his victims is quite an interesting speculation, really. Did he drink in local pubs, see a woman there who might be an option and then follow her out onto darkened streets? Did he walk along more well-lit thoroughfares and then follow a likely candidate and chat her up?

The FBI profile posits he drank in pubs among the locals and victims.

It's also considered that he roamed and hunted until an opportunity presented itself.

In either scenario it points to somebody who didn't have to rush somewhere during these periods of time. At least not on the evenings/mornings the murders were committed.

[Cogidubnus]

I'm probably way out here, but am wondering if he actually "courted" these women...flattered them with concern and showed them a possible way out of their position as unfortunates...purely as a way of approaching them...

I'm thinking here of Nichols with her jolly bonnet, Stride, secreting her meagre possessions and preparing for a night out, Eddowes being bought drinks in a pub somewhere, maybe Kelly with her fish and chip dinner too...

It's probably nothing at all, but it's been long in my mind...

All the best

Dave

[Amanda]

Maybe...

I'm probably way out here, but am wondering if he actually "courted" these women...flattered them with concern and showed them a possible way out of their position as unfortunates...purely as a way of approaching them...

I'm thinking here of Nichols with her jolly bonnet, Stride, secreting her meagre possessions and preparing for a night out, Eddowes being bought drinks in a pub somewhere, maybe Kelly with her fish and chip dinner too...

It's probably nothing at all, but it's been long in my mind...

All the best

Dave

Hi Dave,

I agree, you might well have something there. It wouldn't necessarily have to have been someone well-off either, just a chap with regular enough employment to treat a lady now and again.
So are we back to the regular Joe Bloggs theory?

Amanda

[Bridewell]

I've always thought the 'jolly new bonnet' may simply have been one of the items of clothing she'd stolen from her employers a few weeks before.

[Cogidubnus]

I've always thought the 'jolly new bonnet' may simply have been one of the items of clothing she'd stolen from her employers a few weeks before.

Maybe Colin...I wondered too...but would a bonnet of the type worn by an East End unfortunate necessarily appeal to a middle class employer (or vice-versa)?

I don't know...

[SirJohnFalstaff]

For people interested in sleep patterns before electricity reached most homes (meaning, two 4 hours sleep shifts, that could be separated by as much as 1-4 hours of activity) there is an excellent book called "At Day's Close: A History of Nighttime" by A. Roger Ekirch

very interesting read.