How would YOU catch the Ripper?

[Harry D]

I wouldn't do any better than the police.

Not even with the benefit of hindsight?

But one thing I would do, if I were a reasonably high-ranking policeman and if I could get approval from above, would be to use public funds to recruit (unofficially) a number of the more sober and reliable prostitutes to make enquiries among their street sisters as to whether there were any strange clients, creepy punters etc. They would of course not reveal that they were working for the police. It would be a bit like what the police were already doing with plain clothes officers but the advantage would be that these would be women and would be trusted by the other women. It's not much but it's the best I can think of.

How do we know the police didn't already have prostitutes working as informants?

[Robert]

I wouldn't do any better than the police. But one thing I would do, if I were a reasonably high-ranking policeman and if I could get approval from above, would be to use public funds to recruit (unofficially) a number of the more sober and reliable prostitutes to make enquiries among their street sisters as to whether there were any strange clients, creepy punters etc. They would of course not reveal that they were working for the police. It would be a bit like what the police were already doing with plain clothes officers but the advantage would be that these would be women and would be trusted by the other women. It's not much but it's the best I can think of.

[Harry D]

Let's say you could fire up the wayback machine and revisit Whitechapel during the murders. How would you set about catching 'Jack?' Bearing in mind that embroiling yourself in the case could cause you to become a suspect... or worse.

At which point would you try to catch Jack red-handed? How would your own theory of the canonical victims factor into things?