How would YOU catch the Ripper?

[Robert]

"It's tricky this time traveling business." Especially without travel insurance.

Dig, your scenario seems to have some strange consequences. Suppose Mr A in reality A travels back in time to save the victims, but saves the victims from reality B. Suppose that Mr C from reality C travels back in time to save the victims, but saves the victims from reality A. This means that Mr A never gets to save the victims from reality B. So without setting foot in reality B, Mr C is able to change the timeline of reality B.

[Paddy]

inter-temporal communication

If we can talk to people in the past, I would go and visit my great uncle Henry Cox who was a undercover cop and have a good old chat with him, also tip him off about the murders, when and where etc.
I would also find out why he believed the timing of the murders were significant.
Pat............................

[GUT]

and all the above is why we don't have "way back machines".

[Hunter]

There's enough that's been screwed up in the past without having people from the present -- who've learned nothing from it and keep repeating those mistakes anyhow -- go back and see if they can screw something else up.

[Mayerling]

I love this sort of question, because it just can't ever be settled. Not in our lifetimes.

By the way, if we succeeded in stopping "Jack", this website would not be in existance, and all of us would never have met - unless we were members of some similar type of website (the "Encyclopedia Titanica" for instance). I for one would miss not knowing a number of you.

I really can't see how one could stop all the damage. Even if one arrives at Buck's Row before the first murder, and surprised "Jack" and Nichols, the result could still be bad. Besides turning on any of us there (remember to have a gun and use it), Jack might be still in a position to hold Nichols like a shield until he can run away, and he may still stab her. Farcically this might happen: Mary Ann might turn on you if her "John"/"Jack" ran off at seeing you, as he had not paid her yet (presumably). So you might end up having to defend yourself against one of the victims (by the way, what do you tell her or anyone - "I am from 2014, and our society is trying to stop a vicious string of murders effecting the East End in this summer and autumn of 1888, and you are supposed to be the first victim." I'm sure Mary Ann Nichols, furious at losing whatever money she would have made, would not have cared for that or any explanation!!).

By the way, here is a conumdrum for you regarding relative evils one might seek to eradicate: Does one try to prevent the vicious killing of five or more poor women in Whitechapel in the 1888 events, or does one go to Linz, in Austria -Hungary, and give a painless poison to Her Alois Schicklgruber and his pregnant wife to prevent the birth of an even worse monster?

Jeff

[GUT]

G'day Jeff

By the way, here is a conumdrum for you regarding relative evils one might seek to eradicate: Does one try to prevent the vicious killing of five or more poor women in Whitechapel in the 1888 events, or does one go to Linz, in Austria -Hungary, and give a painless poison to Her Alois Schicklgruber and his pregnant wife to prevent the birth of an even worse monster?

Using the machine I can go back to 1888 stop jack, drop in to Linz with poison, stop 9/11 and a few others on the way back, stop the Titanic from hitting an ice berg and still be early for diner.

[Harry D]

At the risk of derailing the thread, I'm not sure I would necessarily agree that Der Fuhrer was a "even worse monster" than JTR. How do we even begin to quantify something like that?

[GUT]

G'day Harry D

At the risk of derailing the thread, I'm not sure I would necessarily agree that Der Fuhrer was a "even worse monster" than JTR. How do we even begin to quantify something like that?

Lets see...

Jack we'll credit with 20 kills [after all we don't know the precise number].

Hitler we'll say five million Jews alone [ know it was more] including at least a million children.

If I could stop one of them, and only one, I know who I'd choose.

[Harry D]

G'day Harry D



Lets see...

Jack we'll credit with 20 kills [after all we don't know the precise number].

Hitler we'll say five million Jews alone [ know it was more] including at least a million children.

If I could stop one of them, and only one, I know who I'd choose.

Sorry, I just don't believe that the principle of evil can be evaluated through raw figures. People always seem to look at (in)famous dictators when defining evil. For me, someone like the Dnepropetrovsk maniacs would be considered greater monsters than Hitler ever was. At least Hitler & co had a method to their madness.

[GUT]

Sorry, I just don't believe that the principle of evil can be evaluated through raw figures. People always seem to look at (in)famous dictators when defining evil. For me, someone like the Dnepropetrovsk maniacs would be considered greater monsters than Hitler ever was. At least Hitler & co had a method to their madness.

But if you can stop one of them, which is it?

And I add my original point was that I'd catch Jack and stop Hitler.

[Robert]

Killing Hitler's parents would mean killing two (presumably innocent) people, while strangling Hitler at birth would be rather stomach-churning. So I would materialise in pre-war Vienna and slip cyanide in his coffee while he was scoffing his cream cakes.

[Harry D]

But if you can stop one of them, which is it?.

Jack.

Hitler was already stopped.

[bolo]

Killing Hitler's parents would mean killing two (presumably innocent) people, while strangling Hitler at birth would be rather stomach-churning. So I would materialise in pre-war Vienna and slip cyanide in his coffee while he was scoffing his cream cakes.

I always wondered what would have happened if Hitler would have passed the admission exam of the Vienna Art Academy.

Sorry for the OT post...

Boris

[Mayerling]

I always wondered what would have happened if Hitler would have passed the admission exam of the Vienna Art Academy.

Sorry for the OT post...

Boris

Hi Boris,

Before I forget, Hi Gut.

If Adolf had passed the admission exam it would have met one of three things (in my humble opinion).

1) The Art Academy was desperate for students to keep up it's state funding.

2) It's standards for admission had somehow collapsed, or it had decided that a love for biedemeier kitsch was the wave of the future (forget that bum Klimt!).

3).Somehow Adolf managed to pay off a whopping huge bribe to the members of the admission committee.

Personally I favor the last scenario (despite Adolf's so-called poverty status). The Austrians in the 1900 - 1914 period usually showed remarkable good taste in design, decoration, and painting.

Jeff

[lynn cates]

give the analysis

Hello Robert. You must know that, with all this analytic philosophy you're doing, I have become quite jealous. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC