Local Knowledge

[Newbie]

well as he was seen and interupted by a bunch of jews that night and the gsg disparages jews, id say the likelihood is that they are connected, ie the ripper wrote it. too much of a coincidence for me.

Hi Abby Normal,

perhaps, but a lot of people had strong sentiments against the Jews, and put up grafitti to vent their displeasure; it would be strange that JtR wandered around with a piece of chalk .... perhaps he picked it up at the place he holed up in - I can't see him starting out with it. To my argument, it doesn't really matter whether he wrote the graphito or not .... the issue is locality.

And the interesting thing is why he didn't just leave behind the incriminating evidence (the torn apron) where he had waited: not a good thing to have with you if you are stopped and searched by the police or vigilantes. The best explanation is that he couldn't leave it behind, because it would be a location that would give the police a clue as to who he was - him being a local.

But, there is always the possibility that he left his bolt hold, with chalk in hand, intending to write the message and leave his calling card behind - the torn apron. I just think the totality of that is unlikely. He got rid of the torn apron sufficiently far from where he stayed, spontaneously wrote his graphito if you like, and then went on his merry way home.

[Abby Normal]

He's local.

Most serial killers hunt close to home, and for those that don't, the number that kill in a tiny location is probably nill .... excluding a hospital setting/clinic and poisoning patients.

The double event, if committed by the same killer, demonstrates how JtR could extemporize and recalibrate in the disorientation of darkness in White Chapel.

Its a safe assumption that he got nicked, cut off the apron to staunch the bleeding, found a location near mitre square that was secure, leaving it when the bleeding had stopped. Moreover, the location was not one where he could leave the bloody apron behind, so he took the risk of taking it a long with him and depositing it on Goulston: the location being one where leaving it behind had the potential of implicating him.

I am not of the opinion that it was a matter of playing cat and mouse with the police .... he had a habit of leaving, not playing games. The graphito probably wasn't his doing, and if it was it doesn't really give sustenance to the idea that delaying departure was a game to him.

He didn't head up a long White Chapel road when he had the opportunity to leave (endorsed by the anyone can do it using the main artery crowd) .... he went up to the top of Goulston and into the maze.

well as he was seen and interupted by a bunch of jews that night and the gsg disparages jews, id say the likelihood is that they are connected, ie the ripper wrote it. too much of a coincidence for me.

[Newbie]

He's local.

Most serial killers hunt close to home, and for those that don't, the number that kill in a tiny location is probably nill .... excluding a hospital setting/clinic and poisoning patients.

The double event, if committed by the same killer, demonstrates how JtR could extemporize and recalibrate in the disorientation of darkness in White Chapel.

Its a safe assumption that he got nicked, cut off the apron to staunch the bleeding, found a location near mitre square that was secure, leaving it when the bleeding had stopped. Moreover, the location was not one where he could leave the bloody apron behind, so he took the risk of taking it a long with him and depositing it on Goulston: the location being one where leaving it behind had the potential of implicating him.

I am not of the opinion that it was a matter of playing cat and mouse with the police .... he had a habit of leaving, not playing games. The graphito probably wasn't his doing, and if it was it doesn't really give sustenance to the idea that delaying departure was a game to him.

He didn't head up a long White Chapel road when he had the opportunity to leave (endorsed by the anyone can do it using the main artery crowd) .... he went up to the top of Goulston and into the maze.

[Sunny Delight]

Would local knowledge have been hugely significant in the Whitechapel murders. I would suggest yes. There can be no doubt that the killer needed to have a degree of security in his surroundings, to do the deeds he did. If he had been born in Whitechapel, which to my mind seems likely, he would have felt confident and secure in the areas he operated in. Not only would that confidence have projected from him and likely disarmed his victims but he would have been confident that he had secure escape routes as well. He knew how to get home and fast. We see this with Eddowes murder. He heads back into the heart of Whitechapel.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Never say never.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

True enough Tom. Unlikely snippets can crop up when we least expect them.

[Holmes' Idiot Brother]

There is another possibility that could explain the time gap...


I can feel the tingling of a new hypothesis just about to erupt.


Be warned, here it comes!


Hold on for the ride!...










The Ripper was female




She had a particular hatred for Unfortunates in their 40's stemming from a controlling and abusive mother with odd sexual kinks, and her father's penchant for sexual violence

She had slain Nichols in a random unprovoked attack, and would have done more if that odd looking Carman hadn't of interrupted her.

She had then enticed Chapman into the back garden after suggesting they have an out-of-public-view, girl on girl encounter.

She had also written Dear Boss (in a distinctly female hand)...and a few letters; because she liked to write.

She had heard that a theatrical acquaintance of hers had been bragging about knowing the identity of the killer, and so she then arranged to meet Eddowes, to silence her.
However, she then inadvertently witnessed her own male partner randomly kissing another woman in the street outside of a pub...and so she followed them to Berner St, and after seeing Stride get assaulted by BS Man, she went over to help Stride by offering her some sweet meats...

The killer then fled and headed towards the prearranged meet with Eddowes.

She had seen Eddowes walk into Mitre Square alone, after witnessing Eddowes male companion walk away after being spooked by 3 Jewish men who had noticed him talking with Eddowes.

As the Ripper stepped out of the shadows, Eddowes engaged with her, However, before Eddowes could say a word, she was dead.

But this is when the killer then got carried away, and accidentally cut herself as she was in the process of disembowelling her victim.

She then realised she needed to stop the bleeding, so took a piece of apron and just walked away towards Goulston St

The Ripper then walked away from the square and towards Goulston Street, dropping the apron after she had noticed it was covered in more than just blood.
.
She went to hospital to receive treatment for her cut, where she then was told something she wasn't expecting to hear... that she was around 4 months pregnant!

The Ripper discovered herself to be pregnant just after having her self inflicted cut treated in early October.

She then intended to stop killing, but to test her resolve; her male partner then leaves her after she tells him she is with child. But it has little impact because she already killed Stride and she never needed that cheating waste of an excuse for a man anyway.

October, and she is now focusing on being pregnant... or trying to focus on not killing.

Her attempts to abstain are successful in the short term and October is murder free.

But she then hears that her cousin has just split with her partner, but has chosen to let prostitutes into her flat.

The line between family and murder is then crossed.

She then plans to spend the night over at her cousins.

She waits for her cousin's blotchy head punter to leave and then goes to the room. He's only there 4 minutes.

MJK is happy to see her cousin for the first time in a while. They share a bed and spoon together to keep warm...but as soon as her cousin is asleep, the Ripper obliterates her.

But what compounds the tragedy; is that as she cuts into her womb, she realises MJK is also pregnant.

She has just inadvertenrly murdered an innocent child.

This has a profound effect

The Ripper then chooses to stop killing after MJK, in order to deal with her mistake, properly recoup from her previous self inflicted knife injury, and to also finish her own pregnancy.

She finally gives birth in the spring of 89

But the child doesn't survive infancy.

After a fews months of physical and emotional recovery, her bloodlust is overwhelming and she recommences operations again in the July of 89.

So who was the Ripper?

Well, she was an actress who worked as a male impersonator in the theatre and the cousin who MJK had mentioned in a passing comment to Barnett.

A woman with a dark secret.


And in the end?


Well, she was randomly ran over and killed by some moronic carman.

A crime for which the driver escaped prosecution.


Yes...Charles Cross killed the Ripper.






And that, as they say...is that!







OR...


There was just a natural time gap between murders and my hypothesis is a little off.



Hehe!

Brilliant! But I believe you have overlooked someone whom I suspect to be the catalyst for all this bloodshed: Martha Tabram! The Ripper encountered Tabram (who looked a lot like the Ripper's despised mother) walking with a soldier with whom she was smitten. The Ripper, seething with jealousy and moral outrage, waited for Martha to finish her engagement with her client at the George Yard Buildings. The Ripper ambushed Tabram on the landing and in a fit of rage, stabbed her 39 times! Once she cooled down, The Ripper decided to remove the uterus of this abominable woman as a warning to all the prostitutes in the area to mend their sinful ways. But before she could, The Ripper was disturbed and had to bugger off. It was that night when she decided to refine her modus operandi (Martha fought quite a bit; amazing no one heard the struggle!). When the Ripper encountered Polly Nichols, she intended to take her trophies, but those pesky carmen happened along before she could. She had better luck on Hanbury Street, but got kill-blocked again on Berner Street by some anti-Semitic citizens shouting "Lipsky!!!" The Ripper, hiding in the shadows, saw Louis Diemschutz enter Dutfield's Yard. Had Diemschutz struck a match and straightened up, he would have been face to face with the Ripper! After Diemschutz went into the club, the Ripper wasted no time escaping. Seething, she decided to head to where she know street-walkers could be found: near Mitre Square! And the rest is just as you say. However, unlike you, I shall REVEAL the true name of Jack The Ripper.............

It was Henrietta Barnett, wife of The Reverend Canon Samuel Barnett, of Toynbee Hall fame!

She was "down on whores" due to her extensive missionary work and moral zealotry.

So she was very naughty.

The End.

[The Baron]

I was joking. I actually thought you might be suggesting that the Ripper drugged his victims with laudanum, but Dr. Phillips looked such a thing and could never find it. Certainly possible about the Ripper using it.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

I managed to get the joke, took me long though... It’s like my brain decided to take the scenic route to figure it out.

Better late than never, now I can laugh instead of just nodding awkwardly...

Laudanum.. Kosminski... these kinds of stuff you know...


The Baron

[Tom_Wescott]

Yes, it could have been something like that. It’s another part of the case the we can never get a conclusive answer to.

Never say never.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

Sorry, I missed the earlier posts, so sorry if I am repeating something.

As a twist, what if JtR hung around to see the reaction of his work; in the shadows for instance, and got some sort of kick from it. As the crowd that gathered left the scene, so did he.

Just another potential angle to come in from.

He almost certainly did. In the McKenzie case, one of the locals interviewed at the scene even commented that the Ripper likely lived nearby and might be standing amongst them.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

Of course not Tom, I am suggesting that the Ripper may have been under the influence of these drugs after Kelly's murder.



The Baron

I was joking. I actually thought you might be suggesting that the Ripper drugged his victims with laudanum, but Dr. Phillips looked such a thing and could never find it. Certainly possible about the Ripper using it.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Herlock Sholmes]

I see an option c)

It was the Ripper, but the thrill was gone. After being able fully indulge his impulses on Kelly's corpse, he'd reached a high. He tried to capture the thrill again, with Mackenzie, but it just wasn't there any more.

Yes, it could have been something like that. It’s another part of the case the we can never get a conclusive answer to.

[Fiver]

For me, the gap is no issue. Any number of things could have accounted for it..illness, incarceration, re-location, injury, no impulse etc. The glaring difference is between the horrific and extensive mutilations of Chapman, Eddowes and Kelly and the “…superficial cuts on the lower part of the body” of Mackenzie. The difference couldn’t really have been more pronounced and I don’t think that they can’t be explained away by a lack of time as we would have to ask why the killer would have wasted time making these pointless scratches in the first place so I can only see it as a choice between, a) it was a different killer, or b) it was some kind of injury. The overall effort required would have taken some strength in itself (as Tom points out) and must say that I find it hard to believe that the killer would have undertaken to kill until he was fit enough to do it or that he had a sufficiently sharp knife. I can’t help favouring a different killer although I’m not attempting to state this as a fact; it’s purely my opinion. I still tend to favour her being killed by someone with a connection to her. Someone who feared that the police might come knocking on his door at some point. So with the ripper killings still fresh in everyone’s mind, in panic, he takes his knife and makes some abdominal cuts hoping to leave the police believing that she was a ripper victim with the killer feeling safe in the knowledge that he could produce alibi’s for the other murders. IMO of course.

I see an option c)

It was the Ripper, but the thrill was gone. After being able fully indulge his impulses on Kelly's corpse, he'd reached a high. He tried to capture the thrill again, with Mackenzie, but it just wasn't there any more.

[C. F. Leon]

Sorry, I missed the earlier posts, so sorry if I am repeating something.

As a twist, what if JtR hung around to see the reaction of his work; in the shadows for instance, and got some sort of kick from it. As the crowd that gathered left the scene, so did he.

Just another potential angle to come in from.

There's been some suggestions of this, both here and in the podcasts, based on the behavior of other serial killers & arsonists. But, as crowded as Whitechapel was, it was probably the equivalent of a free show: "Hey, Bob! There's ANOTHER gutting over on Mitre Street! Let's go for a lookee! BYOB!!"

[Juniper4576]

Sorry, I missed the earlier posts, so sorry if I am repeating something.

As a twist, what if JtR hung around to see the reaction of his work; in the shadows for instance, and got some sort of kick from it. As the crowd that gathered left the scene, so did he.

Just another potential angle to come in from.

[The Baron]

Hi Baron, are you suggesting I take laudanum? Or that I've been taking laudanum for years and have developed mental impairment? And what are you doing in my medicine cabinet???

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Of course not Tom, I am suggesting that the Ripper may have been under the influence of these drugs after Kelly's murder.



The Baron