Just a thought about MO

[Neal Shelden]

The point has probably already been raised many times before, but I was thinking the other night whether it might be possible that the reason for why the killer stopped killing or changed his MO after Kelly was because he had an accident that injured his hand.
It sounds like a simple explanation for why he stopped killing but it just might have been physically impossible regardless of what the voices were telling him. Maybe he had to change hands to continue to kill as we can't be completely certain as to which hand he was using for the canonical five, but it could be the reason for why the MO in the murders of McKenzie and maybe Coles were seen as different at the time
It may sound a little far-fetched that Jack the Ripper injured his hand or hands after Kelly's murder, but it wouldn't matter if the passion to kill was still there, if he had no means to do so then he had no choice but to stop. And who in the police would be looking for a man with a crippled hand or hands after Kelly.
He might have lived on for another 20 or 30 years as some serial killers do?

[Monty]

Neal,

Coles was thought, at the time, to be one of Jacks.

MO can change for various reasons, be it location, victim reaction and, possibly, injury.

Though signature can alter, it rarely alters out of recognition. It may be missing but this can be down to disturbance.

Do you have a reason why this injury may have happend? Out of curiosity.

Monty

[bolo]

I would imagine that even a minor injury could turn into life-threatening sepsis if one accidentally cuts his hand or arm and then reaches into the abdominal cavity to pull out the intestines.

This could also explain the relatively long pause between Eddowes and Kelly, perhaps the murderer had some wounds to lick...

[Sam Flynn]

Interesting idea. Might be worth checking the infirmary registers accordingly.

I found a hawker named George Webb, single, 30 and homeless, who checked into Whitechapel Infirmary in January 1889 with a "diseased arm". A George Webb of similar age was registered dead at Shoreditch in the second quarter of 1892.

[perrymason]

Hi Neal,

Its an interesting sideways look at the issue of when and why the Ripper murders ended. I know that almost everyone serious about this study believes that there were no signs of anatomical knowledge or knife skills present with any of the C5's "wounds", I'm not nearly as serious ...but I dont buy that myself.

So it would be interesting to compare cuts on say Alice McKenzie vs Polly Nichols and see if there are noticeably careless or jagged cuts that might indicate muscle spasms perhaps if he had nicked a tendon at some point prior.

Im not sure there is such evidence to find though. And I think you would need to provide some evidence of diminished capacities to built a base for the idea.

I for one like considering many alternatives, so Im all for your outside the box questing.

Best regards.

[Neal Shelden]

Thanks lads, no I had no-one specifically in mind just playing with the idea, but that's a good point Sam about Infirmary registers.