The JtR Meta-poll

[RivkahChaya]

I'm posting a meta-poll to see where people stand on various hot-button topics related to the Ripper. I will surely forget some, so feel free to suggest more for my meta-poll II.

ETA: if it's not clear, tick off the ones you agree with.

[Shaggyrand]

Really the only one of these that I'm convinced of is that JtR has probably yet to be named. It's possible the police or a modern researcher has named him but I haven't heard a truly compelling case yet. Some solid enough that I understand the researcher feeling justified but not one that has convinced me, personally. I also hold the opinion that a real identification is completely impossible but hell the speculation is fun.

While I don't think Tabram was a Ripper victim, I think it's likely that Alice Mackenzie was.
I do not think that Maxwell saw Kelly that morning, just makes the window for her murder to be incredibly tight. Not impossible just tighter than I think is likely. It's a shame the doctor didn't get a look at her when first found because that could have at least put this to rest.
Stride and at least one torso possibly being JtR... I go back and fourth on.
I don't think he stopped after Kelly. The Kelly murder gave him privacy and time to really indulge. JtR just found another MO when he didn't get the same thrill killing Mackenzie as he had in the earlier murders and adapted.

[Pcdunn]

I voted for Jack being known by the police at the time.
I think Caroline Maxwell saw the real Mary Jane Kelly, and that someone else (who resembled Kelly) was murdered in her place.
I don't think the murder took place after Maxwell's sighting and before the body's discovery-- the old timeline holds, but the other woman was in the bed and MJK was gone from her room.

[Ginger]

When you say "known to the police", do you mean that he was known to them to be the murderer, or just that he was someone who'd been spoken to in the course of the investigation?

[Wickerman]

The only question I agreed with was the third - that JtR has never been named by anyone, past or present.

As for Stride being a Ripper victim, I'm 50/50 with that - not sure.

A resounding "no" to all the rest.

[Pcdunn]

When you say "known to the police", do you mean that he was known to them to be the murderer, or just that he was someone who'd been spoken to in the course of the investigation?

I took it to be the latter, which is broader... I'm not sure if the pollster meant it that way, though.

[RivkahChaya]

When you say "known to the police", do you mean that he was known to them to be the murderer, or just that he was someone who'd been spoken to in the course of the investigation?

I meant he was investigated of otherwise considered a suspect by genuine Victorian policeman. Someone like John Pizer or one of the big 3-- Kosminski, Druitt or Ostrog.

[sdreid]

3,4+5 for me

[GUT]

I think I'd say no idea really just speculation to all the above.

[DJA]

Quite sure that Jack the Ripper's identity was known to some of the top police during 1888.

We actually have an enormous amount of evidence.

They simply had no intention of catching him.

[Pcdunn]

Why not?

Quite sure that Jack the Ripper's identity was known to some of the top police during 1888.

We actually have an enormous amount of evidence.

They simply had no intention of catching him.

Why wouldn't they want to catch him, with the increasing pressure from the Queen and the public?

[Rosella]

I think Jack may have been questioned by the police in the course of the investigations but, if he was named in any list of possibles at the time, that hasn't come down to us. I do believe that Stride was a C-5 victim and go backwards and forwards on Martha Tabram. I believe poor Mary was murdered in her room. I'm not compelled by arguments that she was spirited away somewhere, or fled and some other woman killed in her place.

[DJA]

Why wouldn't they want to catch him, with the increasing pressure from the Queen and the public?

Reckon The Lusk Letter sums that one up.

What pressure did the Queen put on.

[lynn cates]

imagine

Hello Rivkah. Thanks for starting this poll.

You can imagine my vote on Stride and different hands.

Cheers.
LC

[Fisherman]

I meant he was investigated of otherwise considered a suspect by genuine Victorian policeman. Someone like John Pizer or one of the big 3-- Kosminski, Druitt or Ostrog.

Then you should have written that: JtR was someone who has contemporarously investigated or suspected by the police.

The one thing we can learn from polls is that the answer is always goverened by the question.