Do you think this case will ever be solved?

[All4One]

Will we ever be able to conclusively put a name to Jack the Ripper or are we now too far removed historically to finally solve these crimes?

My own opinon is that there is now perhaps so much myth, rumour, fabrication and too many red herrings to get a real answer. Any definite evidence that may have existed is now most likely lost forever.

I'm not saying we have to give up asking questions and searching for answers but it might need someone to invent a time machine and go back to 1888 to finally uncover Jack's true identity once and for all.

[curious4]

Will we ever be able to conclusively put a name to Jack the Ripper or are we now too far removed historically to finally solve these crimes?

My own opinon is that there is now perhaps so much myth, rumour, fabrication and too many red herrings to get a real answer. Any definite evidence that may have existed is now most likely lost forever.

I'm not saying we have to give up asking questions and searching for answers but it might need someone to invent a time machine and go back to 1888 to finally uncover Jack's true identity once and for all.

If someone did manage to come up with definite proof which would conclusively solve this case, 80% of the posters here would find arguments against it.

C4

[packers stem]

If someone did manage to come up with definite proof which would conclusively solve this case, 80% of the posters here would find arguments against it.

C4

Agreed.I found that out a couple of weeks back. Weren't you in that 80% C4?

[Phil Carter]

In my honest opinion...The only way I can see any POSSIBLE "clearing up" of this very cold case is if and when Met Police, City Police or Home Office documentary material from 1888 that has, at one time or another, disappeared from the archives or files, suddenly turn up.

Without any official papers, all other "discoveries" are not sufficient. It really does not matter who writes what on a piece of paper or in "memoirs". The obvious reason us that so many "connected" to the case have commented unofficially and for the very great majority of the time, in total contrast of what their peers have written or have said. This means that nothing is ever official.

Therefore, as I currently see the situation, we are at an impasse. This is reflected in the ever turning of the known suspect roundabout..which causes a stop every few years to resurrect supposed, and non evidential "suspects" and theories thereof.

Just my personal opinion.


Phil

[curious4]

Agreed.I found that out a couple of weeks back. Weren't you in that 80% C4?

Naturally :-)

[Robert St Devil]

That question reminds me of the movie se7en, when the capatain tells Somerset that he's left unfinished business before. And Somerset responds, those cases were taken as close to conclusion as humanly possible.

I think the answer is close.

[Pcdunn]

I think it is perhaps too hard now to disentangle all the facts and fictions, hoaxes and theories--- yet, at the same time, I think the human tendency to be curious about mysteries.

There is always the possibilty that another unknown document will be found, another newspaper report digitized for public access which offers another clue, which sparks another theory--- and so forth.

[SirJohnFalstaff]

I think if anything is eventually found, it will be circumstantial at best.

It's possible that one of the murder be solved, but it would be an extrapolation to consider this person to be JtR.

As long as there is no definite proof that x number of victims were killed by the same man, there cannot be a final answer.

[belinda]

Not definitively. It's been too long. There isn't going to be a suspect that everybody will agree on. Still stranger things have happened

[Rosella]

Unfortunately, I don't think we will ever be sure of Jack's identity at this point in time. Something truly startling would have to be found in the way of long lost documentation pointing in the direction of one particular suspect for that to happen, and as we know, most of the senior police who worked on the JTR case at the time were divided in their views on who he was.

I wouldn't mind going in a time machine to see where Jack lived and follow him there after he'd murdered. I certainly would'nt want to be a silent witness to any of his killings, however!

[GUT]

It would take something solid:

Lets say I bought a copy of Mcnaghten's book and in it found a penciled note

I was with Melville when William Druitt came in and said that the Family believed Montie was the killer because ............. Const Plod (Let's assume the reason William gave was sound). [Perhaps a confession, part of a Kidney that matched some property that belonged to victims]

Now we can't date pencil writing terribly well, we have no known examples of Const Plod's hand to compare to, there is still a lot of ground to argue over some would accept it, others reject it.

Now lets assume the same statement was by MM himself in pen, we can date the ink (with moderate accuracy) and we can have the writing analysed, and toss into the mix that we can trace the books provenance, I suspect many more would accept it, but those with suspects of their own to push would reject it outright.

[Hercule Poirot]

Disolved and not solved

From what we read here on Casebook, I tend to believe it won't be solved before a long time. The way this case is heading, it looks more like it's rather being dissolved. LOL

[FutureM.D.]

I believe the pieces are out there that could definitively solve it. But the level of effort and plain serendipity that would be required for them to coalesce; makes it practically impossible.

[Fisherman]

For the record: There is no established limit of time after which a case cannot be solved. Time actually has nothing at all to do with it as such. The one and only thing that governs the issue is the effort put down and the evidence unearthed.

Whether that evidence surfaces one, two, three or ninehundred and thirtyseven years after the crime is on no consequence at all.

[Pierre]

Will we ever be able to conclusively put a name to Jack the Ripper or are we now too far removed historically to finally solve these crimes?

My own opinon is that there is now perhaps so much myth, rumour, fabrication and too many red herrings to get a real answer. Any definite evidence that may have existed is now most likely lost forever.

I'm not saying we have to give up asking questions and searching for answers but it might need someone to invent a time machine and go back to 1888 to finally uncover Jack's true identity once and for all.

I think we are beginning to do it right now:

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread...420#post361420

Regards Pierre