The 120 year old trail is freezing

[Jon Guy]

Freezing?
It's bloody boiling in my armchair.
Everyday I find five or six fellows far more likely to have murdered women in Whitechapel in 1888 than the usual candidates, simply because they were in Whitechapel in 1888 and did murder people.

Hello A.P.

Are there ever any physical descriptions of these guy`s in the case reports you have seen ?

[Dan Norder]

The number of writers about the Ripper who ever get more than an occasional coffee from their efforts could probably be counted on Homer Simpson's four-fingered hand.

If that's true there are a number of book authors who must be drinking some damned expensive coffee.

[Christine]

If that's true there are a number of book authors who must be drinking some damned expensive coffee.

http://civetcoffee.net/

Now direct from the "manufacturers" for ONLY $119.95 per pound!

(It seems appropriate for some of the Ripper books, too!)

[Cap'n Jack]

Jon
the majority are young, confused and quite mad.

[Dan Norder]

Hi Christine,

Wow, that's wild. In a world where some people willingly pay $100+ a pound to drink water with caffeinated weasel feces floating in it, nothing should surprise me any more.

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

Coffee at $100+per pound? Blimey, even Starbucks [not shy when it comes to gouging customers] ain't that expensive.

The Ripper trail cold?

Look in the right places and you'll find it's as warm as toast.

Regards,

Simon

[Investigator]

Hi one an'all,
It may be a long time ago, just needs a little renovation in the development department.
Maybe you’re narrowing the field a little in way of characteristics, Whitechapel would exclude Stride, Eddowes & Coles and 1888 would exclude McKenzie and Coles. I was thinking more in the line of JtR’s characteristics. It may be unlikely to put a name to him, but by defining firmer data based on what, how and where he does his work and match these to the various suspects then the improbable can be deleted. Take for example his height; it is possible to establish a height range that would exclude a number of suspects. All of the women, with the exception of Kelly were between 60 and 65 inches tall, Kelly being 67 inches. Margolis has given a realistic deduction that with the exception of Kelly, who suffered a frontal attack, all other victims were attacked from behind. This requires JtR to bring his arm over the shoulder of the woman. To do this he would have to be at least 2 –3 inches taller than his victim. If you are 65 inches tall it is almost impossible to put your arm around the neck of someone who is 72 inches tall. It’s all about anthropometrics, the dimensions and movements of body and limbs. The arc of the arm is limited depending on the height of the shoulder so that a knife wound to the neck, beginning higher on the left than the right has an angle determined by the difference in shoulder height. With a cooperative friend, you can copy the dynamics of the attack to replicate the neck injuries of the victims. Alternatively, set up a dummy and control factors such as relative heights, knife hold and angle of attack. When some results come out, I think you will be able to place “pipeman” in the “improbable” basket as the killer of Stride. Hell! That would close a few forum threads!
I’m sure that Jack the Ripper will for ever remain a source of entertainment for armchair detectives, games, plays, films, novels and historians simply because we never will know who he was. After all, there are many people entertained by the fictitious distortions of history when the “real” history can tell a better tale.

[Sasha]

Okay, so this is very much a left-field thought but has Scotland Yard kept any of the evidence from the victims? Where I'm going with this is sometimes psychics/clairvoyants can tell stuff about the crime (including what the killer looked like) from crime debris. It might be a long shot but in a crime this old, no one's around to bear witness. And while I'm on long shots, I have read in some posts that we cannot be sure that the body found at 13 Mitre Square is actually Mary Kelly's and even if we could be sure, there are no photos of her in life. Aren't there scientific techniques where one can rebuild the face from the skull and bones alone?

Thanks
Sasha

[Mitch Rowe]

Okay, so this is very much a left-field thought but has Scotland Yard kept any of the evidence from the victims? Where I'm going with this is sometimes psychics/clairvoyants can tell stuff about the crime (including what the killer looked like) from crime debris. It might be a long shot but in a crime this old, no one's around to bear witness. And while I'm on long shots, I have read in some posts that we cannot be sure that the body found at 13 Mitre Square is actually Mary Kelly's and even if we could be sure, there are no photos of her in life. Aren't there scientific techniques where one can rebuild the face from the skull and bones alone?

Thanks
Sasha

Nothing was kept. With the possible exception of a few of the letters.
Dont worry... It was MJK in the bed!

[Mitch Rowe]

No one can tell where the next clue lies. Im a firm believer that God works in mysterious ways. I believe God made these cases famous for a reason. I believe God has ensured a clue is left to identify the Ripper. I Gods time he will allow us to identify that clue.
Im not only here because I enjoy it. I am here because a little voice inside me says to do my part. Im here to help give the victims Justice.

[Barnaby]

We advance the case by finding ways to eliminate suspects, such as Ostrog. Perhaps that is the best that we can do.

[Sasha]

No one can tell where the next clue lies. Im a firm believer that God works in mysterious ways. I believe God made these cases famous for a reason. I believe God has ensured a clue is left to identify the Ripper. I Gods time he will allow us to identify that clue.
Im not only here because I enjoy it. I am here because a little voice inside me says to do my part. Im here to help give the victims Justice.

I think that's important Mitch. For me too this case glorifies the killer a little too much. People remember the killer not the victims. I guess that is true of most serial killers. I too like the idea of solving the case to give the victims voices. To say that these women mattered - regardless of how imperfect they were. I know at the end of the day, God meters out justice for these women and for JTR but I still hope that we as human beings can and should do what we can in this life to do what we can.

Sasha

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Although I agree in principal with the intentions voiced by the posters above, I think the old notion that the 'case glorifies the killer too much' and that 'people don't remember the victims' is an old tired myth, and today also very inaccurate.
The notion was certainly true in the old days (at least before the 1980s) but to state such things today is like repeating that the world is flat. Enormous efforts have been done by a large number of researchers and authors in order to give life to the victims and to really focus on their situation and personal histories. In short, to make such statements is kind of like throwing a cake in the face of honest and hard working researchers like Neil Sheldon Stubbings, Chris Scott and others.
Fact is, in in most books on the subject today, much room is given to the victims and the social issues they lived under. The 2007 JtR Convention was tributed to Catherine Eddowes and her life in Woltherhampton and was a true attempt to make people see her as more than a just Ripper victim.

Just recently a new book in Sweden has been released about Stride and her life in Sweden, which fills in a number of blank factual spots, and in my own Swedish Ripper book I focused very much on the victims and the social evironmnet, as has many other researchers in recent years. Much has happened in Ripper research, and the main focus for many researchers and authors today is NOT the killer himself, but the historical context and the victims. Those who haven't realized this have been living under a glass bubble for two decades and to continue to repeat such untrue nonsense certainly doesn't benefit anyone or anything regarding the case.

As for the trail running cold, it is once again needed to be pointed out, that although new material most certainly will be uncovered, it will continue to be documentation or items that provides us with additional information about persons, places or specific incidents related to the Ripper case (the photo of Lawende and the inside of Hanbury Street are some examples.

But we will never come across any documents that will SOLVE the case. There will never be eniugh evidence in a 120 year old murder case that will convince and unite a whole Ripper community. Needless to say, if police documents like the Macnaghten memoranda, Anderson's statements and the Littlechild letter - not to mention the Swanson marginalia - didn't manage to do this, what on earth will?
I think some people needs to grow up and learn what kind of 'evidence' that is really possible to obtain in such old murder cases and in historical research. The INTEREST in the case will never grow cold, but the trail of the killer grew cold many many years ago, and no information that will ever surface can ever be accpeted as 100% evidence of the solution to such an old case. Period.

All the best

[jason_c]

Glenn, is the photo of Lawende and the new pictures of Hanbury Street on this site somewhere?

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Hi Jason,

The 1923 photo of Lawende was published in Ripperologist's January 2008 issue - I can't recall if it was ever published on this site; I have some recollection of it but can't find it now; could have been before the Boards broke down and lost all the old information.

The photos(s) from inside of the corridor of Hanbury Street 29 has been published several times on this site, although I can't remember on which threads. They are a part of the Whitby-Green collection and was discovered by Philip Hutchinson.
One of the copies appear in Philip Hutchinson's and Rob Clack's excellent book The London of Jack the Ripper Then and Now.

All the best