If you knew Jack

[Rosella]

Sometimes though, the old saying applies though doesn't it 'There's none so blind as those that don't want to see'. It would certainly heighten any danger if you had a few growing kids in the house who did have sharp eyes and started asking questions. Didn't Heather West, Fred and Rosemary's daughter, start asking a few questions, and got murdered for her pains?

[kensei]

I feel like If Gacy's wife didn't know he was killing in the house, and Kemper's mom didn't know he was bringing body parts back home and burying them in the garden, then a family can be excused for not knowing what their loved one is doing out of the house and out of sight.

Let's add the wife of BTK killer Dennis Rader, clueless to the last. Absolutely amazing.

[Fisherman]

Let's add the wife of BTK killer Dennis Rader, clueless to the last. Absolutely amazing.

The same goes for Mrs Green River Killer, Gary Ridgways wife.

[Errata]

My point is that there are serial killers who bring their work home, and their loved ones don't know. Which is mind boggling, although if we examine our own lives we can see how our loved ones might accomplish leading a secret life. But dead bodies in the home, and they don't know. So of course a serial killer who is working outside the home is going to get away with it. I mean, my house is tiny, but if my husband wanted to hide heads in here without my knowing he could. Something might seem off, like why do I have to wait to get into the kitchen this morning, but nothing is going o make me leap to "Oh god he's a serial killer". Especially in 1888 when serial killers weren't even a thing. Unless he slams the door when he comes home and shouts "Just going to wash up because I killed and mutilated a whore tonight!" how is his family going to find out exactly? A bloody shirt? How many perfectly good excuses for bloody clothing exist?

[Bridewell]

I've wondered myself about the suspicions that the Druitt family seem to have had about Monty. They may have been well-founded, possibly even based on whatever note(s) he may have left for them or others. Did Druitt suffer from blackouts, I wonder? I have no reason for supposing that he did although it would be interesting to know if his poor mother was so afflicted. If that were the case (pure speculation I admit) Druitt himself could have suspected - even believed (perhaps wrongly) that he was the Whitechapel Murderer.

[GUT]

Let's add the wife of BTK killer Dennis Rader, clueless to the last. Absolutely amazing.

Actually I don't find it in the least amazing.

Even if they had the slightest inkling they probably wouldn't want to believe it anyway.

[Rosella]

My point is that there are serial killers who bring their work home, and their loved ones don't know. Which is mind boggling, although if we examine our own lives we can see how our loved ones might accomplish leading a secret life. But dead bodies in the home, and they don't know. So of course a serial killer who is working outside the home is going to get away with it. I mean, my house is tiny, but if my husband wanted to hide heads in here without my knowing he could. Something might seem off, like why do I have to wait to get into the kitchen this morning, but nothing is going o make me leap to "Oh god he's a serial killer". Especially in 1888 when serial killers weren't even a thing. Unless he slams the door when he comes home and shouts "Just going to wash up because I killed and mutilated a whore tonight!" how is his family going to find out exactly? A bloody shirt? How many perfectly good excuses for bloody clothing exist?

I'm not suggesting that scenario. What I think is that it would have been much more difficult for a married man with a family to go out at night in search of prey than it would someone with no dependents or responsibilities.

What if his wife and family knew that he had been out in the early hours of the morning of the 30th of August without any reason, and at the end of that week on wash day there was bloodied clothing? Husband not working at any trade which involved killing animals.

What if husband again was out in the early hours on the 7th September 1888 and again there was blood. And on the night of the double event he was again gone for hours without reason, (and unlike modern serial killers no transport just by foot.) and again there was blood come washday.

The district was in an uproar, people were terrified, but again wifey would wash the clothing without a thought? What if there were other signs as well, that the husband displayed subconsciously?

On the 9th November he comes home on a bank holiday and later the clothing displays the sort of marks already noted when the wife washes it.

And remember, most working people, unlike today, had one change of clothing, maybe a couple of shirts, and that was it, so the chances of bloodstains being noticed if you weren't in the butchering trades increased substantially each day that that clothing remained unwashed.

I just don't believe that Jack was married or had relatives he lived with, and I believe he was probably a slaughterman or butcher and dealt with his own clothing.

[Errata]

I'm not suggesting that scenario. What I think is that it would have been much more difficult for a married man with a family to go out at night in search of prey than it would someone with no dependents or responsibilities.

What if his wife and family knew that he had been out in the early hours of the morning of the 30th of August without any reason, and at the end of that week on wash day there was bloodied clothing? Husband not working at any trade which involved killing animals.

What if husband again was out in the early hours on the 7th September 1888 and again there was blood. And on the night of the double event he was again gone for hours without reason, (and unlike modern serial killers no transport just by foot.) and again there was blood come washday.

The district was in an uproar, people were terrified, but again wifey would wash the clothing without a thought? What if there were other signs as well, that the husband displayed subconsciously?

On the 9th November he comes home on a bank holiday and later the clothing displays the sort of marks already noted when the wife washes it.

And remember, most working people, unlike today, had one change of clothing, maybe a couple of shirts, and that was it, so the chances of bloodstains being noticed if you weren't in the butchering trades increased substantially each day that that clothing remained unwashed.

I just don't believe that Jack was married or had relatives he lived with, and I believe he was probably a slaughterman or butcher and dealt with his own clothing.

I think it's logistically possible that a loved one would figure it out. I just think that it doesn't make sense to expect that. History seems to show that even with all the available data, people still don't put it together. Whether that's because they assume bad things happen to other people or they think it is not in the character of their loved one, who can say? But they don't put it together. So we can't assume that they did, or could. We cannot judge a family for not doing what most other families can't do.

[Rosella]

Well we don't know whether Jack had a close family or not, whether he lived with them or not, so it's all in the realms of conjecture, isn't it?

[GUT]

Well we don't know whether Jack had a close family or not, whether he lived with them or not, so it's all in the realms of conjecture, isn't it?

That it is.

[Mirandola]

Well, yes, it can only be speculation; but reading tales like the ones here

http://listverse.com/2013/03/19/10-baffling-wives-of-serial-killers/

does make you consider the old saying, 'I'll see it when I believe it'.

[Rosella]

In the US anyway, if not in 9th century England, the vast majority of serial killers are single, white heterosexual males of working class or lower middleclass background, and Jack may very well have conformed to type.