A question . . . I can't wrap my head around.

[Ginger]

The Ripper was, I think, the first infamous, uncaught criminal who lived in an age in which the common man was literate, and newspapers were common. He was effectively the first to have the opportunity to taunt the police in public. It's worth noting that later villains, such as the Midwest Axe Murderer of 1911 / 1912, and the contemporaneous Texas / Louisiana Axe Murderer, never made the least effort to communicate.

[JeffHamm]

The JTR question I find myself unable to get a handle on is the relationship with the supposed Ripper communicates and subsequent serial killer missives.

Do serial killers send taunting messages to the police and society because it is an innate trait common to serial killers, or are serial killers mimicking the (supposed) Ripper behavior because he is some kind of unwitting mentor they believe they must emulate?

If it is the former then I guess we have to take the Ripper missives more seriously, while if the latter, then we need be amazed at the power of the Ripper mystique.

Hi APerno,

It's very rare, but highly publicized so seems more frequent, for serial killers to write letters and communicate. I'll leave out terrorist related types, like the Unabomber, as that's a different situation. Three that I can think of, though, would be Zodiac (unsolved), Son of Sam (Berkowitz), and BTK (Rader). Zodiac, being unsolved we'll have to leave aside as we can only speculate on his motives. Berkowitz seems to have been trying to lay the goundwork for an insanity plea should he get caught, and Rader seems obsessed with being "famous". Rader, particularly in interviews, talks about SKs as some sort of group or club "SKs are like this, we do this, etc", and so I think in his case, yes, in part I think he was copying JtR (and Zodiac, and Son of Sam) by doing what he thinks SKs do - write letters to police and newspapers, because that's how they become famous for their crimes. He even insisted he have a "name" and suggested BTK.

So, while I suspect to some extent the idea of writing letters as something to do probably could be traced back to JtR being well known to have done this, so it's an idea that was "out there", the underlying reason for doing so would probably be best viewed as very individualistic. Rader is probably the best example of "doing it because others did", but even then, that seems to be in part because Rader did what he thought a "proper SK" would do, and he was desperate to be known as a proper "SK'.

- Jeff

[APerno]

The JTR question I find myself unable to get a handle on is the relationship with the supposed Ripper communicates and subsequent serial killer missives.

Do serial killers send taunting messages to the police and society because it is an innate trait common to serial killers, or are serial killers mimicking the (supposed) Ripper behavior because he is some kind of unwitting mentor they believe they must emulate?

If it is the former then I guess we have to take the Ripper missives more seriously, while if the latter, then we need be amazed at the power of the Ripper mystique.