Can we profile the Ripper from the GSG?

[Pierre]

I don't foresee this as a long thread but I thought that I'd try and get a few opinions. I imagine that if we took a poll asking if the GSG was written by Jack or not that the 'nots' would win? Possibly even by a significant margin. I've always leaned toward the opinion that it was. I'm a little like Cadosche though; just on the other side of the fence. So perhaps I should have called this thread 'can we profile the writer of the GSG?'

My point is one that I imagine has been made before, more than once, so apologies for going over old ground but hey, this is a forum about 1888 after all!

A thing that's always interested in me and I've wondered if it's at all suggestive is the fact that the writer managed to spell 'blamed' and 'nothing' correctly whilst mis-spelling the word 'Jews.' With the double negative hinting at a not-so-good grasp of basic grammar and the spelling of 'juwes' showing poor spelling the impression that we get is of someone of poor education. But if he could spell two tricky words correctly and yet get a simpler one wrong are we dealing with someone trying to downplay or hide his level of education? If so, then surely someone would only do that if they felt that their level of education was considerably above that of an average Whitechapel resident? The writing was also said to be in a good schoolboy hand hinting at decent penmanship.

So what can we deduce if anything?

Could the spelling of 'juwes' have been a deliberate insult. An example of 'I'm not even going to spell your name correctly.' Like someone talking to Nigel Farrage but pronouncing his surname to rhyme with marriage instead of barrage as an insult.

Was Jack a decently educated man who had come down in the world? Perhaps someone who blamed the Jews and prostitutes for the degraded area in which he was forced to live? Perhaps he felt that the Jews never received any blame for the 'harm' that they had caused? Perhaps the double negative is also mocking local speech and the locals poor education? So can we also see a man who sees himself as superior to those around him. Someone to whom fate has been cruel?

Someone who felt justified in taking revenge?

Yes, we can profile the Ripper from the GSG. But we need external data to make it possible.

[Robert]

Daniel Barnett was at the VH in 1891. Can anyone place him there earlier?

[DJA]

They insisted on their residents taking a charcoal biscuit before going to bed, specifically to prevent unwanted rippers fouling the air

ROFL. You Brits and sanitation.

Good to see you have another use for willow ash

[Herlock Sholmes]

I believe its also where Daniel Barnett stayed...and that there is a story that has Mary being seen with Daniel earlier in the week.

I remember that story Michael but I can't recall where I read it?

[Sam Flynn]

Victoria Home surely had a rule banning Rippers at that time of the morning

They insisted on their residents taking a charcoal biscuit before going to bed, specifically to prevent unwanted rippers fouling the air

[Michael W Richards]

Wasn't that where Hutchinson stayed Abby

I believe its also where Daniel Barnett stayed...and that there is a story that has Mary being seen with Daniel earlier in the week.

[Scott Nelson]

Not only that, but if you draw a line between Mitre Square and the Victoria Home, it goes right through Hutchison Street....

Where lived witness Joseph Hyam Levy.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Not only that, but if you draw a line between Mitre Square and the Victoria Home, it goes right through Hutchison Street....

I sense a Hutchinson based conspiracy theory formulating there Joshua

[DJA]

White's Row,then Dorset and Thrawl being equidistant.

Victoria Home surely had a rule banning Rippers at that time of the morning

[Sam Flynn]

Heading straight for Dorset Street.

Possibly, but the Victoria Home and the doss-houses of Thrawl Street, Fashion Street, Flower & Dean Street and White's Row were all closer to the Goulston Street doorway than Dorset Street, and those of Brick Lane about equidistant. There were a LOT of lodging-houses crammed into that small area.

[DJA]

Indeed. Mind you, if I'd cut off the map a little higher, we'd be in very familiar territory. The lodging houses of Thrawl Street, Fashion Street, Flower & Dean Street, Brick Lane and Dorset Street were all within a three-minute walk of the Victoria Home. The Goulston Street doorway would have been a convenient stopping-off point for anyone heading to "Doss-house Central" from Mitre Square.

Heading straight for Dorset Street.

[Patrick S]

Reading some of the comments here recalled an article I read describing an algorithm accomplishing, with much more complexity, what's been discussed here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...d-experts.html

[Joshua Rogan]

Wasn't that where Hutchinson stayed Abby

Not only that, but if you draw a line between Mitre Square and the Victoria Home, it goes right through Hutchison Street....

[Sam Flynn]

Thanks Sam and Patrick!!
that's very interesting for any suspects that were staying there at the time. so goulston street is on the way directly there.

Indeed. Mind you, if I'd cut off the map a little higher, we'd be in very familiar territory. The lodging houses of Thrawl Street, Fashion Street, Flower & Dean Street, Brick Lane and Dorset Street were all within a three-minute walk of the Victoria Home. The Goulston Street doorway would have been a convenient stopping-off point for anyone heading to "Doss-house Central" from Mitre Square.

[Abby Normal]

Wasn't that where Hutchinson stayed Abby

yes it was.