Why Did They Lower Their Guard?

[GUT]

Or they didn't go with him at all and he was a sneak attack merchant.

[Rosella]

I believe he was a local, looked inoffensive and normal and blended in. And after all most of these women had to eat and get a bed for the night. Most didn't have relatives in other district they could stay with for weeks at a time, and how long the murder spree would go on for, nobody knew.

Sugden quotes Dew as being amazed at the hardiness of Whitechapel prostitutes. He remembered after the murders if they ventured out at all 'it was in terror-stricken groups'. Then time would pass and there would be no more murders and the groups would dwindle to pairs and then to sole streetwalkers. Dew recalled the black humour of some of them who would call out as the passed him "I'm the next for Jack!"

[Damaso Marte]

Any number of explanations:

- desperation: the other option was homelessness
- drunkenness
- the killer appeared, outwardly, like a typical client of theirs
- the killer was a regular client they were comfortable with
- the killer was an ambush predator and simply needed the women to pass through a secluded area alone
- given the number of prostitutes in the east end, and the number of previous prostitute murders, the Ripper murders did not significantly raise the risk of being murdered on the job, and prostitutes responded rationally by not really modifying their behavior

I do think the killer would have seemed "normal" upon first interaction. I favor a sane Ripper because I believe the evidence points to somebody who knew that what he was doing was wrong (by societal standards at least) and took steps to conceal themselves and not leave evidence.

[Wickerman]

I'm inclined to go with the possibility that the killer was known to those street-women, as you suggest.
He was known to the area, he frequented it regularly, but he didn't have to live there.
Others have commented on his ability to avoid detection, that he knows the backstreets well, that he is able to blend in as he obviously must have been seen by someone, but he did not attract suspicion.

In my opinion, he was a familiar face, the women knew him, and as is often the case, was likely questioned by police at some point.

[Pierre]

Rather than derail the "Recognition" thread, I thought it appropriate to start another on the reason why a motley collection of unfortunates were persuaded to allow a man to take them to one side and quietly assassinate them. These women may have been down on their luck but they were not stupid. They were middle-aged, savvy, streetwise women who, by the very nature of their 'work', had probably all survived violent encounters of one sort or another. Yet someone, somehow (even at the height of the Ripper scare), persuaded them to lower their guard to such an extent that they went with him willingly and placed themselves in circumstances where he was able to achieve his ghastly aims with little or no resistance.

Suggestions invited as to what sort of man would have been able to do this. Perhaps someone who was familiar to all of them. I'm suggesting (with no suspect in mind) someone like Steve Wright, the so-called "Ipswich Ripper" who used the services of the local prostitutes over a period of time and so gained their trust. My view is that, if there was a single "Jack the Ripper" entity, he was such a man - a regular - a man who had been a safe customer in the past and in whose company they therefore presumed, fatally, that they were completely safe.

His dress?

[Bridewell]

Rather than derail the "Recognition" thread, I thought it appropriate to start another on the reason why a motley collection of unfortunates were persuaded to allow a man to take them to one side and quietly assassinate them. These women may have been down on their luck but they were not stupid. They were middle-aged, savvy, streetwise women who, by the very nature of their 'work', had probably all survived violent encounters of one sort or another. Yet someone, somehow (even at the height of the Ripper scare), persuaded them to lower their guard to such an extent that they went with him willingly and placed themselves in circumstances where he was able to achieve his ghastly aims with little or no resistance.

Suggestions invited as to what sort of man would have been able to do this. Perhaps someone who was familiar to all of them. I'm suggesting (with no suspect in mind) someone like Steve Wright, the so-called "Ipswich Ripper" who used the services of the local prostitutes over a period of time and so gained their trust. My view is that, if there was a single "Jack the Ripper" entity, he was such a man - a regular - a man who had been a safe customer in the past and in whose company they therefore presumed, fatally, that they were completely safe.