A Strange Astronomical Pattern

[Aldebaran]

I happened to be looking at a map of the murder locations, posted by Robert House in order to illustrate one of his dissertations. He indicated that the sites of the killings were within the area of a circle. Here is his map.



Then it suddenly struck me that the dots on the map look like the night sky in the fall in the Northern Hemisphere, facing Northeast. The Milky Way runs right through this part of the sky, although you can't see that so well on the star map, below. Maybe that's what made me think of it--the fact that Whitechapel Road runs through the "murder map". In one of the Ripper letters, the writer says he was in the Minories. Isn't that near where Catherine Eddowes was murdered? Anyway, the Eddowes site, to the far left, would correspond to the tail star of Ursa Minor, Polaris. The relationship of the two sites of Kelly and Chapman seem to correspond to two stars in Cassiopeiae. The next star, to the south of them in that group would represent Martha Tabram. Far down in that line is Elizabeth Stride, represented by the star Mirphak. Way over to the west is the star, Mirach, which is Polly Nichols.




I realize that this doesn't change anything or add anything to the body of knowledge about the brutal slayings of these poor women. All it means is that we astronomy buffs sometimes view things in odd ways. But maybe the ladies wouldn't have minded being seen as stars along the Milky Way rather than just as pathetic victims.

[Aldebaran]

However, this could get weirder still. The star that I assigned to Polly Nichols, Mirach, is in the constellation, Andromeda, which, in this old drawing is represented thus:



Mirach, in antiquity, was sometimes referred to as the "belly", written "Ventrale" in Latin, from its former position in the figure [of Andromeda], although now it is on the left hip. A quote from the Edwards book, page 52:

“Mary Ann was lying on her back, her head facing in an easterly direction...her open hands were palm upwards and her legs were laid out and slightly apart...the abdomen had a long jagged cut which ran from the bottom of the ribs down to the groin, and there were a number of cuts and stabs to the lower abdomen...”

This is even older--Andromeda as depicted in "Urania's Mirror", a set of constellation cards published in London c. 1825, showing the constellation from the inside of the celestial sphere. Perhaps it inspired the later drawing.

[kjab3112]

Aldebaran

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rn_connectthedots.html

You may be interested in this article by Dan Norder concerning the varying shapes allocated to the murder sites

Paul

[Harry D]

You can find patterns in anything.

[Aldebaran]

Aldebaran

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rn_connectthedots.html

You may be interested in this article by Dan Norder concerning the varying shapes allocated to the murder sites

Paul

Interesting, Paul, and thanks. This writer seems not to have known of anyone seeing a heavenly configuration in the murder map--so I am different there. To quote Norder:

"The main argument against these theories is that the process of selecting sites beforehand would add an extra layer of complexity in trying to successfully pull off these already rather audacious murders. It's one thing to simply place a dead body in a specific location, but it's a whole other thing to not only kill them there but also to gut them out in the open where someone could wander along at any moment. Many authors have commented on the amount of sheer luck or cleverness the killer had to have possessed, but to do it all with a master geographic plan in mind would be just that much more difficult. Of course that doesn't make it impossible."

No, it doesn't, and the murders were no less audacious, even reckless, had the sites been merely random. If the killer had a predetermined pattern, that did not necessarily reduce him to prowling a certain street, awaiting a victim. A couple of streets in either direction would not much alter the plan. He could move. But, the Whitechapel district being so crowded, the chance that some woman of the type the Ripper sought coming along was pretty good.

BTW, responding to you gives me the opportunity of correcting a stupid miswriting in my first post in this thread. I wrote that the Nichols site was to the west when it is obviously to the east. Also, the image on that astronomical card [other examples can be seen online in the set] is very daring for the first half of the 19th Century. A bared breast, legs apart and skirt pulled up--that could have made quite an impression on a young lad who was given a set of these cards.

[Aldebaran]

Another aspect of all this is that the astronomical pattern is only good for the fall months. Come winter, the view of the night sky changes. Here's why in simple terms:

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/abo...asons-beginner

Mary Kelly was murdered early in November. According to my star map, her site corresponds to the lower bright star in Cassiopeiae. That's about it. After that, if the killer wanted to follow the brightest stars in a pattern, he would have to make a new pattern. Any configuration of the brightest stars in the seasonal heavens is complex. It is hardly the same as seeing a "cross" there. That the Ripper murder sites fit so well to the star pattern during the season in which the killings took place would be quite a marvelous coincidence--if that is what it was.

Aldebaran--c'est moi-- shows up in the winter sky.

[Joshua Rogan]

So.....the killings stopped because....there weren't any more stars in the sky....?

[John Wheat]

This has to be one of the most ridiculous threads on the site and that's saying something.

[Aldebaran]

So.....the killings stopped because....there weren't any more stars in the sky....?

I wouldn't say why the killings stopped because I don't know. There are always stars in the sky.

[Joshua Rogan]

Ok. Any idea why the killer would pick those stars and no others? Is there anything special about them?

[Karl]

First of all, I do not think the pattern in the first image is remotely similar to the star pattern. Not similar in the slightest.

Second, even if they were similar, you're not really serious about there being a connection, are you?

[Aldebaran]

This has to be one of the most ridiculous threads on the site and that's saying something.

It may seem ridiculous to you because you can't imagine any killer thinking along those lines. The fault may lie with your lack of imagination. Or can't you even imagine that possibility? It is very easy to be a naysayer, to use the words "That's ridiculous" but do you have so much as a single argument as to why it couldn't possibly be so? Of course not. Naysayers seldom have. Naysaying is a mechanism for making one seem superior. Nice try.

You want my opinion as to what are the most ridiculous threads on this board? That's easy. The ones in which certain parties here engage in tiresome bickering--like kids in a schoolyard. No one can seem to concentrate on any one thread for very long, seem to start new ones for no real reason instead of continuing older ones so that there could be some semblance of collective linear thinking or debate for anyone new coming here to learn from. Few people here seem to want to put their heads together for very long--are all over the place continuously every day. I don't think the Jack the Ripper murders will ever be solved but, if there was some chance they could be, it would likely never happen here. Too many people like you and not enough like me.

[Aldebaran]

Ok. Any idea why the killer would pick those stars and no others? Is there anything special about them?

Yes, there was something special about them because they were among the brightest stars anyone could see in the heavens in that fall season. Anyone with a knowledge of astronomy or navigation could easily use them to create a murder map by using any street map. One or two of the brightest stars were omitted but that can have been for lack of time or opportunity for all we know. There's no way to know. However, even though the other murders were spread out and in different directions, those of Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly were closer together and both north of the Whitechapel Road. Why were they in that pattern?

Do I have any idea why anyone would want to do this? It's about as easy as trying to explain why anyone would want to kill those poor women in the first place. But the Ripper did use the term "fix" in a letter, which is a navigational
term. He also referred to his "tricks". What tricks? It looks like he thought himself quite clever, more clever than the police who hadn't been able to apprehend him or anticipate his next move--even though he might have had some plan.

I have no intention of arguing this to the death because there's no way to prove this was an existing pattern. I've already allowed this could be a coincidence but a pretty amazing one. I've been here long enough to note that there are people here [and anywhere on the Internet] who like to join others in bashing people or their ideas like wolves in a pack because, generally, that's all they're good for. I have no time for answering any more of that but any other comments or questions like Joshua's would be of interest.

[GUT]

This has to be one of the most ridiculous threads on the site and that's saying something.

But I seem to recall others that were if the same tenor, shapes out of the sites, one bloke even got an arrow.

Then there's Van Gogh.

And Lewis Carrol, who seems to gave almost reappeared in Pierre's latest drivel about anagrams (that aren't).

So on the whole not even in the top ten.

[Mayerling]

For this to have any true validity one would have to show the significance (to the killer) of the choice of days for the crimes, and the positions of stars in the heaven on those occasions, which takes us closer to the field of astrology rather than astronomy. Slight possibility but it is not really a strong one (or a provable one).

Can't help repeating this: "The fault dear Brutus is in ourselves, and not in the stars!"