Apron placement as intimidation?

[Abby Normal]

Perhaps the author thought the murder and mutilation of Eddowes was an angry statement in itself.

Right. And or perhaps leaving a blood and **** stained ripped part of her apron underneath it.

[Sam Flynn]

If there weren’t so many things going on that night that tie into the gsg being authentic I would discount just for these reasons.

The reasons for pinning the GSG on events that night are speculative, and a more objective case can be made for attributing the graffito to general antisemitism. There was only one - or two, IMHO - killer of Eddowes and Stride, but there were thousands of anti-Semites in the neighbourhood. Even if one takes the view that the GSG was pro-Jewish, the Jews still outnumbered JTR by a similar degree of magnitude.

Most written graffiti is simple to understand the point and writtten large. I mean why would any graffiti writer write something small and ambiguous?

The same question applies to the killer; if anything, the size and (apparent) ambiguity is even harder to explain if it had been written by a person as audacious and excessive as the Ripper.

[Jon Guy]

Right. And or perhaps leaving a blood and **** stained ripped part of her apron underneath it.

Exactly .... as much as we want to second guess the mindset of the author of the GSG, we should always remember that the author may only have been a few minutes after murdering and mutilating a woman in the street (possibly 2 women).

I`m not quite sure what the author should have written to convey what we think he should have been written.

Again, why hang around Millers Court writing on the wall when he`s left a mutilated corpse on display ?

[Abby Normal]

The reasons for pinning the GSG on events that night are speculative, and a more objective case can be made for attributing the graffito to general antisemitism. There was only one - or two, IMHO - killer of Eddowes and Stride, but there were thousands of anti-Semites in the neighbourhood. Even if one takes the view that the GSG was pro-Jewish, the Jews still outnumbered JTR by a similar degree of magnitude.The same question applies to the killer; if anything, the size and (apparent) ambiguity is even harder to explain if it had been written by a person as audacious and excessive as the Ripper.

They are speculative but it’s based on the overall events and facts of the evening that tie it all together. And the police at the time thought it was written by the killer, police that lived through it that know more about the anti Jewish situation than your speculation.

I agree with you on your last sentence. You would think the killer would be more clear in his message, but perhaps his reason was clear as day to him. And besides who the hell knows what’s going on in the mind of this weirdo.

[Harry D]

The same question applies to the killer; if anything, the size and (apparent) ambiguity is even harder to explain if it had been written by a person as audacious and excessive as the Ripper.

This is a valid point, Sam, and one worth repeating. The GSG was apparently written in the wee hours, inside a darkened doorway, by a psychopath who had no qualms about butchering women in the street, but he was too cautious to write in more than a tiny scrawl.

I also don't believe the claim that it would've been scrubbed out had it been written earlier. While people were busying themselves with their day, would the local immigrants really have stopped to notice a little chalk graffiti, let alone understand its ambiguous wording?

[Jon Guy]

This is a valid point, Sam, and one worth repeating. The GSG was apparently written in the wee hours, inside a darkened doorway, by a psychopath who had no qualms about butchering women in the street, but he was too cautious to write in more than a tiny scrawl.

Which of the two do you think was more important to the Ripper.
Butchering women or writing on walls ?

[Sam Flynn]

Which of the two do you think was more important to the Ripper.
Butchering women or writing on walls ?

You're surely not suggesting that the Ripper was subconsciously thinking "This is relatively unimportant, so I'll make it small", Jon. I can't see any reason why there should be any such correlation.

[Jon Guy]

You're surely not suggesting that the Ripper was subconsciously thinking "This is relatively unimportant, so I'll make it small", Jon. I can't see any reason why there should be any such correlation.

Not at all, Sam
I was questioning why it should be so odd that someone who butchers women in the street would be too cautious to write in more than a tiny scrawl (although in reality it was written in good schoolboy hand and at a size that fitted on the space available).

I`m not saying I believe it was written by the Ripper, I just don`t buy any of the reasons people are giving for it not being by the Ripper.

[Abby Normal]

You're surely not suggesting that the Ripper was subconsciously thinking "This is relatively unimportant, so I'll make it small", Jon. I can't see any reason why there should be any such correlation.

Hi sam and Harry and Jon
Good talk.
This size thing has got me thinking-wasn’t most graffiti written at the time not writtten huge like nowadays? I remember seeing pictures of Victorian graffiti somewhere and it all appeared rather small, about the size of the gsg.
Perhaps were looking at the size thing through too modern glasses.

[Sam Flynn]

They are speculative but it’s based on the overall events and facts of the evening that tie it all together.

It's by no means a fact that Stride's killer was the Ripper, however, and many of the proposed motivations for JTR to have written the GSG rely on his having been annoyed by Jews interrupting him at Berner Street. Even if this had been the case, the GSG was generic to the point of banality. If it had been more strongly worded, ideally referring directly to the murders themselves (what better opportunity to coin the phrase "Double Event"?), there would be a better case to be made. As it is, any old anti-Semite could have written it.

And the police at the time thought it was written by the killer

That's immaterial to the question of whether it was actually written by the killer or not. Their guess/opinion is about as good as ours.

[Jon Guy]

Hi sam and Harry and Jon
Good talk.
This size thing has got me thinking-wasn’t most graffiti written at the time not writtten huge like nowadays? I remember seeing pictures of Victorian graffiti somewhere and it all appeared rather small, about the size of the gsg.
Perhaps were looking at the size thing through too modern glasses.

Hi Abby,

I believe, that in this instance, the length of the message dictated how big the graffiti was going to be.
Imagine having to write the GSG in letters 2ft high!?!
How long would that take to write, how much chalk would it use...

[Sam Flynn]

This size thing has got me thinking-wasn’t most graffiti written at the time not writtten huge like nowadays? I remember seeing pictures of Victorian graffiti somewhere and it all appeared rather small, about the size of the gsg.

The problem there is sample size, Abby. Unless someone had an interest in it, then I doubt that too many photographs of Victorian graffiti would have been made, still less survived.

I see no reason why graffiti should have been any smaller in the past; indeed, I've seen plenty of examples of small-sized graffiti even to this day. I even wrote some myself, on a lamp post, where it stayed for years.

I suspect that graffiti has come in all shapes and sizes for as long as hominids have been able to write/draw on walls. And that's a long time

[Sam Flynn]

I believe, that in this instance, the length of the message dictated how big the graffiti was going to be.
Imagine having to write the GSG in letters 2ft high!?!

A scrawl of letters 3 or 4 inches high would have been good enough, and more impactful, compared to the 0.75 inch letters that comprised most of the GSG. Writing that small and neat would have required a bit more concentration, skill - and time! - to achieve.

[Jon Guy]

A scrawl of letters 3 or 4 inches high would have been good enough, and more impactful, compared to the 0.75 inch letters that comprised most of the GSG. Writing that small and neat would have required a bit more concentration, skill - and time! - to achieve.

I don`t know about being more impactful, Sam, it seemed to do the trick.

But the author was spacing his letters so they fitted on the bricks, wasn`t he ?

[Sam Flynn]

Hello Jon

I don`t know about being more impactful, Sam, it seemed to the trick.

Well, Long only clocked the graffito when he was looking around the passage for signs of blood, so the writing doesn't seem to have been all that obvious.

But the author was spacing his letters so they fitted on the bricks, wasn`t he ?

No reason why one can't straddle more than one brick; besides, the bricks would have been around 3 or 4 inches "high", wouldn't they? If so, there would have been scope for bigger letters to have been used.