Geoprofile of Jack the Ripper reveals Tabram and Nichols connection.

[MrBarnett]

Indeed, but I was only using it as shorthand. Besides, what sort of commuting killer would deliberately set out to "visit" such obscure places as the vicinity of Mitre Square or Buck's Row?

How about Commercial Street or Whitechapel High Street/Road?

The answer to that question is ‘one looking for the more desperate/vulnerable type of unfortunate’.

Funny how the guy never attacked a woman in the Ratcliffe Highway around midnight. Does that tell us something about where he lived?

[MrBarnett]

It certainly weighs against his being an obedient Jewish child

(Incidentally, I thoroughly recommend Jerry White's fascinating book, and note that it's available cheaply on Kindle. Those who haven't got it already should treat themselves to a copy.)

Yes, it’s a fascinating book. A companion piece to Arthur Harding’s somewhat unreliable memoir. There’s a copy in my local library which no one else ever seems to borrow.

[Sam Flynn]

The murder sites may have been obscure, but they were all in close proximity to main thorougfares.

I know that, but you're missing my main point, which was: Why would a commuting killer only feel disposed to commit these evisceration murders in a small area of "Whitechapel" (for short) and nowhere else?

[Fisherman]

Indeed, but I was only using it as shorthand. Besides, what sort of commuting killer would deliberately set out to "visit" such obscure places as the vicinity of Mitre Square or Buck's Row?

Lechmere offers plausible connections - one of them proven at the exact time of a slaying - to both sites. So that sort of commuting killer may be what we are looking for!

[MrBarnett]

I know that, but you're missing my main point, which was: Why would a commuting killer only feel disposed to commit these evisceration murders in a small area of "Whitechapel" (for short) and nowhere else?

Because that’s where he was most likely to find his victims, where there was the greatest concentration of vulnerable semi-vagrant women abroad in the wee small hours?

If he had lived in Cable Street, he probably wouldn’t have dared taking on the ladies parading up and down the Highway. For two main reasons:


1) Because they probably had bullies keeping an eye on them, and those ‘Tigresses’ generally hunted in packs and often carried knives themselves.

2) Because within an hour or so of the pubs closing they would have returned to their ‘brothels’.

[MrBarnett]

Lechmere offers plausible connections - one of them proven at the exact time of a slaying - to both sites. So that sort of commuting killer may be what we are looking for!

Indeed, Fish.


How far was his ‘commute’ to Buck’s Row, I wonder? More or less than Levy’s?

[Fisherman]

Indeed, Fish.


How far was his ‘commute’ to Buck’s Row, I wonder? More or less than Levy’s?

Less - I make it a matter of seven minutes in Lechmere´s case and around twelve for Jacob Levy. I made the point earlier and added that it is not exactly as if Lechmere lived in Outer Mongolia...

[Sam Flynn]

Because that’s where he was most likely to find his victims, where there was the greatest concentration of semi-vagrant women abroad in the wee small hours?

What about other depressed parts of London frequented by streetwalkers? Or, if we're talking about a sea-faring killer, Liverpool, Calais, Hamburg and their ilk? Why just THIS small area of East London?

[Sam Flynn]

Lechmere offers plausible connections - one of them proven at the exact time of a slaying - to both sites.

It is not "proven" that Cross was there at the exact time of a slaying.

So that sort of commuting killer may be what we are looking for!

Why no murders north, east or south of Bethnal Green? Or IN Bethnal Green, for that matter? Were there no vagrants or unfortunates elsewhere?

When considering any proposed commuting killer, why were there no Ripper murders outside the very narrow confines of "Whitechapel", with none of the murders more than a short, brisk walk from their geographical centre point?

[MrBarnett]

Less - I make it a matter of seven minutes in Lechmere´s case and around twelve for Jacob Levy. I made the point earlier and added that it is not exactly as if Lechmere lived in Outer Mongolia...

Ah, but why did he do most of his killing of semi-vagrant doss-house residents in an area where there was the greatest concentration of such? He must have lived there himself - no?��

Let’s imagine our killer had a thing against fishmongers and killed five of them in the early hours in the streets around Billingsgate. Would it be safe to assume he lived in Lower Thames Street?

[MrBarnett]

What about other depressed parts of London frequented by streetwalkers? Or, if we're talking about a sea-faring killer, Liverpool, Calais, Hamburg and their ilk? Why just THIS small area of East London?

The opportunities were greater than elsewhere and he was familiar with the area. He didn’t have to live slap bang in the middle of it.

[Sam Flynn]

Less - I make it a matter of seven minutes in Lechmere´s case and around twelve for Jacob Levy.

Now try the same trick for Chapman, Stride, Eddowes and Kelly. Or Smith, Tabram, Kenzie, and Coles, if you like.

[MrBarnett]

Now try the same trick for Chapman, Stride, Eddowes and Kelly. Or Smith, Tabram, Kenzie, and Coles, if you like.

Why leave out the Pinchin Street victim or Mylett?

It would be interesting to see what effect their inclusion had on the ‘hot zone’.

[Sam Flynn]

The opportunities were greater than elsewhere and he was familiar with the area. He didn’t have to live slap bang in the middle of it.

It's of course possible that he swanned in from outside but, pragmatically, a locally-based killer is by far the more likely. No similar murders happened anywhere else during this short time-frame, yet we do know that other (non-Ripperesque) prostitute murders elsewhere. So there clearly were other places where such opportunities presented themselves beyond the narrow confines of "Whitechapel", and it beggars belief that "Whitechapel" was the only place with which this putative commuting killer was familiar.

[Sam Flynn]

Why leave out the Pinchin Street victim or Mylett?

Why don't we throw in Carrie Brown for good measure?

I don't consider anyone other than Nichols, Chapman, Eddowes and Kelly as Ripper victims, so I thought I was being generous enough to include even Stride. But hey-ho!