When will Jack strike next?

[Mort Belfry]

You're a pauper living in Whitechapel, the date is the 10th of November 1888. Through some miracle you know everything about the murders you know now yet the future is a complete mystery to you. More importantly you also haven't conceived of a single suspect.

When do you think Jack will strike next? Would it conceivably be over a year before you heard of Jack the Ripper again? Where would it be and what would you expect to be the next scale of mutilation? Would you expect another letter accompanied by Mary Jane Kelly's heart? Would you ever in your wildest imagination expect the panic to be over?

[Nemo]

Hi Mort - I also think there is much to be read into the police activity/inactivity after the Kelly murder.

Strange that the police presence was not greatly increased during the Chritmas period - which is when I would have expected another killing.

I can imagine the Victorian mindset which would consider the scene at Millers Court to be one of ultimate, insurpassable horror and madness, and that the murderer must have gone insane / committed suicide etc after the glut.

..But I cannot believe the police downsized the investigation early in the new year unless they had a very strong suspect in mind.

[Mort Belfry]

It's my feeling that given the magnitude of Kelly's mutilations, ergo larger satisfaction for JtR, that perhaps he could have withheld killing for a longer period of time. Looking at Sutcliffe who would kill sproadically over a month, he could have breaks that lasted two-hundred and thirty days.

So due to either satisfaction or police presence my guess would have been that he would resurface almost as late as February 1889. Perhaps with another "Lusk letter" puncutating his absence to keep up the thrill, whether or not he would still have another organ at the time.

I ask because I would like to know a credible amount of time that would have to pass after Kelly for Jack to kill again for the purpose of eliminating suspects who have no cause for inaction after the said time.

[BLUE WIZZARD]

What if after Mary's death, Jack was safely at home, storing away Mary's heart then going to bed for the night.

Not a care in the world, he would sleep like a baby.

I do not believe that Jack went insane after slaughtering Mary, or that he was insane before slaughtering Mary or any of his victims, because he would have had to have a conscience or he would have to have remorse.

Jack may have gone out one evening during his cooling down periods, and got in trouble with the law or with someone trying to rob him, perhaps a fight happened and his assailant got the best of him or visa versa.

Ether way, maybe newspaper checks for a killing of a man that may have been a victim of mugging, or an arrest of a man committing such a crime.

Because Jack took a few weeks in between kills, for cooling down, and gearing up, the checks should be in newspapers and police reports, for the above mentioned crime, for his longest period between kills.

BW

[diana]

Rader was able to essentially quit after 1991. He was content with his trophies and the thrill picking on his subordinates and fellow citizens gave him.

[Nicola]

Hello all.

Given the ferocity of JTR's murders,I would fully expect him to be lurking about on the hunt no sooner than a few weeks after MJK. I used to think that after the horrific glut of poor MJK,he was well,satiated. But there is an element of extreme hate and emotion in all these murders. Even when the streets were packed with angry citizens and swarming with cops,he still kept killing.He took many chances,which tells me this was a complusion,a need for him. I don't think he would have had the control of a BTK. I doubt if he could contain his fury like that.

I tend to think that it wasn't the increased police presence that slowed him down. I believe it was the fact that the entire community was on edge and working girls with any sense were not about to go off to dark places. This hyperviligance probably stayed his murderous hand.


My favorite pet theory about him is that he did indeed try again. But this time,he met the wrong working girl,she gave him what for and he was caught.The citizens of WhiteChapel then took care of business and JTR went down in the books as just another street killing. But that is just fancy on my part.

I think he either was incarcerated or died right after MJK. He liked what he was doing,so I see no reason why he would have stopped after her.

[Mort Belfry]

I admit to not knowing much about Rader; was he in prison? Was this period of inaction after he was released?