Was Jack fascinated by past tyrants/psychopaths?

[Sam Flynn]

So, there's absolutely no way anyone from London in 1888 would have been able to get a copy of William Wilkensens' Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with Political Observations Relative to Them (London 1820)?

It's possible, Matt - but very unlikely. Added to which, they'd have to have dug out Suetonius's Life of Caligula, and The Evil Countess Bathory" (or equivalent) as well, in order for this theory to work.

The same book Bram Stoker was able to check out of the library in 1890 and gave most of the info he needed for Dracula.

That's because Stoker was researching a novel with Eastern European connections. It seems inherently unlikely that a passing weirdo would have gone to the history section of a Victorian library to consult a dusty tome on Wallachian history - with such a dry title, to boot - on the offchance that it might inspire him into a pattern of murder. Had there been a book called The Gruesome Deeds of Vlad the Impaler, it might have reached a wider audience among the psychopathic community. It's infinitely easier with Google

[WEREWOLF HUNTER]

September 30, 1631: William Stroughton. American judge at the Salem witch trials. Maybe Jack thought of himself as the final "judge" of these cursed women. Or maybe, perhaps, this is all a coincidence.

THERE WAS NO AMERICA UNTIL 1776, SO THAT JUDGE WOULD HAVE BEEN A
CHURCH OF ENGLAND APOSTATE IN 1631... EH......

[Roy Corduroy]

Hi Werewolf Hunter, welcome to the discussion.

This is a wild thread here, was Jack the Ripper influenced by psychopaths of the past. But you know, my history teacher in college once said "All events in history are influenced by previous events and circumstances." And I think that is true. In this case, the circumstances were the abject poverty of the area, the East End and the large concentration of dollymops (to borrow a phrase) or unfortunates in that one confined area in which the psycopath Jack the Ripper chose to murder.

Just a thought.

And again, welcome to the forum,

Roy