Sexual Perversion & Whitechapel Murders, LVP Med Articles

[Archaic]

"Morbid Craving" Article, 1890

The following is an excerpt from an article by Dr. T. S. Clouson that was published in the 'Edinburgh Medical Journal' in 1890.

The article discusses various forms of "Morbid Craving" including substance addiction; this passage mentions the Whitechapel Murders.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

"Possibly He Is A Crazy Doctor" Article January 1889

January 1889 'Eclectic Medical Journal' editorial comment on the Whitechapel Murders.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Nov. 28, 1888 Article On Motive, Sanity & Other Issues of WCM's

This article was published in the 'Washington Law Reporter on November 28, 1888'. I found it to be a very well-written piece and I recommend reading it for a good insight into the times.

Though not a medical journal per se it deals with various medico-legal aspects of the Whitechapel Murders such as the issues of Sanity and Motive, a discussion of the "peculiar features" of the Whitechapel Murders, choice of victims, whether the victim's organs might have been stolen to be sold for medical purposes, etc.

The article discusses the perplexing problem of discovering anything like an "adequate motive" for the extreme mutilations seen in the Whitechapel Murders, but makes a detailed argument as to why the killer appears to be a sane man acting deliberately.

It also makes the sensible point that just because the motive cannot be readily understood by society, it doesn't automatically follow that
there is no motive and the killer is insane.
"...it is the extreme of rashness to conclude that motive is absent, because it is unascertainable, and even defies conjecture."

In the very last paragraph their careful reasoning falters a little bit when they question the sexual nature and motive of the mutilations and say
"erotic and homicidal tendencies do not seem to been found to co-exist", but in 1888 the concept of the Sexual Serial Killer was far in the future.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Stephen Thomas]

Hi Archaic

From Shakespeare in post #1 here.....

"Desire outliveth performance"There's the boy for economy of language.

[Stephen Thomas]

Hi Archaic

From Shakespeare in post #1 here.....

"Desire outliveth performance"

There's the boy for economy of language.

[Stephen Thomas]

Oh dear,

The cancel and delete options here don't work.

[Archaic]

That's OK Stephen, I can never get too much Shakespeare.

Speaking of "economy of language", one of my favorite Shakespeare quotes is "Brevity is the soul of wit."

Dang, I wish I'd said that.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Stephen Thomas]

Speaking of "economy of language", one of my favorite Shakespeare quotes is "Brevity is the soul of wit."

Indeed, and also the unexpected punchline which he never mentioned.

Get well soon Archaic.

[David Monaghan]

Dear Arhaic,

excellent and amusing find of the Clevenger review. It really strikes me just how far behind the American forensic psychology think was to what was happening in Europe. I began to get interest in Walter as a suspect in part because of his obsession with bloodshed and sex. He writes of female sex organs being "like the slit throat of a dog". In his book, Walter described making twenty different women
bleed. Almost all descriptions were of blood from the broken
hymen of a raped girl. So how could these be considered the
mark of a murderer? The link between blood fetish, sex and murder had been
noted two years before the Ripper killings. The German
researcher Richard von Krafft-Ebing published the fantasies
that drove killers: ‘following lust-murder . . . sight of the victim’s blood
are a delight and pleasure’. He described
the fantasies that drove the killer, ‘Case 25 Mr X’: ‘Imagining representations
of blood and scenes of blood . . . Without the assistance of this idea,
no erection was possible. Death followed imagining ‘Injury to Women’
(Stabbing, Flagellation etc.) Following lust-murder and violation of
corpses, come cases closely allied to the former, in which injury of the
victim of lust and sight of the victim’s blood are a delight and pleasure.’
Krafft-Ebing Dr R. von. Pyschopathia Sexualis (Stuttgart, Ferdinand
Enke 1886: p. 72).

All rather advanced stuff in comparison to the Chicago school's oviparous reptiles.

Thanks for posting such a find

David Monaghan
Author
Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession

[Archaic]

Hello Dave.
Welcome to the forums and thanks for replying to my thread. I'm glad you have enjoyed the articles.

I agree with you that von Krafft-Ebbing was light-years ahead of Dr. Clevenger and most others when it came to understanding sexual murder.

I've read 'Psychopathia Sexualis' and found it to be full of brilliant insights which gave me a much better understanding of this subject. I remember the passages you quoted regarding Blood-fetishes. The individual case studies make for disturbing reading, but Krafft-Ebbing puts them in a perspective that helps make sense of such bizarre behaviors.

I wonder how many people had actually read 'Psychopathia Sexualis' by the time of the Whitechapel Murders? (I doubt Dr. Clevenger had read it.)

By the way, I looked up Clevenger's term "Oviparous Reptiles" and it means "Egg-laying Reptiles."

I felt like having some chocolate ice cream yesterda, so I decided to just give in and humor my Inner Reptile.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Oct. 6, 1888 Article: 'Homicidal Paranoia and the Whitechapel Murderer'

This is from the October 6, 1888 'Medical Record'.

The authors of this article seem to have blended a number of opposing theories in delivering their opinion, and the result seems a bit illogical to me. They state that the Whitechapel Murderer is "beyond all question a Lunatic" and "insane", but then state that the killer "understands" "intellectually" what he is doing as well as "appreciates its legal consequences". Towards the end they use the phrase "congenital criminal".

The term 'Homicidal Paranoia' was generally used to describe a mentally ill person who committed homicide due to an irrational belief that they were being watched, spied on, and persecuted, so it seems an odd one to apply to the Whitechapel Murderer.

This all goes to show that they didn't yet understand the concept of the Psychopathic Serial Killer.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Hunter]

I wonder how many people had actually read 'Psychopathia Sexualis' by the time of the Whitechapel Murders?

This book was supposed to be available for only the people in the medical or legal professions, but it was also circulated around as a sort of 'porn'.

It would be ironic if the murderer and the officials trying to find him operated from the same handbook.

[Archaic]

You know, Hunter, I have often wondered that myself.

If a person with extremely perverted inclinations were to read 'Psychopathia Sexualis' c. 1888, it might not only give them ideas
but might serve in a weird way to confirm for them that they weren't the only one in the world with those strange desires and impulses...

in which case they might decide to "experiment".

Best regards,
Archaic

[Hunter]

Well, you know that very little in the way of human activity is a first... Even inventions rely on accumulated information from the past. In other words, there is a precedent to derive from. Krafft-Ebling's chapter on 'Lust Murderers' is quite explicit and detailed. It could definitely give the wrong person 'ideas'.

Consequently, the first edition was published in 1886 and no doubt had to find itself in medical libraries - even in the collections of the medicos involved in the WM and the legal professionals as well. Bond's profile of JTR is strikingly similar to Krafft-Ebling's assessment of Verzeni, who also disemboweled his victims and took organs as trophies. JTR's 'signature' is similar to Verzeni's as well.

[Archaic]

Vincenzo Verzeni

Agreed, Hunter.

For those who might be interested, here's a photo and an illustration of Vincenzo Verzeni, the Italian killer who in 1872 was convicted of two murders and four attempted murders. As Hunter mentioned, Verzeni's case is discussed in 'Psycopathia Sexualis'.

Verzeni confessed to deriving intense pleasure from strangling, mutilating, and drinking the blood of his victims as well as taking pieces of their intestines and clothing as 'trophies'.

Verzeni was personally examined by Lombroso, who declared him to be a perfect example of the "congenital criminal" and a case of "Moral Insanity".

Best regards,
Archaic