Escalation: What would Jack do after Mary Kelly?

[Abby Normal]

Hi Abby,

I find myself at a loss as to how Kelly is rated so highly. He has one kill to his name, but then disappears for decades and finally surrenders himself to an asylum. Can he be shown to have been in Whitechapel at the relevant time? How does he address the theory that serial killers don't just stop. Where are the protests that are seen for the "gap" between Kelly and McKenzie. I'm not trying to be perverse. I just don't understand the popularity of Kelly.

Cheers, George

hi george
hes a murderer, of woman by knife, he was crafty and street smart as tje ripper surely was, he fits the general description, he was a police person of interest, he was local and in the area, and the murders commence with his escape from prison.

amd we know from serial killer history they do sometimes just stop.. rader, gsk, kemper and even turn themselves in.. kemper.

kelly was crazy all right, like a fox. hes just the type i think the ripper would be.

[Lewis C]

Hi Abby,

I find myself at a loss as to how Kelly is rated so highly. He has one kill to his name, but then disappears for decades and finally surrenders himself to an asylum. Can he be shown to have been in Whitechapel at the relevant time? How does he address the theory that serial killers don't just stop. Where are the protests that are seen for the "gap" between Kelly and McKenzie. I'm not trying to be perverse. I just don't understand the popularity of Kelly.

Cheers, George

Hi George,

Some have theorized that Kelly didn't stop, that he may have committed some murders in the US after the Whitechapel murders. That's unproven, but can we really say for sure that that if he was the Ripper, he stopped after the Whitechapel murders?

I don't know what your point is on the gap between Kelly and McKenzie. McKenzie may or not have been a Ripper victim, and if she was a Ripper victim, the question of why there was a gap between her and MJK is there regardless of whom the Ripper was, unless we happen to know for a specific suspect something that would have stopped him during that period. IIRC, Kelly is thought to have left England before the McKenzie murder. If so, he couldn't have been the Ripper if McKenzie was a Ripper victim, but that's also true of Bury, Cohen, Druitt, Hyams, and Tumblety.