JtR and Chokeholds - Generally Accepted M.O.?

[MrBarnett]

One good reason a cord is used is because the attacker need not be a strong man, a mere stripling, or even a female can bring down a gorilla - metaphorically speaking. A cord is a great equalizer with regard to size & strength.

So why did street robbers of the time prefer to use their arms?

[Wickerman]

All the examples of East End ‘garotting’ I’ve come across involve a the use of an arm - presumably a clothed arm.

If Brownfield is correct, the obvious question is 'why attempt to hide the fact a cord was used?'

The answer could be it may help identify the attacker, not everyone charged with garotting used a cord.
Those jailed for garotting crimes were not considered high-risk, so were often among those let out on 'ticket-of-leave' before their sentence was complete.
The police knew all those men who were out on 'ticket-of-leave', perhaps if the police realized the cord had been used in the Whitechapel murders then it would have narrowed down their suspect list to only a very small few, if not to the man himself?

[Wickerman]

There's a published extract here from a victim of the garrotte.

This letter was the start of many journalistic investigations into the art and physical effects of garotting.

Being the victim of a garotte attack was depicted as an intensely humiliating experience, signifying a loss of social standing and masculine dignity. Images of smashed spectacles and strewn top hats abounded in the press and there were countless descriptions of victims sprawling on the ground in agony, 'tongue protruding and eyes starting from their sockets, unable to give alarm or to attempt pursuit'. Victims were often left suffering severe shock and sometimes rendered temporarily voiceless. An extract from an account given by a clerk during a proceeding at the Old Bailey in 1857 describes:

The first sensation I had was blindness; I was thrown on my back, and the sight was taken from my eyes, by strangulation; I found my tongue protruding [...] I was nearly choked; I do not know whether it was by a hand, or cloth, or cord, or what it was; before I had time to think of myself, I was on my back, and choking; I could not breathe there were men about me ... simultaneously a hand went into my right hand pocket, and took my watch, and about 15s. in silver.


Here is another account.

November 28, 1862 --- Garrotte-Mania

Harsh sentences and stern lectures are handed out to two thugs convicted of garroting their victims.

The plague of violent street crime - dubbed "Garrotte-mania" - has literally strangled London with fear. The sentences imposed are meant to be exemplary severe --- James Anderson gets life, while his cohort George Roberts receives 20 years, for the daylight mugging of a medical student near the British Museum. The victim had been beaten unconscious, left in the street with his clothes nearly torn away in the frenzy to rifle his pockets. The two men are also believed to have committed the sensational attack on an MP in the heart of Clubland.

London is in the grip of an unprecedented crime wave; street robberies are commonplace, the preferred method being the garrotte, the Spanish means of execution. Working in pairs, the bandits jump their victims from the rear, one pulling a cord or stick across the throat, while the second loots the pockets. The Illustrated London News received dozens of letters from gentlemen, "bemoaning the prevalence of garrotting, and urging that they cannot enjoy a quiet rubber of whist or take their evening tumbler and havanna without running the risk of being strangled and plundered on their way back to chambers."


Many of the perpetrators are men who would have been transported to the Antipodes in the past. However, reformers had abolished transportation. When domestic gaols became overcrowded, inmates were released early - given a "ticket-of-leave." Both Roberts and Anderson are "ticket-of-leave" men, the latter having 17 convictions on his record! From the bench, Baron Bramwell shows no mercy to either: "Utterly destitute of morality, shame, religion, or pity, and if they were let loose they would do what any savage animal would do - namely prey upon their fellows." If tougher sentences don't work, Bramwell will recommend "alterations in the punishment."

Early in 1863, Parliament brought back flogging for convicted garrotters. The Times scoffed at those who felt chronic criminals could be reformed, calling it a "mere delusion, founded upon the weakness or concert of some theorist or some simpleminded gaol chaplain."

The above extracts were taken from an article/paper entitled:
Stranglehold on Victorian Society, by Emelyne Godfrey.

Another article:

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/06/garrotting-panic-1850-insane-ways-public-reacted/

[MrBarnett]

That extract wasn’t written in 1862, was it?

[MrBarnett]

That extract wasn’t written in 1862, was it?

I didn’t read it carefully enough.

This is obviously Emelyne Godfrey’s opinion. I think she’s wrong.

“London is in the grip of an unprecedented crime wave; street robberies are commonplace, the preferred method being the garrotte, the Spanish means of execution. Working in pairs, the bandits jump their victims from the rear, one pulling a cord or stick across the throat, while the second loots the pockets.”

What was commonly described as ‘garrotting’ involved the use of a forearm rather than a cord etc

This is from the 1860s and shows that the use of a cord was rare.

[erobitha]

Would a stick of some kind like a walking cane (one of the many articles of clothing a caricature of Jack would include) operate equally as a cord? If done quickly enough from behind?

[rjpalmer]

No doubt some victims of these street robberies were throttled, but it is worth noticing that the Anderson/Roberts' attack on the medical student Ryk Le Sueur in 1862 (alluded to in Wickerman's Post #18) can be found on Old Bailey On-line, and they didn't seem to have strangled him at all; they stunned him with a blow to the mouth (knocking out a tooth and loosening several others) which made him fall onto the pavement. A & R then robbed him, as he was too stunned and shocked to give any resistance.

The attack was more akin to what we call a "sandbagging," though the press obviously included it under the general umbrella of the "garrotting mania."

[rjpalmer]

Tanta, see my post of 26/11 at 5.51pm in the current Liz Stride thread about carotid pressure as a means of producing rapid loss of consciousness. Medical students and others have been known to fool around with this technique (not to be encouraged) since long before the JTR days. Once the pressure is relieved consciousness returns almost immediately unless the carotids have been severed in the meantime.

Prosector

As an aside, I can recall back around the 5th grade my school went through a disturbing 'pass out mania.' This was in the Western U.S.A. The volunteer would face the throttler, as I will call him, who held his finger's over the volunteer's carotids until he/she passed out. It would only take a few seconds. Two or three spectators would stand behind the volunteer/victim and would catch him/her as they fell to the ground. A surprising number of students volunteered to give it "a go," both male and female.

The volunteer would 'come to' a short time afterward and often recount having had some sort of lucid hallucination.

I wanted no part of it, and, indeed it scared the hell out of me. I was quite the choir boy and assumed it would lead to immediate and permanent brain damage. It was all the rage for about a week, but, not surprisingly, once the teachers realized this mania was going on, they shut it down immediately.

I often wondered where the ringleader of this cult had learned his techniques. It couldn't have been healthy.

[tanta07]

As an aside, I can recall back around the 5th grade my school went through a disturbing 'pass out mania.' This was in the Western U.S.A. The volunteer would face the throttler, as I will call him, who held his finger's over the volunteer's carotids until he/she passed out. It would only take a few seconds. Two or three spectators would stand behind the volunteer/victim and would catch him/her as they fell to the ground. A surprising number of students volunteered to give it "a go," both male and female.

The volunteer would 'come to' a short time afterward and often recount having had some sort of lucid hallucination.

I wanted no part of it, and, indeed it scared the hell out of me. I was quite the choir boy and assumed it would lead to immediate and permanent brain damage. It was all the rage for about a week, but, not surprisingly, once the teachers realized this mania was going on, they shut it down immediately.

I often wondered where the ringleader of this cult had learned his techniques. It couldn't have been healthy.

LOL My schoolmates and I did the same. That's why I was so taken aback at the commentator referenced in my original post that insisted a chokehold would take "a minute or more" to render the victim unconscious. I can tell you with certainty it actually only takes seconds, which is why the "chokehold" or "garroting" theory with JtR always made sense to me.

[Wickerman]

LOL My schoolmates and I did the same. That's why I was so taken aback at the commentator referenced in my original post that insisted a chokehold would take "a minute or more" to render the victim unconscious. I can tell you with certainty it actually only takes seconds, which is why the "chokehold" or "garroting" theory with JtR always made sense to me.

There is a technical view which brings into play our biology. When the arm is used, say from behind, as we see in wrestling, it is the muscles on the biceps & forearm which act like a vice to the sides of the neck and restrict blood flow in the carotid arteries. This method takes longer than grabbing the esophagus (windpipe), which restricts air flow and renders the victim unconscious quicker.
The application of a cord restricts both at the same time, which is the biological reason why the cord acts much faster than either the arm or the clasped hands.

[Wickerman]

The attack was more akin to what we call a "sandbagging," though the press obviously included it under the general umbrella of the "garrotting mania."

There are a considerable number of articles throughout 1862 expressing concern about increased occurrences of 'garrotting'. Any search of the BNA raises thousands of occurrences of 'garrotting'. That said, we need to eliminate all the repetitive reports, and allow for numerous misreadings by the Search routine (Carrots, Committed, etc), and we whittle down the number to a more reasonable amount. Then, the vast majority of what are left under 'garrotting' provide no details of the crime whether by cord or by hand/arm. So it is not possible for us to establish just how rare or how frequent the use of the cord was in this period.

Here's one report where a "short piece of sash cord" was found upon him.

26 Apr. 1860

Again, where some 'device'? had compressed the handkerchief around the victim's neck.

23 July 1862.

Lastly, it was obvious where the 'instrument' had been placed around his neck.

18 July 1862.

[Wickerman]

Panic Expressed in the papers, and blame laid on the Ticket-of-Leave system in use, due to overcrowding in the gaols.


Sun. 4 Aug. 1862.


Sun. 18 July 1862.


Evening Standard. 18 Nov. 1862.


Evening Standard. 13 Nov. 1862.

[Wickerman]

Even, an Anti-Garrotting Society was established in Lambeth.


Evening Standard. 22 Nov 1862.

[Wickerman]

What may be the relevance of an epidemic of garrotting in the early 1860's, when the Whitechapel Murders took place a generation later?
A 30-40 year old suspect in 1888 was a teenager in the panic stricken London of 1862.
The original post suggesting a chokehold (garrotting) is very valid, regardless how it was done.

[Joshua Rogan]

There is a technical view which brings into play our biology. When the arm is used, say from behind, as we see in wrestling, it is the muscles on the biceps & forearm which act like a vice to the sides of the neck and restrict blood flow in the carotid arteries. This method takes longer than grabbing the esophagus (windpipe), which restricts air flow and renders the victim unconscious quicker.
The application of a cord restricts both at the same time, which is the biological reason why the cord acts much faster than either the arm or the clasped hands.

I think you have this the wrong way round, Jon - restricting blood flow to the brain directly (via compression of the carotid arteries) will cause loss of consciousness faster than restricting only air flow to the lungs (via compression of the windpipe, thus indirectly restricting the supply of oxygenated blood to the brain). And both at once won't speed up either method. A thin cord will be more effective because it can restrict flow more completely. Or at least more reliably.
But a knife cut across the throat will have the same effect, and is faster than either.