Hell Is Other People

[Aethelwulf]

His opinion is far more relevant, insightful, educated than either yours or mine, and he saw 4 of five canonicals dead. I wish people would start accepting expert testimony as just that. Hes the expert, unless you have proof to the contrary.

When someone expert is asked for their opinion, its based on credibility. He has that.

Something I have wondered about here is the anatomical knowledge of someone with an animal butchery background. A quick search shows suggests pig and human anatomy is incredibly similar. What if JtR did have a butchery background and was accustomed to working incredibly fast, perhaps even paid per carcass, so with an incentive to get his work down to a fine art and done quickly. Phillips does suggest that a slaughterman's blade could have been long enough and sharp enough if ground down very fine. It just struck me that the medical men were looking at it from a surgical background whereas someone with a slaughterer's background could have got it done quicker.

[DJA]

Used to work at KR Darling Downs,an abattoir outside Brisbane, where pigs were slaughtered for Xmas hams.

Eddowes was not killed by a "butcher".

What was done was quite methodical with certain goals in mind.

[DJA]

The head being opened showed that the membranes of the brain were opaque and the veins loaded with blood of a dark character. There was a large quantity of fluid between the membranes and the substance of the brain. The brain substance was unusually firm, and its cavities also contained a large amount of fluid. The throat had been severed. The incisions of the skin indicated that they had been made from the left side of the neck on a line with the angle of the jaw, carried entirely round and again in front of the neck, and ending at a point about midway between the jaw and the sternum or breast bone on the right hand. There were two distinct clean cuts on the body of the vertebrae on the left side of the spine. They were parallel to each other, and separated by about half an inch. The muscular structures between the side processes of bone of the vertebrae had an appearance as if an attempt had been made to separate the bones of the neck.

Coroner] Would it have been such an instrument as a medical man uses for post-mortem examinations? - The ordinary post-mortem case perhaps does not contain such a weapon.

An attempt was made to take Chapman's head off.

By someone who had a very specialized instrument.

Seems the killer knew she had TB that had infected her brain.

Hmm ..... who was a chest expert and pathologist!

[Aethelwulf]

Seems the killer knew she had TB that had infected her brain.

Hmm ..... who was a chest expert and pathologist!

I don't see how you can possibly say that.

I'm sure I'll regret saying this - what is the chest expert/pathologist theory?

[DJA]

Henry Gawen Sutton treated TB patients.

He was also a pathologist and curator of the London Hospital's collection before Openshaw took over in 1887 and became his "Boss".

Nichols and Eddowes were his inpatients from December 1867 with rheumatic fever.Eddowes kidney disease stemmed from that.

Stride had a genetic disease which was one of his specialites, hence the cachous.

Mary Ann Kelly was a member of his church as a child,also 1867..He was on the Vestry Board.

[Michael W Richards]

Something I have wondered about here is the anatomical knowledge of someone with an animal butchery background. A quick search shows suggests pig and human anatomy is incredibly similar. What if JtR did have a butchery background and was accustomed to working incredibly fast, perhaps even paid per carcass, so with an incentive to get his work down to a fine art and done quickly. Phillips does suggest that a slaughterman's blade could have been long enough and sharp enough if ground down very fine. It just struck me that the medical men were looking at it from a surgical background whereas someone with a slaughterer's background could have got it done quicker.

Have a look at Mr Isenschmidt.

From the History Press: "Throughout his life many friends, family members and eyewitnesses remarked that Isenschmid would act in strange and often violent ways suggesting an underlying mental illness. Sometime in 1882/83 his wife, Mary Ann Joyce, would claim that Jacob had a fit and that this was the cause of his strange behaviour. She also told the police during the Whitechapel investigation that Jacob would always carry a large knife with him. The locals nicknamed him the ‘Mad Pork Butcher’.

On the 11th September Dr Cowen of Landseer Road and Dr Crabb of Hollyway Road informed the police that a landlord by the name of George Tyler named Isenschmid as the Whitechapel murderer. Mr Tyler owned a lodge house on Milford Road where Isenschmid took up accommodation after splitting up with his wife. Tyler claimed that Isenschmid would often stay out all night and was absent on one particular night – the murder of Annie Chapman.

Crucially, an unusual incident occurred which potentially tied Isenschmid to the Chapman murder. A few moments after the murder Mrs Fiddymont, the landlady of the Prince Albert, encountered a ‘wild’ man with a torn and bloody shirt. Mrs Fiddymont’s pub was only 400 metres from the scene of Chapman’s murder. The suspect walked into the pub and purchased a drink before quickly leaving. Moments after the suspect met Joseph Taylor, a local builder, who followed the man for some time. Taylor remarked the individual’s ‘nervous and frightened way’ and noted that the man was holding his coat together at the top. Both Mrs Fiddymont and Joseph Taylor described a man matching the description of Jacob Isenschmid: early 40s, around 5’ 7” tall, curling ginger hair and a startled expression.

Isenschmid was arrested on the 12th September by Sgt William Thick and quickly declared insane by officials. He was eventually sent to Bow Infirmary Asylum on Fairfield Road, Bow. The key detective in the case, Detective Abberline, would later note that despite any solid evidence Isenschmid was a crucial suspect."


Obviously if Isenschmidt did kill Annie it would have been his last killing. So, no Canonical Five...as everyone so desperately clings to.