Originally posted by RockySullivan
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But I also try stuff out. I don't know if it's a product of living in the South where mayhem is just always a little closer to home, but if I wonder how hard it is to cut through a human windpipe, I get a pig head and try. Or I call my fiance in to play victim while I see if I can draw a line on his neck while he is lying facing away from me (he hates that). I think everyone should try things out. Some things sound great in theory, but then when you actually try it you realize that in order for it to work you would need to phase through a solid object. And since I don't think we have a Marvel SuperVillain roaming Victorian England, we can probably say with a reasonable amount of certainty that it had to happen a different way.
I think, though I cannot swear, that the neck wounds had to come first. What blood evidence we know about does indicate the heart still beating when the throats were cut.
I also think that cutting the throat was just as or more important to the killer than getting in the abdomen, despite the trophy taking. The throat cuts are major overkill. Like cutting off a hand to cure a hangnail. It's more than making sure they were dead, or dead enough. In every case (barring Stride, and maybe even with her I just can't tell) he made damn sure he cut through the voice box. Which a: is super hard to do, and I have a lovely scar on my hip from trying to do just that on my fetal pig in 9th grade biology and b: really is unnecessary. But not only did he open the windpipes of these women, he completely severed them. And with a dull blade, he doesn't sever the windpipe at all. He just pokes at it for awhile.
And even without windpipes, necks are not easy things to cut. And you know this because people use cleavers to cut the heads off chickens. And a chicken's neck is maybe an inch in diameter. They had to invent guillotines in order for the condemned to actually have their heads taken off in one strike, as opposed to the usual three to a dozen strikes needed by headsmen. And serial killer movies always show people being dismembered with power saws, because it really takes a power saw unless you are willing to spend 5 hours taking off a head with a hack saw. Not easy. You don't do that to someone who is technically already dead, unless you HAVE to. He clearly had to. And it wasn't to dispose of the body.
That said, knives totally dull when cutting the abdomen. Mesenteries are tough. Really tough. It's like a web keeping your innards upright. And every organ has connective tissue not only to the mesentaries, but also to other organs. They bear a ton of weight without sagging. The uterus has I think 7 major connections, tissue that is roughly the texture and tensile strength of raw silk. Now ask any fabric seller, and they will tell you that silk is the scissor killer. Some of the connections are actually ligaments, which is like web strapping. I don't think a person can even break skin on the neck after going in an abdomen. Much less sever the windpipe. I'm not even sure that he could get through all of the mutilations of the abdomen on a single knife. He hit bone. He cut through mesentaries, which surgeons back then and today use surgical scissors to get through. He cut muscle crosswise. That knife should have been wrecked even with the switch from the blade used on the neck. There may have been a third knife. My guess is that he used a dagger in the abdomen because it allowed him to simply turn the knife to get a fresher edge. And we know he used one on Eddowes at least.
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