Facial Mutilations

[Errata]

If one took a spectrum of disorganised to organised killers, with Richard Chase at one end and the likes of Bundy/Gacy at the other, I'd contend that the Ripper would be closer to Chase on that scale than he would the latter. You only have to look at the recent discussion on the murder locations to see that this was someone who took massive gambles, killing his victims in a yard next to a busy social club, the back garden of an occupied house, and backstreets regularly patrolled by constables, two victims in one night etc. I'm not necessarily suggesting that the Ripper was at the same level of psychosis as Chase, but even Chase had a basic survival instinct and knew when to flee from the scene of the crime when he thought he was about to get caught. It was only after a woman who went to high school with Chase recognised a police sketch that he ended up on the police radar. Perhaps it was a matter of time before he would've been caught anyway, but couldn't we say the same about the Ripper? We only assume that he was some kind of master criminal because he got away with it. We have no idea why the Whitechapel murders came to an end, it could well have been because he was locked away in an asylum.

We have two serial killers/rapists, Richard Chase & Robert Napper who were both paranoid schizophrenics with ritualistic traits, both mutilated their victims, took organs as trophies, posed their victims, and made no effort to hide the bodies. That doesn't mean that the Ripper was a dead match for these guys, but there are obvious parallels which shouldn't be dismissed.

I think there is a difference between saying that Jack is like Chase and that Jack is a little more like Chase than Bundy. Because there is a spectrum, and there are a lot of comparisons between the Ripper and a lot of other killers. Kemper for starters.

And also what a person does with a body is not part of the organised/disorganized spectrum (if that exists, and it increasingly looks like it doesn't). It's part of a different psychological mechanism. There some good literature out there about body dumpers, collectors and abandoners. Yes mental illness can inform the choice to be any of those things, but you get "disorganized" psychotics in all three categories. So leaving a body where it lies is not a function of psychosis, not is it confined to psychosis. Nor is it confined to "disorganized" types. Some killers do it because they don't care. Son of Sam did it to get attention. But despite the press, that guy is probably saner than I am.

[Harry D]

Just don't think we should be ruling out a paranoid schizophrenic type like Chase or Napper, based on the misguided argument that someone operating under that kind of psychosis would've been caught.

[Errata]

Just don't think we should be ruling out a paranoid schizophrenic type like Chase or Napper, based on the misguided argument that someone operating under that kind of psychosis would've been caught.

Is the argument that they are killing because they are psychotic, or that they are killing when they are not psychotic?

Because someone with delusions of the pope can kill when they aren't psychotic. Assuming they have none of the more debilitating physical or neurological symptoms associated with schizophrenia, anyone can kill when they are perfectly lucid.