Ligature Signature, or How did Jack the Ripper get his ligature knowledge?

[curious4]

I have thought that the killer could have been a soldier suffering from severe post traumatic stress. He doesn't necessarily have to have served in India to have learned the Thugee technique (if you can call it that), he could have picked it up from an older soldier.

Best wishes
C4

[Trevor Marriott]

Hello, Robert.

Could the Ripper have been a former soldier, and have been trained in hand-to-hand combat?

Or was he a member of one of these three-man gangs of street robbers?

How do we determine the truth of either of these possibilities?

For your information suspect Carl Feigenbaum had been a soldier in the Prussian Army

https://www.trevormarriott.co.uk

[DJA]

Yes. In the late 1850s there was a Carrotte Scare.

Prolly an offshoot of the Pottattoe Blight

[Pcdunn]

Hello, Robert.

Could the Ripper have been a former soldier, and have been trained in hand-to-hand combat?

Or was he a member of one of these three-man gangs of street robbers?

How do we determine the truth of either of these possibilities?

[Robert St Devil]

Hello Pcdunn.
Thats where i was hoping the discussion would go. I know that ANATOMICAL KNOWLEDGE is a popular inquiry, but i think the aspect of the strangulation has been overshadowed at the expense.

Yes. In the late 1850s there was a Garrotte Scare. I got my info from teh garroting page on victorianlondon.org. I recommend reading it. Toward the bottom, there is an article about this 3 man operation. Th first two men were called "stalls". The first stall was the lookout. The second stall's job was to pocket rifle the victim for the money, watch, etc. The last man was called the "nasty man". He was the garroter. And they had a method. They would pick a victim and stalk him for days or weeks. They wore hats to signal to each other; in fact, one of the jobs of the second man was to remove the victim and the nasty man's hat so that they wouldnt kick about in the scuffle. They would practice garroting until the nasty man hit the larynx without hesitation. The nasty man could render his victim senseless in seconds. If the nasty man was having problems garroting, the 2nd stall would step in with a punch to the victims gut. The 2nd stall also assisted in laying the victim down without injury or making any noise since they were accustomed to operating in low-lit areas and they didnt want to bring attention.

I dont believe the women were poisoned anymore. I think Elizabeth Strides silent cries for help were muffled by the ligature. There is another source online of a man strangulated by garroters. His post mortem (clots in the left ventricle, the right ventricle exhausted) read nearly identical to her post mortem.

Your question is headed in the right direction. By all accounts, Jack the Ripper can perform the same operation as a 3-man garroting team. But how did he learn this professional skill?

[Pcdunn]

Garroting was common in Victorian underworld

The ecchymosis on Mary Jane Kellys neck suggest strangulation. The blood clots in Elizabeth Stride's left ventricle suggest strangulation. Garroting a victim properly was a professional operation.

How did Jack the Ripper get his ligature knowledge?

.

Some years ago I came across an article in a history journal about how frequently robbers attacked people from the rear, using the ligature. Spiked collars for gentlemen were patented to deter this practice.

Some knowledge of the strangler's art might have been picked up in India, where the work of the "Thuggee" has led to our word "thug". Does that mean Jack had military experience? Or was he merely a career criminal?

[Robert St Devil]

The ecchymosis on Mary Jane Kellys neck suggest strangulation. The blood clots in Elizabeth Stride's left ventricle suggest strangulation. Garroting a victim properly was a professional operation.

How did Jack the Ripper get his ligature knowledge?

.