Will Scotland Yards HOLMES 2 and AI solve Jack the Ripper?

[Lewis C]

But who knows if he was or not? Kosminski, Kaminski, Cohen, Levy, Hyams, Chapman...all Jewish suspects.

I believe that Chapman was a Gentile.

[Fiver]

I would suggest Lawende is giving an honest statement of what he remembers seeing and that all three saw a couple, who was probably Kate and her killer given the location and timings. Could this description stand up in court, of course not.

Paul

It is probable that Lawende gave a description that he believed to be correct. But we don't have his direct statement, we have newspaper accounts and police reports and they contradict each other on the suspect's height, hair color, mustache size, and how well they were dressed. We can try to sort these contradictions out, but we lack a signed statement from Lawende and cannot interview him to obtain clarification.

Both at the time and today, people tend to favor Lawende over Levy and Harris, because of the level of detail. (Ironically, many discard Hutchinson because of his level of detail, even though Hutchinson had a lot more time to observe his suspect.) Lawende's description can be used for and against suspects or at least types of suspects. Levy and Harris are of little or no use for identifying a suspect.

There are two possibilities - either Lawende had significantly better night vision and memory than his companions or he had an overactive imagination. Harris clearly supports the latter as if the man's back was turned, Lawende could not have seen a kerchief or mustache. Levy clearly believed Lawende was very wrong about the suspect's height, leaving open the possibility Lawende was wrong about other elements of his description.

There's also the issue of Lawende identifying Eddowes. She was a stranger seen for only a few moments in very poor lighting. If Lawende was right, the man he was was the Ripper. If Lawende was wrong, and the woman was not Eddowes, then the man was not the Ripper and the accuracy of his description is irrelevant.

Church Lane was not the only way to get to Mitre Square. If Lawende misidentified the woman, then Eddowes and her killer entered through one of the other two routes and may have already been in Mitre Square at 1:35am.

[Fiver]

Lechmere would. Lives outside the boundary, but for real-world reasons connected with home, family and work is actually confined within it at certain times, and with very limited degrees of freedom.

Applying a silly binary model to this real-world life generates the wrong answer of a Marauder based near Tabram's murder site. Why even bother with it?

M.

There are reasons to question the Commuter-Marauder model. I have not seen enough information to tell if its a useful model or a waste of time like the organized-disorganized dichotomy. We also have no information as to how they came to the Marauder conclusion.

But you aren't discarding the answer based on criticism of the model or the reasoning used to reach that answer. You are discarding the answer because it rules out your suspect.