Jack the ripper guided tours: money on the back of victims or is it for charities?

[Robert]

Jeff, I can just see Pte Godfrey - the man who put the hip op in hip hop - jiving to that.

John G, re the Ripper tours, it might be morbid in some cases, but otherwise I think it's just an example of the futile but natural human instinct to try to travel back in time. Visiting someone's grave is something closely similar.

Four or five years ago I visited my old school and sat in the exact same spot in the same classroom where I had sat for two years 35 years before. The only morbid thing about it was, I still didn't know how many bushels in a peck.

[Robert]

"I'd like to teach the world to sing" - the Rumbelow version.

[Jeff Leahy]

The chap who played Godfrey was a reel 1st world war hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mOEU87SBTU

Here we go two three four...

[Robert]

A hit for the New Seekers.

In the Michael Bentine film "The Sandwich Man" some men in turbans, carrying musical instruments, try to board a bus and on their drum it says "The Sikhers."

Arnold Ridley wrote "The Ghost Train" which was a play and also, I think, a short story. It was subsequently made into a film with Arthur Askey. At this, people threw themselves under the train.

[Pippin Joan]

John G, re the Ripper tours, it might be morbid in some cases, but otherwise I think it's just an example of the futile but natural human instinct to try to travel back in time. Visiting someone's grave is something closely similar.

The thing that attracts me to history in general is some mental ability to imagine myself in a certain time and cultural era. I love going to places where "things happened", even if the terrain is drastically altered over time, to think about the events and experience that "it was right here" feeling. I don't think it's morbid curiosity on the part of most people to visit locations of tragedy. In the case of the tunnel in Paris, people loved Princess Diana, and it is very moving to see that place. If I am in a place where something tragic occurred, I think about the whole situation -- the lives of the people, the events that led them there, the things that changed because of it. It's a life not forgotten. The person who takes me there and informs me deserves his or her rightful wage. Those women didn't die to create tours. We go on tours because we remember them. If it bothers you, donate some money to a women's shelter.

Where home is a hovel, and dull we grovel,
Forgetting the world is fair. -- Wm. Morris

[George Hutchinson]

Lionel - only Anna answered you? That's odd, as I left a long, detailed and honest reply to your questions near the top of this thread and was able to totally gloss over the fact that you might have been trying to refer to me in a negative light with your first post on this thread...

PHILIP

[DVV]

Oh I detest the john wayne so very much : he was capital right wing and didn't like gay man like me and socialistes !!!

John Wayne is dead and doesn't care about your sexuality and opinions.

[Jeff Leahy]

Don't just stand there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BupDoxw8r-8&feature=related

[Khanada]

The thing that attracts me to history in general is some mental ability to imagine myself in a certain time and cultural era. I love going to places where "things happened", even if the terrain is drastically altered over time, to think about the events and experience that "it was right here" feeling. I don't think it's morbid curiosity on the part of most people to visit locations of tragedy. <SNIP> If I am in a place where something tragic occurred, I think about the whole situation -- the lives of the people, the events that led them there, the things that changed because of it. It's a life not forgotten.

Exactly.

One of my favorite places to go is Antietam National Battlefield. I've heard people say how creepy it is, la la la -- but for me, it's one of the most beautiful and most peaceful places I have ever been. Beyond that, there's just the history of the place, and history is always fun because you can't possibly read it all.

Someone else posted about the futile but natural desire people have to travel back in time (or words I took to that effect), which makes definite sense to me. Certainly, if it had not been for Jack the Ripper, I would not be anything like as interested in the history of the LVP in as much specific day-to-day detail as I am -- mind, I don't claim to be anything like an expert on that subject, but I do deeply enjoy reading about it all, particularly about the lives of people who weren't "famous" or "upper class"...the kind of people who normally don't make the history books.

People like the peers of Mary Ann, Annie, Liz, Kate, and Mary Jane.

[Robert]

When I was a kid, there used to be old-style pennies in circulation, and occasionally a really old one would turn up, e.g. 1798 or some such date (I think they were called cartwheels?). I used to hold the coin and imagine somebody holding that coin in 1798. It somehow made me feel like I was in touch.

One could I suppose do history entirely by reading books, documents etc and watching video footage of various scenes, but it isn't quite as much fun that way.

If per impossibile I were able to step into Kelly's room just before it was demolished, I would do it. Similarly I'd love to see a new photo of Miller's Court. I don't go to the graves though as I find that rather sad (sad as in depressing not sad as in pathetic).

Robert

[DVV]

Ze revelation

From French TV, this week: stronger zan Herfort, a man just published a book about the ripper. He claims to be regularly in touch with Mary's ghost for about 20 years.
Whenever the ghost wants to talk with him, there is a kind of special noise (?), and a smell of violet. Mary has decided to tell the truth: it was not her who has been butchered in Miller's court, but Jack was iactually her lover.
Thank God, the guy wasn't invited (yet) in a literary program, he was playing at the "Wheel of Fortune" (covering his family with shame for a handful of dollars).
May How Brown forgive us.

[Khanada]

When I was a kid, there used to be old-style pennies in circulation, and occasionally a really old one would turn up, e.g. 1798 or some such date (I think they were called cartwheels?). I used to hold the coin and imagine somebody holding that coin in 1798. It somehow made me feel like I was in touch.

<snip>

If per impossibile I were able to step into Kelly's room just before it was demolished, I would do it. Similarly I'd love to see a new photo of Miller's Court. I don't go to the graves though as I find that rather sad (sad as in depressing not sad as in pathetic).

I don't think I could possibly have put those pennies down! I get a similar feeling from old coins and such -- any antique, really. (I love antiques, particularly kitchen items -- and I use them. People always say, "but it could break!", and yes, it could, but if I'm not using the item, what enjoyment do I get from it?)

Stepping into 13 Miller's Court...if only there were time machines!

[Celesta]

From French TV, this week: stronger zan Herfort, a man just published a book about the ripper. He claims to be regularly in touch with Mary's ghost for about 20 years.
Whenever the ghost wants to talk with him, there is a kind of special noise (?), and a smell of violet. Mary has decided to tell the truth: it was not her who has been butchered in Miller's court, but Jack was iactually her lover.
Thank God, the guy wasn't invited (yet) in a literary program, he was playing at the "Wheel of Fortune" (covering his family with shame for a handful of dollars).
May How Brown forgive us.

Hello David,

You're serious about the study of these cases and have reasonable and intelligent input. You don't need to be forgiven for anything.

My best to you, as always,

Cel

[DVV]

Merci beaucoup Cel,
my best too.

[BLUE WIZZARD]

Dna

Hi,

I think by exhuming every suspect that was linked to the Ripper case would be a legal hassle as well as an expensive one, but for the soul purpose of obtaining the DNA from them.

This could be a start, for whatever else they find to match it to.

I'm just thinking here, the cost could be paid from donations, from the serious crime investigators, from what I understand, there is no status of limitation for murder.

And cases that lay idle could be reactivated if new evidence is found.

This sounds crazy huh?

BW