A little while ago, someone posted a question on Reddit - "If you could know the truth about any event in history, what would it be?"
I replied, "Who committed the Jack the Ripper and Whitechapel Murders." I am sure there are more important questions I would like answering, but hey ho.
Within minutes, people started responding to this. Lots of people. Both in the original thread, and via private message.
Quite a lot of them were along the lines of "Oh, that has been solved, they found DNA!" or "It was a member of the royal family, I saw a documentary."
In fact, I was quite surprised at how many such comments it garnered.
And of those saying it was already solved, the "DNA" and the "royal conspiracy" were always mentioned. (There was also a lone "I read a book by Patricia Cornwall, she proved who did it")
Does the public in general believe that the mystery is solved? Clearly, news of the infamous DNA reached a lot of people, but not the news that the comparison results etc were the very opposite of conclusive.
I know the royal conspiracy has been the plot of a few popular films and tv series, but I am surprised that it is still seen as the definitive answer for a lot of people. Especially as it is the easiest to disprove - royal personages have their every move documented. And can't be in Whitechapel doing some murderin' when they are with loads of people elsewhere.
I don't discuss JTR with people very often (funnily enough, it rarely comes up in everyday conversations). But when I have, I have always had similar responses, "Oh, that has been solved already, I read this book, it was some relative of Queen Victoria"... or "It was all over the news, they found his DNA, proved who did it, didn't you know?"
I would be interested to hear if other ripperologists have had similar experiences with "normal people"
I replied, "Who committed the Jack the Ripper and Whitechapel Murders." I am sure there are more important questions I would like answering, but hey ho.
Within minutes, people started responding to this. Lots of people. Both in the original thread, and via private message.
Quite a lot of them were along the lines of "Oh, that has been solved, they found DNA!" or "It was a member of the royal family, I saw a documentary."
In fact, I was quite surprised at how many such comments it garnered.
And of those saying it was already solved, the "DNA" and the "royal conspiracy" were always mentioned. (There was also a lone "I read a book by Patricia Cornwall, she proved who did it")
Does the public in general believe that the mystery is solved? Clearly, news of the infamous DNA reached a lot of people, but not the news that the comparison results etc were the very opposite of conclusive.
I know the royal conspiracy has been the plot of a few popular films and tv series, but I am surprised that it is still seen as the definitive answer for a lot of people. Especially as it is the easiest to disprove - royal personages have their every move documented. And can't be in Whitechapel doing some murderin' when they are with loads of people elsewhere.
I don't discuss JTR with people very often (funnily enough, it rarely comes up in everyday conversations). But when I have, I have always had similar responses, "Oh, that has been solved already, I read this book, it was some relative of Queen Victoria"... or "It was all over the news, they found his DNA, proved who did it, didn't you know?"
I would be interested to hear if other ripperologists have had similar experiences with "normal people"
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