Joseph Barnett

[CountessHappyBunny]

[QUOTE=Graham;20182]Not that it matters, because I don't believe Joe Barnett was responsible for any of the East End Murders, but he did suffer from echolalia, which is the compulisve repeating of the last few words of any sentence spoken to him by another.

If you refer to the transcript of Joe's testimony, there are only two instances of him repeating a phrase in any way that would indicate echolalia.

Q: Were you on good terms?
A: Yes, on friendly terms.

Q: Was she, generally speaking, of sober habits?
A: When she was with me I found her of sober habits.

It seems that the recent wave of Joe-had-a-speech-disorder supporters have all based their theories on a press report, rather than actual testimony.

For a more detailed refutation of the echolalia premise, see Christopher Scott's "Will the Real Mary Kelly...?"

[The Good Michael]

Beginning a sentence with the main idea of the posed question, is a way to give yourself a split second of time for recall or embellishment. Students often do that when asked questions and are not so prepared to give answers.


Cheers,

Mike

[Graham]

I don't think a shorthand-scribbling reporter in 1888 or at any other time would have bothered to make careful notes of the witterings of an echolaliac, so I'm not sure that Joe's testimony can really be taken as proof that he wasn't suffering from echolalia (which is a condition linked to autism, so I'm told). I don't know where and by whom it was first stated that Joe had this complaint, but it's most definitely mentioned in the far-famed A-Z.

As I commented on the pre-crash boards, I once worked with someone who had this complaint, and he drove us all friggin' mad! It's funny at first, then it becomes annoying; after a few months you feel like you want to strangle the poor sod. Maybe that's why Mary Jane put Joe on his bike - he drove her nuts.

Cheers,

Graham

[jimbobolas]

He indeed had motive, but the first 4 murders were done by someone with a knowledge of anatomy. Wile Joe was just a fish porter. But the murder of mary kelly was done by someone without a knowledge of anatomy...so Joe could have killed mary and mutilated her body to blame it on JTR but the first 4 murders were not the cause of Joe

[miss_anna]

I think we're virtually forced to examine the jtr number 2 theory if we suspect Barnett was responsible for Mary Kelly's murder! The locked door in Mary Kelly's room does seem to deviate from the ripper's desire to publicly exhibit his victims.

A copy kill?... Or an attempt to blame someone else ( the ripper at large ) for a horrific domestic murder??

The Burnett=2nd ripper theory is more believable than a lot of the nonsense that's circulating about who the ripper may have been.

No conviction though!

[The Good Michael]

The locked door in Mary Kelly's room does seem to deviate from the ripper's desire to publicly exhibit his victims.

I didn't notice that desire. I just noticed a bunch of dead bodies that were laid out in a manner where they could be worked on. Being displayed for the public eye is purely conjecture and something I'm not buying... yet.

Mike

[kensei]

I always like to come to Joe Barnett's defense by saying that it's always been my strong impression that he and Mary Jane were not really split up permanently, but "on a break," and the fact that he still visited her and gave her money when he could are signs of hope, not despair. I think he's gotten an extremely bad rap over the years and was a fairly decent guy who never killed anyone.