Does anything rule Bury out?

[Sam Flynn]

Morning Gareth,

He may not have been her killer either.

Indeed, Caz, but for your Mark Dixie example to apply in this case, we'd have to believe (a) that Stride wasn't killed by the first man, but by a putative "JTR" who came along immediately after the first man left; and (b) that "JTR" was then interrupted in the instant after he'd cut Stride's throat by the arrival of Louis Dymshitz. I'm not one to be unduly fazed by coincidences, but (a) and (b) would appear to be a rather unlikely series of events.

[caz]

Quite so, Caz, which is why the visibly-intoxicated man seen with Stride was arguably not a hardened drinker.

Morning Gareth,

He may not have been her killer either.

Mark Dixie, high on drink and drugs, was seen by nobody when he watched and waited as one of his victims, Sally Anne Bowman, argued with her boyfriend in his car, parked outside her house. Dixie struck when she got out of the car and her boyfriend drove off. A neighbour heard screams but didn't investigate. Dixie hid in the darkness, listening out for any residents or cars approaching [as Stride's killer may have done, if he heard the pony and cart coming while he was still in the yard], before returning to his dead or dying victim to rape and mutilate her and take trophies.

The victim's boyfriend, having no alibi, was the obvious suspect, and would almost certainly have gone down for her murder had DNA evidence not cleared him. And had Dixie been disturbed after the initial attack, it would have looked more like a domestic incident, resulting from the couple's argument.

Sally Anne was Dixie's second victim that night. He had attacked the first a few streets away and not long before, but she was more fortunate. Dixie was scared off by a passing taxi, and went looking for another woman to attack.

Sorry for straying off topic, but I thought it relevant to the alcohol issue.

Love,

Caz
X

[curious]

perhaps it was she who put herself into her final resting position.

perhaps it was she who put herself into her final resting position.

interesting point, yourself.

I'll have to re-read the description of the mud on her clothing. Because, if she were squirming around to get herself into position would it not increase the amount of mud on her clothing?

It's been too long since I've read those descriptions to have any real idea. I have a "feeling" there wasn't a great deal of mud, but again too long . . .

curious

[Wyatt Earp]

Some boots, those. Was he auditining for a glam-rock band?

I think those are called “elevator boots,” lol.

[Sam Flynn]

His condition and the condition of Stride's gently laid down body are two of the reasons I think he was not her murderer.

His condition wouldn't have prevented him from slashing her throat, but you make an interesting point about the disposition of the body - if it was the killer who laid her down, of course, and assuming that it was gently done. That said, her throat wasn't as thoroughly severed as the others, and it has been suggested that she might not have expired instantaneously; if so, perhaps it was she who put herself into her final resting position.

[curious]

Quite so, Caz, which is why the visibly-intoxicated man seen with Stride was arguably not a hardened drinker.

His condition and the condition of Stride's gently laid down body are two of the reasons I think he was not her murderer.

[Sam Flynn]

Nor was he her killer !

Au contraire, Trevor. You don't have to be 100% compos mentis merely to wrestle with a woman and slash one side of her throat. He could well have done it.

[Trevor Marriott]

Quite so, Caz, which is why the visibly-intoxicated man seen with Stride was arguably not a hardened drinker.

Nor was he her killer !

https://www.trevormarriott.co.uk

[Sam Flynn]

Actually, a regular imbiber or drug user is more likely to be in control than someone not used to either out on a binge

Quite so, Caz, which is why the visibly-intoxicated man seen with Stride was arguably not a hardened drinker.

[Busy Beaver]

If we could get a decent photo of WHB, that would be a great help. The press sketch makes him look fifty years old. He's certainly one of my Possible suspects now that I've found out a bit more about him. The only thing at this point in time that would rule him out and it's been mentioned before, is that if Alice MacKenzie is indeed a Ripper victim. But that's another story!

[caz]

Actually, a regular imbiber or drug user is more likely to be in control than someone not used to either out on a binge.

Serial rapist and murderer, Mark Dixie, for example, was a heavy drinker and user of cannabis and cocaine for years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Dixie

Love,

Caz
X

[Sam Flynn]

Bury was an alcoholic. Which would mean it unlikely inebriation would unduly trouble him during the Jack the Ripper murders.

Being truly inebriated - as in swaying-about drunk - would have hampered the killer significantly, whether he was an alcoholic or not.

[Sam Flynn]

It's not hard to see, then, how he could have measured out to be 5'5" or 5'6" when fully attired, which would also align him with the height estimates of Israel Schwartz (5'5") and Joseph Lawende (low estimate 5'7")

Some boots, those. Was he auditining for a glam-rock band?

[Wyatt Earp]

I don't recall that any of the witnesses who saw potential Ripper suspects noted that he was short or below average height (between 5' 6" and 5' 7" in the late 1880s), as they might have done if the man they saw was only 5' 3".

If Bury was about 5'3", that would align him with the height estimates provided by Elizabeth Long and Joseph Levy, who both reported that the man they saw was just a little taller than the two women they observed. In the newspaper portrait of Bury from August 1888, he's shown wearing boots with an apparently substantial but unknown heel height, which he could have been wearing during these encounters, and he would have been wearing a hat, which would have bumped his height up even further (the bump-up would not alter the comparison with Chapman and Eddowes much, as both of these victims were also wearing boots and headgear). It's not hard to see, then, how he could have measured out to be 5'5" or 5'6" when fully attired, which would also align him with the height estimates of Israel Schwartz (5'5") and Joseph Lawende (low estimate 5'7"). In the past Stewart Evans has cautioned us against taking the eyewitness height estimates too literally, based on his personal experience with police work. While we cannot prove that Bury was wearing his boots on the night of the double event, it's certainly a reasonable possibility that he was. We see, then, that Bury's height can be fitted with all four of these witness reports.

[John Wheat]

I've just read the interview Schwartz gave to the daily star and it says that the first man he saw was intoxicated. So the next question to ask is how intoxicated could one be to carry out a murder with or without mutilations and run/get away without staggering all over the place and standing out from the ordinary man in the street?

And an after-thought- the box of chaccous- Don't know if Liz enjoyed a wee ciggie with her drink, but perhaps her companion stank of beer and she was going to give him one to freshen his breath and then that's when he got muderous.

Bury was an alcoholic. Which would mean it unlikely inebriation would unduly trouble him during the Jack the Ripper murders.