Who do you think Jack the Ripper was and why?

[Joshua Rogan]

Paul,
Here is the thread discussing the letter sent from 14 Dorset Street;

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=6812

I'm not sure I believe Mrs Maxwell or her husband wrote it, but it is a very intriguing missive. Some press reports have her saying she didn't actually live at the lodging house, but in the same house as Mary Jane Kelly, so perhaps she felt safe using that address (although this is most likely due to confusion by the reporter). There were said to be 300 lodgers a night at No.14 so fairly good odds it wasn't Maxwell anyway.


Not the only coincidence in the case...Star 10th Nov 1888

A REMARKABLE PROPHECY.
London and Brighton, a paper published on Wednesday, contains the following :-

On Sunday the new moon came in. If Jack the Ripper is a lunatic and if there is any truth in the theory of the susceptibility of lunatics to lunar influence we ought to hear from him in the course of a few days.

[Mayerling]

Hi Paul.
A letter was sent to the Great Yarmouth police exactly one week before the murder of Kelly [ Been well discussed before on Casebook] penned from 14, Dorset street.[directly opposite Millers court] which was the place of work of Caroline Maxwell's husband.
I find it extremely coincidental, that a letter arrives at another police force sent from that address. and has connections to the Maxwell's, exactly one week prior to the murder.
It was the perfect location to observe the comings and goings of Mary Kelly.
Regards Richard.

Odd that the letter was sent to Great Yarmouth. The writer obviously wanted it's arrival at the destination to take awhile to give him/her time for possible preparation (provided "Jack" sent it).

Yarmouth is the scene of a murder mystery enigma.

In 1900 Herbert Bennett would be executed for the murder of his estranged wife on Yarmouth Beach (despite a vigorous defense in court by the up-and-coming Edward Marshall-Hall as defense barrister). Many still question if Bennett did the murder or not, and the doubters point out to the fact that in 1912 a similar murder of a woman occurred on Yarmouth Beach (strangulation again) but this time the killer never was arrested, tried, or executed. It has been suggested Bennett (despite a bad reputation) didn't kill his wife and the 1912 miscreant did.

Jeff

[Abby Normal]

Hi,
Absolutely insane, but our killer was not all there,also a taunter.
Amazing coincidence out of all the lodging houses in Whitechapel, and private dwellings, a letter is penned, from not only a house directly opposite the next murder scene, but also the most sensational witness in the case Mrs Maxwell having direct connection to that address.
Regards Richard.

Except that hundreds of hoax letters were sent and it being a lodging house where probably thousands of different men recently stayed, it dosnt seem odd that one of them used that address.

[Abby Normal]

Give me one name and an explanation as to why you think it was that suspect.


Parker

Hi parker

George Hutchinson.

Stalking behavior.
Last credible suspect with Mary before/around TOD.
Dubious claim of another suspect-A-man.
waited till after inquest to come forward.
short/stout (per sarah lewis)-like many other witness descriptions.
Local avg joe-like most serial killers are.
Probably single
Aussie George article.


If not Hutch, than Blotchy.

[Pcdunn]

And some dispute that.

True. I have read that one of the protesters against the Jack the Ripper Museum referred to Jack as "a fictional character"! Soon people will think he only existed in horror movies based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson...

[Abby Normal]

True. I have read that one of the protesters against the Jack the Ripper Museum referred to Jack as "a fictional character"! Soon people will think he only existed in horror movies based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson...

the funny thing is most people not in the know think the ripper was fiction and Sherlock holms was real.

[Mayerling]

the funny thing is most people not in the know think the ripper was fiction and Sherlock holms was real.

And several writers suggest Holmes did solve the Ripper Case (William Baring Gould said it was a Scotland Yard Inspector who had worked on a few cases with Holmes), while others have even suggested Holmes or Watson was the Ripper.

None, however, suggested it was Father Brown or Dr. John Evelyn Thorndike.

I still think the most likely type of Ripper suspect was a resident in the Whitechapel or East End area, thoroughly at home with the main streets, back streets and alleyways, and squares, and having an idea of when police made their rounds. Outside of those points I couldn't say.

Jeff

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Some thug from Spitalfields who discovered a penchant for mutilation.

[GUT]

Some thug from Spitalfields who discovered a penchant for mutilation.

Yep I agree.

[Wickerman]

Some thug from Spitalfields who discovered a penchant for mutilation.

Yet, he stopped?

[GUT]

Yet, he stopped?

Or died.

[lynn cates]

never existed

Hello GUT. Or never existed in the first place.

Cheers.
LC

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Yet, he stopped?

I like to think some people got rid of him when they found out.

[Wickerman]

I like to think some people got rid of him when they found out.

Do him in rather than expose him, and claim the reward?

[SirJohnFalstaff]

Do him in rather than expose him, and claim the reward?

I don't think it worked that way. The reward wasn't some "dead or alive" poster.


Plus maybe the ones who did him didn't want to attract to much attention to themselves.

Btw, it's pure hypothesis. I have nothing to back this up.