Jack the........ Police Officer??

[amarti9]

Hi. I have said this from the VERY beginning that Jack was a police officer or a patrol man of some sort. As someone mentioned before, it would indeed answer a whole lot of questions.

Im not sure if these questions have been asked while I was away for almost a year but here goes:

A) IF, the police caught or claim to have known JTR's identity then why no big announcement? I mean the police had been crucified by the press all throughout the case. Why not use the knowledge of knowing who JTR was as a means of public vindication? 3 possibilities come to mind.

1. The Royal theory was true. Obvious why they may want to keep quiet. But I never really believed this but at this point anything is possible till we know the truth.

2. He was a jew. Again imagine the reaction in the streets of a public already on edge.

3. He was a police officer. How embarrassing would that be. Losing the public trust would be very very bad.

B) Out of ALL of the suspects/theories to date can anyone name me any suspect who could be standing next to or around a ripper victim in the middle of the night and NOT be suspected? Even a Jill the ripper would come under some suspicion. Right? A police man could easily say, "I just discovered this body. Sound the alert."

The police theory has holes, yes. I continue to work to fill those holes.

[Adam Went]

Michael:

Ah, but the PC Smith sighting took place at the Elizabeth Stride murder - the PC in Mitre Square was asleep in his home and there's no mention of any other police witness sightings.

If that was the case, they would know there was something more wrong with him than just being a little strange - and would surely have done more than just remove him from the force. In any case, what of the MJK murder? Was he simply allowed to go free to commit that sort of brutality as well?

Not to mention that the variety of suspects named by officers years, decades even after the case, shows that they had no real clue who the man was - and evidently not one of their own.

Cheers,
Adam.

[The Good Michael]

Officers who actually witnessed a man with the victim. Now if this was one of their comrades from the force, surely they would be recognised! It's going to look more than a little suspect if PC Smith sees his mate talking to a woman who is found dead less than half an hour later, isn't it?

That's wherein the possibility I mentioned lies. One cop putting two and two together- the policeman being questioned - the discovery that something isn't right with him. No proof, just suspicion enough to pull him off the force. Then... who knows. It isn't as bad as many other concepts is all I suggest.

Mike

[Adam Went]

Contrary to popular belief, there need not be a conspiracy or a cover-up at every turn in the JTR case. Infact, the opposite, being the most simple solution is usually the correct one. And Jack the police officer is far from being the simplest theory.

As I said before, there were police officers living next to, or on their beat going past the murder sites within minutes of the killing. Officers who actually witnessed a man with the victim. Now if this was one of their comrades from the force, surely they would be recognised! It's going to look more than a little suspect if PC Smith sees his mate talking to a woman who is found dead less than half an hour later, isn't it?

That's assuming he wasn't in uniform. If he was in uniform, he would have stood out like the proverbial "dunny in the desert", should he be caught out with any of these women. Not to mention that he was probably still supposed to be on the beat somewhere and would have to go back to work with blood splattered on him and a bloody knife hidden somewhere beneath his clothing....or, in a couple of cases, an organ or 2 and and a piece of clothing as well.

No, i'm afraid it's not really a plausible, practical theory - an interesting one, which would provide some good explanations, and a good one for the conspiracists - but not a likely one.

Cheers,
Adam.

[The Good Michael]

Though I don't dispute that a cop as killer theory has its flaws, such as the ones that Monty mentioned, I don't think it is outlandish. The Ripper (if we go by the can. 5) wasn't in action that long. We assume that he got locked up for something else, or that he had a breakdown, but the idea of a cop being suspected by another and taken off the force for observation, does have its merits. Couple that with hush-ups and conspiracies and the game is on.

Cheers,

Mike

[bolo]

Jason,

even at the height of the Ripper scare, quite a few of the East End prostitutes of the 1880s couldn't afford being particular about their clients, regardless wether they felt comfortable with them or not. While this does not (and is not meant to) refute the Jack the Copper theory as a whole, it just relativizes the pro argument that a policeman would have had considerably less difficulties in approaching or accosting these women.

What's more, a policeman on the beat may have been a slightly more welcome sight while the Ripper was about in the East End but on the whole, street walkers and coppers probably were not on the best of terms. I may be wrong here, though.

Regards,

Boris

[Monty]

thats quite a romantic notion regarding the prostitute and the fly cuppa !!.....let me just do my zip up...right im off then .....lovely cuppa by the way Polly !!

Watkins did almost just that.

Monty

[Jason]

If he was a Beat Officer he ran the risk of a check up by the Beat Sergeant at any moment......or a nightwatchman.....or a landlord......

If he wasnt a Beat Officer then he ran the risk of the real Beat Officer at any moment. Do you think PCs did not know there fellow constables? Even covering Bobbies would have been recognised.

If he was in uniform he ran the risk of being accosted by Joe Public and having to attend ANY situation which arose.

Just a few off the top of my head.

Knocking off a prostitute and having a fly cuppa is one thing. Murder aint.

Im afraid you are all ignoring the practicalities of this theory,

Again, my opinion.

Monty

thats quite a romantic notion regarding the prostitute and the fly cuppa !!.....let me just do my zip up...right im off then .....lovely cuppa by the way Polly !!

[Monty]

If he was a Beat Officer he ran the risk of a check up by the Beat Sergeant at any moment......or a nightwatchman.....or a landlord......

If he wasnt a Beat Officer then he ran the risk of the real Beat Officer at any moment. Do you think PCs did not know there fellow constables? Even covering Bobbies would have been recognised.

If he was in uniform he ran the risk of being accosted by Joe Public and having to attend ANY situation which arose.

Just a few off the top of my head.

Knocking off a prostitute and having a fly cuppa is one thing. Murder aint.

Im afraid you are all ignoring the practicalities of this theory,

Again, my opinion.

Monty

[TomTomKent]

The Policeman theory seems very much like the "Invisble Man" theory, that the killer was in some uniform or dressed as a tradesman so mundane that people would overlook the Ripper. Because you wouldn't "notice" a Milkman, Bakers boy, or the like in the area.

Now my sceptisism of the Police Uniform idea is two fold: Partly because on the night of the "double event" the bodies seemed to have been found in avery tight time frame. If somebody had passed the "invisible" Ripper and stumbled onto the dead bodies, would they not double back and look for the Bobby they just saw?

Also there is the fact that the Police Officers who were first on the scene (and may have been the Ripper claiming to have found the body) all seem pretty well documented. Though it could be that the Ripper was dressed as a Policeman but not witnessed with the bodies, hence no report. But even so, if there HAD been a Policeman lurking at or near a scene of crime, would it not have been mentioned? And would it not have been checked up on: "Ah PC49 was seen enar by? Maybe he saw something? He didn't? AGAIN? Darned luck of the boy, that's the third time..."

At the risk of boring you to death, and seeming only slightly more of a Layman than I am... Could the "Policeman" have been in the old Railway sense of the word. A guy who would be considered a hand signalman in todays parlence, who "counted" trains in and out of an unsignalled section of track or tunnel. Though I think these chaps had been largely replaced by semaphore signals, and frankly I don't see what kind of a disguise this would offer, other than being out in dark clothing at all hours.

[Jason]

why would this theory be any more unlikely than any other postulated ? why would it being a policeman or someone dressed as a policeman be such a ridiculous concept ?

in my opinion, the likelihood of it being a person in authority or appearing to be is such a logical one. A policeman who was well known on a route would be a person trusted.

Can you imagine the fear of those women working, particularly after the second murder, and the thought that it may just be them ? yet knowing that they had to ? i recently saw a documentary about the Yorkshire Ripper when it was seemingly just prostitutes who were being slain, the girls working those areas knew that they were at risk yet they had to do what they did, regardless of the risk. The girls in 1888 would have been no different, probably even more desperate in fact, they never had a welfare state to help them out. Granted the alcohol they were probably absorbing may have given them a little dutch courage as they ventured out but irregardless, it was still a fear in the back of their minds surely ?...a friendly looking policeman approaching them may have given them a little more comfort in their minds, who knows whether the policeman himself may have been known to have dabbled a bit with knee trembles in the past ??

Granted its only another angle, but its by no means an outlandish one in comparison to some others which have been put forward over the years !!

[Supe]

I've got your back on this one Neil.

Don.

[Monty]

This theory, in my most humblest of opinions, is bunkum.

Just my considered view which, as it stands, matters not.

Monty

[Jason]

it is a theory i have long since subsribed to, it may explain much of the theory regarding a cover up. The police in the east end at that time were not popular, the media and the vigilance committee were from what i have read very anti police. can you imagine the outcry should it be revealed that it was the protector themselves who were guilty ?? there would have been a revolution on the streets of London !! plus it may also explain why the women themselves trusted the murderer enough to go into quiet places with them ? i have oftern thought that the break between the double event and the kelly murder could have been due to officers working in pairs, couples with the fact that there were also officers brought in from other areas. When november came round and there hadnt been a killing for some time, perhaps he had some more freedom again ? who knows ? were there any officers relieved of their duties after this time for undisclosed reasons ?

[The Good Michael]

[B]So after reading of this apparently unprovoked attack, I started to consider the police officer theory some more. Has anyone else got anything to add??

A few years ago there was a man here, David 'Dalek' Moore, who claimed to have the skinny on PC Harvey and some sort of identity switch thing, with Harvey ending up in either Broadmoor or Dartmoor. He claimed to have written a book and to having had a press release, but it seems to have never happened. There is also the railway policeman theory which is kind of fun.

Chris published some things about PC Brown, a Jewish policeman who had a bit of a checkered past, no real relatives, and failed to appear for parade on or about the time of Kelly's murder. He committed suicide the day after her inquest (I think). Yet, he wasn't assigned to an East End beat that we know of, though that is possible.

Look around the site here to find more.

Mike