Strong suspect overlooked?

[brummie]

I dont understand why so little attention is given to Francis Thompson as a suspect compared to some of the more bizarre theories about royalty and diaries. Here is someone whose disturbed if religious childhood and failures in various career paths (priest, soldier,doctor) and apparent lack of friends would give modern day profilers food for thought. After becoming a drug addict he leaves home and lives in the doss houses and streets of the Eastend where he forms a relationship with a prostitute who alledgedly bears a resemblance to his mother and sister. After failing to hold down a job for any length of time and being reduced to selling matches on the street, when he does have success in having his writing published in a literary magazine in the summer of 1888 he returns to Whitechapel with the specific intention of finding the prostitute, who then rejects him. When you read his poems and stories there is frequent mention of murder and ritual killing. I share the reluctance to go with a 'celebrity' killer but could there be a stronger candidate for JTR, and of course at the time of the murders he was anything but a celebrity.

[smezenen]

Oscar Wilde was a celebrity whom I have not seen discussed either. Mr. Wilde had a documented propensity for sexual deviance and some of his poems and stories can be interpreted with a much darker meaning than is seen on the surface.

[Grim]

Oscar Wilde was a celebrity whom I have not seen discussed either. Mr. Wilde had a documented propensity for sexual deviance and some of his poems and stories can be interpreted with a much darker meaning than is seen on the surface.

Proove it!

[Khanada]

Oscar Wilde was a celebrity whom I have not seen discussed either. Mr. Wilde had a documented propensity for sexual deviance and some of his poems and stories can be interpreted with a much darker meaning than is seen on the surface.

In other words, he was a known homosexual? Deviance is in the eye of the beholder.

Just because you can interpret someone's work in a different manner than others, a manner you or others may feel is somehow "deeper" or "darker", does not mean that is what the artist intended. Unless you have some kind of documentation from Wilde himself, stating that the "darker meaning" was what he particularly intended when he wrote, you're speculating. It's just your opinion, and stands a strong chance of being nothing more.

[brummie]

In the case of the work by Francis Thompson it is not a question of interpretation it is graphic and explicit. In 'The Nightmare Of The Witch Babies' for instance a knight disembowels a woman he encounters in the fog, and in his short story 'Finis Coronat Opus' the 'hero' Florentian sacrifices women on a pagan altar in order to gain prowess as a poet. Add to this the fact that Thompson was known to be in the area at the time and had at one time been living with a prostitute and apparently sharing her earnings and i'd say he was pretty firmly in the frame, especialy given the fact that his friend relates how he was on occasion found wandering the streets completely disorientated.

[Malcolm X]

especialy given the fact that his friend relates how he was on occasion found wandering the streets completely disorientated.

that's the one thing the Ripper didn't do !

[jason_c]

In other words, he was a known homosexual? Deviance is in the eye of the beholder.

Just because you can interpret someone's work in a different manner than others, a manner you or others may feel is somehow "deeper" or "darker", does not mean that is what the artist intended. Unless you have some kind of documentation from Wilde himself, stating that the "darker meaning" was what he particularly intended when he wrote, you're speculating. It's just your opinion, and stands a strong chance of being nothing more.

Not that it matters with respect to JtR but Wilde was a known bisexual with a penchant for younger rent boys.

[smezenen]

Sorry its taken me so long to get back to this post.
Khanada,
Thats was my point. I was not trying to put forth the notion that Oscar Wilde should be considered i was mearly trying to point out that just becouse someone has a sexual deviance from the norm (Homo/bi sexual would have been considered deviance in 1888), wrote dark stories, and was in the london area at the time does not make them a good suspect. Writers of the time may have been influenced by these grusome acts to write stories that would later make them seem a good suspect becouse they where in the right place at the right time. But they are in fact only telling a story. Oscar Wilde, Lewis Caroll and Francis Thompson all spent time in and around London during the time of the ripper killings all wrote stories that could be suspect two of the three could be termed outside the sexual norm for the time period (Caroll and Wilde). In Caroll's case I dont think the ripper influenced his stories but his love for a much younger girl definaly did.

Grimm,
here is your proof read for yourself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde