Did Jack had some sorta horrible experience in his life?

[DarkPassenger]

I think I'd like to add something to this, based on the fact that people tend to be a little...rigid and deterministic when discussing what "causes" such people to commit crimes. I love it; "his mother was a hooker, and he transformed into a serial killer," or, "he was rejected by women," my favourite one!

Rejection by women, that old chestnut, does not mean he asked a bunch of girls out and they said no. It's a feeling of deep-seated inadequacy, resentment and a nice dollop of psychopathic tendencies which are either inherited or the result of the person's life experience. They see a girl they find sexually attractive laughing in the presence of another guy and they want to tear the bitch a new arsehole in a form of "revenge." It's twisted logic and the cause can be narrowed down to...pretty much the entirety of the person's subjective experience of life.

Power and sex play into each other so much because the inadequate man needs, more than anyone else, to employ power, in their minds, in the form of violence and force, to achieve sexual pleasure. And let's not forget that a number of serial killers appear to have rather powerful sex drives.

[kensei]

Ted Bundy became a serial killer after suffering no abuse or neglect as a child, but there were certain peculiarities in his family situation that he perceived as being painful to him (finding out he was illegitamite, etc). It could be looked at as the biggest overreaction in history, but still counts as a trauma he suffered. Things can snowball in people's heads in all kinds of ways. In my opinion, it is not possible for a serial killer to just suddenly blossom out of someone who has led a perfectly happy and satisfied life, but the trauma that acts as a trigger need not be some horrible abuse or neglect. It could be almost anything.

[DVV]

Hi Eastender,

How many serial killers in Congo - thanks to this excellent Leopold ?
How many serial killers in Ethiopia - thanks to good old Sir Robert Napier ?
How many serial killers in Madagascar - thanks to those admirable French free-thinkers ?
...
This said, that's an interesting and original thought.

Amitiés,
David

[Eastender]

Its a theory of mine that Jack may have been in the Anglo Zulu wars of 1877-79. The British were horrified to find the Zulu disembowed the British dead. Its just a theory, still thinking it out.

[Limehouse]

It is certainly possible that the killer experienced some sort of trauma or abuse that contributed to his actions. However, many thousands of people suffer terrible experiences and do not behave in such a way. Traumatised adults and children would not have bee particularly rare in those days and on those streets. I suspect the killer had a personality disorder which was the underlying cause of his behaviour.

[Scotland Yard]

Well, they do say the abused tend to become the abusers. I think its almost certain Jack had experienced serious neglect or abuse, probably as a child.

[Lika]

What I'd love to know is what could drive a person to perform such murders.
If someone would have behaved awkward or aggressive before these murders happened then people (maybe prostitutes as well) would have stayed away from them or maybe reported the police in the worst case.
So what Im thinkin is that the person behind Jack could probably had experienced something in his life which caused him to do such horrorfying things shortly before the murders started.