was jack an offal dresser?

[miss marple]

If Jack had possibly worked in a slaughterhouse, a possible job he could have done is that of offal dresser. I came across this in a biography of Lulu the singer, who talks about her Dad, who worked in a Glasgow slaughterhouse as an offal dresser. Offal dressers used sharp narrow knifes and could remove the offal, kidneys, liver etc in under a minute. Her Dad was proud of the speed with which an animal carcass could be stripped. This is a very specific skill and would explain why Jack could operate quickly and in the dark. Any thoughts?
Miss Marple

[Phil Carter]

Hello MM,
Very interesting thought that I must admit know very little about!
Speed in these cases seems to be paramount. I seem to recall that in David Abrahamsen's book he talks of the slaughtering of the "kill" of hunted animals. That was connected to Eddy and JK Stephen though.

best wishes

Phil

[lynn cates]

anyone mention haggis?

Hello Miss. I'm not sure about Jack's wardrobe, but I suspect . . . um . . . ah, I just looked more closely at your post. Never mind. So sorry.

Seriously, I think SY interrogated every butcher and came away satisfied. I suppose, however, that means little.

By the way, never bring up this topic to a Scotsman--it makes him hungry for haggis, and it's only a bit over a month until Robbie Burns' birthday anyway.

The best.
LC

[j.r-ahde]

Hello miss marple!

I am working in food industry and I have cut some meat myself too!

With the best professionals, cutting bits in a minute is quite possible

But; if Saucy Jacky was an offal dresser, his work was a piece of an even worse than c**p. Thinking about, for example, Mary Jane Kelly!

My youngest big sister is a doctor. Based on the photos of her book: if I would be crazy enough to try, that would be closer to work of mr. Ripper!

Well, in real life I have an odd thinking, I guess; with cutting meat for food, it doesn't matter! But to look at the photos in the books of medicine students, I feel sick!

All the best
Jukka

[perrymason]

If Jack had possibly worked in a slaughterhouse, a possible job he could have done is that of offal dresser. I came across this in a biography of Lulu the singer, who talks about her Dad, who worked in a Glasgow slaughterhouse as an offal dresser. Offal dressers used sharp narrow knifes and could remove the offal, kidneys, liver etc in under a minute. Her Dad was proud of the speed with which an animal carcass could be stripped. This is a very specific skill and would explain why Jack could operate quickly and in the dark. Any thoughts?
Miss Marple

A very interesting thought indeed Miss Marple, and one that brings to mind this thought in return....if the man we are looking for was this kind of man... who in some form or another performed similar tasks to the ones Jack executed during his assumed outings, then we would probably be dealing with someone who has their faculties about them. Someone who can and does work, even skillfully perhaps, doing a less than desirable task to many people.

A sober man doing what he does daily....hmm.....might that also translate into this kind of realm....someone who was paid to do what they did because they had that kind of skill and the stomach for the task.

Someone like that could be made to disappear later too.

Just thinkin....this scenario is not addressed with a mentally incompetent man for sure.

My best regards MM

[Septic Blue]

... I think SY interrogated every butcher and came away satisfied.

"every butcher" ?????????

Within what vicinity?


Murder 'Locale': Immediate Vicinity; General Vicinity (Click to Enlarge in flickr)
Underlying Aerial Imagery: Copyright Google Earth, 2007
Overlying Plots, Labels and Color-Shadings: Copyright Colin C. Roberts, 2009


Murder 'Locale': Immediate Vicinity; General Vicinity; Broad Vicinity (Click to Enlarge in flickr)
Underlying Aerial Imagery: Copyright Google Earth, 2007
Overlying Plots, Labels and Color-Shadings: Copyright Colin C. Roberts, 2009

Green: Metropolitan Meat & Poultry Market, Parish of St. Sepulchre ('without Newgate'), City of London / County of Middlesex

*** I would contend that Smithfield Market was more 'local' to this series of murders, than was nearly half of 1888's 'East End'. ***


Murder 'Locale' in the Context of a Larger 'East End' (1888) (Click to Enlarge in flickr)
Underlying Aerial Imagery: Copyright Google Earth, 2007
Overlying Plots, Labels and Color-Shadings: Copyright Colin C. Roberts, 2009

Green: Metropolitan Meat & Poultry Market, Parish of St. Sepulchre ('without Newgate'), City of London / County of Middlesex


The 'East End' (1888) (Click to Enlarge in flickr)
Underlying Aerial Imagery: Copyright Google Earth, 2007
Overlying Plots, Labels and Color-Shadings: Copyright Colin C. Roberts, 2009

Green: Metropolitan Meat & Poultry Market, Parish of St. Sepulchre ('without Newgate'), City of London / County of Middlesex

1888's 'East End'

The Parliamentary Borough of Shoreditch:
- The Parish of St. Leonard Shoreditch

The Parliamentary Borough of Bethnal Green:
- The Parish of St. Matthew Bethnal Green

The Parliamentary Borough of Tower Hamlets:
- The Liberty of Norton Folgate
- The Old Artillery Ground
- The Parish of Christ Church Spitalfields
- The Hamlet of Mile End New Town
- The Parish of Holy Trinity ('Minories')
- The Parish of St. Mary Whitechapel (Portion Within the County of Middlesex)
- The Liberty of Her Majesty's Tower of London
--- {The Liberty of the Tower}
--- {The Precinct of Old Tower Without}
--- {The Tower}
- The Precinct of St. Katharine
- The Parish of St. Botolph without Aldgate (Portion Within the County of Middlesex)
- The Parish of St. George in the East
- The Parish of St. John of Wapping
- The Hamlet of Mile End Old Town
- The Parish of St. Paul Shadwell
- The Hamlet of Ratcliff
- The Parish of St. Anne Limehouse
- The Parish of St. Mary Stratford Bow
- The Parish of Bromley St. Leonard
- The Parish of All Saints Poplar

[lynn cates]

cogito

Hello Septic. I just saw this.

I think my dictum was, "I think." Of course, I was not referring to the whole of London. My "thinking" involved a blurb about butchers being early suspected and questioned. So I presumed in the immediate vicinity.

I wonder what would have happened had they questioned Jacob Levy?

The best.
LC

[miss marple]

skill

Some one who works on a slaugherhouse is not a butcher, In a slaughterhouse the killing and disenbowelling of the live animal is the skill.
A butcher cuts the meat once it has been drained of blood. A different skill.
I doubt that the workers of slaughterhouses were interviewed by police.

I agree Perry Mason. Jack was not a mental defective, but but probably a sociopath who hated women. The kind of work that involved the repetitious disenbowelliing of carcasses, would give him the specific skills and organisation required for the ripper. The familiarity with innards and blood on a perverse personality would give him detachment.
I think all the talk of butchers in 1888 was on the wrong tack.
Miss Marple

[curious]

I wonder what would have happened had they questioned Jacob Levy?

The best.
LC

I wonder that too. And are we positive he was NOT questioned?

curious

[lynn cates]

Jacob Levy

Hello Curious. Not at all sure.

An interesting chap, don't you think?

The best.
LC