Face of the Ripper?

[clair]

Hi,
I couldn't find any threads on images of JtR made from witnesses descriptions, but there's a computer drawn one (2006) produced by a Met analyst from the evidence of 13 witness descriptions : IS THIS THE FACE OF JACK THE RIPPER?

No, it's not Freddie Mercury(!), but it does resemble Klosowski (George Chapman) don't you think?

[Adam Went]

Yes, it certainly does look like Severin Klosowski!
I wonder why.....

That is certainly aided by the fact that Wolff Levisohn, who had known Klosowski virtually since he stepped foot on British soil, stated at his trial in 1903 that his appearance had not changed at all since he arrived.... meaning the man you see in the photos (the one with "wife" Bessie Taylor was taken in the late 1890's, etc) was the same appearance he had in 1888....

Cheers,
Adam.

[clair]

I wonder why too, Adam. Reading through the descriptions of the 13 witnesses, I can't see how, when fed in to the computer, they came out as they did- the descriptions are so vague. Strange then that the e-fit resembles any of the suspects at all!

[spyglass]

Hi all,
I watched the documentry recently, and thought the whole thing was a waste of time. The computer picture does resemble Chapman, but then so did 90% of men at that time.
Whilst on the subject of that documentry ( i guess it has been talked about on the boards before but I missed it ) Could anyone else make out what that police woman was trying to achieve?
I refere mainly to the getting of DNA from Eddowes shawl, even if succesfull, who was she going to try and match it with?

[Jason]

Lee harvey OSwald apparently.....his family lived in Whitechapel and had a grassy knoll just across from Miller Court

[Adam Went]

Clair:

There was just a tinge of sarcasm in my last post....I am a Chapman-ite, after all.

Spyglass:

I think I've seen the docco you're talking about now....weren't they just going to see if it was Eddowes blood (matching it with living relatives, perhaps?) or if there was foreign blood on there as well, which would likely be from JTR?

Cheers,
Adam.

[spyglass]

Adam!

Thanks,
but finding eddowes blood on the shawl, would'nt get us any closer to finding out who JTR was, and that was the purpose of the program, using modern forensics and CSI techniques to find out who the killer was....and it failed miserbly.

[clair]

Spyglass,
I didn't see the doc, but Eddowes blood on the shawl wouldn't be a big surprise, so the purpose would be to see if there was any foreign DNA, which presumably could be compared with that of suspects by exhuming them.

Adam,
OK, but to me it's still amazing that such non-specific descriptions from the witnesses could produce an e-fit that looks uncannily like one of the main suspects. There is a much stronger resemblence to Chapman than any of the others - its not just the mustache, but the cheekbones, face shape, the eyes.....

[Garry Wroe]

Perhaps, Clair. But if Hutchinson's Jewish-looking suspect was an invention, and the Stride killing unrelated to the Ripper series, the composite portrait was unduly influenced by a great many confounding variables and is therefore utterly useless as an investigative guide.

Regards.

Garry Wroe.

[clair]

I take your point, Garry, but if the witnesses descriptions can't be relied on, why is the e-fit so like Chapman?

[Garry Wroe]

Take a look at the on-site photographs, Clair. Most men in late-Victorian East London bore at least a passing resemblance to Chapman - police officers included. The law of averages thereby dictates that a random sample of, say, commom lodging house patrons would have produced a similar composite portrait. The entire exercise was nothing more than a gimmick masquerading as science - as indeed was the attempt to recover DNA from Eddowes' shawl.

Best wishes.

Garry Wroe.

[clair]

I think it's the weird mustaches that makes them look similar, Garry. They look quite different if you focus on other features - chin, nose, eyes etc. The e-fit looks even more like Freddie Mercury to me than Chapman - not what I would've expected from a composite based on random sampling of common lodging house patrons of the period!

So imo, a random sample would produce a composite bearing at most a very vague resemblance, more likely none at all.

[SaraCarter33]

@clair thanks for posting that pic, and yes it really does look like Severin Klosowsky that is absolutely eerie, i got goosebumps when i looked at that pic.

[clair]

The entire exercise was nothing more than a gimmick masquerading as science -

Yes, I think the 'e-fit' is really a (very subjective) artistic interpretation of the witnesses evidence, and influenced by the pictures of the suspects already available. Chapman is dark and surly, for instance, but the witness evidence is just too vague and not exactly consistent.

[clair]

It is spooky Sarah, but like I said, the resemblance must be more subjective artistic impression than 'scientific'.