Jack the Nightman

[JTRSickert]

Hi everyone, I was recently thinking, does anyone here think JTR was a night owl who may have worked/killed during the night and slept during the day. (and no, I'm not saying he's a vampre, so don't get started on that bandwagon) The reasons for this is that JT, in all his murders, never commits a murder at night before the start of the morning. All his murders take place after midnight but before pm. The best evidence for maybe this possibility is the Chapman murder which happens close to dawn. What may have happened was, after getting off from a hard day's work, JTR began "trolling" for victims. None seemed t osatisfy him until he came across A.C. at around
5am in the morning. Then, after killing her, he retired to his quarters and settled in for some nice rest.

So, my question is, did a lot of locals at that time work at night and sleep in the day?

Also, if this is true, it may lend weight to the whole "Hutchinson-was-Jack" theory since he admitted to wandering the streets of Whitechapel all night.

[Wolfgang_Parker]

John Douglas (FBI pioneer of profiling) stated in his book, Mind Hunter, that many serial killers won't kill unless an opportunity to kill and getaway presents itself.

It has been established that the East End had little to no lighting in many areas and the network of alleys and warrens made a quick getaways manageable to anyone who knew them well enough. Especially in the early morning hours.

From my research, I would hazard to say that it is likely the Ripper worked late into the night and got off work around midnight regularly. When the opportunity showed itself, he struck. When it didn't, he probably went about his "normal" business.

Now, with that out of the way...I have to admit I was hoping your post was a reference to "the Nightman" character on the US television show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. If you are unfamiliar, look it up.

[Adam Went]

It usually seems to have been a little different to that actually, in most of the cases that I've read about - your average working class man would start work early in the morning (5-7 AM) and quite often work through until 5-7 at night.....very few East Enders in 1888 had your typical 9-5, Monday-Friday job.

That was usually atleast a 6 day working week, with Sunday off, but some chose to work on the Sunday as well.

So it's possible that Jack fitted into that category, and IMO, he did hold down regular work, but might have been somewhat controlling of his own hours.....so, just as an example, he might knock off at 6 PM, go home, sleep until midnight or a bit after, get up, go out and "do the deed", go back home, clean himself up and then go to work again. Or something along those lines....

Having said that, it would have been all the easier for him if he was one of those who was fortunate enough to not have to work on weekends, as all of the canonical murders, plus Martha Tabram, were committed on weekend nights or public holidays. Bit of a telling stat, that one.

Cheers,
Adam.

[kensei]

Isn't it also true that the majority of the murders took place on weekends or holidays? I think an important question would be if it was as common then as it is now for people to work during the week and have weekends off. I tend to think that Jack did have a night job that allowed him to stay up late and then sleep late in the morning, so his inner clock would have been programmed to those hours and when he then had weekends free he would indulge the night, spending the pre-midnight hours mingling with the evening crowds and scoping out victims while he had a few drinks, then the post-midnight hours zeroing in.

p.s.
The previous post by Adam making this same point came in just as I was typing mine. Oops!

[JTRSickert]

John Douglas (FBI pioneer of profiling) stated in his book, Mind Hunter, that many serial killers won't kill unless an opportunity to kill and getaway presents itself.

It has been established that the East End had little to no lighting in many areas and the network of alleys and warrens made a quick getaways manageable to anyone who knew them well enough. Especially in the early morning hours.

From my research, I would hazard to say that it is likely the Ripper worked late into the night and got off work around midnight regularly. When the opportunity showed itself, he struck. When it didn't, he probably went about his "normal" business.

Now, with that out of the way...I have to admit I was hoping your post was a reference to "the Nightman" character on the US television show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. If you are unfamiliar, look it up.

Hey Wolfgang,

OF COURSE I'm familar with the show! Not only do I live in Philly, but I have every season on DVD. Dayman...uuuuaaaahhhh.....fighter of the Nightman....uuuaaahhhhh.....champion of the sun....uuuuaaaaahhh....you're a master of karate and friendship, for everyone.

Hmm, it seems that maybe, if we can somehow get a work schedule for the types of jobs in the East End, we could maybe get a list of all the employees working at the time of the murders. And, we can scratch off the list thsoe that were working and all the others, we could just mark with a "?"...It would be great if we learned that a prominent suspect just so happened to not be working during all of the killings.

[Rubyretro]

Isn't it also true that the majority of the murders took place on weekends or holidays? I think an important question would be if it was as common then as it is now for people to work during the week and have weekends off. I tend to think that Jack did have a night job that allowed him to stay up late and then sleep late in the morning, so his inner clock would have been programmed to those hours and when he then had weekends free he would indulge the night, spending the pre-midnight hours mingling with the evening crowds and scoping out victims while he had a few drinks, then the post-midnight hours zeroing in.

p.s.
The previous post by Adam making this same point came in just as I was typing mine. Oops!

But club meetings might also be held at weekends. Say at the beginning of the month, or the end of the month. Club meetings would be made conveinient for members who were employed.

We know that victorian pubs in whitechapel often had rooms which they let for club meetings.

It is reasonable to imagine that the meetings started after dinner and went on into the night, finishing in the early hours of the morning.

Meetings held in pubs especially would offer the possibility for drinking.
Club nights would offer an excuse for men to be out of the home with their friends, at night. There would be a large group of men. Such men would be ripe for prostitutes to target.

At least 2 of the canonical murders (Stride and Eddowes) happened in proximity to clubs holding meetings on those nights( It would be interesting to discover if this was the case for the others). It would be fair to assume that the prostitutes knew that the club members were going to come out.

If JtR specifically murdered prostitutes soliciting outside club meetings he might be governed by the nights that such meetings were held, and not necessarily be in regular work himself.

The police may have seen the same pattern as you and made the same assumptions, and therefore too easily discounted a suspect who was not in regular employment.

[jason_c]

I've often thought Jack the Nightwachman was a plausible scenario.

[Fleetwood Mac]

Possible...considering plenty of men would have taken any work no matter the hours. Start 3 finish 10....go looking.....go to bed 6ish...get up at 2.....wouldn't be a surprise at all.

But where does it lead you?

Nowhere....because it could just as easily have been someone who needed 4/5 hours sleep (and plenty wouldn't have had that in an age of taking too easily to the drink) and worked a full day from 9 til 6....went looking late at night....got home at 3ish and got up at 8 to go to work.

One of the most interesting things about this case is not the chances of not working during the day - possible but not probable - but that he killed Thursday to Sunday - now this being a coincidence is improbable (based on the simple law of probabilities) and it's likely there's a good reason for this. Were I a Ripperologist I'd be breaking my back going down that line of enquiry rather than something no better than could be/couldn't be.