some general thoughts

[Fleetwood Mac]

...And possibly I posted them here before..but it seems to me to worth repeating...

1. We know Whitechapel was the original "'city' that never sleeps." There were always people moving about the area; at no time was it ever "deserted" or totally quiet.

2.During the Ripper period, there was a general undercurrent of panic among the residents of Whitechapel, especially after the "double event."

3. Jews or "foreign looking" people were strongly suspected of being the murderer, to the point there were reported near lynchings of men suspected.

4. But through all of this, the Ripper moved as if invisible.. so..

5. either the Ripper was "invisible" escaping through the sewers as in the Ripper vs. Sherlock Holmes novel, "The WhiteChapel Horror" by Edward Hanna

or...(and here it comes..)

6. The Ripper was someone whom no resident of Whitechapel would look at twice So, to my way of thinking, our friend Jack could not have been a Jew or someone "foreign looking"..Such a person, walking about with blood smears on them, in Whitechapel at the height of the Ripper terror would never have gotten out of the district alive!

So in conclusion, the Ripper must have been the most ordinary looking man you can think of...There must not have been anything "threatening" about his appearance at all...

right?

I don't think so Mack.

I think the blood wouldn't have been obvious on black clothes.....just put hands in pockets when on the street and no problem....

Providing he wasn't caught in the act....he could quite easily have come out of an alley e.g. Mitre Square and simply walked down the streets with hands in pockets....there would have been nothing to arouse suspicion.....

I don't think your post lends anything decisive or even a good argument one way or the other to the Jew or Gentile discussion....

My personal hunch is gentile but that isn't based on any particular reason for this belief...except more gentiles living in the area so law of averages and all that.....hence the 'hunch'....

I went on a JTR tour last week while down in London.....and the main thing I learned.....something I really hadn't appreciated at all......and it took me by surprise......was how close the murder sites are to each other...not sure if this adds anything to your thread except to say that it may suggest it was someone comfortable with the area and escape routes and was quite possibly collected and confident when escaping from an alley and stepping onto the street......

[Fleetwood Mac]

EXACTLY! That is precisely my point, as made in my "summation" in the first post in this thread. Jack must have been the most ordinary looking man, someone you would never have noticed...

Otherwise, I do not see how he could have possibly gotten away with these crimes!

Depends what you mean by ordinary......I'd imagine he had one head....yes......but unless you're running round the streets waving a knife two minutes after a murder.....you ain't gonna arouse much suspicion providing you're wearing dark clothes and your hands are in your pockets....whether or not that person is 'ordinary looking'.

If you mean that he wasn't a toff from up West.....then I'd agree....as he would have stood out and been remembered walking down the street just after a murder.....but a member of the Jewish community? really wouldn't have been out of place....

[Errata]

Personally, were I the Ripper, I would have a bottle of booze in my pocket, and after the killing take several healthy swigs and stagger off into the night. Probably singing.

The major problem with a Jewish suspect, is that while they are of course terribly common in the neighborhood, they are not terribly common out late at night. Not that it didn't happen, but not with enough frequency that you wouldn't notice him. I'm sure there were secular Jews out and about, but most people identified Jews by the outfits, the hair, the hat and the beard. Not worn by secular Jews. So then its just a guy.

It seems to me there's two ways of disappearing. One is by blending in. And to do that it seems your best choices are a drunk, a whore, or a sailor. The second is by being conspicuously not a suspect. A priest, a cop, a child, or a handicapped man. You would absolutely notice a priest, but you would never think he could be the killer. Same with a guy on crutches, or with his arm in a sling. That's how Ted Bundy did it. It not only made him seem harmless, but people on the scene of the abductions assumed he was just the last person to see them alive. Not the killer.