Modern day prostitute killers & JtR

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

Hi folks,
I've come up with a new profile of JtR based on the modus operandi, background, education, marital status, employment record etc of five modern day prostitute killers:
Peter Sutcliffe, Robert Hansen, Gary Ridgway, Robert Pickton and Steven Wright who are known to be responsible for the murders of more than 100 women – mainly prostitutes, but also runaways and vulnerable women walking home alone at night.
Between them, they claim to have killed more than 150 women, though even this figure may be higher.
Similarities across all five cases:

• All five men had unhappy or dysfunctional childhoods.
• All five men were loners or poor communicators.
• All five men left school having achieved poor academic results and worked in non-professional, low-skilled employment throughout their lives.
• Four of the five men had been married. Pickton was the exception. Three of the five men had divorced twice.
• The age of the men at the time of their murderous campaigns ranged from early 30s to mid 50s.
• All five men had either mental disorders or suffered from serious addictions.
• Three of the five men had served in either the army (one) or navy (two).
• Three of the five men had taken “trophies” from their victims.
• Two of the men said they hated prostitutes; two others claimed they had been swindled out of money while frequenting them.
• All five men had already come to the attention of police for crimes unrelated to murder.
• Four of the five police investigations were deemed to be “mishandled” according to the media, the public and even the police themselves. Wright's investigation was the exception

.

If you want to read the full article/ new profile of JtR, it's on Ripper wiki here http://wiki.casebook.org/index.php/User:Spryder


Let me know what you think.
Best,
Siobhan

[corey123]

Hello Siobhan,

I am always interested in a new Jack the Ripper profile, I will indeed read it and post on it, in a few.

Welcome to the boards!!

Edit: I wrote something in the Casebook Examiner last year which might be of interest to you. If your interested in discussing it send me a PM.

[Abby Normal]

Hi spm
Very interesting. Good job. you should check out William Suff the Riverside Prostitute Killer-he's as close as I have found to JtR.

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

Hi spm
Very interesting. Good job. you should check out William Suff the Riverside Prostitute Killer-he's as close as I have found to JtR.

Will Suff hey?

I tried to pick the five modern prostitute killers randomly with no preconceptions beforehand with the only proviso that they did not all come from the same country.
Would it be cheating to now include Will Suff retrospectively to the case study? Probably. But I guess it proves that serial prostitute killers do have particular character/ background traits in common from which a profile can be created.
I will definitely check Will Suff out though!
Thanks for the heads up.

Siobhán

[Man Flex]

Nice work Siobhan.

I have always thought that we can learn a lot from other serial killers of the modern age and I have no doubt that JTR had many common traits with your examples.

However, when you look at the witness statements, I have always thought that JTR was a rather good communicator. If you consider in particular his introduction to Mary Kelly, he had a skill which put her at ease and he was able to very quickly divert away any suspicion that she may have had about him.

In this respect I would liken him more to Ted Bundy - a charismatic, manipulative sociopath rather than a straight forward psychopath like Peter Sutcliffe who had very little communication skill.

[Abby Normal]

Will Suff hey?

I tried to pick the five modern prostitute killers randomly with no preconceptions beforehand with the only proviso that they did not all come from the same country.
Would it be cheating to now include Will Suff retrospectively to the case study? Probably. But I guess it proves that serial prostitute killers do have particular character/ background traits in common from which a profile can be created.
I will definitely check Will Suff out though!
Thanks for the heads up.

Siobhán

No not cheating-just an addition. Would love to see you include him and what you come up with.

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

Nice work Siobhan.

... I have always thought that JTR was a rather good communicator. If you consider in particular his introduction to Mary Kelly, he had a skill which put her at ease and he was able to very quickly divert away any suspicion that she may have had about him.

In this respect I would liken him more to Ted Bundy - a charismatic, manipulative sociopath rather than a straight forward psychopath like Peter Sutcliffe who had very little communication skill.

That's a fair point Man Flex. BUT Bundy was not a serial killer of prostitutes therefore he cannot be included in the case study. He targeted students and women in their late teens and early 20s. He needed to be charismatic in order to hoodwink them. His victims thought they might be getting some romance or a lift home or whatever - also Bundy put on elaborate shows of having a broken leg and pretended to need assistance etc, etc - whereas prostitutes have a completely different agenda - MONEY.
Any street prostitutes I've ever spoken to say "they just want to get the job over with" after quickly sizing up the "John". Also, they depend on other prostitutes to protect them or give them a heads up on whether clients might be dangerous. It's not a very good system.
Across all the victims in my case study the women were either street prostitues or vulnerable runaways living on the streets- as close to the profile of JtR victims as possible . I hope this clarifies the matter.
Best,
Siobhán

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

No not cheating-just an addition. Would love to see you include him and what you come up with.

My initial reaction was to rush off to research (which I will of course do) but I still think to add someone I discovered (through you) who fits the profile wouldn't be very scientific! The research was as random as possible with no bias or "angle" on my part in the creation of the profile.
It is still a possibility though to include Will Suff. Will get to you on it once I have checked your man out.
In fact, I have a suggestion. Why not include him in a future post (on this thread) under the categories used for each of the serial prostitute killers in the case study. Background, modus operandi, motive etc. That would be v. interesting but would involve work for you!
Why not have a go at it if you have the time? If not, I will do same.

Thanks again.

Siobhán

[robhouse]

This is basically the same type of statistical analysis of serial killers that was done by John Douglas, Robert Resseler and Ann Burgess, and which is presented in detail in their book Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives. In that instance, the FBI directly interviewed 39 sexually motivate killers (most were serial killers), and then collated their findings in the same type of way you are doing.
RH

[Man Flex]

Fair point about Bundy and prostitutes in terms of the case study.

Otherwise I think your profile is probably spot on and I especially agree with your supposition that he was most likely interviewed or even arrested in connection with the murders as well as having a criminal past.

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

Fair point about Bundy and prostitutes in terms of the case study.

Otherwise I think your profile is probably spot on and I especially agree with your supposition that he was most likely interviewed or even arrested in connection with the murders as well as having a criminal past.

Cheers for that Man Flex.
Have you read robhouse's post above?
Apparently, there is nothing new in what I've attempted.
I still think it was worth doing though.


Best,
Siobhán

[robhouse]

Just out of curiosity, why is it that you exclude Bundy because he was not a killer of prostitutes? Another way to phrase this: why is "being a killer of prostitutes" the main criteria for inclusion in your analysis?

To Man Flex:
Also, I do not think it is accurate at all to say that Sutcliffe had very little communication skills. From what I remember, it was quite the opposite.

RH

[robhouse]

Hi Siobhan,

Well it is not new, but I do think it is worthwhile for you to continue with your analyses. You might have some new thoughts or come to different conclusions than others have before you. I do recommend that you read that book, if you are really interested in the topic though.

RH

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

Just out of curiosity, why is it that you exclude Bundy because he was not a killer of prostitutes? Another way to phrase this: why is "being a killer of prostitutes" the main criteria for inclusion in your analysis?


RH

JtR was a prostitute killer so I wanted to hone in on other serial prostitute killers. If I had included all serial killers of women, like Bundy, my research would have been too broad in focus. My main focus was to attempt to get a retrospective profile of JtR.
I had heard of the research you mentioned in an earlier post which covered a very broad spectrum. Mine attempted to cover a narrower field - serial killers of prostitute killers only.
Thanks for your encouragement in your second post. I do intend to investigate further - for example, Will Suff mentioned by Abby Normal in an earlier post.

Best,

Siobhán

[corey123]

Siobhan,

I am with Rob on this one, Bundy is a sexual killer, as was Jack the Ripper. There is a huge connection between the two killers, in fact I used Bundy in my essay. If you get around to reading it today.

Corey