Eyelashes?

[Sally]

The Eyes have it. Or do they?...

Jon - Reading through this thread and going back to your earlier post...

..
But that does not explain other witness statements concerning a well-dressed but suspicious man with unusual eyes.

Mrs Kennedy who saw the 'Britannia man'.
"...Just then the woman noticed the unnatural glare of the man's eyes,..."

When comparing the statements of Paumier, Lewis, and Kennedy, the Sunday Times reports:
"... Nearly all the accounts agree, however, as to his wearing a black moustache and having a very remarkable and unpleasant glare in his eyes."

Bowyer saw a strange man speaking to Kelly in Millers Court:
"...He was, perhaps, 27 or 28 and had a dark moustache and very peculiar eyes..."

Best and Gardiner described a man seen with Stride:
He had rather weak eyes. I mean he had sore eyes without any eyelashes.

Were they all the same man?

Regards, Jon S.

Tempting as it might be to guess at a real, flesh and blood individual; I'd be a little cautious about reading too much in the above press reports. The eyes were considered to be the window to the soul then, and it was a popular conception that moral character could be discerned through the eyes. If you think about it, we still have echoes of that belief today - we use character laden terms such as 'shifty-eyed' (dodgy); 'bright-eyed' (attractive/good); and 'wide-eyed' (innocent/gullible).

These several press references to 'peculiar' eyes with and unpleasant or 'unnatural' glare are more likely to be an indication of the phantom toff's dubious character than an actual feature. It is the language of the press - slightly melodramatic in style; yet in a way which the readership of the day would fully appreciate.

Also notable is that this 'well-dressed' mystery man with the weird eyes owes a considerable amount to London's favourite glowy-eyed, well-dressed bogeyman of the day, Spring Heeled Jack - still a popular figure then in the Penny Dreadfuls and on the stage.

I strongly suspect (although I confess I haven't looked into it) that Spring Heeled Jack was associated with the Ripper in the popular mind more than once during the Autumn of Terror and beyond.

In a way, I'd have to agree - the sightings of the mystery toff with the strange eyes were all the same person - but I think that person was probably more of an urban myth than a reality.