Robert Louis Stevenson

[Phil H]

You think what you want to, dear.

Beliefs cost nothing, unless you hope others will share them.

The rest of us will get on with reviewing the case.

Phil

[jsantos]

Good luck to you, Phil...

[jsantos]

"I am withdrawing from this thread. I think I have said enough to make my views clear..."

Your words Phil... your words...

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello again jsantos

I have no doubt that the nickname Jack the Ripper was inspired by Dr. Jekyll.

No evidence of it, though, jsantos. As Phil says, you can believe that but it seems unlikely.

"Jack" was a common period name and comes to us in a number of forms... Jack the Lad, Jack Sprat, Jack the Giant Killer, Jack Tar, Jack the Sailor, Jack and Jill, etc.

There was a notorious London thief named Jack Sheppard and don't forget the semi-mythical "Spring-Heeled Jack" who preceded Jack the Ripper timewise.

The term "Ripper" probably came from the High Rip gangs of the day.

Again, there is not a jot of evidence that the name "Jekyll" had anything to do with the genesis of the name Jack the Ripper.

And in my opinion the "Dear Boss" letter was written by Jack. Is brilliant the "Dear Boss" post scriptum - they say i`m a doctor now.

Sorry, so what? Doctors cut up people. Jack cut up people. It's an obvious jump from the notion of what a doctor did to the Ripper. Most authorities think the Dear Boss letter was not from the killer but was more likely hoaxed by a journalist to whip up public excitement over the murders, and keep a good thing going to sell newspapers.

Sorry, jsantos, but once again your theorizing leaves a lot to be desired.

Best regards

Chris

[jsantos]

"Most authorities think..." They think Chris, they think, but failed to capture jack...

[Limehouse]

I have no doubt that the nickname Jack the Ripper was inspired by Dr. Jekyll.
And in my opinion the "Dear Boss" letter was written by Jack. Is brilliant the "Dear Boss" post scriptum - they say i`m a doctor now.
Refers not only to the fact that the police and the press at the time think that the criminal had knowledge of medicine but also at the fact that Dr. Jekyll is a doctor. Brilliant.

I am confused. So who was Jack the Ripper? Was it Stevenson or Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? And if, as you say, there was a homosexual element, how would that relate to the lust murder of women?

Following your logic, could any modern-day writer of crime fiction be suspected of a series of similar murders? For example, could Colin Dexter be a secret serial killer?

[Phil H]

Dexter is, of course, in Latin, the opposite of sinister.

And if a serial killer is anything he is sinister.

So I think you have it - even though we have no bodies, no evidence, no witnesses - Colin Dexter must be a killer because the literary trail suggests it.

Tick in box done,

Phil

[jsantos]

Limehouse,

Who was Jack the Ripper? I always said that RLS was inspired by her character Dr. Jekyll.
In relation to homosexuality I said the words are not mine. I just wanted to know your opinion if Dr. Jekyll was or wasn`t homosexual.
Is common knowledge that prostitutes are "the weakest link" in society, for murderers.

[jsantos]

Phil,

A great person once said: coincidence after coincidence creates distrust...

[Limehouse]

Limehouse,

Who was Jack the Ripper? I always said that RLS was inspired by her character Dr. Jekyll.
In relation to homosexuality I said the words are not mine. I just wanted to know your opinion if Dr. Jekyll was or wasn`t homosexual.
Is common knowledge that prostitutes are "the weakest link" in society, for murderers.

I'm still rather confused and not at all persuaded. But then - I never could be persuaded that the Whitechapel killer was a well-known person. I have always believed he was an unknown local - or at least an unknown who knew the area well. I don't think I would ever be convinced otherwise.

[Phil H]

Broadening out this discussion, I was thinking last night, that the cultural milieu in which the Whitechapel murders erupted, was a particularly thick and rich soup (if I a milieu can also be a soup!!).

On the one hand we have the emergence of a popular press eager to disseminate and gain leverage from current events.

On the other we have Fenian activity.

And into the midst of this comes Mansfield's disturbing visualisation of RLS's tale of Jeykll and Hyde.

Maybe it is only that certain ideas were "in vogue" at the time - the emergence of psychology, for instance. Modern society was beginning to come into being with many new scientific and mechanical inventions. (1888 is still "Dickensian" in many ways but also very different from the world of Bleak House and Scrooge.)

So I suppose it is possible that, assuming journalists WERE responsible for the nom-de-crime "Jack the Ripper" that they were influenced by some of the things that jsantos has been referring to.

(I do NOT include in this the anachronistic "homosexual" angle, which is clearly nonsense.

But that said, a journalist could have been to the Lyceum to see the play, and have used that to conjure a "character" in which guise he could fake a letter. Is the stagey, false common/subliminal learned tone of the JtR letter a product of a self-imagined character, by a journalist who tries to write in that style. In other words, is the letter something he imagines Dr Jekyll might have written while under the influence of Mr Hyde?

Just musings, please disagree.

Phil

[jsantos]

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is based on what? East End of London for sure. And a writer to be based on something you need to know well that something. RLS had always liked to enjoy the pleasures of the night in the old part of Edinburgh. Must also have experienced the pleasures of the night in the old part of London.
And it is clear that is not registered.

[jsantos]

As I said many posts ago...
"I propose, if it be not too late, to delete Lloyd's
name. He has nothing to do with the last half. The first we
wrote together, as the beginning of a long yarn. The second
is entirely mine; and I think it rather unfair on the young
man to couple his name with so infamous a work." - RLS words about "The Ebb Tide"

It is clear that the second part of the story tells of RLS personal feelings!
Otherwise did not make sense to want the name of Lloyd was not part of the book.

[jsantos]

The reason why no one will discover the identity of jack is obvious. He proved to everyone that was not in whitechapel at the time of the crimes. It's sad because this is a lie that everyone believes. This became the best possible alibi. All other facts lose all importance.

[Bridewell]

Mr Santos.

I have just wasted an hour of my life reading your speculative suggestion and your petulant rejection of the well-reasoned counter-arguments. This is, without doubt, the silliest of the many silly theories inflicted on Casebook members. Robert Louis Stevenson was in the South Seas throughout the Autumn of Terror. There is abundant evidence that this was so. He was a sick man and in the wrong hemisphere, so he simply cannot be the Whitechapel Murderer

There is no evidence to support your case and there never will be.

Regards, Bridewell.