Robert Louis Stevenson

[jsantos]

Phil,

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

[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.

[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

[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?

[jsantos]

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

[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]

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

Your words Phil... your words...

[jsantos]

Good luck to you, Phil...

[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]

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.

[ChrisGeorge]

I had always understood that "queer street" meant being in financial difficilty of bankrupt. That was certainly the way the word was used when I was young.

I was born in 1946 in Chatham, Kent, and I can definitely remember when I was a young girl that grown-ups would refer to someone being 'in Queer Street' and meant that they were in financial difficulty.

Carol

Hi jsantos, Phil and Carol

Yes in English the term "in queer street" is used most commonly to indicate financial difficulties, as in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited (1945) where Edward Ryder comments on his son Charles's financial difficulties:

"Hard up? Penurious? Distressed? Embarrassed? Stoney broke? On the rocks? In Queer Street? - Your cousin Melchior was imprudent with his investments and got into a very queer street - worked his passage to Australia before the mast."

This scene was played memorably by the late Sir John Gielgud in the TV series Brideshead Revisited also starring Jeremy Irons as young Ryder and Anthony Andrews as Sebastian Flyte -- of course, that relationship did have homosexual overtones, but in analyzing a writer's text we need to be careful which meaning of a word or term is meant.

In Edward Ryder's monologue, it could not be any clearer here that lack of money is being talked about.

For me, for Stevenson to have a character describe Hyde as "queer" merely means that the person is saying Hyde was a strange or odd man -- maybe even a person capable of violence, as everyone subsequently discovers, to their cost.

Enfield's reference to Hyde's house as looking "like Queer Street" where he says, "No sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask" appears to me not to reference either homosexuality or impecuniousness but more once again to allude to the strange nature of Hyde.

All the best

Chris

[Carol]

[QUOTE=Phil H;194501]I had always understood that "queer street" meant being in financial difficilty of bankrupt. That was certainly the way the word was used when I was young.


I was born in 1946 in Chatham, Kent, and I can definitely remember when I was a young girl that grown-ups would refer to someone being 'in Queer Street' and meant that they were in financial difficulty.

Carol

[Phil H]

Wherever it was found, I still disagree for the reasons I gave !

I really don't understand what the point is that is being made.

Phil

[jsantos]

Phil,

maybe you have reason, but the words are not mine. I found in www.123helpme.com

[Phil H]

I had always understood that "queer street" meant being in financial difficilty of bankrupt. That was certainly the way the word was used when I was young.

Notwithstanding Wilde, the phrase being in "earnest" does and did have a perfectly legitimate meaning. I did a spot of research and it appears that the phrase is often associated with Carey Street, where London's bankruptcy courts were once located.

I think your reading of RLS's words is anachronistic.

Sorry to be always seeming to contradict you, but I don't see this at all.

Phil