A general consensus as to what the Ripper may have looked like?

[HelenaWojtczak]

He was 5’6” or 5’7” tall, which seems to have been about the average height of men back then & there. He very likely sported a moustache, which wouldn’t get us any further either because most men wore a moustache back then. And he was very likely not dressed all that respectably but rather shabbily and in dark clothes, just like your average East End man. As far as I’m concerned the consensus can’t go any further than that.


Well said, FrankO!

[Fleetwood Mac]

[I]

He was 5’6” or 5’7” tall

Lawende's/Levy's man was given as 5'3 or 5'7/5'8 - 50/50 which of the two were near the mark.

[Rubyretro]

.

When asked to identify the corpse as the one of the woman at the morgue, he seemed pretty sure it was the same woman.

[/QUOTE]

I think that he only identified some fabric from the woman's dress ?

His sighting of the couple could only have been brief, and he seems to have been looking at the man (in order to have been able to describe him). How much about the woman could he realistically have taken on board ?

Also, if when he went to the morgue, he was convinced in advance that the couple must have been JTR and Eddowes (due to the certitude of the Police),
then he could simply have dressed the woman in the fabric scrap in his
mind's eye, without it being true.

[FrankO]

Lawende's/Levy's man was given as 5'3 or 5'7/5'8 - 50/50 which of the two were near the mark.

That's a good example of why we shouldn't put much stock in witness descriptions, Fleetwood.

Best,
Frank

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

That's a good example of why we shouldn't put much stock in witness descriptions, Fleetwood.

Best,
Frank

Here's a photofit of Jack the Ripper from witness accounts I drew a while ago. It is the definitive photofit of how JtR actually looked in 1888.

Also a taboloid style story on usefulness of witnesses in JtR case here:

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=4836

[Malcolm X]

we have no idea what he looked like, but i very much doubt that he was over 6ft tall ( tumblety or D'Onston)

my guess is 5ft 6'' to 5ft 8'' and a Joe Average local, or a Joe Average foreigner

[Malcolm X]

oh i think JTR was seen, almost definitely !

it's just that the eye witnesses were too bloody unreliable to get anything right...... you can substiture unreliable for stupid if you like, because it all means the same thing to me !

this unreliability stretches to the times stated too, especially with regards to E.Stride.

[HelenaWojtczak]

Love Siobhan's photofit.

How can anyone guess anyone;s height from a distance anyway, unless they are standing next to someone whose height they know.

And I don't think any of the witnesses could say that the person whose description they gave was Jack, anyway.

Helena