Soldier Jack?

[curious4]

Soldier Jack

Hello again,

Getting back to soldier Jack again, I have been reading up (a little) on the Thugs in India - not a new idea, I know - and it seems to me that the method used to kill the victims shows a marked similarity to the methods used by Thugs. Making friends with the victim and then when they were off their guard, strangling them with a scarf or neckerchief. There are references also to mutilations, flaying and stabbing the eyes. Perhaps not necessarily a soldier - there was a book published in 1839 on the subject, which anyone could have read - but a traumatised and mentally disturbed soldier could have used this method, either from being in India himself, ot hearing of it from older soldiers who had been there.

See what you think.

Best regards,
C4

[curious4]

soldier jack, thugees

No takers on the thugee idea? You have to admit the similarities in the style of killing, soldier or not.

C4

[Steve S]

Not sure of exact date,but I think the Thugs had been pretty much put down in the 1830's-'40's......'Tho they are popular in period fiction........

[curious4]

thugs

Hello Steve,

Spose, but that doesn t exclude a soldier hearing or reading about them.

Cheers,
C4

[HollyDolly]

Soldier Jack?

No takers on the thugee idea? You have to admit the similarities in the style of killing, soldier or not.

C4

While I don't know much about them, the Thugee idea isn't half bad. It could be Jack,if he was a soldier, could have served in India and heard about them or maybe he served elsewhere,like Africa or some place where there might have been mutilations of civilians during the war,etc.

I think each man experiences war differently,and hence why some get PTSD,more than say others.Maybe these guys sometimes have nightmares on ocassion, but don't flip out and become killers like Jack or others.
Maybe it's their family background too that plays some sort of factor in it, or their expectations of what military life is like.
There maybe a combination of all three. I have relatives who served in the military and are serving now. None of them ever flipped out after service.They got married and raised a family,and held jobs.
Maybe there were family circumstances combined with his war experiences that set Soldier Jack off.

[TomTomKent]

I would guess that soldiers are, statistically speaking, no more or less likely to be a suspect than any other group likely to be found in the area at the time. I don't see anything in the murders themselves that point specifically towards soldiers.

I have a half remembered factoid that one of the victims or suspected victims was last seen in the company of a guardsman who was never identified, but even if that hazy notion were right it would make the unnamed soldier a valuable witness not a suspect. I dare say returning to barracks in blood sodden uniform may draw unwanted attention, and is not what the OP stated, specifying an ex-soldier. (Let's face it, a serving soldier would be near impossible, even one like Prince Eddy would be noticed going into somewhere as populated as a barracks, passing observent sentries, in close proximity to other soldiers, their whereabouts logged, etc).

Interestingly in my ill-informed browsing of true crime references I have noticed there are a few of the "Manhunter" kind of serial killers who strike me not so much as former soldiers but very much more with the wannabe soldiers. There seems a trend within serial killers and sexual killers to be the fantasists who may not have been soldiers, but desperately wanted to be special forces types or mercenaries. I wonder if, though I doubt it, Jack might have been his days version of that? The guy who buys second hand bayonets and clothes that look almost military cut for fashion rather than a battlefield?

[curious]

I wonder if, though I doubt it, Jack might have been his days version of that? The guy who buys second hand bayonets and clothes that look almost military cut for fashion rather than a battlefield?

Sounds exactly like Dr. Francis Tumblety

[TomTomKent]

Sounds exactly like Dr. Francis Tumblety

Or more likely one person in every pub with in twenty miles of the Rippers hunting grounds, who history has let slip out of memory.

[Steve S]

Just as a matter of interest...The decade preceding the murders was one of the busiest for the British Army...In order:
9th Kaffir War
2nd Afghan War
Zulu War
Boer War
Egyptian Campaign
3rd Burma War
Gordon relief expedition and Red Sea operations.

Not near books,but wasn't there a contemporary letter about a guy in the 9th Lancers?

[curious]

Or more likely one person in every pub with in twenty miles of the Rippers hunting grounds, who history has let slip out of memory.

That too. I was just thinking of the record of Tumblety dressing up to impress all the young men in uniform during the Civil War in the States. And he is a known name and person in this game.

[HollyDolly]

Soldier Jack

TomTom Kent, you may be on to something.I don't know about in Britan,but here in the US they run stories from time to time about men claiming they had this that or the other medal or award and make themselves out to be this great warrior,but the truth comes out.Either they never served, or if they did, they didn't accomplish much. That always makes me mad be cause to me it seems to dishonor those who did serve and earned every honor and medal they got.
I'm sure that Jack was a victorian version of this,if he wasn't an actual soldier or vet, he was a wanna be.

[Rubyretro]

[QUOTE]

TomTom Kent, you may be on to something.I don't know about in Britan,but here in the US they run stories from time to time about men claiming they had this that or the other medal or award and make themselves out to be this great warrior,but the truth comes out.Either they never served, or if they did, they didn't accomplish much.

I know somebody just like this ! He was a cook in the Terras but claims to be ex-SAS (!), and dresses in para military gear...

A Mythomanic certainly..not sure that it would have anything to do with the profile of a Psycopath, though...