Has he been named?

[Fiver]

Unlike Michael, I believe there was a serial killer who was responsible for the majority, if not all, of the Canonical Five. There was a clear MO of strangulation followed by throat cutting, plus mutilation and posing of the bodies. The Whitechapel Killer may have killed others, but all or almost all of the non-Canon murderers were the work of the Torso Killer or other individuals. I also think the Ripper persona was created by the press and had little if anything to do with the personality of the actual killer,

If records of all door-to-door interviews still exist, I would guess there was about a 1-in-4 or 1-in-5 chance of the killer having been interviewed, but with no indication of him being suspicious. If complete records of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee exist, I'd guess about a 1-in-10 chance that the killer joined to avoid suspicion, though not as one of the leaders.

[Michael W Richards]

Unlike Michael, I believe there was a serial killer who was responsible for the majority, if not all, of the Canonical Five. There was a clear MO of strangulation followed by throat cutting, plus mutilation and posing of the bodies. The Whitechapel Killer may have killed others, but all or almost all of the non-Canon murderers were the work of the Torso Killer or other individuals. I also think the Ripper persona was created by the press and had little if anything to do with the personality of the actual killer,

If records of all door-to-door interviews still exist, I would guess there was about a 1-in-4 or 1-in-5 chance of the killer having been interviewed, but with no indication of him being suspicious. If complete records of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee exist, I'd guess about a 1-in-10 chance that the killer joined to avoid suspicion, though not as one of the leaders.

Hey, if we all agreed there would be nothing to discuss. The Ripper, or the myth of a Ripper was born in letters to the Central Press. Its based on a killer who rips his victims open after killing them, in the streets. Anyone not having that characteristic are almost assuredly not victims of a Ripper crime. If you mean bodies were moved to facilitate further mutilations, then Id agree, but that's utilitarian, not someone "posing" a victim.

[Sam Flynn]

If records of all door-to-door interviews still exist, I would guess there was about a 1-in-4 or 1-in-5 chance of the killer having been interviewed

That seems pragmatic enough to me, Fiver, assuming just over a thousand men were interviewed in like manner throughout the Autumn of Terror. That wouldn't be unreasonable, given that 300 such interviews were conducted in October 1888. The likely truth, I guess, lies somewhere between my pessimistic 1-in-10 and your 1-in-4.

[Harry D]

Hey, if we all agreed there would be nothing to discuss. The Ripper, or the myth of a Ripper was born in letters to the Central Press.

No, it wasn't. He was just known as Leather Apron before that.

[Abby Normal]

No, it wasn't. He was just known as Leather Apron before that.

yup-or the whitechapel murderer.

I would guess that the hundreds (if not thousands-if we take into account every name of a man on record having anything to do with the case) of ripper suspects, persons of interest, witness etc. that his name would be there-as I mentioned 90% chance. I think its very small chance that it was someone completely unknown/unnamed and never mentioned in any way.

heck with my handful of first tier viable suspects-hutch, blotchy, Kelly, koz, bury, chapman-I think theres probably a 60% chance it may be one of these men.

[Abby Normal]

yup-or the whitechapel murderer.

I would guess that the hundreds (if not thousands-if we take into account every name of a man on record having anything to do with the case) of ripper suspects, persons of interest, witness etc. that his name would be there-as I mentioned 90% chance. I think its very small chance that it was someone completely unknown/unnamed and never mentioned in any way.

heck with my handful of first tier viable suspects-hutch, blotchy, Kelly, koz, bury, chapman-I think theres probably a 60% chance it may be one of these men.

add to that my second tier-Druitt, Lechmere, Barnett, flemming, Richardson, bowyer, tumblety, Legrand, levy, francis Thompson, donston, puckridge, piggot and it goes up to 75%. add everyone else in mentioned in relation to the case and we get to my 90% his name is out there.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I’m of the belief that there was a Ripper who killed between 4 and 6. Of the named suspects I favour Druitt then Kosminski. No other named suspect really comes close to convincing me. BUT....if I had to put money on it I’d probably hedge toward an as yet unnamed culprit.

So in short Harry, I don’t know. My natural pessimism leads me to think that we’ll probably never know.

Unless you know something that we don’t Harry?

[Darryl Kenyon]

What we must remember when we are considering how many people were interviewed or questioned is the fact that a lot of men who could have been the ripper would have verifiable alibis in the fact that most of the male population who did work, worked long hours thus diminishing their chance of being the killer [less free time]. Plus the constrains of how much free space they had IE so many per room [thus again checkable alibis] would also impact on the search for the killer. What I mean by this is the field could be narrowed up quickly. Also, apologies if I am wrong here but there were a lot more police per square mile than there are today. Not only that but a lot of them were local bobbies on the beat and who would use their local knowledge in trying to determine who was a legitimate suspect or not and were to look.
This is taken from online - According to Canter (2003) geographical profiling, within the context of a respected diagnostic approach, was developed in 1980 during the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry when the Police approached Stuart Kind (a leading forensic biologist) who adapted mapping techniques that he had learnt as a navigator in the Royal Air Force together with the locations, dates and times of the Ripper murders to produce a profile that suggested, quite correctly, that the offender (Peter Sutcliffe) lived somewhere between Shipley and Bingley.
One final point there were 268,000 names on the Yorkshire ripper suspect list at it's height. Would Sutcliffe's name have appeared on it regardless of the five pound mistake he made? Well he was questioned about being in the red light districts were some of the murders occurred, perhaps Jack was spotted hanging around Commercial St at night and questioned about his presence?
Regards Darryl

[c.d.]

Hello Darryl,

How in the world did they get 260,000 names on a suspect list? Did they just include everyone who lived within a certain radius of the crimes?

c.d.

[Darryl Kenyon]

Hello Darryl,

How in the world did they get 260,000 names on a suspect list? Did they just include everyone who lived within a certain radius of the crimes?

c.d.

Hi C.d, Since the ripper crimes spanned a number of years and was very high profile, people were ringing up wily nily I think they logged every name mentioned even the ones like " My neighbour has a dodgy walk" Didn't Anderson say something similar about all leads, even absurd ones being followed up. And when the infamous fake cassette tape with the Geordie accent was played across the nation that would have opened up thousands more names who people believed sounded similar.
Regards Darryl

[Michael W Richards]

No, it wasn't. He was just known as Leather Apron before that.

Chronologically, yeah. As a terrifying phantom menace is what I referred to Harry. Leather Apron was scary, Jack the Ripper was deadly.

[Harry D]

Chronologically, yeah. As a terrifying phantom menace is what I referred to Harry. Leather Apron was scary, Jack the Ripper was deadly.

"Jack the Ripper" was certainly a work of genius, whether it was coined by a killer or a hoaxer. Wouldn't be surprised if a name like that was already doing the rounds, rather than plucked out of thin air.

[Michael W Richards]

"Jack the Ripper" was certainly a work of genius, whether it was coined by a killer or a hoaxer. Wouldn't be surprised if a name like that was already doing the rounds, rather than plucked out of thin air.

It was a powerful choice, I think that's why we have a journalist to thank for it.

[Sam Flynn]

Hi C.d, Since the ripper crimes spanned a number of years and was very high profile, people were ringing up wily nily I think they logged every name mentioned even the ones like " My neighbour has a dodgy walk"...

Were there 200,000 suspects as such, or 200,000 index cards pointing to various bits of info, of which only a small subset were directly suspect-related? I can't remember offhand.

[Michael W Richards]

Would the vast amounts of letters be something that went into a Suspects file? Where else would they be filed, Unverified Correspondence? There were hundreds a week, from all over, do those numbers get incorporated into the greater number discussed?