Whom do you think?

[clark2710]

Who is the most popular suspect that most Ripperologists point to to say, ok THAT GUY, is there one? Does each Ripperologist have their own specific or is there at least some agreement here?
Also, who is the least favorite suspect? So far I don't hear many takers on the Jill the Ripper theory

[Astatine211]

I highly recommend Jack the Ripper Suspects: The Definitive Guide and Encyclopedia by Paul Williams. You can get it on Kindle for £3 and has just about every named suspect in existence with a total off 333 suspects all looked into. Having knowledge of every known suspect is very useful and that way you can make your own mind up about who you think it is.

I don't think there's any consensus on a single suspect and I'm sure if you were to ask all the members on here you would probably get around 40 different suspects.

The main issue is there are pros and cons for every named suspect.

When I first started being interested in Jack the Ripper a few years ago I was certain William Bury was the Ripper. Then I became certain Joseph Barnett was the Ripper. After that I switched to Thomas Cutbush followed by Charles Lechmere then James Kelly.

What I realised was that for every bit of evidence which might support one of them, there was equal evidence against. This is the case for most suspects. That being said I still consider all of them viable suspects except Joseph Barnett as it turned out most of the arguments for him were incorrect.

That being said, if you like Line of Duty, Charles Le Grand is essentially this case's version of Buckells. Even if he wasn't the Ripper by today's laws he would be charged with perverting the course of justice.

Currently I feel if Seweryn Klosowski (aka George Chapman) could have been the Ripper as you can tie the case in a nice tidy bow, however there is a lot of evidence against him being the ripper. One thing I do wonder is if SK knew Charles Ludwig - it would certainly be interesting if they did.

One thing I feel hurts a suspects credibility is if they refer to themselves as Jack the Ripper. It might sound crazy but there's actually very little evidence JtR ever called himself that. Saucy Jack and Dear Boss were most likely written by Tom Bulling and John Moore or Fred Best and Tom Bullen. As for the From Hell letter, I've always wondered if there was the chance Francis Tumblety wrote it, but wasn't JtR. The much more likely authors of the From Hell letter are Joseph Aarons and Charles Reeves or Charles Legrand. The evidence for Charles Legrand being the author will be analysed in Tom Westcott's third book.

What this shows is it is unlikely Jack ever wrote any letters, therefore he probably wouldn't have used the name Jack the Ripper.

Another thing which needs to be considered is for any suspect which died in 1888, it would then leave you with having to work out at least two copycat killers.

One of the main issues with suspects discussion is trying to work out who exactly are the victims so a while ago I decided to write up a handy guide of every single victim and my conclusions if they could be a victim or not.

Every Proposed Jack the Ripper or Thames Torso Murderer Victim:
Emma Jackson - ??/04/63 - Not Related
Harriet Buswell - 25/12/72 - Not Related
Battersea Mystery 1 - 05/09/73 - TTM
Battersea Mystery 2 - 11/06/74 - TTM
Tottenham Court Road Mystery - 24/10/84 - TTM
Bedford Square Mystery - 29/10/84 - TTM
Catherine Mellows - ??/06/86 - Not Related
Le mystere de Montrouge - ??/11/86 - Not Related
Rainham Mystery 1 - 11/05/87 - TTM
Rainham Mystery 2 - 16/07/87 - TTM - OLT
Emily Horsnail - 19/11/87 - JTR
"Fairy Fay" - 26/12/87 - Made-Up
Annie Millwood - 25/02/88 - JTR
Ada Wilson - 28/03/88 - Survived - JTR
Malvina Haynes - 02/04/88 - Survived - Not Related
Emma Elizabeth Smith - 03/04/88 - JTR - WM
Georgina Green - 05/05/88 - Survived - Not Related
Martha Tabram - 07/08/88 - JTR - WM
Mary Ann Nichols - 31/08/88 - JTR - C5 - WM
Annie Chapman - 08/09/88 - JTR - C5 - WM
Elizabeth Stride - 30/09/88 - JTR - C5 - WM
Catherine Eddowes - 30/09/88 - JTR - C5 - WM
Whitehall Mystery - 03/10/88 - TTM
Mary Jane Kelly - 09/11/88 - JTR - C5 - WM
Annie Farmer - 20/11/88 - Survived - Not Related
Rose Mylett - 20/12/88 - Not Related - WM
John Gill - 29/12/88 - Not Related
Elizabeth Jackson - 31/05/89 - TTM
Alice Mackenzie - 17/07/89 - JTR - WM
Pinchin St. Torso - 10/09/89 - TTM - WM
Frances Coles - 13/02/91 - JTR - WM
Carrie Brown - 24/04/91 - JTR
Catherine Woolfe - 07/08/91 - Unknown - Not Related
Emily Edith Smith - 05/11/92 - Survived - Not Related
Mary Ann Austin - 27/03/1901 - JTR
Lambeth Mystery - 14/06/1902 - Not Related
Emily Dimmock - 11/09/1907 - Not Related
Kitty Ronan - 02/07/1909 - Not Related

There are many debates over which victims are true ones but most people agree on the C5. Having the victims expand or shrink depending on the suspect.

But there are two suspects which in my opinion are completely ridiculous: Vincent Van Gogh and Lewis Carroll. There's a great chance of the world being flat than either of them two being the Ripper.

[Astatine211]

EJ, HB, CM, KR, ED are all outside the appropriate timeframe and would prevent Jack from being the correct age from almost all the eyewitness descriptions.

MH and GG involved a completely different MO of attack, however there is a slight possibility if Jack was escalating then they could be victims.

MAA could easily be not related but due to the location of the murder I wouldn't rule out the possibility of an aging JtR, especially if Ripper was Lechmere.

I did a lot of research into the Emily Edith Smith attack and discovered that the attacker was a JtR copycat called Albert Edward Hawthorne who attack a woman in Whitechapel in December 1891 but claimed to have started his spree a few weeks earlier.

Catherine Woolfe was either attempted suicide or her son, John.

Research done by jerryd shows that John Gill is most likely a victim of Walter Lewis Turner. Other suspects include William Barrett or John Conway.

I would like to write much more about the suspects since I'm only on the victims part but it's currently 5am so I'm gonna stop. Some last things about Klosowski is how he acted when caught is how I would imagine JtR to and I wonder if Abberline had more information especially due to the letter he sent Macnaghten.

[mpriestnall]

Most favourite suspect: Mr Unknown.

Least favourite joke suspect: Mr L aka Mr C.

HTH.

[Fanatic]

Favoured suspect: Maybrick

Least favoured: Gull

[FISHY1118]

Favoured suspect: Maybrick

Least favoured: Gull

One Incontrovertible, Unequivocal, Undeniable Fact Which Refutes the Diary

08-30-2008, 06:31 PM

Advice, start at post one when you get to the end let me know about maybrick as the ripper.

[Fleetwood Mac]

Who is the most popular suspect that most Ripperologists point to to say, ok THAT GUY, is there one? Does each Ripperologist have their own specific or is there at least some agreement here?
Also, who is the least favorite suspect? So far I don't hear many takers on the Jill the Ripper theory

I don't think anyone could state with a straight face: "this man is likely to have been Jack The Ripper". What can be discussed, however, is how one suspect compares with another in terms of credentials comparative to other suspects.

So, while I don't think there are any suspects that you could make an evidentially based case for being Jack The Ripper, some clearly have more going for them than others.

Bury is better than most.

The 'Polish Jew' is better than most, although I'm far from convinced that the 'Polish Jew' they had in mind was Kosminski.

In terms of characters without names, Blotchy is better than most as is PC Smith's respectably dressed man with the moustache.

The one whom I would most like to know more about is Thomas Cutbush. As it stands, there is simply nowhere near enough evidential basis to claim he's a good bet. But, I'd love to know whether or not he was actually obsessed with anatomy.