Jack the Ripper's possible secret

[Michael W Richards]

I believe that if anyone sees a symbol represented by the location of the murder sites they should consider that this Jack fellow was an opportunist, and its really not feasible for him to control the location of a murder and thereby ordered construction of a symbol unless he led the victims to the spot. Thats the opposite of the conventions concerning his acquisition of victims.

As for the Jewish angle, there is only one night that there is a Jewish theme running throughout the murder evidence,....Double Event Night. Since on that night a woman was killed on private property owned by Jews, and since virtually every witness from the club at Berner, and the witnesses who believe they saw Kate before she entered the square, were all Jewish, it would appear that the "Jewish element" is only present on that night.

Cheers

[RivkahChaya]

You've gotta wonder why a Jew would even try to construct a Star of David out of the locations in the first place. There's nothing mystical about the Star. It was mainly used decoratively by Jews who were not permitted to used images of real things, because of the proscription against graven images, and then became an occasional label for synagogues or prayerbooks after segregation in 1555, but because Jews have always had better literacy than gentiles, so most Jews could at least read labels on things, Jews have not used mercantile type icons. The Star of David sort of became this kind of icon for synagogues in the 18th century, though, when Jews were re-integrated in some countries in Europe, and was used on Jewish tombstones in public cemeteries, when Jews were allowed to be buried in them.

I don't know how long Christians have worn crosses as jewelry, but wearing Stars of David is very new. Zionists did it, and American Jews after WWII did to "reclaim" the symbol from its abuse by the Nazis. Some Jewish groups actively reject it, though. Haredi Jews do, because they reject any symbol-wearing as to close to magic thinking, and they also reject Zionism (ie, a secular Jewish state on the land of Yisrael).

But, if JTR was a Jew who was born in e. Europe, then lived in Victorian London, I don't think the Star of David would be especially meaningful for his, not as a sign of his religion, nor as something to desecrate. If he wanted to desecrate Judaism with the bodies of dead hookers, I think he'd spell out the four letter name of the deity in Hebrew, or something, or write it on the women in blood, or leave the bodies on the front steps of synagogues. Killing gentile prostitutes as a religious act, for a Jew, makes no sense whatsoever. That doesn't mean JTR was not Jewish; it just doesn't mean he did what he did because he was Jewish, and would therefore incorporate some Jewish symbol, because the murders were somehow an offering-- something that makes no sense whatsoever: it has no precedent, and no prescription.

[Errata]

As a Jew, I would make the crime scenes form the constellation Capricorn. That would screw with them.

[RivkahChaya]

As a Jew, I would make the crime scenes form the constellation Capricorn. That would screw with them.

No! that's my birth sign! they'd blame me!

Personally, I think I'd go for a Hello, Kitty face. They'd be forced to conclude the killer was either a 12-year-old girl, or someone with a highly developed sense of irony. Or Lewis Carroll.

[ChrisGeorge]

I believe that if anyone sees a symbol represented by the location of the murder sites they should consider that this Jack fellow was an opportunist, and its really not feasible for him to control the location of a murder and thereby ordered construction of a symbol unless he led the victims to the spot. Thats the opposite of the conventions concerning his acquisition of victims.

As for the Jewish angle, there is only one night that there is a Jewish theme running throughout the murder evidence,....Double Event Night. Since on that night a woman was killed on private property owned by Jews, and since virtually every witness from the club at Berner, and the witnesses who believe they saw Kate before she entered the square, were all Jewish, it would appear that the "Jewish element" is only present on that night.

Cheers

Hi Michael et al.

Michael, I agree with the points you make.

Also as for these theories that the murder locations make a pattern on a map, if you are walking around a neighborhood, say the East End, looking for a victim and a convenient, presumably secluded place to despatch that victim, you are not thinking about making a pattern on a map. No, rather that is the type of thing a theorist after the event would think about, not necessarily the murderer. One of the problems with studying the Whitechapel murders is that theorists tend to "overthink" the crimes and come up with ideas that don't really fit the crimes or the murderer.

Best regards

Chris

[Errata]

It's actually not that hard to move in a distinct pattern in a city. They are after all laid out on grids of various shapes. Murder someone near each of the five major circles in DC, and you have created a pentagram. In Nashville neighborhoods tend to be long east/west, but short north/south. So murders like the Rippers in Nashville would look like a string. A straight line probably heading west. On the island of St. Thomas those murders would form a crescent along the north shore. In New Orleans there would be clusters, since the red light district twines around the tourist district. Because of the geography of Whitechapel, Jack is limited in where he can hunt. Industrial areas or warehouse blocks tend not to have women around, and there are night watchmen. His best options are off one of the major streets, but not near open businesses, not near churches where people are potentially up and about (never mind a prostitutes reluctance to perform on the wall of a church), he needs a certain amount of space to work, and he needs privacy close to an escape route. Even if he chose the locations of the murders, which I don't think he did, it still wouldn't look that different. Streets are laid out on grids whenever possible. So businesses are built on those grids. Businesses tend to cluster in highly populated areas, therefore the largest victim pool is along one of two street in a several block radius. If you had a map of the area and blacked all of the places he couldn't work, you would see that his options were not wide open. Geography dictates any perceived pattern. But if you picked any five women beaten and robbed in the area, it would be the same pattern. Privacy was at a premium.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Errata

Certainly you are correct that most U.S. cities are laid out in a grid pattern but the East End was not. It's still the medieval type pattern of virtually no definite pattern, which is what made the warren or labyrinth that aided the killer in disappearing after each crime.

Best regards

Chris

[TomTomKent]

Hi Errata

Certainly you are correct that most U.S. cities are laid out in a grid pattern but the East End was not. It's still the medieval type pattern of virtually no definite pattern, which is what made the warren or labyrinth that aided the killer in disappearing after each crime.

Best regards

Chris

In all probability the street plan is mostly Roman. Even with the likes of the great fire wiping out large chinks of the city the easiest way of ensuring everybody was fairly compensated for what they lost in rebuilding exercises was to build on exactly the same plots of land where previous buildings had stood.

This is certainly the trend in British cities as far as I am aware. In Canterbury for example there are a few places (a museuam and a book shop spring to mind) where you can pop down to celler level and see the remains of the Roman buildings on the same address as the modern buildings, only post war builds seem to buck the trend.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Tom

Yes but remember that the East End is outside the medieval walls of the city, which means that it was outside the Roman defenses of Londinium as well.

Best regards

Chris

[Phil H]

In all probability the street plan is mostly Roman.

I don't think so, in the case of the East End which was OUTSIDE the Roman city walls. Some of the arterial roads might be rougly on the site of older highways, but I think you can follow the development of Whitechapel/Spitalfields from maps going back quite a way (to C16th or C17th) to green fields and open space. Somewhere on this site (I know) are plans showing how the Bucks Row/Durward St area developed.

Even with the likes of the great fire wiping out large chinks of the city the easiest way of ensuring everybody was fairly compensated for what they lost in rebuilding exercises was to build on exactly the same plots of land where previous buildings had stood.

That applied to the City of London, but the 1666 fire did not spread far, if at all, to the east.

This is certainly the trend in British cities as far as I am aware. In Canterbury for example there are a few places (a museuam and a book shop spring to mind) where you can pop down to celler level and see the remains of the Roman buildings on the same address as the modern buildings, only post war builds seem to buck the trend.

Like my home town, Lincoln, Canterbury is built OVER the Roman remains (also medieval and later). My family home was 8 feet above the roman street level, and you could go into a cellar between our house and the next one, and see the Roman street, pillars of the Forum colonnade, etc. But that onlyy applies where one level is imposed on another, of course.

Even in the Square Mile of the City of London, although Roman remains are located below ground, the street plan does not reflect the fairly strict grid plan of the Roman city (as partially retrieved by excavation). The medieval Guildhall (medieval) appears to overlay part of the Roman amphitheatre and may have been put there because there was still a large open space for gatherings. But the street plan of the City is largely medieval or later, although the Roman walls, rebuilt and repaired many times, continued to restrict expansion for a long time.

Hope that helps,

Phil

[RivkahChaya]

A few US cities aren't built on grids, it's worth noting: the ones in New England were built with an eye to being laid-out, inasmuch as many of them were settled quickly, and there was some planning, but they were built in very hilly areas without any kind of machinery-- and the streets were very narrow, so that with the advent of cars, many of them became one-way, and occasionally, some streets, before that, had been dedicated streetcar roads, and they tried to have alternating one-way streets, but it doesn't always work out well.

The Old National Road in the US still exists-- it's US state Rd. 40 in Pennsylvania, most of its length, and if you, Phil H., are ever in the US again, you should drive it. Many of the inns and other stops along it are now open as museums. The very earliest part of it was used by revolutionary troops, and connected to Ft. Necessity somehow, although that part isn't there. After the war, Pres. Jefferson reinforced the Potomac to Pennsylvania connection, and then took it up through the Allegheny Mountains-- the first barrier to further travel west, through the "Cumberland Gap" so that stretch of the road was The Cumberland Road. It went through Wheeling, VA, now West Va., which it reached in 1811, something that was pretty impressive for such a new country. Initially, it was just supposed to stop at the Ohio River, and that's where the restored portion stops now, IIRC-- at Wheeling, I get onto I-70, if I've been visiting my mother. But the Old National Road eventually went on to the Illinois/Missouri border. In 1820, it went on to St. Louis, MO, and at that point, power to tax and maintain was passed to the individual states. The 1840s Gold Rush, and the need to transport cattle from Texas to New England set people to thinking about a coast-to-coast railroad, and the "National Road" didn't see much more building until State road system came along, but then the famous Route 66 picked up where the National Road left off.

By the way, you can still see the deep rut through Texas, where the Chisholm Trail used to be.

[american ace]

the shapes

another thing i noticed is that rippers cross forms other shaps that relate to witness reports at the time. they were a boot, a cross, a folded note, a hourglass, etc. like i was saying a boot symbolizes the bloody boots found in a lodge, the folded note symbolizes his letters to the police, the hourglass symbolizes the time of the murders, and the cross relates to his religion possibly.

[TomTomKent]

They also form a little dog, an iron, a tophat and a race car.

The killer was obsessed with monopoly.

[Errata]

They also form a little dog, an iron, a tophat and a race car.

The killer was obsessed with monopoly.

I think the iron got replaced by something dumb looking.

[DRoy]

They also form a little dog, an iron, a tophat and a race car.

The killer was obsessed with monopoly.

That is the funniest post I've read on this site!

DRoy