Earlier Crimes?

[clark2710]

You don't just wake up and say, ya know i think i'll kill prostitutes starting tonight. My question here relates to modern investigative thought in that serial killers, 1. can't help themselves and won't stop unless somehow forced to, and 2. typically they escalate and signs of their behavior can be seen early on in their life. We don't know who JtR was but were there crimes that we can look at before the canonical 5 or such that may point to minor or major similarities? Does anything stand out?

[Mark J D]

You don't just wake up and say, ya know i think i'll kill prostitutes starting tonight. [...]

If Lechmere is the Ripper, we see the crimes begin within a couple of months of him moving to Doveton Street and getting an early-morning walk to work that takes him through the Spitalfields killing zone. If Lechmere is also the Torso Killer, then the total list of crimes extends from at least as early as 1873 (his early 20s) to at least as late as 1889 -- which dates pretty much fit the period of his mother's third marriage. From this perspective, the murders of the C5/6 appear as merely a brief adventure within a larger endeavour -- an adventure from which the killer chose to back away.

M.

[drstrange169]

Why would he start killing because his mother got married for the third time and stop when the husband died?

Is this another one of the Lechmere leaps of faith?

[clark2710]

If Lechmere is the Ripper, we see the crimes begin within a couple of months of him moving to Doveton Street and getting an early-morning walk to work that takes him through the Spitalfields killing zone. If Lechmere is also the Torso Killer, then the total list of crimes extends from at least as early as 1873 (his early 20s) to at least as late as 1889 -- which dates pretty much fit the period of his mother's third marriage. From this perspective, the murders of the C5/6 appear as merely a brief adventure within a larger endeavour -- an adventure from which the killer chose to back away.

M.

Do the other suspects have a beginning like this? I know that many, besides being a Ripper suspect, had criminal careers on their own. But you mainly see them escalating from lesser crimes to larger. I'd be interested to see if any of the suspects show signs of escalation.