Rating The Suspects.

[FISHY1118]

Gull = 5

Sickert = 4

Druitt = 4


My comments based on the table provided.

[GBinOz]

Hi Herlock,

With regard to category three, one of the characteristics of the ripper murders was the throat cut, and another was that his victims were not family members. As far as we know, Bury, Deeming and Kosminski were killing, or allegedly threatening, family members, and Bury did not cut his wife's throat. Deeming was a multiple murderer and employed throat cuts, so shouldn't he rate higher than Bury in that category? Should there be a rating of 5 in category three for history of throat cutting of non family members?

With regard to category four, Bury claimed to police that his wife hanged herself and that he had then mutilated her body and stuffed her body in a box, that he previously had custom built, because he was afraid he would be accused of being the ripper. Wouldn't this rate a higher mental illness than a zero?

Cheers, George

[Fiver]

Gull > 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 2 = 4



Happy to here comments/suggestions of course.

I'd give Gull a 0 on age/physicality. He was in his 70s and a recovering stroke victim.

I'll also pitch a -1 on Hatred of Women. It's not just that Dr Gull had no known hatred of women, Gull actively promoted women being trained as doctors.

I'd also like to mention the less unlikely Lechmre, George Capel Scudamore Lechmere.

1. Age/physicality - 2 Aged 38.

2. Location - 2

3. Violent - 3 Tried, but failed to murder his wife by slitting her throat.

4. Mental health issues - 1 At his trial, claimed to have no memory of his actions and that "sometimes he was not responsible for his actions".

5. Police interest - 0

6. Hatred/dislike of prostitutes/women - 1 No evidence that he consorted with prostitutes, but his wife testified "the prisoner had before said he would settle me—I have gone in fear of my life for a very long time."

7. Medical/anatomical knowledge - 0 He was a barber.

GCS Lechmere > 2 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 0 - 1 - 0 = 9

[Herlock Sholmes]

Kelly > 2 - 2 - 4 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 0 = 13

Bury > 2 - 2 - 4 - 0 - 2 - 1 - 0 = 11

Cutbush > 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 0 - 1 - 0 = 10

Hyams > 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 9

Kosminski 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 0 - 0 = 8

Chapman > 2 - 2 - 1 - 0 - 1 - 0 - 1 = 7

Grainger > 2 - 1 - 3 - 0 - 1 - 1 - 0 = 8

Tumblety > 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 2 - 2 - 1 = 7

Thompson > 2 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 - 1 = 6

Barnado > 2 - 2 - 0 - 1 - 0 - 1 - 0 = 6

Cohen > 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 6

Levy > 2 - 2 - 0 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 1 = 6

Druitt > 2 - 1 - 0 -1 - 1 = 5

Barnett > 2 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 - 0 = 5

Stephen > 2 - 1 - 0 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 5

Stephenson > 2 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 = 4

Bachert > 2 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 4

Cross > 2 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 4

Hardiman > 2 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 4

Hutchinson > 2 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 4

Mann > 2 - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 4

Gull > 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1 = 3

Maybrick > 2 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 3

Sickert > 2 - 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 3



If it could be shown that it was reasonably possible that they were in England…


Deeming 2 - 1 - 4 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 7

Feigenbaum 2 - 1 - 4 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 = 7

[Herlock Sholmes]

I have several unrelated points. First, I note that it's possible to get 4 points for violence, but at most 2 points for each of the other categories, so generally if a suspect does get 4 points for violence, he'll rank pretty high.

For medical/anatomical knowledge, I could be wrong, but my sense is that researchers either believe that the Ripper would have needed no anatomical knowledge, or that the knowledge of a butcher or slaughterman would have been enough. If that's true, then maybe a surgeon shouldn't get any more points than a butcher.

The police looked for Kelly after a murder, I think the MJK murder, so there seems to have been at least some limited police interest in him at the time.

Hyams received 3 points for mental health issues, but the scoring system only allows 2 points for that.

Those of us who think that Cohen is a fairly good suspect generally believe that he may have been the Anderson/Swanson suspect, so maybe he should get a point or at least half a point for police interest later.

Deeming would score fairly high under this system. He would get 2 points for age/physicality and 4 for violent. Recent research has indicated that the belief that he was either in South Africa or in jail at the time of the murders cannot be supported. I'm not clear on whether it is known for certain now that he was in England and free at the time or that that is merely most likely the case, but he should get at least 1 point for location, and maybe 2. He claimed to have consorted with prostitutes, and it seems probable that he had mental health issues.

I believe that Grainger would be a 2-1-3-0-1-?-0.

Hi Lewis,

The problem that I had wasn’t just in deciding which points were more important than others but, in the case of violence, I felt that I couldn’t avoid the need for the 4 criteria. I felt that I needed to be able to differentiate between, for example, a brawler and someone that used a knife on a woman and someone that actually killed a woman.

Thanks for pointing out that the police looked for Kelly after MJK’s murder, I missed that so I’ll amend.

On the surgeon v butcher I understand your point and agree I’ll give the same for both categories.

I’ve changed the Hyams point, thanks for spotting it.

I’ve added Grainger.


I’ve put Deeming and Feigenbaum in a separate category.