Originally posted by Fiver
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While I am not arguing McKenzie is a victim of JtR, just to consider possible lines of thought to the above differences, with regards to the time gap it seems that if she's not, the timegap post Kelly becomes even larger (as in JtR has stopped killing altogether). While that is often used as a pointer to JtR being out of circulation (dead, incarcerated for another crime, left the area, etc), it is only that, a pointer not proof. So if he was none of those things, then perhaps the cessation of the murders until July of the next year was simply because for much of that time it was winter, and the weather, being cold, etc, made his outdoor mode of killing less viable somehow. Either victims harder to find or it was just too unpleasant for him to be outside prowling the streets at night. Basically, something mundane as the season conditions could potentially influence his behaviour in such a way that he's no longer putting in the time looking for victims.
For the second, there was a lot of activity in the area, with police patrolling around Castle Alley very frequently. While nobody was seen leaving the area as if scared off, whoever killed Alice had a pretty small time window of opportunity given the patrols. Interruption need not be someone comes upon him and he flees, of course, it may simply be he hears something that spooks him (such as the footsteps of a patrolling PC echoing nearby), or even the conditions just make him too jittery - somethings not right about the situation.
That last one connects to the lighting. As you say, JtR favoured darker areas, so the lamp itself might have been what spooked him. He starts cutting and just realises he is too visible in this location.
There are some similarities to consider as well.
She had 2 wounds to the left side of her neck (point of difference, these were stabs "carried forward towards the right", and while this severed the left cartoid artery it was not the throat cutting to the point of near decapitations of many of the C5).
She was found on her back.
It appeared her throat was cut while she was on the ground (as per the C5)
Her clothes were lifted up above the body, displaying her, as many of the C5 were displayed.
She had bruising on her shoulders (which I think Stride also showed).
While the cuts to her abdomen were not as extensive or as deep, her abdomen and privates were attacked.
And victim characteristics and location are both similar.
The reduced throat cutting wounds, combined with the less extensive abdominal wounds, could reflect the knife was different and less suitable to his purposes, but that doesn't mean it was necessarily held by a different person.
Dr. Phillips' opinion was the medical evidence did not suggest a common killer with the C5, but he did qualify that by saying that if other evidence were to point to that conclusion he would not, in effect, not object. Dr. Bond thought the medical evidence was consistent with the C5 sufficiently to suggest it was the same person.
If McKenzie is a victim of a copycat, then obviously it just means JtR was for some reason no longer active, and so with regards to JtR, we have to explain why that was the case.
But, if she is a victim of JtR, then why the time gap and why the reduction in the injuries? I've suggested a couple ideas above, but another occurs to me. If JtR was psychotic (rather than psychopathic), and so has bizarre thinking and thoughts, psychotic episodes do wax and wane. The time gap may reflect JtR's psychotic thinking and compulsions reducing over a period of time, and re-emerging in July of 1889. Psychotic individuals can be glib and chatty, and it can take awhile to really notice the bizarreness of their thought processes, so being psychotic is not the presumed problem with respect to interacting with the woman for long enough to convince them he's "safe" - they aren't gibbering lunatics, those with such sever symptoms would be in an asylum at that time after all. However, I think part of me would be more inclined to suggest he's just got a different knife at this time, and he found it wasn't up to the task he had in mind, resulting in less extensive wounds and in him leaving the scene (that becoming the "interruption", it just wasn't working for him).
Anyway, I just want to repeat, I'm not convinced by those arguments either, but they are the sort of things that make me hesitant to dismiss her case entirely.
Hmmmm, we're getting a bit off-topic though.
- Jeff
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