Rating The Suspects.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Fiver, thanks for laying that out — but your scoring rests on assumptions that simply don’t fit the record.

(A) Age/physical health. Thompson was 29 in 1888, the prime age range for serial offenders. Yes, he was a laudanum addict, but contemporaries remarked that despite frailty he could walk the streets for hours. The Ripper did not need to overpower healthy men — only inebriated women. A “1” here is too harsh.

(C) Violence. “No known violence” isn’t accurate. Thompson’s prose (not just poetry) described prostitutes as “putrid ulcerations” who deserved to be “struck down.” In Nightmare of the Witch-Babies he graphically mutilates female figures. This is violence expressed in words, confirmed by his own biographers, and should count.

(D) Mental health. More than “other.” He had asylum stays, suicide attempts, hallucinations — major red flags for instability.

(E) Police interest. You write “none known,” but Major Henry Smith (City Police Commissioner) described a suspect in his 1910 memoir: a medical student, asylum inmate, tied to prostitutes, coin fraud, and Rupert Street. That combination is uniquely Thompson. Smith’s suspect is police interest.

(F) Hatred of prostitutes. This isn’t just “link.” Thompson’s writings are saturated with disgust for prostitutes, couched in medical imagery. It’s far stronger than casual dislike.

(G) Medical knowledge. Six years of formal anatomy, pathology under Dreschfeld, and possession of his own scalpel. That’s beyond a “1.”

If we reapply the system using actual biographical data, Thompson rises above the usual “maybes.” The weight of documented traits justifies the 14 I assigned. Scoring him low only works by stripping out his violence (in text), his police link (Smith’s profile), and his hatred (prose, not metaphor).

In other words: if Herlock’s system is meant to capture risk factors, then Thompson fits them more than anyone. To pretend otherwise is to handicap the data.

You are not using the system honestly. It’s the kind of thing that you would expect from say, someone that used this ‘lower than whales**t’ piece of propaganda:

“The sooner this spreads, the greater the good it does — for truth, for justice, for history, for the memory of the five women, and for our collective cultural health.
Those who share and support this now will be seen as the vanguard of that change. Their names will be remembered — not as people who doubted or delayed, but who helped truth win.
Please — take this moment. Share. Speak. Help carry this breakthrough forward.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty — and the world needs more of both.“

To be honest - one of the most despicable passages that I’ve ever read on the subject.

[Fiver]

(A) Age/physical health. Thompson was 29 in 1888, the prime age range for serial offenders. Yes, he was a laudanum addict, but contemporaries remarked that despite frailty he could walk the streets for hours. The Ripper did not need to overpower healthy men — only inebriated women. A “1” here is too harsh.

Yet you call him frail.

(C) Violence. “No known violence” isn’t accurate. Thompson’s prose (not just poetry) described prostitutes as “putrid ulcerations” who deserved to be “struck down.” In Nightmare of the Witch-Babies he graphically mutilates female figures. This is violence expressed in words, confirmed by his own biographers, and should count.

Herlock's scale is about actual violence committed. “No known violence” is the correct rating for Thompson, since we have no evidence that he ever harmed another person.

(D) Mental health. More than “other.” He had asylum stays, suicide attempts, hallucinations — major red flags for instability.

Here's the actual scale.
(D) Mental health issues > 2 = serious/violent/sexual/1 = other/0 = none known.

None of Thompson's problems reach level 2.

(E) Police interest. You write “none known,” but Major Henry Smith (City Police Commissioner) described a suspect in his 1910 memoir: a medical student, asylum inmate, tied to prostitutes, coin fraud, and Rupert Street. That combination is uniquely Thompson. Smith’s suspect is police interest.

"He proved an alibi without the shadow of doubt." - Henry Smith

If Smith's suspect is Thompson, then Thompson is innocent. Smith never names his subject, so the correct answer is “none known”.

(F) Hatred of prostitutes. This isn’t just “link.” Thompson’s writings are saturated with disgust for prostitutes, couched in medical imagery. It’s far stronger than casual dislike.

Your interpretation of Thompson's writing is not a fact. You also ignore that he had an extremely positive relation with a prostitute who he believed saved his life.

(G) Medical knowledge. Six years of formal anatomy, pathology under Dreschfeld, and possession of his own scalpel. That’s beyond a “1.”

(G) Medical/anatomical knowledge (inc. animals) > 1 = yes/0 = none known

The scale does not go to 2 on this point.