Favourite 'wildcard' suspect?

[Harry D]

Have a series if you like....just try and be honest and rational when defending it. Determining motive likely solves the vast majority of crimes, assuming there is none but madness just because we don't know what the truth is, is for me, a sort of madness itself.

Hello, Michael.

At the risk of turning this into another 'multi-killer' discussion, you would have to explain why there were a series of unprecedented murders in the space of three months, all similar in execution, methodology and victimology, which stopped as suddenly as they started and fizzled out into sporadic murders thereafter. We can debate the nuances between each murder, notwithstanding the fact that it would be remarkable for all the murders to be exactly alike even if this was the work of one man, but the commonalities are more numerous than the differences. This leaves us with the parsimonious explanation that it was the work of a serial killer.

[Michael W Richards]

I suppose everyone has their own interpretation of what is meant by 'wildcard'. For example, I obviously wouldn't consider Druitt, Kosminski, Chapman, or Tumblety as wildcards, as they were identified as police suspects at the time. Nor would I appeal to the faaaar out of left field suspects like Lewis Carroll & Van Gogh, which is frankly crazy talk.

No, what I'm talking about is the minor characters of the Ripper tapestry, witnesses or persons of interest (and yes, I include Crossmere in that!) who we can definitely tie to Whitechapel and might have reason to examine more closely. I have a feeling that's where we'll find our man, buried in some archive, if we had the wherewithal to do so, of course.

I suppose any answer depends on the individuals take on these murders, serial or non.... with that in mind Ill suggest Isenschmidt for Annie and most likely Polly, a security guard hired for the night at Berner Street, someone Kate intended to blackmail in Mitre Square, and whomever the "Joe" was that Mary was seeing while also seeing and living with Joe Barnett...my inclination is to someone we don't know much about, like Issacs, rather than Fleming.

What of course will cause outrage is that I see a few killers rather than one, but that's only because murders with tangible motives in general far outnumber the serial style killings with internal motives. I tend to save the Unicorn speculations for more obviously psychologically driven events. In the case of 3 Canonicals we have recent separations, a love triangle and relationships which do not bear the signs of the closeness indicated by the surviving partner. And in one case we have the obvious lack of ANY circumstantial or physical evidence that would indicate a serial mutilator was involved.

Have a series if you like....just try and be honest and rational when defending it. Determining motive likely solves the vast majority of crimes, assuming there is none but madness just because we don't know what the truth is, is for me, a sort of madness itself.

[pinkmoon]

Jonathan Martindale-Smith.

[John Wheat]

Wentworth Bellsmith

[Scott Nelson]

Henry DeFries, gasfitter, who lived on Middlesex Lane. I keep hoping some one will look into this guy.

[AlanG]

But is he a "Wildcard"?

I don't count him as one since he's in the Suspects list in casebook.

But he's another one that would rocket up the charts if he could be placed in England at the time.

lol okay how about 'John Higgleman'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9SdiMjfJLs

[jerryd]

How 'bout Oswald Puckridge. Even though he was, for a short time, considered a suspect by Charles Warren, I think he can be considered a wildcard.

Released from Hoxton House Asylum on August 4th, 1888 and thought to have medical training. Further research has his profession as a chemist, though. He had 'threatened to rip people up with a long knife' and was in and out of asylums until his death in 1900.

[GUT]

James Kelly



I think so.

I don't count him as one since he's in the Suspects list in casebook.

But he's another one that would rocket up the charts if he could be placed in England at the time.

[GUT]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Well that seems to be the motto of many Ripper writers anyway

[AlanG]

James Kelly

But is he a "Wildcard"?

I think so.

[Harry D]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

[Steadmund Brand]

How can some one write a book and claim case closed if they can't even place their subject in the UK at the time of the murders and expect us to take it seriously.

I know...it's like the H.H Holmes "theory" being floated around....all evidence points to Holmes (Mudgett) being in and around the Toronto Ontario Canada and Buffalo New York USA area at the times of the crimes.. oh well

Steadmund Brand

[pinkmoon]

The problem is we can't say with any certainty where he was at the time, many say he was in South Africa, others say he was in London, unfortunately it seems, at this stage, very much open to debate.

How can some one write a book and claim case closed if they can't even place their subject in the UK at the time of the murders and expect us to take it seriously.

[GUT]

It's always a very good start to make sure a suspect is in the country at the time of the murders even better if he was in London I know when sickret was proposed the argument about if he was in the country at the time was never resolved but the book went ahead and of course we were told case closed.

The problem is we can't say with any certainty where he was at the time, many say he was in South Africa, others say he was in London, unfortunately it seems, at this stage, very much open to debate.

[pinkmoon]

If he could be shown to be n London at the time Deeming makes a good subject.

But he is an interesting subject in his own right.

It's always a very good start to make sure a suspect is in the country at the time of the murders even better if he was in London I know when sickret was proposed the argument about if he was in the country at the time was never resolved but the book went ahead and of course we were told case closed.