What would it take?

[packers stem]

What incontrovertible piece of evidence would it take for everyone to say... Ah well,reckon that's it

[GUT]

What incontrovertible piece of evidence would it take for everyone to say... Ah well,reckon that's it

I'd have to see it to know.

[Pcdunn]

Interesting question, Packers.

Photographs can be faked.
Journals can be hoaxed.
Physical evidence is unlikely to still exist after all these years.
Likewise, DNA, even if an article was found that could be linked definitively as belonging to a victim or a suspect.

Letters were hoaxed in the hundreds, if not the thousands. I think it would be interesting to look up accounts of American "Ripper letters" and see how many were there, and how long after the Whitechapel murders did they still come.

I believe somewhere there is an account of a letter sent from (or to) one of the victims' neighbors (possibly discussed here on Casebook as "What are the odds of this?") in which predictions were made for a murder happening in another town... ?

[Shaggyrand]

A small hole in time & space that gives a nice front row seat to at least three of the C5. Even then, assuming that its the same killer seen, there will be debate over more victims and if he actually killed the remaining two.
I think that's about it.

[Mayerling]

Interesting question, Packers.

Photographs can be faked.
Journals can be hoaxed.
Physical evidence is unlikely to still exist after all these years.
Likewise, DNA, even if an article was found that could be linked definitively as belonging to a victim or a suspect.

Letters were hoaxed in the hundreds, if not the thousands. I think it would be interesting to look up accounts of American "Ripper letters" and see how many were there, and how long after the Whitechapel murders did they still come.

I believe somewhere there is an account of a letter sent from (or to) one of the victims' neighbors (possibly discussed here on Casebook as "What are the odds of this?") in which predictions were made for a murder happening in another town... ?

The thing about the letters is that what most of us read are newspaper versions, and not the originals. The only thing interesting of any letters would be to trace them back - not only on the off chance they'd be from the Ripper him/herself, but just to see what people would send the bogus ones (psychotics, attention seekers, practical jokers, possibly people hoping to cause harm to third parties ("I saw what that Mr. So-and-so did with the bloodstained clothes....")). Hardly likely to be traceable at this point.

Jeff

[packers stem]

Bet we've all thought about that lol
You'd probably be arrested before you could make it back to your time machine, you'd hang and there's be no mystery

[packers stem]

The thing about the letters is that what most of us read are newspaper versions, and not the originals. The only thing interesting of any letters would be to trace them back - not only on the off chance they'd be from the Ripper him/herself, but just to see what people would send the bogus ones (psychotics, attention seekers, practical jokers, possibly people hoping to cause harm to third parties ("I saw what that Mr. So-and-so did with the bloodstained clothes....")). Hardly likely to be traceable at this point.

Jeff

I can't help thinking the only letters ever worth looking at would be ones not signed jack the ripper and ones addressed to obscure people

[RockySullivan]

An unexplainable coincidence along with the knowledge/ability to remove organs

[Harry D]

None. Too much time has passed.

[Shaggyrand]

Bet we've all thought about that lol
You'd probably be arrested before you could make it back to your time machine, you'd hang and there's be no mystery

That's why I went with a hole to watch from over an AWESOME 1980s car or phone booth. Watch from a modern comfortable recliner and without chance of accidental arrest.

[Tecs]

Bet we've all thought about that lol
You'd probably be arrested before you could make it back to your time machine, you'd hang and there's be no mystery

Hi Packers,

I wrote a short story on this and held my breath when I read your post as you were getting close to the plot!

I'm trying to get it on casebook but can't get a reply from the powers that be unfortunately, anyway for me if somebody was doing building work in a building known to have been inhabited by a well known Ripper suspect in 1888, they tear down a wall and find an old tin box. Upon opening the box they find some unspeakable items which with DNA evidence are proven to unquestionably be the uterii of Catherine and Annie and Cathy's kidney, plus maybe some other items including a signed confession.......... That would take a lot of explaining but.....

We'd still all be arguing that it was a hoax!


regards,

[packers stem]

An unexplainable coincidence along with the knowledge/ability to remove organs

Doubt any coincidence would do it Rocky.It would have to be something which maybe brings the top authors of the factual books to say that's it ,think most people would follow suit then.Probably nothing would give 100% agreement though

[packers stem]

Hi Packers,

I wrote a short story on this and held my breath when I read your post as you were getting close to the plot!

I'm trying to get it on casebook but can't get a reply from the powers that be unfortunately, anyway for me if somebody was doing building work in a building known to have been inhabited by a well known Ripper suspect in 1888, they tear down a wall and find an old tin box. Upon opening the box they find some unspeakable items which with DNA evidence are proven to unquestionably be the uterii of Catherine and Annie and Cathy's kidney, plus maybe some other items including a signed confession.......... That would take a lot of explaining but.....

We'd still all be arguing that it was a hoax!


regards,

lol, love it tecs
If you get the body parts and the dna i'll say yeah that'll do,you wont need the confession...we don't like them anyway

[RivkahChaya]

Whatever it is is probably going to involve exhuming the bodies of the C5 whose graves are known. For example, if we could get DNA from Eddowes actual corpse (and they got DNA from King Tut's mummy, so Eddowes is not too long dead), then we could verify the scrap of apron was hers or not. Then we could look for things like body fluids on it that were male in origin. Doubtless there are dozens of touch DNA samples from the police, but one does not expect to find blood or semen from the police. Now, there may not be any fluids from the Ripper on it either, but I'm just saying this is what it would take.

Yes, I know that if Eddowes has female descendants with her mitochondrial DNA, exhumation might not be necessary, but exhumation would mean an autopsy by modern standards as well. Did she really have nephritis? Did she have any STDs? if she did, then anyone who cut her could have infected himself with her strain of syphilis. So we'll need a good candidate, who will also need to be exhumed.

I understand the UK government doesn't take such things lightly, and isn't likely to give consent, absent family consent, so good luck with this.

But I think this is what it would take.

Other than that, there could be something serendipitous, but what, I can't imagine-- or, I can imagine lots of fanciful things, which I don't need to write a long post listing them all. But, some kind of iron-clad diary, unlike the Mike Barrett mess, you know. Something which doesn't raise more questions than it answers.

[Rosella]

Possibly something ironclad, locked away in the archives of the Home Office, which would contain incontrovertible evidence that people in power knew who Jack was and were not prepared to prosecute him, for reasons which would be explained.

As that will never happen and I'm not a conspiracy theorist anyway, I'll join some of you in time travel. I wouldn't want to see any of the murders. I'll leave that pleasure to others, but if I disguised myself as a pigeon and hung around Goulstson St at between 1:45am and 3am on the night of the double event I might see something interesting like a rag being thrown, a message being chalked. If I tracked that person to his home it would be something.