J. H. Scott

[Jack Whicher]

^ Just because this clergyman lived in the area at the time of the murders and had a nervous breakdown (or something more serious) several years later, does not make him a serial killer.

Spitalfields and Whitechapel were ill-lit and extremely shabby areas with some outright slum buildings. There were plenty of places in Whitechapel that would qualify as 'back streets', like Bucks Row, also dimly lit. Some of the buildings in this locale had shadowy passageways leading to extremely dark yards. There were plenty of places in Spitalfields for a killer to hide if he wished to.

Rosella,

I have posted, in detail, the ways that J H Scott matches the FBI profiles for Organized serial killers and the ways he fits the Scotland Yard geographic profile. I will not re-post those here, but suffice it to say there is much more than "lived in the area at the time of the murders and had a nervous breakdown."


It is sometimes hard to separate the myths of this case from the facts. Your statement "Spitalfields and Whitechapel were ill-lit and extremely shabby area" is part myth and part fact; it depends on the area. As applied to the Nichols murder, it's myth: the area of Bucks Row where Nichols body was found was 28' wide; she was "across from Essex Wharf ... in a gateway entrance to Brown's stableyard between a board school (to the west) and terrace houses (cottages) belonging to better class tradesmen." This was not one of the "ill-lit and extremely shabby areas with some outright slum buildings."

By clinging to this myth (that all the area was as you describe it) we ignore the fact that there was a network of businesses, charities, schools, parish missions, workhouses, synagogues, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, homeless shelters, and charity medical wards entwined around the sites of the murders.

In turn, that precludes examining the possibility that JR was a middle class businessman: someone who would find it easy to move through Spitalfields.

Consider these facts:

1. The "board school" next to Nichols body was a Christ Church facility; J H Scott was on it's board.

2. The Christ Church meeting hall was across the street from Chapman's body.

[Jack Whicher]

10 Bells Pub

" Just because this clergyman lived in the area at the time of the murders and had a nervous breakdown (or something more serious) several years later, does not make him a serial killer."

The 10 bells pub is 1/2 block from Scott's residence

J. Whicher