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Who Is The Ripper? A Poll of Casebookers

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  • Who Is The Ripper? A Poll of Casebookers

    Hi - I'm the author of a new series of books called Cold Case Jury. The premise of each is that I examine a historic cold case and, as a reader and Cold Case Juror, you can enter your decision on what you think happened at the Cold Case Jury website. You can find more details at my website, if you are interested.

    The first case is Poisoning at the Priory, which examines the different theories about how Charles Bravo died. The second, which I'm finishing now, called Death of an Actress, examines the porthole murder case from 1947. For a future book, I would like to tackle the ripper (despite all its attendant difficulties). To help research the topic intelligently, I would love to gauge the views of casebookers. I have two questions:

    1) If you had to bet your house on correctly identifying the ripper, on which one suspect would you bet and why?

    2) If you had to make money on correctly identifying the ripper, on which long-shot suspect would bet and why? One name only. By long-shot I do not mean a ridiculous choice but a suspect who would, in your view, not typically make the Top 3 Suspects List of most ripperologists.

    That's it! If you do post a reply, let me say thank you in advance. I will read every post.

    Antony Matthew Brown
    Cold Case Jury is a series of books about historical but unsolved real-life crimes. Readers are asked to deliver their verdicts online about what most likely happened. Books include Move To Murder (the murder of Julia Wallace in 1931), Death of an Actress (the death of Gay Gibson on board the Durban Castle in 1947) and The Green Bicycle Mystery (the shooting of cyclist Bella Wright in 1919.
    Author of Cold Case Jury books: Move To Murder (2nd Edition) (2021), The Shark Arm Mystery (2020), Poisoned at the Priory (2020), Move to Murder (2018), Death of an Actress (2018), The Green Bicycle Mystery (2017) - "Armchair detectives will be delighted" - Publishers Weekly. Author of Crime & Mystery Hour - short fictional crime stories. And for something completely different - I'm the co-founder of Wow-Vinyl - celebrating the Golden Years of the British Single (1977-85)

  • #2
    To Antony

    1. William Henry Bury. The similarities between his wife's murder and the C5. The way Bury matches the psyche profiles.

    2. Wentworth Bellsmith. I don't believe he was the Ripper I believe the Ripper was Bury. However I do believe Bellsmith may have been the Torso Killer.

    Cheers John

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by John Wheat View Post
      To Antony

      1. William Henry Bury. The similarities between his wife's murder and the C5. The way Bury matches the psyche profiles.

      2. Wentworth Bellsmith. I don't believe he was the Ripper I believe the Ripper was Bury. However I do believe Bellsmith may have been the Torso Killer.

      Cheers John
      John, thanks for being the first to reply. I've noted your answers.
      Author of Cold Case Jury books: Move To Murder (2nd Edition) (2021), The Shark Arm Mystery (2020), Poisoned at the Priory (2020), Move to Murder (2018), Death of an Actress (2018), The Green Bicycle Mystery (2017) - "Armchair detectives will be delighted" - Publishers Weekly. Author of Crime & Mystery Hour - short fictional crime stories. And for something completely different - I'm the co-founder of Wow-Vinyl - celebrating the Golden Years of the British Single (1977-85)

      Comment


      • #4
        The blotchy faced man seen by Mrs cox with Mary Jane Kelly.

        Nothing fancy, just a local anonymous psychopath.

        Comment


        • #5
          An unknown whako
          G U T

          There are two ways to be fooled, one is to believe what isn't true, the other is to refuse to believe that which is true.

          Comment


          • #6
            I simply wouldnt be my house

            Comment


            • #7
              I wouldn't bet my house on any of them, as I've long suspected that Jack was an anonymous local loser, whom the police probably questioned and let go through lack of any evidence against him.

              I would place Astrakhan man before Blotchy Face as, unlike many other posters, I believe Hutchinson. It was probably one or the other of them, and I wouldn't be surprised if the man seen by PC Smith with Stride was AM in his weekday clothes.

              Comment


              • #8
                In the end the material about this case is too scant to point to a suspect.
                Can't even bet a dollar.But one can fantasize. Nevertheless almost all
                suspects were/are interesting to read about.
                Clearly the first human laws (way older and already established) spawned organized religion's morality - from which it's writers only copied/stole,ex. you cannot kill,rob,steal (forced,it started civil society).
                M. Pacana

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by ColdCaseJury View Post
                  I would like to tackle the ripper (despite all its attendant difficulties) ripperologists.

                  Antony Matthew Brown
                  www.coldcasejury.com
                  Fixed
                  My name is Dave. You cannot reach me through Debs email account

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hi Rosella,

                    Not wishing to start that debate again, but I can't quite reconcile the image of an "anonymous local loser" with someone who dresses up in expensive clothes and prominently displays his "thick gold watch chain" to go a-ripping at the weekend, not unless he wanted his murderous designs to be thwarted by the attention of muggers and plain-clothes coppers.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Listen Ben, even serial killers can get dressed up occasionally! I really meant 'loser' in the sense of the sort of character who can't make his mark on the world other than in murdering and mutilating innocent women. I think in fact, that Jack was probably gainfully employed for most of the time, perhaps in the horse slaughtering or butchering trades, and so could probably afford a second hand astrakhan coat and gold watch.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        It's not so much a question of what the ripper could afford, Rosella, but rather what he was likely to have worn when stalking some of the most crime-ridden and menacing streets in London. Why would he go out of his way to make himself such an irresistible target to the very type of people he was seeking to avoid - muggers, pick-pockets, plain-clothes policemen, twitchy vigilant committee men looking for anyone vaguely out-of-place etc?

                        And no, I doubt very much a slaughterer could afford a gold watch with a thick gold chain, second hand or otherwise.

                        Stick with "Blotchy", I would. Or better still, Lawende's man, who was seen in the company of the victim ten minutes before the discovery of her body.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          After four successful killings, maybe five, Jack may very well have been supremely self confident, and didn't care that he was dressed to kill. He could have inherited a gold watch. Not everyone in the East End was cold, hungry and perpetually at the pawnbrokers. I happen to believe Hutch. I know you and many other posters don't and that's OK. I can live with that!

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                          • #14
                            No bets but he was a pathetic nobody who was such an inferior specimen that the only way he could boost what passed for his ego was to kill innocent women.

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                            • #15
                              1. Willam Bury (again). For the simple reason that he's the only known suspect who committed a 'Ripper-esque' murder, and his departure to Scotland roughly coincides after the final canonical victim.

                              2. John Arnold would be my long shot. Something doesn't quite add up about that guy, and he might've been the 'blotchy' fella that Mrs. Cox saw with Mary Kelly before her murder.

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