Originally posted by David Orsam
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To a person who is not familiar with police uniform colors of 1888, the remarks by Pierre seem reasonable. But to be fair, if we consider the point brought up that the uniforms were blue not black, it becomes a little too pedantic, because the issue suddenly loses the overriding point that Pierre was bringing out of the visibility issue due to light or the lack of it on an evening within Whitechapel in 1888. To be totally fair, besides the color comparison of black against red or blue against red, we would also have to consider what the status of street lighting was like in that area. Were the streets lit by gaslight in Whitechapel or electric bulb? I suspect they were mostly lit by gaslight still in 1888, as both Swan and Edison invented their light bulbs only a decade or so earlier, and I know Edison was busy slowly electrifying the streets of New York City (he set up the first power plant in lower Manhattan between 1880 and 1882), but I don't know when it was done in London. Pierre is right here - the subject does require deeper research in several directions. Also, weather conditions - how clear were the nights of the attacks in 1888: were they clear or foggy?
At a moment, standing back and reading all this, I keep thinking of the Hebrew/Yiddish term "pilpul" referring to the "Talmud" which demonstrates how Jewish rabbis have deconstructed or reconstructed passages from the Old Testament to explain the actual meaning of the passages (and usually it only ends in confusing everyone reading them). The same term can be used in getting into the subject of bloodstains on uniforms. And as Pierre rightly points out, we can't be sure about any police uniforms being worn by the killer! We don't even know if he was a police officer, a police official, a would-be police official, an antagonized applicant or office seeking police official candidate (paging a British nut job like Charles Guiteau, who shop President Garfield only seven years before this!), or someone who was considering wearing a stolen or borrowed police uniform for laughs. However, if you change the clothing to any kind of clothes (except, perhaps, those worn by a butcher or "shockhet") bloodstains still have to be explained to people in the light of day.
Interesting how everything gets so complicated.
Jeff
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