Question for consideration

[karensa]

I was visiting the Mary Kelly MJK photo thread and was reading the debate over which hand is showing, and whether or not this attack was "personal" and overkill etc and something sprang to mind regarding JK being potentially JtR -

Kelly was diagnosed with syphilis prior to being committed, and it had been blamed to a point for him flipping out and killing his wife. He got it from somewhere, likely visiting one or more prostitutes long before he killed his wife.


Could it be - assuming JK is Jack - that he was seeking revenge on these victims - not from a general sense but because he'd already tied one on with each of these specific women already? It's possible he had no idea he had contracted syphilis until the trial when the doctors treated him...and he spent 5 years in the asylum getting super pissed at the ones he felt gave him the death sentence (and "made him" murder his beloved wife etc), so he busted out and went to find them...each one he'd been with before, making nice to get their guard down and then slaughtering them - and then he bolted. And indeed, it was personal.

Revenge.

Once he'd gotten rid of the ones he felt gave it to him (or he wasn't sure which one so killed them all to make sure), the symptoms wouldn't have gone away...each time he had an attack, he'd flip out and go find another victim.

Did any of the victims have syphilis too? Could be a connection to motive (if it's JK that is).

[Pontius2000]

I personally think it is very probable that JtR got a VD from a prostitute. and if that were the case, then Kelly would be the perfect suspect. if I had killed my beloved wife due to incorrectly believing that I got a VD from her, only to be made to understand later that I had actually gotten it from a prostitute, I too would probably be on the warpath.


as for thinking that he tracked down the prostitutes he'd been with one by one, no. that would be next to impossible. there were 1200+ (probably more like 2000) prostitutes in the East End at the time. and, he was a heavy drinker and probably drunk when having relations with prostitutes. I think it's not possible to have tracked them down that way.


Alice McKenzie was confirmed to have had syphillus. so, I guess they tested for such things. and since she was the only one who was mentioned to have had a VD, I assume the others did not.