James Kelly: Forgotten Suspect?

[Lewis C]

I think one of the reasons why Kelly is considered a potential suspect, is because of the nature of the way he killed his wife.
The idea that he was seen "routing around" in her throat as he was killing her, is particularly grotesque and sinister. This implies an exploratory element to his actions, which are of course reminiscent of the Ripper murders.
He also went be various aliases and had the ingenuity to escape confinement by crafting a key fashioned from some scrap elements (metal?)
That action itself denotes a degree of intelligence and resilience that one would associate with a clinical psychopath.

He worked for an undertakers during his time being awol from confinement, and clearly had a fascination with spending time with the recently deceased.

Kelly remains a rather enigmatic person of interest in the case, and that's why he continues to be a solid outside bet for the Ripper.

I agree, there are other reasons to suspect Kelly besides that he murdered by cutting the throat. But if he could be proven to be the Ripper, I think that would weaken the case for Tabram being a Ripper victim, at least a little bit. And if Tabram could be proven to be a Ripper victim, one might ask whether the Ripper ever cut anyone's throat prior to Nichols, since Tabram wasn't killed that way.