Originally posted by JeffHamm
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As for Kosminski pleasuring himself at the crime scene, it gets worst than that. There is a lot of strange "Ripperological" theorizing imbedded in this "scientific" paper.
The authors state that these stains --both blood and alleged semen-- conform to the known "modus operandi" of the Ripper. No explanation for this strange statement is given, but having read the paper several times, it is somewhat clear where Dr. L is heading.
He and Edwards were given quite a bit of flak the first go around, because they didn't address the fact that there was no evidence of sexual "connection" at any of the crime scenes. Yet here again we have alleged semen on an alleged shawl allegedly found by Amos Simpson who was allegedly at the Mitre Square crime scene despite the fact that he was a Met officer stationed 25 miles away and this was a City of London crime scene.
But we have a clue.
Elsewhere in the paper, Drs. L and M speculate that there are the impressions of "internal organs" on this piece of cloth. Uh, this is odd stuff. If Amos Simpson "recovered" this alleged shawl from the crime scene (and Drs. L and M state that he DID) why are there impressions of internal organs on it? We have contemporary sketches of the victim in Mitre Square and she is surrounded by pools of blood. If Kosminski used this table runner as temporary place mat, it would be saturated with blood and gore. Further, Mr. Simpson and his wife make no mention of having found a kidney or a uterus wrapped up in this relic after he allegedly "recovered it" from the crime scene. So we can only conclude that these organ impressions come, not from Mitre Square, but from the Annie Chapman murder, which, in turn, suggests that Chapman and Eddowes shared the same mDNA observed by Drs. L and M.
Further, the authors speculate near the close of the paper that the alleged shawl belonged, not to Eddowes, but to Kosminski himself. So now we are starting to see a clearer image of what is being implied, and what this reference to the "modus operandi" of the Ripper means. Kosminski, like a Thugee from India, was the owner of, not this "shawl" but a sort of 8' cravat. He strangled his victims with this ritual cloth, slit their throats, and then carried their organs home in it(shades of D'Onston Stephen's neck tie) where he completed his ritual in an unwholesome and solitary manner, creating the smaller stains. I can see no other explanation, since there was no actual evidence of sexual "connection" at the crime scenes themselves.
A note on the alleged semen. The authors begin their paper by referring to it as "semen like" and elsewhere as "candidate sperm cells." Yet, by the end of paper, they have abandoned all caution and state outright that it is semen. And this, of course, was picked up on by the press, who all announce that semen it indeed was, and this is now repeated in several posts on this thread.
Yet the only test actually referred to in the paper, was NEGATIVE.
“The originality of the stains on the shawl was initially tested in several way to reveal any attempts to forge forensic stain patterns, for example, with an acid phosphatase test that proved negative, as would be expected for old semen stains.”
The prostrate gland (among other things) produces the enzyme acid phosphatase, so testing for the presence of this enzyme is one way to determine if the stain was semen. The test, as noted above, proved negative, but the authors shrug this off as inconclusive, since they were old stains. (How do we know they were?) Perhaps they are right. Could be. Things degrade. But, on the other hand, it could also mean that it isn't semen at all. It may be. It may not be. But of, course, the press and various Ripperological commentators have latched on to the latter, evidently because Kosminski is famous for his solitary vices. Which brings me to my final point.
Let me ask one simple question. Why was the alleged "shawl" only tested against Kosminski's relatives? Was this an objective way to go about things? I assume Edwards commissioned the original tests. Why didn't he test the stain against the relatives of Druitt, Cutbush, etc? Since mDNA cannot "match" a suspect (it is used for elimination purposes) isn't this stacking the deck? How do I know testing this against the great great grand niece of Monty Druitt or Tommy Cutbush wouldn't have left them in the frame?
The authors have been "let off the hook" because this is a scientific paper, so they aren't required to touch on the historical aspects they discuss. I disagree. They state directly in their paper that it was meant, not only for scientists, but for "the general reader," especially those interested in "true crime." As such, the provenance of this object should have been given full disclosure. It is an 'in the family for years' sort of provenance, but there is no record of its existence until around 1988 or shortly thereafter. That the original owner is related to Amos Simpson is true. This is conceded. But this was in the distant past, raises its own concerns, and has left me wondering how Drs. L and M knew that old lady Simpson had cut a large section from the "shawl" because it was saturated with blood? At best, it can only be a family legend. At worst it is pure speculation.
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