Is Kosminski still the best suspect we have?

[mickreed]

It's an acrostic, referring to the recently discovered Czech slaughterman, Jaroslav Lstdo. Now there's a good suspect.

Acrostics, eh? That puts me in mind of Lewis Carroll.

Now there was a really good suspect.

[Chris]

Acrostics, eh? That puts me in mind of Lewis Carroll.

Now there was a really good suspect.

Not just a suspect. The patron saint of Ripperology.

[Trevor Marriott]

And always used at SOC?

Read Broughs words. The dogs were also used as a deterrent. And they were quite effective at that.

You know what it takes to name a suspect? You chose Feigenbaum as Jack the Ripper...I don't need to say any more.

Monty

Blood hounds used as a deterrent, now doesn't that show you the mindset of the police back then in 1888 ? You have been reading to much about the 1888 police and their methods, You are starting to believe in it now, take a break !

And Feigenbaun is still a more of a viable suspect than the others. At least he did actually murder a female by cutting her throat with a long bladed knife, which is more than can be said for others. That with what else is known about him make his a suspect in the true sense. Not a suspect based on ageing police officers opinions

[Jonathan H]

Sir Melville Macnaghten was not yet forty when he found Druitt. Is that old?

[Monty]

Blood hounds used as a deterrent, now doesn't that show you the mindset of the police back then in 1888 ? You have been reading to much about the 1888 police and their methods, You are starting to believe in it now, take a break !

And Feigenbaun is still a more of a viable suspect than the others. At least he did actually murder a female by cutting her throat with a long bladed knife, which is more than can be said for others. That with what else is known about him make his a suspect in the true sense. Not a suspect based on ageing police officers opinions

Any murders in October Trev? When the dogs were in London? The evidence is self evident.

At least we know Kosminski was in the country during the murders.

Monty

[Trevor Marriott]

Any murders in October Trev? When the dogs were in London? The evidence is self evident.

At least we know Kosminski was in the country during the murders.

Monty

Two blood hounds covering all of London that must have been some deterrent I bet their paws were sore at the end of each tour of duty

Yes Kosminski was in the country but which one? La La land me thinks

[Monty]

Two blood hounds covering all of London that must have been some deterrent I bet their paws were sore at the end of each tour of duty

Yes Kosminski was in the country but which one? La La land me thinks

Their reputation alone kept Jack at bay. Just like you keep the common sense posters at bay here.

Monty

[PaulB]

Blood hounds used as a deterrent, now doesn't that show you the mindset of the police back then in 1888 ? You have been reading to much about the 1888 police and their methods, You are starting to believe in it now, take a break !

And Feigenbaun is still a more of a viable suspect than the others. At least he did actually murder a female by cutting her throat with a long bladed knife, which is more than can be said for others. That with what else is known about him make his a suspect in the true sense. Not a suspect based on ageing police officers opinions

Isn't Feigenbaum's guilt your opinion, Trevor?

[Errata]

Do we really need to know what the police though if we know that the base the cops were operating off of was a little... unrealistic? Crazy even?

I mean, if the cops though Jack had to be a redhead because gingers are evil, do we have to look for a ginger? Or can we discard their opinions on suspects because their opinions were frankly, biased and wrongheaded? It's nice to know that Anderson etc. thought that Kosminski was the Ripper, but the important thing to get out of that particular line of suspicion was that they had no idea what a serial killer looks like, and made a ton of assumptions based nowhere in fact.

[PaulB]

Do we really need to know what the police though if we know that the base the cops were operating off of was a little... unrealistic? Crazy even?

I mean, if the cops though Jack had to be a redhead because gingers are evil, do we have to look for a ginger? Or can we discard their opinions on suspects because their opinions were frankly, biased and wrongheaded? It's nice to know that Anderson etc. thought that Kosminski was the Ripper, but the important thing to get out of that particular line of suspicion was that they had no idea what a serial killer looks like, and made a ton of assumptions based nowhere in fact.

Biased and wrongheaded? Your evidence for that is...?

[Abby Normal]

Do we really need to know what the police though if we know that the base the cops were operating off of was a little... unrealistic? Crazy even?

I mean, if the cops though Jack had to be a redhead because gingers are evil, do we have to look for a ginger? Or can we discard their opinions on suspects because their opinions were frankly, biased and wrongheaded? It's nice to know that Anderson etc. thought that Kosminski was the Ripper, but the important thing to get out of that particular line of suspicion was that they had no idea what a serial killer looks like, and made a ton of assumptions based nowhere in fact.

agree to some extant. but you cant throw the baby out with the bathwater. their WAS a possible ID, and Anderson isn't the only senior police who mentions him. And since the major piece of evidence against Koz is a possible ID-that has nothing to do with misguided assumptions per se-eventhough I think Anderson had plenty.

[Fisherman]

Biased and wrongheaded? Your evidence for that is...?

In all honesty, Paul - whereīs the evidence that the 1888 Victorian police had a fair picture of what a serial killer is about...? And if they didnīt know, what did they have to go on, other than guesswork?

You know how Kos, Os and Dru are described in the memoranda, and you also know that the descriptions are very wrong, going by the collected evidence we have. Homicidal maniacs, sexually insane etcetera.

You will know that a search of the asylums was ordered. I think it was Williamson who bluntly stated that it was done since the public believed a maniac to be at large!

The press created a monster, half beast, half human - and although the press are not equivalent with the police, they still mirror what was thought and reasoned generally. Today, not even the tabloids would invent that crude type of a killer portrait.

I think it is slightly disingenious not to admit that the police were faced with something they did not know how to perceive. In an era where people were thought to go mad as a result of masturbation, we should not expect the police to be able to be aquainted with the finer points of psychology and diagnoze a man like the Ripper correctly. To them, a deranged killer was to be expected, a Kosminski, an Issenschmid.

I actually think that my own suspect bears witness to what the police were NOT looking for - an ordinary, seemingly sane, British working man. They had a guy who was found by a freshly killed victim, they only had his own words to go on when it came to how long time he had spent with that victim - and they apparently bought his story without checking it out thoroughly, as per the fact that they never found out who he really was!

We have no instruction manuals to go by, telling us that the police specifically targetted special types of people, but we have a lot of indicators hidden all over the case. And that case was played out in an era when many people still believed that poverty was something you had deserved and that long fingers pointed to pick-pocket vices. Yes, Bertillon was the name of the day, and his ideas were intended to identify criminals by physical traits - but it was contemporarily thought that Bertillons pictures would also serve eminently to identify criminal TYPES.

If we are to honour historical facts, then letīs do it properly and weigh it all in. The Victorian society of 1888 was an extremely prejudiced one in many respects, and to think that the police would not be affected in any shape or form will be doing history a disservice.

I think we must promote double approaches on the search for Ripper candidates - itīs fine and dandy to look at the "police suspects", as they are called (they donīt look much like traditional police suspects to me), but trying to find the kind of man that conforms to our own knowledge about what a serial killer is about can do absolutely no harm - on the contrary.

The best,
Fisherman

[Trevor Marriott]

Their reputation alone kept Jack at bay. Just like you keep the common sense posters at bay here.

Monty

Now you are having a laugh !

[Trevor Marriott]

Isn't Feigenbaum's guilt your opinion, Trevor?

I don't side with opinions. Look at the damage the opinions of those senior officers have caused in later years. Leading people to falsely believe they knew the identity of the ripper

[PaulB]

I don't side with opinions. Look at the damage the opinions of those senior officers have caused in later years. Leading people to falsely believe they knew the identity of the ripper

It's all comes down to the same thing.