Deadly occupations and serial murder

[Henry Flower]

Hi Fish,

the point about slaughter houses is well made and I've come across that fact before. Could you please tell us to what extent, exactly, was Lechmere 'involved' with butchery?

My understanding - and I may well be wrong - is that truck drivers lose their moral compass so often because they live for long periods away from the constraints and normalising environment of family and home, they are unsettled by definition, they sleep in the cab where they park, they are always either leaving or ready to leave. They also (I remember reading) make frequent use of magazines that document the fun that to be had making use of ladies who take their clothes off.

How would any of this be applicable to Lech, whose delivery routes cannot have been anything like a truck driver's in scope, and who as far as we know went home to his normalising family every day after work?

[Darryl Kenyon]

Peter Sutcliffe AKA The Yorkshire ripper was a truck driver at the time of his murders, plus i believe worked at one time in a mortuary. He was also a gravedigger a profession which may have been overlooked when looking for a serial killers job.

[John G]

This looks like an interesting article, which provides some support for your argument: https://www.scopus.com/record/displa...862cf627f0803b

The citation is Lynes and Wilson (2015).

You would need to register with Scopus to gain full access.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Fisherman,



That is without doubt the most desperate prosecution I have ever encountered against Cross/Lechmere.

I recommend a dark room and soothing towels on your forehead.

Regards,

Simon

[Fisherman]

Okay, letīs throw a little something into the Lechmere bonfire.

Hereīs a question for you all: are there any occupations that typically involve a raised level of criminal activity/serial murder?

The question may seem an odd one, but it really isnīt.

Earlier today, I posted a link to a documentary from last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEwLXwPZuh4

It is a docu about how it has been revealed that long-haul truckers in the US are very common guests on death row. It is stated in the docu that:

-There are 25 men, all former truckers, who are jailed for serial murder in the US.

-There are around 500 unsolved murder cases where victims have been found dumped along the freeways of the US.

-In these cases, 200 of the suspects are truck drivers.

- The bulk of the victims are prostitutes, working the truck stops.

I find this immensely interesting. It firmly establishes the truckers role as one that offers itself up to abductions, rape and murder. The figures blew me away.

Oddly, this is not the one and only occupational category that has been connected to violent crime over the years. At the University of Windsor, criminology professor Amy Fitzgerald states that statistics show a clear link between slaughterhouses, butchery and brutal crime. It is, she says, an empirical fact. Whenever abbatoirs are introduced into a community, the levels of violent crime follows suit. It is speculated that a desensitation is what causes this.

In this case, the link:

https://eatingplantsdotorg.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/an-intriguing-correlation-slaughterhouses-and-violent-crime/

is useful.

But where is the applicability for the Lechmere case? Well, Lechmere was the equivalent of todays truckers, he too was in the goods transport business. He was exposed to prostitution along his routes. And he was involved with butchery, owing to his work, and possibly also to the Lechmere family tradition of processing horse meat.

Of course, todays trucking is different from the carmanship of the East End in 1888. And of course, our society differs from theirs.

But it seems that Lechmere was involved in the two occupations that are the only ones, as far as I can tell, that have been connected roughly to the types of crimes the Ripper made himself guilty of.

Now, if I may be so bold, please do not offer the answer "So now every trucker is a serial killer?" "And every butcher hits the town, meatcleaver in hand, after working hours?"

These facts are worthy of a much better and more profound discussion.

Anybody?