Is Eddowes demise the key?

[Observer]

Too dull around here for you Henry? Or feeling the years perhaps?

[Observer]

Must of dozed off again. Never mind.

[Henry Flower]

Sorry Obs, no - I'm just back from buying some canvases and varnish on Hanbury St. Busy week ahead in the studio.

Feeling the years? You bet.

Have a good day everyone

[Hunter]

Hi Lynn,

Hello Cris. If this were to have happened in the last half century or so, I'd look for a sexual serial killer first. After all, some of them--as Peter Kurten (forgive my absent umlaut)--admitted to having read about "JTR" and having been inspired thereby.

But I have always wondered whether "JTR" were inspired by someone, if so, whom? As you say, he has no antecednts. Of course, anything is possible.

Quite frankly, if not for certain anomalies--as most of John Kelly's testimony and the complete zero in MJK research--I might still look for this one chap who is targeting women. But, given those anomalies, I begin to smell a rat.

Actually, while these crimes were unprecedented in England, they did have antecedents. The 19th century criminal psychologist, Cesare Lombroso, cited two cases which occurred in the 1870s on the continent. In separate cases, men named Verzeni and Gruyo killed and mutilated women. Both strangled their victims and then eviscerated their intestines. Gruyo, also, took out the women's kidneys. In an interview, Verzeni stated that he first noticed he gained 'a certain pleasure' from choking chickens for the supper table. Of his human victims he said he loved the touch and smell of their intestines. These cases gained no notoriety because they were committed in rural areas.

Men like Kurten may have declared some inspiration from JTR. Most that did so liked to torture their victims before they killed them. The cases cited above, and the Ripper murders as well, were of a different breed. There was no torture. The fantasy was post-mortem. Death was a means to an end...not an end to a means. Killers like this need no inspiration from others. Their penchant is concocted in their own demented minds... sometimes years before they act upon it in reality. Thankfully, this type of murderer is rare, but they existed before the Whitechapel murders and certainly have existed after. While Ed Gein only abused corpses, he gained his anatomical knowledge from reading medical and anatomical books. As a farmer, he had no formal medical background.

[Observer]

No problem Henry. Feeling the years also, rather I were feeling the shapely widow who lives up the road though. By the way an old aunt of mine, who has a wooden leg periodically needs it varnishing. Do you charge by the hour? Take care.

[Henry Flower]

Observer, I'm not answering any questions about 'varnishing' the 'wooden leg' of your 'old aunt' until I know for sure whether the whole thing is a smutty seaside euphemism.

I had no suspicions until you asked whether I charge by the hour.

[Sally]

Professor -

Hello Sally. Nothing EMPIRICAL. Things mathematical? Of course. They are deductive.

Cheers.
LC

You are of course correct.

The trouble is, there is more than one way to make five (alternatively insert number of choice)

[Monty]

Henry,

My contribution is limited and base.

Also rather dull, as you are about to see.

Monty

[Roy Corduroy]

anti-Semitic insult shouted during Stride

Welcome Hackney Henry to the Casebook Discussion group

An instance was found of "Lipski" used as an insult between Jewish men. In the same immediate area, in the same year.

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=3260

Roy

[lynn cates]

cases

Hello Cris. Most interesting. Do you think a medical person would have read about their cases?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

5

Hello Sally. Thanks.

Yes, now that you mention it--5 sensory modalities; 5 canonical victims, etc.

Cheers.
LC

[Observer]

Observer, I'm not answering any questions about 'varnishing' the 'wooden leg' of your 'old aunt' until I know for sure whether the whole thing is a smutty seaside euphemism.

I had no suspicions until you asked whether I charge by the hour.

Hi Henry

Hahaha. Smutty seaside euphemsm's. I ? Nothing was further from my mind ! The leg is quite genuine, and the reason I asked if you charged by the hour was because it's rather a large leg, and therefore needs several coats, which can take up to three days if done properly.

Regards

Observer

[Henry Flower]

Hi Obs. Er....

I think not, and moreover I'm not sure how your old aunt would feel if you told her you'd found someone to varnish her big leg on the message boards of a Jack the Ripper website....

I almost wrote 'massage boards' - see what you've done!?

[Henry Flower]

Hi Roy, thank you That's an interesting find, and I love the final article! 'Pot calling the kettle Schvartz'!!

Wonderful.

[Henry Flower]

Monty - 'My contribution is limited and base.'

Exactly! I love that. Keep it coming!