Catherine Eddowes and Prostitution

[c.d.]

The murders seem random and sporadic blitz attacks, and yet each time the killer was able to navigate through time and space without anyone noticing.

Either the Ripper just got extremely lucky, or in terms of kill sites, had planned each killing beforehand.

Hi R.D.,

I don't see any great mystery here or an abundance of luck. There was a limited police presence. Other crime in Whitechapel did not come to a halt during the Ripper spree. You still had robberies, assaults, drunken brawls etc. The police couldn't be everywhere.

Both parties involved went to a quiet, secluded spot voluntarily so there were no witnesses. No alarm went off like in a bank robbery. It was night and people wore dark clothes that could hide blood. All the Ripper had to do was walk quietly away without drawing attention to himself and be somewhere safe when the body was discovered.

I don't think it required a great deal of planning. Just common sense and some street smarts.

c.d.

[c.d.]

As to the killer being a charmer, I don't think he had to have been.

Anyone not convinced of this fact of life need look further than cruise ships and expensive vacation spots. Fat, old bald men with hot young things on their arms. It ain't because of their charm.

c.d.

[Paddy Goose]

... I know that scholarship on the LVP used to assume that the majority of women in the East End were casual prostitutes (I think I recall some crazy number, like one person thought that 70% of women were prostituting themselves?), ....

I am not familiar with this scholarship you know of. Is there a source please?

[seanr]

If she wasn't soliciting, then he was almost certainly an acquaintance at the very least.

If she didn't know him at all; ergo, wasn't an acquaintance whatsoever, then that strongly implies she was soliciting for sex, to get money.

She was found drunk in Houndsditch, and when released she returned to the Houndsditch area. Perhaps she intended to meet back up with whoever she was with during that day. People seem to assume she had been drinking around Bulls Inn Yard, of all places.

There's more than one way to make money, selling sex is only one of them. We don't know, as there is zero evidence of Kate Eddowes selling sex, but we do have evidence of her using false names to deposit items in the local pawn shops.

She was found in a dark corner of Mitre Square, which is just off the busy highway of Aldgate High Street and was once known as Little Dukes Place on the map. A square which according to Joseph Lawende, his friend Joseph Hyam Levy has said the square '"ought to be watched", this quiet empty square on not one but two policeman's beats. What on earth would they be watching for (that the passing policemen would somehow not see)?

[Herlock Sholmes]

The murders seem random and sporadic blitz attacks, and yet each time the killer was able to navigate through time and space without anyone noticing.

Either the Ripper just got extremely lucky, or in terms of kill sites, had planned each killing beforehand.

Hi R.D.,

I don't see any great mystery here or an abundance of luck. There was a limited police presence. Other crime in Whitechapel did not come to a halt during the Ripper spree. You still had robberies, assaults, drunken brawls etc. The police couldn't be everywhere.

Both parties involved went to a quiet, secluded spot voluntarily so there were no witnesses. No alarm went off like in a bank robbery. It was night and people wore dark clothes that could hide blood. All the Ripper had to do was walk quietly away without drawing attention to himself and be somewhere safe when the body was discovered.

I don't think it required a great deal of planning. Just common sense and some street smarts.

c.d.

I agree c.d. The killer was always going to be running a risk but yes he might have had the odd bit of good fortune. PC Harvey said that he went to the end of Church Passage at 1.40 but saw nothing. As the body was found there around 4 minutes or so later, and given the injuries and missing organs, the body (and the killer) would have had to have been there. So either the killer was lucky that Harvey’s lamp didn’t light up that corner enough or maybe he was lucky that Harvey didn’t bother going down the passage? Maybe we can say that he was lucky that no one wanted the outside loo while he was killing Chapman (although chamber pots partly helped with that)

As far as planning goes I can’t see what planning he could really have done? He couldn’t have known all of the police beats and although it’s likely (I’d have thought) that women who engaged in prostitution would have know the beats in the areas that they usually worked i can’t see Eddowes being aware of the beats around Mitre Square in the City.

Good hearing for approaching footsteps. A decent turn of speed if required (like a cricketer) A decent sense of direction maybe? A willingness to kill a witness if caught in the act (like in Hanbury Street?)…and a sharp knife.

But…I could be wrong.