Was Stride Really a JtR Victim?

[Errata]

There is no direct or even indirect evidence anywhere that Stride was a victim of the same man. But it's one of those scenarios where it entirely depends on where you start as to where you end. Anyone who starts at the end and works back to the beginning is forced to conclude that Stride was a botched Ripper attempt. Anyone starting at the beginning can see it both ways, and anyone taking the crimes individually is forced to conclude that her murder was completely unrelated.

The problem is that a lot of people's understandings of the differences in the mutilations of Kate Eddowes is hinged upon the idea that her killer was frenzied because he was interrupted in a previous attempt. That it made him more savage and more uncontrollable. And the truth is, had he been interrupted at a previous attempt, that's exactly how he would have been. Presumed cause matches effect. On the other hand, had he actually been interrupted, there is nothing to say that his rage would have manifested itself that way. It's not a math equation. Just a series of probabilities, statistics, guesses.

If Liz Stride died on April 9th, 1892, or even a week before Kate Eddowes, nobody would have thought she was a Ripper victim. And the odds of multiple killers, or multiple serial killers operating in the same city at the same time seems outlandish. But it happens. We know it happens. During the Son of Sam murders, New York City murder rates kept on. People didn't stop shooting each other just because one guy out there was making headlines. And there were two or three other serial killers active, evidently perfectly content to let Berkowitz take the spotlight. Never mind California, which is infested with serial killers, with estimates of 10-30 being active at any given time. Two women died of a cut throat on the same night. I live in a city a little less than half the size of London at that time, and in the last 24 hours 14 people died of not natural causes. 4 homicides, three of which were women. I don't assume those three women died at the same hand. In a city half the size of Victorian London, if I don't assume all the women killed on a single night, or even by a single method are related, it doesn't make sense for me to assume that in a city twice as big 120 years ago.

[Wickerman]

You have the worlds leaving authority on Jack the Ripper in your corner Phil.

Dr. Phillips who was called to Berner-street shortly after the discovery of the woman's body, gives (so says Dr. Gordon, who has made a post-mortem examination of the other body) it as his opinion that the two murders were not committed by the same man. Upon this point Dr. Phillips is an authority.
Evening News, 1 Oct. 1888.

I might give Dr. Phillips too much credit but I am not easily inclined to think him wrong.

Regards, Jon S.

[Phil H]

I am still of the opinion that Stride was not a JtR victim. But the concensus among Ripperologists appears to be that Tom Westcott's article in Casebook Examiner, exhonerated Kidney. Personally, I still have to formulate a view on that.

Also recent research showing a potential Kosminski connection to the Berners Street area, adds to the complexity, I think.

Phil H

[RavenDarkendale]

I was wondering what percentage of a chance others of you would give that there actually WAS a double event, i.e. that both Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddows were killed by JtR. I am willing to go 60% against Stride being a victim. As audacious as JtR seemed to be, I think he would have risked at least one abdomen slash regardless of the chance of being caught. After all, there is the timing of the Kate Eddows murder and mutilation between PC's walking a set beat.

God bless

Darkendale