Remarkably clear Photo enhancement of Liz Stride

[Herlock Sholmes]

That pesky Maybrick has been leaving those initials again.

I reckon it was Fanny Mortimer Yabs. Or Frank Miles. Or both of them working together?

[Iconoclast]

Wow - that is spectacular!

[Iconoclast]

I reckon it was Fanny Mortimer Yabs. Or Frank Miles. Or both of them working together?

Well whoever it was meant to refer to, our blood scribbler certainly perfected their art in Kelly's room! Addalime's colourised rendition could hardly show off the 'FM' any better if he (or she) tried!

I am struck by those bloody fingerprints on her right leg: you can just sense Maybrick's sense of 'fun' when - having carved so clear an 'F' on Kelly's arm - he spread her legs apart to form his inarticulate 'M'.

An initial here and an initial there certainly did tell of the whoring mother, eh?

Ike

[Ozzy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that MJK image was already AI upscaled by another member on here. For authenticity's sake I don't think it's a good idea to then run it again through an image processor.

I don't know Harmonica. I've had it for years. But I don't know where I got it from. I've had it at least 5, more like 10 years. Maybe more. It's travelled with me on different hard drives and SSDs as I've purchased larger storage over the years. My current SSD is 2TB. When I first got it I probably would have had a mechanical hard drive of something like 250GB.

[Losmandris]

Here is the result. Better in some ways, but frustrating in others. You can clearly see perfectly preserved bloody fingerprints on the legs. Unfortunately, not much use to detectives in 1888! also, there is still something baffling about Mary's face. Not just the horrific mutilation, something that doesn't seem to make sense... Is it possible that the face had been badly re touched by someone?

Great work. I agree about the face? Seems totally jumbled up to me and covered in cracks. I cannot make any sense of it?

[Losmandris]

Since seeing the photo for the first time in the old Stephen Knight paperback decades ago, I've always felt that the actual details of her ravaged face have been obscured somehow. The image we have is too sheerly incomprehensible, in spite of all that we know was done to her.

They've done us a favour, I don't doubt.

M.

I think you could be right!

[Michael W Richards]

I notice Addalime that 11 years ago you posted a thread very much the same as this one. In fact almost identical to this one. Is this a result of having new imaging software to use? It just seems to me unusual to have such a lengthy preoccupation with enhancing the same photo. Just curious.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Losmandris,

The answer to your confusion is staring you in the face.



Regards,

Simon

[Mark J D]

Hi Losmandris,

The answer to your confusion is staring you in the face.

Is this not plainly the result of part of a photographic plate being first painted over and then scratched? A deliberate attempt to hide almost all of Kelly's ravaged face?

M.

[C. F. Leon]

Yeah, that head just isn't making sense. The standard interpretation is that MK's face is more or less looking directly at the the photographer. And the hairline in the photo does sort of suggest that orientation. But try as I might, other that an apparent slashing of the throat which may just be a lighting effect, I just can't get a reference point- there's no obvious eye sockets, sinuses, teeth, etc. Also, that facial area just has a different look than anywhere else of the photo and there doesn't seem to be other area with that kind of cracking. So maybe Mark J D is right- someone, AT SOME TIME, along the chain has "painted" over the face and then the paint (or whatever was used- modern White-out will crack like that, although I realize that Whiteout proper was invented like 80 or so years later) has cracked with age.

I'm more intrigued by the upper left forearm- besides the obvious knife slashing, there seems to be some sort of tattooing there.

Also, I note that her right leg is wearing a stocking, while her left leg is bare- was she killed in the act of undressing? That might make sense- she's right-handed and her right side is on the bed first, so she takes off the right stocking easily enough while sitting on the edge. But she has to bend down to undo the left one and that's when the killer strikes. That's just a guess- she more likely was killed while sleeping. But my scenario could explain that "murder" cry heard by several neighbors.

[FISHY1118]

Well whoever it was meant to refer to, our blood scribbler certainly perfected their art in Kelly's room! Addalime's colourised rendition could hardly show off the 'FM' any better if he (or she) tried!

I am struck by those bloody fingerprints on her right leg: you can just sense Maybrick's sense of 'fun' when - having carved so clear an 'F' on Kelly's arm - he spread her legs apart to form his inarticulate 'M'.

An initial here and an initial there certainly did tell of the whoring mother, eh?

Ike

I just finished reading History v Maybrick , Dropbox. I laughed ,and laughed, and laughed somemore . The writing on the wall at ''Goulston street'' part was Gold Jerry, Gold ..

[Mark J D]

... I just can't get a reference point- there's no obvious eye sockets, sinuses, teeth, etc. Also, that facial area just has a different look than anywhere else of the photo and there doesn't seem to be other area with that kind of cracking.

We see paint applied to the other photo -- in my view, to clarify the part of the scene that was too close to the lens to be in focus. Paint may have been applied here also; but what I think we are mostly seeing is that the emulsion on the original photographic plate has been deliberately attacked, probably while still wet, in order to obscure what must have been an unimaginably distressing image.

There would likely be some degree of detail recoverable if the more significant surviving fragments of emulsion were moved back towards their original positions and the scrapings and the scratched lines hidden.

M.

[Iconoclast]

I just finished reading History v Maybrick , Dropbox. I laughed ,and laughed, and laughed somemore . The writing on the wall at ''Goulston street'' part was Gold Jerry, Gold ..

Delighted to have enriched your day, sir, if perhaps not quite as I'd intended.

But laughter is so good for the soul so I consider even an inadvertent public service to be to my considerable credit.

And imagine if it turns out that I was right all along! Who might laugh the longest?

Ike

[PRB]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that MJK image was already AI upscaled by another member on here. For authenticity's sake I don't think it's a good idea to then run it again through an image processor.

I think you're right. The 'cracking' effect on the face should not be there - notice it also extends onto the pillow. It really is a bad idea to 'enhance' an image that's already been processed. Software doesn't reveal detail, it merely takes a 'best guess' at what it thinks should be there. It's easily confused.

I don't believe for one second that the photo as originally published had any obfuscation of the face - it simply wouldn't make any sense given the horrific nature of the rest of the image.

[Simon Wood]

Hi PRB,

The original of the picture is not that posted by Addalime.

Apart from a tweek to the brightness and contrast, it has not been "enhanced" in any way.

Regards,

Simon