Timing between Eddowes and Stride is bang on

[The Good Michael]

Here is why I think the timing of the two murders aren't that important. There are too many factors that each have several variables, to make a sound prognosis.

Mike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxtN0xxzfsw

[Wickerman]

Yes it does sound like blotchy. The only difference is the discrepancy in hair color.

Blotchy is described as having carrotty mustache-which I take it means orange/red hair. Marshall and Schwartz described as brown haired man. Lawendes suspect described as fair haired.

But I know for a fact that hair color can look different depending on lighting conditions, time of day, distance etc. a friend of mine has brownish/reddish hair, kind of wiry and it can look totally different color depending on the circumstances. In the sun it looks downright red, at night or low lighting it looks brown.

Blotchy and the peaked cap man seen by Marshall, Schwartz and Lawende are IMHO probably the same man.

Yes, I also see that brown hair, moustache, beard, etc. especially under a close light/lamp can give the appearance of being red.

I find it interesting that the culprit on the night of the double event is insisted by some to be "sailor" looking, and yet at Millers Court, no-one insists Blotchy has the appearance of a "sailor".

The moustache worn by Lawende's man is "small and fair", but six weeks later at Millers court it is "a full carroty moustache"?
I have a moustache and it certainly doesn't grow that fast in 6 weeks

No all important "peaked cap" either, now we have a man in a billycock hat. Suddenly the features claimed to be distinctive and decisive are abandoned at will when it comes to the Kelly murder?

There is the semblance of a case for suggesting BS-man & Duke-st. man are the same, or may be the same, but any semblance goes out the window when we try to include Blotchy.
It you don't mind me saying, the only reason to try claim Blotchy is the same man is the reluctance to admit that Kelly must have gone out later and met another man after Blotchy.

[Batman]

If you look online you can find JtR witness description lists and questions like ...

... list what they have in common.
... list what they most disagree upon.

The picture you get is basically ...

30, 5'7'', fair complexion, brown moustache, dark jacket, dark peaked cap, stout/broad.

Is Blotchy a million miles away from that? Not really. You might even get another look at him with Ada Wilson's attacker.

[Batman]

There is no Jack the Butcher

The idea Jack was a horse butcher is found after the murder of Nichols beside a horse slaughter yard. The Leather Apron scare, a said butcher, also caused butchers around Whitechapel to come under heavy suspicion.

It is erroneous to say that Jack the Ripper could have removed human organs based on his skill as a butcher with non-human animals. There are 160 million years of natural selection operating on mammals. With apes (us) we are bipedal and verticial. Ungulates are horizontally on all fours. Gravitional forces in conjunction with NS has seen to a very different distribution, type of and size of organs between apes and ungulates. Just compare some basic anatomy diagrams online.

What we shall find is the only skills they may acquire here are knowledge about blood pressure/bleeding and how to use a knife. As has been suggested countless times before, a fish monger could have this same skill. Not human anatomy.

Butchers hang carcasses in the vertical position, not horizontally. The blood drips down.

In the case of the C5 and Stride, on the 5th October Dr Phillips described Stride as having been killed while lying down with the killer on her right side, cutting from her left to right. This caused the blood to be directed away from him towards the guttter. Dr. Philips own words.

This is just one signature of JtR.

The anti-stride crowd would like her standing up, despite what Dr. Philips had to say.

The reasons (apart from the warped appeal to a lust killers bent mind) why he cuts the neck precisely this way are at least two-fold.

1. The windpipe severed stops vocal ability.
2. Quick exsanguination is necessary so he can target organs without getting too much blood on himself.

It is just a means to an end. The mutilation and organs are the goal.

What is also interesting is how he bends their legs upwards and sometimes even so much that their feet are flat. This position is used to help people who faint, recover, by using gravitational forces to help the blood pressure return blood to the brain (there are better modern positions). He knew by doing this he would force the blood out quicker.

Dr Llewellyn thought Nichols injuries had been inflicted perhaps by a cork-cutter’s or shoemaker’s knife.

One road.
John leaves his home at 1:00am in his car and drives West.
Mary leaves her home at 1:00am in her car and drives East.

If we know the velocity and distance then we can calculate a time of intersection. We better be able to do this or I will never take a train again!

In Whitechapel there are roads (plural) but the point is the same. This example of time of intersection is exactly what happens if Stride's killer moves west and Eddowes leaves the drunk tank, walks south and east. She just needs to come into his field of vision.

In order to overcome this simple problem of basic physics that has been around since Gallileo was playing with canon balls one has to appeal to lower probability explanations – like 'coincidence'.

[c.d.]

Hello John. Actually, both Polly and Annie had PARALLEL cuts--in one case, an inch apart, in the other, 1/2 inch. And ALL these individual cuts were deeper than Stride's.

Cheers.
LC

If the killer were attacking stationary, inanimate objects and if his goal was consistency in the cuts rather than having the cuts be a means to an end, I would give this much more weight.

c.d.

[Wickerman]

Hi Jon,

Okay, now I'd always assumed, possibly wrongly, that what was fundamental in determining the depth of cut was the size of knife used. However, if I've understood you correctly, your argument is that it is effectively the number of cuts that is determinative.

Sorry John, perhaps I wasn't too clear.
The method of determining the length, minimum length, of the blade is the depth of a stab into the body, ideally penetrating an organ like the liver, by example.
I'm saying it cannot be determined from a sweep of the knife across the throat. Any knife as long as, or longer than 3-4 inches, will do the same damage.
The knife that was used on Stride could well have been 6-8 inch in length, as suggested in other cases.

....what was fundamental to, say, Nichols and Chapman's killer applying two sweeps of the knife,...

Thanks to Lynn for clarifying the issue.

But if the deeper neck wounds observed in Nichols and Chapman were not motivated by some ultimate goal, i.e. it was just an impulsive thing for the killer to do, a whim if you like, then I don't see any fundamental reason why, in the case of Stride, the same killer wouldn't just decide, capriciously, to apply one sweep of the knife, resulting in a less deep neck wound. After all, remove the motive of achieving a goal, such as decapitation, then, in respect of one sweep or two sweeps of the knife, why would the killer be fundamentally concerned either way?

Inadvertently John, you may have now touched upon another aspect of the crimes.
Why two cuts?

The first cut is the killer blow, slicing the main vessels, so why make another cut?

I think the opinions of Dr. Brownfield in the Poplar murder case have a bearing on why two cuts were necessary in the earlier murders.

"...my opinion is that death was caused by strangulation by means of a cord being pulled tightly round the neck."

"If he cut the throat along the line of the cord he would obliterate the traces of partial strangulation."

I think it unfortunate that we have no medical opinion as to whether Stride was partially strangled in like fashion. The fact her scarf was pulled tight may have been a clue, but it is so uncertain.
Possibly the cord was used over the scarf, thereby shielding the skin from injury by the cord, or perhaps he used her own scarf instead of his cord, or just as likely there was no attempt at strangulation at all - a different killer entirely.
Either scenario is possible.

[Wickerman]

If you look online you can find JtR witness description lists and questions like ...

... list what they have in common.
... list what they most disagree upon.

The picture you get is basically ...

30, 5'7'', fair complexion, brown moustache, dark jacket, dark peaked cap, stout/broad.

Is Blotchy a million miles away from that? Not really. You might even get another look at him with Ada Wilson's attacker.

It doesn't need to be a million miles away, lots of men wore a brown moustache. If that is all you have half the men in Whitechapel would be suspect. Blotchy has no age - he could have been 50, no height given either.
Noticeably, in the two cases you mention, both times the suspect's skin condition was obvious to the witness, yet neither Schwartz nor Lawende mention anything about a red or blotchy face.

Remember what the City police said about their Mitre Sq. suspect?
"...The City police have been making inquiries for this man for weeks past, but without success, and they do not believe that he is the individual described by Cox."
So, it isn't just me.

Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole comes to mind

[Batman]

It doesn't need to be a million miles away, lots of men wore a brown moustache. If that is all you have half the men in Whitechapel would be suspect. Blotchy has no age - he could have been 50, no height given either.
Noticeably, in the two cases you mention, both times the suspect's skin condition was obvious to the witness, yet neither Schwartz nor Lawende mention anything about a red or blotchy face.

Remember what the City police said about their Mitre Sq. suspect?
"...The City police have been making inquiries for this man for weeks past, but without success, and they do not believe that he is the individual described by Cox."
So, it isn't just me.

Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole comes to mind

Ada Wilson's attacker has age and height parameters.
30 and 5'6"

[c.d.]

How reasonable is it to believe that in the Fall of 1888, in the relatively small geographic area of Whitechapel, that there were inch a part parallel cut killers,
half inch a part parallel cut killers, single deep cut killers and relatively shallow single cut killers all running around and all intent on removing organs from women?

c.d.

[Batman]

How reasonable is it to believe that in the Fall of 1888, in the relatively small geographic area of Whitechapel, that there were inch a part parallel cut killers,
half inch a part parallel cut killers, single deep cut killers and relatively shallow single cut killers all running around and all intent on removing organs from women?

c.d.

It's unprecedented.

[lynn cates]

habitual

Hello CD. Thanks.

It is PRECISELY that he was NOT (in my opinion) trying to achieve consistency that get's my attention. Some things are habitual. One we discover what one's habits are . . .

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

intent

Hello (again) CD. Thanks.

Organs? Polly and Liz keep theirs. So did Alice and Frances. Hard to gauge intent.

Cheers.
LC

[c.d.]

Hello (again) CD. Thanks.

Organs? Polly and Liz keep theirs. So did Alice and Frances. Hard to gauge intent.

Cheers.
LC

Hello Lynn,

Polly had her abdomen cut so I think with her intent is fairly easy to gauge. I won't even talk about Liz and possible interruption. Alice and Frances are not part of the C5.

c.d.

[c.d.]

Hello CD. Thanks.

It is PRECISELY that he was NOT (in my opinion) trying to achieve consistency that get's my attention. Some things are habitual. One we discover what one's habits are . . .

Cheers.
LC

Hello Lynn,

You are talking about the killer as though he were the only player in this game. It was a pas de deux. The possible actions of the victim have to be factored in as well. As I stated earlier, they were not inanimate, stationary targets.

c.d.

[Batman]

There is also every reason to believe he was disturbed with Nichols because her death looks to be within an minute, if not seconds, of being found.

Buck's row has a considerable depth of vision up and down it. He would have seen the witnesses coming a long way off.