If we ignore the "McNaughton Five" for a moment...

[emlodik]

Maybe one could start by actually spelling Macnaghten's name correctly?

All the best

Sorry about that, I meant no harm.

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Maybe one could start by actually spelling Macnaghten's name correctly?

All the best

[Sam Flynn]

A small question was it very unusual for these ladies to take their clients home?

I doubt it, String. Many of those who had their "own" homes would have used them, and even some lodging-house berths would occasionally be used for the purposes of prostitution. There were rules and regulations that would have forbidden such behaviour - as there are in rented accommodation today - but it's a safe bet that these weren't always adhered to, nor enforced, in all cases.

BTW - we can't speak of "these ladies" as if they were all regular prostitutes, because (a) we really don't know that they were, and (b) the social dynamics were rather different back then anyway. For many "unfortunates", the primary driver was doing whatever one could to get a drink or a roof over one's head for one night - in this sense, a sexual favour was a tactic of last resort, employed by ordinary, desperate women as a bargaining chip.

Think of it like this: If a female teenager in a gang of males offered a friend a five-knuckle shuffle in return for some of his beer or cigarettes, would that make her a "prostitute" and him a "client"?

[Dan Norder]

In other words was business normally conducted down alley ways?

Only for those who didn't have rooms and couldn't get the johns to pay for a room somewhere for the night.

[String]

I kept Mary Kelly because I agree with the theory that she was just a casualty of "opprotunity," since she just happened to be a young and attractive woman who inadvertantly proposition the Ripper and lead him inside her flat, thus giving him more time and cover to act out his perverse fantasies. The bastard must have thought he won the lottery when he shut the door of Miller's Court 13 that night...
:

A small question was it very unusual for these ladies to take their clients home? In other words was business normally conducted down alley ways?

[emlodik]

Isn't this just another variation on the countless "who were the victims?" threads? Do we really need another?

Well, I am sorry if it came off that way, but I was just wondering whether everyone agrees with the McNaughton list or whether they have their own "roster." It's just that I haven't been on this board as long as most.

[mariag]

Isn't this just another variation on the countless "who were the victims?" threads? Do we really need another?

[emlodik]

Okay, at the risk opf sounding like an ignorant troll, *cough*perrymason*cough* and at the risk of inviting ignorant trolls like perrymason to slaughter this thread...

Anyway, if were to ignore the "official" five Ripper victim roster, which do you think were the most likely candidates to be killed by the same person? Here's mine...

1. Martha Tabram
2. Mary Ann Nichols
3. Annie Chapman
4. Catharine Eddows
5. Mary Kelly
6. Alice MacKenzie

I kept Mary Kelly because I agree with the theory that she was just a casualty of "opprotunity," since she just happened to be a young and attractive woman who inadvertantly proposition the Ripper and lead him inside her flat, thus giving him more time and cover to act out his perverse fantasies. The bastard must have thought he won the lottery when he shut the door of Miller's Court 13 that night...

As for Alice MacKenzie, I just think she is more likely to be an "interupted victim" than Elizabeth Stride. However, I don't rule out the plausible theory that might have been killed by her lover/pimp and then mutilate to set suspicion on the Ripper.

So, what's everyone else's list?