Apologies if this has been done before but I have looked around and can't see it anywhere.
After years of interest in the JtR case and reading up on most of the various theories, I have decided to step out of the proverbial shadows and attempt drawing a few conclusions of my own...
Like many others on here I see MJK as a troubling part of the case. One way or the other I can't help thinking this final (?) or otherwise 'Jack' murder holds the key either to unlocking the others (the old 'why the last one' debate) or to helping flush out some of the red herrings (Barnett, Hutchinson?) as far as the earlier murders if it can be shown it was not necessarily the work of the same killer (the view I am beginning to come around to)- although obviously this isn't the same as saying they weren't perhaps responsible for MJK's death (a terrible enough leacy in itself).
Anyways- enough waffle. My question, for now, is just how much do we know about the fire in MJKs room? I may have missed something, but everything I have read about this fact (minor, perhaps) seems to be either second hand (ie 'detectives found a raging fire in the grate') and/or extremely subjective (ie 'it must have been burning all night'- why? how could they tell?)
What are the- contemporary- facts here? Can we say for certain that the fire MUST have been burning all night (in which case it certainly does seem odd that no-one else in or around Miller's Court noticed it)? It all seems to hang on the kettle, but where exactly was this kettle, was it in the fire? I don't seem to be able to find anything conclusive on this point (sorry if I've just missed it).
Is anyone on here enough of a pyromaniac to have any idea how long a (presumably) cheap victorian kettle spout might take to melt (or, as seems more likely to me,simply to break along a poorly repaired faultline?)
In short, and this is the way I am thinking, is it perhaps the case that the intensity of the fire, like Dew's blood-soaked floor and hanging entrails, was one of those details exaggerated by the horror and shock of the scene and since passed down into folklore in a slightly OTT fashion?
Also, anyone got any theories on the fire, either way? It seems to be one o those details a lot of theorists allude to without really examining it, as if something should hang on it but they're not sure what? Personally, and I apologise that I can't remember the name of the author off the top of my head, but I tend to agree with the author of the article on here 'time is on my side' suggesting that Mcarthy doctored something during the 'missing' time between MJK's discovery and the landlord's arrival (after Bowyer) at Commercial Road- could he have set the fire, or at least ramped it up to destroy something in time?
Many thanks for any replies, and hello I suppose!
After years of interest in the JtR case and reading up on most of the various theories, I have decided to step out of the proverbial shadows and attempt drawing a few conclusions of my own...
Like many others on here I see MJK as a troubling part of the case. One way or the other I can't help thinking this final (?) or otherwise 'Jack' murder holds the key either to unlocking the others (the old 'why the last one' debate) or to helping flush out some of the red herrings (Barnett, Hutchinson?) as far as the earlier murders if it can be shown it was not necessarily the work of the same killer (the view I am beginning to come around to)- although obviously this isn't the same as saying they weren't perhaps responsible for MJK's death (a terrible enough leacy in itself).
Anyways- enough waffle. My question, for now, is just how much do we know about the fire in MJKs room? I may have missed something, but everything I have read about this fact (minor, perhaps) seems to be either second hand (ie 'detectives found a raging fire in the grate') and/or extremely subjective (ie 'it must have been burning all night'- why? how could they tell?)
What are the- contemporary- facts here? Can we say for certain that the fire MUST have been burning all night (in which case it certainly does seem odd that no-one else in or around Miller's Court noticed it)? It all seems to hang on the kettle, but where exactly was this kettle, was it in the fire? I don't seem to be able to find anything conclusive on this point (sorry if I've just missed it).
Is anyone on here enough of a pyromaniac to have any idea how long a (presumably) cheap victorian kettle spout might take to melt (or, as seems more likely to me,simply to break along a poorly repaired faultline?)
In short, and this is the way I am thinking, is it perhaps the case that the intensity of the fire, like Dew's blood-soaked floor and hanging entrails, was one of those details exaggerated by the horror and shock of the scene and since passed down into folklore in a slightly OTT fashion?
Also, anyone got any theories on the fire, either way? It seems to be one o those details a lot of theorists allude to without really examining it, as if something should hang on it but they're not sure what? Personally, and I apologise that I can't remember the name of the author off the top of my head, but I tend to agree with the author of the article on here 'time is on my side' suggesting that Mcarthy doctored something during the 'missing' time between MJK's discovery and the landlord's arrival (after Bowyer) at Commercial Road- could he have set the fire, or at least ramped it up to destroy something in time?
Many thanks for any replies, and hello I suppose!
Comment