What happened to the evidence?

[Frank]

I agree that exhuming the bodies would be useless. In the case of Kaspar Hauser I mentioned the samples were taken from clothes exposed in a museum. Exhuming is not possible since due to the bombings in World War II everything was turned upside down and the remains were just buried again without caring which part of a body belongs to whom. Maybe the problem in London would be quite similar.
Nevertheless the bodies were washed in the mortuary...

[Monty]

Philip,

Monty - Any idea why a blood sample was taken if the blood was naturally assumed to be from FC and forensics at that point was so basic that all that could be established was if blood was mammalian (or is that a myth)?

Let me work on it and I'll get back to you.

Youre right, mamilian or not was the standard test. Like I say, let me work on it.

The kidney was destroyed in the 1950s I believe, again, let me work on it.

Monty

[George Hutchinson]

No, dammit, Monty. Tell me NOW!!!

PHILIP

[Mike Covell]

John Plimmer wrote that a "Wine Glass of Blood" was found at the scene, wonder where that went!

[Monty]

No, dammit, Monty. Tell me NOW!!!

PHILIP

I might, then again.....

...you can wait till I get home !

Monty


PS If I do, its snowing again here.

[Christine]

There's no intact DNA anymore, obviously. The question is whether technology might advance to the point where it can easily analyze deteriorated DNA. This is my analogy to picking out a pile of words. Intact DNA is a book, but this scenario would be looking only at words. Someday we may reach the point where we can quickly look at the remains (with an improved electron microscope, for example) and come up with a pile of millions of words. Find an unusual word on all five victims, and you have a starting point for someone who touched all five victims. So far as I can tell from the various coroner's reports, no one person in the employ of the police touched all five victims.

Now if that unusual word could tell us that the person who touched all five victims was descended from a man who lived in a particular village in Germany in prehistoric times...damn that's very interesting. A lot more interesting than MJK's bolster, even if it is flesh.

And all this is speculation, call it science fiction if you will, but it's also all just an improvement of things that we already do, slowly, inaccurately, and haphazardly. So I'm not holding my breath, but this is still a very real possibility someday.

[protohistorian]

John Plimmer wrote that a "Wine Glass of Blood" was found at the scene, wonder where that went!

I have that at my apartment, only now it's a baseball sized glob of goop.

[Monty]

Philip,

Couldnt located the Evening Standard piece however Lloyds Weekly of 22nd February also reports the same incident, see the snippet below.

There is no official report that I can locate however Lloyds merely states that they assumed the sample went off for analysis.

Cheers

Monty

[cappuccina]

I have often wondered...

...where the other "Mary Kelly Crime Scene photos" went to...

I cannot put my hands on it at the moment, but I distinctly remember reading that hte photographer took at least 10 shots; we have two....where did the others go...??

There is no way that a photgrapher having to set up the cumbersome equipment of the time, and given the nature of the crime at hand, and the bad weather conditions he was working under, would have taken only two shots...

[Steve F]

...where the other "Mary Kelly Crime Scene photos" went to...

I cannot put my hands on it at the moment, but I distinctly remember reading that hte photographer took at least 10 shots; we have two....where did the others go...??

There is no way that a photgrapher having to set up the cumbersome equipment of the time, and given the nature of the crime at hand, and the bad weather conditions he was working under, would have taken only two shots...

Ahhh....so,that's what those 8 photo's are in my attic! Should I scan 'em and post'em or what?

[sdreid]

Regarding blood forensics, I believe it could be tested for poison as well as whether it was mammalian. I suppose they could have tested it for poison to eliminate the slim possibility that the murder was a poisoning where the throat cut was added later as a red herring. I know, that's out there a bit but that's the only reason I can think of right now. They already knew that the blood came from a mammal.

[Bob Hinton]

Know what you mean!

If you think losing the evidence from the Ripper killings is frustrating you ought to work with me on a case I’m researching at the moment, the Mamie Stuart case.

She vanished in 1919 and her remains were found in a cave in 1961. I have serious doubts about this case and am trying to pull all the evidence together.

Along with the remains in the cave were found a number of items of jewellery and items from her clothing. Most importantly a hair slide was found still containing her hair. Since this would have rotted from the scalp the roots should still be there allowing a DNA match to be made with her surviving relatives.

Imagine my frustration to learn that these items that were on display in the South Wales Police museum have now disappeared.

Not only that they have also managed to lose the remains!

At least we know where all the Rippers victims are!

[Jeff Leahy]

At least we know where all the Rippers victims are!

Well NO we don’t Bob,

We only have an approximation of where they were buried. Most of the gravesites have been re-used. There are approximation markers for Eddows and Nichols. Annie Capmans grave was re-used in the 1980’s. And the gravestone of MJK is an approximate location, not an exact spot. So I think we can only be certain of where LIZ is buried.

So even if you did ever get permission to exhume the bodies, which is highly unlikely. You’d never discover any useful information about the killer. They would be almost impossible to identify from other peoples remains.

So apart from possibly identifying where MJK came from, nothing could be gained from such an exercise of modern or even future DNA information.

Pirate

[George Hutchinson]

I'm afraid we don't even know for sure where Liz is buried either - although she has a nice surround and everything, it's still only an approximation. Annie's site has been buried over at LEAST twice.

And no one knows if Martha even had a funeral!

PHILIP

[Frank]

Did the police then even look for hairs not belonging to the victim on the clothes?
Even the colour and the length of those hairs could be worthy information in my opinion.
But I supose they did not...