Who was Jack's first murder poll!

[sdreid]

Well, at least 3 think Jack started before 1888.

[sdreid]

Three to five.

[sdreid]

But 0-2 for before 1887.

[Fisherman]

Nothing to see:

"Fisherman, you sometimes get things wrong."

That is correct. At least I think so. But, as you point out, I may be wrong here ...

The best,
Fisherman

[sdreid]

But 0-2 for before 1887.

The 2 being the possibles in the Another category.

[sdreid]

Does anyone think that Jack started murdering before 1887?

[Phil H]

Stan

Does anyone think that Jack started murdering before 1887?

He might have done.

I have seen views expressed (and which I am sympathetic to) that it is unlikely JtR started out as a full-scale murderer/mutilator (i.e. with Polly Nichols).

I have also seen it said that such people often begin with cruelty to animals or lesser violence.

So I think a case could well be made for an earlier commencement of violence/murder, but I have no idea who the victims might have been or even if they were in the UK.

I don't know how you would ever tie this down. I suppose court records might reveal a violent individual who had offended earlier but was at liberty in the period August-November 1888.

Phil

[Lechmere]

I am as certain as anyone could be art this remove that Nichols wasn’t the first.
I think Tabram was the first outright murder. I think the Smith case may have given him ideas (but wasn’t him) and Millwood and Wilson may have been his early work.
I think it is likely that Millwood died from injuries resulting from her attack, in which case she should count as a murder victim, and I think it is likely that she was attacked by the same person. However that makes two areas of doubt so I would have to stick with Tabram as the first certain Ripper murder.

[Phil H]

Tabram doesn't strike me as a Ripper victim - the ferocity, the stabbing rather than cutting action, suggest something different at work, at least to me.

The suggestion of two different weapons makes me wonder about a gang, as with Smith (maybe the same one). The emergence of "Jack" may then have put them off. I suspect that there was something

I'll probably be proved wholly wrong one-day.

Millwood is always a possible as an early "attempt" though the circumstances seem a little odd.

The other possibility is that, as Robin Odell argued years ago, JtR honed his skills on animals as some sort of "slaughterman" (Jewish or otherwise). which might at least have given him practice in throat cutting and keeping clear of blood spray. Odell is out of fashion and has been for a long-time, but the authors of my younger days gave a lot of thought to these killings and some imagination. (Mocked nowadays, even the mad midwife of Doyle and Stewart is an admirable attempt to think outside the box, IMHO.)

Phil

[sdreid]

I think that Millwood likely died as a result of the attack also.

[sdreid]

It seems like too big a coincidence otherwise. Not that it's impossible of course.

[sdreid]

Her stock seems to have gone up of late.

[Wickerman]

I think there is a hint of 'method' with Nichols, it is not difficult to see from her wounds that he intended to do to Nichols exactly what he succeded doing with Chapman.
This suggests he mentally set himself a sequence to follow, a methodical approach, step 1, 2, 3, etc. If this is correct then he may have killed before, I just do not see the attacks against Millwood, Wilson or Tabram as being the build-up to Nichols.

I also don't see this as indicative of how a mentally ill person (mania, lunacy, etc.) would organize their procedure, but then it is also very easy to read too much into these crimes.
As things sit at the moment I take Nichols as his first Whitchapel murder, but possibly not the first person he has ever killed.

Regards, Jon S.

[Uncle Jack]

I personally have a Canonical 14. I know my opinion will be greatly disagreed with but that is just me.

01. Annie Millwood
02. Ada Wilson
03. Malvina Haynes
04. Martha Tabram
05. Mary Ann Nichols
06. Annie Chapman
07. Catherine Eddowes
08. Mary Kelly
09. Rose Mylett
10. Alice McKenzie
11. Pinchin Street torso
12. Frances Coles
13. Jane Thomson
14. Mary Ann Austin

I think my view about Mylett will be disputed but it is a known fact that killers can change their methods of murder during their killings. Take serial killer Trevor Hardy, the Beast of Manchester. His first victim, Janet Stewert, was stabbed to death and buried in a shallow grave. Six months later he then changed his method and used a brick to batter Wanda Skala to death. Trevor Hardy went from stabbing to battering in a space of a few months. Again he changed his methods with his third victim when he reverted back to stabbing but also included strangulation in the murder. With facts like this then I can accept that Jack strangled Mylett and could possibly have intended to carry out mutilations afterwards but was interrupted.

[sdreid]

Hi Adam:

I have seen some old Ripper accounts that actually give 14 as a possible number but I doubt they are exactly the same as your 14.