Who was killed by Jack the Ripper?

[jerryd]

Mary Jane Kelly is listed as a canonical victim, but not a single post about her murder exactly 137 years ago. Rest in Peace, Mary Jane.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I hadn’t noticed the date tbhJerry. Fair point.

RIP Mary.

[Lewis C]

The police don't investigate a dead man.

Why not? Dying doesn't exonerate you from possibly being the Ripper.

c.d.

Good question, c.d. I would think that they should investigate a dead man to help the investigation as a whole. If they learn that he's the killer, then they don't need to investigate further. If they learn he isn't the killer, then they still need to determine who is.

[Lewis C]

Maybe this has some bearing on the discussion of Mac's memory. I have found that I'm much better at remembering some types of information than others. I'm very good at remembering what years things occurred, but I'm not nearly as good at remembering names. And I'm better at remembering names that I see in print than names that I hear. I suspect that it's common for people to have a stronger aptitude for some types of memory than others, and those aptitudes will vary from person to person.

RIP Mary Kelly.

[Doctored Whatsit]

If rumors came to light while Druitt was alive then yes, we should expect the police to have investigated Druitt, but from Mac's wording I took it that rumors only surfaced after Druitt's death. This explains why Mac. only had personal notes, so there would never have been any police files for him to destroy.
The police don't investigate a dead man.

Hi Jon,

In this case, I am sure that you are right, and as I wrote, there seems to have been no police investigation. I am not sure that this is always the case, and some investigation at the time could possibly have "tidied up" an extremely serious series of murders. If he was sure of his facts, one might have expected Mac to have made some nominal enquiries, and if he had done so, he should have got Druitt's age, occupation and address sorted, but he didn't.