Exhumation of Kelly....any updates?

[GUT]

What is with the romanticism of this poor dead woman?

This would unfortunately never come into fruition due to the large amount of legal issues and procedures one would run into.

It seems almost every year a new theory on the identity of Jack the Ripper is published - this also seems to be the case with Ms. Kelly.

What I find the most intriguing is that that Mr. Davies's claim, as others in the past, that Kelly is actually his distant relative, yet there is absolutely no proof to support these claims and much of it, I speculate, is fabrication. My only question is why? Why make claims you know for an ascertained fact that you can not support?

We'll never know who Kelly was. She died a terrible death and lived a horrible life.

Even in death she can't rest peacefully.

From the day I heard it I said the legal issues would be insurmountable, and I think he knew it all along.

[AuroraSarintacos]

The little amount of evidence offered suggests that she was just an ordinary woman living in dire and desperate circumstances. All basis on her character can only be speculated upon and I'm under the impression that she wasn't a very likable individual.

I believe a lot of the various myths surrounding Ms. Kelly tie back to the misleading press reports of the time. She seems to have been glamorized early on in the press reports of the time as they capitulate upon her supposed youth and good looks; it sold Newspapers.

Personally, going off of the witness descriptions, as well as the portraits that we have of her which do not portray a comely looking woman, even though none of that matters, but I do speculate that is one of the many reasons why she's also so highly focused on.

My opinion is she was in London for the majority of her life and she lied about her past. She was possibly in her 30's and rather dowdy.

I think her friends described her in flattering terms given the situation.

[jmenges]

I've excerpted 9 minutes from our conversation with Wynne Weston Davies so you can hear his thoughts on the matter as they were at the time of the publication of his book in August of 2015. On the full episode, this section begins at the 1:14:30 mark of the 2 hour long interview.

https://www.rippercast.com/mp3/WWD on exhumation.mp3

JM

[GUT]

I've excerpted 9 minutes from our conversation with Wynne Weston Davies so you can hear his thoughts on the matter as they were at the time of the publication of his book in August of 2015. On the full episode, this section begins at the 1:14:30 mark of the 2 hour long interview.

https://www.rippercast.com/mp3/WWD on exhumation.mp3

JM

Thanks Jon,

[AuroraSarintacos]

While I agree that the possibility of DNA to be drawn from the exhumation a great positive I am still apprehensive over whether or not that actually justifies the act itself or Mr. Weston-Davies reasoning for wanting to do so.

[ohrocky]

For anybody who hasn't visited St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, it is huge. There are no records of where MJK was laid to rest and her memorial stone is certainly not the place where she was originally buried.

As graves were often reused, and with the passage of time, a huge amount of resources would need to be invested in order to dig up a substantial part of the graveyard. This would involve displacing the remains of many hundreds of other bodies laid to rest in the cemetery.

It was a non-starter right from the outset.

MJK, and the others buried at St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, should be allowed to rest in peace.

[John Wheat]

For anybody who hasn't visited St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, it is huge. There are no records of where MJK was laid to rest and her memorial stone is certainly not the place where she was originally buried.

As graves were often reused, and with the passage of time, a huge amount of resources would need to be invested in order to dig up a substantial part of the graveyard. This would involve displacing the remains of many hundreds of other bodies laid to rest in the cemetery.

It was a non-starter right from the outset.

MJK, and the others buried at St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, should be allowed to rest in peace.

Agreed. It's a crackpot idea. Let them all rest in peace.

[Wickerman]

For anybody who hasn't visited St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, it is huge. There are no records of where MJK was laid to rest and her memorial stone is certainly not the place where she was originally buried.

As graves were often reused, and with the passage of time, a huge amount of resources would need to be invested in order to dig up a substantial part of the graveyard. This would involve displacing the remains of many hundreds of other bodies laid to rest in the cemetery.

It was a non-starter right from the outset.

MJK, and the others buried at St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, should be allowed to rest in peace.

And that is a real shame, because the way DNA is advancing we might have been able to finally create a reasonable facial representation of what Kelly looked like.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-accurately-can-scientists-reconstruct-persons-face-from-dna-180968951/

[Busy Beaver]

And that is a real shame, because the way DNA is advancing we might have been able to finally create a reasonable facial representation of what Kelly looked like.

Could a Forensic Scientist not construct a face from the MJK photographs? There is a very good FS at Dundee University who has made some great head reconstructions from a skeleton, so I assume she could also do one from a photo.

[Sam Flynn]

Could a Forensic Scientist not construct a face from the MJK photographs? There is a very good FS at Dundee University who has made some great head reconstructions from a skeleton, so I assume she could also do one from a photo.

I fear that even the best reconstruction would be extremely tentative, given that the photograph isn't of the best resolution and Kelly's face was so severely disfigured.

[Wickerman]

And that is a real shame, because the way DNA is advancing we might have been able to finally create a reasonable facial representation of what Kelly looked like.

Could a Forensic Scientist not construct a face from the MJK photographs? There is a very good FS at Dundee University who has made some great head reconstructions from a skeleton, so I assume she could also do one from a photo.

This is what you mean?



From a complete skull, yes.
Though I think DNA also gives the correct colour of the hair, skin & eyes. Which the existing method (above) does not.

[SuspectZero]

I fear that even the best reconstruction would be extremely tentative, given that the photograph isn't of the best resolution and Kelly's face was so severely disfigured.

Perhaps her face was disfigured because the perpetrator did not want her recognized beyond her immediate circle of acquaintances. Her true identity might have led the authorities back to him.

[c.d.]

I'm sorry but I am still confused here. Was permission given for the exhumation or not?

c.d.

[jmenges]

There were several conditions that had to be met in order to proceed with the exhumation. When the Leicester University team conducted their research survey of the site it was decided that those conditions would be impossible to meet and so this particular effort, started by WWD and later taken up by Patricia Cornwell, has been abandoned.

JM

[Azarna]

A skull is 3d. We only have one photo of MJK, from one angle. The face area is pretty small, and obviously horribly mutilated. It is nigh on impossible to tell where there is a flap of skin, a hole or an original feature.
Any reconstruction is going to probably be more artistic imagination than based on solid evidence.