MJK Murder Oddities

[Ben]

Cutting your victims throat on the far right corner of the bed makes no sense whatsoever if the killer is standing at the left-side, especially if the bed is 48" wide.

Absolutely, but I don't think the victim was at the far side of the bed when the throat was cut. She was probably lying relatively central the bed when her killer commenced the attack, and was simply repositioned after the initial incapacitation to direct arterial spray away from the killer and his clothes. Either that, or she was facing that direction anyway.

[Wickerman]

Hi WM,
......If the killer himself had been lying down squashed up besides Kelly in a single bed, the act of cutting her throat in that position would have been rendered very haphazard indeed.

The angle of the photograph makes it difficult to give a size to the bed, but it had to be suitable for both Kelly and Barnett to share, so I wouldn't automatically assume the bed was a single.
Back in Victorian times there was a bed size between the Single (36" width), and the Double (54" width). The inbetween size was a Three-quarter bed, 48" width.
Cutting your victims throat on the far right corner of the bed makes no sense whatsoever if the killer is standing at the left-side, especially if the bed is 48" wide.

The pattern established with the murders of Nichols, Chapman & Eddowes was one of a swift attack, possibly strangled (garotted?) from behind, layed out, and throat sliced by a killer on the right-side of the body.
The posture of Kelly's corpse is not consistent with the established pattern. Once the victim is rendered unconscious the killer can dominate the scene by laying the body out as is his preference. The differences are speaking volumes.

[Ben]

Hi WM,

Kelly's throat had been cut while she was laying close to the right-side of the bed, against the partition

I think it's more likely that her head and neck were simply tilted towards the partition by the killer to direct the bloodflow away from his garments when cutting the throat, as he had evidently done at previous murders. In which case, the killer needn't have been lying on the bed at any stage, especially not at the time of the throat. If the killer himself had been lying down squashed up besides Kelly in a single bed, the act of cutting her throat in that position would have been rendered very haphazard indeed.

After tilting her head towards the partition for the throat cut, I'd suggest instead that he simply let the body flop back into its supine position in the centre of the bed (where he found it) before commencing the mutilations, and that he would have done so standing over her as with the throat cut and initial attack. I see no evidence that her actual body was close to the partition at any stage.

Best regards,
Ben

[Wickerman]

The arterial spray hit the wall to the right of the bed. So as the killer must have been standing room-side of the bed there is no reason to suppose he would have been drenched in arterial spray.

Dr Phillips made some significant observations, the implications of which rarely get mentioned.

"....The mutilated remains of a woman were lying two- thirds over, towards the edge of the bedstead, nearest the door. Deceased had only an under- linen garment upon her, and by subsequent examination I am sure the body had been removed, after the injury which caused death, from that side of the bedstead which was nearest to the wooden partition previously mentioned. The large quantity of blood under the bedstead, the saturated condition of the palliasse, pillow, and sheet at the top corner of the bedstead nearest to the partition leads me to the conclusion that the severance of the right carotid artery, which was the immediate cause of death, was inflicted while the deceased was lying at the right side of the bedstead and her head and neck in the top right-hand corner..."

Kelly's throat had been cut while she was laying close to the right-side of the bed, against the partition. Phillips then suggests the body was pulled two-thirds the way across to the left-side.
As Kelly was so far over to the right-side we must see this as suggestive that her killer was sharing the bed with her at the time of the attack. She was making room for someone else. Her throat was cut by the person laying beside her, not standing over her. After she was dead, then her body was pulled towards the left-side, easier to mutilate when you can reach your subject.
As Kelly was in her nightdress, and positioned over to the right-side, sharing her bed, shouldn't we be allowed to entertain the thought that her killer was also undressed?

Details such as these make this particular killing a significant departure from the previous so-called JtR killings. This killer had no reservations about being interrupted with Kelly, he was taking all the time he needed, we should perhaps contemplate "why?"

[Robert]

I suspect he was just trying to find somewhere dry out of the rain. Maybe a back entry into the shed.

[Jon Guy]

You lost me here. What do you think he was expecting to find?

Joey Barnett, perhaps ..... "c`mon on in Georgie, she`s gone to New Court for the night".

[c.d.]

I think his method changed because he did something devilishly unexpected : he turned the door handle and walked in. And I think he got a shock when he found Kelly in there.

Just my three ha'pworth (used to be two ha'pworth but inflation's on the climb.)

Sorry, Robert. You lost me here. What do you think he was expecting to find?

c.d.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Robert!

No wonder; after middle-aged drunkards had-seen-their-best days, a young, good-looking gal sleeping...

All the best
Jukka

[Robert]

I think his method changed because he did something devilishly unexpected : he turned the door handle and walked in. And I think he got a shock when he found Kelly in there.

Just my three ha'pworth (used to be two ha'pworth but inflation's on the climb.)

[John Bennett]

John Bennett; those logical explanations don't necessarily exclude each other...

All the best
Jukka

That's very true!

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Dan!

What a scenario; Imagine presenting a solution to our case!

John Bennett; those logical explanations don't necessarily exclude each other...

All the best
Jukka

[Dan Norder]

I think John Lennon wrote a song about just that scenario, c.d.

[c.d.]

There is a yet more logical explanation for Kelly being murdered indoors - she had her own indoors to go to!

Go easy with that logical stuff, John or else everybody will start doing it. Can you imagine what would happen to the boards?

c.d.

[John Bennett]

Even that has a logical explanation, though; JtR may have felt the Vigilance Committee to be on his heels. And Mary - despite being pretty witty at least in covering the tracks of her real backround - thought to be safe indoors...

There is a yet more logical explanation for Kelly being murdered indoors - she had her own indoors to go to!

[j.r-ahde]

Hello JRJ!

And welcome aboard on my behalf too!

There is only one proven oddity in MJK's murder; she was murdered indoors!

Even that has a logical explanation, though; JtR may have felt the Vigilance Committee to be on his heels. And Mary - despite being pretty witty at least in covering the tracks of her real backround - thought to be safe indoors...

All the best
Jukka