Tweet
Hi
I'm new to the Forums but have lurked here for some while and have been reading about the Ripper case for over 20 years.
One aspect of the case has been particularly bugging me for a while now and I would be interested to hear other forum members' views.
There is a fairly compelling school of thought that Mary Kelly may have been killed much later than thought at the time. From reading William Beadle's "Anatomy of a Myth" I understand that the onset of Rigor Mortis may suggest that Mary might have been killed between 8 and 10 a.m., thus meaning that the evidence of Caroline Maxwell and Maurice Lewis takes on great significance.
However, I am finding really hard to believe that whoever the Ripper was, he would take the enormous risk of :
a) being seen entering Miller's Court in broad daylight (with or without Kelly)
and
b) even more riskily, being seen leaving it. As I understand it, he would not be able to see from inside whether anyone was going into the court. He could open the door to go out and bump straight into someone; after all Dorset Street was hardly a quiet little road! I appreciate that this could have happened in the night, but I imagine the darkness would have shielded him from anyone getting a really good look at him.
If Maurice Lewis is to be believed, Mary would have been killed only a matter of half an hour or so before she was discovered; this again does not seem very likely to me.
The only other reason that Mary could have been seen in the morning was that the body in Miller's Court was actually someone else's. I find this hard to believe as Mary would have soon denied it was her if she was still alive and if she was going to do a moonlight flit somewhere, being seen vomiting in the road and then in a crowded pub is hardly a great start to a life of anonymity!
So, despite some of the recent research, I am still inclined to believe that Mary was murdered sometime in the small hours as I cannot accept that the Ripper would have taken such a massive risk.
Would love to hear other people's views; go easy on me though!
(For what it's worth, I think it is most likely that the Ripper probably has never been identified but if I could go back and be Abberline now, I would want to urgently talk to William Bury and George Hutchinson would have some serious explaining to do!!)
I'm new to the Forums but have lurked here for some while and have been reading about the Ripper case for over 20 years.
One aspect of the case has been particularly bugging me for a while now and I would be interested to hear other forum members' views.
There is a fairly compelling school of thought that Mary Kelly may have been killed much later than thought at the time. From reading William Beadle's "Anatomy of a Myth" I understand that the onset of Rigor Mortis may suggest that Mary might have been killed between 8 and 10 a.m., thus meaning that the evidence of Caroline Maxwell and Maurice Lewis takes on great significance.
However, I am finding really hard to believe that whoever the Ripper was, he would take the enormous risk of :
a) being seen entering Miller's Court in broad daylight (with or without Kelly)
and
b) even more riskily, being seen leaving it. As I understand it, he would not be able to see from inside whether anyone was going into the court. He could open the door to go out and bump straight into someone; after all Dorset Street was hardly a quiet little road! I appreciate that this could have happened in the night, but I imagine the darkness would have shielded him from anyone getting a really good look at him.
If Maurice Lewis is to be believed, Mary would have been killed only a matter of half an hour or so before she was discovered; this again does not seem very likely to me.
The only other reason that Mary could have been seen in the morning was that the body in Miller's Court was actually someone else's. I find this hard to believe as Mary would have soon denied it was her if she was still alive and if she was going to do a moonlight flit somewhere, being seen vomiting in the road and then in a crowded pub is hardly a great start to a life of anonymity!
So, despite some of the recent research, I am still inclined to believe that Mary was murdered sometime in the small hours as I cannot accept that the Ripper would have taken such a massive risk.
Would love to hear other people's views; go easy on me though!
(For what it's worth, I think it is most likely that the Ripper probably has never been identified but if I could go back and be Abberline now, I would want to urgently talk to William Bury and George Hutchinson would have some serious explaining to do!!)
Comment