MJK's photo censored/vandalised?

[Losmandris]

There is stuff that is just out of place on her face. Her eyes are out of position, her teeth (or what appears to be her teeth) are tilted out of position. It's just awfully odd. I am not an expert on photographic software or old photos, but this photo (primarily her face) seems royally fouled up by something.

I agree. The hair seems unaffected as does a small section of forehead at the bottom right. The rest is completely obscure(d). Absolutely nothing can be made out. The cracked egg shell appearance is very strange????

I have no doubt that the murder carried out extensive injuries to MJK's face but I would have thought you would have been able to at least make out some details like where her mouth is, eyes and nose are. But I cannot make out a thing. The deliberate obscuring makes a lot of sense to me now when I look at the picture.

[DJA]

Perhaps the killer wanted to obscure her identity.

Mary Ann Kelly's corpse was destined to be sent to her old church's mortuary where Sutton was still on the Vestry Board.

Fair chance he assisted in stitching her up.

Quite possibly the person who gave a pressman her time of death.

[RManny]

There is stuff that is just out of place on her face. Her eyes are out of position, her teeth (or what appears to be her teeth) are tilted out of position. It's just awfully odd. I am not an expert on photographic software or old photos, but this photo (primarily her face) seems royally fouled up by something.

[Yabs]

Looks to me like those fine lines on the face area aren’t scratches they’re just lines added by whatever modern app/algorithm the picture was enhanced by.
I did this with an old very blurry photo of a relative and the same thing happened.

You can even see similar lines on the pillow in the MJK photo.
Algorithms have a habit of adding detail that isn’t there but thinks should be.

[Losmandris]

Over on another thread MarkJD has kind of blown my mind postulating that the face in the famous MJK photo was intentionally obscured/vandalised/censored to possibly protect public decency etc. This to me at least makes a lot of sense. I have never been able to pick out any kind of detail. Which is strange as some accounts said her eyes were open and staring. Could this be an explanation? Thoughts?


Here is Mark's excellent post for context:


Originally posted by Mark J D

The facial area on the photographic plate has been censored by way of vandalism with some kind of stylus. Essentially, the emulsion bearing that part of the image has been broken up and moved around by a great deal of scraping motion. What we see is not a hacked-about face. What we see is a hacked-about image that no longer allows us to see the hacked-about face.

Yes, at some point -- perhaps when the plate was first developed and the emulsion was still wet -- someone with custody of the image decided that Mary Jane's ravaged face was something that the world would not be permitted to see, and the image was vandalised to prevent it being seen. It's not impossible that this was done preparatory to the image being released for first publication and in line with applicable obscenity laws; but if the very earliest published reproductions can be examined, there may be a small chance of the un-vandalised image having been used somewhere.

Note of caution. Close up of the MJK photo attached.