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Regarding the 'cut' : as my fiancé said to her ex, three inches is not very long. To my mind, a mere 3 inches is not enough to allow us to distinguish this as being more of a deliberate cut than a stab inflicted at a certain angle, or withdrawn obliquely.
However, if we take the stabs to the throat as a first step in an evolving M.O. it might be worth noting that the next victim, Nichols, had two wounds to her throat - one quite short; 4 inches according to Llewellyn. I think it is not implausible to picture the focus on the throat evolving from the repeated stabs in the Tabram case, to a hesitant gash followed by a definitive deep throat-cutting in the Nichols case, and on to the attempted decapitations that followed.
Regarding the solitary wound to Tabram's lower abdomen, the precise position may be important, but there is no absolute pattern to JTR's attacks in that area: Nichols had cuts to her 'lower abdomen', but they certainly don't seem to be genitally-focused: some ran horizontally across the abdomen, others went downwards on the right-hand side. Chapman, as far as I can remember, had no stabs reported to the genital area, but her abdomen was opened and her uterus removed. Stride, nothing. Eddowes not only had her abdomen opened and her uterus plundered, she also had several stab wounds to the external genitalia and perineum. But then, Eddowes' kidney was evidently as interesting to JTR as her uterus. MJK, on the other hand, had her external genitalia treated with absolute disregard. They were simply carved off with a huge flap of thigh and buttock, and dumped on the table. JTR evidently had much more interest in innards than he did in genitals, though I am still uncertain whether or not her heart was missing.
For what it's worth, I think that we do not know, cannot know, and never will know whether Tabram was a victim of JTR. But it's fun to speculate.
However, if we take the stabs to the throat as a first step in an evolving M.O. it might be worth noting that the next victim, Nichols, had two wounds to her throat - one quite short; 4 inches according to Llewellyn. I think it is not implausible to picture the focus on the throat evolving from the repeated stabs in the Tabram case, to a hesitant gash followed by a definitive deep throat-cutting in the Nichols case, and on to the attempted decapitations that followed.
Regarding the solitary wound to Tabram's lower abdomen, the precise position may be important, but there is no absolute pattern to JTR's attacks in that area: Nichols had cuts to her 'lower abdomen', but they certainly don't seem to be genitally-focused: some ran horizontally across the abdomen, others went downwards on the right-hand side. Chapman, as far as I can remember, had no stabs reported to the genital area, but her abdomen was opened and her uterus removed. Stride, nothing. Eddowes not only had her abdomen opened and her uterus plundered, she also had several stab wounds to the external genitalia and perineum. But then, Eddowes' kidney was evidently as interesting to JTR as her uterus. MJK, on the other hand, had her external genitalia treated with absolute disregard. They were simply carved off with a huge flap of thigh and buttock, and dumped on the table. JTR evidently had much more interest in innards than he did in genitals, though I am still uncertain whether or not her heart was missing.
For what it's worth, I think that we do not know, cannot know, and never will know whether Tabram was a victim of JTR. But it's fun to speculate.
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