Why so little focus?

[Chris Scott]

Hi kensei
You raise a good point.
From a researcher's point of view, I think it is not really a case of ignoring the "500lb gorilla" but rather that there is even less evidence to go on than in the Ripper case itself. At least in the JTR case we have firm identifications for the victims and their lives and backgrounds can be researched.
In the case of the "Embankment Murderer", the "Torso Murderer" encompassing the Pinchin Street and Whitehall Mystery crimes and the various other remains found, once one has read the police reports and press accounts it really is a question of: "Even if I wanted to research this, where do I go from here?" The current answer is, sadly, "Nowhere."
I don't think these cases are being deliberately neglected in favour of the more famous Whitechapel murders. It is just that in the case of the latter there is more to go on, more starting points for a researcher's enthusiasm and efforts.
Chris

[sdreid]

Hi Kensei,

I submitted this case to Newton's The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers so it's in there now. Oddly, it wasn't even in the first edition.

It always seemed strange to me that this case was sort of under the radar. I guess this guy didn't have as good a PR firm as JtR.

[kensei]

I studied the Ripper case casually on and off in my younger years without ever hearing of the Torso killings. In fact it was in Patricia Cornwell's book that I first read about them, and after that I began to collect more books in earnest. And I have to confess that I'm a little perplexed as to why they aren't focused on more. They are kind of like the 500-pound gorilla in the room that we're not supposed to notice. The impression I get is kind of like, "JACK THE RIPPER, most notorious serial killer of all time, everyone pay attention because this is important! Oh, and by the way, if anyone cares, there was also some other freak running around in the same place at the same time dismembering and decapitating people, but it's not that big a deal."

Isn't the mere fact that two such human monsters could exist in the same place simultaneously of equal historical significance as the whole legend of the Ripper on its own? In modern times it would be like if Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgeway had occurred in Seattle at the same time rather than a few years apart.

Actually, as a few other people have expressed, I don't discount the idea that the Ripper and the Torso killer were one and the same, despite the differences in exact details. I base this on the fact that such extreme occurrences are (thankfully, and despite all the attention) extremely rare, and the statistical improbability of more than one person with the background, inclination, motivation, stealth enough not to get caught, and just the nerve and the stomach to actually go through with cutting women to pieces occurring in the same place at the same time. I have stated this before- it is against the odds of commonality every single time it happens even once. A Ted Bundy or a Jeffrey Dahmer or a Jack the Ripper is the rarest of the rare.