Mitre Square: Take Two?

[Tom_Wescott]

On this point you're are in conflict with Wynne Baxter when he stated at the Stride inquest "There had been no skilful mutilation as in the cases of Nichols and Chapman, and no unskilful injuries as in the case in Mitre-square - possibly the work of an imitator;".

He judged that there were basic differences beyond just different methods. And he was there at the time. Trevor makes points worthy of the listening.

I've always felt there was a bit of territorialism over the Ripper when it came to Eddowes. The City Police to a man were convinced she was a Ripper victim whereas every other guy on the Met side was keen to dismiss her as a copycat while fully accepting the unmutilated Stride into the canonical fold. I've always wondered at that and what else it might be symptomatic of. Skip forward to the present era and nobody except Lynn Cates and Simon Wood dismiss Eddowes as a Ripper victim but roughly 30% (don't quote me on that) want to give Stride the boot. Personally, I think the odds are strong both Stride and Eddowes are Ripper victims, but it might be good to keep in mind that a) Contemporary opinion tipped in favor of striking Eddowes not Stride, and b) Had Eddowes been killed on the Met side of the boundary, not a one of the contemporary naysayers are likely to have been naysaying.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[The Rookie Detective]

I've always felt there was a bit of territorialism over the Ripper when it came to Eddowes. The City Police to a man were convinced she was a Ripper victim whereas every other guy on the Met side was keen to dismiss her as a copycat while fully accepting the unmutilated Stride into the canonical fold. I've always wondered at that and what else it might be symptomatic of. Skip forward to the present era and nobody except Lynn Cates and Simon Wood dismiss Eddowes as a Ripper victim but roughly 30% (don't quote me on that) want to give Stride the boot. Personally, I think the odds are strong both Stride and Eddowes are Ripper victims, but it might be good to keep in mind that a) Contemporary opinion tipped in favor of striking Eddowes not Stride, and b) Had Eddowes been killed on the Met side of the boundary, not a one of the contemporary naysayers are likely to have been naysaying.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Completely agree Tom, great post!

[GBinOz]

I've always felt there was a bit of territorialism over the Ripper when it came to Eddowes. The City Police to a man were convinced she was a Ripper victim whereas every other guy on the Met side was keen to dismiss her as a copycat while fully accepting the unmutilated Stride into the canonical fold. I've always wondered at that and what else it might be symptomatic of. Skip forward to the present era and nobody except Lynn Cates and Simon Wood dismiss Eddowes as a Ripper victim but roughly 30% (don't quote me on that) want to give Stride the boot. Personally, I think the odds are strong both Stride and Eddowes are Ripper victims, but it might be good to keep in mind that a) Contemporary opinion tipped in favor of striking Eddowes not Stride, and b) Had Eddowes been killed on the Met side of the boundary, not a one of the contemporary naysayers are likely to have been naysaying.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

The opinions of Lynn Cates and Simon Wood are not to be dismissed lightly. I too am not convinced that the C5 is set in stone. Stride and McKenzie are so similar in their circumstances that, IMO, they need to be treated the same in their acceptance or dismissal.