"The Secret Idenity of Jack the Ripper". Your thoughts?

[GUT]

G'Day Elleryqueen74

Just realised that I didn't answer you question about "Dear Boss" I really doubt it's authenticity, had the "saucy Jack postcard" come a day earlier I would have given it a lot higher probability of being real.

The only "mainstream" letter I give any chance of being genuine is "From Hell" and even it I only rate about 55:45.

[Barnaby]

The more detailed it is, the harder it is to refute?

I think we may be talking about two different things. If I have a very vague suspect (e.g., it was an unknown Polish Jew...), that is a very difficult thing for someone to refute. If on the other hand I have a very specific suspect (it was Prince Albert Victor!), that is much easier to refute.

This is a similar issue to falsification in science. Science advances by falsifying the specific predictions (hypotheses) made by theories (and thus perhaps falsifying the theory itself). Over time, the theories that withstand the test gain strength.

I'm not advocating vague suspects are better: just that they are harder to refute, or prove wrong. In fact, these sorts of vague suspects (unknown Polish Jew, etc.) are worthless because they do not make specific testable predictions.

[Ozzy]

So Ozzy are you suggesting that at the time of the making of The Secret Identity that Fido only went along with the idea of Kozminski as a prime suspect for the Ripper because that's what the producers of that program wanted him to do? Not that at that time Fido actually thought Kozminski was an actually viable candidate for JtR?

If so this would probably fit in with my theory of at the time of the documentary Kozminski was used as a convenient suspect rather than a real serious candidate because of the lack of knowledge/photos of him.

I wasn't trying to suggest anything. Merely pointing out something I'd heard/read somewhere in relation to what Tom said (the part I quoted).

I have two* audiobooks by Martin Fido. I'll have a listen to them again as that might be the source of what I was trying to remember (thanks Tecs).

* On The Trail Of Jack The Ripper (about 3 and a quarter hours)
The Truth About Jack the Ripper (about 2 and a quarter hours)