Ep. #36- Re-Investigating the Ripper: With Trevor Marriott

[Ally]

The "removal" times are patently ridiculous. Only a complete moron would believe that it would require 40 minutes to rip open some flesh and grab an organ.

Trevor's main fault is that he states the blatantly ridiculous, then says a doctor told me so, and expects that to be taken as the final word, when anyone with an ounce of reasoning skills could see that to be a blatantly false assertion and that it would absolutely NOT require any length of time at all to slice open an abdomen and grab an organ.

Something else I noticed and would liked to have followed up in the interview was his assertion that they were photographing as they went along, so what precisely was the POINT of their "experiments"? I mean if they were pausing to set up photographs, they obviously weren't going for speed, which of course biases their "scientific" experiments even further.

The use of the word "scientific" is what I find supremely objectionable in his explanations, when there was nothing scientific about these experiments at all. He set them up for the conclusion he wanted, arranged it to get the conclusion he wanted and now says he has objective data to support that conclusion, when of course, he has nothing of the kind and all his claims to the contrary are ludicrous to anyone who understand what the terms "scientific" and "objective" actually mean.

[The Grave Maurice]

Calm down, Ally, or you'll do yourself a mischief. Surely no one can put much credence in Trevor's theories. I thought he acquitted himself quite well on the podcast but, nonetheless, his work remains firmly in the company of authors such as Pamella Ball and John Wilding. Good for a bit of entertainment, but not worth taking seriously.

[Simon Wood]

Hi GM,

I never had you down as the patronizing type.

Regards,

Simon

[RJM]

And who's putting their hand up for Ally's suggested experiment of five minutes with a corpse and a knife to see what you can find?

Just make sure the table is nice and low boys and girls

[Natalie Severn]

Yes, I agree with Norma on this one. He appeared to deal with the criticisms with a good heart and gave honest answers - I always felt he handled the tricky questions fully.

His presentation on the removal of a kidney was very thought-provoking (and not a little yukky!)

Yuk"s the word John!

[Natalie Severn]

I must admit Norma, I do admire Trevors ability to stoke the fires with a glint in his eye.

I also admire the waythat he looks at things from a different angle even though I cannot agree with all of his outcomes.

However, dont tell him this. Just our lil secret eh?

Monty

Monty-


Norma

[The Grave Maurice]

I never had you down as the patronizing type.

Patronizing? Moi? Je pense que non.

[Jeff Leahy]

Just a quick post to say i enjoyed the show.

I must confess to being a little confussed on one thing..

Was Trevor saying that he believed Liz Stride was a victim or NOT?

It just seemed odd that he appeared to start the show by eliminating attacks then slowly added body count as the show went on.

Also is there any more information on the Ripper style attacks in Germany 1891-94?

Much enjoyed as always

Yours Pirate

[jmenges]

Hi Jeff,

27 April 1891 Beuthen- Wife of a tailor named Imielaw murdered and mutilated by a person possessing surgical skill and found behind a hospital where her lover, named Kudelko, worked as a surgeon. Kudelko was arrested. Note- Murder took place 3 days after the Carrie Brown murder in New York. (Marriott records the wrong date for this Beuthen murder as 1890, not 91. Lawton and Marriott both cited the Carrie Brown murder as part of the evidence that Feigenbaum was the Ripper).

25 October 1891 Berlin- Hedwig Nitsche, prostitute murdered in a cellar she used to service clients. Throat cut and torso slashed from the throat downwards. Killer's description- about 20, medium height, slight build, blonde hair and moustache.

3 April 1892 Berlin- prostitute strangled in a building stairwell.

Late September 1892 Berlin- Woman found strangled in a sand pit.

The later two strangle murders were thought to be connected.

See Wolf Vanderlinden's excellent article on Feigenbaum, first published in Ripper Notes #28, reprinted here http://www.casebook.org/suspects/carl-feigenbaum.html.

Glad you enjoyed the show,

JM

[Bailey]

RJM, that seems like a distrubing amount of enthusiasm for a bit of corpse mutilation! I'm worried about you, mate... I'm not quite as gung ho about diving in there, but if you need a photographer to document it (which - Ally - can probably be done fairly unobtrusively without interfering with the amount of time the experiment takes unless you're actively going "Stop, let me get in there!") I'm your guy.

I'd be interested in the results anyhoo. Since human corpses are trickierto find (legitimately) perhaps as was suggested a pig would be a go.

Or do folks interested in this case already have too much anatomical knowledge to make this a valid blind test?

B.

[RJM]

I don't know how serious I was being but I am probably a decent candidate. I'm not squeamish. I have no surgical skill but do possess some anatomical knowledge.

I'm also available to carve Christmas dinners!

Robert

[RJM]

Just a quick post to say i enjoyed the show.

I must confess to being a little confussed on one thing..

Was Trevor saying that he believed Liz Stride was a victim or NOT?

In his book, Marriott does not believe Stride to be a canonical victim. He doesn't rule it out completely though. That's probably the reason for the confusion. Like may aspects of the case we all have leanings but they are not always absolutes.

Robert

[String]

I enjoyed the show too.
I'm still unconvinced by most of Trevors theories but he does make a very convincing case. The organ removal theory is definitely 'out there' but I did always wonder how Mr Ripper was able to remove organs in a very dark street in certainly a highly agitated state and in such a short time. He was certainly a most remarkable killer.