JTR in America...

[GregBaron]

Hi all,

I caught the end of this program the other night implicating poor James Kelly. I'm sure it was discussed but I missed it. What I didn't know was the existence of a supposed Diary and Kelly's extensive travels across America. I chuckled when they worked up a sketch of the Ripper. Based upon what?

Anyway, I was wondering if you all remember it and if it was the usual tripe or did it perhaps have some validity? I think it said the original program was in 2009...



Greg

[DRoy]

Greg,

I just watched it last week for the first time. You can actually find it on YouTube.

It wasn't a bad show but it didn't have anything that you can't find in Casebook or Prisoner 1167. However, it is Jack The Ripper so it should be watched for that reason alone...just don't expect to learn too much

Cheers
DRoy

[RivkahChaya]

I saw it a few months ago. IIRC, all the James Kelly info was pretty good, and none of it original. All the US information was pretty much wishful thinking.

References to post-1888 "ripper killings" in the US were not well-cited, and as far as I can tell, were based on newspaper clippings, and failed to appreciate that since the JTR murders, "ripper" murder, particularly when used in a secondary source (eg, by a reporter who did not actually see the body in question, let alone any of the Whitechapel victims), was just a sensationalist way of describing a murder where the motive was indeterminate, and the crime was savage. In other words, it in no way meant literally like the JTR victims; it was just a gut reaction that these were thrill-type serial murders, before those terms existed. Citing a newspaper clipping from Texas, or something, in 1890, that said "ripper murder" shouldn't be understood as potentially a crime by JTR, anymore than describing a crime as a "serial killing" in the Northern US in the 1990s, should be understood as suggesting that it was done by Jeffrey Dahmer.

[c.d.]

Yeah, the Ripper picture was laughable since they obviously just kept doctoring Kelly's photo until it matched 99.9% the supposed picture of the Ripper which was itself a composite to begin with.

c.d.

[GregBaron]

Concocting Kelly...

Thanks for the comments everyone. I pretty much agree with all of you. Positing a picture of the Ripper is absurd and if you put a hat and mustache on a white man in the dark you've got all the men of Whitechapel. Rather indistinguishable.

The comments about newspaper clippings were spot on. Any brutal murder equals ripper I guess...

Well, I guess we just chalk it up to another show that named the ripper...................Not


Greg