2019 "What on Earth" epsiode about JtR

[Pcdunn]

Finding Jack the Ripper https://g.co/kgs/7QXGyD9

I stumbled on this program recently, a rebroadcast from 2019 of a series called "What on Earth" which usually looks at satellite images of apparent oddities on Earth. These generally have archaeogical or natural explanations.

The episode "Finding Jack the Ripper" focused on an American gentleman named Guy English, a crime profiler specializing in historic serial murders. He used satellite photos of London's East End, as well as historic images and on-the-ground investigation with a Ripper expert named John Bennett.

English's angle seems to be geographic profiling, which I've heard a little about, but don't know very much. He identified Jack as a marader type killer, murdering within a safe known area to his home neighborhood. Starting with the known murder sites of the Five, he established a Kill area, separted by a Buffer zone, then looked at addresses of known suspects. He narrowed the field to 7 possibles within his data, then found the center of the area led to the dwelliing of Nathan Kamisky (aka David Cohen), the violent man who ended up in Colney Hatch.

Very interesting program. Did anyone catch this? Any thoughts?

[Lewis C]

Hi Pat,

I didn't see it, but "Nathan Kaminsky (aka David Cohen)" caught my eye. These 2 names were brought to our attention by Martin Fido, who initially theorized that they were the same person, but later decided, correctly I think, that there wasn't enough evidence to support that idea. I think the idea was mostly based on the last records for Kaminsky being slightly earlier than the earliest records for David Cohen. So what I wonder is whether the show connected the 2 names just because Fido did at one time, or did it find evidence that they were the same man. If it didn't find that evidence, then which name is the house that they found associated with?

Also, from what I know about geographic profiling, not only the one closest to the center of the region should be looked at closely, but all 7 suspects should be.

[Pcdunn]

Thank you for your reply, Lewis. I know they said they chose Kaminsky because the center of the area seemed to be directly on his house. That, plus his history of violence, seemed to elevate him above the other six suspects.

Would like to know who the others were. Imagine, winnowing 400 suspects down to only seven!