Casebook Examiner No. 2 (June 2010)

[Ally]

Valid suspect ?

If you havent already read it see post number # 43

I read it. And if you hadn't put that snarky post up, I'd have let it alone.

1.Le Grand was cruel, vicious, violent, accurately described himself as “void of all human feeling”; he lived for years off prostitutes and took joy in beating them in the open street. Unlike Tumblety, Druitt, or Kosminski, Le Grand was a verifiable sociopath.

The Ripper was completely the opposite. All murders away from the public eye.

This is your personal opinion that the Ripper was completely the opposite. It may simply be down to the difference in assaulting a woman in public is quite different than murdering a woman and indicative of better planning. All of the women except for Kelly were killed in public areas, that were accessible, if not crowded. So this is argument is a wash.

2.


No evidence to suggest the Ripper did this.

There is no evidence that anyone besides the killer took the organs. Are you now admitting that lack of evidence proves your argument invalid? If you are now claiming that lack of evidence proves all conjecture invalid (which is not necessarily a point I wouldn't support) you must then recognize that the vast majority of your theory likewise becomes invalid.

3. Le Grand, alone among the suspects, could have depended on an accomplice if necessary.

No evidence to suggest Ripper had an accomplice

No evidence to support Catherine Eddowes got her period in prison and hacked up her apron for a menstrual rag. Once again, what's your point?

4. Le Grand, alone among the suspects, inserted himself into the investigation by joining the WVC.

So did many other men from in and around Whitechapel

Valid point.

5. Le Grand alone would have known the whereabouts on any night of the WVC patrolmen, as he was in charge of placing them. Through his police contacts he would also know the beats of policemen in any area of London.

There is no evidence to suggest the Ripper knew or used this information to his advantage

There is no evidence to suggest he didn't either. What's your point?

6.
Many people would have been stopped and spoken to by the police and many allowed to go lawfully on their way

Valid point.

7. The WVC met at the Crown Tavern at 74 Mile End Road, a short distance from Berner Street. They let out for patrol after midnight. This means that we can accurately place Le Grand in the very neighbourhood in which Stride was murdered at the very hour of her murder.

Along with about 100 + other men

Narrowing the suspect pool by verifying people who were actually in the area at the time is a valid tool of police investigation.

8.
Schwartz description cannot be relied upon for many different reasons.

In your opinion. Without elaboration, not a valid point.

9.

There is no evidence to prove or disprove the Batty St lodger

I would have a lot more sympathy for your belaboring the lack of evidence in this theory if your own theory wasn't rife with wildly unsupported conjecture.

10.

Conjecture on your part

See number 9.

11. Le Grand, alone among the suspects, possessed a collection of knives and was alleged to have been skilled in the use of them.

Every butcher, doctor, vet, anatomist would have had a collection of knives and be skilled in the use of them. Not to mention other occupations where knives were used on a daily basis.

And once again, narrowing the suspect pool to known facts of suspects that match possibilities of the killer is a VALID tool for making a case against a suspect.

12. Le Grand, so alleges Jabez Balfour, was suspected both by detectives and personal acquaintances of having been Jack the Ripper.

No police files or anything mentioned in officers memoirs to date mention Le Grand as being a Ripper suspect

Valid point. Documentation trumps personal testimony.

13.
He was pretending to be ignorant in the knowledge of the crimes because he probably didn’t know anything

As a member of the Vigilance committee during the crimes, the chances were, he would have known the total number of victims. I would instead have argued that this is not indicative of any feigning, but in there being a tendency to add in Tabram and possibly some of the other murders attributed at the time and that the canonical five are not the sum total of everyone's belief in how many Jack killed, even if it is Tom's. That would have been a valid argument. Your rebuttal is conjecture without support.

14.

Conjecture yet again

And yet again, who are you to point fingers? At least Tom offered his conjecture without requiring people to pay him for the privilege of reading his wild speculation and conjecture.

15.
The back ground of Mary Kelly has never fully been proved.

And?

So in so far as Le Grand NOT being a valid suspect, based on your supposedly demolishing the points made, I would like to point out that criticisms of conjecture are not sufficient. Every suspect theory, including your own, relies on conjecture. Otherwise there is no theory. Anyone who has promoted a suspect, has engaged in conjecture and building castles on the lack of evidence.

[Trevor Marriott]

A fascinating and significant article by Tom Wescott which introduces much new information on a person who can only be described as a valid suspect. We must congratulate Tom and his fellow researchers on unearthing this information. Tom really must get going on that book.

Valid suspect ?

If you havent already read it see post number # 43

[Stewart P Evans]

Fascinating

A fascinating and significant article by Tom Wescott which introduces much new information on a person who can only be described as a valid suspect. We must congratulate Tom and his fellow researchers on unearthing this information. Tom really must get going on that book.

[The Grave Maurice]

I take it to be like 'luh-wen-dee', but am not sure.

Never been sure myself, but I assume that the "w" was pronounced as a "v". So, it probably would have sounded like "La-ven-da" which would account for the Anglicized form of Lavender.

[Chris]

On a more serious note, that typo at the top of page 124 has just ruined the whole issue for me.