Research Paper

[victoriaa17]

Hello everyone. I see that someone made a thread about an hour ago asking for help on a paper that's due tomorrow and they didn't get much help haha. I just want to make it clear my paper is not due tomorrow and I've already done some of my own researching for it. I was assigned this topic and previously knew nothing about Jack the Ripper so I'm hoping to get some insight from people who know what they're talking about.
I've established somewhat of an outline:

-Who is Jack the Ripper
-Canonical Victims
-Why haven't police caught him/her?
-Suspects (THIS is what I need help with)
I'm also thinking of a section that deals with The theory of M.O, because there seems to be a lot of information on how he killed his victims, or a section on the letters.

What I was wondering was how can I narrow down the suspects so that my entire paper isn't focused on it. If anyone has a theory on who they think did it I'd love to hear your thoughts, or if you have any ideas to help me with this section I'd appreciate your help. Incase your wondering I’m a high school student in grade 10 if that helps you at all.

[Ally]

I don't think Jack the Ripper is in the suspects list. I believe he was the anonymous nobody. If you want to narrow it down, one thing you could do would be to concentrate on some of the more outlandish theories: royal conspiracy, Walter Sickert, Maybrick, Lewis Carroll and explain why these theories are flawed. The fact is no one knows who Jack the Ripper was and no one ever really will. So any paper or publication that attempts to say "This Guy" was it, will be inherently flawed. Conversely to the most outlandish suspects, you could focus on contemporary suspects that the police considered at the time, to narrow it down.

Congratulations on being a student who asked a reasonably intelligent question in their search for answers. Your kind are few and far between.

[victoriaa17]

Thanks a lot for your input! That's a really good idea I haven't thought of, I think I'll focus on the royal conspiracy instead of sifting through all those names just to find nothing. Thanks so much!

[Robert]

Hi Victoria

If you really want to cut the suspects down to the bone (forgive the expression) you could focus on the Polish Jew suspect mentioned by Sir Robert Anderson as having been identified by a witness. Supt Swanson said that the suspect's name was "Kosminski." This suspect has not by any means been universally accepted by the JTR community, or even by the police at the time, but Anderson was a very high-ranking police officer, and Swanson had been in overall charge of the case, so this might be said to have been the police's "best bet." It also impinges on the question of why JTR wasn't caught - according to Anderson, he was (albeit rather late in the day).

Robert

[Doctor X]

I gather it depends on how long your paper is suppose to be. It would be difficult to describe just the Canonical Five [Tm.--Ed.] with one page each, let along get into issues of suspects. Same with the letters. The infamous Lusk letter--the one with the piece of kidney--takes Sudgen a number of pages to handle the pros and cons as to whether or not it could have been written by "the Jack."

In other words, you may wish to be careful how much you wish to bite off.

--J.D.

[victoriaa17]

My paper has to be 3-4 pages long. I'm not going into the case very deep, but I want to get the important facts in to make it interesting. But I agree summing this case up into a 4 page essay would be difficult.

[Doctor X]

Wow. Then you really will be unable to cover the case. As I noted, each victim will take about a page just to describe what happened.

You may wish to consider taking ONE issue from the case--a suspect, or a particular murder, or something like that and concentrating on it. Heck, you could even discuss one of the letters and give the pros and cons for whether or not Jack wrote it.

You could even explore why people take such an interest in a 120 year-old case.

--J.D.

[victoriaa17]

Actually that is a really good idea. I think I'll bring that up with my teacher tomorrow! Thanks Dr. X.

[Doctor X]

Actually that is a really good idea. I think I'll bring that up with my teacher tomorrow! Thanks Dr. X.

Noblesse oblige. . . .

--J.D.

[George Hutchinson]

Can we keep Victoria? Intelligent questions, grateful responses, a reasonable command of English and not a single 'LOL' in sight! Is she for real?!

PHILIP (innit)

[Doctor X]

Not to mention capitalization, punctuation, verbs and subjects.

No sentence fragments.

--J.D.

[Bob Hinton]

Paper on Ripper

Why not try something completely different? Take one victim, I would suggest Stride, and really do a study of that one case. Draw yourself a scale map of the area, and the positions of all the players. Check the statements given by witnesses against that actual surroundings.

What you're looking for is a CSI Berner Street.

You could write it as a CSI report.

The most difficult thing about writing about JTR is making it fresh and interesting.

[victoriaa17]

I think I'll do that, focus on one thing from the case. I have to run it by my teacher, and he isn't in class today. So I guess I'll work on the thesis for now. Thanks for all the help.

[Suzi]

Well done Victoria-
Some great advice here-
Hang in there and good luck.........Tell you what........share it with us once it's written 'eh
Suzi (izzit)

(What's the innit Pfip?)

[victoriaa17]

Yeah, I'll definitely post my paper on here when I'm finished. I don't know how good it will be though haha.