The WORST Ripper Suspect

[RivkahChaya]

Just for fun, who's the worst suspect you can come up with?

A few rules: the suspect has to be a real person, so your suspect can't be Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Who, and it has to be someone who could conceivably have been in London in 1888, so it can't be someone who wasn't born yet, or who was conspicuously somewhere else-- Theodore Roosevelt, for example. It can't be someone who was clearly dead by 1888, such as Jane Austen, but it could be someone recently dead, if you have a really good faked death-conspiracy theory.

Since people have taken WS Gilbert and Lewis Carroll seriously, the bar is high.

Mine: Rasputin. There's a period in his life before and during the time of the murders that is unaccounted for, except by family anecdotes that don't appear until a long time after the fact. Shortly after, he spent time in a monastery, doing penance for something, sometimes referred to as "theft," but nothing more specific than that. Afterwards, he became a wanderer and mystic, and then joined the flagellants.

Before the assassination that killed him, there was a previous attempt on his life by a woman who was a reformed prostitute, who became a disciple of a church elder. She stabbed Rasputin in the abdomen in such a way that some of his entrails fell out. She claimed she killed the anti-Christ, and had acted on behalf of all the women he had harmed. What exactly she meant isn't clear, but the church elder conducted something we would probably term a "support group" for the women Rasputin had harmed, so they, or at least some of them, were alive.

Anyway, this is the guy I am going to champion, at least on April 1st, from now on. I wish I'd though of this thread 26 days ago.

[Mayerling]

Just for fun, who's the worst suspect you can come up with?

A few rules: the suspect has to be a real person, so your suspect can't be Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Who, and it has to be someone who could conceivably have been in London in 1888, so it can't be someone who wasn't born yet, or who was conspicuously somewhere else-- Theodore Roosevelt, for example. It can't be someone who was clearly dead by 1888, such as Jane Austen, but it could be someone recently dead, if you have a really good faked death-conspiracy theory.

Since people have taken WS Gilbert and Lewis Carroll seriously, the bar is high.

Mine: Rasputin. There's a period in his life before and during the time of the murders that is unaccounted for, except by family anecdotes that don't appear until a long time after the fact. Shortly after, he spent time in a monastery, doing penance for something, sometimes referred to as "theft," but nothing more specific than that. Afterwards, he became a wanderer and mystic, and then joined the flagellants.

Before the assassination that killed him, there was a previous attempt on his life by a woman who was a reformed prostitute, who became a disciple of a church elder. She stabbed Rasputin in the abdomen in such a way that some of his entrails fell out. She claimed she killed the anti-Christ, and had acted on behalf of all the women he had harmed. What exactly she meant isn't clear, but the church elder conducted something we would probably term a "support group" for the women Rasputin had harmed, so they, or at least some of them, were alive.

Anyway, this is the guy I am going to champion, at least on April 1st, from now on. I wish I'd though of this thread 26 days ago.

Hi Rivkah,

One has a world to choose from in 1888. Someone alive that year and known to be available (in London or the British Isles or the nearby coasts of France and Spain and Norway (then part of Sweden - until 1905).

Wilkie Collins - the inventor of the first real detective novel: "The Moonstone", as well as other "mystery" novels like "The Woman In White" and "Armadale".

He was still alive in 1888 and residing in London. Although he had been writing until the early 1880s, his best days of fiction writing (when he made Charles Dickens so jealous that Dickens tried to best him with "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", and did because he died before completing it!) were behind him. He had been ill for sometime, but was living in his home and medicated on opiads to the point he was actually hooked on them.

My theory is that Wilkie has violent nightmares that replace his ability to construct good stories. He is concentrating on one involving a villain among city prostitutes (he did write a social novel called "The New Magdelene"). When it is dark he leaves after dressing, packing a small satchel with pen, pad, and a sharp knife. His nurse or attendant is asleep. He heads for the East End and starts doing research - questioning prostitutes, but killing them because he doesn't want rivals (that upstart Conan Doyle, for instance) learning his trade secrets. He kills five or six (he's in such a state he can't recall), and just recalls that the last one he killed was left in a state of shambles. He gets home, and collapses in bed before anyone finds he was out. Nobody ever puts him into the picture as a suspect, and he dies unsuspected in 1889.

Hope you like that one.

Jeff

[Phil H]

I reveal QUEEN VICTORIA as JtR. She always wore black, and was only 5 feet tall so could pass under most people's radar without notice. If stopped by the police she would claim to be investigating social conditions in the East End and they would let her go.

Alternatively, it was the great actor manager SIR HENRY IRVING who's mind had been twisted by playing insane murderers such as Richard III, Macbeth and especially Matthias (in The Bells).

Phil

[The Good Michael]

It was a half-American Indian who stayed in London after Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in late 1887. He wore a cowboy-style hat (wide-awake), had a dark complexion, and was "down on whores".

Interestingly, there was at least one Indian who stayed in Britain and got married...but it was in west near Liverpool I believe...he could have been a lover of Flo Maybrick.

Mike

[Robert]

It was Dan Leno. He approached the women disguised as a pantomime dame. His later breakdown was caused by guilt at the murders, and at the fact that he hadn't made the victims laugh much.

[John Wheat]

Dr Barnardo

[Phil H]

Barnardo - who is supposed to have seen or met Stride - has already been seriously proposed has he not?

Phil

[Phil H]

DanLeno is an EXCELLENT suggestion.

Peter Ackroyd wrote a novel: "Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem" - a crime novel.

Phil

[Limehouse]

The worst suspect I can think of is my grandfather's uncle, who was in his early forties at the time of the murders and who lived in various east London locations, including Mile End. His name - and I'm not kidding - was Jack De Ritter.

[Errata]

The worst suspect I can think of is my grandfather's uncle, who was in his early forties at the time of the murders and who lived in various east London locations, including Mile End. His name - and I'm not kidding - was Jack De Ritter.

Really you just gotta stand back and admire that particular coincidence.

[RivkahChaya]

Really you just gotta stand back and admire that particular coincidence.

Do you remember that TV show from the 1970s, Three's Company? John Ritter's character was named Jack Tripper. I think it was partly a joke about his tendency to take pratfalls, but "Jack T ripper"? One of the early writers slipped that in there, and had a good laugh for a long time.

[Mayerling]

Do you remember that TV show from the 1970s, Three's Company? John Ritter's character was named Jack Tripper. I think it was partly a joke about his tendency to take pratfalls, but "Jack T ripper"? One of the early writers slipped that in there, and had a good laugh for a long time.

Hi Rivkah,

You may remember that the insane Air Force General who launches the attack of the nuclear bomb carrying fighters in "Dr. Strangelove" was named General Jack D. Ripper.

Jeff

[RavenDarkendale]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is my worst choice. Believing himself to be smarter than the average man a la Sherlock Holmes, and with his head full of nonsense concerning spiritualism, Conan Doyle slips in and out of Whitechapel in a disguise worthy of Holmes himself, killing prostitutes whom he considers expendable, hoping to prove spiritualism by having them called up in a seance, revealing when and where they were killed as well as a description of their murderer. Always the sensational journalist, Doyle concocts the JtR letters and pointedly refuses to write a story pitting Sherlock Holmes against the serial killer.

[John Wheat]

To Phil H

I am aware Barnardo has been considered a suspect before but I think this is a ridiculous notion.

Cheers John

[Errata]

Augustus Harris, the great Theater manager and freemason becomes obsessed by the English translation of Carmen that is shown in his first year at Drury lane in 1879. The notions of punishment and justice, not to mention the stabbing, hang on in his thoughts. He is also disgusted by the tendency of Sopranos to throw themselves at him in an effort to win parts. The German born musical genius Carl Rosa, the presenter of the English translation of Carmen is increasingly dissatisfied with his marriage to an Opera soprano, and begins to despise the breed. He is also a huge fan of Wagner, and begins to embrace his ant Semitic ways. The two men work closely together and over a span of years form a folie a deux. Both see Operatic soprano as whores, both want to punish them. However Sopranos have done nothing wrong legally, and so despite a victim preference, they target those who are actually committing crimes. Prostitutes. Harris, having been bewitched by the stabbing of Carmen, insists on knives being the weapon of choice. He further requests that any knives used by Rosa be given to him as trophies. He is the planner. Rosa on the other hand gains an immense amount of satisfaction out of feeding body parts to his shrewish wife. So any anatomical trophies are given to him. They choose victims who are either operatic in size or in story. Together they have enough experience in theater to be able to not only quickly navigate hazardous terrains, like say roofs, but also have a significant ability to disguise themselves. Rosa dies suddenly in Paris in 1889. With the partner gone, the folie a deux is broken. Harris literally cannot resume that life without his partner. He puts his crimes aside, and goes on like it never happened. His statue however is covered in Freemason symbols, and if read properly, spell out his attempt to bring divine justice into a chaotic world.
The End