Man admits Rachel Nickell murder

[Ashkenaz]

Here's the one I saw.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/18/robert-napper-clues

What is significant for us is that:

1.He began with lesser crimes.

2.The police arrested and almost saw the wrong man convicted.

3. The police ignored much important evidence.

4. The profiler was wrong, apparently thrown off by the fact that the perpetrator's other crimes were so different from this one.

5. He grew up in a dysfunctional home where his father physically abused his mother.

6. A forensic psychologist is quoted as saying that frenzied motiveless knife attacks on women are rare. This is important for us because there has been much debate over whether there was more than one Jack.

7. The neighbors suspected him.

Good points diana, especially no 7. I wonder if any of jtr's neighbours suspected him ? The name we seek may yet come to light in an old journal or diary, as yet undiscovered.

[Ashkenaz]

Interesting development. More here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...rt-Napper.html

Thanks for a good read Ben.

It's interesting that the police said :
"When police conducted background checks, they found he was a virgin and sexual inadequate”.

Profilers say that serial killers usually have some physical disability.

[Cap'n Jack]

And strange enough I have always speculated that Thomas Cutbush was a virgin and sexually inadequate. People used to counter my speculation by claiming that young Thomas had syphillis as Macnaghten says in his memo, but we now know that to be a load of old tosh... and that from the very doctor who examined Thomas for such disease, and found Thomas imagined he had the Syph.

[Ashkenaz]

Such a withdrawal sounds very like "Post-traumatic stress syndrome" ,a prominent feature of which is the need to obsessively "repeat" the trauma- the brutal repeated attacks on women being his own deluded way .

Nice theory Nat.

I have read of female rape victims becoming sex workers. It presumably gives them the opportunity to relive the trauma as you say.

I have also read of male combat veterans prowling around their neighbourhoods at night. Its as if they are back in time, on patrol again.

[Sara]

As I'v ealready remarked, this comment about Napper being a virgin sits oddly with his convictions for rape! Can anyone comment, since the assertion was made after he was caught and confessed to certain crimes - it seems he will only admit to any crimes for which there is DNA or other forensic evidence

[Cap'n Jack]

Good point, Sara, but Pitchfork perhaps gives us an insight into this magical thinking and process on the part of men who would kill women.
Pitchfork was nailed on DNA evidence - famous as the first mass DNA testing in the world - but later, and reluctantly, admited to the police that he had not raped the two girls at all, but had transferred his DNA into his victims by using a twig. He wanted it to look like rape.
Just like Thomas wanted to have syphilis.

[Sara]

Only just seen this; that sounds fascinating; I don't know / remember much about Pitchfork, must read up on him again

What a strange edifice is the human mind - Gerard Manley Hopkins was so right
"Mind hath mountains" indeed

[caz]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for that link to your 2004 post on the shocking subject of Britton, Stagg and Napper. I think it's worth isolating the following passage concerning Napper's indoor murder of Samantha Bisset, for any armchair profiler who is still convinced that Mary Kelly's killer could not have been the same man who murdered Martha (or Polly, Kate or Annie):

Another quote from Paul Britton: “Mickey Banks (the leader of the police investigation) and his colleagues talked about a murderer who had violently slashed around, but that wasn’t true. There were no wild hacks and stabs like with Rachel Nickell (another murder victim by another killer). Compared to that this was a surgical operation or anatomic lesson. Stabbing her was the least that he had done – he had also practically filleted her.
At some point he had apparently tried to cut the legs from the body, but by then the knife had probably already become too blunt and the murderer perhaps didn’t have the anatomic knowledge to cut a joint loose.”

Britton thought himself so clever, didn't he? And now he is trying to shift the blame for his part in Stagg's downfall.

But the bit about the knife becoming blunt is interesting. I have often made the observation that the ripper would have wanted to make sure his weapon was as keen as possible before venturing out, in case his next opportunity for a carve-up caught him napping. It's another consideration for those who think Mary was filleted on the spur of the moment by a lover who routinely carried a knife that presumably had never before been called upon to cut a human throat, never mind hack its way through all that human flesh and guts.

Love,

Caz
X