Sexual Perversion & Whitechapel Murders, LVP Med Articles

[Archaic]

This article from the February 9, 1889 'Weekly Medical Review' presents Dr. Edward C. Spitzka's recent (Dec. 1888) talk on the Whitechapel Murders.

Spitzka credits the Whitechapel Murderer with 10 murders in Whitechapel and surmises that he probably committed more elsewhere.

Spitzka also compares the Whitechapel Murders to the Austin Axe Murders.

I have several more LVP journal articles on the subject of "Sexual Perversion and the Whitechapel Murders" which I'll post here on this thread. I think they provide us with some insight into how contemporary medical professionals perceived the Ripper Murders and their possible perpetrator.

Best regards,
Archaic

[mklhawley]

Great find!

“The English medical and secular journals have been strongly censured for attributing to the Whitechapel murders to an American. Undoubtedly they did this on absurd grounds and in a cockney spirit…”

Boy, does this sound familiar. This could also have been written about the fact that few English newspapers mentioned the American Dr. Tumblety after he jumped bail, while the U.S. papers focused heavily upon him.

Sincerely,

Mike

[Archaic]

Hi Mike, how are you?

I found this sentence pretty interesting:
"If the inscription on the window-shutter, stating that he had twenty to kill, and would then surrender himself, signed "Jack the Ripper,"
be really the writing and signature of the Whitechapel Assassin, it may put an entirely different aspect on the case. If it be a genuine expression of intention it is impossible to account for it on the theory of impulsive, periodical or epileptic insanity. It is not inconsistent with sexual perversion that he might have written this to mislead."

Does anybody know about an inscription on a window shutter? Or did that story perhaps originate as a newspaper error or rumor?

Thanks and best regards,
Archaic

[mklhawley]

Hi Mike, how are you?

I found this sentence pretty interesting:
"If the inscription on the window-shutter, stating that he had twenty to kill, and would then surrender himself, signed "Jack the Ripper,"
be really the writing and signature of the Whitechapel Assassin, it may put an entirely different aspect on the case. If it be a genuine expression of intention it is impossible to account for it on the theory of impulsive, periodical or epileptic insanity. It is not inconsistent with sexual perversion that he might have written this to mislead."

Does anybody know about an inscription on a window shutter? Or did that story perhaps originate as a newspaper error or rumor?

Thanks and best regards,
Archaic

Hi Archaic!
It's great to see your comments. I am doing well!

I also have not heard of this inscription. I have a thought, though. The use of the signiture, "Jack the Ripper", makes me doubt it. I would love to hear from some of our more experienced people.

Again, great find Archaic.

Mike

[Archaic]

"Monopedal Ladies Of Uncertain Virtue" 1889

The following article titled 'Sexual Perversion and the Whitechapel Murders' was published in 'The Weekly Medical Record' on March 16, 1889.

I love the phrase "monopedal ladies of uncertain virtue", but the highlighted passage surprised me:

"The man, indeed, showed a certain sense of moral fitness in the selection of his victims, and it might be supposed he is only a crazy reformer of personal immorality, and hopes to strike terror into the ranks of the depraved. In fact, it is quite positive that the Whitechapel murderer is a well-meaning, though excessively zealous man.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Link To Kiernan Article

Here's a link to a thread Chris posted that has the text of the November 1888 Kiernan article mentioned above
in the March 1889 'Weekly Medical Record' piece.

Kiernan Article: http://forum.casebook.org/showthread...hlight=Spitzka

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Dr. Clevenger's Theory On Sexual Appetite As Hunger Impulse

This excerpt is taken from a review of Dr. Clevenger's book 'Comparative Physiology and Psychology' published in the 'Edinburgh Medical Journal' in 1886. Clevenger maintained that the human sexual impulse was an evolutionary offshoot of the primitive hunger impulse.

Clevenger's work was frequently cited by those seeking to understand the perverse behavior of the Whitechapel Murderer, as above in the March 1889 'Medical Record' article.

Clevenger remarks on the strange phenomenon of Sexual Cannibalism- "Crabs have been seen to confuse the two desires by actually eating portions of each other while copulating. The mantis and some of the female arachnida; have been seen to devour the male," and his ideas were invoked three years later when the Whitechapel Murder struck.

I can't agree with Clevenger's claim that "The morbid appetite of pregnant women and hysterical girls to eat chalk and slate pencils is a longing transmitted from the times when their ancestors were oviparous reptiles."
Although there are people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder who eat all kinds of weird things, the behavior Clevenger is describing among girls and pregnant women is more likely to be a genuine medical condition called Pica.

Rather than being a "reptilian longing", it's the result of a profound Mineral Deficiency in the body, frequently Iron-Deficient Anemia, and the craving occurs because the body is desperately trying to replace its missing Iron, Sulfur, Phosphorous, and other necessary minerals. In the days of inadequate nutrition this behavior must have been fairly common.

I found it interesting that at the time of the Whitechapel Murders there was an attempt by some academics to understand the bizarre
sexual mutilations and homicidal behavior of Jack the Ripper by framing it in 'Evolutionary' terms and invoking the theories of Dr. Clevenger.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Phil Carter]

Hello Archaic,

Great postings, thank you!

Seems to be pointing towards the type of fellow that is reasoned to be Jack the Ripper in this book..

Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession: The Hidden Testimony of Britain's First Serial Killer by David Monaghan and Nigel Cawthorne.

A product description is given on Amazon thus..

While Jack the Ripper spread fear throughout the East End of London in 1888, another man stalked the streets hunting flesh. He called himself 'Walter'. He was a rapist, voyeur, and fetishist obsessed with prostitutes. Walter was not only a wealthy man, but a literary one. In the same year as the Ripper killings, Walter first printed up his vast memoir of sex and perversion under the title "My Secret Life". Fewer than 20 sets were struck off on a secret Amsterdam press between 1888 and 1894. Long banned for obscenity, only censored excerpts of Walter's masterwork were seen for a century. One of the few complete sets not destroyed by the authorities was locked away in the British Library's closed cupboard. This is the story of the volumes in that locked room and the horrific clue they contain - a clue that unlocks the diary as the final confession of Jack the Ripper. "Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession" shows how this notorious work of Victorian pornography reveals that its author had the means, the motive and the opportunity to be Jack the Ripper. As importantly, it delves into dark psychiatric motives within the text, to show Walter possessed the unique psycho-sexual fingerprint of a knife killer.

best wishes

Phil

[Archaic]

Thanks Phil.

I remember hearing about that book last year. If I recall correctly, someone posted a link to an excerpt of Ashbee's memoirs and the consensus was that they were extremely vulgar but there was nothing to suggest that Ashbee was a killer.

Here's the link to a discussion of the Monaghan/Cawthorn book from May 2009: http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=2704

Best regards,
Archaic

[Hunter]

"The hunger theory accounts for the female desire".

Candlelight dinner?

A box of chocolates?

Now I know what all of the fuss is about LOL

[Archaic]

"The hunger theory accounts for the female desire".

Candlelight dinner?

A box of chocolates?

Now I know what all of the fuss is about LOL

Hi, Hunter.

We eat long-stemmed roses too.

It's that reptilian longing thing.

Archaic

[Hunter]

You know its funny that most of these doctors that 'theorized' about the murders or human psychology in general - even Anderson and Macnagten with their 'sell abusing homicidal maniac' profile, didn't really know diddly squat about what they were talking about.

As far as the roses go, at least they have them without thorns now... probably go down a little easier.

[Archaic]

Dr. E. C. Spitzka

Here's a photo of Dr. Edward C. Spitzka.

The writing below his name is a bit faint; it says:
"Physician and Biologist
Alienist, Writer On Mental and Spinal Diseases"

'Alienist' is an old term used for a Psychiatrist or an expert on the medico-legal aspects of mental illness.

Best regards,
Archaic

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

Well, one has to remember, that psychology was a relatively new piece of science in the LVP!

All the best
Jukka

[Hunter]

Yes it was, J R... But many of the ideas promulgated at that time had a great bearing on people's perception of these murders and who the perpetrator might be... especially those in charge of compiling and investigating suspects and thus, leaving us with a psychological base for suspecting these people more than any direct evidence to the murders themselves.

Ostrog is a good example. This petty thief was elevated to 'homicidal maniac'. In reality, his mania was probably faked and he was a pitiful choice by Macnaghten over Cutbush ( which was the purpose of the memmorandum). Cutbush, ironicly, is a better suspect because he did have a history of assaulting women. He assaulted two women in short order on being released.