Hikari

Had Montague been committed to an asylum before? We know the two Jewish suspects had been, and both died inside the same institution. Could a man really successfully obtain employment at the bar and in a school with mental commitments on his record? The contemporary suspicion of Druitt certainty seems damning, but I remain troubled that his chief accuser in law enforcement couldn’t correctly identify his age or profession and kept repeating the same errors in print. Almost like he wasn’t sure who he was talking about. That is inexcusably shoddy police work. Our young Mr Druitt was living some dark and convoluted secret life. To manage two professions simultaneously, along with an active extracurricular cricket hobby that involved travel to out of country matches paints a picture of a very industrious person of high energies. It seems he was managing a complex life to a high-level until having some kind of breakdown in the last months of his life. If we add in stalking prostitutes in Whitechapel and committing 5 (at least) heinous murders into the mix, I don’t see how Montague was sleeping at all. Burning the candle at both ends as well as the middle like this would certainly drive someone over the edge. I’m just wondering, if the evidence was so strong against Druitt, and the family testimony so compelling that high government officials and top brass LE officials repeated it and were convinced in their own minds that the Ripper had been identified correctly and had done himself in, why in the intervening century plus this incriminating evidence has not been released. One can assume that all of Druitt’s relatives and those of his victims are now deceased. In the public interest, the Druitt case files should be released. All we’ve seen is basically speculation of some public figures wondering aloud or reporting hearsay. If MD is patently guilty, let’s see more specific proof. We haven’t seen any since 1889. What we’ve got is in the realm of family folklore and urban legend. Did the school destroy all of the records of the incident which forced them to dismiss this teacher? If Montague was the ripper it would be nice to put this to bed forever, but if he wasn’t, then he has been libeled and slandered in perpetuity. Druitt’s cricket club, of which he was an officer, removed him summarily from their membership roll after the Kelly murder but weeks before his body was found. The reason cited being that they had received information that he had “gone abroad.“ Now this is very interesting; who told them this? Or is this the story they told because they knew of some reason why they did not want the man who had to that point been one of their star players as well as their vice president involved in the club anymore? And what was that reason? Was “gone abroad” a euphemism for “We know he’s dead and why but are not at liberty to publicize this.” We definitely have not heard the whole story here.

A possible encumbrance might have been blackmail, perhaps? “Encumbrance she would never be rid of” suggests some kind of ongoing and distasteful obligation, and the use of the term “encumbered” has a financial feel to it. Estates are encumbered; debts too. She could have been referring to the encumbrance of the guilt of the knowledge that Montague was the Ripper, but the term she used is suggestive of other possibilities. It seems inescapable that Montague was embroiled in some kind of a scandal shortly before his death. He made enemies clearly, because he lost his job. I still favor a sexual scandal involving underage boys. That would’ve been an item the family could’ve been blackmailed over… Ongoing payments in favor of suppressing the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by MD. Based on the available photographs, MD seems quite an effeminate person, not that that is proof of anything, but it would be helpful to know what contemporary sources meant by publishing that he suffered from “sexual insanity”. Despite the note found in his room that definitely sounds like a suicidal frame of mind… it doesn’t overtly say he is going to kill himself, just that he wonders if he wouldn’t be better off doing so because he could feel himself going off the rails like Mother. His pockets were full of stones, and they were also full of money which is an interesting juxtaposition. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that one of Montague's enemies, perhaps a father of a school boy victim stuffed stones in his pockets and forced him to jump into the river. That might seem outlandish, but a staged suicide would save everyone the trouble of a trial for sodomy or other. That would also be an excellent reason for Montague to want to end his life purposefully. Filling her pockets with stones and walking into the river is how Virginia Woolf committed suicide. I think more women would favor at this method. I might expect a gentleman to do something even more decisive and guaranteed to succeed: use of a handgun. Montague’s mysterious end is a sad coda for him and his family even if it doesn’t put an end to the Ripper speculation.

I'll amend my earlier comment to "John's white undershirts stopped being visible except when he was wearing them as sleepwear." Good thing, too, as dead white does nothing for Martin's complexion and it looks a bit tacky.

I think that's common knowledge. There must be dozens if not hundreds of unaired pilots every year on both sides of the Pond for shows that were rejected and not picked up as regular series. Generally speaking, in the United States, the launch episode of any new show is referred to as the pilot, even if it has an official episode title. A lot of times the graphics, opening cast credits and even theme music might be very different from the pilot episode to the next installment. Shows that get green-lighted for a full season order usually get an uptick in the budget and so more money can be spent in polishing up the final 'look'/sound of the show into what will be its 'brand' format. It was very interesting to see how the show developed from its initial pitch to its finished product that we saw in the regular films. Benedict's character in particular was practically redesigned from the ground up. In the unaired episode, Sherlock Holmes is much more a contemporary young man of the 2010s. His style is modern. Some of his clothes look quite club-suitable for an ordinary Millennial. Bendi sported his natural hair color. SH seems a little bit unusual in his social interactions but on the whole a lot more approachable and more 'normal' than he would present later. Martin didn't have to tweak John very much; he got a wardrobe upgrade and stopped wearing white undershirts. Also his hair had grown out between the pilot and the Study in Pink episode. The lighting was better and the whole thing looked more expensive generally. I'm particularly glad that 221B got an upgrade as well. The original set was quite violently pink chintz and looked like an Edwardian grandmother's sitting room that smacked vaguely of a funeral parlor. The enlarged set had a much more masculine and suitable vibe. When we meet Sherlock in the series proper, he has a much darker and more remote/formal presentation, both in the color and cut of his clothes but also in his manner. He stops feeling like a contemporary of Watson in 2010 London and harkens back a bit to a Victorian reserve that sets him apart from his peers. Though SH can and does often act out in childish ways, his 'look' is very much adult, and he's got more gravitas than originally conceived in his modern-cut denim jeans. The final iteration of SH has got a very expensive and tailored gents' wardrobe, just as his Victorian counterpart would have had. They are modern clothes and yet they feel quite timeless. Sherlock's signature 'look' goes a long way toward establishing his character without need of words. The Scarf and Coat almost become separate characters in their own rights! Just found this comment from a 2015 discussion: One thing I really like about the pilot is Sherlock's apparent youth (I love the line in John's blog that "he looks about twelve.") There's something about the idea of them starting with Sherlock in his twenties that really appeals to me ... and also, so many of his little personality quirks make more sense on a much younger man. Oh well, I suppose Moftiss had to leave something for the next incarnation of SOne thing I really like about the pilot is Sherlock's apparent youth (I love the line in John's blog that "he looks about twelve.") There's something about the idea of them starting with Sherlock in his twenties that really appeals to me ... and also, so many of his little personality quirks make more sense on a much younger man. Oh well, I suppose Moftiss had to leave something for the next incarnation of Sherlock to work with. Someday somebody will do a jeans-clad, boyband-haired, barely adult Sherlock Holmes and everyone will think it's brilliant. herlock to work with. Someday somebody will do a jeans-clad, boyband-haired, barely adult Sherlock Holmes and everyone will think it's brilliant. Even in the aired Study in Pink episode, I erroneously assumed that BC was a recent drama-school graduate of about 24 years of age when I first saw it . . Come to find out I had seen him in several supporting parts previously (Atonement and The Other Boleyn Girl to name two) but he looked so different as Sherlock I did not recognize him.) It was a surprise to find out that he was a decade older than I first thought and had been a working actor with increasing degrees of success all that time. The TV show in which he played Hugh Laurie's oldest son (how brill was that casting?!) didn't cross my radar until after "Sherlock" when I was hunting up Bendi's ouevre. In the unaired pilot, he definitely looks to be early 20s, like maybe 'just left university last year' age. In A Study in Scarlet, the famous roommate duo meet when Dr. Watson, recently returned from Afghanistan is 27 years old and his new flatmate is just days shy of his 26th birthday. One supposes then that Doctor Watson runs into his old dresser Stamford at the Criterion Bar in the week between Christmas and New Year's, if SH has a birthday on January 6th (that bit is ex-Doyle, being an invention of W.S. Baring-Gould, but it's a convention I am fond of). The age gap is 18 months. With BC and MF, it's 5 years. I was aware of Martin Freeman from The Office and from his appearance in Love Actually. I think it'd be fair to say that at the start of Sherlock, Martin was more famous than his castmate. But BC went supernova in the course of one Sunday evening, almost like he was James Dean or something. I think that level of global buzz over this show and its star took everyone by surprise, a bit. Doctor Who has an enduring popularity over decades but it never attained the global audience that Sherlock did in just one episode. It was an incredible thing to witness. What J.K. Rowling achieved with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Moffat, Gatiss, Cumberbatch and Co. did in one go with A Study in Pink--instantly created an absolute international phenomenon.

I forgot about the stones in his pockets. That certainly seems intentional. What is curious, apart from the train ticket, is that he threw himself in the river with his valuable pocket watch, and several thousand pounds in gold and cheques. Strange he didn’t leave all those valuables in his room with the note. With so much insanity in the family and a family legacy of suicide, Montague’s fragile mental state was probably not attributable to remorse over being the Ripper since he had so many other potential reasons for ending his life. He was a high flyer and quite a remarkable mind and athletic talent before going off the rails. It was a sorry end for a promising life— But there are definitely murky waters here and we don’t know the whole story.

You of course have a lot more familiarity with the casebook of potential Ripper suspects than I do, but I'd have to call all of the so-called evidence supporting Montague Druitt as the Ripper to be entirely circumstantial. I've seen his photograph, and he does very much resemble the popular image of the Ripper as 'a gentleman'. Indeed, of all the suspects that have been fingered, he's nearly the only one that qualifies as a gentleman, if we leave off completely fantastical suggestions like Lewis Carroll. But we are on a slippery slope once we start saying 'Well--this guy seems like a completely unlikely suspect . .no history of violence at all, but he's been named so he MUST be guilty of something." That's how 22 people or thereabouts got burnt as witches in Salem, Mass.--on the hearsay of neighbors and some teenage girls that thought they seemed guilty. MacNaghten may have had a *reason* to want to discredit Montague, but all are dead now who could say definitely it was because M. made such a convincing presentation as the Ripper. Vendetta of some kind? If Druitt were a sexual deviant, I don't think it would've taken much for the disgust over his orientation to seep into people's perception of him as an all-around bad element. Let's say Monty preferred schoolboys to women and that's why he was dismissed from his post. If he liked boys, it doesn't follow automatically that he must hate women so much he wanted to cut some up. As for his mother having the local MP's address in her address book . . she was a constituent. I'd have thought any number of the people he represented might have his address to write to him about civic matters. Maybe Mrs. Druitt was involved in politics locally, even though she didn't have the vote yet. Or maybe she was having an affair with MP Farquarharsen. I can't really see how having the address of her local representative would implicate her son as the Ripper. But again, it seems that Montague had shamed the family with his behavior in some way. A number of powerful men seemed not to like him very much, to besmirch his name for these crimes after he had already ended his life. Did Farquarharsen offer some explanation for how he came by his information about the Ripper being awfully like the dead son of his constituent? His involvement remains murky to me. Family shame would explain why a brother might want to disown a man who possibly had unlawful relations with a minor he was entrusted by as a figure of authority . .if he'd done immoral things with school lads. In Victorian society to be a pedarast was equivalent to being a killer in most people's minds. I'm not sure why a family would want to court even more notoriety by accusing their loved one of being the Ripper. That's murky . . but the family didn't offer proof either. If every man in London in the fall of 1888 who had a fraught relationship with his family, lacked an alibi for all the nights in question and had some secret vices could by these means be a viable Ripper suspect, the suspect pool would swell to hundreds of thousands more. As for why Druitt had a return train ticket on him when he was pulled out of the Thames, I'd suppose that at the time he purchased the tickets, he was planning on needing a return. Suicide is very often an impulsive act. But the fact that he was planning to return actually argues against him actively planning to do himself in over remorse at being the Ripper, doesn't it? All that could really be determined is that this man had drowned in the Thames some several weeks before his body was found. The presence of a return ticket in his pocket actually raises the possibility that his death was just as likely, or more, even, to be an accident or caused by some other person. Attempted robbery? Or someone wanted him dead and pushed him in after a struggle. Impossible to say now. If Monatague didn't leave a detailed note or confess his intentions to someone before he died, how is suicide absolutely assured? It's rough down by the river, then and now. A suicide does fit with the official reasoning for the cessation of the murders, though. I think MD is a convenient scapegoat, whose sad and somewhat opaque last days have been molded to fit prevailing theories. Edit, you mention that one of McNaghten's best friends was related to the Druitts by marriage. That would explain how McNaghten might have more knowledge of young Mr. Druitt than the average anonymous London resident, but it's this kind of tenous tie of acquaintanceship that also makes it possible that he could have been biased toward Montague in some way even before the murders. The young man was not a complete stranger but known to him at least by reputation from his friend who was a relative. He was not viewing MD through a completely uninvolved lens. Maybe he was being influenced though a dislike of the young man. For what reason, is lost. I wish we had more details to go on. Whoever perpetrated these acts on the five victims was an entirely depraved person. It'd be hard to imagine anyone functioning normally and appearing normally and swanning off to play cricket tournaments whilst in the midst of a murder spree of this magnitude, with nobody the wiser. If Montague had left papers--a diary, letters, something--to bolster the suspicions that he could have done these heinous murders on such thin extant evidence, I'd understand it more.

One salient difference between UK show pilots and the US is that the UK pilots seem to stand alone, sometimes for as long as a year before the show proper gets underway and will subsequently be counted as ‘Series I” all by itself. When the British shows are subsequently packaged for release in America, the counting of seasons is off compared to the UK renditions since the pilot episode is usually put with Season I in the American sets. American shows tend to run weekly until the episodes run out…maybe 10 for a cable series, but 22 - 26 weeks for a regular network show. No way would Americans be willing to wait a year between the pilot launch and the regular season, so the pilot is immediately followed by the full first season.

Carol, I defer to Herlock, who has made a special study of all the known Ripper suspects. I think Druitt’s family and acquaintances were satisfied that it was suicide, since the death was just days after the loss of his teaching post. If his dismissal was due to “sexual insanity”, Druitt might have been facing criminal charges as well. The specter of prison and scandal in the papers may have overcome him. In the absence of a note or a declaration about taking his own life, there’s the possibility that he was attacked and thrown in. The river was frequented by all sorts of criminal elements—rough trade, robbers— If the body had been in the water for a month before it was discovered, it would’ve been beyond grim, and probably impossible to say whether the body had received injuries prior to going into the water. Ending up in the Thames was certainly not uncommon. In a city the size of London, dozens of people a week must’ve gone in there, either intentionally, or falling and drunk or being killed and their bodies dumped. Then there was always the potential of a boating accident. In the case of the confusion between Kosminsky and Kaminsky, that was actually in a published report from a member of the top brass—Herlock could say whether it was the ACC— But it’s a pretty safe assumption that like a game of telephone gone wrong, he was repeating erroneous information from his subordinates. The two Jewish lunatics with similar names were about the same age, from the same neighborhood. Both had professions but were considered crazy and were immediately suspected, since what the Ripper did could only be the work of an insane person. Perhaps he was insane, but probably more capable of executive functioning and planning that either of these two guys who both wound up in the Colney Hatch asylum. I’m wondering if this institution is where we get the phrase “nut hatch” from.

Hi, Herl, Which are the other two suspects worth consideration, do you think? My comments to follow are for the benefit of other readers, as I know you are more familiar with all the Ripper suspects than anyone else here. I'm increasingly thinking that Charles Lechmere (aka Cross) is looking good for it. He was found literally over the body of the first victim, Polly Ann Nichols, and absconded before police arrived. All the murder sites were found to be on his regular round as a lorry driver. Proximity, Whitechapel man, knew all the routes very well. Was interviewed by police and gave an alias. To be fair, a lot of innocent folk would still be hesitant to be too forthcoming with Old Bill, especially from the lower orders. The other most viable suspect of the high-profile ones is Nathan Kaminsky, alias David Cohen. He was identified in Mitre Square by a member(s) of his Jewish community, who later declined to identify him at the inquest. He was a tailor by profession and thus would have been very likely to carry chalk about his person as a tool of his trade and seems a potential author of the Goulston St. graffito about the 'Juwes'. His propensity for intermittent insanity made him well-known to the district. Cohen died in Colney Hatch asylum shortly after the Kelly murder. The arguments for and against Montague Druitt as the Ripper are listed on this webpage, which you probably know well, too: https://www.jack-the-ripper.org/druitt.htm The late esteemed Mr. Macnaughten must have had his reasons for fingering a lawyer from Kent for these crimes, but one wonders why, when making such an allegation against a deceased person and tainting his family name by association for generations, he wouldn't have been more explicit as to his reasons, instead of just being coy and saying he had 'private information'. The suspect was dead and had no further need of his reputation. It sounds like hearsay, really. Several pertinent facts about Mr. Druitt were gotten completely wrong by his accuser(s)--his age was overestimated by 10 years and he was misidentified as 'a doctor'. The police work on this case was industrious but quite sloppy in many instances . . suspects Kosminski and Kaminsky being also conflated by the authorities. I think everyone was so keen to catch the Ripper that the cops were figuratively throwing everything and everyone at the wall to see if it would stick. If Mr. Druitt was in fact homosexual and had created a scandal forcing his dismissal from his school (perhaps by seducing some of his underage pupils?) some of his family members might have had axes to grind over the shame on the family and threw him under the bus for his 'sexual insanity'. One really scratches the head over Dorset MP Farquaharsen getting involved three years after the fact fingering Druitt. How would Druitt's home MP know personally of his activities? Had he just been listening to tittle tattle from Druitt's family members? Whatever Monty was up to, in his London chambers or his school at Blackheath, he was not spending much time at home in Dorset apart from the odd visit to play cricket. Unless he got drunk and confessed to a family member or to his MP, how would they know his state of mind? Did anyone find bloody clothing, or trinkets that made no sense in his possession? Did he have sudden, unexplained injuries that were concerning? There are just such scanty reasons behind these accusations. Particularly if members of the force were convinced that there was at least one more victim in 1889, that would rule Mr. Druitt out if he was already dead. Several sites I consulted said that he did have alibis at far away cricket tournaments during the time frames for at least some of the murders. Without knowing more of Druitt's history with women or with prostitutes in particular, it's impossible to say whether he might have felt enough rage to do what the Ripper did. But I can't help feeling also that the fact that he was 'the son of a surgeon' was influencing people unduly. Montague did not pursue medicine, but the law, and education. Being the son of a surgeon wouldn't grant him knowledge of knife work by osmosis any more than the son of a bus driver could automatically know how to drive a bus without need of a CDL course. If one is enamored of the 'Jack as a toff' theory, Montague fits the bill as far as his appearance and his class. Perhaps a gay man would be a woman-hater enough to do this. But if that's in the realm of damning 'private information' that's been kept from general knowledge, without it I am not comfortable speculating that MD must have been the Ripper because of hearsay. I need more details. Did anyone ever come forward to assert that they witnessed Druitt in Whitechapel at any time? There must have been a number of other individuals that ended their lives in the Thames in the latter part of 1888, but that alone seems more than anything to seal Druitt's supposed guilt. Being dismissed from his school and probably facing the same at the bar over sexual indiscretions would probably have been enough to make him suicidal without also being responsible for 5 or more knife murders. He does meet the 'romantic' image of the Ripper, though, more so than the Jewish lunatics or a rough-looking lorry driver.

Hi, Herl, Trudging along here . . still alive so that's something. Are you still actively involved in your Ripper community? I guess as with Sherlock Holmes aficianados, there's no danger of interest in the Ripper dying down. I discount Mr. HH Holmes since I'm convinced that the Ripper was a man local to Whitechapel. A visiting American or even a visiting toff from the better parts of town would have really been disadvantaged in navigating the district. Not to mention the MO of the crimes that Holmes committed is worlds away from the Ripper's work, geographically and stylistically. It's really rare for a serial killer to alter his hunting grounds and his signature methodology that much. It's usually what trips them up in the end . . their little habits. One suspect I've always felt incredibly sorry for is Montague Druitt, who seems to have been targeted for no other reason than because his body was found in the Thames shortly after the murder of Mary Jane Kelly. No less a personage than the Assistant Chief Constable of the Met published his theory that Druitt was the Ripper. Druitt was accused of 'sexual insanity' . . which I believe meant that he was a homosexual. He had been dismissed from his post as a a schoolmaster owing to having been outed, and killed himself in despondency, at least so it seems to me. His unfortunate death was coincidental to the cessation of the murders but because people theorized that the Ripper had stopped because he'd drowned himself in the Thames, Druitt being found there was convenient 'evidence' of the theory. Evidently some of Druitt's associates/family members even accused him posthumously of these crimes. I think they must have been looking for notoriety and profit from a man who could not defend himself against the charges, because apart from the fact that Mr. Druitt lived a considerable distance away from Whitechapel in Kent, he had rock solid alibis for several of the killings, having been away as far as Dorset playing in cricket tournaments. To have boarded a train and done a round trip of some 200 miles each way to cut up some wh*ores in Whitechapel and make it back to the cricket pitch seems . . well, fantastical. I hope that poor man has found some peace. If he was actually the Ripper, it would have been quite a feat to pull off. Seems unlikely that a barrister/schoolmaster would have chosen that milieu.

Yes, that Marple episode was he first in the series and it’s a very good one. One of the best. Geri is my favorite Miss Marple and I often revisit her episodes. My most favorite is 4:50 to Paddington which I rewatch every Christmas season. Mark also appeared as a tortured vicar in the Sword of Guillame episode of Midsomer Murders several years later. While Bamber Gascoigne of Starter for 10 is droll, Mycroft Holmes remains his greatest acting achievement. Mycroft is possibly my favorite character in the series, probably because I am an eldest with annoying younger siblings too, and if I can say it without sounding like an egotistical arse, the smartest in my family. I don’t think they would dispute me. Mycroft’s scenes were a highlight and too brief to suit me. I love Deductions from The Empty Hearse. “Tea at the Palace” from Belgravia is his shining moment, though. Mycroft takes his duties as the eldest seriously and he is always looking out for his frustrating little brother. I love him. And I love the fandom explorations of his secret torrid affair with the hot Inspector Lestrade, ship name: Mystrade, Even though it makes no logical sense. The two characters have zero screen time together though they are definitely aware of each other, and Lestrade is my own lust object, the extremely hetero Rupert Graves. And all the ladies say amen!

You got it all in one! Exactly what I was thinking. I was inspired by a fandom video of BBC Sherlock set to the song “Titanium.” The lyrics were from Sherlock’s POV, but they could also describe Watson. And SH would not choose anything so sentimental as a picture. He’d probably give himself the ink. I had a year of chemistry and it was a terrifying experience. On a whim I looked up the properties of Ti and by Jove, it’s perfect. that Blog line got stuck there when I cut and pasted from a webpage and I tried to delete it but couldn’t.

Upon consideration, and knowing Sherlock's background as a chemist, I think he would select the elemental number for Titanium (Ti) to signify his 'Boswell'. Consider: Titanium has the highest strength to weight ratio of all the elements It has a very high melting point of 1800 degrees Celsius Because of its stable properties, Ti is used to store nuclear waste securely Titanium does not occur naturally as a metal and will always be bonded with another element. Due to this, Ti is considered rare and costly. It alloys well with iron and aluminium (crutches)

Mark also appeared as a tormented vicar in the Geri McEwan Marple film 'Murder at the Vicarage'. It was these two roles I saw MG in first, before I ever saw Mycroft Holmes. For an absolute laugh riot, watch 'Starter for 10' with James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall, Bendi and Alice Eve. Mark plays University Challenge host Bamber Gasgoigne. This is actually where Mark met Ben.

Another fascinating Victorian serial killer! I don't know enough about H.H. Holmes to comment as yet but you have sparked my interest to look further into the case. I currently reside about 5 hours east of Chicago.

Lyndsay Faye's book is fiction but she lays out a very similar theory--'Jack' as a police higher-up. Who better to know the movements of the police than the very man who designed the beat timetables, for instance? Or, if the medical examiner, that would explain Jack's knowledge of surgical techniques to remove organs and also give him the freedom to move about and visit and revisit the scenes of all his crimes. For years my favorite theory of the Ripper was the one espoused in Bob Clark's "Murder by Decree". I do so love a good conspiracy theory. "From Hell" was very similar. How titillating to have the Queen's own physician responsible for the most heinous murders of all time . . or someone even closer to the Queen--Prince Albert Victor. Now, though, I have come to the conclusion that the Ripper murders and the Ripper himself were most likely a lot more mundane than they are given credit for. That Jack had more than average knowledge of human anatomy is clear. The removal of some of these organs whilst working at speed in the dark would not have been doable by a run-of-the-mill knife criminal. The kidneys, for instance--not only are they very small but they are inconveniently placed in the back. Taken as a whole, Jack's surgery and ritualistic arrangement of body parts is, while blatant evidence of a very disturbed mind, ultimately too crude to be the work of a highly skilled surgeon. Jack loved his knife and was pretty good with knife work but not a doctor. I had considered perhaps a failed medical student?--one who'd had a bit of training, maybe a year or two before being dismissed perhaps on the grounds of disturbing/inappropriate behavior. Wonder if the medical colleges were looked at during the investigation. I think it is most likely that these were crimes of opportunity; the women may have been known to him or he might have just happened upon them and took his chance. Each of the women were known to frequent certain pubs and all were alcoholics; maybe Jack even drank with some or all of his victims at some time or other. Living as they did, in doss houses and sometimes not even that much, pinpointing a particular routine to any of them would have been hard, as they roamed around. I think Jack went out with his knife and took who he could find on those evenings--whoever was alone, incapacitated, vulnerable. All of the crime scenes where found to be on Charles Lechmere's regular routes to and from home on his rounds as a lorry driver. He was discovered with Polly Nichols' body even before her wounds had begun to bleed out and fled the scene, later providing an alias to the police. I've gotta say he looks pretty good for it. He lived on for many years after the killings ceased and never came to the attention of the police again, so he might have been like BTK in that regard--only never caught. Did the Ripper have a particular grudge against *these* women, not needing to kill others after they were all dead? Or did he just kill whoever he stumbled upon, quite literally? It has to be one or the other as it can't be both. David Cohen was also positively identified in Mitre Square by a witness though that witness later refused to testify to it at the inquest. The Jewish community closed ranks to protect one of their own, even if he was crazy as an outhouse rodent. The debate rages on. Have you seen the BBC series "Ripper Street"? If not, I highly recommend it. Whitechapel, 1889: Residual fear of the Ripper hangs over the district like a miasma as DI Edmund Reid (Matthew McFadyen) takes over the helm of H Division from his former CO, DI Fred Abberline (Clive Russell) recently promoted to Chief Inspector and out of the nick. The coppers on on the continual lookout for the resurgence of Saucy Jack but it turns out there are a lot of other equally depraved persons living in Whitechapel. Reid is a posh, fast-tracked type from money but his sergeant, Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn) is a Whitechapel lad born and bred. The series follows H Division in the years following Jack's crimes and a highlight of first couple of seasons is the antagonistic relationship between the police and the new 'yellow journalism' as epitomized by The Star newspaper and its editor, Fred Best (David Dawson). The Star is the reason Jacky Boy is the prima donna of psychopaths and the biggest star serial killer ever despite not being anywhere the most prolific or even the most twisted. He was the first to have his exploits detailed in the papers. Not the first serial killer but the first to become a media sensation, and that's why he's still infamous today.

Stolf, The first instance that jumps to mind is this passage from "The Sign of Four". I'm sure there must be more. I will continue to research and hope that my mate Herlock Sholmes happens by. He can think of some more https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2097/2097-h/2097-h.htm#:~:text=Sherlock Holmes took,in unraveling it.”.

Hello, SLarratt and welcome to our society. Your comment is the first action this thread has seen in nearly 5 years . . . can it be? I hope my friend Herlock Sholmes will be along momentarily because he is the resident Ripper scholar here. He dislikes the term 'Ripperologist'. My theory as to the identity of 'Jack' has shifted over time. Nathan Kaminsky aka "David Cohen"'s death in Colney Hatch lunatic asylum coincided with the cessation of the murders. One supposes "Jack" might have continued beyond the Five, if he were able. Being incarcerated or dead would make that impossible. Another resident until his death many years later in Colney Hatch, Aaron Kosminski seems to have been a victim of misidentification by the authorities. Charles Lechmere aka Charles Cross is a name I only recently heard but the circumstances are certainly compelling for him to be a person of interest. All three of these men are from the working class, though perhaps only Lechmere would be likely to use the term 'Boss'. I guess "Teamster" would be the modern equivalent of his occupation. Though it has also been posited the the letters received by the police bear evidence of being the work of an educated person attempting to ape an illiterate manner of writing. Many Ripper experts discount the 'Dear Boss' letter as being genuine. The popular conception of "Jack" being a highborn gentleman, one with Royal connections even, slumming it in Whitechapel is more captivating but probably not at all likely. The Ripper was a local man who was probably known to the women and they him, not a highborn client visiting from the tonier part of town. Moneyed gentlemen in the market for some night birds would have gone to the brothels. I've taken a number of virtual Ripper tours from guides passionate about this subject and they've also got their own theories. Martha Tabram, killed in August 1888 may well have been a practice run. She was stabbed 30-odd times though not dissected. A number of people are inclined to add Martha to the tally of victims but take away Elizabeth Stride. Who can say? It seems that all but one of the Ripper victims were married or formerly married women who had fallen on hard times despite trying to make a living by other means and only resorted to selling themselves when desperate for a bed or a drink. Polly Nichols may have been attacked when passed out on the street and not 'streetwalking' in the normal sense. Of all these women, only Mary Jane Kelly, the youngest, was a prostitute by profession. One of the more whoo-whoo suspects that has been suggested is Lewis Carroll, reclusive Oxford mathematics don. I have entertained the thought that 'Jack' could have been a beat constable in Whitechapel, hence his ability to elude the beat patrols and melt into the night, since he would have memorized the time tables. A dark uniform would have hidden bloodstains and beat bobbies were also known to carry chalk in their pockets. As did tailors, which was David Cohen's profession, when he was in his right mind. Lindsay Faye BSI makes a compelling case for a beat constable in her book "Shadows & Fog". A policeman would have had an excellent reason for hanging around the scenes of his butcheries if he was 'on duty' and therefore supposed to be there. If he presented as the friendly local copper willing to overlook 'business' in exchange for a freebie, he would have been known to the women, and they might have been more willing to go with him into a dark corner. The issue I have with either of the Jewish lunatics being "Jack" is that I'd expect the women to avoid them at all costs if they were conscious, and not get close enough to have their throats cut. Kosminski in particular never bathed so the women would have had advance warning of his approach. Both men were well-known in the neighborhood for violence and lunacy, and if either of them got the jump on street smart women, it's because their victims were too drunk to fight them off or make a run for it. Jack was obviously a psychopath, but could a person as consistently and chronically subject to bouts of insanity like Cohen and Kosminski really been mentally organized enough to commit these crimes and elude capture for so long? By the time of the "From Hell' letter, if that's genuine and the Kelly slaying, Jack had deteriorated precipitously. Late stage syphilis? Or was Mary Kelly, as you suggest, butchered by another person(s)? The MO was so very different. The late author Michael Dibdin's first published novel, when he was barely 30 years of age caused an international sensation when it laid out a devastatingly logical case for the identity of the Ripper, but as brilliant as his hypothesis was, it doesn't help us with the truth, strictly speaking, since his suspect is fictional. At least, according to some.

I was a dedicated "Three's Company" watcher back in the day. I can't attribute any sinister motivations behind either the loveable klutzy goof played by the beloved late John Ritter. I think "Tripper" came about due to the frequent physical comedy/pratfalls that were a hallmark of this character and series. In the swinging SoCal 1970s, a man living with two beautiful single gals could be seen as a fox among the pigeons--leastways Mr. Roper certainly thought so--so Jack had to pretend to be gay in his landlord's sight. The true skeeze was Jack's friend "Larry". "Jack Tripper" might have been inspired by Jack the Ripper in terms of the sound and cadence of the name but I don't think we were supposed to read too much into it. The series would have had a darker tone instead of the zany screwball flavor if 'Jack' wasn't harmless. He and Larry were always on the make--badly--for other girls, but the vibe with Chrissy and Janet was definitely fraternal. And Jack really did trip a lot. Not a reference to drugs, which wouldn't have been unheard of on the beach in the '70s but they had to get this stuff past the censors.

RED SPARROW (2018) Starring Jennifer Lawrence & Joel Edgerton This movie only garnered 45% on Rotten Tomatoes and on first viewing I was inclined to agree that it was bad. But it stuck with me nevertheless and I ended up watching it again, with a better opinion of it, or at least, of JLaw's performance the second time around. It is definitely flawed, overlong at 2 hours and 20 minutes, and even for a spy thriller, the scenes of sexual and physical violence become gratuitous. The movie definitely had Bourne-sized aspirations, with an established director (Francis Lawrence, no relation to star Jennifer Lawrence, helmed the last three films in the Hunger Games franchise) and a cast of surprisingly heavy hitters in support (Jeremy Irons, Joely Richardson, Mary-Louise Parker, Charlotte Rampling and Matthieas Schoenaerts) and two leads who gamely go through their paces. They deserved a better, tighter movie but I didn't think it was as bad as its reputation. Rolling Stone gave it 2/4 stars . . I'd stretch to 3 overall. A watchable popcorn thriller if you like spy films like Bourne . . which I do. After breaking out as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, and picking up an Oscar the same year for Silver Linings Playbook, making her the second-youngest Best Actress winner ever at just 22 (Marlee Matlin was a year younger when she won), and gathering a slew of subsequent Golden Globe and Oscar nominations afterwards, JLaw embarked on a trio of consecutive box-office flops from 2016 - 2018. This film is the last in that run and having seen one of the others, I will confidently say this one is the least-bad of the JLaw clinkers, if you can buy into the premise. Having so many excellent actors around helps. The casting is inventive to say the least, with Louisville, Kentucky native JLaw tasked with playing a Russian prima ballerina with Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet, with a heavy stereotypical Russian accent and even heavier brunette bangs. The set-up says Black Swan but the hair is decidedly Fifty Shades of Grey as sported by Dakota Johnson. JLaw looks good as a brunette, though halfway through the film she will undergo the obligatory Covert Agent in a Spy Thriller Makeover to Disguise Her Identity which entails keeping the identical hairstyle, just dying it blonde with drugstore dye from a kit in an inadequate bathroom. One of my failures of suspension of disbelief, though not the first was the implausibility that a woman with that bulk of dark hair extensions could become a convincing blonde with only one box of hair dye. As if. A larger implausibility is accepting someone as curvaceous and endowed as JLaw as a prima ballerina in the first place but the dancing parts are minimal, all the quicker to get to the spy action. As an Oscar-winning actress, Lawrence is deeply, deeply committed to stripping off whenever possible and/or spending a great deal of time with very little on to bring that extra dose of authenticity to her characters. Dominika (Law) lives in a state-provided apartment with her disabled mother (Richardson) and acts as her caretaker by day and by night she dances at the Bolshoi. One night, her partner accidentally (or not so accidentally, as Dominika later discovers) breaks her leg during an awkward jump, instantly ending her dance career. Since she can no longer perform, she will lose her apartment and her mother will have to go into a state hospital, unless she can find another way to be useful to the state. When she becomes a witness to an assassination of a government official, her days are numbered. Her uncle Vanya (Schoenaerts) is a highly placed spymaster with the KGB with connections and also a very non-uncle appropriate fixation on his niece. So Dominika is sent to training to become a Sparrow--a covert operative specializing in seduction as well as an array of other spycraft skills. Her first mission: get close to American CIA agent Nate Nash (an equally miscast Joel Edgerton, pride of Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia) who's been running Russian informants to see what he might know about a mole high, high up in the Russian intelligence community. With a new identity, Dominika follows her prey to Budapest, but while she's watching Nash, his cohorts in the CIA are watching them both. JLaw gets to wear some really great outfits and the locations, principally Budapest and Vienna, give the feel of a Bourne movie. Red Sparrow may have done disappointing box office but it had a lot of budget lavished on it.

THE OUTFIT (2022) Starring Mark Rylance & Zoey Deutch Mad Men style meets The Tailor of Panama in an intimate mob drama that manages to be edge-of-your-seat thrilling despite taking place, like a play, on one set. This is the directorial debut of screenwriter Graham Moore, Oscar winner for The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch. 1956, Chicago: English tailor Leonard lives and works quietly in his shop where he cuts bespoke suits for the discriminating gentleman. Many of his gentlemen are actually 'wise guys' from the local Irish mob family, the Boyles, who use the unassuming Leonard's premises as a stash house for dirty money and other aspects of 'family business'. Leonard is forced to tolerate this arrangement because he owes his shop and his livelihood to the Boyles, who control the entire neighborhood. Leonard has a mouthy receptionist, Mable, who is secretly dating the mob boss's son, Richie, unbeknownst to her boss. When Richie is shot and seriously wounded in a skirmish with a rival family, he comes to the family tailor to be sewn up since he can't go to a hospital. Over the events of one chaotic night, the mousy little tailor will reveal hidden talents. Until then, Leonard knows how to keep his head down and learn more than he gives away. It doesn't sound like a weighty enough premise for a whole movie but Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall, Bridge of Spies) is captivating as Leonard, a quiet man with a quiet gift and a murky past, living on the edge of a very dangerous world. Rylance, the former director for a decade of the Globe Theatre in London is one of the best actors of his generation, bar none. I try to see everything he's in. And if Ms. Deutch as Mable looks familiar . . I will save you the aggravation of wondering *why* she looks so familiar: She is the daughter of Lea Thompson and director Howard Deutch. She's got promise--it's in the genes.

Really enjoyed this from Amazon Studios (streaming on Prime) that I watched yesterday . . ALL THE OLD KNIVES (2022) starring Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton Fans of espionage thrillers like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the Bourne franchise, check this out. 8 years ago, Islamic terrorists hijacked a plane, killing all aboard on the tarmac at Vienna airport, including 9 children and a member of the Vienna station of the CIA who was feeding information about the terrorists to his station colleagues. When this agent was executed on camera and his body thrown off the plane as the first hostage to die, it's clear that someone in Vienna station gave up his identity. The mole was never discovered. Present day, field agent Henry Pelham (Pine) is dispatched by his boss (Laurence Fishburne) to re-interview the two chief suspects of the mole hunt in a reopened investigation into the incident: ex-section chief Bill (Jonathan Pryce) and Henry's former colleague and lover, Cecilia (Newton). After seeing Bill in London, Henry goes to Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA to rendezvous with his old lover, now retired, married and a mother of two, at her favorite wine bar with an ocean view. As the two old flames play a game of intellectual cat-and-mouse over the course of the evening, interspersed with flashbacks to the days in Vienna, will Henry get the answers to his questions? Is Cecilia the mole? Is that why she left him suddenly and without explanation in Vienna, the morning after he asked her to move in together? This twisty and cerebral thriller has got some surprises up its sleeve. Despite the title, there are no actual knives that make an appearance; only the figurative knives of memory, loss and regret. I have wanted to live in Carmel ever since I watched Clint Eastwood's Play Misty For Me back in high school Clint fell in love with Carmel, too. After filming there, he moved there and became Carmel's mayor. The cinematography does not disappoint.

In the mode of The Mentalist meets Columbo with a bit of Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure, may I suggest Jonathan Creek? That is a British detective series that started in the late '90s and kept on with intermittent specials until 2015 or so. The show underwent a number of cast changes during its run so I can only wholeheartedly recommend the first three seasons, but this show was a charming little discovery. I'm not sure where it's available for streaming presently but you might find it on BritBox. I watched in on DVD back when Netflix was a DVD-by-mail subscription. The show is named for its eponymous detective played by Alan Davies. Jonathan is a retiring young man who lives in a windmill and engineers stage illusions for a living. Like Sherlock Holmes, he is more comfortable with his solitary work than mingling with a lot of people, and often wears a signature coat. His line of work makes him into a useful consulting detective when it comes to unraveling the threads of 'locked room' mysteries--most often murders--which have taken place under seemingly impossible conditions. He's got a more extrovert friend in wordsmithing business--investigative journalist Maddie Magellan (Caroline Quentin), who gets the duo involved in these cases. Maddie is the 'Watson' of the partnership, I guess, but she's a lot more pushy and less deferential to her star detective than was Watson. Series creator David Renwick was trying for a 'Columbo' vibe, he said . . the cases could get dark but were mostly in a more lighthearted vein, with some zany humor. The protagonist is a bit different than we normally see in this genre. A magic trick engineer who is aces at sleight of the mind. Good chemistry with the leads. Quentin left after 3 seasons to head up her own procedural show, Blue Murder. JC carried on with different co-stars but it was never the same. Quentin's show was good too . . sort of British version of The Closer, with an elite Manchester murder squad headed up by a female Det. Superintendent. Short form, hour long episodes. More lighthearted than Prime Suspect. Then of course, there's my favorite British detective series bar none, New Tricks. I envy the viewer who gets to start at the beginning with those. Incidentally, David Renwick's first choice for Jonathan Creek, Nic Lyndhurst, appears in the last two seasons of that show. I liked his character on NT, but I think Alan Davies was the best choice in the end for the earlier series.

Welcome, Inspector Baynes! It's not often any more that we see new faces around here. You're right about House--his caustic charms do wear quite thin relatively quickly. I've been revisiting the series and my impression on a rewatch is that it's not as good as I remember . . it can seem pretty contrived, and House's tics and misanthropic tendencies only get more cartoony as the series wears on. I really do not believe that anyone who was that big of a arschbole to patients and colleagues would get to retain his position as department head of a major metropolitan research hospital, no matter how brilliant. Sherlock Holmes took the initiative of becoming self-employed so he can do as he likes but Greg House is a man under authority, as much as he resists that authority. The problem is that his field of medicine is by its nature collaborative; House needs entire teams of Others to assist him in doing his work. He must envy Sherlock Holmes a great deal. I'm up to Season 3 which ushers in a particularly good run of episodes as House meets his match in a police detective played by David Morse. House is particularly rude to this detective when the man presents himself at the clinic with an ailment and owing to his misuse of a rectal thermometer, House makes a dedicated enemy. Soon he finds himself arrested for driving his motorcycle under the influence of narcotics, his stash of Vicodin is confiscated and the world of pain is just beginning for his colleagues who are going to have to lie for him in a court of law. Yeah, House's appeal as a character was pretty well exhausted by the end of Season 3 but they dragged it out for another 5 seasons with diminishing returns. I wonder if you would like The Mentalist with Simon Baker. Baker plays a man who occasionally pretends to be a bumbling genius but the bumbling is a bit of an act. I find his character Patrick Jane to be be more of a true homage to Sherlock Holmes than Greg House, because as Patrick, Simon captures the charisma which SH possesses when he's on good form, doing what he loves to do . .solving puzzles. Even when he's witty, House never exudes anything like joie de vivre.

Herl, I attended a virtual presentation on the Ripper last night that I think you really would have enjoyed. It was by our new Ripper expert on Heygo. I tried to send you the link but having recently changed my Google password for work reasons, it wasn't letting me access my Google mail from my phone app. Frustrating. Anyway, it was a very good talk. He presented contemporaneous newspaper articles and drawings of the time along with books and marginalia created by various primary investigators in the case. The Assistant Chief Superintendent favored Montague Druitt, the schoolteacher who suicided right after the last Ripper killing but whose body was not found until 7 weeks later. It's a wonder they were able to make an identification. Despite such a high-ranking proponent of his, if that's the right word. Mr. Druitt lived miles away in Kent and the only 'proof' of his guilt was in killing himself within days of the Kelly murder. Most likely he was despondent over having been let go from his position as a schoolmaster due to being homosexual. There's an idea in the popular mind that Saucy Jack was a gentleman or at least was able to present himself as one, and Druitt is one of the few suspects that fits the bill . . but I rule him out, poor man. The favored suspect of the lead detective, and I suppose, our presenter was a man identified as a Polish Jew with at least one eyewitness at the Elizabeth Stride scene. There were three men who could have plausibly seen the doer in that case but they refused to give up one of their community to the police. Further complicating matters is the possibility that Liz Stride was not actually the first of a double-header of Jack murders the same night but was actually done for by another killer. Apparently the knife was dull . . our Jack took great pride in a sharp knife and seems to have brought one to the second murder of the evening, that of Catherine Eddowes. The fact that Long Liz was not tampered with like the others could point to the killer being interrupted, perhaps by the three gentlemen who were passing . . or perhaps she wasn't completely butchered because Jack didn't do her. Copycat opportunist? If Martha Tabram is added to the Canonical 5 as the first, then we still have the same number of victims, just in a slightly different formation. I am agnostic, though it doesn't seem like Jack would've forgotten his favorite knife to do the Stride job. Martha, killed in August months before the others was not dissected, but she was stabbed 37 times. Practice run, maybe? Our two Heygo Ripperphiles seem to think so. But the identity of the 'Polish Jew' at this scene is hazy. Last night was the first time I learned that there were at least 6 extended Jewish families in the district with the surname 'Kosminski'. Aaron was not even formally identified with a first name in the case notes . . just a 'Kosminski' was listed. Aaron was a weirdo, but it might have been his father or a brother or uncle or another family altogether. There is another man . . a Nathan Kaminsky . . who apparently is also known as 'David Cohen' who is also in the frame, who died in Colney Hatch institution shortly after the events of 1888. Aaron Kosminski was committed to the same institution but didn't die until 1919--and with a birthdate of 1865, was 33, not 23 at the time of the murders. I have routinely read Aaron's age listed as 23, so it seems that even some of the investigators conflagrated these two names. But I can only find a birthdate of 1865 for Cohen as well, meaning that the two men were nearly the identical age. Seems that '23' is an erroneous age. That is very young to both have established oneself in business and have already become a full-fledged serial killer. Early 30s fits better . . but what are the chances that *two* Polish Jewish men of the same age residing in Whitechapel would be subject to intermittent bouts of homicidal mania, and would both have professions which were germane to Jack's skill set--one a barber, the other a tailor? Hmm . . tailors would carry chalk as a matter of course, which kind of makes Cohen look good for the Goulston Street graffito if nothing else. It seems pretty unlikely that even these desperate women would have willingly gone with either of these madmen as a potential customer likely to have money. And in Kosminski's case, his refusal to ever wash or bathe must have meant you could smell him coming from a mile away. Neither of these guys would have been able to keep up the pretense of being paying customers able to lure the women to the kill spots, and would have had to forcibly abduct them. Not out of the realm of possibility but several of the victims were reported to have been speaking to a man dressed more like a gentleman. Could have been another unrelated customer, of course. Nothing remotely gentleman-like about either Aaron or David aka Nathan. It's rather a let-down if it's either of them, if I'm honest. Those poor ladies are just as dead, but the lore of a crafty toff down on wh*ores slumming in Whitechapel and meting out his idea of justice and slipping back into his milieu of high society . . perhaps even the highest echelon . . is captivating in a perverse way. There's a whole mythos built up around Jack because, foremost, he succeeded in eluding capture. If he was banged up in Colney Hatch the whole time, taken from the dregs of the streets, it's deflating. I suppose that in 30+ years of incarceration, Aaron Kosminski might've let his identity as the Ripper slip, if it had been him. No indication that that ever happened. Just like with the Moscow Idaho police department, I feel I owe the Metropolitan police of H division and their command an apology. Given the primitive nature of forensics at the time and the overwhelming, chaotic nature of the crimes and the potential suspect and witness pool, they did astoundingly well. 2000 people looked at, 300+ interviewed . . all those man-hours. Like Moscow PD, it seems they very likely had their perpetrator in their sights very early on, but they weren't able to bring any charges. It'll be different for the so-called Idaho Ripper. That's what he'd like to be remembered as at any rate. He's as arrogant as he was inept. Idaho has the death penalty and I hope they get to use it.