Jack the Ripper & the Whitechapel Murders

[Carol the Dabbler]

Not meaning to sidetrack the conversation with trivia, so just one last post for clarification.  I'm not meaning to say I think Jack Tripper was meant to be a serial killer or anything of the sort, merely that his name may be kind of a double pun.  "Tripper" because he does trip a lot.  But why Jack, when the British character was Robin -- why not Rob or Bob -- or anything else, really?  I think it might possibly have been a sly, silly little joke, what with him being a man living with two women.

I went looking online to see if anyone else had mentioned this possibility, and found that the show actually had an episode titled "Jack the Ripper" (wherein Jack takes assertiveness training).  So they did at least acknowledge the similarity of names.

 

[Hikari]

5 hours ago, SLarratt said:

I think Jack kept close with the police, if not a member of the police. He could also be the medical examiner. The state examiner could move around the city as part his job. Seeing him every neighborhood wasn't alarming. He could move about the city and not be questioned, as the state medical examiner for coroner's office. He would meet with the working class as well as lawyers, detectives,  statesmen and people from the aristocracy. An agent of the Crown...

Was he ever eliminated as a suspect?

Some killers stop because they are bored with it. Or something changes in their life warrants the peace time, just like BTK.

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.

[SLarratt]

Ripper Street. I will definitely check it out.

I agree that Jacky Boy was given his status by the papers. H.H.Holmes with his murder castle would've made him look like an amateur...if it were all true...

And so another topic is born...

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, Hikari said:

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.

There have been a couple mentions of "BTK" -- which sounds to me like Billy the Kid, but the description doesn't fit, since Billy was killed while still young.  Please enlighten me!

 

[SLarratt]

BTK is an acronym serial killer Dennis Radar gave himself. Bind. Torture. Kill. 

Dennis killed for women in the years of 1974 - 1991. He stopped because he became a leader of his church, thus his life was fulfilled and the killing stopped.

I mentioned him regarding the peace time because Jack could've stopped merely because he got a promotion at work or found out he was going to be a father... anything really. 

Some serial killers use murder to fill a void. Once filled permanently, they stop. Classical psychopath. They move on and never give it a second thought. Murder to them is trivial like packing a bookshelf or the act of playing darts. It's not the act that they enjoy, it's the feeling after. The rush that completing the murder gives them. If they find a permanent replacement, they stop.