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What do you think is the most likely ?

  • The Ripper was a Freemason?

    Votes: 7 9.7%
  • The Ripper had medical knowledge?

    Votes: 10 13.9%
  • It was Maybrick?

    Votes: 4 5.6%
  • The Ripper was 'of the same class' as his victims?

    Votes: 9 12.5%
  • The Ripper was foreign?

    Votes: 2 2.8%
  • It was Druitt?

    Votes: 2 2.8%
  • None of the suspects yet put forward?

    Votes: 17 23.6%
  • It was a woman?

    Votes: 2 2.8%
  • Another?

    Votes: 19 26.4%

  • Total voters
    72
This was a middle-aged, derelict Victorian prostitute. She might well have used a hessian sack as a shawl.

maximus otter

So everybody can have a gander:

Eddowes-Shawl.jpg2A615A7400000578-3155348-image-a-4_1436472755195.jpg

I'm no expert on women's accessories, but seven-foot long does seem rather lengthy.

Edit: Just checked: 24 inches by 71 inches.
 
I'm no expert on women's accessories, but seven-foot long does seem rather lengthy.

from back of neck. over shoulders, and, in some cases, down to almost the ground over a long and full skirt (even the not-full poor ones take up space!)...

Some of my wraps, shawls, scarves, stoles are over 8' :)

Edit to add that I'm 5'5" which is probably tall for a poor victorian female, but hardly of giraffe like proportions.
 
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Yes, someone could have used a tablecloth as a shawl - but it's unlikely.

somewhere in contemporary literature there is a description of a woman having a shawl which usually drapes over the piano - and is worn on posh occasions :)
 
Yep, Victorian-era shawls could be quite large squares, since they were often worn instead of coats and jackets.
 
Curious that in the geo-profiling, they left out the Ghoulston Street graffito.
One would have thought that would have a major bearing on the potential home range.
Other than that, I've have always had a belief, since reading Sugden in particular, that Tabram was victim number one.
Still don't buy Kosminski. The records are not as comprehensive or clear as they are portrayed. There's a good argument to say that there may have been conflation between two different Kosminskis.
 
I should repeat what I have previously posted - there is simply not enough evidence to accuse someone of the crimes. Sure, like every other 'ripperologist' I have my favourite suspects but the fact is that there is not, and never will be, enough evidence to resolve the perpetrator.

I would say it's 50/50 whether the real JtR is one of the alleged suspects or someone that no-one has ever heard of.

In all honesty Cochise, I am of the firm belief that if all the people that ever could have been the ripper, were stood against a (very) long wall, and someone shouted out “ Will the real Jack the Ripper please step forward and identify yourself” then the culprit would indeed step forward, and all the experts and so called Ripperologists would look at each and say…….Who……..?
 
@Dick Turpin is there anyone you would rule out? I just can't summon up belief in Prince Eddie.


Sorry Frides, I have re-read my previous post and it didn’t make much sense (I’d had a few by the time I posted lol)

What I meant was, I would discount almost all of the known suspects, with the exception of just a few.

Certainly the Prince Eddie theory is hogwash, as is the entire Ripper and the Royals yarn, I’d also dismiss the current favourite Kosminski, due to the distance of time from the last murder to his incarceration, and it was reported by the Colney hatch authority's that he was a harmless lunatic.

Klowosowski is interesting but again we have time differences, and the MO to which he killed three of his wives were different, although that said Abberline considered him to be the chief suspect - and well, coppers instinct and all that.

The rest of the suspects are based on pure theory, some of them outlandish.

Maybrick is the only suspect I can think of that wasn’t based upon a theory, as his candidacy is based upon the diary / journal, it all depends if one believes the diary to be genuine or a modern hoax, the jury’s still out on that one as far as I know.

I’m tempted to post my own ridicules theory as to who the Ripper was – might even get a book contract out of it lol
 
What do you make of Dr Francis Tumblety?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Tumblety

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/tumb-art.html

In terms of likelihood to be the Ripper, his candidacy has probably risen the most of any suspect in my lifetime.

The counter argument, of course, is that a man with a moustache of those proportions may have been unable to move his head unaided.

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Hi Yith

Tumblety’s discovery in the mid 90’s was exciting, but unfortunately his appearance and height work against him.

Harry Harris, who I believe was the only man who truly saw the ripper (with Cate Eddows near murder sq.) described him as shorter and foreign looking (Jewish) to was Tumblety was.

Also, there is evidence that Dr Tum was in police custody at the time of the Kelly murder.

It’s a shame, but most of the books that formed my opinions on the case were lost in a house move some years back, including a 1959 first edition of Donald’s McCormack’s the Identity of Jack the Ripper
 
What do you make of Dr Francis Tumblety?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Tumblety

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/tumb-art.html

In terms of likelihood to be the Ripper, his candidacy has probably risen the most of any suspect in my lifetime.

The counter argument, of course, is that a man with a moustache of those proportions may have been unable to move his head unaided.

View attachment 16202View attachment 16203View attachment 16204

Yith.

Sorry, I did not read your casebook link, before I hastily replied to your reply the other day. I normally post on this MB from my office desk, so my input is when work allows, and due to this, I tend to speed type (hence my bloody awful grammar)

I’ve just read Scott Hannaford’s appraisal of Tumblety, and although it’s a very well written and thought out piece, his theory don’t ring true to me.

We know that Tumblety was arrested on a charge of gross indecency on the 7th November, but we don’t know when he was bailed, there are no documents in existence to tell us of this, also despite what Hannaford states, gross indecency was no misdemeanour in the Victorian period, it’s almost certain that Tumblety was caught indulging in a homosexual act – considered nefarious back then, and it’s unlikely that he would have been released within a mere few hours.

However, if Tumblety was bailed on the 7th or early on the 8th would he really have gone out looking for his next victim, so soon after his brush with the law – seems unlikely to me.

Also Hannaford states that Tumblety was a well-known suspect, perhaps, but not for being the ripper.

The fact that Special Branch had an interest in him, suggest that they were on his tail for something else, probably for his political leanings, it’s well known he had strong fenian views - the Irish question being a big issue with the authorities of the day.

Joseph Lawende, (previously I said Harry Harris – that was wrong) almost certainly caught a glimpse of the Ripper with Cate Eddowes near Mitre Sq, and estimated his age at being 30, and his height at 5 foot 7, Tumblety was 50 and stood at 5ft 10 – 5ft 11, I'm also pretty certain that had Tumblety been with Eddowes that night, then Lawende would have noted this, and to have been able to recognise him again, due to his unusual appearance..

I Just can’t imagine that Tumblety, who was an eccentric, but successful self-promoting con man, of being the sexually motivated, blood thirsty miscreant that the ripper undoubtedly was.

In saying that however, I would put Tumblety with the few known suspects that I would not write off.

I do like Hannaford’s take on the Stride murder though, the thought that whoever killed Stride wasn’t complicit in the 4 or 5 other murders is plausible IMO.
 
I have very little knowledge of the non-canon murders. Do any of the more knowledgable members here think there is a chance they were linked to the main "Ripper" murders? Also, forgive my ignorance, but are there any potentially credible reports of Ripper activity after Mary Kelly's murder?

To return to this topic, I am in the process of dipping into a title that focuses on the 'non-canonicals'--some of which I know nothing about. So far it's excellent, the Tabram account is very full.

Screen Shot 2019-04-29 at 23.29.46.png
 
Yith.

Sorry, I did not read your casebook link, before I hastily replied to your reply the other day. I normally post on this MB from my office desk, so my input is when work allows, and due to this, I tend to speed type (hence my bloody awful grammar)

I’ve just read Scott Hannaford’s appraisal of Tumblety, and although it’s a very well written and thought out piece, his theory don’t ring true to me.

We know that Tumblety was arrested on a charge of gross indecency on the 7th November, but we don’t know when he was bailed, there are no documents in existence to tell us of this, also despite what Hannaford states, gross indecency was no misdemeanour in the Victorian period, it’s almost certain that Tumblety was caught indulging in a homosexual act – considered nefarious back then, and it’s unlikely that he would have been released within a mere few hours.

However, if Tumblety was bailed on the 7th or early on the 8th would he really have gone out looking for his next victim, so soon after his brush with the law – seems unlikely to me.

Also Hannaford states that Tumblety was a well-known suspect, perhaps, but not for being the ripper.

The fact that Special Branch had an interest in him, suggest that they were on his tail for something else, probably for his political leanings, it’s well known he had strong fenian views - the Irish question being a big issue with the authorities of the day.

Joseph Lawende, (previously I said Harry Harris – that was wrong) almost certainly caught a glimpse of the Ripper with Cate Eddowes near Mitre Sq, and estimated his age at being 30, and his height at 5 foot 7, Tumblety was 50 and stood at 5ft 10 – 5ft 11, I'm also pretty certain that had Tumblety been with Eddowes that night, then Lawende would have noted this, and to have been able to recognise him again, due to his unusual appearance..

I Just can’t imagine that Tumblety, who was an eccentric, but successful self-promoting con man, of being the sexually motivated, blood thirsty miscreant that the ripper undoubtedly was.

In saying that however, I would put Tumblety with the few known suspects that I would not write off.

I do like Hannaford’s take on the Stride murder though, the thought that whoever killed Stride wasn’t complicit in the 4 or 5 other murders is plausible IMO.

Dick,

Sorry not to reply at the time. I did read your response (and LIKED it), but I was pushed for time.

As to whether Tumblety could have been blood-thirsty and misogynistic enough to meet the psychological profile (I accept the problems with the physical profile that you raise), I'd like an answer to the question, "Did he actually have a collection of women's uteruses?" (as has been alleged).

A claim often made to back up Tumblety's possible involvement in the Jack the Ripper Murders is that he is known to have collected medical specimens, including uteri.
But there is scant evidence to suggest that he ever did. The allegation that he did was made by Col. C. S. Dunham to the Williamsport Sunday Grit in which he mentioned being a guest at a dinner at which he had witnessed Tumblety fiercely denounce "...all women and especially fallen women."
Dunham went on to mention that Tumblety had then taken his guests to his office where he showed them a dozen or more jars containing the uteri of every class of women.
[...]
But Dunham’s veracity is, to say the least, questionable. He himself was a known confidence trickster, who only made his claims after press allegations had linked Tumblety to the Whitechapel Murders.
It is, therefore, highly possible, if not likely, that he made the story up in order to cash in on Tumblety’s sudden notoriety.
Source:​

Am currently looking at this as a counter-argument:

http://www.searchingfortruthwithabrokenflashlight.com/uploads/Tumblety_and_his_Uterus_Collection.pdf
 
To return to this topic, I am in the process of dipping into a title that focuses on the 'non-canonicals'--some of which I know nothing about. So far it's excellent, the Tabram account is very full.

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Yith
I’ve just finished Paul Begg’s forgotten victims, and although it didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t know about the non can five, it was typically consistent, thorough, and all that I would have expected of a book written by Begg on this subject

Donald Rumbelow also ticks my box as an author on Jack - in truth there are only a handful of ripper authors that I would take seriously, that being Colin Wilson, Phil Sugden, Rumbelow and Begg (obviously) and Martin Fido.

I think I posted on the Forum that I recently lost a 1959 1st edition of Donald McCormack’s “Identity of Jack the Ripper”, his theory was complete hogwash, but the loss of the book grieves me as it was gifted to me by my Grandfather when I was about 11 years of age, and was the first serious book that I read upon the case.

The only murder post Kelly (IMO) that showed the same MO as the Ripper was Alice McKenzie, but I’m not sure I can believe that Jack would have waited a full 8 months after the butchery of millers court to kill again.

It being a slow work day today, I took a short stroll over to Aldgate and took a some snaps of where McKenzie was found – Castle alley is long gone and the space in which it did exist, has been incorporated into Old Castle Street.

I'm not sure if the photo's will load once I've posted, but I'll post anyway and see what happens.



1557760705908.jpg



I believe McKenzie was found approximately under the barred window on the left.


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I also turned into Goulston street and snapped the tenement block where the torn apron was found after the Cate Eddowes murder. The entrance to the block is where the fish and chip takeaway awning is now.



1557760706886.jpg



Next onto Spitalfields to take a snap of Gun Street, McKenzie resided in Gun Street at the time of her murder.

1557760707373.jpg


No 52 Gun street where McKenzie lived, now a modern apartment block

1557760707839.jpg


The atmospheric Artillery lane (just around the corner from Gun Street)

1557760708204.gif
 
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