Tailors chalk would work OK though.It occurs to me that, given the dimensions of the chalk that l remember from my schooldays, it would be challenging to produce legible letters as small as “¾” for the capitals, and lower case in proportion”.
Perhaps this accounts for the different versions remembered by the witnesses. lt also raises the possibility of a complete misreading/ misinterpretation of the killer’s intended message.
maximus otter
Tailors chalk would work OK though.
I have to state I have not yet nailed my colours to the mast on any particular Ripper suspect or motive.
But your critique of the Masonic theory, can just as easily be seen the opposite way.
Need the method of death be absolutely in line with Masonic ritual of the time?
The very fact that five (or more, or even less) women were murdered shows that it was by definition a criminal act, and so not in keeping with mainstream Freemasonry.
To me it doesn't matter that Hiram Abif did not give up the secrets, it matters that the unusual condition of the corpses can be considered as having sent a signal to those investigating...well Warren anyway.
The precision used ... the knowledge of where the organs were ... the placing of the entrails .... it's precise not frenzied.
If the murders were not an attempt at a Masonic code, then the way the corpses were mutilated, especially Mary Jane Kelly's, is an extraordinary coincidence.
But coincidences do occur.
I think the Graffito was as likely a Masonic code and connected to the murder, as it was anti-Semitic and not connected to the murders.
Two spelling errors...bizarre.
So 50/on that.
With the utmost respect, I look forward to reading your theory.Absolutely in line no, but the best effort the murderers could achieve under the time and circumstances?
Or enough to send as signals to Warren?
Calvi for sure.
P2 being Masonic in origin, but had it's charter withdrawn in the decade before Calvi's death.
At some point I hope to declare who I think the Ripper was, but I have a lot more reading to do first.
Worth looking at "Mapping Murder" by David Canter (2005)*, where the 'Dragnet' geographical profiling program is applied to the JtR killings, although it makes assumptions about the killing being the work of one man (not 100% proven) and that the grafitto is also the work of the murderer (also not 100% proven). The two 'suspects' that are covered by likely locus of residence are Maybrick and Kominski. Of course the killer might be a simple 'nobody' living in the area at the time.For my part, having been in and out of the subject for many years, I suspect that JtR was an unknown local with a job in the local economy.
I think this is one case where modern profiling would pay dividends, providing an accurate description of the killer.
Worth looking at "Mapping Murder" by David Canter (2005)*, where the 'Dragnet' geographical profiling program is applied to the JtR killings, although it makes assumptions about the killing being the work of one man (not 100% proven) and that the grafitto is also the work of the murderer (also not 100% proven). The two 'suspects' that are covered by likely locus of residence are Maybrick and Kominski. Of course the killer might be a simple 'nobody' living in the area at the time...
I my be misremembering, but I'm sure Maybrick kept a room just off the Commercial road, and / or his brother lived off the Commercial road. Interestly Maybrick lived in the district of Whitechapel in Liverpool.I have that somewhere too. Also his book Criminal Shadows. Whereas I still think an awful lot of so-called profiling is soft science at its most basic (or at least, the way it's carried out by many of those who practice it), Canter's profile of John Duffy was really pretty remarkable, and his exploration of the importance of location and geography very interesting.
If I'm right in recalling (and I may well not be) that Maybrick was not a permanent resident of the East End at the time of the killings*, then it's worth pointing out that Maybrick and Kominski fit different aspects of Canter's marauder/commuter definitions: Maybrick (if I'm recalling correctly) would have been a 'commuter', Kominski a 'marauder' (that is - one who attacked close to home). This difference would, I believe, affect the way other aspects of any profiling would be approached.
(I often have to check in my head that I'm not mixing up Canter and Paul Britton. I like Canter, but Britton has always struck me as a blowhard know-all who dresses up the fact that he's stating what is fucking obvious to anyone with slightly more nous than a brick by delivering it in suitably didactic tones.)
*Edit: My recall is that Maybrick had lived in the East End at one time, but was no longer resident at the time of the killings - but travelled to London regularly with his work.
For my part, having been in and out of the subject for many years, I suspect that JtR was an unknown local with a job in the local economy.
I think this is one case where modern profiling would pay dividends, providing an accurate description of the killer.
I my be misremembering, but I'm sure Maybrick kept a room just off the Commercial road, and / or his brother lived off the Commercial road. Interestly Maybrick lived in the district of Whitechapel in Liverpool.
...Who would be out at that hour with a legitimate excuse, literate, carrying a light source and (possibly) a fine white crayon? A policeman comes to mind…
This plays into one of those aspects of our attitudes to the time which I often wonder about. I'm just not sure that Victorian London at night was the place of dark, isolated and utterly deserted streets that is often portrayed. Many shops and businesses closed relatively late; rooming houses would be recycling residents late at night and very early in the morning (the rooms were often rented on shift systems - sometimes three shifts a day, I believe); night watchmen were common to local businesses, factories and foundries - furnaces and kilns were often never shut down, and required 24/7 attendance, and night workers were not uncommon. What's more - the area was close to the busiest docks in the world, and although I have no reference for this, I really doubt things kept entirely to what we might think of as regular business hours.
I mean, I wouldn't want to overplay the issue - I don't doubt London was much quieter overnight than it was during daylight hours, or that there were pockets of utter isolation, but I do believe that it was probably busier than our preconceptions might have us believe. And if anything, that just adds to the mystery.
Yes.I'm just not sure that Victorian London at night was the place of dark, isolated and utterly deserted streets that is often portrayed. Many shops and businesses closed relatively late; rooming houses would be recycling residents late at night and very early in the morning (the rooms were often rented on shift systems - sometimes three shifts a day, I believe); night watchmen were common to local businesses, factories and foundries - furnaces and kilns were often never shut down, and required 24/7 attendance, and night workers were not uncommon. What's more - the area was close to the busiest docks in the world, and although I have no reference for this, I really doubt things kept entirely to what we might think of as regular business hours.
Canter examined the writing iirc and (some what archly) strongly suggests it is written very very well by a person with a strong grasp of both the psychology of the 'perpetrator' and how to write...I thought the diaries had been shown to be a forgery?
Is Maybrick still taken as a serious suspect?
I thought the diaries had been shown to be a forgery?
Right, as I thought then.
No. Just another over-enthusiastic Ripperologist who believes he's 'solved' the mystery. He hasn't. ...I don't want to detract from the tragedy of the Moor Murders, but was surprised to read that the amateur sleuth (Russell Edwards) who discovered the putative remains of Keith Bennett had "after years of dedicated research, produced the definitive evidence to prove the identity of the world’s most famous murderer: Jack the Ripper". Did I miss something ?
https://www.thejacktherippertour.co.uk/russell-edwards/
I wonder how many times the Ripper mystery will be solved.No. Just another over-enthusiastic Ripperologist who believes he's 'solved' the mystery. He hasn't.
It's unfortunate this is being given the coverage it has been - according to the police NO human remains have yet been found.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...human-remains-found-yet-search-keith-bennett/
This sorts of overlaps with another subject. But after many years of being interested in the Whitechapel murders, and now some years of trying to put them behind me, all I can say is that for some Ripperologists they are overtaken with a form of obsession that they MUST be right. And the more you point out holes in their theory the more convinced they become.I wonder how many times the Ripper mystery will be solved.
I have found this to be the case in other areas too. In my case when compiling information on a non fortean item I often find that people tend to believe that the reference material they have must be right and the material I or other people have is obviously incorrect.This sorts of overlaps with another subject. But after many years of being interested in the Whitechapel murders, and now some years of trying to put them behind me, all I can say is that for some Ripperologists they are overtaken with a form of obsession that they MUST be right. And the more you point out holes in their theory the more convinced they become.
This sorts of overlaps with another subject. But after many years of being interested in the Whitechapel murders, and now some years of trying to put them behind me, all I can say is that for some Ripperologists they are overtaken with a form of obsession that they MUST be right. And the more you point out holes in their theory the more convinced they become...
In popular culture the Ripper’s shadowy existence is seen as an intrinsic and self-conscious part of his character – a kind of semi-supernatural mantle of invisibility - whereas the likely reality is that it is a simple manifestation of a statement of fact regarding the majority of the population of the time.
…a very large portion of humanity hardly possessed a shadow to leave behind: a single mention on a parish register; workhouse, police and court records; a death certificate - barely a whisper, and sometimes, nothing at all.
I agree about Martha Tabram.
Nonetheless, I think the case is worth reading about if one accepts that it will be an exploration of late Victorian London...the geography, psychogeography, religious demographics, gender roles, police techniques and the the press.
On those terms, it was not waste of time.
@Spookdaddy All reasonable observations.
I have to confess to having a foot in both camps.
I love Holmes and have read a large amount on JtR too.
I always thought it was a shame that the two were not destined to cross paths. All the fiction I had read on the possibility was terrible, to say the least...