Ripper @ MindSay

I've just finished reading this book, which is one of the latest books published about the infamous Whitechapel murderer of 1888.

Let me just establish something first.  My readers here will know something about the Ripper; i'm not going to explain everything cos we'd be here all day.  However, if you don't know much about him, feel free to read on but don't complain if you get lost.

John Williams is the author, Tony Williams's, great-great Uncle.  Tony was researching his family history and came across John Williams for his work at the National Library of Wales.  John was an obstetrician and gynaecologist.  Tony never imagined he would unearth something about him that no one would have imagined.  John Williams spent some years living and working in Whitechapel at the same time the Ripper reigned.  Tony also discovered that John had performed an abortion on the *official* first victim, Polly Nichols.  He also had contact with Annie Chapman and Kate Eddowes, as well as evidence connecting Williams to Mary Kelly - guessing she was his mistress.

The motives behind the killings were because John Williams could not conceive a child with his wife, and that the abdominal mutilation and subsequent organ removal of the victims - Kate Eddowes especially - was for his own scientific research.

Okay, let's set this right.  The Jack the Ripper murders were sex murders.  Let's not get diverted with satanic theories, freemason theories, the Russian sent to embarrass British authorities or even research theories.  Jack the Ripper was the seminal modern day serial sex murderer.  The act of killing and cutting his victims was the act of sex.  In fact the true definition of a serial killer is one who kills to fulifill his sexually sadistic fantasies.  Based on that John Williams's motives would have been all wrong.  There's no way he would murder with such ferocity just for the sake of research.  There's psychology behind the face slashing.  The Ripper hated himself so much that he slashed two victims' faces so they were uglier than he.  John Williams had a normal upbringing - in fact there was evidence that he enjoyed his childhood.  Already a problem there.

Tony Williams postulated that John was only after Mary Kelly - due to the amount of mutilation.  That's just not true.  The Ripper was indoors away from the streets and had all the time in the world to savage her.  The fact that she may have been Williams's mistress Tony Williams speculates that she could have suspected John and was blackmailing him, so he killed her, moreso than the others.  And because she was more attractive and younger meant more to him.  But the killings worsened as they went along.  Kelly was the final act of his atrocities before moving on to wherever.  No one can say that the other victims were flukes.

Tony Williams surmised that the reason the murders ceased was because John Williams could not solve the mystery of his wife's infertility so he gave up; or perhaps because the police were getting too close; or because he was overcome with guilt - hence his early retirement.  All are hopeless guesses.  Clearly Tony Williams is not tuned in to the mind of a serial killer - although based on his book Jack the Ripper is not actually the definition of a serial killer.  Lust murderers cannot just stop.  The only time they do is if they are caught or dead.  Just look at the victims.  Did the Ripper have any remorse?  John Williams had a normal upbringing; therefore, he would have had a conscience.  It's too far fetched.

John Williams knew four of the victims.  I stopped to think about this because he made some good points.  But there weren't many obstetricians and gynaecologists in those days, and Williams was one of the leading doctors.  It's very likely the victims would have come across him in his time at the infirmary but that doesn't prove anything.  John Williams was successful at what he did - again another glitch in the mind of a serial killer - in fact he was so successful that he made contact with the Royal Family.  He continued working for the National Library after retiring.  Doesn't happen.  Serial killers, although having above average intelligence, perform poorly at work.

Three main witnesses - not George Hutchinson - Joseph Lawende, Israel Schwartz and William Smith were the ones who probably saw the Ripper himself.  Tony Williams stated that Hutchinson was the main witness but he was unreliable with his account with whom Mary Kelly was speaking.  In the Liz Stride affair and even Kate Eddowes, Jack the Ripper had been spotted.  He was in his early twenties.  At the time of the Whitechapel murders John Williams was 48.

Another thing worth noting is that Jack the Ripper was probably a Jew, not because of the chalk message 'The Juwes(sic) are the men that will not be blamed for nothing' but when he was nearly caught after Liz Stride the Ripper called out the word lipski.  Not something John Williams is likely to do.

There's a lot to cover with Jack the Ripper.  Tony Williams has not focused on the facts but made a lot of conjectures based on circumstantial evidence.  There are two reasons which made me think John Williams might be Jack the Ripper:

1.  He was a doctor;

2.  The victims knew him.

That's not enough.  It's all to do with what happened after Mary Kelly.  John retired and worked on establishing the library.  He stopped because he felt remorse.  Well i'm sorry but anyone who believes that is just not switched on.

Please reply and tell me your thoughts.

The next book i want to read is Jack the Ripper: 21st Century Investigation by Trevor Marriot which explores the sailor theory in more detail.  And i haven't read about the physician yet.

In the Australian 20th April a brief article was published on a new Ripper suspect.  Tony Williams is a writer and has claimed that his ancestor John Williams was the murderer.

Sir John Williams was a Welsh doctor and a personal friend of Queen Victoria.  The writer unearthed evidence linking Sir John to the murders while carrying out research on the doctor.  He discovered that he had treated all five victims and performed an abortion on Polly Nichols, based on old medical notes and diaries.

The motive was for medical research because his wife was unable to have children.

Well...

Jack the Ripper had medical expertise so that's a plus for this accusation.  The theory that the Ripper removed the wombs from some of the victims for medical research has been a long established theory.  However, if Sir John knew each victim then he would have planned to meet them at certain places or could easily lure them.  In real life that happened; however, on the night of the double murder Kate Eddowes spent several hours in the police station sobering up.  On her release she was murdered.  No way could Williams have orchestrated the murder of Liz Stride and Eddowes in that manner if he told Eddowes to meet him at Mitre Square.

Plus the Whitechapel murders were sex crimes.  According to Tony Williams the motive was research - doesn't happen.

I can't make any more comments until i read his book.  But the National Library of Wales has dismissed the research.

Mandy & Stargazer, this next one's for you.

I read Patricia Cornwall's theory on Jack the Ripper (actually i finished a month ago) in her believing the artist Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper.  She made some good points, and i place Sickert fairly high on my list.  I think his deformity gives him a good motive and he certainly was a late night wanderer.  But i'm not convinced.

Cornwall made a lot of conjectures.  She was vague on what happened to Sickert after Mary Kelly.  In my opinion you cannot point the finger at the Ripper without knowing exactly what happened to that person after Kelly.  He probably went to France.  Cornwall believed that other murders happening two years later were attributed to Sickert, but those murders, according to the head police doctor Phillips, were not from Jack the Ripper.

An important witness in the Liz Stride murder said the Ripper called out the word, 'Lipsky', hinting that the Ripper was a Jew.  Sickert was not.  But given that Sickert was an actor and ripperologist Phillip Sugden believes it was a diversion, then my argument may not be strong on this one.

She's placed a huge amount of emphasis on the paintings and the letters.  The letters were hoaxes and even if Sickert did write the letters, nothing more can be proven.  She believed his paintings were full of malevolence and contempt for the lower class woman - emphasising that the paintings mimiced his fantasies.  This, again, does not mean anything.  I mean, jeez, some of my early poems from adolescence still shock me today but none of it is real.  Everyone has unacceptable fantasies, and so did Sickert.  Following them through is another issue.

Plus there's the issue of anatomical knowledge.  Jack the Ripper could even have been a surgeon but Cornwall has completely refuted what Dr Phillips has confirmed.

Jack the Ripper worked during the week because the murders occurred on weekends.  Sickert was an artist who could kill any night.  Why weekends?  Cornwall ignored this entirely.

Finally, based on the psychological profile developed by Special Agent John E. Douglas of the FBI in 1988, Walter Sickert doesn't fit the profile of a serial killer.  The only way serial killers can stop their atrocities is if they are jailed or committ suicide.  Sickert couldn't just stop.  He lived till old age.  There is only one characteristic that Sickert fits in the profile - that is, Jack the Ripper would have worked in a solitary job where he could live in his fantasies.      

So there you have it.  There is a strong case for Walter Sickert but i think that Druitt and Chapman have a stronger one.

Cheers

'As a child i thought that if some fairy offered me three wishes, the first thing i would ask for would be the identity of Jack the Ripper; the thought that it might remain a mystery forever was intolerable.

 - Colin Wilson - The Outsider.

I've just finished reading the Complete History of Jack the Ripper by Philip Sugden.  First of all, apologies to my friends who are constantly having to put up with the same genre of writing with me; you must be bloody sick of it.  But my fascination of serial killers is like your interests in fantasy, Buffy and anime etc.  I'm hoping i can reach out to a wider audience - hopefully someone out there knows something about the atrocities and wants to share his or her views about seminal lust murderer and the world's most famous unsolved crime.

If you have some idea about this topic read on; if you want to be introduced read on.  Otherwise tell me to get over it :)

For those who don't know, in a time before fingerprints and DNA, a series of hideous murders of prostitutes took place in the East End of London - Whitechapel - between 1888 to 1891.  The total was nine.  Jack the ripper is inequivocally responsible for five of these butcherings in which he would strangle the victim; slash her throat disembowel her and, in two cases, disfigure her face.  These took place from the end of August to 13th Nov 1888.  The official victims were called Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Liz Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Kelly.  A woman called Martha Tabrum was the first victim who was stabbed to death - a different modus operandi.  And in 1891 Alice McKenzie and Frances Cole were murdered in a similar fashion to the five predecesors only they were thought to have been done by a copycat killer.  We don't know.

Okay, the suspects.  I'm not going to bore you with the details of the murders.  In this next section i'm assuming the reader has knowledge of this.  If not, research some more.

Montague John Druitt, the barrister who failed at teaching, was alleged to be sexually insane.  Mental illness ran in his family.  His body was found in the Thames River on the 31st Dec 1888, and was dated back to having jumped around the time the final victim - and the most grizzly - Mary Kelly was slaughtered.  His family was convinced that he was the Whitechapel murderer.  Now there are objections to Druitt.  Jack the Ripper lived in close vicinity to Whitechapel.  Druitt did not, but it wasn't impossible for him to make the trips and return early morning.  Jack the Ripper had anatomical knowledge.  With the removal of Kate Eddowes's kidney Dr Phillips believed that not only did the Ripper possess anatomical knowledge, but surgical skills.  Not a strong case for Montague.  My argument to this is that, based on Dr Bond's allegations about the Mary Kelly murder, the Ripper had no anatomical knowledge.  Neverthless, Montague's early days at college exposed him to anatomy.  Plus in the case of Andrei Chickatilo, he removed the wombs of his female victims so meticulously that they thought the killer was a surgeon.  As it turned out he knew nothing of the sort.  Could the same be said about Druitt?  Finally serial killers do not committ suicide.  Sir Melville McNaghten inferred that after the horrible crime of Mary Kelly the Ripper was appauled and threw himself in the Thames.  Well, the Zodiac and the Green River Killer were never discovered.  Did they suicide?  One thing is certain.  When Montague Druitt died the murders ceased.

A lot of evidence points George Chapman as being the Whitechapel murderer.  I'm not so sure.  I'm unsettled as to the lengthy cooling off period he had after Mary Kelly.  After Kelly he moved to New York where a prostitute was murdered in a similar fashion. Mmm.  Police believed it was unlikely to be Chapman.  From this point until 1903 he poisoned three of his 'wives' in which he was hanged for them in 1903.  He never confessed to being the Ripper when he had the chance.  One would think he would.  He wouldn't gain any financial advantages in murdering his 'wives'.  But going from slaughtering to poisoning doesn't sit well, especially over such a long time.  And many dissimilarities occurred among witnesses' descriptions.  But Chapman did possess anatomical skill.  He had the same medical qualifications, the appearance, the cunning and cruelty to have been Jack the Ripper.

Two more suspects Aaron Kosminski and Michael Ostrog.  Many ripperologists believe Kosminski was the Ripper.  The Polish Jew who had contempt for prostitutes.  Once caged in a lunatic asylum the murders ceased.  Except he was admitted two years after Mary Kelly, in which he refused to work; ate bread from the gutters and drank tap water.  The murders were too disciplined to have been committed by such individual.

The Mad Russian Michael Ostrog was a con man and trickster whose whereabouts on each night of a murder were unknown.  McNaghten believed he was 'unquestionably a homicidal maniac' but his sources on this were unreliable.  The most likely witnesses said they saw a man in his thirties and was average sized.  Ostrog was probably 55yrs and five foot and would have towered over Kate Eddowes.  It was too unlikely to be Ostrog.

Well there you have it: a tiny fraction of what's out there on the subject.  I'm calling myself a Druittist.  Information on him is limited.

 So many theories are present for each suspect - there are many more.  I think i should really settle for the fact that Jack the Ripper was a sailor who came and went.

If you've read this far you must be interested.  Hopefully you know something.  If you do pleeeeeaaaaase write back; i'm busting to hear your arguments. 

Cheerio.