# Jack The Ripper and Detectives? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 28, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-and-detectives/651654 "2013-02-28T19:34:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-and-detectives/651654/41 "2013-03-05T00:07:19Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > there are no factual answers, except that Patricia Cornwell is a self-promoting moron. And cultural vandal - she chopped up at least one Sickert painting in a mad attempt to get a DNA sample. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-and-detectives/651654/42 "2013-03-06T07:16:20Z")
As a kid, I read somewhere that the classified files on JTR will be released after 100 years. I never heard of any releases in the 1980s concerning Jack. And I never got the dope on those files. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-and-detectives/651654/43 "2013-03-06T13:36:58Z")
It has been many years since I read about the Whitechapel Murders (“Jack the Ripper”) , but the question I always had was :the bodies of many of the victims were expertly gutted-many of them had their internal organs removed…some said that it indicated that the perpetrator had near-surgical skills. My question: this takes time-how come nobody ever saw anything? The victims were mainly prostitutes, living in rooming houses-it is amazing that there were no eyewitnesses. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-and-detectives/651654/44 "2013-03-06T15:37:03Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > It has been many years since I read about the Whitechapel Murders (“Jack the Ripper”) , but the question I always had was :the bodies of many of the victims were expertly gutted-many of them had their internal organs removed..some said that it indicated that the perpetrator had near-surgical skills. My question: this takes time-how come nobody ever saw anything? The victims were mainly prostitutes, living in rooming houses-it is amazing that there were no eyewitnesses. From more than a few yards in the dark and foggy alleys of 1888 London, I imagine it would be quite difficult to tell the difference between copulation and dissection. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-and-detectives/651654/45 "2013-03-13T14:42:18Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Some believe [Jack the Ripper was H.H. Holmes](http://blogs.suntimes.com/news/2012/12/was_hh_holmes_also_jack_the_ripper.html), the Chicago serial killer depicted in the book _Devil in the White City_. One must admit it’s a fairly compelling theory on its surface. No, it’s not very compelling at all. Jack was a hands-on killer who killed with a knife and cut up his victims in the street. Holmes’ favorite technique was suffocation, either by gas or just an enclosed room. Holmes was a charmer who picked his victims with care, often cultivating them over time. Jack was a guy who suckered poor women in dark alleys. Holmes liked to engage in insurance fraud, or sell the bodies to medical schools (convert them to skeletons). Jack sliced and then left them where they fell. That article links to [this one](http://voices.yahoo.com/jack-ripper-h-h-holmes-similar-evils-one-in-4806210.html). It is gibberish, stretching facts in all directions to try to make the two the same. One striking detail is a comparison of writings from both. Assuming the “From Hell” letter is authentic, it displays a much weaker grasp of the written language than the erudite Holmes. Holmes: _"I was born with the Devil in me. I could not help the fact that I was a murderer, no more than the poet can help the inspiration to sing … I was born with the Evil One standing as my sponsor beside the bed where I was ushered into this world, and he has been with me since_." Jack: \*"From hell \* _Mr Lusk Sor I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nice. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer._ _signed Catch me when you Can Mishter Lusk."_ The “kill twenty” and the 27 dead by Holmes argument is rubbish. > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > According to [Dr Xanthe Mallett](http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/tv/blogs/b/-/15030343/history-cold-case-with-dr-xanthe-mallett/) of BBC TV’s _History Cold Case_, Jack may have been [Carl Feigenbaum](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14207581). First off, if Feigenbaum was German, why does that reproduction look oriental? Second, while the timing is interesting, what that article mostly points out is the possibility that the murders were done by different people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-and-detectives/651654.md?page=2)