Truthfully, I don’t think poor Prince Eddy was smart enough to get away with it without being caught. He was mentally retarded, by all accounts, and very slow. The only qualifications were that the description of the possible Ripper was a good description of the Duke of Clarence.
It’s reassuring to see that almost all of the responses here are inspired by SF, Horror, or Fantasy stories.
There are lots of Jack the Ripper websites. If you use any search engine you’ll find yourself inundated with sites and suspects.
One of the more interesting candidates to emerge recently is James Muybridge (I may have that name not quite right). A diary purporting to be by him has surfaced, giving incredibly detailed accounts of the murders. Muybridge himself was an arsenic addict, and his death became a media event, because his wife was thought to have poisoned him. It’s interesting that the Ripper murders ceased after Muybridge’s death.
There are fishy things about the diary – it’s in a scrapbook lacking the first few pages. It’s of the right period, but it’s not really the proper book for a diary. This makes it look as if a forger got hold of a mostly blank genuine period scrapbook, cut out the first few pages (which had things pasted onto them) and wrote his forged account.
On the other hand, the diary is supposed to contain details about the crimes that haven’t been released until very recently. And the recent commentary on the Diary suggests a good reason that the Ripper misspelled “Juwes” in his graffitto. You pays your money and you takes your suspects.
Ripper websites are unimpressed by the diary, or by claims that the Duke of Clarence was really the Ripper.
What does Scotland Yard have to say about it? Unsolved cases must remain open for one hundred years, so it must have closed around… November, 1988 or so. Did the Yard write a final report?
Two of the Ripper historians interviewed on the History Channel program last night thought the diary was a forgery (if it’s the same book I’m thinking about – it looked more like a traditional leatherbound book than a diary).
I can understand all the speculation and such surrounding Jack – I guess I just have a hard time understanding how such a famous criminal could go unmasked for so long. I’m of the Scooby-Doo generation, I guess.
For more information on James MAYBRICK, read the book “The Diary of Jack the Ripper” – it goes into great detail and supports its case well. (There is evidence that goes beyond the diary). There was a sequel to the book that goes into the family history of both Maybrick and his wife, Florence. (There’s evidence he had a child out of wedlock, and so did she. The diary and watch [see previously mentioned book for information on the watch] passed through one of them into the hands of the investigators.
This book is one of my favorites. I’ve read it at least 5 times – I heard at one point it was going to be made into a movie with Anthony Hopkins as Maybrick. I sure HOPE so!
I couldn’t get enough of it, I saw it in the theatre twice, and rented it after VCR’s got invented. There is a sweet lyricism to it, and the scene in the Hyatt (?? ) Hotel when David Warner flips channels on the T.V. to bolster his claims that the future has far overtaken him is RIGHT up there with some of Paddy Chayevsky’s predictions from the film “Network”.
Fave Scene #1. When H.G. walks down the street, “discovering” San Francisco.
Fave Scene #2. When H.G. walks into the museum, and goes to the display of his home,and takes the spare glasses out of the desk. Brilliance.
Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen fell in love during the filming and were married. It didn’t last.
And, congrats on falling in love 
Cartooniverse
A WHAT!!! An arsenic addict! Is somebody kidding me? Arsenic to get high? Jeez, hows about some Clorox for a buzz!! What in the blazing Hell is an arsenic addict!?
FWIW I’m inclined to Stephen Knight’s thesis of William Gull (coach driven by John Netley, assisted by Walter Sickert … doesn’t that sound like Cluedo :))
I thought his reasoning that the victims knew each other, and most were living within a small area centred on Dorset Street as the most compelling that there was a motive, rather than random action, behind the murders.
However, some of the conspiracy elements looked weak and over embellished.
I also thought someone said that the theory had been debunked, but I’ve never found the refutation. Would be interested if somebody had a cite.
I also saw something on the History channel, and another theory that suggested he may have turned up in some other country…or something like that.
All I know is JDT had “proof” that he (the Ripper) was circumcized. :rolleyes:
But really - the Casebook website mentioned earlier is the best one on the Web, IMO.
I have a suspect. Several of you may have heard of him. That there’s a great coincidence of names shouldn’t surprise you. This gentleman lept upon a single suspect and refused to accept that he was wrong.
Jack D. Tyler.
IIRC, arsenic in small quantities was used to get high (but also used to whiten the face). You because so accustomed to it that it took greater and greater quantities to get you high, IOW, you developed resistance.
Unfortunately, if you stopped using the arsenic, you could die of arsenic poisoning. Weird.
I’ll try to find a cite.
I found a few cites, but nothing reliable.
I’ll keep looking and I’ll give my my dad a call if I can’t find anything online (he’s a PharmD with access to a lot more drug/toxicology references than I have).
Or maybe Duck Duck Goose will pop in with her superior research skills and kick my ass.
The term Jack the Ripper comes from the “Hello Boss” letter mailed from east London to the Central News Agency and reprinted in the morning Daily News and evening Star on October 1, 1888. Before that letter appeared he was referred to as the Whitechapel Murderer.
There’s a new book you might check out of your library called “The Cases That Haunt Us” by FBI profiler John Douglas and Mark Olshaker (published by Scribner, copyright 2000).
Douglas takes 80 pages to go through the case.
In fact, the fellow Douglas settles on, David Cohen, was probably not his real nae since Cohen was a John Doe-type surname often given to Jewish immigrants whose actual surnames were difficult for Englishmen to pronounce or spell. It’s likely they guy’s real name was Nathan Kaminsky.
Douglas touches on all the likely suspects including Prince Eddie, Dr. Francis Tumblety, James Maybrick, Severin Klosowski and even Neill Cream.
The book is a good read, BTW.
What movie are you talking about here? It sounds interesting and I was thinking of renting something this weekend.
By the way, if anyone is interested. Years ago (10 years?), I took a “London Walk” tour. They had several different ones covering all sorts of topics. The one I went on was the “Jack the Ripper” walk. The tour guide was a particularly (and hate to say it, but stereotypically) cheery English lady. It was a great tour. She took us on a walk through Whitechapel area of London where most of the murders took place. It was almost surreal, this cheerful English woman explaining the most gruesome murders; the cheerfulness did not fit the subject. It’s strange, but this has stuck in my brain, I can remember how she described and demonstrated (on a young lady in our walk) how; “the Ripper thrust his weapon in to the lower abdomen and ripped up to the rib cage. As the intestines flowed out of poor Mary, our Ripper pulled and wrapped the intestines around Mary’s neck.” Can you imagine this described in a cheerful English accent? It was great! The tour ended at the only pub still remaining where some of the victims were known to have frequented. The three Bells or Tuns or something like that.
Highly recommended. Mind it was some time ago so I don’t know if the walk is still available or if that particular tour guide is still guiding.
Jack
The movie they’re talking about is “Time After Time” I’m pretty sure - Malcolm Macdowell (not sure about the spelling of his last name) as H.G. Wells and I forget who as Jack. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, but it was a very good movie - one of the few times that I can think of where Malcolm played a good guy.
It had David Warner as Jack the Ripper, who I feel is an underrated character actor. Loved him as Jon Irenicus in the PC game ‘Baldur’s Gate 2’.
I loved that movie too, saw it as a little kid on HBO and from then on I would sometimes daydream that H.G. Wells was with me and I would explain the various modern things I saw around to him.
Arsenic was believed to keep the skin white, and to be an aphrodisiac, especially when combined with opium.
They were a fun lot, those Victorians.
If you want more about arsenic addicts (and a really cute mystery involving them), Sharyn McCrumb has written a double-barreled arsenic-poisoning mystery that explains a lot about the addiction. After Mrs. Cal read it, she said that now she knew how to kill me off so she wouldn’t be suspected. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten the name of this mystery – but look through McCrumb’s ouevre. You might also read “The Diary of Jack the Ripper”, cited by me and by someone else in the above thread.
I’ve come to the conclusion that people will eat or drink just about ANYTHING with a non-zero taste, and that they can become addicted to just about anything with even the slightest effect.
I’m pretty sure the Sharyn McCrumb book CalMeacham is thinking of is If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him…. It’s one of her Elizabeth MacPherson books.