# Was Robert Mann also Jack the Ripper? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 13, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001 "2010-12-13T17:34:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/1 "2010-12-13T17:34:41Z")
I saw [this](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6261360/Jack-the-Rippers-identity-finally-uncovered.html) on TV. It seems to come out of nowhere and I tend to be skeptical of shows that tend to neglect other facts that may be pertinant. Has anyone else heard of this theory and what do y’all think. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/2 "2010-12-13T17:48:39Z")
Possibility that Mr Mann was really Mr the Ripper = 0.00% Possibility that someone is pimping a crappy and vacuous shockumentary = 99+% ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/3 "2010-12-13T18:22:47Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Possibility that Mr Mann was really Mr the Ripper = 0.00% Why not? He was a mortician in Whitechapel. What more proof do you need? ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/4 "2010-12-13T19:26:36Z")
He wasn’t a mortician - he was one of two assistants at the mortuary. He was in his fifties and lived in the workhouse (which means he wasn’t free to come and go as he pleased late at night and he doesn’t match the various witness statement.) The “mortuary” for Whitechapel was just a shed attached to the workhouse where unclaimed dead bodies got dropped off until they were buried. Mann just worked there as part of his workhouse duties. There’s a 30 page thread about Mann at the Casebook forum - one of the main online Ripper sites. It includes a discussion of the geographic and psychological discussion. > **[Robert Mann - A 'New' Suspect - Casebook: Jack the Ripper Forums](https://forum.casebook.org/forum/ripper-discussions/suspects/general-suspect-discussion/3356-robert-mann-a-new-suspect?t=3185)** > > For any suspect discussion not pertaintaining to a particular or listed suspect. Consensus in that thread is that the geographical profiling actually fits some other suspects better than it does Mann and the psychological profile (profoundly poor, awkward socially) describes most of Whitechapel. Beyond that, there’s not a shred of physical evidence. Also, the author’s contention that a random soldier stabbed Martha Tabram once with a bayonet and then Mann just happened along and stabbed her the other 35 times is considered especially unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/5 "2010-12-13T23:37:26Z")
I think it was Queen Victoria. The proof is that not one policeman suspected her despite the fact her name was on all the official documents dealing with the case. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/6 "2010-12-14T01:02:58Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Possibility that someone is pimping a crappy and vacuous shockumentary = 99+% This is it. People will constantly come up with new or recycled suspects for commercial reasons. The actual Jack the Ripper? _Probably_ one of those in the top two or three of the realistic suspect list. Will we ever know for certain? No. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/7 "2010-12-14T02:33:15Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > I think it was Queen Victoria. The proof is that not one policeman suspected her despite the fact her name was on all the official documents dealing with the case. Someone actually came up with a theory that her [grandson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Albert_Victor,_Duke_of_Clarence_and_Avondale) did it. (Note: said theory is about as credible as that for literal creation) ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/8 "2010-12-14T21:40:07Z")
I had been inclined to make the gag that anyone who might possibly have been present in Whitechapel in 1888 was now liable to be a suspect. Regardless of anything else. On those sorts of grounds, then Mann is a reasonablish suspect. He was present and there’s an angle that possibly ties him to the murders. But the specifics of where and when then probably disqualify him. Entirely independent of this proposal of Mann as a suspect, take [this summary](http://blog.casebook.org/mcebe/?p=203) of this year’s research on the topic. The writer’s personal position is hardly that significant, but the post is interesting as the current snapshot of Ripper studies. In other words, there are **dozens** of theories and suspects trotted out every year. Year by year. By year. By year. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/9 "2010-12-17T17:28:29Z")
I found a copy of Patricia Cornwell’s [Jack the Ripper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_a_Killer) book on a bus, brought it home and read it. I believe I was overcharged. Whoever told Cornwell she could write is demented. If you took out all the “coulds, mights, maybes, possibles, perhaps, etc. etc.” ot of this book, there wouldn’t be eough words left to fill a comic book. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/10 "2010-12-17T17:33:59Z")
Doesn’t anybody see the obvious connection to alien abductions and cattle mutilation? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-robert-mann-also-jack-the-ripper/564001/11 "2010-12-17T23:22:52Z")
Or mass hysteria.