# Would modern forensics have solved the Ripper murders? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874 "2010-03-26T14:29:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/21 "2010-03-27T20:32:01Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > The fact the murder stopped on his own is somewhat unusual, but not unheard of. The [Cleveland Torso Murders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_murders) also stopped on their own. > > And that was a similar case of murder of random people. Well, also, we have no idea if Jack actually stopped, or if he got ran over by Ye Olde Horse-Drawn Carriage or died of typhoid or something. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/22 "2010-03-28T16:52:10Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Modern DNA & blood testing would probably have been very convincing evidence against a suspect, had the police ever caught one. The police had hundreds of suspects, but the ones they focused on most strongly (the ones most well known today) were thought to be strong candidates for reasons that would be considered rather laughable these days. For example, they focused a lot of attention on foreigners and homosexuals on the belief that they were more likely to have committed such crimes. > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Modern handwriting experts would have been able to separate the fake letters to the police from the real ones. (That seems to have been done pretty well already.) Doubtful. Modern handwriting experts can tell within some degree of accuracy whether certain documents were written by the same person, but that doesn’t mean that any of them were the real killer. There was nothing in any letter proving that its author was actually the killer. The closest thing was the From Hell hell, which came with a kidney, but the doctors at the time were all but certain it did not come from the victim and was a prank by a medical student or the like. Most authorities on the case these days think _none_ of the letters came from the killer, but a lot of people who aren’t considered authorities write books claiming to be experts. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/23 "2010-03-28T16:53:45Z")
> [@Rodd\_Hill](#): > > Well there you are, then–“Rippercast” is actually an offshoot of “Casebook,” with links to each of the episodes on the [Casebook.org](http://Casebook.org) webpage. It wasn’t originally an offshoot, but the originator of the podcast had web hosting issues on his original site. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/24 "2010-03-28T19:29:45Z")
If it happened today, wouldn’t it be on camera? ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/25 "2010-03-28T22:49:55Z")
> [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > For example, they focused a lot of attention on foreigners and homosexuals on the belief that they were more likely to have committed such crimes. Foreigners certainly, but homosexuals? There has been plenty of subsequent theorising about gay angles to the murders - the whole Cleveland Street brothel business in the Royal Conspiracy or the rumours about Druitt - but was anybody explicitly doing so during the 1888 investigations? ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/26 "2010-03-28T23:22:14Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > Foreigners certainly, but homosexuals? There has been plenty of subsequent theorising about gay angles to the murders - the whole Cleveland Street brothel business in the Royal Conspiracy or the rumours about Druitt - but was anybody explicitly doing so during the 1888 investigations? The rumors about Montague Druitt have received some added support in recent years thanks to research showing that the politician who is now believed to have first raised Druitt’s name as a suspect to the police (Macnaghten in particular, who was the biggest proponent of that theory) had gotten some press for trying to raise some hell about homosexual acts in the educational system, which puts an interesting, albeit inconclusive, spin on why Druitt was ever thought to be in any way involved with the killings. And the only writings by anyone in the police department giving reasons for suspicion toward Dr. Francis Tumblety focus almost entirely upon the supposed degeneracy of homosexuals. Tumblety was arrested in the fall of 1888 for immoral acts with boys. More interestingly, of the limited number of facts giving about Tumblety’s life in this document, some were clearly mistakes and referring instead to Druitt. The Cleveland Street scandal seems to have only been linked in some people’s minds to the Ripper affair at a later date. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/27 "2010-03-29T00:05:26Z")
In other words, the only suspect clearly associated with homosexuality at the time was Tumblety and he didn’t become a suspect until later. Hardly evidence that this was a preoccupation of the police at the time, as claimed. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874/28 "2010-03-29T00:45:47Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > In other words, the only suspect clearly associated with homosexuality at the time was Tumblety and he didn’t become a suspect until later. Hardly evidence that this was a preoccupation of the police at the time, as claimed. Well, sure, but only if you ignore what I said in both of my relevant posts. And you know when Tumblety became a suspect for the first time? And what evidence do you have for that, just so I know what you consider an appropriate level of evidence to back up your claims. Unless you have secret information nobody else has access to I’ve already given more evidence to support my conclusion than you have for that one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-modern-forensics-have-solved-the-ripper-murders/533874.md?page=1)