Joseph Barnett

The suspect I believe did NOT commit the murders is Joseph Barnett.  There is no evidence to suggest Barnett could have, or would have wanted to, kill the five victims. Perhaps Barnett may have had a reason to kill his girlfriend, Mary Kelly, but not the other four women.  Some research suggest that, in an attempt to scare Mary for prostituting, Barnett killed the other women.  Yet there is truly no evidence that Joseph was a violent man, or the kind of man who would murder another person.  Mary and Joseph had a few fights in the past, yet none were physical or were anything beyond yelling at each other.  The only crime Barnett was ever known to commit was robbery; he stole a few pence from a fellow fisherman.  He seemed to learn his lesson from this crime, because he never committed another offense that we know of. 

Joseph just does not seem like the kind of man to commit such vicious crimes against anyone, never mind helpless women.

Ripper Victims

It is my opinion that all 5 agreed upon victims were killed by the same person. The similarities between the five women’s murders are very obvious, including the throat cutting and the occasional de-bowling.  Also, all five women were murdered within a few miles of one another and frequented the same areas. The differences between the murders can be explained in most cases.  For example, Elizabeth Stride was not cut open because the killer was interrupted and could not finish his brutal murder. There is also progression seen in the killings, which can explain why the early murders were a bit different then the later ones.  I believe the M.O. was still the same throughout all five killings.  In conclusion, the ripper victims were all killed by the same person, with one distinct M.O. and a progressive pattern of killing innocent women.

Joseph Lawende

When it comes to credible witnesses Joseph Lawende is perhaps the most believable of them all.  His description of the man last seen with Catherine Eddowes, remained quite consistent.  He says it was, “a man of shabby appearance, about 30 years of age and 5ft. 9in. in height, of fair complexion, having a small fair moustache, and wearing a red neckerchief and a cap with a peak.” This description was given on the second of October and again on the nineteenth.  He remained consistent in newspaper interviews and to several other police figures.  

In his personal life, Lawende was a good husband and father.  He seemed to be a honest man with little to gain from telling lies.  I believe Joseph could/should be believed as a witness, simply because his testimony has remained consistent, where other witnesses have changed their descriptions several times along the way.

Letters From a Killer

I personally do not believe that any of the “Jack The Ripper Letters” were written by the true killer.  Although many killers write to the police, Jack does not seem like the kind of killer who would communicate with the police or involve himself with the investigation in any way.  He seems to be killing for personal gain, not for publicity or fame.  Another reason I believe the letters were not written by the killer is because they have many different kinds of hand writing.  Perhaps one of the letters may have been written by the true killer, but all of the letters could not have been written by the same killer.

Newsweek Story about Unreliability of Eyewitness Testimony

We spoke in class about the supposed eyewitnesses with the victims, and this story speaks about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony.

Team Annie Chapman!

Here is the T-shirt used in the presentation on Annie Chapman by Frankie Marcus, Shandie Beckwith, Tracey Ganem, and Emily Moore.  It’s also posted on www.jtrforums.com under the Pupils of the Abyss thread.

Annie Chapman Injuries T-shirt

The Victims

I personally do believe that all five women that have been popularly considered to be Jack the Ripper victims were indeed killed by him. In comparing not only the locations of the murders but also the M.O., the similarities are undeniable. Although each murder has its slight differences, most of these can be attributed to the escalation in severity of the wounds—something which is common among serial killings. If any victim were to be discounted due to superficial evidence, it would be Liz Stride due to her lack of abdominal injuries. However, if one is to believe as I do that the Ripper was interrupted during his attack on Stride, then it is easy to attribute Stride’s lack of grotesque injuries to the fact that the murderer simply did not have time to inflict them. In addition, when analyzing other discrepancies in modus operandi between the victims, Sugden makes several significant remarks: “the departures from the Ripper’s mature modus operandi are not necessarily significant” between the victims, and “it is a mistake to think that a killer’s technique will invariably remain the same. Experience and circumstance alike prompt development and change” (Sugden 357-358). The Ripper in almost every case probably strangled the women first, proceeded in laying them on their backs, severed their throats, and inflicted the abdominal mutilations (except in the case of Stride).Three of the women—Annie Chapman, Kate Eddowes, and Mary Kelly—had body parts removed that were never recovered, and one can assume again that Elizabeth Stride only got off “lucky” because her murderer was interrupted. In regard to the locations of the murders, the data only supports the belief that all five women were murdered by the same person. It would be an extreme coincidence for five women to be murdered within one square mile of each other, and also an extreme coincidence for them all to be prostitutes that lived within hundreds of feet of each other. They were also all killed in what can be considered nighttime hours, and were murdered in areas that were dark, secluded, and that contained a wall or fence that ended up being within feet of the fallen victim (of course, this can be attributed to the fact that the prostitutes were under the assumption that they would be providing sexual services and sought out a secluded location, essentially aiding their killer in his endeavors). In conclusion, I feel that all five of the most commonly recognized victims—Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Kelly—were undoubtedly killed by Jack the Ripper.

Aaron Kosminski–Guilty or Innocent?

I personally don’t believe that Aaron Kosminski committed the Ripper murders, simply because of the many discrepancies that exist in making a case against him. First of all, Lawende did not identify Kosminski until two years after the murders—and that is after refusing to testify at all at the inquests because Lawende believed that he would not be able to identify the suspect if he were presented with a lineup due to his lack of knowledge of the suspect’s characteristics. In addition, Kosminski possessed no anatomical knowledge whatsoever—something which I believe was necessary to a degree for these crimes to take place—and Kosminski’s incarceration did not occur until more than two years after the final Ripper murder in Miller’s Court. Therefore, unlike the clean cut that would have occurred with suspects such as Druitt, Kosminski was still alive and wandering the streets for two years following the murders. Why would he suddenly stop? What is the explanation for his change in actions? It is incredible hard to believe that after five—if not more—murders in three months, Kosminski would simply disappear for two years and three months without laying his hands on anyone else. In addition, I don’t believe that Kosminski fits the profile of what many think Jack the Ripper would be; although he physically fit the description considering he was described as well-dressed and “clerk-like,” as well as a Jew with a foreign look about him, he does not mentally seem to fit the description of the Ripper. He was described as completely insane, rejecting cleanliness and work and experiencing extreme hallucinations. The only proof that the police have regarding his hatred for women was an instance in which he threatened his sister with a knife—something which may very well be an isolated event rather than an indication of an extreme serial killer. Also, the Ripper murders were carried out with extreme precision, discipline, and cunning—three things which I believe Kosminski would have had given the descriptions of his horrible mental state. In essence, Kosminski simply seems a little too crazy to be Jack the Ripper. I believe that Kominski’s guilt in the matter was simply fabricated by Anderson and Swanson in a selfish attempt to gain the notoriety and fame that would come with solving the Jack the Ripper case. As Sugden stated in The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, the two men together “transformed a harmless imbecile, sheltering within the walls of Leavesden, into the most infamous murderer of modern times” (423).

The Ripper Letters

I personally think that the “From Hell” letter may have been written by Jack the Ripper due to the consistencies found between the part of the kidney that was mailed to Mr. Lusk and the part of the kidney that remained in Catherine Eddowes’ body. The kidney that was sent to Mr. Lusk was determined to have been removed from the body within the few weeks preceding Mr. Lusk’s reception of the package, and it was also determined that the kidney was that of a middle-aged woman, probably around forty-five years old, who was a heavy drinker. All of these characteristics were also determined to exist in the kidney that remained in Eddowes’ body—something which seems too consistent to be a consequence. If a medical student had mailed the kidney as a prank, how would they have known that Eddowes’ was of that particular age with a drinking problem, and that it was her left kidney that had been removed from the body (unless the newspapers at the time reported each and every gruesome detail). Also, it was pointed out that any kidney accessible to a medical student would have been preserved in formalin, whereas the kidney that was mailed had been preserved in spirits. In my opinion, all of these things prove the authenticity of the kidney, and therefore the authenticity of the letter. However, the FBI profile of Jack the Ripper states that he was indeed not the type to send a letter to the police—something which discounts my belief in the possible authenticity of the From Hell letter. At the same time, though, the FBI profile states that the killer was probably mentally disturbed with generalized rage; he desired power, control, and dominance and probably behaved erratically. In my opinion, these particular character traits point to the possibility of the desire of the killer to write letters to the police in order to feel as though he is in control of the situation and to establish his dominance. However, without the proper proof, it is impossible to know whether any of the letters written were penned by the killer or were simple hoaxes sent by journalists and laypeople.