Jack the Ripper named.

[Admin]

It seems that Scotland Yard agree with this one:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006320487,00.html

Yes it's reported in The Sun so it must be true.

I have a book to read on JTR. It will be interesting to see if Aaron Kosminski features at all.

[huw-l]

they found a scribbled note in the margins of an autobiography? Does that sound a bit "Hitler Diaries" to anyone else?

[median]

Mmm.
Blame the Poles!

Given the present immigrant 'climate'
How original ::)

[tkingdoll]

Slightly better report by the Beeb here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5177646.stm

(not that the Sun isn't a sterling publication. Coff).

[Admin]

Well my sister, who's a JTR buff, says that Aaron Kosminski has been ruled out as a suspect. I didn't ask why as it's all in the book I'm about to read.

The book is Jack the Ripper (original eh? :D) by Philip Sugden and it's supposed to be a proper scientific look at the evidence that exists whilst avoiding speculation and fanciful conclusions. In fact, he doesn't name anyone as the Ripper as there's not enough evidence to do so.

What he does is examine the evidence that rules out many suspects.

Sounds good.

[Oleron]

I read a few of the ripper books years ago after a trip to London. I became fascinated with the crime. Problem is the you tend to go round in circles with it because the evidence is too weak to pinpoint any individual.

I decided that, as with most things in life, the most obvious and boring answer is usually right. Kosminski is the boring choice. He was a well-known nutter who was eventually carted off to an asylum (at around the time the killings stopped). There was circumstantial evidence to link him with the crime but nothing to really nail him for it. It seems possible to me that he was the man.

Problem is that Kosminski doesn't fit with the ripperologist's romantic view of the crimes- the little details that make the crimes so fascinating. The scribbled words on the wall, the masonic undertones and, above all, the classic picture of the dapper murderer with the cloak, top hat and Gladstone bag.
The ripperologists wouldn't mind being led a merry dance by an adversary so obviously intelligent and elusive but to be fooled by a knife-wielding maniac? That would be too much to bear. That is why the 'obvious' answer, Kosminski, has been overlooked for years.

Unless, of course, there is some piece of evidence that rules Kosminski out. Then the game is afoot once more!

[Admin]

I've still to read the book but if he's ruled out (potentially) for any reason I'll post it here.

Can you get a Ph.D in Ripperology? :D

[Oleron]

Cheers John, I'd be interested.

One word of warning, though, once you read a book about the crime it becomes a bit of an addiction! It really is a fascinating subject but one with more heat than light.

And a lot of conspiracy theory woo....