Heavily debated over the years and there's many conspiracy theories attached to these East End murders. Has any Lifers got an opinion on Jack The Ripper?
He came back with Gary Sparrow through the time portal in duckett's passage and then got run over by a bus.
That alleyway was directly opposite my bedroom window in Bethnal Green when I was a kid. At the other end is a pub that is used in lots of period piece films as the alley has original cobblestones and victorian fronted shops, lampposts etc.
It was interesting to hear Patricia Cromwell opinion on who was Jack the Ripper. Walter Sickert (sp) the london artist who painted the Camden murders. Having seen these paintings I can understand why!
I thought it was the surgeon - thats who Michael Caine was going to arrest before Lewis Collins got his hands on him............in the classisc late 80's tv drama
The problem is that there are over a hundred suspects - with some being more plausible than others - Sickert and Lewis Caroll are a couple of the ridiculous ones. The real Ripper may not even be on the list of suspects as he was never caught after all. The strongest argument I have seen goes to it being Francis Tumblety but good cases can be made for a few. The one thing for certain is that we'll never know.
Strange this thread should come up as my 11 year old boy watched a documentary / film at school yesterday about the Jack the Ripper and last night at bed time he was petrified to go to bed. After a lot of crying and hugging, we managed to get him back in his own bed but later relented during the night when he came in wanting to snuggle up. God knows what he had watched but I must admit I've got some serious questions about the suitability of such a film or whatever it was for children of his age. Anyway, it was either an American or a Royal Surgeon some say or a bloke who was dying having taken too much arsenic.
Wasn't The Duke of Clarence a suspect? Also there was some theory that it was connected to The Freemasons due to some of the words he used in his letters to the police. Anyway like JFK we'll never know.
The problem when we don't know is that it invites the more extravogant and fascinating theories - I'd look for a few pointers: Was he a suspect at the time? - Tumblety fits that, Was he in the area at the time of the murders? - Tumblety fits that - Was he a bit mad? Tumblety collected and showed off women's uterouses in jars, does that do -Did he hate women? Numerous reports of Tumblety's a pathalogical hatred of women - Had he killed before - had been convicted in US of manslaughter. When he left area did murders stop - yes. Were there any murders of a similar nature where he went to - yes -in New York - six miles from his location.
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At the other end is a pub that is used in lots of period piece films as the alley has original cobblestones and victorian fronted shops, lampposts etc.
Now as I walk to the office I'll look at a house or a yard and think that some poor streetwalker got sliced up there. It makes the journey fly by.