Posted on 09/25/2013 5:18:27 PM PDT by rickmichaels
After 125 years, "Jack the Ripper" has apparently been debunked.
Former murder investigator Trevor Marriott spent 11 years pouring over Scotland Yard files and said he learned that the legend of Jack the Ripper as we know it is wrong, Britain's Daily Express reports.
He also said he's figured out who the real Whitechapel killer might be.
Marriott concluded that Central News Agency journalist Thomas Bulling reportedly coined Jack the Ripper and sent police a letter from him 1888.
In Victorian-era London, five prostitutes' murders were supposedly committed by Jack the Ripper, a rich, educated man -- possibly a doctor -- who legend has it removed organs from the bodies of his victims.
The story has been told in many books and movies over the years, including 2001s From Hell, which starred Johnny Depp as Jack.
Marriott, who has written several books on the subject and is currently on a U.K. speaking tour, said these works are to partially to blame for popularizing an inaccurate conception of who Jack was.
You have to ask yourself if Jack is an urban myth. Around 80% of the books about him have a picture of a chap on the front stalking the streets of London in a long black cape and a top hat, Marriott told the Express.
They were the clothes of an upper class, wealthy man. But back in 1888 if someone dressed like that had actually walked around Whitechapel in the dead of night they wouldnt have lasted five minutes."
So who is the real killer?
Marriott said some of the murders were likely committed by Carl Feigenbaum, a German merchant seaman who was docked at Whitechapel during the killings and executed at age 54 for a Ripper-style murder in New York in 1896
It was Colonel Peacock, in the library, with the Candlestick!
I heard about something very similar many, many years ago. That is, that JTR was actually a German or Dutch sailor who was himself later killed in America.
Isn’t it the guy who tried to kill Connor MacLeod?
I mean, there can only be one.
Wow, that would take yellow journalism to a new level.
"Is it BULLS&!# or NOT?!!!"
Did I get all that right?
About ten seconds of search at IMDB, or, having actually seen the movie, pretty much calls into question the quality of this writer's research skills.
Depp was NOT Jack; he played the good guy, Inspector Frederick Abberline.
*** MILD SPOILER ALERT ***
The interesting plot twist in the film centers around the actual identity of Jack, and the motivation for killing prostitutes, one of whom was a Roman Catholic. It's a theory developed in several of the other Ripper "histories," and it's actually not too bad.
Another writer, about 40 years ago, concluded that the murders were actually botched abortions of prostitutes.
The only reason Jack the Ripper (1888) has any notoriety today at all is because he was the first “media” serial killer—he sold LOTS of newspapers. At the time, Fleet Street in London was the concentrated newspaper capital of the world.
The timing was also excellent because inexpensive crime novels were all the rage. Sherlock Holmes had debuted the year before.
It was a time of tremendous social change.
ping
"I'm not a butcher, I'm not a Yid,
Nor yet a foreign Skipper,
But I'm your own light-hearted friend,
Yours truly, Jack the Ripper."
Hitler didn’t exist either...According to some.
No, no ... That is Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the candle-stick! :-)
Dvwjr
Eight little whores, with no hope of heaven,
Gladstone may save one, then there'll be seven.
Seven little whores beggin for a shilling,
One stays in Henage Court, then there's a killing.
Six little whores, glad to be alive,
One sidles up to Jack, then there are five.
Four and whore rhyme aright,
So do three and me,
I'll set the town alight
Ere there are two.
Two little whores, shivering with fright,
Seek a cosy doorway in the middle of the night.
Jack's knife flashes, then there's but one,
And the last one's the ripest for Jack's idea of fun.
I do a bit more work, then give it out straight.
My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance.
Good Luck, catch me if you can.
Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Well if the prostitutes would have given him three fiddy the Loch Ness Monster would have left them alone.
In addition, the following passage calls into question the quality of the writer's writing skills:
"Trevor Marriott spent 11 years pouring over Scotland Yard files..."
Pouring what over the files? Water? Beer? If the writer means "looking intently through the files," the correct verb is poring - no "u"!
Sorry to play grammar police, but this is supposed to be someone who writes for a living - not just one of us posting a comment! Anyone who writes for a living should know that those are two different verbs. /Rant off!
You cannot expect professionals to spell properly, that is racist or something.
I suppose so...
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