Jack the Ripper

[tinkerbell]

Hey

I recently went the the Jack the Ripper exhibition here, it's all pretty orrific but it also covered Victorian London hisotry and what it was like back then. Sadly the lot of unfortunate women has changed little in 120 years - so sad....

Anyways, there was this whole thing about it being unsoleved and a fair amount of debate on if the public wants this solved or if it's better to keep the boggy man alive as a villan who potnetially got away with it..... any thoughts?

If your interested there is a great website called casebook, although there is some seriusly grim photos on it.

Lis

[Decon]

I think it would be cool for both. Because then we could find out how he got started and figure out ways to prevent it. But it would also be cool to not solve it because then we will always have that story.

It's kind of like Banksy in a way. He's never been caught on film and probably never will.

Anyways, consider yourself lucky in the sense you can just go and visit whenever you want. I'd have to leave my country to see it.

[Anja]

This is a subject which fascinates me, tinkerbell. Lucky you for getting to see the exhibit.

The photo of his final victim is truly one of the most shocking I've ever seen.

There are a couple of good sites online. There are also some good books theorizing who the perpetrator could have been. One even posits that it was a grandson of Queen Victoria!

If you are interested in Victorian London the author, Jack London, wrote a book after visiting its slums. It is called People of the Abyss and is an expose of the living conditions at the turn of the century.

I suppose you encountered some information about how Jack the Ripper's deeds motivated a social movement at that time to aid the impoverished. Interesting way to turn a horror into something positive.

Your social commentary is well-received. I recently read that we have a modern day ripper of sorts murdering prostitutes in CA.

I hope you'll say more here about what you saw at the exhibit.

[tinkerbell]

Ah poor things, living all the way over there.

Decon, you just want both, for an either or decision. LOL well I can't see it ever getting solved now.

Anja - The exhibition was better than I had though, it was really trying to get you to imagine victorian life.

It has bits an peices about the soeicet at the time. The match girl strike had just happned. Someone you might be interested in was Anne Bessant, who was a feminist of her day. She was heavily involved in campaigning for a lot fo social refore and eventually went to India where she was influencial at liberating the country.

The working conditions were awful. In the East end many people were working in the market, or at crafts type jobs. the area of the crimes is only a mile radius which is interesting. There is a map of the social classes living in London at the time (showing where the affluent and the dirt poor lives.

It then looked at the crime reports for the first victim, along with police log and various other documents. The news papers at the time. IT was the first real media related murders.

Interesting the police force at the time hadn't been gooing too long and the normal folk saw them as an extention of the amry and scrned them not helped them.

Women who were not in relationships were often having to be prostitutse (or unfortunates at they were called), often from broken marriages or relationships, usually with a drink problem, usually dependant on men/street walking to fuel thier drinking habit.

At the time 95% of prosistutes were influences by men (their pimps etc), and more of them had drink problems. Which is the same today with drugs.

The exhbition then layered bit sof victorian life between the murders reports etc. The media who sensationalist the murders, the police who's techneques were crude (their job to clean up and not much about collecting evidence).

The people who were attracted to the murders etc.

It was a facinating visit.

Lis

[substitute]

I used to think it was James Maybrick, but I'm less convinced now..

My sister's been obsessed with the JTR case for about 20 years. She knows more about Victorian England than like, a professor I reckon. I find it fascinating too, but just don't have her dedication... I kinda like the idea of it being the prince, but I can't find a bone in my body that believes the somewhat tenuous theory. I like the Johnny Depp movie about it, mostly cos I like his character (always love his characters) even though the movie's rather uh, inaccurate. As they always are.

I never went to the exhibition. My sister has, obviously, dozens of times. I just hate London so usually when I'm there it's for a specific reason and I get out as soon as possible. *sigh* Black snot, anyone?

[tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by substitute

I used to think it was James Maybrick, but I'm less convinced now..

My sister's been obsessed with the JTR case for about 20 years. She knows more about Victorian England than like, a professor I reckon. I find it fascinating too, but just don't have her dedication... I kinda like the idea of it being the prince, but I can't find a bone in my body that believes the somewhat tenuous theory. I like the Johnny Depp movie about it, mostly cos I like his character (always love his characters) even though the movie's rather uh, inaccurate. As they always are.

I never went to the exhibition. My sister has, obviously, dozens of times. I just hate London so usually when I'm there it's for a specific reason and I get out as soon as possible. *sigh* Black snot, anyone?

I'm not convinced about any of the main subjects, esp the prince, simply not feasible at all.

To be honest I'm far more itnerested in teh victims than the possible murders. The first victim was potentiall a lady call Fairy Fay - now as a Scots man you'll be only too aware about the label "fay", it's not really a name it's reference to a personality type, ie the space cadet. Hence when they tried to find her as the first victim (26th Dec 1887 - a few months before the first atributed victim) they looked up derivaties for Fay to try and find her death. Of course if the woman was just a little spacey, then it could be any name at all, hence they may be missing the very first victim.

I loved the Depp movie, really cool. I love history too, although I don't have a specific period I'm particularly up on.

I take it you liked Cracker and Wire in the Blood (which I thought was brilliant, more so in the early stages when Robson came of as a nut job who got into the murderers shoes). Man now I sound as if I'm really into murders and stuff... I'm not just took an interest for a while.

Lis

[substitute]

Oh yeah I love Cracker. Got the DVD's.

But I'm not Scottish

[tinkerbell]

where you from them?

[INTJMom]

Originally Posted by tinkerbell

Hey

I recently went the the Jack the Ripper exhibition here, it's all pretty orrific but it also covered Victorian London hisotry and what it was like back then. Sadly the lot of unfortunate women has changed little in 120 years - so sad....

Anyways, there was this whole thing about it being unsoleved and a fair amount of debate on if the public wants this solved or if it's better to keep the boggy man alive as a villan who potnetially got away with it..... any thoughts?

If your interested there is a great website called casebook, although there is some seriusly grim photos on it.

Lis

I'm always fond of a mystery, but I think the crimes may never be solved, much in the same way we may never be sure who shot JFK.