Who was Jack the Ripper?

asdf wrote:Seriously I'm wondering about the people that sent the fake letters ("hundreds of letters"), "fakes written by either newspaper men trying to start a story or fools trying to incite more terror." There must be frustrated killers among the fools.

'Fools' is about right.

After the 1970's serial killer The Yorkshire Ripper (Peter Sutcliffe) claimed his 13th victim, crowds (of men, of course) on the terraces at football matches started singing "Ripper 13, Coppers 0".

asdf wrote:
Mr Lusk
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer

signed
Catch me when you Can Mishter Lusk.”

I was wondering if it was written that way on purpose...

...or perhaps phonetically, in the accent of the sender?

Did an Irishman write this?

There's a curious account by a Post Office clerk in Philip Sugden's "The Complete Jack the Ripper" of an Irish clergyman making inquiries about Mr Lusk's address...

About ten years ago I answered a questionnaire that a psychologist gave me. There were all kind of questions but I remember one of them was something like "are you very interested in news about crimes?". Since then I've always wondered about what that question implied... what kind of psychological information they think they get if the person answers yes...

When I saw this thread I thought "me? not interested" but it really is interesting. I have only read a few posts but I want to read it... sometimes I'm a bit lazy about reading...

Nobody would care about Jack the Ripper if the crimes had been solved, but because the culprit was never apprehended it's the perfect Whodunnit? mystery.

It's now become a whole industry: Ripper walks, Ripper books, Ripper theories etc.

I think I've already commented earlier in this thread about how historical distance lends a certain patina of enchantment to violence.

The nearby Tower of London, another popular London tourist attraction, was a dungeon, torture chamber and execution site- attracting millions of tourists every year,

eddie wrote:I think I've already commented earlier in this thread about how historical distance lends a certain patina of enchantment to violence.

you're right... it's not the same given some distance in time