Jack The Ripper

This is the 2nd installment of my serial killer blog...lol.  (Not that serial killers deserve any kind of humor or joking around.  I don't want to glorify them in any way, please understand.)

I remember the moment I first learned in detail about Jack The Ripper.  I was 14 and my  innocent eyes were opened that day to the depravity of humanity.  I was shocked by what I read and saw in that book.  I read it all the way through, took it back and renewed it, and re-read it.  I studied it like I studied a text book.

I was intrigued by this mystery.  Why would anyone do this?  Psychologically, what motivated this man?  Why didn't Scotland Yard ever catch him?  I wanted to understand this.  Needless to say, most of my questions were left unanswered, or they created more questions.

Since reading that book, I have read dozens, if not hundreds, of books on the topic of serial killers.  For the most part, the same questions remain.

I have gained some insight into their thinking, due to the research of psychiatrists/psychologists/criminal profilers, etc.   There is still one factor that goes unexplained, though.  What makes the serial killer follow through with his deadly impulses?  A careful study of his/her upbringing, family, environment, education, etc.  may help us understand.  And yet, another individual may have similar circumstances and never harm anyone.  What is the impetus that pushes the killer to act?

I am left with the only answer I can come up with--  evil.  This is a spiritual dimension, and many people might scoff at the idea.  I believe in God and in free will.  I believe that He created angels and that Lucifer and 1/3 of the angels rebelled against God.  I also believe that when God created the first humans, there was no evil exercised in the world.  When Adam and Eve sinned, they 'invited' Satan and the demons to use their powers on earth.  This helps us to understand why we suffer, why the weather is often deadly, why we have disease, why we have death.  Until the end of time, when Christ has His final word over Satan, we will suffer the consequences of evil in creation.  As an aside, each time I commit a sin, I feed into that evil force.  That is one reason I try to resist my own sinful tendencies, I want to make the world better.  Think of how the world would be different if more people desired to overcome sin...

I had written in my previous blog about H. H. Holmes and the possibility that he may have also been the elusive Whitechapel killer.  I've read many other books on Jack (TR) and there are many eligible suspects.  One book I particularly liked was Patricia Cornwell's best seller in which she set out to prove that Walter Sickert was Jack.  I was fairly convinced by her methodical laying out of profuse amounts of circumstantial evidence that she was onto something.

And yet, now this new possibility has impelled me to look into Holmes further.  There are some pretty interesting coincidences and signs that he could have very well been the ripper.

A man from Pennsylvania has written a thorough examination of this possibility and compared Jack and Holmes' handwriting.  There are stunning similarities.  I'd really like to see an expert analysis of this. 

Also, Holmes was missing all during the months that the ripper was active, and when Holmes returned to Chicago, the ripper murders ceased.  The Whitechapel victims were possibly killed by someone skilled at anatomy, and Holmes was a doctor.  At that very time, there was a person from America attempting to sell human skeletons to London medical schools.  Holmes sold his victim's skeletons, claiming they were accident victims or that they died of natural causes.

Just this week, further evidence has been discovered.  In a letter written by Holmes while  he was in prison (awaiting execution), he wrote about having been in London. 

So, needless to say, I am amazed that maybe Holmes and Jack are one and the same.

I personally don't think there is a monster out there that rivals the monster called the serial killer.  I'm currently reading Black Dahlia Avenger which was written by a man who is convinced that his father was the Black Dahlia's murderer.  He also asserts that this man was a serial killer, which I wholeheartedly believe as well.  Crimes like that are not typically one time events.  They smack of the serial killer mentality. 

My parents think I should have gone into some kind of investigative work!  :) John agrees.  Maybe I should think about that...

HUGSxxxAnnie