WI: Jack the Ripper is arrested?

DougM

Donor
Either way it realy doesn’t matter. The inspector that napped JtR would have thier career made. So unless thier was a HUGE reason to cover it up it is not getting covered up.
And if thier is a huge reason then you have to old problem of three people can keep a secret if two are dead.
So I can see no way in the world that the police know who Jack was.
It is fun to read stories about that. And even sci if like Babylon 5 had a Jake the Ripper tie in episode (and so did Star Trek before it) but they are all fiction.

Fiction you WONT see if Jack is caught. Heck the Jack the Ripper name itself is probably all but unheard of if he is caught as his real name will be used and many think that the Name was not realy from the actual killer to start with.

So if the killer is caught you will lose all that as he is just another mad many and compared to other he is not even the worse.
Have you heard of Thomas Neil Creem? He killed more people in the late 1800s in England and the US (and perhaps Canada) then Jack ever did but he was caught and hung.
So if you capture the killer his last victim will be Jack the Ripper as the legend will die with him
 
According to some news articles I've seen cropping up recently, some forensic scientists have suggested that the identity of the Ripper has been revealed to be Aaron Kosminski. If this is true, what could be the possible effects if the police of the time had arrested Kosminski and his trial result in a conviction?

The 'evidence' against Kosminski is full of holes. The DNA sequence found on the shawl is common to most of the population.

Acting Sergeant Amos Simpson of the Metropolitan Police claimed that
* he was the first to find Catherine Eddowes body
* the shawl was present at the murder scene
* he was allowed to keep the shawl by his superiors

Every bit of this claim is provably false.
* The first to find Catherine Eddowes body was PC Edward Watkins of the City Police, as shown at the inquest. A large number of constables and detectives saw the body in Mitre Square, but none of them was Simpson.
* No shawl was listed among Eddowes' effects. No witness mentioned a shawl being found at the scene.
* Eddowes body was found in the jurisdiction of the City of London Police. Simpson could not have asked his superiors in the Metropolitan Police for evidence that had never been in their control.
 
If he's turned out to be Prince Albert Victor... well, he would still be famous until today... In fact, wrong move by British Royal family might end up seeing their popularity down and Britain become a Republic. But even if they managed to cross the minefield, this case will forever left black mark on British Royalty.

Prince Albert Victor wasn't even in England, let alone London, when Stride and Eddowes were killed.
 
Prince Albert Victor wasn't even in England, let alone London, when Stride and Eddowes were killed.

Having an airtight alibi hasn't stopped some people from getting accused. Scottish-Canadian serial killer Thomas Neill Cream is a popular Ripper suspect, even though he was imprisoned in Illinois at the time of the murders.
 
Cream was also a poisoner, not a knife nut.
Speaking of disparate of suspects with a different modus operandi, this dissertation (https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/cable-street-dandy.html) is supposed to support the theory of George Chapman's guilt, despite being a poisoner himself. It seems that, most likely, Saucy Jack was merely a Whitechapel hood with a knife, quite possibly more than one hood. The name or names will probably be lost for all time - but I suppose that's all right, surely we can let History get to keep at least a few of her secrets?
 
Practical effects: The police, and the methods they used to find 'Jack', would not be discredited in the eyes of the public and the press.

Cultural effects: 'Jack's' image as a mysterious, almost inhuman spectre would not come about in this timeline. I can think of two stories that have either been inspired by or linked to the Whitechapel murders: 'Dracula' (Bram Stoker wrote a preface to the book mentioning the murders), and 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' (which was published before the murders but almost immediately linked to Jack the Ripper in the public imagination). I am not sure exactly whether the books themselves would be changed substantially, but it seems possible that they might not have caught on as much, which in turn has a further effect on later literature and pop culture.

Based on available police methods, their only real chance of arresting the Ripper was catching him in the act.

Had the Ripper been caught, the Thames Torso killer might have gained the image as "as a mysterious, almost inhuman spectre". Even then, it might have required something like the 'Saucy Jack' letter to get published as well.
 
Speaking of disparate of suspects with a different modus operandi, this dissertation (https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/cable-street-dandy.html) is supposed to support the theory of George Chapman's guilt, despite being a poisoner himself. It seems that, most likely, Saucy Jack was merely a Whitechapel hood with a knife, quite possibly more than one hood. The name or names will probably be lost for all time - but I suppose that's all right, surely we can let History get to keep at least a few of her secrets?
I am like 90% sure it was Francis Tumblety, he fits the profile, lacks any alibi, and vamoosed from England's shores the second Scotland Yard started eyeing him as a major suspect. I also think the "From Hell" letter was his handiwork trying to intimidate Whitechapel locals, as unlike the other famous letters it was not sent directly to the police. I think forensic handwriting/linguistic experts suggested that letter was written by someone of Irish origins, fitting Tumblety's place of birth, and his history of violence and collecting body parts fits the Ripper's modus operandi.
 
I am like 90% sure it was Francis Tumblety, he fits the profile, lacks any alibi, and vamoosed from England's shores the second Scotland Yard started eyeing him as a major suspect. I also think the "From Hell" letter was his handiwork trying to intimidate Whitechapel locals, as unlike the other famous letters it was not sent directly to the police. I think forensic handwriting/linguistic experts suggested that letter was written by someone of Irish origins, fitting Tumblety's place of birth, and his history of violence and collecting body parts fits the Ripper's modus operandi.

Tumblety seems an unlikely suspect. He was very distinctive in appearance and that appearance does not match any of the men seen with the victims shortly before their murders. The Ripper seemed to know the streets of Whitechapel well, which implies a long time resident, which Tumblety was not. There were no Ripper-style deaths around Tumblety before or after his time in London. The latter could be due to increased police scrutiny, but most serial killers start decades before they reach their mid-fifities. I am unaware of Tumblety having any history of violence. Dr Bond's profile of the Ripper has some elements in common with Tumblety, but Bond thought the killer acted out of "erotic mania", yet Tumblety was a homosexual.
 
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