PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Thank you for that reply, and: Thank you for that reply, and for raising some very interesting questions.  Because I have narrowed my interest to just Mary Kelly and her situation, I have not explored the implications of who the "Jill the Ripper" might have been or what might have motivated her.  I read---and now cannot remember whose work---a suggestion that a female ripper would have had a less threatening approach to the victims.  Through the almost three months of the killing spree, Mary Kelly had been extremely fearful and cautious---even asking her landlord to secure her apartment's windows by nailing them shut from the inside.  Yet, despite her precautions and her fear (often stated at the Ten Bells pub) of the possibility of attack, she allowed someone to come into her apartment with her.    Lacking fingerprints and dental records at that time, and given the amount of mutilation on the body (the face was almost obliterated), identification was impossible.  The body was transported across London, to a different coroner's jury (and the jury foreman had objected on that basis; and was threatened with incarceration if the objections continued) in a different jurisdiction.  Joe Barnett, Mary Kelly's alleged boy friend, provided the "official" identification on the basis of an earlobe.  The coroner's jury was so horrified by the remains that they agreed to the identification without further inquiry simply to bring the proceeding to an end.     After the funeral and burial, which was well attended by many of Mary Kelly's friends from the street and the Ten Bells, two people, who had been among the last to depart, remembered seeing a tall man, whose face they did not recognize, and who was very well dressed, approach the open grave, into which the coffin had already been lowered, and spit into it.  Then he walked away.  The coincidence of this is that, in the late part of the morning of November 9th, the day on which she had been supposedly murdered, Mary Kelly was seen at the entrance of the Ten Bells, speaking to a man of the same kind of description---tall and very well dressed.  If this was the same man, in both sightings, perhaps he knew that the body in that coffin was a heinous murderer and the fifth victim; and knowing that might have brought forth the contemptuous gesture of spitting into the grave.     The prominence of the ripper's family is a very interesting aspect.  It might account for the rather hurried way that the coroner's inquest proceeded, and for the official directive, to the lead dectective on the case, to refrain from interviewing three of the five witnesses who had claimed to see Mary alive on the morning and afternoon of November 9th.  Another possible explanation of that same unusual activity is the belief, among some historians, that one of Mary Kelly's client had been a member of prime minister Lord Salisbury's cabinet---knowledge of which might have caused a political crisis in the House of Commons.  The possibility of a prominent family for the ripper, and the likelihood of the social and political prominence of some of Mary Kelly's clients, explain the rather slapdash activity following the discovery of the body in 13 Miller Court.     Unfortunately, the Casebook (which, in my opinion, is the most reliable and scholarly clearing house of ripper information and ongoing research) is no longer functional for new submissions.  The site's founder/administrator suffered some sort of breakdown some years ago.  During the writing of this reply, I sent an email inquiry to the site's email to find out if the site is still on "pause."  It has such a wealth of information on it, and its present inactivity has been a very sad development in ripper studies.  The Casebook was my first internet publisher, so I have a special place in my heart for it.

Thank you Wordman, I hadn't: Thank you Wordman, I hadn't intended to write anything really, but It arrived unbidden so I lifted it up and put it on here. sue x

Thank you so much, I'm so: Thank you so much, I'm so pleased you liked it. :-) sue.

This elegantly crafted and: This elegantly crafted and deeply moving treasure deserves great recognition. It's not only a worthy tribute to our heroes, but a compact monument of intricate grandeur and timeless beauty. Simply stunning.  

Thank you for the kind words.: Thank you for the kind words. Now YOU made MY day! 

You've somehow taken me to a: You've somehow taken me to a very specific memory in my life. One that was not profound in any of the ways memories typically are. But standing before a scene with everything stripped away and calm, with sight distance limited so as to call away distractions - that was a true gift in a moment of need. I've not thought about it all of these years, till your words conjured up the recall. : ) Thanks. Your pen is a paint brush, as always.