Brendan King has sent me this excellent summary of the Jack the Ripper case, using the conclusions of a retired FBI operative who has made a thorough examination of all the evidence. It not only clears Francis Thompson of any suspicion, which should come as no surprise, but points the finger at one specific suspect as being the likely culprit. Read on …
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Catholic poet Francis Thompson has come under suspicion as being the serial killer known as “Jack the Ripper.” Although initially skeptical, I decided to examine the evidence with an open mind.
Among the weapons in my arsenal was the groundwork conducted by John Douglas, a retired FBI agent and pioneer in the science of psychological profiling serial killers. Best known as the inspiration for Agent Jack Crawford in “The Silence of the Lambs,” Agent Douglas first agreed to profile “Jack the Ripper” in 1988, as part of a documentary for the hundredth anniversary of the Whitechapel Murders. After further research, Agent Douglas revised his profile and devoted an entire chapter to the Ripper Murders in his 2000 book, “The Cases the Haunt Us.”
According to Douglas, “Jack the Ripper” likely came from a family with a domineering mother and a weak, passive, or absent father. In all likelihood, the Ripper’s mother drank heavily and enjoyed the company of many different men. As a result of the abuse he had suffered, “Jack” would have internalized his anger, becoming a sullen, paranoid, and asocial loner. He likely began torturing small animals and committing arsons at a very early age, and enjoyed the sense of power that it gave him. Due to his mother’s treatment of him, “Jack” would also have possessed an pathological hatred of women.
Prior to each homicide, “Jack” would likely have been in a local pubs in order to drink and lower his inhibitions. He would have known enough not to attack when other people were present and would not have sought a specific look in the prostitutes he killed.
Post-offense behavior would have involved regularly returning to the murder sites and, if possible, the graves of his victims. Unlike more “organized offenders” like Ted Bundy, Jack’s socially awkward manner would have prevented him from injecting himself into the investigation. The fact that the Whitechapel Murders stopped when they did means only that “Jack” was imprisoned, institutionalized, moved elsewhere, or died. There is no other reason why this kind of killer stops.
Upon comparison to John Douglas’ profile, Francis Thompson begins to fall apart as a suspect. Firstly, Thompson came from a stable, two parent family in which his father’s word, rather than his mother’s, was law. His failure, or unwillingness, to follow his father into the medical profession led the elder Thompson to disown his son.
Beginning in 1884, Francis Thompson arrived in London, where he would spend the following four years a homeless opium addict. In April 1888, Thompson was rescued from destitution by Wilfrid Meynell, a Catholic magazine editor who admired his writings. In order to help Thompson detox from his opium addiction, the Meynells checked the poet into a private London hospital. ALthough this reviewer has been unable to learn the conditions of this hospital, if patients were prevented from leaving the premisis, this would provide an ironclad alibi for Francis Thompson during the period of the Whitechapel Murders.
Thompson remained there during the period of the Ripper Murders and was moved to a Catholic Monastery in Storrington. Francis Thompson divided the remainder of his life between London and Pantasaph, Wales. He died of tuberculosis on November 26, 1907.
According to those who accuse Thompson of being, “Jack the Ripper,” it is claimed that the poet was a religious maniac who timed the Whitechapel Murder to coincide with the feasts of certain Catholic Saints. This, however, is in marked contrast to Douglas’ analysis of the Ripper’s motivations. Furthermore, after examining the different suspects, Agent Douglas has his own theory of about who is most likely to have been the Ripper.
After examining the papers of three different Metropolitan Police investigators, two of whom worked the case, Douglas believes that the most likely suspect was a Whitechapel resident named Aaron Kosminski, alias Aaron Kaminsky, alias David Cohen. An immigrant from Poland, Kosminski is described as, “a great hater of women, specially of the prostitute class.” A witness who had seen “Jack” up close identified Kosminski, but refused to testify after learning that the suspect was a fellow Jew. According to Scotland Yard Detective Robert Anderson, the witness knew that Kosminski would be facing the death penalty and did not wish to feel responsible.
Shortly after this, Kosminski was committed to the mental asylum at Colney Hatch, where he died on October 20, 1889, His cause of death was listed as, “exhaustion of mania.”
Although John Douglas admits that it is no longer possible to know beyond reasonable doubt, he stands by his belief that “Jack the Ripper” was either the man known as Aaron Kosminksi, or someone very much like him.
I was hoping in some tie-in with G.K. Chesterton and how would Father Brown solve this mystery. A quick search on the internet revealed that Chesterton praised a collection of poems inWilfrid Meynell’s Roman Catholic perodical the ‘Merry England’ that included Francis Thompson’s work. Did Chesterton ever comment on this mysterdy? Is it possible to use Father Brown’s insite into the soul of humanity to help solve this case. I cannot help but see a correlation between Kosminski and Nietzsche. Both died in an insane asylum. And Nietzsche is known to visit a brothel in order to get venerial disease. Where as Nietzsche philosophical claimed “God is dead”, Kosminki being a Jew, has anscentry that actually killed God.
I think the work of John Douglas is to be applauded, although I don’t agree on the suspect Kosminski, I would agree that it could be someone similar. I have based my website: http://www.therealjacktheripper.com upon Douglas’ findings. Profiling is a modern, sensible approach in attempting to catch serial killers. If you only watch a handful of documentaries on different serial killers, you will see a pattern start to emerge – similar people from similar backgrounds committing similar crimes. The real jack the ripper would have been similar too.