WTM
10-23-2003, 08:15 PM
Excerpted from Murder Most Foul:
¡§Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?¡¨
- The Shadow radio program
The most chilling fact about serial killers is that they can all be rational and calculating. As the "British Jeffrey Dahmer" Dennis Nilsen put it, "a mind can be evil without being abnormal."19 And some people, for whatever reason, are simply evil. This condition more often manifests itself in ways other than serial killing, but surely many killers and possibly some serial killers have in the past been motivated by pure evil and nothing more:
¡§In fact, just having the bodies of his victims around him made Dahmer feel thoroughly evil."19
"I have to question whether or not there is an evil force in the world and whether or not I have been influenced by it."
- Jeffrey Dahmer19
¡§It is impossible to regard a murderer¡¦s brain without an involuntary tingle of curiosity. What shocking poisons did this unique lump of flesh distill, to so subvert the mind of its owner and warp his will to evil?¡¨8
The classic 1956 film ¡¥The Bad Seed¡¦ portrayed the story and crimes of a murderous little girl, who had apparently been born evil. Like many criminals, she kept her true self well-hidden behind a public facade. No other explanation for her behavior was ever presented in the film, but one forensic expert offers the following hypothesis on this sort of behavior today:
¡§If evil is to be found in the brain, then it is probably there from the very earliest years of life, and involves something very basic in the individual¡¦s personality.¡¨8
Anyone who has ever seen the 1973 film The Exorcist knows what horrors that ¡¥demonic possession¡¦ can wreak upon a person of otherwise good character. Occasionally, the subject of demonic possession of the Ripper has arisen, to account for the horrifically evil nature and the sudden starting and stopping of the murders. Following is what the Holy Scriptures have to say on the matter:
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
- Luke 11:24 - 26
For many of a religious persuasion, Satan is known as the Father of Evil, and he bears the blame for much of what happens in the world today, as we are seen to approach the ¡¥End Days¡¦ foretold in the Book of Revelation. For Christian, Jew, and Muslim alike, Satan is always present, ready to strike in a moment of inattention or weakness on our part, and to plant the seeds of Evil where they may best grow and flourish. And, as with the Bad Seed, children are not spared:
Children become, while little, our delights,
When they grow bigger, they begin to fright¡¦s.
Their sinful Nature prompts them to rebel,
And to delight in Paths that lead to Hell.
- John Bunyan, Book for Boys and Girls (1686)19
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both only ten or eleven years of age, viciously murdered a little two-year old boy, James Bulger, in one of the most heart-rending and horrifying crimes of the 20th century. Yet nothing in their pasts had indicated that they were capable of committing such a crime. When questioned as to their motive, the prosecutor of the case simply characterized them as ¡¥evil¡¦ in his presentation to the media.
While on the twin subjects of evil and children, we make note to expand the latter category to include young adults, the intent being to consider the question whether or not the Ripper could have actually been someone much younger than has been popularly thought. As we have seen for this premise and earlier in the introductory section, teenagers and young adults have in modern times been quite capable of committing crimes of Ripper-like violence. And, as all men know, once the hormone flood begins at puberty, sexual thoughts may occupy a teenager¡¦s brain to the exclusion of all else. As many a young man, especially in the last two centuries, has visited a prostitute for his sexual initiation, it is unlikely that the victims would have ever suspected someone of such tender years approaching them, even in the autumn of 1888. Some conventional Ripper suspects such as George Chapman were only in their early twenties when the Whitechapel Murders occurred; is it really so great a stretch to shave off a few more years, given that an oppressive and miserable life may rapidly harden a boy into a man, in spite of his physical youth? Children and young adults can be quite cruel as a matter of routine, and, as we have seen, they can assuredly be evil as well; could one possibly have been clever ¡V and evil - enough to have become history¡¦s most infamous serial killer?
Evil has always simultaneously fascinated, attracted, and repelled us. Those who in 1973 denied the existence of the Living God, and there are many atheists and agnostics today, were all too ready to accept and believe the concept of demonic possession after viewing a mere film. Yes, evil is found throughout the world; the only question is where:
¡§One of the most impressive aspects about evil is its sheer banality. There is a persistent relationship between even the most terrible crimes and the commonplace, everyday things that make up normal life.¡¨17
Conclusion ¡V if the Ripper were simply an evil person, he would have not hesitated to kill, probably being limited only by time. His other motives for mutilation and leaving of the victims in public could have been as follows:
Mutilation
„h Jack the Bogeyman
„h Jack the Mad Man
„h Jack the Bad Man
„h Jack the Jolly Man
„h Jack the Egotist
„h Jack the Thrill-seeker
„h Jack the Anarchist
„h Jack the Blind Man
Public Display
„h Jack the Practical Man
„h Jack the Bogeyman
„h Jack the Egotist
„h Jack the Obsessed
„h Jack the Thrill-seeker
„h Jack the Anarchist
„h Jack the Litterbug
SOURCES:
1. Badal, James In the Wake of the Butcher
2. Bloch, Robert Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper
3. Crime SuspenStories, The Giggling Killer
EC Publications
4. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan The Complete Sherlock Holmes
5. Futrelle, Jacques The Thinking Machine
6. Jesse, F. Tennyson Murder and its Motives
7. King, C. Daly The Curious Mr. Tarrant
8. Maples, William Dead Men Do Tell Tales
9. Rumbelow, Donald The Complete Jack the Ripper
10. Ryder, Stephen www.casebook.org
11. Scott, George A History of Torture
12. Sledge, Eugene With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
13. Smithsonian Magazine, The Shadow of a Gunman from World War II
September 1993
14. Spitz. Werner, Medicolegal Investigation of Death, Second
and Fisher, Russell Edition
15. Styron William The Confessions of Nat Turner
16. Sugden, Philip The Complete History of Jack the Ripper
17. Ubelaker, Douglas Bones: A Forensic Detective¡¦s Casebook
18. von Krafft-Ebing, Richard Psychopathia Sexualis
19. http://www.crimelibrary.com
20. http://drugs.uta.edu/drugs.html
21. http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v3n1/ridgway.html
22. http://65.107.211.206/
23. http://www.wcb.vcu.edu/wcb/students/acatasus/files/poecrit.html
24. http://www.daveschultz.com/scum/clinton/bodycount.html
25. http://www.sociology.org/vol003.002/hinch.article.1998.html
26. http://www.psycharts.com/impofthe.htm
27. http://www.stormloader.com/thescorpion/17evil.html
28. http://www.ihr.org/books/ztn.html
29. http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n22/ffull/jbk0609-1.html
30. http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf065/sf065p14.htm
¡§Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?¡¨
- The Shadow radio program
The most chilling fact about serial killers is that they can all be rational and calculating. As the "British Jeffrey Dahmer" Dennis Nilsen put it, "a mind can be evil without being abnormal."19 And some people, for whatever reason, are simply evil. This condition more often manifests itself in ways other than serial killing, but surely many killers and possibly some serial killers have in the past been motivated by pure evil and nothing more:
¡§In fact, just having the bodies of his victims around him made Dahmer feel thoroughly evil."19
"I have to question whether or not there is an evil force in the world and whether or not I have been influenced by it."
- Jeffrey Dahmer19
¡§It is impossible to regard a murderer¡¦s brain without an involuntary tingle of curiosity. What shocking poisons did this unique lump of flesh distill, to so subvert the mind of its owner and warp his will to evil?¡¨8
The classic 1956 film ¡¥The Bad Seed¡¦ portrayed the story and crimes of a murderous little girl, who had apparently been born evil. Like many criminals, she kept her true self well-hidden behind a public facade. No other explanation for her behavior was ever presented in the film, but one forensic expert offers the following hypothesis on this sort of behavior today:
¡§If evil is to be found in the brain, then it is probably there from the very earliest years of life, and involves something very basic in the individual¡¦s personality.¡¨8
Anyone who has ever seen the 1973 film The Exorcist knows what horrors that ¡¥demonic possession¡¦ can wreak upon a person of otherwise good character. Occasionally, the subject of demonic possession of the Ripper has arisen, to account for the horrifically evil nature and the sudden starting and stopping of the murders. Following is what the Holy Scriptures have to say on the matter:
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
- Luke 11:24 - 26
For many of a religious persuasion, Satan is known as the Father of Evil, and he bears the blame for much of what happens in the world today, as we are seen to approach the ¡¥End Days¡¦ foretold in the Book of Revelation. For Christian, Jew, and Muslim alike, Satan is always present, ready to strike in a moment of inattention or weakness on our part, and to plant the seeds of Evil where they may best grow and flourish. And, as with the Bad Seed, children are not spared:
Children become, while little, our delights,
When they grow bigger, they begin to fright¡¦s.
Their sinful Nature prompts them to rebel,
And to delight in Paths that lead to Hell.
- John Bunyan, Book for Boys and Girls (1686)19
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both only ten or eleven years of age, viciously murdered a little two-year old boy, James Bulger, in one of the most heart-rending and horrifying crimes of the 20th century. Yet nothing in their pasts had indicated that they were capable of committing such a crime. When questioned as to their motive, the prosecutor of the case simply characterized them as ¡¥evil¡¦ in his presentation to the media.
While on the twin subjects of evil and children, we make note to expand the latter category to include young adults, the intent being to consider the question whether or not the Ripper could have actually been someone much younger than has been popularly thought. As we have seen for this premise and earlier in the introductory section, teenagers and young adults have in modern times been quite capable of committing crimes of Ripper-like violence. And, as all men know, once the hormone flood begins at puberty, sexual thoughts may occupy a teenager¡¦s brain to the exclusion of all else. As many a young man, especially in the last two centuries, has visited a prostitute for his sexual initiation, it is unlikely that the victims would have ever suspected someone of such tender years approaching them, even in the autumn of 1888. Some conventional Ripper suspects such as George Chapman were only in their early twenties when the Whitechapel Murders occurred; is it really so great a stretch to shave off a few more years, given that an oppressive and miserable life may rapidly harden a boy into a man, in spite of his physical youth? Children and young adults can be quite cruel as a matter of routine, and, as we have seen, they can assuredly be evil as well; could one possibly have been clever ¡V and evil - enough to have become history¡¦s most infamous serial killer?
Evil has always simultaneously fascinated, attracted, and repelled us. Those who in 1973 denied the existence of the Living God, and there are many atheists and agnostics today, were all too ready to accept and believe the concept of demonic possession after viewing a mere film. Yes, evil is found throughout the world; the only question is where:
¡§One of the most impressive aspects about evil is its sheer banality. There is a persistent relationship between even the most terrible crimes and the commonplace, everyday things that make up normal life.¡¨17
Conclusion ¡V if the Ripper were simply an evil person, he would have not hesitated to kill, probably being limited only by time. His other motives for mutilation and leaving of the victims in public could have been as follows:
Mutilation
„h Jack the Bogeyman
„h Jack the Mad Man
„h Jack the Bad Man
„h Jack the Jolly Man
„h Jack the Egotist
„h Jack the Thrill-seeker
„h Jack the Anarchist
„h Jack the Blind Man
Public Display
„h Jack the Practical Man
„h Jack the Bogeyman
„h Jack the Egotist
„h Jack the Obsessed
„h Jack the Thrill-seeker
„h Jack the Anarchist
„h Jack the Litterbug
SOURCES:
1. Badal, James In the Wake of the Butcher
2. Bloch, Robert Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper
3. Crime SuspenStories, The Giggling Killer
EC Publications
4. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan The Complete Sherlock Holmes
5. Futrelle, Jacques The Thinking Machine
6. Jesse, F. Tennyson Murder and its Motives
7. King, C. Daly The Curious Mr. Tarrant
8. Maples, William Dead Men Do Tell Tales
9. Rumbelow, Donald The Complete Jack the Ripper
10. Ryder, Stephen www.casebook.org
11. Scott, George A History of Torture
12. Sledge, Eugene With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
13. Smithsonian Magazine, The Shadow of a Gunman from World War II
September 1993
14. Spitz. Werner, Medicolegal Investigation of Death, Second
and Fisher, Russell Edition
15. Styron William The Confessions of Nat Turner
16. Sugden, Philip The Complete History of Jack the Ripper
17. Ubelaker, Douglas Bones: A Forensic Detective¡¦s Casebook
18. von Krafft-Ebing, Richard Psychopathia Sexualis
19. http://www.crimelibrary.com
20. http://drugs.uta.edu/drugs.html
21. http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v3n1/ridgway.html
22. http://65.107.211.206/
23. http://www.wcb.vcu.edu/wcb/students/acatasus/files/poecrit.html
24. http://www.daveschultz.com/scum/clinton/bodycount.html
25. http://www.sociology.org/vol003.002/hinch.article.1998.html
26. http://www.psycharts.com/impofthe.htm
27. http://www.stormloader.com/thescorpion/17evil.html
28. http://www.ihr.org/books/ztn.html
29. http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n22/ffull/jbk0609-1.html
30. http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf065/sf065p14.htm