"Idiots Once Removed"

[How Brown]

Roger Palmer made a comment over in the "Tumult Over Tumbelty" thread which sounded like the basis of a good conversation piece.

R.J. said...

"The trouble with all the suspects --Druitt, Kosminski, Tumblety, Cutbush, Sadler, etc.-- is that we're all theorizing from a position of profound ignorance. The files have gone missing. If the police were idiots, then we are idiots once removed, because we are stuck guessing at their thought-processes.".

What can we glean from Rajah's position here?

Is what we as individuals percieve about some of the suspects and aspects in the study of the WM....too much like....how we think in "real life" at home,at work or at play? Or perhaps, are we on occasion, relying too much on hunches and inference?

Do we,as R.J. has posted long in the past, not allow ourselves to think outside the box on occasion...or are we playing too close to the vest with incomplete data ????

You tell us.

[Caroline Morris]

The problem as I see it is that if there had been any significant revelations, evidence-wise, in the missing files, the thinkers we are once removed from would not have been quite so removed from each other, when it came to the recorded end results of their thought processes.

We are lucky if we get two of 'em who suspected the same individual, and even then we don't know it was for all the same reasons - or any of the right ones.

Love,

Caz
X

[Dustin Gould]

Realistically, I think we're all guilty at one point or another, of not allowing ourselves to think outside the box. However, we can only work with what we have. So my basis for a suspect can only be done as an "idiot once removed".

[Adam Went]

Hey all,

How, I think a lot of us have the same problem when considering certain aspects of the case, and that is that we think of it from a 2008 perspective, rather than taking into consideration how things were done in 1888. That's why I don't particularly agree with profiling Jack against modern serial killers.

We probably don't think outside the box enough, but having said that, we can only work with what little information we have available to us - if we don't, we're just throwing baseless ideas out there.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Bob Adams]

It has been eye opening for me as well as very difficult to appreciate what things were actually like in 1888. The customs, morals, level of education, politics, lack of health care, family dynamics & standard of living were much different. To say it was a very hard life is an understatement. It is hard to imagine just how poor most everyone was. Quite a few of the suspects questioned had been deemed insane and yet freely walked the streets. Not having the case files to review definitely handicaps us when trying to follow the actual investigators thought process. I have often wondered if one of the suspects questioned was Jack, but was overlooked and released because of the poor investigative techniques.