Howard Brown
01-27-2008, 10:54 AM
In reading the book, The Wake of The Butcher, by Dr. J.J. Badal, I came across the case of the murder of
a prostitute named Marie Wilson, by a man, Willie Johnson, which got me to thinking about copycat murders and the theories within the WM about such a likelihood of a copycat being found behind the knifehandle of whomever killed Mary Kelly.
Johnson killed the woman, a prostitute, in 1942. He dismembered her in similar fashion to the Mad Butcher and disposed of her body in a trunk and a satchel...out in the open in Kingsbury Run. Johnson attempted to implicate someone he knew as the real perpetrator in 1944, no doubt to get his death sentence commuted....but to no avail, as the police had already queried that individual and had exonerated him long before.
In the WM, we are often asked to consider whether or not the Kelly murder was a case of domestic homicide....as well as being that the murder was made to appear like that of a copycat. In both scenarios, either Joe Barnett/Joe Flemming, are usually foisted into the frame as the perpetrator. In the countering of this possibility, invariably Jack The Ripper is the other alternative.
However, few have considered that neither scenarios are etched in stone.
Barnett, whom I have never really given any thought as being the Ripper....is however, more likely to have been the murderer of Kelly, if anyone. With the ability to provide an alibi for at least one or two dates on which other Ripper murders occurred, he could have avoided the noose for the entire skein and indeed,maybe the Kelly murder since the police may have linked all of the recent murders together. Maybe.
Yet, the prevaling theory that a domestic murder is more likely than a single act in a skein exists. The case of Johnson above might provide an example of an alternative to that theory.
We tend to rely on "domestic murders" necessarily having this period of time where pent up anger and bickering results in the inevitable unleashing of the furies of Hell on the victim. That Barnett and Kelly did have what appears to be a stormy relationship at times is indisputable according to the Case facts.
However, its also part of the "domestic" theory that during the murder of kelly, that Barnett attempted to make the murder appear as the other bona fide Ripper murders did by employing overkill.
Johnson murdered a woman whom he by virtue of the absence of documentation,did not have a long term,hence,domestic relationship with this prostitute, but they were intimate.
Now,in the case of Johnson, its hard to argue that he wasn't cognizant of the Butcher, just as Barnett definitely knew of the Ripper....That Johnson didn't emulate the machinations of the Butcher ( dismemberment and disposal technique ) as well as try to frame the crime years later in a last ditch effort to get his sentence reviewed is indisputable.
Yet Kelly is somewhat different since she was killed in her quarters, whereas Wilson was killed away from home. Kelly's bed was a revolving door, whereas Wilson, by virtue of being killed in a location other than her own domicile, apears to have made house calls...and one too many.
Someone other than Barnett AND the Ripper may have killed Kelly....in an act similar to Johnson's spontaneous eruption in 1942...and temporarily sidestepping the premise that it was a domestic murder, it may well have been a copycat murder. But not necessarily either Barnett or JTR.
The seminal drift of this thread is whether or not you feel that this third alternative may exist. Someone...and it may have not been Jack The Ripper....killed Martha Tabram in a wholly spontaneous eruption of violence without any concomitant pent up,back log, of animosity towards the poor woman.
Is there a likelihood that someone other than Barnett or Jack The Ripper murdered Kelly?
Wilson, unlike MJK, probably did not have a longterm relationship for which we can analyze and visualize as being the catalyst or basis of a domestic murder and probably was a copycat murder in the subsequent dismemberment and disposal of her body..
If we could provide the name of a boyfriend...and her murderer was never known as we do know & by the hands of Willie Johnson...would the same theory of a domestic murder exist or would that be likewise attributable to the Butcher in this case?
a prostitute named Marie Wilson, by a man, Willie Johnson, which got me to thinking about copycat murders and the theories within the WM about such a likelihood of a copycat being found behind the knifehandle of whomever killed Mary Kelly.
Johnson killed the woman, a prostitute, in 1942. He dismembered her in similar fashion to the Mad Butcher and disposed of her body in a trunk and a satchel...out in the open in Kingsbury Run. Johnson attempted to implicate someone he knew as the real perpetrator in 1944, no doubt to get his death sentence commuted....but to no avail, as the police had already queried that individual and had exonerated him long before.
In the WM, we are often asked to consider whether or not the Kelly murder was a case of domestic homicide....as well as being that the murder was made to appear like that of a copycat. In both scenarios, either Joe Barnett/Joe Flemming, are usually foisted into the frame as the perpetrator. In the countering of this possibility, invariably Jack The Ripper is the other alternative.
However, few have considered that neither scenarios are etched in stone.
Barnett, whom I have never really given any thought as being the Ripper....is however, more likely to have been the murderer of Kelly, if anyone. With the ability to provide an alibi for at least one or two dates on which other Ripper murders occurred, he could have avoided the noose for the entire skein and indeed,maybe the Kelly murder since the police may have linked all of the recent murders together. Maybe.
Yet, the prevaling theory that a domestic murder is more likely than a single act in a skein exists. The case of Johnson above might provide an example of an alternative to that theory.
We tend to rely on "domestic murders" necessarily having this period of time where pent up anger and bickering results in the inevitable unleashing of the furies of Hell on the victim. That Barnett and Kelly did have what appears to be a stormy relationship at times is indisputable according to the Case facts.
However, its also part of the "domestic" theory that during the murder of kelly, that Barnett attempted to make the murder appear as the other bona fide Ripper murders did by employing overkill.
Johnson murdered a woman whom he by virtue of the absence of documentation,did not have a long term,hence,domestic relationship with this prostitute, but they were intimate.
Now,in the case of Johnson, its hard to argue that he wasn't cognizant of the Butcher, just as Barnett definitely knew of the Ripper....That Johnson didn't emulate the machinations of the Butcher ( dismemberment and disposal technique ) as well as try to frame the crime years later in a last ditch effort to get his sentence reviewed is indisputable.
Yet Kelly is somewhat different since she was killed in her quarters, whereas Wilson was killed away from home. Kelly's bed was a revolving door, whereas Wilson, by virtue of being killed in a location other than her own domicile, apears to have made house calls...and one too many.
Someone other than Barnett AND the Ripper may have killed Kelly....in an act similar to Johnson's spontaneous eruption in 1942...and temporarily sidestepping the premise that it was a domestic murder, it may well have been a copycat murder. But not necessarily either Barnett or JTR.
The seminal drift of this thread is whether or not you feel that this third alternative may exist. Someone...and it may have not been Jack The Ripper....killed Martha Tabram in a wholly spontaneous eruption of violence without any concomitant pent up,back log, of animosity towards the poor woman.
Is there a likelihood that someone other than Barnett or Jack The Ripper murdered Kelly?
Wilson, unlike MJK, probably did not have a longterm relationship for which we can analyze and visualize as being the catalyst or basis of a domestic murder and probably was a copycat murder in the subsequent dismemberment and disposal of her body..
If we could provide the name of a boyfriend...and her murderer was never known as we do know & by the hands of Willie Johnson...would the same theory of a domestic murder exist or would that be likewise attributable to the Butcher in this case?