Jack's Jack Poll: Where did he get his money?

[Tom_Wescott]

Well, just two with a really significant vote and they are the ones that involve Jack making an honest living - interesting.

This is one of those polls I haven't voted on yet because I don't know what to vote. I need to know who Jack was first! But I do love polls and seeing what others think.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stan Reid]

I suppose the timing of the crimes leads many to think that he had some sort of schedule in his life.

[Stan Reid]

Either that or he was just a night person.

[Sam Flynn]

I suppose the timing of the crimes leads many to think that he had some sort of schedule in his life.

An argument could be made to the contrary, however. Sticking to the canonical 5 murders, we have the following rough times, using quarter-hours as the most coarse-grained units:

03:45
05:30
01:00
01:45
04:00

There's a fair bit of variation there. What might be common to them all, however (Stride notwithstanding), is that they were all committed in the "wee small hours", which might suggest that the killer set out when there were likely to be fewer people on the streets. To that extent, it matters little whether he had an external schedule imposed on him at all. Whether in regular employment or not, the "wee small hours" were open to anyone.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Sam. So 1am is not late enough to be the 'wee small hours' but 1:45am is?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Sam Flynn]

Hi Sam. So 1am is not late enough to be the 'wee small hours' but 1:45am is?

Sorry, Tom - I could have phrased that better. My point about the "wee small hours" was just that not too many folk would be about. Stride, as we know, was killed outside a busy club. Of course, that has less to do with the "wee-ness" of the hour, and more to do with the specific location of Stride's death.

[Stan Reid]

Yes, you can argue that he killed when he had days off or killed because that's when others were off and the most targets were out.

[Stan Reid]

He killed when the most potential victims were available but also when the most potential witnesses were out.

[Anna Morris]

I feel Jack may have been self employed in some manner. I favor the idea of his being a vendor, knacker or cat's meat salesman. It would explain a lot. If he was a vendor out on the streets regularly and known to the police on the beat, they might have more or less ignored him when they were looking for a fiend escaping the crimes. Jack would be sort of like wallpaper~visible but part of the background. (Of course added to the self employment list could be barber,tailor...or the ever suggested doctor or someone in the medical profession.)

[Stan Reid]

I'm sort of on the same page with you.

[Stan Reid]

The good ole cat's meat man for sure

[Stan Reid]

Serial killers living on a pension are pretty rare I bet. The only candidate I can think of is accused "Grim Sleeper" suspect Lonnie David Franklin Jr. who I believe was on a disability pension.

[Stan Reid]

Ray Copeland was a serial killer who was on Social Security.

[Adam Went]

Social security as we know it didn't exist in 1888. Jack would have had to make himself useful in some fashion, or starve. Unless of course he was aided by well off friends and/or family members.

It is interesting that all of the attacks took place on public holidays / weekends, but I don't read too much into that. The majority of Victorian workers did 6 or 7 day weeks anyway, and long days at that. It wasn't like your typical Monday - Friday, 9 - 5 job that our generation is accustomed to.

IMO the times of the attacks are more of a reflection of the times when Jack felt he was most likely to snag a victim, as opposed to a reflection of his own schedule.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Stan Reid]

There were some jobs that had pensions though.