One of the most well known stories about a serial killer is Jack the Ripper. One of the reasons why it is well known is many people believe one person is the killer, no one has ever proved it. There are multiple books and plays about the time and one such book is called Jack the Ripper – The Complete Casebook by Donald Rumbelow published by Contemporary Books, Chicago-NY, 1988. The book was originally published in London UK in 1975.

In the late 1880’s London’s East End was considered and essentially was what is known as the other side of the tracks. The section of town typically where the railroad tracks cut through the city and in the old days of steam engine – the coal tended to settle on one side of the tracks or the other.  (as a side note, the other side of the tracks can change – in New York City there is an apartment building near the United Nations Building where there are very few windows looking west. On the east side is the river, when it was built the west side was slaughter houses. After the United Nations was built, the neighborhood changed but the building did not. Changes can happen). However in the late 1880’s the east side of London was poor, crowded, marginalized and best avoid by respectable people in the evenings. Rooms for rent were cheap and sanitation facilities – plumbing and water sewers were lacking.

In the above sort of environment, prostitutes were killed – not just be strangulation but their throats were cut and their bodies were sliced and diced. The pattern of killings was very distinctive. It was a mystery to why? and clues were not found – for example when someone is cut the blood comes out, blood is still hard to clean from clothes. Although the East End London was poor, people of various states tended to be outside and possible witnesses were high for a person who does not look like they belong to the East End. After the first murder, the person would need to have more than a working knowledge of the streets and laneways to get away. The person who was doing the killing seems to have a working medical training – this fact tends to eliminates people.

One idea for a movie which which was seen is the murders was connected to the Royals? it was never proven but the myth goes on. The author goes into details about the history, the ladies, the crime scenes and possible suspects.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, for most things in life we do not have to know everything. When you are investing, you do have to know what business the company is in and how does it make its profits? why would the company continue to make profits? is it a monopoly or near monopoly conditions. After you have answered those questions you can begin to look at alternatives – why one company over another? is it better to buy a fund or ETF? As time passes there will be more questions but if you want to preserve your capital and grow it, you do not need to know everything.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.