Unresolved Oddities; The Enviousdominous Files

[EnviousDominous]

I'm just a very curious person, and it's very cathartic to put ideas into writing. This thread may be read by, I dunno', ten people. Maybe one of those people will wonder who I am outside of my SteelCageForums persona. What I'm getting at is that I'm going to share opinions regarding criminal cases, some of which are ongoing, that points toward rampant police corruption and deliberate miscarriages of justice. I hope I spark some interest in these odd cases, but for the most part I'm wearing the anonymity of this forum as a means of avoiding the potential wrath of those involved.

I understand that my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, and what I am going to share in this and future posts are based primarily on information I've scrounged from the internet. I promise that I have no personal connection to any of what I'll share, and am only posting as a means of satisfying my curiosity.

So, for my first example, I'd like to examine the ongoing investigation into the kidnapping and murder of Leigh Matthews.

Leigh Matthews (brief) Bio

Leigh Matthews was an aspiring college student in Johannesburg South Africa, who would go missing the day of a planned celebration of her 21st birthday, on 9 July 2004. By all accounts, Leigh had a reputation as a very smart and responsible young woman. While her parents seemed well off financially, she wasn't the type to spend money foolishly. She had planned her 21st birthday meticulously, and wanted a celebration themed as an homage to Pirates of the Caribbean. She was well liked and respected by her family and peers, and didn't have any known enemies.

Leigh Matthews Mother explains her daughter's disappearance

Sharon Matthews, Mother to Leigh Matthews, explained that she had received a text from Leigh indicating that Leigh was mistakenly in the possession of her Mother's credit card. They arranged to meet at Leigh's college, Bond University, at 10am so that Leigh could return the credit card. Sharon claimed that when she arrived, her daughter wasn't where they had planned to meet. Sharon claims that she had asked several students where her daughter was, and was told by one student that Leigh had been seen alone in the parking lot while another student had stated that Leigh was seen with an unidentifiable male in the parking lot. Sharon claims that she assumed at that point that Leigh was simply held up in class, and waited while attempting to contact her daughter on her cell phone by texting and calling. Eventually, after repeated calls, a man answered the phone and stated that he had kidnapped Leigh. Sharon claims that she had initially assumed that the person was playing a prank, and laughed at them. The individual became irate, and told Sharon that he would murder Leigh if his instructions weren't followed. It was at this point that Sharon claims that she realized that her daughter's car wasn't in the parking lot. The kidnapper ended the call, and Sharon called her husband Rob.

Rob Matthews explains his conversation with the kidnapper

Rob explained that he had called his daughter's cell phone, and that a man answered. The man identified himself as Leigh's kidnapper, and demanded 300,000 South African Rand (roughly $50,000 dollars American) in exchange for her life. The kidnapper stated that if Rob went to the police, that Leigh would be killed. Rob visited different banks, and managed to withdraw 300,000 Rand. While he was traveling between banks, Rob contacted a private investigator who worked for a company called Revert Risk Management. He arranged to meet the private investigator at a local gas station, where the investigator suggested secretly involving the police. Rob contacted police, and later met with police Superintendent Deon Scheepers. The Superintendent suggested that when Rob speaks to the kidnappers again, that he claim to only be able to obtain 50,000 Rand to determine the desperation of the kidnappers. Rob claims that when he was later contacted by the kidnappers, though not in the company of any witnesses, the kidnapper agreed to accept 50,000 Rand, and they arranged to meet at a secluded freeway offramp at 8pm that same evening so that the payment could be made. Rob traveled to the location with a police officer hiding in the backseat, but became understandably nervous before reaching the planned destination, and dropped the police officer off at a gas station a few miles from the offramp. Rob claims that he was so nervous, that he mistakenly drove past the offramp where the payment was supposed to be made. When he did, the kidnapper called him and angrily shouted at him for missing the offramp. Rob claimed to police that the man, when angry, spoke in an accent that sounded like that of a Black African. Rob drove back to the dropoff point, and flashed his headlights three times as was agreed upon earlier to be the signal that it was Rob with the payment. A figure, of which Rob couldn't later identify, approached the vehicle from behind and tapped on the rear passenger side window. Rob opened the passenger door and threw out an envelope containing 50,000 Rand. Rob was instructed by the individual to drive, and he drove away slowly while expecting to receive a call from his daughter or from someone who could tell him where his daughter was located. He claims to have driven until 11:25pm that evening, and only then realized that he needed to contact police to explain what had happened.

The police arrange a task force at this point, and set up a soundproof room in the Matthews' residence to prepare for any future calls from the kidnappers. Curiously; the kidnappers never call again.

Rob Matthews holds a press conference

Against the advice of police and private investigators, Rob contacts media outlets and arranges a press conference at his home to plead for his daughter's life. When asked the identity of the kidnapper, Rob recalled at this time that when speaking over the phone that the kidnapper had claimed to be from Libya, and he stated that when upset the kidnapper spoke with a foreign accent. Rob pleaded ?Please let her go. Please. We?ve been to hell and back and that?s only half the journey.?

Rob would hold another press conference after his first received significant media attention, and roughly 40 hours after his daughter went missing. At this conference, he would say angrily ?What kind of people do this to others? Do they have no pity? Even bad people must have some feelings.?

The Matthews' home became a command center where police would work in shifts to provide 24 hours of coverage, waiting eagerly for messages from kidnappers, though none would come. Police attempted to locate Leigh's cell phone by triangulating the signal from when the kidnappers had called Rob and Sharon, but were unable to locate her phone or any sign of her in spite of this capability.

Leigh's corpse is found

On the morning of July 21st, 2004, a man was harvesting tall grass from a field and came upon the nude body of a young woman. He immediately traveled to a nearby bar, and phoned police to report the body. When police arrived, they determined that the body was that of Leigh Matthews. She had been shot two times in the back of the head and two more times in the chest, though her body was very well preserved. Suspiciously, there was no blood found at the scene, and forensic experts would later determine that Leigh would have lost at least 2 liters of blood from her wounds. Bullet casings were found at the scene, though they were grouped together to indicate that they had been planted. There were also no bullet slugs found in or near where the body was found. By all rational interpretations, the scene was staged to appear as though Leigh had been murdered in the field. Curiously; the police would still use the obviously planted shells to determine that the weapon used to inflict bullet wounds was a 9mm Taurus pistol. Forensic investigators would find that Leigh had not been sexually assaulted.

The search for the kidnapper(s) intensified, and the case drew international attention. It's reported that Nelson Mandela, who was then the President of South Africa, personally contacted Sharon Matthews to encourage her to know that her daughter would receive justice. A nationally renowned detective, Piet Byleveld, would take over the case. He revisited every known scene, and chose to focus on details of the phone call that occurred between Rob Matthews and the kidnapper. Piet was told that the kidnapper had used an Indian accent when he became irate, and thus the investigation was directed toward Leigh's classmates who have Indian names. Piet found the name of a classmate, Donovan Moodley, and it's curiously reported that he determined based on that name that Donovan was an Indian man and thus investigating Donovan as a prime suspect. Though, Donovan Moodley is an Anglo-Saxon name by origin.

Piet gathers evidence against Donovan

Donovan was a fellow student at Bond University, but by all accounts he and Leigh did not associate with each other. He had also worked for a finance company for three years prior to these events, but was fired on assumption of fraud. However; no fraud charges were ever filed. He was Indian by origin, but did not speak with an Indian accent. Donovan's spending was closely analyzed, and it was determined that in the days following the payment of 50,000 Rand, Donovan had spent money on random purchases (motorcycle repairs, jewelry for his girlfriend, a lavish trip with friends) that amounted to almost 50,000 Rand.

Leigh's car was found by police around this time, and in the vehicle police found a lottery ticket that they claim
had a fingerprint. Conflicting accounts from police indicate that they had linked the print to Donovan. Police initially claimed that since Donovan was a licensed gun owner, that they had already had his fingerprint in file and could thus link him to the piece of evidence. Later; Piet would contradict this claim by indicating that he only obtained Donovan's fingerprints after arresting him and that until then the evidence was inconclusive. Based on this evidence, Piet arrested Donovan.

Donovan was interrogated without a lawyer or representative present, and would confess to the crime during this interrogation. Piet claimed that when he arrested Donovan, that Donovan had casually asked "What took you so long?" which Donovan would later deny. Piet would claim in interviews that the interrogation was very uneventful, that Donovan calmly and coldly admitted to kidnapping Leigh out of greed for a potential ransom and that had later murdered her in the field where she was found out of fear that she would identify him if she was left alive. Donovan however, would claim that he endured extreme torture at the hands of Piet Byleveld. Donovan claimed that he was aware of details of the case prior to his arrest due to the media exposure the case had received, and that the torture intensified when after confessing he had attempted to implicate other kidnappers. Apparently, Piet wanted the public to believe that Donovan had acted alone and had thus coerced Donovan to claim to be fully responsible for her death.

The trial

Sharon Matthews was curiously satisfied that Leigh's kidnapper had been caught, and that the family could now have some closure with his arrest and eventual conviction. Donovan pleaded guilty to the charges, and thus he would not be cross-examined and Piet wouldn't be required to make a statement in regard to his investigation. Forensic examiners were very puzzled by this occurrence, because it was their conclusion that more than one individual had to have been involved. Donovan was found guilty of kidnapping, extortion, and murder. He was sentenced to life in prison, and the media lamented the fact that the death penalty was not an option for justice in South Africa.

It would also be claimed that when police searched Donovan's car, that two blonde hairs were found. The hairs were determined, by assuming alone, that they belonged to Leigh Matthews. Forensic examinations determined that Leigh was murdered by the first gunshot to the head, and that she was in a sitting position when killed. No blood was found in any of Donovan's vehicles. Donovan's confession was curiously flawed, in that he claimed to have murdered Leigh in the field where she was found, though she obviously had been planted there long after being murdered. Her feet had signs of post-mortem frostbite, indicating that her body had been stored in a freezer during sometime before being planted in the field. Investigators chose not to investigate a funeral home owned by a relative of Donovan Moodley, or any of the freezers that Donovan owned for evidence of Leigh having been stored at either location. No explanation was given for why they chose not to investigate these obvious leads. The apparent assumption among investigators is that Donovan is lying about the circumstances of Leigh's death for unknown reasons, and that it's by his will alone that the true details are not known. Donovan claims, for the record, that his spending was financed by the sale of his BMW, which was corroborated by the individuals who purchased the vehicle.

It's claimed that Donovan had confessed to taking Leigh's clothing prior to murdering her, and that he then returned to his home where he burned her and his clothes and belongings of hers that he had taken from
the scene. Curiously, he confessed to returning to the scene a few days after murdering her to retrieve a ring that the media had reported Leigh's mother had given her. If this really happened, then the body would have been in a greater state of decomposition due to having laid in the field for weeks before being found, which forensic investigators concluded could not have happened. Police found the burned remains of Leigh's clothes and phone near the home where Donovan lived.

My conclusion

I find it strikingly odd that, given the conclusion of the media and forensic investigators that more than one individual had to have been involved, that Leigh's Mother and Father are satisfied with Donovan's arrest and conviction. Also; no account of this case indicates that anyone else had been present when Leigh's kidnappers spoke with Leigh's Mother and Father over the phone. Leigh's Father had supposedly spent a period of six hours gathering ransom money and negotiating with the kidnappers before contacting a private investigator, and when he agreed to meet with the kidnapper while a police officer hid in the backseat, he instead became nervous and went alone.

I feel that Leigh's parents are responsible for her death.

I believe that behind the scenes of happiness and love, that there was financial strife between Leigh and her parents. I feel that when Rob claimed he was obtaining 300,000 Rand, of which no bank could confirm that he had received all or part of, he was instead planting the dead body of his daughter in a frozen storage and had contacted a private investigator with his story. I believe that Sharon was involved in Leigh's death, and used the alibi of being at the university for an extended period of time to explain her own whereabouts. I feel that Leigh being in possession of her mother's credit card was a factor in her death.

When this story caught national attention, Piet Byleveld saw the opportunity to enhance his fame. He concocted the idea that Leigh had been approached by Donovan in the University parking lot, who had asked Leigh for a ride. That after Leigh had driven far enough away, that Donovan produced the 9mm Taurus pistol and had then kidnapped her and answered her phone to indicate to her Sharon that he had kidnapped Leigh.

Piet Byleveld would later claim in interviews and in his books recounting the kidnapping that he believes that Donovan had financed his lavish lifestyle through unproven kidnappings, and that only because the families involved had paid the random and thus had their relatives returned safely the police were never called in regard to the kidnappings. He would also claim years later that he agreed that other kidnappers had to be involved, though when pressed by interviewers he would become strangely sheepish and refuse to answer any further questions claiming that he's merely a police officer.

What I find to be most inconsistent with the claim that Leigh had agreed to give Donovan a ride, was that she had apparently agreed to meet her mother to return the credit card, but had apparently agreed to leave the University with Donovan immediately after indicating that she would meet her mother in the University parking lot. If Leigh was truly as responsible as is claimed, then she likely would have refused to leave the University of her own free will that close to meeting her mother, and it's claimed that she didn't inform her mother of this trip because she "trusted" Donovan, even though other students claimed that Leigh and Donovan did not associate with each other.

Donovan has attempted to file multiple appeals to his conviction in the years since, and all have been dismissed on the grounds that his story has changed multiple times but has always maintained that he did indeed kidnap and murder Leigh.

I believe that Donovan was made to believe, through intense and unyielding techniques of torture and interrogation, that he was indeed involved in a kidnapping and murder that forensic examiners proved could not have happened the way he remembers.

Thank you if you bothered to read all of that. This was very therapeutic for me.

[EnviousDominous]

I feel that, before I go into another unsolved... point of interest, I should explain a little more about where I'm coming from.


I write to deal with anxiety, and I also deal with anxiety by mentally wandering through the possibilities of incidents from the past (or even from works of fiction) and I determine a conclusion that grants me some amount of closure.

I absolutely hate what I call "bullshit logic". That's not a term I can accurately describe, but an example is when crop circles began popping up all over the US and the common conclusion among "experts" was that those crop circles were too precise in their measurements to have been created by human beings. The media was whipped into a frenzy regarding the possibility that extraterrestrial life forms were traveling across the galaxy... to screw with some farmers. In the end, it turned out that the people involved were simply tethering a flat piece of wood to a grounded stake. In most cases, the farmers were creating the crop circles in an attempt to feel a little famous.

I feel that a lot of bullshit logic has surrounded on very mysterious entity who terrorized the streets of London in 1888.

For this post, I will examine the alleged crimes of Jack the Ripper, and offer my conclusion as to his true identity.

The Whitechapel Murders, as they were called by Scotland Yard, took place from August to November of 1888. During this time, an anonymous letter from someone claiming to be the murderer used the term "Jack the Ripper" to describe themselves. This name was likely inspired by the thoroughly debunked urban legend of Spring-heeled Jack, a demonic humanoid who was believed to have been the perpetrator of sexual assaults on women and children from 1837 to 1904.

In total, Scotland Yard identified eleven victims that were associated with the Whitechapel Murders. The media however chose to indicate that the five most gruesome and barbaric murders were perpetrated by Jack the Ripper. The Daily News would post lengthy articles dramatically detailing first-hand accounts from witnesses and police officers who had first responded to the report that a murder had taken place.

The plausible theory is that the killer had lured his victims into dark alleys and hotel rooms with the promise of payment for their services. This would mean that the killer had to be somewhat capable of not appearing to be a threat. The killer was most often described as very common in appearance, with no major feature that stood out. Any account of the killer's appearance is only based on vague witness accounts of men seen talking to the victims shortly before their deaths.

Over time, amateur internet sleuths (like me) and professionals in the field of criminal forensic science have weighed in on their opinions of who most likely committed these crimes.

The Main Suspects:

Aaron Kosminski

Aaron Kosminski was a Jewish man who had emigrated from Poland to England sometime during the 1880s. He found work as a hairdresser and barber, and was regarded as a man who was very quiet and shy. His quiet demeanor was likely due to being a native speaker Yiddish, who understood very little English.

Aaron was also known by his wife to have suffered from auditory hallucinations. It's reported that the voices in his head warned him that someone wanted to poison him, so he refused any food that was served to him even if it was by his wife. He would prefer to eat food that was discarded as litter, and he also refused to bathe out of fear of the bath water being poisoned.

From 1888 to 1891, Aaron was unable to work due mostly to his deteriorating mental health. He would at times live at his Sister's home, and she admitted that she would support him financially during those trying years.

In 1891, Aaron was admitted to an insane asylum due to a report that he threatened a woman with a knife. The report indicates that he had threatened "his sister", though it was never made clear if Aaron had threatened his own Sister or the Sister of the man who had admitted him to the asylum.

In 1894, the Assistant Chief Constable of the London Metropolitan Police had indicated that a man named "Kosminski" was one of three prime suspects for the Whitechapel Murders, though it was never indicated what was the first name of this individual.

The Assistant Commissioner would write in his later memoirs that he had interviewed an unidentified witness who claimed that they clearly saw Aaron Kosminski commit one of the murders, but that they refused to testify in court as both they and Aaron were Jewish. This statement has been thoroughly debunked, as no other member of the Police has ever indicated that a witness had seen any of the murders take place.

In 2014, DNA analysis of the shawl that was with one of the victims was examined as part of the Louhelainen Study. The man conducting this study had claimed to the media that he manages to conclude, with 100% certainty, that mitochondrial DNA analysis proved that Aaron Kosminski committed the murder. This finding has also been thoroughly debunked. The study was deliberately never submitted for peer review, and it's very curious that an absolutely conclusive finding could occur with such a deteriorated piece of evidence and speculation regarding the DNA profile of Aaron Kosminksi.

I feel that Aaron Kosminski could not have lured women into situations where they could be vulnerable to murder, and that he would not have had any intent to do so. I believe that strangers would have been very cautious in his presence, and that the language barrier prevented him from coaxing someone into trusting him.

I feel that media sensationalism resulting from a unfounded indication that Aaron Kosminski was a suspect in the murders is what caused Aaron to receive so much attention over the last century, with absolutely no findings being conclusive. I am ruling out Aaron as a suspect

Francis Tumblety

Francis Tumblety emigrated to New York from Ireland in 1850, a few years after his birth. As an adult, Francis moved to Detroit and was well known as a medical con-artist. He had patented many "cures" that would be either named after him (as Dr. Tumblety, though he never earned a degree of any kind) or a random fictitious Doctor. His medicines promised to cure specific disorders that ranged from pimple removers to cures for blindness. He would advertise these medicines in a dramatic fashion, always wearing a uniform depicting him as a military officer (though he had never served in the military)

By all accounts, Francis became very wealthy due to the sale of his medicines.

In 1865, in the aftermath of the Lincoln assassination, Francis Tumblety was named by a friend of John Wilkes Booth as a conspirator to murder President Lincoln. Francis was likely named in desperation, as he categorically denied any involvement and was promptly released without being charged.

Francis visited London several times during his life, and was reported to have been visiting London during the Whitechapel Murders. He would tell stories about these visits that were probably lies. He claimed to have befriended Charles Dickens, King William, and Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew.

During a visit to London in 1888, a witness claimed that they had seen Francis commit the crime of homosexuality, and he was arrested. Scotland Yard investigators began presuming that someone as indecent as a homosexual may have committed the Whitechapel Murders, and had publicly indicated their interest in investigating Francis. Francis heard of this, and promptly fled back to the US.

The notion that an American, albeit of Irish descent, may have been Jack the Ripper all along caused a sensation among the media in the US. Unfounded stories of how Francis was a skilled surgeon, who had proudly displayed jars containing uteruses began to circulate.

Francis Tumblety was a lot of things, but he was most certainly not a murderer. His crimes were many, but his potential to be Jack the Ripper was only encouraged by fabricated media accounts of his capabilities. I am ruling Francis out as a suspect.

Charles Allen Lechmere, aka Charles Cross

Charles Lechmere was born in London in 1849. His father is believed to have died in 1851, and Charles is believed to have lived in "broken" homes throughout his life, though this is pure speculation.

In 1858, his mother married a man named "Thomas Cross" and Charles thus took his step-father's surname and would answer to Charles Cross. This name change is often cited as evidence that Charles had given the police a false name when he was interviewed as a witness to one of the Whitechapel Murders. Charles would often be falsely recognized as Charles Lechmere by the media, but would give his name as Charles Cross if asked.

As an adult, Charles found work as a delivery man who would walk a wheelbarrow of meat to homes on a routine route through a section of London. While he was on one of these routes, he discovered the body of Mary Nichols. She was known to be the first of the victims of Jack the Ripper, though she wasn't the first person identified as a victim of the Whitechapel Murders. Shortly after discovering her corpse, he encountered another witness and reported what he had found. Police were contacted, and Charles was regarded by the media as key person in the attempt to figure out who Jack the Ripper truly was. The media did not characterize Charles as Jack the Ripper, but as a key witness to the crimes.

In 2014, a book titled "Jack The Ripper: The Missing Evidence" was released that vaguely indicated that Charles may have been Jack the Ripper. The only clues that are used to indicate this finding are that Charles had a specific route, and that the Whitechapel Murders that were attributed to Jack the Ripper had occurred on that route at times coinciding with Charles' deliveries.

Internet sleuths have added details to the idea that Charles was Jack the Ripper. They've noted that when Charles gave his report of what had seen to police, that there were many inconsistencies with his story and that he had given them a false name of "Charles Cross" which didn't match census data.

There are many problems with the theory that Charles had committed these murders.

First; Charles never exhibited any type of criminal or disturbing behavior. He had a wife, and was reportedly a loving and dutiful husband. The reports of him coming from a "broken" home is only speculated because his Father had died when he was very young and because he moved often until his mother married Thomas Cross.

Second; Charles' delivery routes were only near certain murders, and one murder was nowhere near his route. On a day when two murders took place, Charles was on holiday with his wife. One could use this logic to associate Charles with every murder that took place in London while he delivered meat.

Third; witness accounts in this age were often distorted by a lack of clarity due to the hasty writing of the investigator taking the account and how memory can distort what actually occurred. It's noted that Charles had claimed in an account that a police officer was present when he and the other witness had examined details of the corpse, though that witness claimed that they were alone. This is a minor contradiction, that wouldn't influence my thinking in regard to whether or not Charles committed the murder.

Charles as a perfectly ordinary person, who I feel did the right thing by alerting someone to the dead body of Mary Nichols. I am ruling out Charles as a suspect.

Dr. Thomas Cream

Thomas Cream was born in Glasgow Scotland in 1850, and by all accounts had lived a very structured and disciplined childhood. His family moved from Scotland to Ontario Canada when he was four years old. He managed to earn a medical degree when he was only 26 years old, and in his post-graduate studies he earned certifications as a physician, a surgeon, and an anesthesiologist.

Shortly after earning his doctorate, Dr. Cream had married a woman whom he had impregnated. In his attempt to abort the pregnancy, he nearly killed his wife. She would die a year later, and Dr. Cream's malpractice would eventually be blamed for her death.

In 1879, Dr. Cream was accused of murdering a married woman of whom it was rumored that he had impregnated. It was found that she and her unborn child had died due to an overdose of chloroform, of which Dr. Cream had extensively studied during his years in college. Dr. Cream fled Canada for the US before he could be arrested.

Dr. Cream established a medical practice in Chicago in August of 1880, where he offered to provide abortions which were illegal during this time. His main clients were prostitutes, and for the next year several of his clients would die from poisoning from anesthetics that Dr. Cream had specialized in.

Dr. Cream was arrested when a married woman who was having an affair with Dr. Cream allegedly stole poison from him, and used it to murder her husband. As part of a plea deal, she agreed to name Dr. Cream as the mastermind behind the murder.

Dr. Cream was sentenced to life in prison for the crime, and was imprisoned until 1891, when his brother had allegedly pleaded with the Governor of Illinois for leniency and had allegedly offered a substantial bribe as well. Dr. Cream used an inheritance from his father, who had passed away in 1887, to travel to London immediately after being released from prison.

From 1891 to 1892, a series of poisonings occurred throughout London. Prostitutes were the main target. For one of these murders Dr. Cream had apparently sent a threatening letter to a fellow Doctor, suggesting that Dr. Cream would report the fellow Doctor to the authorities as the murderer of one of the women if Dr. Cream wasn't paid a substantial bribe. Dr. Cream had also sent an anonymous letter to the coroner indicating that he could reveal the identity of the murderer if ?300,000 was sent as a reward.

In the letter that attempted to extort money from a fellow Doctor, the authenticity of it being from the murderer was confirmed due to all reports from the media indicating that the victim had died of natural causes and that only the real murderer would have had such detailed information to include the poison that was used.

Dr. Cream was put under surveillance due to his frequent visits to locations where several prostitutes were poisoned. These murders were labelled the Lambeth Poisonings. When police learned of Dr. Cream's prior conviction in the US, they arrested him and charged him with murder and extortion. He was convicted of all charges, and sentenced to death by hanging.

One might quickly deduce that Dr. Cream could not be Jack the Ripper, because he was serving a life sentence in a Chicago prison during the murders. Unfounded speculation has suggested that Dr. Cream had a twin brother, or a doppelg?nger, and that this individual served that sentence while Dr. Cream had traveled to London and committed the murders. It's believed that someone with extensive capabilities in the field of surgery had to have committed the murders, due to some victims having had their reproductive organs carefully removed. It is also alleged that when asked, prior to being executed, if Dr. Cream had any last words, that he had confessed to being Jack the Ripper.

Also; the video game adaptation of the comic book Shadow Man involves Jack the Ripper as an antagonist. The game imagines that Dr. Cream was indeed Jack the Ripper.

None of these ideas are plausible, and I would say are in the realm of stupidity. There is no record that Dr. Cream, or Dr. Neill (as it's also implied that he used that name as an alias), or anyone bearing his likeness had lived in or traveled to London in 1888.

I can easily rule out Dr. Cream as a suspect.

There has been extensive work performed for over a century to definitively determine who Jack the Ripper was.

My Conclusion

Jack the Ripper never existed.

The Whitechapel Murders took place less than a year after Bloody Sunday, of which the aftermath left citizens of London on edge. The high class West-end was at odds with the poorer East-end, the East-end being where the Whitechapel Murders took place. Crime was rampant, and murders were very difficult to investigate due to a common requirement of needing to personally witness the crime as then testify before a court. Primitive methods of forensic examination at the time made it impossible to determine exact findings like a murder weapon or where blood had come from.

Murders occurred everyday, and the Whitechapel Murders were associated simply because they involved a particular method and suggested that a certain type of murderer could have committed every one of those crimes.

Jack the Ripper was only credited with five of the Whitechapel Murders by the media, and their effort was more to spook the public into believing that a nefarious figure was stalking the streets of London hunting unsuspecting women for the thrill of the murder.

While the five murders attributed to Jack the Ripper were similar in how barbaric they were, they were not identical in a manner that would suggest that they were connected.

I feel that the media added made up details, and made brash implications to validate the identity of someone who was making them a lot of money.

The murders were random, and I feel that random sadistic aristocrats from the West-end felt empowered by the rampant lawlessness to carry out sadistic fantasies on women from the East-end. That is my conclusion.

Again, I know that I've apparently written a brief novel here for the very few people who may have so much free time that they could read through the whole thing. If you did read this, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

[Stone Cold Tea]

Your conclusion is very plausible, especially when you consider that bad news sells.

[EnviousDominous]

If I find the time to post more in this thread, I'll likely share many stories of individuals who I believe were wrongly sentenced to death. I'm most certainly not against the death penalty, if I feel the severity of the crime warrants it. I am horrified to know that individuals are often posthumously exonerated for their convictions in which their sentence was death. Some individuals are on death row at this moment who were never given a fair process of justice, and writing about them will help me to better deal with that terrifying reality.

For this post, I'm going to examine the murder of Rhoda Nathan.

The Crime

Rhoda Nathan was a 67 year old woman who was staying with two friends at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Blue Ash Ohio on the 3rd of September 1994. Rhoda was there to attend a Bar Mitzvah celebrating the grandson of one of her friends. Rhoda's friends left for breakfast that morning at 07:30, one friend testified that the door had been shut and locked when they left. When they returned at 08:00, they found Rhoda lying dead in the room. They weren't certain that she had been murdered. The two shouted for help from fellow guests instead of calling 911. Two guests, a cardiologist and a registered nurse, responded and began performing CPR as they believed that Rhoda had suffered from a heart attack and fallen in a manner that caused her facial injuries. Other concerned guests responded, and entered the room to see if they could offer assistance. When police and medical personnel arrived, the scene was described as if it were a college dorm.

Rhoda was rushed to the hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. It was determined that Rhoda had died of injuries suffered from being severly beaten.

The Forensic Examination of the Crime

Mark Piepmeier was an assistant prosecutor for Hamilton County, and was tasked with handling the initial investigation into the crime. By all accounts, the investigation was recognized as being very difficult due to the amount of people who had walked through the crime scene.

When the crime scene was cordoned off, one of Rhoda's friends had told him that her (the friend's) purse was still in the room. Mark had an examiner retrieve the purse and he gave it to Rhoda's friend. Rhoda's friend would later claim that $500 had been missing from her purse, and the police department of Cincinatti requested that she mail the purse to them as it was a crucial piece of evidence. No fingerprints or DNA could be found on the purse.

Rhoda was nude when her body was found, indicating that she was taking a shower when she was murdered. Her footprints were discovered as blood stains on the floor of the bathroom, indicating to me that she was attacked in the bathroom. A blood smear was found on a curtain, which was most likely caused by the murderer wiping their hand.

No guests had heard Rhoda scream, and the hotel was heavily booked that day. Rhoda's room was on the second floor, and was located close to a common area where guests would often meet. Guests and hotel employees reported that they had not seen anyone suspicious come through the common area, though some guests had indicated that they'd seen two suspicious men near the room around the approximate time of the murder, and that these two men appeared to be hotel employees.

Bruises on Rhoda's body indicated that she had been hit by a blunt rectangular object, resembling the shape of the end of the two-way radios that hotel employees had the option of using. Other marks on her body indicated that she had been struck by a chain similar to the chains used to secure hotel rooms. Though these findings were only substantiated by an investigation of autopsy photographs, and not a direct comparison of the assumed weapons and the body of Rhoda Nathan.

Forensic examiners found no foreign DNA at the scene.

Police Arrest Elwood Jones

Elwood Jones was questioned with other hotel employees on the day of the murder. Three days later, police questioned Elwood further, and were given permission to search his vehicle. Cincinnati Police claim that, while they found no DNA evidence to link Elwood to the murder, a police officer claimed to have discovered a unique pendant in a toolbox that was being kept in the trunk of Elwood's car. Elwood was not arrested, and the pendant was investigated as a possible link to the crime. It was discovered that this pendant was custom made, and was proudly worn by Rhoda Nathan as it was a gift from her late husband.

On September 27th 1995, Elwood was indicted for the murder of Rhoda Nathan. While the Police Department claimed that Elwood was arrested based on the evidence of the pendant that was found in the trunk of his car, to this day they've offered no plausible explanation for why they chose not to arrest Elwood over a year after discovering that the necklace was taken from the murder victim. When pressed for an explanation as to why Elwood wasn't arrested until a year later, it was explained by a police spokesperson that they were only allowed to arrest Elwood after they had determined that Rhoda had been beaten with a two-way radio that Elwood had access to.

Additionally; Elwood had a wound to his right hand, at the top of his index-finger, that required extensive surgery as it became severely infected. Elwood explained to his doctor that he had cut his hand on a dumpster while taking out trash, and though it had initially healed on its own, he had reopened the wound while dismantling a dance floor in the hotel. Police claimed that Elwood had reported to fellow employees that he had actually cut his hand on a rusty nail in the stairwell of the hotel, and that the inconsistency in Elwood's explanation had compelled them to look further into this occurrence.

A medical examiner working for the Cincinnati Police Department concluded that Elwood had cut his hand on the teeth of someone while striking them with a closed fist. This explanation was substantiated based on the primary bacteria that had infected Elwood's hand being "eikenella corrodens", which is a bacteria that is most commonly transmitted from the mouth. However, any fluid generating area of the face (eyes and nose for example) is also to spread the bacteria.

Investigators concluded that Elwood had used a hotel masterkey, which all employees could access, and entered the room with the intent of stealing items but had not expected Rhoda Nathan to be in the room. They concluded that Elwood had failed to notice that Rhoda was in the bathroom, and was in the process of stealing money from the purse of Rhoda's friend when he was caught. Police believe that Elwood attacked Rhoda, and, after beating her to death with his fist, a door chain, and a two-way radio, he stole the pendant she was wearing from her neck and exited the room.

My Conclusion

Shoddy, clumsy, and outright neglectful investigative work aside; I feel that if such strong evidence had been available only three days after the murder of Rhoda Nathan, that Elwood would have been immediately arrested.

Elwood's lawyer claims that when she interviewed Elwood, that he had taken his car to a repair-shop within the three days from when Rhoda Nathan was murdered and when the police searched Elwood's car where they claimed to find Rhoda's necklace. Elwood's lawyer claims that the she had interviewed the owner of the repair-shop, he confirmed that he used the toolbox that police claimed had been used to hold Rhoda's stolen necklace, but had not seen a necklace. While it would obviously be in the lawyer's interest to establish proof of police misconduct, this potential evidence was never investigated.

The Hamilton County Prosecutor leaned heavily on the discovery of the necklace, and Elwood's injured hand to indicate that Elwood must have committed this murder. I do not think that the theory that Elwood had hit Rhoda with his fist, and then cut his hand on her teeth, is plausible. If Elwood had cut his hand in such a manner, he would have bled at the scene. The cut was on his dominant hand, yet no blood evidence was found on the curtain, or the door handle, or on any of the personal items left in the room.

It's alleged that Elwood used a two-way radio to bludgeon Rhoda Nathan further, which would imply that Elwood was using a hand that was cut open to deliver more of a beating. If he used his non-dominant hand, the exertion would have still caused bleeding to occur at the scene. I highly doubt that Elwood could have dressed the wound during the murder. The police never investigated the hotel's two-way radios, or sought information as to which employees were using two-way radios on that day.

It's especially puzzling to me that, while Elwood had an injury to his hand while being questioned by police, they did not inquire about it. It was only after investigators discovered that Elwood had sought medical treatment for the severe infection that they chose to investigate that as a possible lead in the case. I find it very odd that Elwood had supposedly beaten someone to death and did not display any obvious signs of having had done so.

It's theorized by Elwood's lawyer that a man named Earl Reed had visited the hotel with the intent of robbing someone, and he chose Rhoda Nathan. The claim that substantiates this theory is based on the confession of Earl Reed's wife, who was in jail when she made the revelation that her husband had gone to the Embassy Suites to rob someone. She supposedly claimed that her husband had returned home and admitted that he had killed someone and framed someone else for the crime. I personally don't think this is a credible story, as Earl Reed was not an employee of the hotel and I feel that he would have been easily noticed if he was lingering around the hotel looking for a random room to steal from. I also believe that the door to the room was closed and locked, and that only someone with knowledge of the master key could have accessed the room.

I believe that Rhoda was murdered by a hotel employee, of which many (including Elwood) had prior criminal convictions. I believe that the employee was not present for questioning by police, and simply fled with the money stolen from the purse of Rhoda's friend. I believe that police found Rhoda's necklace in the hotel room, and that -- in a desperate attempt to put the public at ease -- planted the necklace in Elwood's vehicle.

I believe Elwood when he states that he had cut his hand on a dumpster while taking out trash, and that he most likely assumed that it would heal on its own. I think that Elwood had not taken proper care of the wound, and perhaps after cleaning it had allowed it to come into contact with his own mouth or nose, which resulted in the infection. I do not believe that if Elwood had sustained the wound from striking Rhoda's mouth, that the wound would have not aroused the suspicions of police and other guests. I feel that the police had fabricated the story that Elwood had told other employees that he had cut his hand in a different way than he had originally claimed.

I believe that if Elwood Jones had murdered Rhoda Nathan, than his or her DNA would have been discovered in an incriminating manner during the investigation.

Elwood Jones is scheduled to be executed by the State of Ohio on December 6th 2023.

[EnviousDominous]

When an idea sits on my mind for too long, expressing it in some manner can be very satisfying. I may be sitting in an echo-chamber where my only audience is myself, but it still helps to put these thoughts into some form of expression. Like a form of quiet scream therapy. Take my thoughts as what they obviously are, the mindless mental wanderings of an individual perspective that would rather not be known as anything other than random words on a screen.

For this post; I'll be observing an occurrence that is noted in the Christian Bible, on behalf of an individual who holds significant prominence as a prophet of God unto all of the world's Abrahamic religions. That man, was known as "Elijah". Elijah is most likely not the given name of the individual, as the name roughly translates to "My God is Yahweh" in Hebrew. Literally translating as "My God(in a general sense) is God(the single Hebrew God).

A Brief Bio of Elijah

Elijah's origin is never mentioned in any canonical religious texts. Islamic scholars speculate that Elijah the person was a descendant of the House of Al Imran, which includes Mary and Jesus.

Elijah is noted for rebelling against the status-quo of the Kingdom of Isreal, which was at the time (roughly 860 BCE) split from the Kingdom of Judea. Judea had within its borders the most significant holy sites representing Judaism, and Isreal was growing increasingly tolerant of worship of other religious Deities. Specifically, the Caananite God Baal. Caananites believed, among other things, that Baal was responsible for fruitful harvests and rainfall. At that time, being a Caananite didn't indicate being from a specific place.

King Ahab of Isreal chose to marry the daughter of the King of Tyre, her name was Jezebel. The Kingdom of Tyre's citizens mostly worshipped Baal, and the marriage between Ahab and Jezebel was seen as a diplomat effort to reduce tensions between Judaism and the polytheistic Caananites.

Elijah is noted as being very adamant in public forums about declaring that Baal was either impotent or nonexistent. Elijah would claim that a devastating drought would occur that was a result of Yahweh's anger, and that Isrealites had been fooled into believing that Yahweh and Baal could be worshipped equally. It's written that he would often have to go into hiding because Jezebel had ordered that he be arrested for speaking out against worship of Baal.

The Mount Carmel Massacre

Religious texts are wrought with indications of brutality in the name of preserving the integrity of a given interpretation of God.

There have been less violent theories about when happened on Mount Carmel at the hands of Elijah, and they've all been ridiculed by religious scholars.

It's noted in 1st Kings Chapter 18 that King Ahab confronted Elijah and accused him of causing trouble in the kingdom. Elijah denied that he was causing any trouble, and demanded that all of Isreal and exactly 450 priests of Baal meet at Mount Carmel to witness a fool-proof example of Yahweh's superiority over Baal.

When all were assembled at Mount Carmel, Elijah claimed to be the only existing prophet of Yahweh, and that he would prove that he is more divinely favored than the 450 prophets of Baal. He proposes a challenge, where he and the priests of Baal would each slaughter a bull and set their bull carcass onto an altar. Neither alter would be set on fire by normal means, only after one God used their divine power to set the bull sacrifice on fire would they be proven unto the citizens of Israel as being the one true God and thus the only God worthy of their worship.

Elijah asked that the priests of Baal try first, and over the course of several hours the priests tried in vain to conjure fire by beckoning Baal to do so. Elijah constantly taunted the priests, suggesting in jest that perhaps Baal was tired or that he couldn't hear them. The priests of Baal even resorted to self-mutilation, but were unsuccessful at producing any result of their faith.

When it was Elijah's turn, he ordered that his altar be constructed from stones that he claimed were representative of the tribes of the Israeli Patriarch Jacob. He ordered that a trench be built around the alter, capable of containing two seahs (roughly 4 1/2 gallons) of liquid. He then ordered that the bull's carcass be placed on the altar, and that 4 large pots of "water" be collected and poured onto the altar and collected in the trench. Elijah ordered that the jars be refilled and poured onto the alter two more times, apparently stopping because the trench had filled. Religious scholars have explained that this was done to assure the Israelites that Yahweh was so powerful that he could even ignite an object that was soaked in water.

Elijah gave a speech that, in a nutshell, was a proclamation to Yahweh that if Yahweh chose to light the altar that the people of Israel would commit to only worshipping Yahweh and no longer worship Baal. It's written that fire then "fell from Heaven" onto the altar, and was so intense that it even set the water of the trench on fire. The Israelites chose to, upon seeing this evidence of divine capability, proclaim their devotion to only Yahweh.

Elijah ordered the Isrealites to seize the priests of Baal. Elijah then ordered that the priests be brought to Kishon valley, and after arriving he ordered that they all be slaughtered for the purpose of devotion to Yahweh. 450 people were massacred in that valley, because they couldn't apply their faith to an impromptu test of divine might. It's written that rain fell after the massacre, thus implying that Yahweh was pleased with Elijah but would only end the drought after the priests had been murdered in Yahweh's name.

My Conclusion

Elijah cheated.

I believe that Elijah had brought flammable oils to Mount Carmel with the intent of falsely indicating that Yahweh had used divine power to ignite the altar. As Elijah was distracting the throng of Isrealites with his plea to Yahweh for a sign of divine might, an accomplice was discreetly igniting the trench from behind the altar.

I believe that Elijah deliberately invoked mass hysteria among the Israelite observers, and used their blind and ill-guided devotion as justification to murder 450 people who were never given a chance to change their religious loyalty. I personally find it to be especially gut wrenching that the narrative of what happened is casually referenced as an example of how the seventh Commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" can be superseded upon violation of the first Commandment "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me". This implies that all morality involving the intrinsic value of live is arbitrary, and that one's adherence to worship of a given God is the benchmark for being permitted to exist.

Elijah is revered for his faith, and it portrayed as a victim of Jezebel's fury even though there are no documented examples of any occurrence where Elijah suffered due to his confrontational attitude toward the worship of Baal.

I feel that Elijah was a con-artist, and a genocidal cold-blooded murderer.

[EnviousDominous]

Have you ever had an idea that echoed so loudly in your mind, that it could cause physical discomfort to ignore it?

This post won't be in reference to any morbid occurrence, but it will address the oddity of what I see to be a form of mass hysteria. It had many layers, so this is about to get very wordy.

I recently watched "bird box", and the content of this movie nearly caused my to lose consciousness on top of experiencing great psychosomatic pain due to being able to relate to the stress involved with what was occurring. I am an avid watcher of horror films, and I must say that nothing I've ever seen compares to bird box.

Are you secure? If you answer that, I would like the long answer. Long, and fruitful answers are a dying art. Part of the answer should satisfy the question of; can you trust your instincts? Another part should answer the question of; does the way other people feel about you effect how you feel in general? I ask these very vague and open-ended questions because I'm a bit shocked at how shallow and short-sighted reviews for bird box have been since it's release almost 3 years ago.

I'll fast forward to my conclusion of what happened in bird box, which I haven't seen anyone emphasize yet. Massive spoilers below as well;

In bird box, a sentient, alien entity manages to decode the frequency of our neurons. Our eyes capture vast amounts of continuous data, and the entity managed to unlock a rosetta stone that allows it to speak to our senses by manipulating our neurons to replicate functions that interpret specific ideas. All five senses (I believe the sixth sense is a myth) are reactive to the inputted data. The entity is malevolent, and it preys on our hopes and fears to manipulate us into ending our lives and risking the lives of others. Sometimes the entity forces suicidal ideas onto other people, and sometimes (this is what most people have missed) it pushes onto our senses the perception that someone is there when they're really not.

Specifically; Tom never contacted anyone over the radio, Tom and Malorie were never visited by a gang of cultists, Malorie was never attacked by a man while attempting to sail in a small boat to an assumed safe haven, the little girl died after the boat capsized, and Malorie's vision of the school for the blind was what she saw after dying from the fall down the hill.

These moments are depicted in the movie with clues given that they're not real.

The radio cuts at random as the robotic voice of Rick explains that to reach the safe haven they'll need to look to be able to circumvent the dangerous rapids. This was the entity communicating through the radio, apparently able to broadcast a voice, which provided unnatural assurances for a family that's essentially stranded in the middle of the woods. The voice emphasizes that Malorie will need to follow the sound of the birds, granting her the false hope of assuming that a given circumstance will ensure safety. It's awfully telling that Malorie was never able to contact Rick after that initial contact, and Rick couldn't offer any other indicators that his mind was of this world (an opinion of a random topic for example).

When the gang attacked the home of Tom and Malorie, it was the entity causing Tom and Malorie to hear and thereby sense their presence. Nobody was there however. During the firefight, Tom is apparently shot in the shoulder by one of the assailants. Tom however has no bullet wound in subsequent scenes, a fact curiously ignored by other reviewers. The fight that actually happened was that Tom killed what he perceived to be a threat, and in doing so granted himself false hope which left him vulnerable to being forced to commit suicide.

When the man attempts to make Malorie and the children remove their blindfolds, Malorie is clearly seen chopping at nothing with her machete in some scenes. She interprets that she did cut him deeply, and that he died. The entity cannot push a perception on us that doesn't fit with our sense of reality. If our altered reality interprets a dead body, the entity cannot revive that idea because it cannot reverse the closure that the death has caused. This may seem like a weakness, but it's apparently how the entity manages to permit our minds to become at ease and thus accept our own demise.

The little girl was given a bell to use to alert Tom and Malorie of where she is when they become separated. When the boat hits a submerged semi-truck and capsizes, the bell is seen lying by the riverside as we can still hear it ringing. Reviewers seem to have interpreted this moment as if the girl simply came to the riverside and dropped the bell. However; the bell can be heard ringing as it's obviously not in anyone's posession. This was Malorie and the boy being manipulated to hear the bell ringing.

It's depicted that Malorie eventually manages to locate both children and they follow the sound of the birds until eventually reaching the school for the blind. In the book, Malorie and the children find a home where all occupants took the precaution of gouging out their own eyes, which is seen as a darker ending. I feel that the movie has a much darker ending however.

There is no school, there was no safe haven. While frantically trying to locate the little girl, Malorie falls down a hill and seems to be momentarily unresponsive. I feel that this was where she finally let go, and adopted the altered reality that the entity can create. The movie depicts the school as a warm, bright, and beautiful place where they can finally be free. It's indicated throughout the movie that the entity intends to communicate that they'll see something beautiful if they uncover their eyes, specifically when Malorie is attacked by the non-existent stranger while in the boat. Malorie is also reunited with a woman she had not seen in five years, her OBGYN Dr. Lapham. Seeing her gutted me, because at that point I was still holding out hope for a happy ending.

To satisfy certain plot holes, the entity can't show you someone who died, but it can project their voice. Early in the movie, a woman enters a burning car after saying "Mom?" and it's later explained that her mother died ten years prior. I mention this because I feel that the entity is limited in its capability to present imagined individuals to someone.

Also; Gary's actions proved that the entity is especially malevolent in that it can push a living being to act on its commands when a certain level of symbiotic understanding is met, as its emphasized that only after drawing images of the entity that he was motivated to act on behalf of the entity by forcing the other occupants to see the entity. One might assume that Gary wasn't real, except that he (unlike the examples I gave) is capable of manipulating objects like the window coverings and the can that's used to strike Tom.

The director had explained that Dr. Lapham survived because she (the director) wanted to give a very happy ending to viewers and showing that someone could survive against all odds would satisfy that desire.

I believe that Malorie wasn't fully at peace until she could be reunited with someone from her past, and she had already witnessed everyone else dying. I believe that the little boy, now falsely believing to be in the presence of the little girl, eventually removed his blindfold and succumbed to the entity.

I haven't seen a single review that entertains the idea that in such a profound doom scenario, everyone can die. That's not how stories are supposed to work, not for our security anyway. Specifically though, as a new father, the scenes involving the children left me as a mess mentally until I could recover.

They finally made a movie that broke me. I'll be fine, but I never thought that a movie could paralyze me like that.