In the future, "Jack the Ripper" would be held accountable for 17 murders in London between 1887 and 1891, not just the canonical five. This will be according to the shipboard computer on the USS Enterprise.
Five of those twelve other victims occurred before the murder of Mary Ann Nichols. And one of those poor unfortunates, Martha Tabram (August 7th, 1888), was considered to be one of Jack's victims by one of the Scotland Yard inspectors on the case, Harold Langford (seen below) when he arrested Dr. John York for her murder and those of the first three "official" victims of the Ripper: "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, and Elizabeth Stride.
As I've already established in previous posts, the true murderer was an insane Xeraphin mutant known as Redjac. The alien would take an unwitting and probably unwilling human host to act as its avatar to carry out these murders in a slow, ritualistic fashion so that it might feed upon the fears of the victims, as well as on the fears of the public at large.
Many who have studied those first five women whose murders were never solved don't believe that they were the work of Jack the Ripper. Too many of the details differ from the "Canonical Five". For one thing, none of them were strangled into unconsciousness before their killer began his work in earnest. But that could be attributed to a learning period, in which the budding butcher practiced his craft.
These are the five women some believe are the first victims of Jack the Ripper:
"FAIRY FAY" (December 26, 1897)
ANNIE MILLWOOD (February 25, 1888)
ADA WILSON (March 28, 1888)
EMMA SMITH (April 3, 1888)
MARTHA TABRAM (August 7, 1888)
But the true first victim of Jack the Ripper (in the TV Universe only, of course) was a man named Sebastian. (His last name was never revealed to the audience viewing back home in the Trueniverse.) Redjac possessed him upon arrival and used him as its instrument in the killing of Mary Ann NIchols.
Sebastian may have been a butcher by trade, which could be why he was wearing a leather apron at the scene of the crime as described by witnesses.
But before Redjac could use him again to kill prostitutes, the alien race known as the Vorlons abducted Sebastian.
As all-powerful as those Old Ones were, the Vorlons never noticed the presence of Redjac. So the entity was able to abandon Sebastian and flee to a new host. It would be some time before the authorities were notified by Sebastian's neighbors, family, and friends that he was missing - not until after November 29, the date of the last official murder by Jack the Ripper.
Sebastian would next be seen onscreen in the TV Universe on board the space station 'Babylon 5'. Sebastian served the Vorlons as their inquisitor whenever necessary (and in this case, it was to question Delenn about her belief in her "holy cause". Who would know better? After all, "Jack" supposedly served a holy cause as well.) Afterwards, he would be remanded back to his incarceration in a stasis field. And so that is how he spent the last 400 years.
Sebastian remembered his crimes, even if Redjac was ultimately responsible, and took the blame for all of the murders, probably because he couldn't prevent Redjac's reign of terror. He felt guilty that he so easily surrendered his soul to the creature.
Because of the intervention by the Vorlons, Redjac took precautions with the next series of murders. He found a new way to kill the doxies of Whitechapel.....
BCnU!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
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2 comments:
It's a film reference but still fitting--John Neville has just died. Besides being Baron Munchausen, he was the first screen Holmes to tackle Jack the Ripper.
I read the novelization of "A Study In Terror" when I was a teen, it was by "Ellery Queen" and "he" worked himself into the story. I should track down both that book and the movie.....
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