Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper--Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell Read Free Book Online Page B

control and stab a victim thirty-nine times was to cause a bloody mess. Even if he didn’t track blood on the landing or elsewhere—assuming witnesses were accurate in their description of the crime scene—he would have had blood on his hands, his clothes, and the tops of his boots or shoes, making evasion more difficult. And for an educated man like Sickert, who knew that diseases were not caused by miasma but by germs, finding himself spattered and soaked with a prostitute’s blood was likely to have been disgusting.
    Martha Tabran’s cause of death should have been exsanguination due to multiple stab wounds. There was no suitable mortuary in the East End, and Dr. Killeen performed the postmortem examination at a nearby dead house or shed. He attributed a single wound to the heart as “sufficient to cause death.” A stab wound to the heart that does not nick or sever an artery can certainly cause death if it is not treated immediately by surgery in a trauma unit. But people have been known to survive after being stabbed in the heart with knives, ice picks, and other instruments. What causes the heart to stop pumping is not the wound, but the leakage of blood that fills the pericardium or sac that surrounds the heart.
    Knowing whether Martha’s pericardial sac was filled with blood would not only assuage a medical curiosity, it might also give a hint as to how long she survived as she bled from other stab wounds. Every detail helps the dead speak, and Dr. Killeen’s descriptions tell us so little that we don’t know if the weapon was double- or single-edged. We don’t know what the angle of trajectory was, which would help position the killer in relation to Martha at the time of each injury. Was she standing or lying down? Were any of the wounds large or irregular, which would be consistent with the weapon twisting as it was withdrawn because the victim was still moving? Did the weapon have a guard—often mistakenly called a hilt (swords have hilts)? Knife guards leave contusions—bruises—or abrasions on the skin.
    Reconstructing how a victim died and determining the type of weapon used begin to paint a portrait of the killer. Details hint at his intent, emotions, activity, fantasies, and even his occupation or profession. The height of the killer can also be conjectured. Martha was five foot three. If the killer was taller than she and the two of them were standing when he began stabbing her, then one would expect her initial wounds to be high up on her body and angled down. If both of them were standing, it would have been difficult for him to stab her in the stomach and genitals, unless he was very short. Most likely, those injuries would have been inflicted when she was on the ground.
    Dr. Killeen assumed the killer was very strong. Adrenaline and rage are terrifically energizing and can produce a great deal of strength. But the Ripper didn’t need superhuman strength. If his weapon was pointed, strong, and sharp, he didn’t need much power to penetrate skin, organs, and even bone. Dr. Killeen also mistakenly assumed that a wound penetrating the sternum or “chest bone” could not have been inflicted by a “knife.” He jumped from that conclusion to his next one: that two weapons were involved, possibly a “dagger” and a “knife,” leading to an early theory that the killer might be ambidextrous.
    Even if he was, the image of a man simultaneously stabbing Martha with a dagger in one hand and a knife in the other in darkness is bizarre and absurd, and chances are good he would have stabbed himself a few times. What is known of the medical evidence does not point to an ambidextrous assault. Martha’s left lung was penetrated in five places. The heart, which is on the left side of the body, was stabbed once. A right-handed person is more likely to inflict injuries to the left side of the body if the victim is facing him.
    A penetration of the sternum does not merit the emphasis Dr. Killeen gave it.