stray bullets

Ripper 'claimed earlier victims' Jack the Ripper may have killed his first victim 25 years earlier than previously thought, a retired murder detective has claimed in a new book. Also interesting: Traditionally, the serial killer is alleged to have removed organs from the bodies of his victims, including his second "official" victim Annie Chapman and Catherine Eddowes, his fourth, with a degree of medical precision. But Mr Marriott said: "The organs were not removed by the killer at the crime scenes but by person or persons unknown for medical research at some point between the bodies being removed from the crime scenes and the post mortems taking place some 12 hours later. Marriott also maintains that there were similar murders committed in Germany, Nicaragua and the eastern United States. If so, this might lend some credence to the local legends of the Savannah Ripper, blamed for upward of seventeen murders from 1889 to 1930, although I suspect that a number of these, especially the later ones, are unrelated to the case. Some have speculated that Jack the Ripper and the Savannah Ripper were one and the same.

British spy in longbow plot to kill Heinrich Himmler A British spy who was a cross between James Bond and Robin Hood plotted to use a longbow to assassinate one of the most notorious Nazis, according to a new book...“He was a real-life 007, getting through a tremendous number of women and doing all kinds of spectacular stunts to evade the Nazis,”

Rare Artifact Found In Maryland Surf A large section of what is likely a fairly ancient wooden vessel was discovered in the surf at 43rd Street this week and now awaits its fate in a town-owned storage facility in West Ocean City as state historians and maritime archaeologists attempt to date it and perhaps discover from whence it came. The roughly 25-foot long, L-shaped artifact was first discovered in the surf by swimmers in the 43rd Street area on Monday. Ocean City Beach Patrol staffers tried to remove the unknown object from the water, but quickly realized it was something much larger than they were capable of moving. The town’s Public Works department was called in and was eventually able to haul the giant piece of history from a bygone era from the water using a front-end loader and other equipment. (via)