What is the direct connection with the Elephant Man and Jack the Ripper?

The Royal London Hospital Museum contains items relating directly to both Joseph Merrick and Jack the Ripper. Not sure if this is the "connection" required.

Objects on show include a replica of a hat and veil worn by Joseph Merrick (the “Elephant Man”) and documents relating to his residence at the hospital, contemporary surgical instruments and medical equipment. There is a forensic medicine section which includes original material on Jack the Ripper, Dr Crippen and the Christie murders.

https://www.britainexpress.com/London/royal-london-hospital-museum.htm

Point well taken.

However, I am looking for another connection.

They were both in Whitchapel at the same time?

Joseph Carey Merrick aka the "Elephant Man" was living in his basement quarters in Bedstead Square at the back of the London Hospital at the time of the Ripper murders. It was there that he was found dead in bed on April 11, 1890.

http://www.casebook.org/forum/messages/4920/9740.html

Correct, but this is what I was looking for:

He was cared for at the hospital until his death at the age of 27 on 11 April 1890, apparently from the accidental dislocation of his neck due to its inability to support the weight of his massive head in sleep. Merrick, unable to sleep reclining due to the weight of his head, may have tried to do so in this instance, in an attempt to imitate normal behaviour. The coroner at his inquest was Wynne Edwin Baxter, who had come to prominence during the notorious Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 when he had likewise presided at the inquests of several of the victims.

http://www.answers.com/topic/joseph-merrick