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Jason Kallelis
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2003 - 12:39 pm: |       |
Hello all,
This is my first post here. I am not a long time researcher of Jack the Ripper by any means - this is the first time I've ever seriously looked at the case.
Anyway, being the nerd that I am, I was reminded of a Babylon 5 episode called "Come the Inquisitor", which had a guest appearance by none other than Jack the Ripper, who went by the name "Sebastian." At no point in the episode does the creator of the series, J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) state or even imply who HE thinks the killer is, but upon being asked by fans, he gave these answers:
"Okay, here's one clue for any would-be Ripperologists out there.
In all the long story of Jack, when he was out doing his nightly work, only one person, a woman, wrote an actual letter, published in the London Times, offering an *explanation* for the Ripper's work, arguing that he was trying to send a message, that maybe people should listen to that message. It was as close as anyone's ever come to an actual *defense* of what he was doing.
Note the woman's name, and who her husband was...a man who was twice interviewed by Scotland Yard, and interviewed by many Church officials, the transcripts of which have been *sealed* by the Church ever since, at the request of the family...a person who was the last man to see at least one of the victims alive...and who was a direct blood relative of the man who was living with the final victim (who was killed indoors, leading to the speculation that she knew her assailant)...who suffered a breakdown just before the murders began, was obsessed with cleaning up the Whitechapel area, and after whose sudden, hasty transfer, the murders stopped...and whose profession is tied *directly* to the only thing the Ripper was overheard to say to one of his victims."
He later elaborated with:
"Who was the one person whose wife actually wrote a letter to the London Times
suggesting that the ripper maybe was trying to tell them something, and that
maybe he'd stop if they listened? Who was the last person to see at least two
of the victims alive on missions of mercy to the jail? Who was reported to
have become unhinged by the filth in the area around the murders when he found
a rat in his breakfast? Who had medical experience? Who left England suddenly
after being questioned, with the murders stopping soon afterward? Whose
transcripts of interviews with church officials and British police are *still*
kept under lock and key? Who is the sort of person who might say -- as the only
witness to hear the ripper reported hearing him remark to one of his victims --
"You would do anything but pray?" Who had the same last name -- and was a
likely relative -- of the man living with the very last victim, the only one
killed in her room (suggesting she knew the killer)?
The Reverend Samuel Barnett. That's my choice."
I noticed that under the "Suspects" area of this site, there is no listing of Samuel Barnett - only someone possibly related to him - Joseph Barnett.
I was wondering if the possibility of Samuel Barnett being the killer had already been discussed and dismissed here, and if so, why it was dismissed. Otherwise, do you all believe Samuel Barnett might have been the killer?
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Richard Brian Nunweek
Detective Sergeant
Username: Richardn
Post Number: 80
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 04, 2003 - 5:11 am: | |
Hi Jason,
Welcome to the boards, your post is food for thought.
For some time now I have been of the opinion that there was religious motives for these murders, and Samuel Barnett is a intresting suspect.
According to the A-Z, he was the rector of St Judes in Whitechapel from 1873-1894, and was a passionate east end reformer, it is intresting that he described the area of dorset street, thrawl street, and flower and dean street,as the wicked quarter mile..he also had an obsession with morals finding women stripping to the waist to fight disgusting.
I wonder if their is a description of Samuel Barnett, or picture of him in existance?. he would have been 42 years of age at the time of the murders, was not he man who said You would say anything but your prayers..described as middle aged.
He would fit in nicely with my own theory, which suggests religious motives, and If we could find a positive link between him and Joseph Barnett, we could build a strong case indeed.
Lets face it if their was any one the victims would have trusted it would be the deeply caring Samuel Barnett.
Thanks Jason for a intresting thought, we need new leads in this case, and your post I believe will start a good debate.
Regards Richard. |
Chris Scott
Police Constable
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 04, 2003 - 3:25 pm: | |
Hi Richard
Here is a pic of Samuel Barnett and his wife henrietta
Chris S |
Leanne Perry
Detective Sergeant
Username: Leanne
Post Number: 144
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 04, 2003 - 3:26 pm: | |
G'day Jason, Richard,
I have been favouring Joseph Barnett as 'Jack' for many years, and have never found a connection between Joseph and the Reverend. Same surname that's all!
If I trace my family tree way back to the issuing of names, I'm probably a distant relative of all Perry's!
LEANNE |
Chris Scott
Police Constable
Username: Chris
Post Number: 3
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 04, 2003 - 3:42 pm: | |
Hi Jason
I thought you might like to know that I found Samuel B in the 1881 census. His household at the time was as follows:
Address:
St Judes Vicarage, London, Middlesex
Head:
Samuel A Barnett born 1844 (aged 37 at time of census)
Vicar
Born in Bristol
Wife:
Henrietta O W Barnett born 1852 (aged 29)
Born in Lewisham, Kent
Servants:
Eliza Last aged 20
Mary Monk aged 14
Anna Bellwinkle aged 27
However, at some stage, the delights of Whitechapel must have palled on them. ON another site I found this information:
The 19th century London slums were not a nice place to live, extreme poverty caused them to become a nest of vice, drinking, gambling, ill-health and degradation. Many philanthropists fought for social reforms. Among there were Canon Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta, who, while labouring in Whitechapel in London’s East End, bought a cottage in Hampstead to get away from the slums for the weekend. When the extension of tube threatened the urbanisation of the area, Henrietta organised a vigorous campaign to make Hampstead and surrounding areas a better place to live. As well as buying 80 acres of land to be added to the Hampstead Heath, she lead the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust to acquire 655 acres of land north of Golders Green, which at the time was a lonely crossroads with a farm-house surrounded by fields. The Barnett’s idea was to build a “garden suburb”, where each family would live in a spacious house surrounded by a plot of land for them to develop, and thus protect them from the temptations of drinking and gambling. The construction of St. Jude’s (named after Canon Barnett’s Whitechapel church) began in 1910.
There is even a memorial which is inscribed:
In Loving Memory
of Dame Henrietta Barnett,
founder of Hampstead
Garden Suburb
If you want to check this out, see
http://www.london-northwest.com/sites/hampgarsub.htm
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Chris Scott
Police Constable
Username: Chris
Post Number: 4
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, April 04, 2003 - 3:55 pm: | |
Just a final pic- this is Barnett's church - St Judes in Whitechapel
Chris S
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RBW
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - 1:52 am: | |
If it is him, why did he stop? |
Julie Lambert
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, December 12, 2004 - 12:22 pm: | |
The idea of the Rev Samuel Barnett being the Ripper is interesting but unlikely. The Ripper was a sex killer. The ripping and stabbing were metophorical actions, imitating intercourse. The destruction of the female organs such as the womb was symbolic of the Ripper's anger at being unable to form meaningful relationships with women. If the Rev Barnett killed out of disgust and horror at the filth and mess around him, he would not have chosen such a method or such victims. It would have mde as much sense to kill the customers of prostitutes, who were as much to blame for the immorality as the women themselves.
I return to my conviction that the killer was an unknown sex killer, a local man, a loner, but possibly someone whom the women trusted and perceived as harmless. |
Antonio Ruiz Vega
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, December 30, 2004 - 8:09 am: | |
Probably Samuel hasn´t enough physical strentgh to kill wores in the backs, but ¿what about his pupils? Cullen, and Rumbelow, told strange things about Druitt´s relation with the Toynbee Hall & a curious little gate made by Samuel to hide from the cockney´s revenge (The Barnetts had a peculiar sense of charity). ¿The Toynbee Hall as the killer´s nest? Even today its walls are covered by the Victoria C-Ripper plant... The "four percent operation" to re-build the East End was leaded by the Barnetts, and the nefarius Ripper´s crimes probably helped a lot in its success... The roman lawyers said "¿Qui prodest?" (Sorry for my english) |
RTH
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 9:48 pm: | |
The Reverend's obsession and disgust with the immorality surrounding him in the Whitechapel area aren't disqualifying factors. It is not uncommon for serial killers who target prostitutes to condemn 'whores' and whatnot, despite their own brutal and often sexual actions with those same individuals.
Part of the mistake that is often made in dealing with such killers is in looking at the situation through our own reference points. Killers of this vein do not think like a regular, rational person -- though they may often act like one. |
Julie Lambert
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 7:03 am: | |
Many people feel that social reformers such as Barnardo and those who frequented Toynbee Hall had a motive for the murders - ie an urgency to clean up the streets - but the method of the killings rules out these people as potential killers, unless one of them was mentally unstable and saw himself/herself as 'the chosen one' to carry out such a mission. I suppose it may have been a similar condition to that suffered by Harold Shipman, who on the suface appeared to be a caring family doctor and yet secretly had an obsession with doing away with mainly elderly and frail people.
However, I still favour an unknown, local loner whose motive was sexual perversion. |
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