A Ripperologist Article

This article originally appeared in Ripperologist No. 68, June 2006. Ripperologist is the most respected Ripper periodical on the market and has garnered our highest recommendation for serious students of the case. For more information, view our Ripperologist page. Our thanks to the editor of Ripperologist for permission to reprint this article.

We’ve had Uncle Jack - now stand by for Cousin Jack. The title of this article was inspired by an email from Adrian Stockton who originally contacted me to exchange family tree information about the Stockton line. Adrian wrote: ‘My first cousin 3 times removed was Jack the Ripper - now that’s something to talk about.’

Adrian was referring to James Hardiman, a Whitechapel horseflesh purveyor and cat’s meat man. Ripperologist’s readers are well aware that I believe he was Jack the Ripper. His mother was Harriet Hardiman, who lived in the ground floor front room at 29 Hanbury Street and ran a cat’s meat shop out of it. On 8 September 1888, Annie Chapman’s mutilated body was found in the back yard of this house.

I have chronicled James’s life and exposed my theories in previous articles where I discussed the information I have so far gathered on the Hardiman family. Now, thanks to Adrian’s new information on the Stocktons, I can expand on our research. Harriet Hardiman, James’s mother, was a Stockton - Adrian’s Second Great Aunt, in fact - and constitutes the link between the Stockton and Hardiman families.