|
A Ripperologist Article
|
This article originally appeared in Ripperologist No. 63, January 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.
|
 |
On the Trail of Jack the Ripper:
Szemeredy in
Argentina
By Jose Luis Scarsi
The Spanish version of this article
was published under the title Jack el
Destripador: una pista en la Argentina
in the magazine Historias de la
Ciudad, Año 4, Nº 31, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, June 2005. Translated
from the Spanish by Eduardo Zinna
He came from Europe to fight in
the War of the Triple Alliance.(1)
He was a soldier, a tanner and
a butcher by trade, a barber
by vocation. He was a doctor,
a landowner and a political
refugee. This is the story of
a clever confidence trickster,
small-time thief and slippery
character who for many years
held the attention of the press
and the authorities. A murder
suspect, he committed the
same type of crimes in Buenos
Aires and in London and, as he
died bearing a tarnished title of
Count, became another Ripper
suspect.
It was more than a year since Alois
Szemeredy had last walked in the
streets of Buenos Aires. Since that
winter night when he was seen fleeing
his hotel, in little clothing and a great
hurry, his luggage left behind, he had
been impossible to find. The police
sent detectives throughout the city
and, since they couldn't spot him in
gin palaces, eateries, underground
hangouts, train stations or the docks,
they went looking for him in dozens
of towns and villages in the Argentine
Provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe,
Entre Ríos and Cuyo and over twenty
locations in the neighbouring Eastern
Republic of Uruguay. Every move of
the authorities seemed like an iron
circle closing down on the fugitive,
but he, shrewd and elusive, always
found a gap to slip through.
The circumstances of the brutal
crime of which he was suspected
were still vivid in the memory when
a telegram from the Bahian police
confirmed that he had been arrested
in Brazil. It was mid-morning on 8
August 1877 when the ship that was
bringing him back approached the
Catalinas dock. Like a metaphor for a
remote remembrance or an uncertain
future, the mist and the distance from
the coast blurred the outline of the
city that once more awaited him. On
the docks, an impatient crowd had
gathered to catch a glimpse of the
vicious killer.
During the journey Szemeredy
had tried to commit suicide on two
occasions. Sgt. Antonio Augusto
Almeida Navarro, who was bringing
him from Río de Janeiro, thought
that the prisoner was completely
insane and was eager to hand him
over to the local authorities. Perhaps
by chance, perhaps because of a
macabre pleasantry of the driver, the
carriage taking him to prison went by
the house in Corrientes Street where
he had allegedly committed murder.
The newspapers reported that when
they pointed out the house to him and
reminded him of the woman who had
lived there, he said that 'she was his
mistress but he was absent when the
murder was committed.' (2)
The Beginning of the Story
The Buenos Aires newspaper La
Nación reported on 27 July 1876:
Last night at 10, a young woman
who shared lodgings with another
woman at 35 Corrientes Street,
between Reconquista and 25 de mayo
Streets, was horribly murdered. Her
name was Carolina Metz and she was
not yet 20 years old… Carolina lived
with a man who was not her husband.
Last night, at the above-mentioned
time, Carolina's woman friend ran
into the street crying for help…
several police officers answered her
calls, closely followed by higher-rank
policemen. They found Carolina lying
in her bed, half-naked, her throat cut
from ear to ear.
There, next to the bed, stood
the young woman's lover. He was
immediately arrested. His statement
was as follows: That a few moments
earlier, while he was in another room
of the house, a man whom both he
and Carolina knew had asked for his
permission to enter the room where
she was. That, after a few moments,
he heard cries for help and ran into
the young woman's room, where he
found her with her throat cut. There
were no traces of the man who had
gone in a few minutes before. On
Carolina's bed was found, covered
with blood, the weapon with which
her throat had been cut… a sheathknife
nearly 10 inches long… which
looked brand-new.
On a chair was an overcoat in one
of whose pockets they found two
portraits. One was of Carolina and
the other… precisely of the man
who had come in a few minutes
earlier… The suspect has not yet been
captured by our police, as it usually
happens nowadays.
The newspaper does not say it in
so many words and only hints at it,
but for a whole decade a well known
brothel had operated at 35 Corrientes
Street. This, and the fact that Carolina
had worked there, must have led it
to publish the wrong address, since
the rest of the newspapers and the
police themselves gave the address
of the murder house correctly as 36
Corrientes Street.(3)
The man euphemistically described
as Carolina's lover was in fact her
procurer, Baptiste Castagnet, who had
met her in the ship that brought her
from Marseilles in 1874. He had met
Szemeredy at a card game during one
of his frequent trips to Montevideo.
When Szemeredy arrived in Buenos
Aires Castagnet offered him his
mercenary friendship and the services
of his ward.
We find more information in police
reports. The officer in charge of the
investigation stated:
At about 10:30 in the evening of
the 25th inst. I was informed that
a woman had been murdered at 36
Corrientes Street. I went there at
once and found in the front room
of the above-mentioned house the
body of the woman Carolina Metz,
as Bautista Castañet [sic] told me
she was called… I inspected said
room, noticing a large amount of
blood on the bed, the bedclothes in
disarray and a black-handled sheathknife
covered with blood lying on
them. On an armchair were Carolina's
clothes and on top of them lay a
grey overcoat, a waistcoat of the
same colour and a watch and chain
apparently of gold and, attached to
this chain, two rings, one with a
white stone and the other with a
green stone, an umbrella with a steel
handle and a black beaver hat… in the
inside pocket of the overcoat I found
the sheath of the knife that lay on
the bed, two portraits, a bloodstained
white handkerchief embroidered with
the initials AS and a key.
The perpetrator of this murder
is Alejo Szemeredy, a Hungarian
or Austrian, 35 years of age, tall,
corpulent, olive-skinned, straight
black hair, wears a thick moustache
and goatee joined together, speaks
good Spanish and claims to be a
medical doctor… This man is known
in this police station because on the
16th Inst. he came to complain that
he had been robbed at the "Hotel
de Provence" of valuables worth
approximately ten thousand pesos -
among which were the two rings now
found attached to the watch-chain he
left behind when fleeing Carolina's
room.
…It became known yesterday that
Szemeredy was staying at the Hotel
de Roma, room 72, and the manager
Luis Soler stated that on the evening
of Carolina's murder he arrived some
time after 10:30 and said to him:
They just stole my hat and the clothes
I was wearing I'm moving out another
one to report to the police but I need
to force the door because the key was
left in my overcoat. Believing this
statement to be true, he made him
enter through a door communicating
with his room, where he picked up a
poncho and a soft black hat, put them
on and left again in a hurry.
It is now known that the watch and
chain that Szemeredy left behind in
his escape belong to Lt. Col. Domingo
Jerez, who resides at the Hotel de
Roma, and from whom these items
were stolen a few days ago together
with some cash.
Until now it is not known what was
Szemeredy's motive for this murder…
Carolina was buried by her beloved
Castañet. Carolina Metz was Alsatian,
20-years old, single. She arrived in
Buenos Aires on 13 October 1874
and worked first at the brothel at
35 Corrientes Street, from where
she moved to No. 509 in the same
street, which she left to live with
Bautista Castañet with whom she had
had relations since her journey from
Marseilles. This woman's family lives
in Strasbourg and she had a brother
in Digon. (4)
In the aftermath of this brutal
murder, particularly when the suspect
returned in 1877, the newspapers
published numerous items about him
and continued to do so until a few
years after the end of his trial in
1881.
But let's see who was Alois
Szemeredy - for that was his real
name - what were the reasons for his
journey and what were his adventures
since his arrival in Argentina.
Szemeredy was born in Pest - one
of the two cities on either side of the
Danube which were later merged into
Budapest, capital of Hungary - on 7
July 1840. At an early age he enlisted
in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He
served with the Auxiliary Hungarian
Legion in Ancona, a city situated
north-east of Rome on the Adriatic
coast. His conduct was irreproachable
and he earned a promotion to corporal
and given a good behaviour certificate
which showed his trade as tanner. He
later obtained another good behaviour
certificate where he was said to be a
butcher and a third one in Turin. On
29 June 1863, however, he deserted.
Not for the last time, he vanished
from sight.
Two years later, in October 1865,
Szemeredy presented himself at the
Argentine Consulate in Genoa where
he signed up for a four-year term to
fight in the War of the Triple Alliance.
On 17 March 1866 he was inducted
into the Argentine Army and assigned
to the Artillery Regiment. In May
of the same year he was declared
insane and interned in the Hospicio
de las Mercedes - an asylum. On 17
September he escaped.
The following year we find him in
Buenos Aires, working in a barber shop
in Victoria Street, near the Congress
building - the Argentine Parliament.
Some time later, having gained the
trust of his employer, he stole tools,
money and a horse and escaped to
Mercedes. From there he wrote a
letter expressing his regret for his
conduct to his employer, who forgave
him. Back in Buenos Aires, he told his
employer that he wanted to return to
Europe and, through the good offices
of an acquaintance, obtained a free
passage. Two days before his ship was
scheduled to weigh anchor, however,
he stole the jewels of the captain's
wife and disappeared. Shortly
afterwards he was recognised by the
owner of the horse he had ridden to
Mercedes and wound up spending six
months in jail. Free again, he worked
at a barber shop in May Street and
then at another one in the town of
Saladillo. He did not last long on this
job. He soon managed to trick and rob
the owner of a jewellery shop.
At the beginning of the 70s
Szemeredy arrived in Villa Mercedes,
San Luis Province. The military chief
of the Cuyo border zone was at that
time General Arredondo. There was
neither hairdresser nor barber in the
whole region and the general went
though the torments of hell every
time he was shaven by a heavy-handed
private. The newcomer suggested to
the general that he authorise him
to open a barbershop. The general
advanced the necessary capital and
used his influence with one of his
relatives to obtain for Szemeredy the
required licence.
Szemeredy cut hair with
considerable skill and shaved with
recognised ability. Soon the whole
population entrusted themselves to his
art. In this way he met a compatriot
of his who owned a photographer's
shop. The photographer was planning
to get married and made the mistake
of confiding to his new friend that he
had saved 1,000 pesos fuertes to pay
for the wedding. On an evening when
they had gone out together for a few
beers, Szemeredy took advantage of
the first occasion to absent himself
for a while in order to steal the small
fortune that his friend had hidden
in a trunk. Immediately afterwards
he returned to the bar to continue
drinking. But when the photographer
went home he realised he had been
robbed and raised the alarm.
The police formed a search party
including two trackers who soon found
the trail of the person who had carried
away the trunk - not very far away,
in fact. Szemeredy, who with great
impudence had joined the search
party, was immediately arrested. They
sent him to the Provincial capital,
San Luis, but on 19 April 1871 he
was released for lack of evidence.
The missing money was never found.
Szemeredy worked in San Luis for a
while. Later, he was seen in the guise
of a gentleman at official balls in
neighbouring Mendoza Province.
At the beginning of 1873 Szemeredy
arrived destitute in Victoria, Entre
Ríos Province, where he entered into
a partnership with a barber, Jayme
Bojorje. When, a few months later,
Bojorje left for Uruguay, Szemeredy
became sole owner of the shop. In
August of the same year, he was
arrested for attempted murder on
the person of an Italian named Guido
Benonati. As soon as he recovered
his freedom, he joined the army
of General Ricardo López Jordán,
then leading an uprising against the
National Government of Argentina.(5)
Although he described himself as a
medical doctor, Szemeredy was little
more than a sawbones.
On 8 December Szemeredy was
captured during the battle of Talita.
At the beginning of 1874, as he was
being taken to the military prison
at Martin García Island on board the
warship Pampa, he made his escape
by throwing himself into the River
Plate near the Uruguayan coast.
Travelling through Uruguay he arrived
in Mercedes, where he met Bojorje
again. They discussed the opening
of another barber shop but, when
their plans did not prosper, Szemeredy
continued his journey to Salto, where
he stole some jewels and money.
On 28 May 1874 Szemeredy
obtained a passage for Europe from
the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in
Buenos Aires, but jumped ship in
Rio de Janeiro. He presented himself
at the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in
that city and claimed he had been
robbed - but was not believed. He
left for Bahia, north of Rio, where
in October he went to his Consulate
passing himself off as the owner of
great tracts of land in Entre Ríos.
Once again he claimed to have been
robbed, this time by a woman and
two men who spoke Polish. Although
he was wounded in the left arm,
the examining physician, Dr Wissman,
suspected that Szemeredy himself
had inflicted this wound to inspire
sympathy and obtain compensation
for the valuables and money allegedly
stolen from him.
While the police and the Austro-
Hungarian authorities questioned the
800 Polish settlers in the area without
finding the alleged thieves, efforts were
being made to succour Szemeredy. But
then it became known that in August
one Alejo Szemeredy had kidnapped
a young woman at Colonia de San
Francisco, Santa Catalina Province,
to sell her into prostitution in Río.
Despite this news and in order to be
rid of the scoundrel, the Consulate
gave him passage to Buenos Aires,
where he claimed to own property.
He left Bahia in October on board the
German steamer Montevideo, but was
taken ashore during the journey on
suspicion of having stolen watches
and jewels.
(6) It seems that upon his
return he had the gall to write a letter
under the name of Carlos Pinto to the
Brazilian Consulate complaining for
the treatment given to Szemeredy
- that is to say, to himself.
In January of 1875 we find him
in Junín practising medicine. His
visiting card gave his name as Dr Elois
Szemeredy. He would also be known
as Luis, Enrique and Alejo Szemeredy,
Julio Somegyi, Carlos Pinto and Carlos
Temperley. As usual, he remained
only a few days in the same place and
escaped with a surgery kit belonging
to one Dr Caballero and money stolen
from a tradesman from Bragado. He
continued his criminal journey through
Rojas, Pergamino, San Nicolás and
Rosario. According to police reports,
he left for Milan in May 1875. In July
he reported to the Austro-Hungarian
Army, from which he had deserted
12 years earlier. Soon afterwards he
deserted again and fled to South
America.
Back in Argentina, he travelled
round the south of Buenos Aires
Province, Chascomús and the Tuyú
- where he embezzled a Justice of the
Peace. He next crossed into Uruguay
where he continued his escapades
until mid-year. In Montevideo he met
Baptiste Castagnet, whom he would
see again in Buenos Aires a few weeks
later. Upon arrival in Buenos Aires he
lodged at the Hotel de Provence. He
soon left in a trip to return a few days
later. On 18 July 1876 he left the hotel
claiming that some valuables left in
his room had been stolen; a stratagem
to which he resorted often to avoid
paying his hotel bills. On 22 July, he
moved into the Hotel Rome, where he
resided until his precipitate escape
following the murder of Carolina
Metz.(7)
What have we got here?
This narrative, which has taken us
through some of the places where
Szemeredy was up to his usual tricks,
reveals some of his characteristics.
Though some events are difficult to
prove and others were magnified by
the press, we still can get an idea
of his personality. A contemporary
newspaper reported that when he was
arrested in Brazil they found in his
luggage a sharp sheath-knife, a bottle
containing 18 grams of chloroform,
a small box containing 14 grams of
opium in powder form, false beards
and moustaches and several artificial
jewels.(8) The records of the First
Police Station at Buenos Aires show
that on 15 July Szemeredi [sic], a
resident at the Hotel Provence, room
No. 22, came to denounce the theft
of: A belt containing 21 ounces of
gold, two rings of the same metal
and a silver watch with a silk chain.9
These were the rings that, ten days
later, he would claim to have found
in Carolina's room and on account
of which he allegedly had a heated
argument with Castagnet, whom he
accused of being her real murderer.
The prosecutor, Dr Pondal, spent
several years preparing the case
against Szemeredy, mainly because
he needed to show a motive for
the murder. According to a report
published in the newspaper La Pampa
on 27 May 1879, he asked for the death
penalty. La Pampa further reported
on 3 November 1880 that Judge
Insiarte had sentenced Szemeredy to
imprisonment for an undetermined
period, the most severe penalty
after death. In the meantime, and
to render the case even odder, the
Austro-Hungarian Minister handed a
note to the Argentine Foreign Ministry
stating that the Hungarian Courts had
advised him that Alejo Szemeredy had
inherited a substantial sum from a
close relative.(10)
In 1881 Szemeredy's case was still
rousing. Let's see what the press had
to say on the day he appeared before
the Appeals Court, which in those
years functioned at the Cabildo, the
old town-hall building.
By two in the afternoon over 500
people had gathered attracted by the
celebrity of the individual and the
notoriety of the case. Thus yesterday
Szemeredy, the hero of the day, was
the subject of all the talk of the
people gathered at the Cabildo… (11)
Long before the time set for the
beginning of the hearing, a large
crowd filled the galleries adjoining
the courtroom… another equally thick
crowd waited along the stairs and
galleries of the ground floor waiting
for the defendant to go by so they
could examine him closely.
Szemeredy, who looked about 40
years of age, was dressed all in
black, his clothes threadbare but
clean, and behaved like a man in
full and assured possession of all
his senses. With his left hand he
smoothed down from time to time his
long black goatee flecked with a few
grey hairs, while with his right hand
he performed the same operation
on his hair, letting his hand descend
immediately afterwards along his
face to his mouth, as if he wanted to
erase from it any expression that was
either forced or contrary to his idea
of the attitude he must assume in
such solemn circumstances.(12)
Dámaso Centeno, appearing for
the defence, took only two days
to demonstrate to the Court that
the prosecution's case was seriously
flawed. He laid the blame for the
murder on Castagnet, who by then
was back in Europe, and pointed up
the contradictions of the policemen
who had investigated the affair. Since
he could not describe the defendant as
an honest man, Centeno concentrated
on showing that there was insufficient
evidence to convict him of murder.
He made his point so well that,
to everybody's surprise, Szemeredy
was acquitted on 12 September 1881.
Oddly enough, he was sentenced to
two and a half years' imprisonment
for the theft of the watch belonging to
Commandant Domingo Jerez. Bearing
in mind the years the defendant had
already spent in prison, his sentence
was considered as served and he was
set free.(13)
Jack the Ripper
A psychopath, extreme violence,
sex, intrigue and the chance to outwit
all institutions: these, the basic
ingredients of top grossing thrillers,
explain clearly why Jack the Ripper's
story continues to stimulate the
imagination and lives on in popular
fantasy, as easy to recreate as the fog
that in our imagination enshrouded
London in the nights of 1888.
In the early hours of 8 August of
that year, the body of Martha Tabram,
an ageing prostitute, was found dead
in George Yard, off Whitechapel High
Street. She had been stabbed 39 times.
Because of the high incidence of crime
in the area, whose inhabitants were
working class and, in many instances,
immigrants, and because the body
was found near a pub, the crime was
only cursorily investigated.
Three weeks later, in the early
morning of 31 August, Mary Ann
Nichols died almost instantly when
a mysterious killer sliced with great
accuracy her trachea, oesophagus and
spine and laid open her abdomen,
exposing her internal organs and
viscera. A week later, the body of
Annie Chapman was found with the
same type of mutilations sustained by
the previous victim.
All three victims were poor,
alcoholic prostitutes from the slums
of London.
Numerous arrests were made. The
few, unreliable witnesses who came
forward mentioned a well dressed
man of about 40 years of age who
spoke with a foreign accent. Towards
the end of September, the murderer
manifested himself through a letter
and a post-card addressed to a news
agency. In these letters, written in
red ink and signed Jack the Ripper, he
spoke of his hatred for streetwalkers
and announced future crimes. In the
hope that someone would recognise
the handwriting and identify the
criminal, the police made thousands
of copies of the letters and posted
them throughout the city. What they
achieved instead, besides publicising
the murderer, was to spread panic
and, in a way, help to popularise the
pseudonym of the best known serial
killer in history.
On 29 September, perhaps
encouraged by this tacit recognition,
the killer chose with just a few
minutes' interval two new emissaries
of his cruelty: Elizabeth Stride and
Catherine Eddowes. He only slit the
throat of the first one, but had more
time to mutilate the second one
in his usual way. A few days later
George Lusk, president of the Mile
End Vigilance Committee, received a
package containing half the kidney of
one of the victims and a note in which
the Ripper claimed to have fried and
eaten the other half.
To close his atrocious list, the
mysterious Ripper introduced some
new elements in the person of Mary
Jane Kelly. This time the victim was
young and lovely and, unlike the
others, was not attacked in the street
but in the room at 13 Miller's Court
where she received her clients. With
the same impunity as before, and
enjoying the shelter of the grimy,
clammy walls, the morbid criminal
took his time to tear apart with
surgical precision the inert body of
the young woman. He dismembered
her anatomy, separated viscera from
organs, scattered about the room
unrecognisable fragments of her
breasts and mutilated her face by
cutting off her nose and ears. The
police surgeons took over a day to
search for missing parts and put
together again all the pieces of that
macabre jigsaw puzzle.
And then the killer vanished, as
furtively as he had come. All clues
and suspects were investigated or
followed up: from an East End Jewish
cobbler to the policemen on the beat;
from lawyers and businessmen to
Queen Victoria's own grandson. Yet
no one was ever condemned for the
murders or even formally accused of
them. The mystery of Jack the Ripper
followed him into his accursed grave
and today, when not even the dust of
his bones remains, still endures.
In the Suspects' List
After his release from prison in
1881, Szemeredy remained for a short
time in Argentina before returning
definitively to Europe. On 30 March
1882 he was arrested for desertion
and confined in a military prison.
In 1885 was declared insane and
interned first in a military asylum and
then in a state asylum near Pest. He
was subsequently released into the
custody of his family and disappeared
again for several years, although it
is known that he made his living as a
sausage salesman for a while. In 1886,
Dr Gotthelf-Meyer, a specialist on
South American law, interviewed him
in Budapest. Szemeredy showed up at
their meeting carrying a huge stack
of newspaper cuttings on his trial.
He had tried to sell his memoirs to
the Hungarian newspaper Egystertes,
which had eventually rejected them,
among other reasons, because they
were written in the 'Magyar Dialect'.(14)
Szemeredy told Dr Gotthelf-Meyer on
that occasion that he was considering
going to America or joining the
Carlistas in Spain.(15 ) Nothing is known
of his whereabouts during the next
few years. He reportedly spent
sometime in Vienna during August
1889 where he registered his address
when he arrived.(16) In March, 1890, he
made the acquaintance of a widow,
Julianne Karlovicz. They afterwards
lived together in Budapest, where
he worked as an assistant in her pork
butcher shop.(17)
Researchers Adam Wood and
Eduardo Zinna have tried to ascertain
the whereabouts of the slippery
Hungarian during the period of the
Whitechapel crimes.(18) Zinna has a pet
theory, based on the similarity of their
names and origins, that Szemeredy may
have been in London in 1888 posing as
Alonzo Maduro, a businessman from
Argentina who spoke English with
only a slight Spanish accent, allegedly
because he had lived in the United
States for a long time.(19)
As he tried to place shares of
a railway company through
Gresham House, a City Brokerage
firm, Szemeredy/Maduro met and
befriended a young clerk, Griffith S
Salway. During his sojourn in London,
Szemeredy lived at a hotel east of
Finsbury Pavement, ten minutes from
Whitechapel. One evening, Salway
was strolling along Old Broad Street
when he unexpectedly came across
Szemeredy, dressed in an old hat and
suit, slouching slowly along with bowed
head and drooping shoulders. The two
walked together through Spitalfields
and Whitechapel, arriving back at
Szemeredy's hotel at 10:30pm. The
following morning the papers carried
details of the first Whitechapel crime:
the murder of Martha Tabram. When
Szemeredy, arriving at the office two
hours later than usual, was shown a
copy of the Star, he flew into a rage.
Salway later heard him say that all
prostitutes should be killed and on
one occasion found surgical knives in
the false bottom of a trunk belonging
to Szemeredy. Soon afterwards the
alleged Argentine left London and the
murders ended.
(20)
During February 1892, Szemeredy
was responsible for several robberies
or attempted robberies in jewellery
shops in Vienna, normally involving
violence and, in one case, resulting
in the death of a shop owner, Andreas
Schütz. He also robbed a watchmaker's
shop in Vienna on 4 June, leaving its
owner, Marie Sotolar, with a badly
fractured skull. On 16 September he
robbed yet another jewellery shop in
Vienna, hitting an employee on the
head with a blunt instrument and
leaving him lying in a pool of blood.
But then his luck ran out.
On 26 September, Szemeredy was
arrested in Pressburg, today Bratislava,
capital of Slovakia, at a jewellery
shop whose owner recognised him as
the man who had sold him a stolen
watch and chain. He was taken to
the police station. Showing the same
nervous disturbance as in previous
confinements, he decided not to wait
for his trial this time. He took a sharp
razor out of his pocket, cut his throat
from ear to ear and expired within a
matter of minutes. His death would
have gone unnoticed and been little
more than another statistic, had police
reports not leaked that Szemeredy
and the Ripper were one and the
same. Newspapers throughout the
world spread the news, but Scotland
Yard never accepted the evidence as
conclusive.(21)
For many years, every time a
notorious murder was committed in
Argentina, the newspapers recalled
the sojourn of the Ripper in this
country and recounted the story for
the benefit of new readers. In 1898,
La Nación mentioned him under his
full name and title of Count Luis
Alejo Torsianj Szemeredy in an article
comparing his crimes to a gory murder
committed in Rosario:
Szemeredy, who was suspected of
being Jack and the murderer and thief
of Vienna, in Buenos Aires murdered
Carolina Metz… spent almost five
years in prison only to be absolved
without a stain in his character,
though this did not quash the belief
that he was Jack the Ripper, then
far from London he reappeared in
Vienna, committed the same type of
crimes and, mixed up in a robbery in
a jewellery shop was arrested… since
then nothing has been heard from
Jack the Ripper. (22)
The mystery surrounding all these
events is still unsolved. From time to
time, newly discovered information
fuels discussions on old and new
suspects. This is a true story that time
has turned into a popular legend and
an open-ended narrative.
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank the staff
of the Centro de Estudios Históricos
Policiales for their kind assistance
with my research.
Sources
Begg, Paul: Jack the Ripper: The Facts;
Begg, Paul, Martin Fido and Keith Skinner:
Jack the Ripper: A to Z; Jakubowski,
Maxim and Nathan Brand: The Mammoth
Book of Jack the Ripper; McCormick,
Donald: The Identity of Jack the Ripper;
Morley, Christopher J: Jack the Ripper:
A Suspect Guide; Muusmann, Carl: Who
Was Jack the Ripper?; Ripperologist;
True Detective; La Libertad, La Nación,
La Pampa, La Tribuna Nacional; Olean
Democrat, New Oxford Item, Port Philip
Herald; Wiener Zeitung Abendblatt.
Notes
1 The War of the Triple Alliance (1864-
1870) was fought between Paraguay
on the one side and an alliance of
Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay on the
other. Paraguay's dictator and military
leader, General Francisco Solano
López, was killed on 1 March 1870
in the last action of the war together
with his eldest son, a Colonel in the
Paraguayan Army. By this time Paraguay
was devastated and a considerable
part of its male population had died.
(Translator's Note).
2 La Pampa, 9 August 1877, Page 2.
3 La Libertad, 26 July 1876 and La
Pampa, 27 July 1876.
4 Comisaría 1º Libro Copiador de Notas
Nº 25, (First Police Station, Records
Book No. 25), Page 404. Text
underlined in the original.
5 Ricardo Lopez Jordán (1822-1889) was
an Argentine soldier and political
leader who was active in his country's
civil wars from 1841 until 1879. On
11 April 1870, his followers
assassinated the Governor of the
Province of Entre Ríos, General Justo
José de Urquiza, and López Jordán
took his place. The National
Government sent a 16,000-strong
army against his 12,000 troops. After
several months of armed struggle,
López Jordán was defeated and
sought exile first in Uruguay and then
in Brazil. On 1st May 1873 he invaded
Entre Ríos with an 18,000-strong army.
He fought the National Army in
numerous encounters, including
the battle of the Talita Stream where
Szemeredy was captured. In January
1874, Lopez Jordán crossed into
Uruguay in defeat. His third and last
rebellion lasted from November 1876
until his capture on 10 December.
On 11 August 1879 he broke out from
jail and sought refuge again in
Uruguay. In December 1888 he took
advantage of an amnesty to return
to Argentina. On 22 June 1889, shortly
before noon, an assassin came up
to him in Esmeralda Street, Buenos
Aires, and shot him twice in the head
(Translator's Note).
6 La Pampa, 27 July 1877, Page 2.
7 La Libertad, 10 August 1877 From the
Inquiry addressed by the Chief of
Police to the Judge.
8 La Pampa, 28 August 1877, Page 2
9 Comisaría 1º Libro Copiador de Notas
Nº 25, (First Police Station, Records
Book No. 25) Page 376
10 La Nación, 25 August 1880, Page 1
11 La Pampa, 28 August 1881, Page 1.
12 La Nación, 28 August 1881, Page 1.
13 La Tribuna Nacional,14 September
1881 Page 2.
14 See Muusmann, Carl, Hvem Var Jack
the Ripper? (Who Was Jack the
Ripper?). The newspaper was
identified in the Port Philip Herald,
(Australia), 9 November 1892.
15 The Carlistas emerged at the time of
the death of King Fernando VII
of Spain. They argued that the King's
daughter, Isabel, could not succeed
to the throne because the Salic Law,
abolished by the King shortly before
his death, was still valid in Spain.
They crowned the King's younger
brother as Carlos V (reigned 1833-
1855) while his niece became Queen
Isabel II. The two factions fought
the First Carlist War (1833-1840),
which was followed by two more
(1846-1849 and 1872-1876). Carlos's
heirs (Carlos VI, 1855-1861, Juan
III, 1861-1868, Carlos VII, 1868-1909,
and others) have continued to claim
the Spanish throne. (Translator's
Note)
16 See Morley, Christopher J: Jack the
Ripper: A Suspect Guide.
17 See the Port Philip Herald, 9
November 1892, and the Wiener
Zeitung Abendblatt, 28 September
1892.
18 See Wood, Adam From Buenos Aires
to Brick Lane: Were Alois Szemeredy
and Alonzo Maduro the Same Man?,
Ripperologist No. 25, October 1999;
and Zinna, Eduardo, The Search for
Jack el Destripador, Ripperologist
No. 33, February 2001.
19 'Believe it or not, [the two names]
sound alike: A-LON-soh-mah-DOOro,
A-LOI-seh-meh-REH-dee. The "z"
of Alonzo would actually be
pronounced as an "s" in South
American Spanish; the same applies
to the Hungarian combination "sz".
Moreover, Alois is a common Austrian/
Hungarian name and Szemeredy a
very common Hungarian surname.
Alonzo is a surname in Spanish and
not a first name; it is a given name
in America, though. Maduro could be
a surname. It means "mature" or
"ripe". An English person with little
knowledge of either language who
heard the name Alois Szemeredy,
and knew the person came from
South America, might well interpret
the name as Spanish. Alonzo Maduro
would then be a possibility.' Zinna,
Eduardo, Private correspondence to
Adam Wood, (26 April 1999), cited in
Wood, Adam, loc. cit. Maxim
Jakubowski and Nathan Braund
reached a similar conclusion in the
Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper,
though they spelled Szemeredy's first
name as 'Alios'. Adam Wood, however,
concluded that Szemeredy and Maduro
could not have been the same man.
20 Salway kept his knowledge of the
Ripper's identity to himself for many
years. In 1949, he told his story to True
Detective's Editor, John Shuttleworth,
who published it in the May issue of
the magazine. See Wood, Adam, loc.
cit.
21 Among these newspapers were
the Olean Democrat, New York, USA,
27 September 1892, La Nación,
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 30 September
1892, the New Oxford Item,
Pennsylvania, USA, 7 October 1892,
and the Port Philip Herald, Australia,
9 November 1892.
22 La Nación, 21 October 1898, Page 5.
