|
 |
 |
|
|
|
| Author |
Message |
    
Stephen P. Ryder
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 2:27 pm: |       |
A new article by Quentin L. Pittman, entitled "The Importance of Fairy Fay, and Her Link to Emma Smith" is now available on the Casebook under "Dissertations." It can be reached directly at:
http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/importance-fairy.html |
Jim DiPalma
Police Constable
Username: Jimd
Post Number: 1
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 20, 2003 - 2:41 pm: | |
Hi All,
Interesting dissertation. While I don't agree with many of the author's conclusions, and lean towards the traditional view that Emma Smith was killed by a street
gang, it does point out the broad range of interpretation that is possible in a case with so few hard facts.
Cheers,
Jim  |
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 457
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, September 07, 2003 - 4:55 pm: | |
I read this in the casebook entry on Fairy Fay:
The first source was Terence Robertson, who wrote in the October 29, 1950 edition of Reynolds News that "Fairy Fay" was the name given to a woman who was killed while taking a short cut home from a Mitre Square pub. Inspector Reid was supposed to have headed the enquiry for a few weeks until finally frustration set in and, after no information was found, told Scotland Yard he was closing the case.
The second source having quoted "Fairy Fay" was Tom Cullen, who wrote in his Autumn of Terror the same story as did Robertson, including the important fact that she was, in fact, mutilated.
But that is where the sources end. Scotland Yard has no records of Reid's investigations. No newspapers have been found with any mention of a " Fairy Fay" dying on Boxing Night, 1887, or any other night for that matter
This suggests that the first mention of a murder taking place at Christmas 1887 surfaced in 1950.
I have today found a Spanish language article which dates the first murder to Christmas Eve 1887 and this was published on 24 February 1891 and mainly concerns itself with the Coles murder. I am assuming that the witness mentioned is Jumbo Friday but would welcome comments. the comment about the murder at Christmas 1887 is in the last paragraph.
El Universal (Mexico)
24 February 1891
Translation
JACK THE RIPPER
The London Murder
I have here some further details of the murder committed in the Whitechapel district some days ago and of which we have already spoken.
The general appearance of the murdered woman, who seemed to be about twenty five years of age, indicated that she belonged to the class of abandoned women who frequent this district of London. Her hair was in complete disarray.
The police believe that this woman was wounded while talking with her killer and that the Ripper did not have enough time to inflict the mutilations which have until now characterized his savage crimes because he may have heard, it is supposed, the sound of footsteps.
It is said that when then body arrived at the Whitechapel mortuary the blood was still warm. As soon as the body was removed, the police wiped away the blood stains to see if in this way they could contain the morbid curiosity which had instantly drawn people there. A wooden cross was made, no doubt in the nearby carpenter's works, to put up at the place where the crime had been committed, and the crowd increased.
There was a driver who stated that when he passed through Swallow Gardens that morning a short time before the murder, he saw the victim next to the arches talking with a man who had the appearance of a foreign sailor, which has caused the police to check ships anchored in the Thames.
Eight women have been murdered in this way since Christmas Eve 1887 in the East End of London of whom seven were killed in 1888. The last died on 17 July 1889, and they all belonged to the wretched class which frequents the district of Whitechapel.
|
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 458
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, September 07, 2003 - 4:58 pm: | |
Here is the actual article mentioned above for any of you Spanish speakers:-)
 |
Alexander Chisholm
Sergeant
Username: Alex
Post Number: 31
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, September 07, 2003 - 8:38 pm: | |
Hi Chris
I think the point being made in the Casebook entry on Fairy Fay is that the phantom Christmas victim was not given this name until 1950. Newspapers were reporting a Christmas murder in connection with the Whitechapel crimes as early as September 1888.
Daily Telegraph 10 Sept. 1888 reported:
“The first murder at Christmas passed without much notice, and no evidence of identification was adduced at the inquest. A wholly satisfactory explanation of the cause of death was not forthcoming, but in some respects the nature of the injuries sustained had a resemblance to those which were inflicted upon the three other women who have since succumbed to violence of a most revolting character.”
Best wishes
alex
|
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 460
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 08, 2003 - 8:41 am: | |
Hi Alex
Very good point and thanks for the info
Regards
Chris |
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 461
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 08, 2003 - 8:45 am: | |
Out of interest on the subject of the name "Fairy Fay", the chorus of the well known song Polly Wolly Doodle All the Day runs as follows:
Fare thee well, Fare thee well,
Fare thee well my fairy fay
For I'm going to Lou'siana For to see my Susyanna
Sing Polly wolly doodle all the day
The author of the song is unknown and I have not yet been able to trace when the song is first mentioned - i.e. whether it is prior to the murder and may explain the nickname i.e. perhaps the real name of the victim was Susannah!
Regards
Chris
|
Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 462
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 08, 2003 - 8:53 am: | |
Re the above, I have also found reference to an 1885 poem called "Death and the Fairy Fay". This was written by a poet called John Preston Campbell and was included in his book Poetical Works published in 1885.
Info can be seen at:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/poetry/tocjpc.html |
Caroline Anne Morris
Inspector
Username: Caz
Post Number: 316
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 08, 2003 - 10:32 am: | |
Hi Chris,
One of my late mother's nicknames for me in the late 1950s was Fairy Fay. I always assumed she got it from Polly Wolly Doodle as I heard this sung a lot when I was little but didn't know about a ripper association until much more recently.
Love,
Caz
|
Daniel R
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, September 07, 2003 - 10:30 pm: | |
Alexander,
Where did you obtain the information from the article you are citing? Do you have a copy of the full article?
It does not appear in the casebook.
thanks,
Dan |
Alexander Chisholm
Sergeant
Username: Alex
Post Number: 32
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 08, 2003 - 8:09 pm: | |
Hi Dan
Yes, I have a copy of the full article. The extract in question can also be found on page 37 of “News from Whitechapel” by DiGrazia, Yost, & yours truly.
Interesting points on Fairy Fay and popular rhymes, Chris & Caz. Definitely worth further investigation, I think.
Best wishes
alex
|
Andrew Spallek
Detective Sergeant
Username: Aspallek
Post Number: 141
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 08, 2003 - 10:54 pm: | |
I was not able to find the author of "Polly Wolly Doodle" but I did find it listed among a listing of songs popular during "the war between the states" (the American Civil War). Since this war lasted from 1861 to 1865 it would appear that the song was indeed well known by 1888, at least in America and probably in Britain.
Andy
PS - I always thought it was a Stephen Foster composition but it's definitely not listed among his works.
|
Daniel R
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 5:52 am: | |
Alexander,
Thanks for the info. It just so happens I purchased a copy of The News from Whitechapel earlier today. In the few hours I’ve had to browse through the contents it has already become an indispensable part of my ‘Ripper’ library.
May I say this book is truly well researched and pertinent to the case at hand. The article you quoted (from pg.37) was intriguing. Though there seems to be an anomaly within the text itself.
Prior to the quote ‘The first murder at Christmas passed without much notice…’
We have the statement ‘Some officers also consider that the latest Whitechapel mystery is the fourth of a series of similar crimes…’
The article in question relates to the murder of Annie Chapman, if we are to assume the Christmas murder was that of the elusive ‘Fairy Fay’ that would by my count take the death toll to five, not four (and this excludes Millwood and Wilson).
Fairy Fay
Emma Smith
Martha Tabram
Polly Nicholls
Annie Chapman
Although the article is not altogether clear, of their count to four Fay, Nicholls, and Chapman must presumably be included.
Who would be the final victim they include?
I chose Emma Smith, though at this stage this is purely speculation. Was, as you suggest, the Christmas murdered blurred with Smith, or perhaps the altercation with Hames?
Dan. |
Alexander Chisholm
Sergeant
Username: Alex
Post Number: 33
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 9:32 pm: | |
Hi Dan
Thank you for your generous comments about NFW, and please call me alex. Alexander is rather long-winded, and although such a description probably sums me up pretty accurately, the full name’s all too formal for my liking.
I agree that this Telegraph victim count seems particularly confused, but later the same report (10 Sept.) elaborates:
“The first of the series of murders was committed so far back as last Christmas, when the body of a woman was discovered with a stick or iron instrument thrust into her body as if she had been interred under the law until recently applicable to suicides, which required a person found guilty of felo de se to be buried at the four cross-roads with a stake driven through the chest. In this case the woman was never identified, and no particular sensation was caused, the death being generally assumed to be the result of a drunken freak on the part of the nameless ruffians who swarm about Whitechapel. The second noticeable tragedy occurred on Aug. 7 last, when a woman named Martha Turner, aged thirty-five, a hawker, was discovered lying dead on the first floor landing of some model dwellings known as George-yard-buildings, Commercial-street, Spitalfields. The body when found presented a shocking appearance, being covered with stab-wounds to the number of thirty-nine, some of which appeared to have been caused by a bayonet. At the inquest reference was made to the similarity of this murder to that which had been perpetrated in the same locality at Christmas, and a verdict was returned of "Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown."
So Smith is omitted but Tabram (Turner) included along with the phantom Christmas victim, Nichols & Chapman. But it’s this report’s reference to a similar murder at Christmas being mentioned at Tabram’s inquest that I think is crucial. As far as I know no mention of a similar Christmas attack was made at Tabram’s inquest. But Lloyd’s Weekly, 8 April 1888, report on Smith’s inquest included:
“Another woman gave evidence that she had last seen Emma Smith between 12 and one on Tuesday morning, talking to a man in a black dress, wearing a white neckerchief. It was near Farrant-street, Burdett-road. She was hurrying away from the neighbourhood, as she had herself been struck in the mouth a few minutes before by some young men. She did not believe that the man talking to Smith was one of them. The quarter was a fearfully rough one. Just before Christmas last she had been injured by men under circumstances of a similar nature, and was a fortnight in the infirmary.”
As confirmed by the Venerable Evans & Connell in their “The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper”, pages 14 – 19, this Christmas attack was committed upon Margaret Hames. But it was not a fatal attack and Ms Hames appears to have been the other woman giving evidence at Smith’s inquest, where the first reference back to a similar Christmas attack was made.
So the confusion on the part of the Daily Telegraph, 10 Sept. 1888, between Smith and Tabram, and the proceedings at their respective inquests may have a lot to answer for in the establishment of the Fairy Fay myth.
Best wishes
alex
|
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1207
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, May 09, 2004 - 2:15 pm: | |
Hi all
Re: Fairy Fay - I'm attaching a list of the murders from an article I have been transcribing today. This lists the first murder as October 1887, not Christmas time, and says the first victim was a Whitechapel outcast "past middle age".
Also interesting to note that it quotes Kelly under the name of Mary Jane Lawrence and aslo says that Alice McKenzie was also known by the name of Kelly.
 |
Dan Norder
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 74
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 6:20 am: | |
Chris,
Interesting article, but bizarre. Stride mutilated? Turner stabbed 62 times? Dare I ask what this matrix was supposed to be that was supposedly missing?
Dan Norder, editor, Ripper Notes |
Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 745
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 10:58 am: | |
Hi, Chris and Dan:
This newspaper article presents a very good example of why press reports of the day cannot be relied always upon to give us accurate information on the case. That is, information from newspapers should be used with care and in conjunction with information from official and other sources.
Best regards
Chris George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3081
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 11:05 am: | |
Hi Dan -
The 'matrix' is a Victorian term for uterus... either that, or Kelly took the wrong pill from Morpheus.... ;-)
- Stpehen
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1208
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 2:23 pm: | |
Agreed Chris
The more press reports I look at the more this is true - but the list above is exceptional even for press reports for the number of errors
With most of these I think it is probably a combination of three things that give rise to these factual errors:
1) Contemporary interviews with supposed witnesses or nearby residents who dramatized or invented their own oblique involvement in the case
2) The old phenomenon of Chinese whispers whereby errors become embedded in retelling of the accounts and repetition gives them a spurious validity
3) The syndication of press reports to parts of the world where the basic facts could not be checked even if there were the will on the part of editorial staff to do so
All the best
Chris
|
Robert W. House
Detective Sergeant
Username: Robhouse
Post Number: 79
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 2:31 pm: | |
I thought the article by Mr Pittman was well written, and it makes sense to me. I admit I had never considered this angle on the Emma Smith attack before, but it does make sense in my opinion. At least it is a viable theory. The reason that this is interesting is that it presents a very clear picture of the escalation of violence one would expect to see in the series. I would be very interested to read the book cited: “Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives”. Is anyone else familiar with this book?
Rob H |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2427
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 3:23 pm: | |
Chris, wasn't there something a while ago about a drover called Lawrence asking for his letters to be taken in? You found a Mrs Lawrence living in Dorset St, I vaguely remember.
Robert |
Jason Scott Mullins
Inspector
Username: Crix0r
Post Number: 245
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 9:01 pm: | |
Bahahaha Stephen, she tool the blue pill. She wasn't the one.
crix0r
"I was born alone, I shall die alone. Embrace the emptiness, it is your end." |
John Malcolm
Police Constable
Username: Johnm
Post Number: 8
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 11:45 pm: | |
"Sexual Homicide:Patterns and Motives" (Ressler,Burgess,Douglas), although dry and technical, is one of the books I would recommend to anyone who thinks criminal profiling is just a popular gimmick; Too often those who know little or nothing of these techniques (I'm not talking about armchair profilers) choose to equate these with some sort of "voodoo forensics"; It's obviously a controversial subject, but one that I find has definitely influenced my opinions...(although my thoughts don't always mesh with the majority!)
"Serial Murderers and their Victims" by Eric W. Hickey is another book that is worth tracking down. |
brad kelley
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 2:16 pm: | |
Hi all I think Mr Pittmans artical seems to present a very plausible explanation for the beginning of the Ripper crimes, i asked the same question under the martha tabram murder thread on april 21 (see below). Though I'm new to the case I personally beleive the ripper crimes started earlier then the 5 gererally accepted victims. I also think if the ripper had never been given his signature name and was just known as the whitechapel murderer, we would not be so hung up on if he stabbed this victim but ripped this victim, we'd just see a nut on the lose killing prostitutes in the area. Just the creepy nature of the name jack the ripper gives this very real killer a very mythical persona and god/devil like qualities that lead us to beleive things like the ripper could not have committed that crime because there wasn't enough "ripping". I think many of us want the ripper to be a highly methodical almost mystical killer as opposed to my opinion, a possibly very average yet evil guy who for whatever reason liked killing and sometimes stabbed sometimes strangled sometimes ripped, and happened to get away with it because the odds are that some killers will get lucky. Thanks.
april 21 post under martha tabram murder
"Also regarding Emma Smith, i need to read up on JTR as im new to it but was she a prostitute? If so is it possible that for whatever reason she attributed the attack to a gang out of shame for her line of work? Thanks. " |
Caroline Anne Morris
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Caz
Post Number: 1060
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2004 - 5:03 am: | |
Hi Brad,
Yes, I believe Emma Smith was known to have been a prostitute.
I suppose it's possible that anyone in her position might give false details about an assault (by a customer or pimp, for example), through reluctance to admit being on the game, or fearing reprisal from her assailant(s). It would probably depend on how badly hurt the victim was, and how likely it would be that she would recover sufficiently to encounter the same man, or men, again in the future. Sadly, Emma didn't recover from her horrific ordeal.
But I do think one or more non-fatal attacks by the ripper himself could easily have gone unreported or unrecorded, for a variety of reasons, especially if they took place before the canonical five and outside the area that the ripper appeared to establish as his comfort zone in the wake of Martha Tabram's well-publicised 39 stabs.
Love,
Caz
X |
Shelley Wiltshire
Sergeant
Username: Shelley
Post Number: 17
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 12:42 pm: | |
Hello,
I read a few of the posts at the top...so can anyone tell me the true name of this victim that was mutilated, which Inspector Reid investigated? As for the name 'Fairy Fay' it looks like a fictionalised name, perhaps with a fairy on top of the tree at Christmas time, this was were the name was born.
R.Kipling: I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all i knew) Thier names are WHAT and WHY and WHEN and HOW and WHERE and WHO.
Cheers
Shelley
Criminology Student |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2759
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 12:50 pm: | |
Hi Shelley
When the "Times" was available online I searched for Fairy Fay. I think the earliest return was 1891 or 1892 - and that was for a racehorse!
Robert |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1299
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 31, 2004 - 5:56 pm: | |
Fairy Fay was almost certainly a later and pictureque name invented for a non existent supposed victim. This confusion arose from early press listings of the presumed victims of the Whitechapel killer. These lists often cite an "unknown woman" killed in December 1887 but I have seen a number of these accounts which place this 1887 killing at the corner of Osborne and Wentworth Streets, the exact location of the attack on Emma Smith. I am pretty certain we are seeing an early press confusion over the date of Smith's death and later inventiveness stepped in to provide a resonant name for this supposed "unknown woman"
Chris |
NealeC
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, August 02, 2004 - 12:19 am: | |
Chris,
You are virtually saying Fairy Fay is an 1880s English equivalent of "Jane Doe", which I assume is the feminine version of John Doe, US slang for nameless body.
By the way, does anyone know the origin of John (and/or) Jane Doe?
Regards
Neale |
SamSara
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 6:08 pm: | |
No, I'm certain that Fairy Fay did not mean Jane Doe at the time. I have just looked in my great-grandfather's Concise English Dictionary (dated 1901) and Fay means fairy. I reckon it was just a name of affection, like sweetness or something. They had to call her something. |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1468
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 9:35 am: | |
A more lengthy background to the killing (Daily News 11 November 1888) makes it much more explicit that the killing attributed to Christmas 1887 was in fact a confusion with the murder of Smith in April 1888. How and when this confusion arose remains unknown but I think we can fairly say now that Fairy fay was a myth engendered by an early confusion of dates:
It is well to trace back this recent history of crime in the East end. It began last Christmas week, when a woman was found bleeding and mangled in one of the poorest streets of Whitechapel. She was barbarously wounded, and in a manner somewhat like that which has characterised all the subsequent murders. She lived, if we are not mistaken, long enough to say that the crime was the work of several men. No trace of any criminal was found. The murder did not attract much attention at the time. Its very hideousness prevented the publication of full details, and the ordinary reader of newspapers learned little more than the fact that a woman had been killed somewhere down Whitechapel way. Unhappily such an event as that is not so uncommon as to startle London from its propriety; and although, if the whole story had been told, the public might have been stirred up to serious alarm at the condition of things in the East end, yet as the whole story was not told it was not generally supposed that any novelty in crime had been started.
|
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1469
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 9:39 am: | |
The Daily News mentioned above is out of the ordinary in one respect. Most listing I have seen which include a Christmas 1887 murder as the first killing omit the Smith murder completely. But the Dailt News article does give it a passing mention after the details above,
About Easter time another murder was committed in the same region which appeared to belong to the newly invented order of assassination.
Chris |
David O'Flaherty
Inspector
Username: Oberlin
Post Number: 494
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 22, 2004 - 10:30 am: | |
Hi, Chris
You might be interested in a post by Stewart Evans back in Nov. 2002. I'd repeated Sugden's assertion that Fairy Fay was a myth (belated apologies to Stan Russo). Like you, Stewart returned to the Smith murder as a source for the story, but Stewart thought that Fairy Fay was a woman named Margaret Hames:
As a matter of interest regarding the 'December 1887 victim', later named by journalist Terence Robertson in Reynold's News as 'Fairy Fay' (in 1950), she did exist but was not a murder victim.
One of Emma Smith's friends, who gave evidence at her inquest in April 1888, was one Margaret Hames. At the inquest Hames stated that she had been attacked in a similar fashion to Emma Smith, in the same area, in December 1887. The injuries sustained by Hames were so serious that she was admitted to the Whitechapel infirmary, with chest and facial injuries, on December 8, 1887 and was not released until until two days after Boxing Day 1887. Hence, she is undoubtedly the 'Christmas 1887 victim'.
Then in September 1888 when the series of Whitechapel murders was recognised a mysterious 'Christmas' or 'Boxing Day' victim began to appear in press reports, usually to the exclusion of Emma Smith. When writing of the murders in 1950 Robertson called this 'unknown Whitechapel victim' 'Fairy Fay', probably from the popular song that runs "Fare thee well my Fairy Fay..." which meant a wanton or abandoned woman. A reading of Robertson's piece reveals that he was not too accurate with his facts and he appeared to gild his story where it suited him.
Cheers,
Dave |
|
Use of these
message boards implies agreement and consent to our Terms of Use.
The views expressed here in no way reflect the views of the owners and
operators of Casebook: Jack the Ripper.
Our old message board content (45,000+ messages) is no longer available online, but a complete archive
is available on the Casebook At Home Edition, for 19.99 (US) plus shipping.
The "At Home" Edition works just like the real web site, but with absolutely no advertisements.
You can browse it anywhere - in the car, on the plane, on your front porch - without ever needing to hook up to
an internet connection. Click here to buy the Casebook At Home Edition.
|
|
|
|
