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Howard Brown
Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 494
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 7:28 pm: | 
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In True Face, Melvin Harris,who overlooked or may not have been aware of the death of Edward Gurney at the Albion Hotel preceding RDS departure because of the time that this death occurred, states on page 109...
We can now show how he [RDS] engineered a safe bolt-hole for himself right in the heart of Whitechapel..
The problem is, is that he doesn't. Unless,of course,he is referring to the London Hospital being the bolt-hole,albeit a rather large one.
During the time between June 25th [ a rough guess as to the exact date of the inquest of Gurney ] and July 26th,the date RDS signed in as a patient for 19 weeks with his horrifying and debiliatating "neurasthenia" [ sarcasm intended..]
a couple of things come to mind here....
1. If RDS had anything to do with this murder,and a good point for considering it possible is Jeff Bloomfields article....he sure wasn't worried about it too much. Thats almost a month still in residence at the Albion, after this death. SCENARIO NUMBER ONE
2. Even if he did or didn't, the money question comes into play again. Could he have been waiting for the necessary money to book into a private bed at the Hospital?
Which leads me to ask this....Has anyone got an idea as to how much a private bed cost at the London Hospital in the Summer Of 88 and one for a period of 19 weeks ???
Of course, RDS may have left immediately after the death of Mr. Gurney...a couple of days...a week...maybe two weeks...SCENARIO NUMBER TWO
So....this is a period of importance June 25-July26 that maybe some of you have an idea or two about.
Thanks....
HowBrown
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2070
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 7:40 pm: |
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How
Your guess at the date of the death seems to be spot on. This is from the Times of June 26 1888:
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Howard Brown
Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 496
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 7:45 pm: |
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Thanks Chris !
I was aware of this kindly placed article, but the question I had for Jeff was in regard to the date of the inquest,which I am certain that I asked him about around a year ago...I am sure it was the 25th of June and not July as Jeff's publisher or he himself [that dummy !] wrote down.
Thanks again,amigo
(Message edited by howard on June 03, 2005)
HowBrown
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2071
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 12:33 am: |
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Here is a pic of Gurney for any who haven't seen it:
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2072
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 12:37 am: |
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There is a biography entitled The Mind of Edmund Gurney by Gordon Epperson. This can be seen on Amazon at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0838637205/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/103-5074152-8948658?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2073
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 5:27 am: |
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Here is the Cambridge Alumni listing for Gurney. Interesting to see that he was educated at Blackheath. The date of death is given here as June 23rd, 1888
Name: Edmund. Gurney
College: TRINITY
Entered: Michs. 1866
Born: Mar. 23, 1847
Died: June 23, 1888
Adm. pens. at TRINITY, Nov. 12, 1864. [3rd] s. of the Rev. John Hampden (1819), of St Mary's, Bryanston Square, London. B. [Mar. 23, 1847], at Hersham, near Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. School, Blackheath (private). Matric. Michs. 1866; Scholar, 1868; Porson prize, 1870; B.A. (4th Classic) 1871; M.A. 1874. Fellow, 1872. Philosophical writer. Travelled on the Continent, 1871-2. Studied music, 1872-5, and medicine at Cambridge and at St George's Hospital, 1877-81. Adm. at Lincoln's Inn, 1881 and read with a special pleader; afterwards with a conveyancer. One of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research, 1882; wrote numerous articles on thought transference and hypnotism in the Society's Proceedings and Journal. Author, The Power of Sound, a standard work on the philosophy of music (?without a rival in its class; of melody no one else has written with the same penetration?); Tertium Quid, fruit of his medical experiences; Phantasms of the Living (with F. W. H. Myers and F. Podmore), etc. Died June 23, 1888, at the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton, from an overdose of a narcotic. Brother of John H. (1869). (Hist. Reg., 632; J. W. Kirby; Boase, I. 1260; D.N.B.; The Guardian, July 4, 1888.)
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Howard Brown
Chief Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 600
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 10:50 pm: |
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Thanks for these Gurney related posts,Chris.
Three schools of thought exist regarding the death of Gurney.
1. The belief by Trevor Hall that it was suicide in The strange case of Edmund Gurney ...
2. The belief that it was death my misadventure, from Gordon Eppeson's, The Mind of Edmund Gurney
3. and the third,is that this manner in which he died,found with a sponge soaked in chloroform on his face...is very,very unusual. In most circumstances, a person will not acquiesce when their breathing is hampered such as this man's had to have been.
It is a very unique way of suicide to say the least.
HowBrown
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