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Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 1962
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 4:10 pm: | 
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AP Wolf has ofcourse generously made available, on this casebook, "Jack the Myth",an inspired and exhilarating insight into the case against Thomas Hayne Cutbush.There are many threads that run through this book but much of it takes its cue from these astonishing series of five or six full page articles from the Sun Newspaper of February 1894.
It seems this young man"s mental illness raged through his entire being furnace like leaving him a demented shell of a man in Broadmoor where he died in 1903.
But that wasnt always the situation,as AP carefully and deliberately attempts to set the record straight.
Anyway I thought it time that the original reports could be accessed on the Casebook and today wrote and requested photocopies from Colindale which Chris Scott has kindly agreed to post when they arrive in about 10 days time.Hopefully they will open up a discussion
on a suspect who is often dimissed -just as Machnaghten dismissed him-without any real understanding of the baffling nature of the particular mental illness Thomas Hayne Cutbush suffered from or the mysterious similarities between the demons that haunted Supt Charles Cutbush and those that haunted the younger Cutbush......to say nothing of the predilection for giving or reciecing knife wounds below the belt.
Natalie
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4458
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 5:37 pm: |
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Thanks Natalie and Chris. These reports will be fascinating reading for sure.
Robert |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2122
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 5:37 pm: |
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I'm so happy to see you doing this, Natalie.
It has been almost fifteen years since I looked at these reports; and I quite honestly cannot remember what I read back then.
Regardless of the content, the posting of these very important documents will move us on dramatically I feel.
I for one shall enjoy reading them again and refreshing my brandy-sodden memory of those events.
Back then in the late 1980's was a long time ago, and now is now, and I'm quite convinced that when these reports are posted even I will find something to write about.
You have my thanks for this. |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 1963
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 5:51 pm: |
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Hi AP and Robert,
Just glad you agree that its time for a viewing of the original stuff.Chris was so kind too to agree to help me.Can"t wait to get the articles now!
Natalie |
Glenn G. Lauritz Andersson
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Glenna
Post Number: 3471
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 - 7:22 pm: |
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Neither can I, Natalie.
I certainly look forward to that. A great effort.
All the best
G. Andersson, author/crime historian
Sweden
The Swedes are the men That Will not be Blamed for Nothing
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Debra J. Arif
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dj
Post Number: 56
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 7:58 am: |
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Great stuff Natalie, I can't wait to see them either!
Debra |
AIP
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005 - 3:38 pm: |
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Yes, they are quite interesting, also Labouchere comes up with his own suspect a Spanish sailor. |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2061
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 3:13 am: |
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The reports from Natalie have arrived and I have started work on them. There are seven press articles:
The first five (from Feb 13 to Feb17) make up a long article entitled
THE STORY OF "JACK THE RIPPER."
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT MURDER MYSTERY.
HIS PERSONALITY, CAREER, AND FATE.
2 articles were published on Feb 19, one the interview with Labouchere and an editorial.
Here is the first part of the five piece article:
The Sun
13 February 1894
THE STORY OF "JACK THE RIPPER."
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT MURDER MYSTERY.
HIS PERSONALITY, CAREER, AND FATE.
The general impression for a long time has been that Jack the Ripper is dead. It was evident that the fiend who committed so many murders in such rapid succession - with such extraordinary daring - with such untiring ferocity - would never cease his bloody work until death or detection. Just three years have now passed away since these murders ceased to take place; and such an interruption in the series of crimes points clearly to the disappearance in some form or other of the man who was guilty of them.
But besides detection - which has not taken place - or death - there is a third solution. Such injuries could only be done by a homicidal lunatic; and a homicidal lunatic may sometimes try his hand at murder without success; inflicting, perhaps, only a wound - sometimes only causing a fright, and, caught in these comparatively minor offences and being unmistakably a lunatic, may thus be locked away, without noise, without attracting attention, without even a paragraph in the newspapers. Oftentimes a man, sentenced as a petty thief, turns out to be a long suspected and long sought for murderer. Charles Peace was first charged as a burglar; it was not till some time after he had been imprisoned that he was found to be the daring ruffian who had committed more than one murder, and for years had successfully defied all efforts to discover him.
This is, we believe, what happened in the case of Jack the Ripper. He was first brought to imprisonment on the charge of being simply a dangerous lunatic. And the evidence of his lunacy - hopeless, abysmal and loathsome - was so palpable that he was not permitted even to plead. In the brief of the counsel who prosecuted, in the instructions of the solicitor who defended, there was the same statement - that he was suspected of being Jack the Ripper. In the case of both the one and the other, the very mention of this or any other dark suspicion was precluded; for, unable to plead, the wretched creature in the dock was saved from all indictment; was spared the necessity of all defence. He was sent forthwith to the living tomb of a lunatic asylum, and there he might have passed to death without mention of his terrible secret if a chance clue had not put a representative of The Sun on the track. The clue thus accidentally obtained has been followed up by months of patient investigation, and has been thoroughly sifted. Today we lay before the world a story - consecutive, careful, and firmly knit - which we believe will offer the solution of the greatest murder mystery of the nineteenth century.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCH A MURDERER.
First, let us see if we can form a picture of the kind of being such a murderer as Jack the Ripper would be. That inquiry will largely help us in his identification with the man whom we decided to be he.
In the first place, he would be neither very young nor very old; not very young, because he could not have gone through the experiences which would produce such a mania as his; not very old, for he would not have had the strength or the agility, or the daring, to perform such a series of crimes.
What would be the experiences which would produce such a mania? It must be remembered that the mania of murdering women of the class who were the victims of Jack the Ripper is by no means unusual. Neill, for instance, was a maniac of this kind; and poisoned fallen women apparently in the mere wantonness of delight of such work. The writer of this article once saw a soldier - a quiet, almost gentle creature, with fine brown eyes and an intellectual face and mind - tried for the murder of an unfortunate woman whom he had not seen for nearly 20 years, and whom he murdered immediately after his return from a long period of service in India.
The originating cause of this mania in most cases is the ravages of the mind caused by constitutional disease, and the desire to avenge the wrong on the class from which it was supposed to have spring. This is one of the many reasons which make it plain that Jack the Ripper would be a man past his first boyhood; old enough to have undergone years of severe suffering - mental and physical. It is often found that the idea of having contracted the disease, though unfounded, produces the same form of mania.
ACTIVITY.
Next, Jack the Ripper must have been a man of extraordinary activity. It would have been impossible for him to have escaped into the darkness and the unknown, if he had not been extremely fleet of foot. He must likewise have been a man of some strength, though not of such strength as some people have imagined. He need not have been a man of scientific knowledge, for it is popular mistake to suppose that the Whitechapel mutilations showed anything like the skill of a man accustomed to anatomy and to the structure of the human body.
THE CONTRADICTIONS OF LUNACY.
Above all things, Jack the Ripper must have had several of the most pronounced characteristics of the lunatic. One of these characteristics would be such insensibility to fear - to moral guilt - to the whole horror and terror of his dreadful act - as would hake him resort to those simple expedients which are the surest method of escape. A murderer who had the full, or even the partial, possession of his senses would have resorted to all sorts of expedients for covering his tracks; would have matured his plans for days, if not weeks, before; would have used all kinds of skilful schemes for ensuring his escape; and in this way would have forgotten some detail, and this would have wound the rope of detection around his own neck. To proceed about his bloody work - as if it were just the ordinary task of his daily life - to act without any preconceived plan or preliminary preparations; to mingle in a crowd as if nothing had occurred, and he were like everybody else; in short, to conduct himself quite naturally, after the fashion of the ordinary man in ordinary circumstances - this was the best, and, indeed, the only method by which Jack the Ripper could ensure the certainty of his escape. Such a man finding himself in circumstances in which a sane man could not by the remotest possibility escape - would yet, by the sheer force of the simplicity of his methods, baffle all detection and all pursuit. He might go through even a crowded thoroughfare with a whole crowd at his heels - policemen, men, screaming women - and yet manage to escape them all, and pass through them unobserved and untouched, at the very moment when they were searching everywhere for him, and apparently had closed against him every avenue and door of escape.
CUNNING AND CANDOUR.
Finally, such a man would have the strange mixture of cunning and simplicity which belong to true madness. At one time we have often pictured Jack the Ripper caught red handed, and have always figured him as a poor, rather simple creature who would blandly proclaim that he had really done nothing, but whose terrible tiger soul would be betrayed by the lurid eyes and by the sallow face and the worn figure.
While the cunning was uppermost he would baffle detection, would proclaim his innocence, would make good his escape. But on the other hand, when he had relapsed into the insane mood, he would come to the very first stranger, reveal to him - with apparent unconsciousness - the burden of his soul, the horrible secret of his life; present the indisputable proof of his guilt, and offer himself almost for arrest. Finally, there is one point - it is rather a small one, apparently, but its bearing will be seen by and by. He must from the nature of the wounds on his victims be either left handed or able to use both hands with pretty equal facility.
We believe that all these signs and tokens of the Whitechapel murderer ill be found united in the man whom we shall by and by - and though the same process of reasoning and investigation as we have passed through ourselves - declare to be the murderer.
Only one word more of preliminary remark. We have had to examine a vast number of persons in the course of this lengthened and difficult inquiry. In nearly every case we have been implored not to reveal names, for the very obvious reason that, even remotely, people shrink from possible and almost certain annoyance of being associated in even the remotest degree with his hideous crime.
And now we introduce the reader to the first scene in this story across which Jack the Ripper throws his awful shadow.
THE STORY OF W_____ K_____.
At 10.30 on a March night in 1891, a man was seen lurking in the vicinity of a ruined building in the North of London. This is close to a street past which the train runs, and W K got out at this point with his sweetheart. As they walked the figure of a thin, tall, young man approached them in the dark.
He was very excited and weird looking. His coat collar was turned up about his throat, and his hat was pulled well over his face. He entered into conversation with them, begging that they would hide him, as the runners were after him, and £500 was offered for his apprehension. As he said this a cab drove by and he shouted, "There they come!" and bolted up to the door of a house and raised the knocker as if about to knock, but did not. Seeing that the cab passed, he left the door and joined Mr. K who attempted to calm and quieten him, pooh pooing his apprehensions; but he would not be soothed. He made a long, rambling statement with great vehemence, saying he was wanted for a very serious charge. "You must know," said he, "that they say I am Jack the Ripper - but I am not, though all their inside are open and their bowels are all out. I am a medical man, you know, but not Jack the Ripper - you must not think I am. But they do, and they are after me, and the runners are after me, for they want the £500 which is offered for my capture, and I have only been cutting up girls and laying them out." So ran his curious confessions and entreaties to hide him away, and he explained that money was no object, as he had plenty of it, and rich relations. When they explained they had no place to hide him, he said, "Then show me the way to the fields - where I shall be safe!" Mr. K's statement continues as follows:
"I TOOK HIM TO BE JACK THE RIPPER."
"But I did not like to say so at the time, as I did not want to frighten my sweetheart. He said so much in the twenty minutes we were talking that I cannot recall all, but I remember well that he impressed me at the time as being Jack the Ripper. He said £500 was offered for him, and begged me to take him home and hide him. I was half afraid of him, but he begged so hard of me that I pitied him, and I was glad not to have to interfere with him. I understood from his statements that he was in the medical profession. When he had left us I got curious, and we followed him, making up our minds when we met a policeman we would charge him. We followed him up Camden street, past Georgians street, across Camden road, and by the side of Winkworth's wine place by Bayham Wharf, where I went down, but he did not, and I missed him completely."
THE REWARD.
The only comment which it is necessary to make in producing this statement is in reference to the remark about the reward of £500 which the fugitive said was upon his head. There was only one official reward offered for the perpetrator of the Whitechapel murders. This was made in 1888 by the City Police, and the sum was £500.
Here we leave W k for the present; we shall return to him by and by. In the meantime, here is a remarkable letter. It is written on a fly sheet, and undated:-
A SENSATIONAL LETTER.
"Some three weeks ago I went to a surgeon's shop for advice. I explained that I felt rather unwell, and attributed it to having too much wine. The fact is I never had any wine at all. I said this because I was ashamed to own to my own beastliness and inclination. He told me that I need not trouble, as there was nothing the matter with me, and he gave me a bottle of mixture. I thought no more of the matter until a day or so afterwards, when I came on very ill. All the nerves and bones in my head seemed dropping to pieces. The nerve muscles of my face and jaw were greatly agitated - spots with large, red irritant patches came out on my face, and a dreadful burning pain in my left side. I was speedily in a state of great and terrible anxiety and fear. I went to him again four days after and explained the state I was in, and he said, "Yes, I will give you something for it." I have since then received three bottles of medicine. Iron, sarsaparilla, strychnine &c. My face is disfigured and <illegible>. I have been burning up till last night when I took some Epsom salt and applied <illegible> to the back of my neck and shoulders. After using the salve the prime agitation eased."
The letter is in a peculiar sloping backhand writing which its writer sometimes employed. The curious fact is that there was nothing the matter with him save the diseased condition of his mind.
The letter will be found to be a very important link in the chain of evidence in the identification of its writer.
(To be continued.)
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4476
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 4:10 am: |
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This is fascinating stuff, Chris. I won't comment until all the articles are in, but thanks again to you for typing them out, and to Natalie for obtaining them.
Robert |
Phil Hill
Chief Inspector
Username: Phil
Post Number: 557
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 8:41 am: |
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Thanks to all concerned. I have been meaning to find time to focus on Cutbush as a suspect for some time. This will be a good opportunity.
I was intrigued when I read AP's book years ago, but then dismissed the possibility. Today, my thinking and perhaps the way I read the evidence has changed it seems - Cutbush seems very intriguing indeed.
Phil
Edited for spelling
(Message edited by Phil on June 01, 2005) |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2140
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 1:34 pm: |
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Yes, thanks to Natalie for digging the reports out, and to Chris for the difficult task of transcribing the reports… a thankless task at the best of times, but he has my true good will for this.
It is an interesting read. I’d quite forgotten it all now, but I’m struck by the modernity of it all. Nothing like one reads from The Times from the same year.
My feeling is that this is going to be a cracker Jack of a ride.
It is also rewarding to see how many different folk on this site can cooperate in getting something like this done.
My thanks again, and I can’t wait for the next bit! |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 1995
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 2:56 pm: |
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Yes,I dont know quite how Chris pulled off such a superb re- presentation ,its almost like one of Tommy Cooper"s hat tricks!
Brilliant work Chris! |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2142
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 5:08 pm: |
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I'm thinking that the letter mentioned at the end must have formed part of the series connected with and to Dr Brooks of Westminster Bridge Road, mentioned in the Mac Memo, and in connection with what I've always assumed was Thomas' imagined STD.
I'm also thinking that this scrap of a letter was probably found by the two privately employed detectives who also found the pornographic sketches drawn by Thomas and his clothes bundled up the chimney soaked in turpentine.
We will see. |
Restless Spirit
Detective Sergeant
Username: Judyj
Post Number: 55
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 5:17 pm: |
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Chris
What can I say that has not been said many times before, your hard work, intellect and unwavering dedication to this site and any other endevour you are involved in,helps us learn so much about that which has baffled so many for so long.
You are an inspiration.
with greatest respect.
Restless Spirit
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Restless Spirit
Detective Sergeant
Username: Judyj
Post Number: 56
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 5:20 pm: |
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Natalie
Without your great efforts, and invaluable information provided to Chris, this latest rewarding information would not have been available to us. Great Job!!!!!
Best regards
Restless Spirit
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Restless Spirit
Detective Sergeant
Username: Judyj
Post Number: 57
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 5:43 pm: |
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To All
Whether an author,researcher,historian, a member of the police force in any capacity, or an avid fan like myself of Jack and "TRUE" Crime, I am very proud to be part of this website. Although I do not or cannot profess to know as much as many of you nor am I talented enought to write a book on J t R, I have learned more on this new Casebook in a very short time than I have in all the years I've been hooked on JtR. True, I have had a run in or two, but hell, if you can't debate or accept and give constructive critism than we will never learn from others. I feel we all add in some way towards the popularity of this website and at times may actually bring forth a scenario or idea that may have some substance. If we do not at least suggest or present any of our ideas, we should not expect every one else to do all the work.
There are too many people to mention that have added so much to the Casebook and Jack in general,and I would be concerned about accidently leaving a name off that long list of very worthy people.
My compliments to you all.
your humble fellow poster.
Restless Spirit
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Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 2001
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 7:23 pm: |
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Thankyou Restless Spirit for the above comments which is how I feel about this site too.
Kind Regards
Natalie |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2063
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - 7:28 pm: |
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Hi guys - glad they are of interest!
2nd part:
14 February 1894
THE STORY OF "JACK THE RIPPER."
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT MURDER MYSTERY.
HIS PERSONALITY, CAREER, AND FATE.
We know the Christian name and surname of Jack the Ripper. We know his present habitation; our representatives have seen him, and we have in our possession a morass of declarations, documents and other proofs which prove his identity. We have a facsimile of the knife with which the murders were committed, purchased at the same place. We are able to trace the whole career of the man who committed those crimes, we can give the names of his employers, their places of business, the terms of his service there, and the incidents of his connection with them - incidents which clearly show that he was in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel at the time when the murders were committed; that he developed tendencies even in his employment of homicidal insanity; and finally he was at liberty and close to Whitechapel during all that period when the murders were committed; and that these murders immediately came to an end - as well as other crimes of violence - from the moment when he was safely under lock and key.
But at this moment our readers must be satisfied with less information than is at our disposal. Jack the Ripper has relatives; they are some of them in positions which would make them a target for the natural curiosity - for the unreasoning reprobation which would pursue any person even remotely connected with so hideous a monstrosity, and we must abstain, therefore, from giving his name in the interest of these unfortunate, innocent, and respectable connections. We are the more resolved to do so at the moment as a pathetic point in this otherwise hideous and awful story is the tenacity with which some of his relatives have clung to this awful type. They have tended him, nursed him, watched for him, borne with him with a patience that never tired, with a love that never waned. While he has been out through the watches of the night on his fiendish work, one of them has sat up, waiting anxiously for his return - frightened at every noise - apprehensive of every possible form of mishap; in imagination picturing this tiger who marched from crime to crime as some innocent, harmless, and helpless child in need of protection from the violence of others. In human history there is not a more remarkable case of the difference in the view between the relative of a human being and the world generally.
CHARACTERISTICS AND HABITS.
And now what is the story - what are the characteristics - what are the habits of the man whom we identify as Jack the Ripper?
It will be understood that for everything we say about him we have documentary and other proofs. In the first place, that he was an idle, somewhat dissolute fellow. He was dissolute, that is to say, in the sense that he kept bad company; that he exhibited the same tendency as Neill to consort with the women who were his victims.
He was in several situations years ago, but he was not steady in any of them; and he was impelled to retire from one of them. This was because he was suspected of something which at the time appeared merely a violent assault under the influence of passion, but which subsequent light on his character proves to have been an outcome of his homicidal mania.
His habits of life when he was out of employment were those one would imagine in such a creature as Jack the Ripper. He has spent most of his day in bed; it was only when night came that he seemed roused to activity and to interest in life. Then he used to go out, disappear no one knew whither, and never return till early on the following morning. And when he did return, his appearance was such as to reveal to any gaze but that of blind affection some idea of this bloody and horrible work in which he had been engaged. Even, however, to his relatives his appearance suggested something terrible. His clothes were covered with mud; there were other stains which might suggest the nature of his work; but, above all things, there was the expression of his face. His face was so distorted as hardly to be recognized. Such is the description which has been given of him.
The manner in which the creature spent the portion of the day in which he was not in bed, is also clear proof of his nocturnal occupations and of his identity. Persons who knew him declare that he always exhibited a strong love for anatomical study, and that - this is most significant - he spent a portion of the day in making rough drawings of the bodies of women, and of their mutilations, after the fashion in which the bodies of the women murdered in Whitechapel were found to be mutilated. His own reason assigned for these performances was that he was studying for the medical profession - a reason that must be taken in connection with that startling interview in North London, the particulars of which we gave in our issue of yesterday.
HIS KNOWLEDGE OF WHITECHAPEL.
We have already said that the man we identify as Jack the Ripper had been employed in Whitechapel, and had in this way had the opportunity of learning all about the infinite and labyrinthine construction of that strange region. It is also a further proof that we have identified the right man that he lived within a ten minutes' walk of the locality of most of the murders. He had thus the necessary knowledge on the one hand of this peculiar; and on the other, was within easy reach of a place of refuge.
The next point in the identification, on which we lay particular stress, is that this man was a victim of that strange form of delusion with regard to constitutional disease which is one of the most frequent accompaniments of the murder of fallen women. On this point we have an accumulation of evidence. But we must be content for the moment with stating that it is a confirmation in the most emphatic manner that the man we refer to suffered from strong delusions of constitutional disease, and also from homicidal delusions such as one would expect to find in Jack the Ripper. The next point in the process of identification is the personal appearance of the man supposed to be Jack the Ripper. On this point the evidence is necessarily important. Curious as it may seem - paradoxical as it may sound - the only person whose identification of Jack the Ripper would be most indicative(?) is a blind boy.
<illegible> 5 lines
... fiendish hand which had done so many murders was responsible for her awful end. Her throat was cut, with the clean incisive cut which characterised all the atrocities; her body was mutilated, and her legs were hacked and slashed to the bone. Her murderer met her leaving a public house, and the fact was held to be clearly established at the time that she was, when accosted by the man, accompanied by a blind boy in whom she took a passionate interest. The boy heard the voice of the man who spoke to her - he remembered its strange tones distinctly and perfectly - and it was afterwards thought that in this lay a clue to the discovery of the murderer. But this boy does not seem ever to have been confronted with the man whom we declare to be Jack the Ripper. This is the more curious as the boy's description of the voice is said to have been of such a character as to make it clear that he would have been able to identify the voice. Therefore the description as to Jack the Ripper's appearance upon which we have to rely is that published by the City Police in October 2, 1888, a few days after what was known as the Mitre square murder.
JACK THE RIPPER'S APPEARANCE.
But before giving this description we present the reader with the notes of the appearance of the man we identify as Jack the Ripper, taken by our representatives at the asylum in which he is at present incarcerated. He is just over 33 years of age. He is a man of about 5ft 8in to 5ft 9in in height. He is thin, and walk with a slight stoop, as if his chest troubled him. His face is narrow and short, with a high receding forehead, his eyes large and dark, with the expression of a hunted beast in them; his nose thick and prominent, his lips full and red, and his jaws give sign of much power and determination.
Now compare this with the official description, allowing, of course, for the necessary indefiniteness of the police description. This official description, it may be stated, was taken from the account given by a fallen woman of a man who had accosted her in a public house a few days before the Mitre square murder. It will be seen that a description of this kind would necessarily be less perfect and detailed than that which comes from the pen of trained observers who went specially to see this man for the purpose of observing and describing him. But taking those two things into account, we ask our readers to place the descriptions side by side, and say whether they are not startlingly alike in their main features.
On October 2, 1888, the City Police announced that the man wanted for the Mitre square murder was "Aged 28; slight; height 5ft 8in; complexion, dark; no whiskers; black diagonal coat; hard felt had; collar and tie; carried newspaper parcel; respectable appearance."
We now come to what is perhaps, after all, the most convincing link in our chain of evidence. I began by saying that a man who had committed such murders as those in Whitechapel must have been so insane as to have the daring simplicity of a lunatic, and, therefore, able to make an escape when a sane human being would find it impossible to do so, from the sheer simplicity and calmness of utter insanity. Here is an instance that occurred in a district of London, busy, teeming with population, almost impassable. A man is in detention, all his clothes have been stripped off with the exception of his shirt; he is in bed, four men armed guard over him. Here certainly is security for his detention if such a thing is possible. But the prisoner swings from the bed, knocks down the four men on guard and scales, with the ease and nimbleness of a monkey, a wall 8ft in height.
He drops on the other side, and then he finds himself in the midst of an open and crowded district. At once the hue and cry is raised, and the whole district joins in it.
HIS CUNNING.
Policemen's whistles bring constables on the scene, and within a few moments of the man's escape descriptions of him are being wired from the district police station to every other station in London. His scanty apparel, it is thought, is sufficient to warrant his speedy capture.
Into a house in a busy thoroughfare goes the fugitive, with bare legs and shirt tail flying, and passing through it reaches the back garden, and then, jumping several garden walls, comes to another house, which he enters. His entrance and subsequent proceedings in the house are unobserved, because the inmates have gone into street to gaze at the other house. Here he finds a pair of striped trousers, check jacket, brown overcoat, black felt hat, and a pair of old boots, which he immediately puts on.
And while the crowd in full pursuit are clamouring for admission at the other house into which he had been seen to go, the fugitive comes out of the front door of the neighbouring house, and walks calmly and collectedly past the excited crowd and under the very nose of the people who are looking for him.
Now here we have an incident of a most remarkable character - an incident which is in many respects suggestive of the Whitechapel murders. The real secret of the success of the Whitechapel murderer's escape was his daring and simplicity, his power of doing the most terrible and extraordinary things in an ordinary way, and it would scarcely be possible that there could be in the same city two human beings so miraculously expert in escaping detection under such equally hopeless circumstances. When we add that the person who made this extraordinary escape was a person whom we can prove to have been employed for a considerable time in Whitechapel - to have been compelled to leave his employment there for a crime of violence suggestive of the homicidal tendency - to have been living at the time of his escapade within an easy distance of the scene of the murders in Whitechapel, accumulating proof becomes extremely strong.
But this is by no means the whole case. The rooms in which the man lived were searched. In them was found that extraordinary letter which we published yesterday - but there were other things - papers which had reference to women; and stuffed up the chimney a police inspector found waistcoats wet, having been washed, and coats, the sleeves of which smelt of turpentine. Among some papers which had been torn up and found in an overcoat in the room, were
<illegible> 12 lines
Now we ask distinctly whether these were not the exact kind of drawings that would be found in the rooms (?) of Jack the Ripper?
And now we see who was the man who had evidently committed offences not so horrible as the Whitechapel murders, but somewhat similar to them; and whose rooms contained the batch of drawings which one might expect to find in the possession of Jack the Ripper. Evidence would stop abruptly and hopelessly short of conviction if we were unable in any way to associate the fugitive with Whitechapel and the murders; but we are about to do so; to bring this same man, with employment in Whitechapel, to show that the date of his employment synchronises exactly - almost to the day and hour - with the murders; and that their cessation for eight months equally corresponds with his dismissal from his employment and his disappearance from the immediate neighbourhood.
A STARTLING INCIDENT.
On July 24, 1888, exactly a fortnight before the date of the first Whitechapel murders, which occurred on August 7, 1888, a young man succeeded in obtaining employment at a firm in the immediate district of the murders. His age was about 27. He was swarthy in complexion, and his frame was slight and wiry. His only strong peculiarity, or eccentricity, as it was then thought, was a desire to advise all with whom he came in contact as to the treatment of certain horrible diseases. He was noticed to have possessed himself of certain medicines and lotions which he kept in his pockets. These he frequently partook of during the day, and it was remarkable that, while seemingly in good bodily health, it was his practice from time to time to retire, and when come upon suddenly, was found to be anointing his face with washes and ointments in front of a glass. This, and a faculty for drawing caricatures and anatomical figures, were his principal distinctions when not discussing nasty illnesses.
One day, an elderly official of the firm, noticing that the young man was employed anointing his face in front of the looking glass, said, in a bantering way quite innocent of malice, "I have known much better looking men than you who did not spend half as much time in looking at themselves."
No particular notice was taken of this incident, but when the elderly gentleman was proceeding upstairs, to his immense surprise, the young man, who up to this had never shown any violent propensities, sprang out of a dark corner where he had been lying in wait and hurled him to the bottom of the stone stairs, where he lay insensible in a pool of blood, which flowed from a terrible cut in his head. When people came upon the scene, the author of this outrageous assault remarked, "Poor gentleman, he has fallen downstairs."
This apparently ingenuous observation disarmed all suspicion, and it was not till the injured man came to himself weeks afterwards that the true facts were made known.
It is worthy of note at this point that the
SERIES OF MURDERS
which started immediately after his employment in the Whitechapel firm, and continued in almost regular intervals, as mysteriously ceased with his departure and were not heard of again for eight months.
And now here we have this striking combination of circumstances - that a man, admittedly a homicidal lunatic, almost clearly guilty of attempting to murder women - was the same man who at the time of the Whitechapel murders was employed in Whitechapel, and was guilty in the open daylight of just the kind of crime a Jack the Ripper would commit.
So far we have brought the case today: tomorrow we shall present the remainder of our proofs - so far as the public interest will permit them to be published - and, summing up this whole case, leave it to the judgement of our readers and commit it to the attention of the authorities.
(To be continued.)
(Message edited by Chris on June 01, 2005) |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 2004
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 10:20 am: |
|
A big thankyou again to Chris for making all this available in readable format.
Two things struck me today:
Thomas and Charles - his chief of police relative -do indeed seem to have suffered from the same delusions ie that people were trying to poison them[Charles reported in his orbituary after shooting himself in the head etc that he had been severely depressed as he had had thoughts that their was a papist/fenian plot to kill him through poisoning public drinking water and Thomas through these reported fears about the contents of various medicines].
The "respectable connections"causing the Sun concern about naming the man in public, appear to be this same Scotland Yard Chief of police,Charles Cutbush-he of the knife wounds in the thighs that do not appear in his police pension records as having been caused in the line of his duty as a policeman.
Natalie |
Luke Whitley
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 12:39 pm: |
|
Hello Natalie.
I'm sorry if I appear to throw cold water on this Sun article, particularly as it's an interesting little issue in it's own right. But these accounts are similar to a multitude of other sensationalist newspaper stories, down through the years.
Philip Sugden researched all this stuff on Cutbush, and at the end of it all, summed it up thus ------ "CUTBUSH NEED NOT DETAIN US, HE WAS "NOT" JACK THE RIPPER".
Much of the contemporary newspaper coverage of these crimes, has been shown to be totally unreliable. I'm certain that Macnaghten would have been only too happy to declare the case solved, had there been grounds for it.
With no ROYAL scandals etc. to consider, the police would have been delighted to name Cutbush, and close the case. Sure, he was a lunatic, but stabbing a couple of girls in the bottom is a world away from from the savage slaughter committed by the swift, silent & "invisible" Ripper.
Very interesting articles though.
With regards.
LUKE WHITLEY.
|
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4490
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 2:18 pm: |
|
Hi Luke
I thought it was Paul Begg who said "Cutbush need not detain us...." ("Uncensored Facts"). 
I was just thinking last night, actually, that, so far, the style of these articles isn't the least bit sensationalist or lurid. They seem very matter-of-fact.
Robert |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2145
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 2:24 pm: |
|
Oh dear, Cool Hand Luke, you aint about to get away with a blag like that.
The whole thrust of Mac’s memo was to divert attention away from the Sun reports and the unsavoury detail that the Whitechapel murders might be in some manner or form connected to a very senior police officer in Scotland Yard.
That was the core of this damage limitation document.
If the Sun had not published their reports, Mac would not have written his memo.
That is a fact.
As a collective police response to the alarming situation of having one of their senior officers publicly named in connection with the Whitechapel Murders it was a very effective response, as we can see from your own comments where you quote sources that view the Mac Memo as some kind of honest police work, when in fact it was police and government dishonesty at its highest level.
The Mac Memo is a sham.
Yes, press reports, are of course a vaguely unreliable source of factual information, but when these boys put together this remarkable series of reports on the Cutbush clan, they had done their onions and knew their stuff.
When I read these reports anew I do not see a lot of ‘wobble’ in their construction and intent, but when I read the Mac Memo I gotta grab hold of something solid because everything is ‘wobble’.
It was the very comment that you quote about Cutbush that first gave me the determination to pursue the case, for I thought at the time ‘what a very, very arrogant thing to say’.
My opinion hasn’t changed a jot.
But I think a lot of others have changed theirs. |
R.J. Palmer
Chief Inspector
Username: Rjpalmer
Post Number: 635
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 5:02 pm: |
|
Macnaghten claimed at the beginning of the memo that Cutbush was a decent employee during his time in the Minories and only went bonkers after catching the black syph at the end of the year. This seems to be contradicted by the above. The chronology is difficult to fathom, but the claim seems to be that Cutbush in fact threw his employer down the stairs not long after July 1888 (ie., during the Ripper scare) and when this was discovered (when the old fellow came to 'several weeks' later), Cutbush was incarcerated. Or at least the implication seems to be that his legal-woes after this outrage account for the cessation of the 'original' set of crimes. This would point to him getting banged-up, sent-up, locked-up, whatever you wish to call it, not long after the Kelly murder (?) I don't recall if any of these dates have been hammered-down and confirmed(?) One would think at the very least that the old man had filed a civil suit? |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2147
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 5:10 pm: |
|
This might sound a little bit Groucho Marx, but I get the distinct impression when reading this second report that the editor of the Sun is saying to the Metropolitan Force:
‘We know something that we know you know but you didn’t think we knew but now you know we know that something that you thought only you knew so if you don’t respond soon we will let everyone know what you thought you only knew because we know it too.’
New to me - or forgotten after all those years - is that the Sun claims it was actual police officers who found the turpentine stained clothes stuffed up the chimney in Thomas’ house.
Somehow I missed that in my first reading and had assumed that they were private detectives working for the press. |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2068
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 5:20 pm: |
|
Third part:
15 February 1894
THE STORY OF "JACK THE RIPPER."
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT MURDER MYSTERY.
HIS PERSONALITY, CAREER, AND FATE.
JACK THE RIPPER IN CAMDEN TOWN.
We return for moment to a scene which we have already described. It will be recollected that Jack the Ripper made one of his most marvellous escapes when, rushing from a lunatic asylum, evading four warders, climbing a wall eight feet high, he rushed naked through one of the most crowded districts of London, and then disappeared from the gaze of men. It will be remembered that we also described the method - simple, but marvellous - by which he effected his escape. Going into a house, he calmly walked upstairs, found a suit of clothes, put them on rapidly, and thus clothed was able to walk calmly out of the front door while the occupants of the house were in the street, joining in the hue and cry against him; and mingling with the noisy and big crowd that were waiting for him, quietly got away.
For some hours he is lost from sight in the maelstrom of London life; but we meet him again on that very night. It will be remembered that it was on this same night he met the man we have described as W K, who was then taking a walk with his sweetheart in Camden Town. We have already given W K's account of this interview, told to one of our representatives within the last two months. But we have another account from the same man written within a few hours of the interview with Jack the Ripper. It will be seen that it corresponds exactly with the account given to our interviewer; but it has the additional importance of having been written just at the time when the interview with Jack the Ripper had taken place. We believe this startling document will strike others, as it has me, with being a most important link in the chain of evidence that shows the man met by W K in Camden Town to be none other than Jack the Ripper:-
A STARTLING LETTER.
Dear _____, I hope you will kindly pardon the liberty I take in writing these few lines, but I write to ask you if there is any truth in the statements of a young man I accidentally met last evening in Camden Town, about 10.30. He was so very excited and begged of me to let you know by post that I consider it my duty to thus address you and give you every information relating to his movements relying, as I do, on his own words. He told me he was wanted for some grave and serious charge - I understood him it was some hospital inquiry - and begged of me to hide him for a few days, as he was quite innocent, and that the whole of London was after him, and that the runners were tracking him down, and that £500 was offered for his apprehension, but he had managed to escape them but did not know where to go for safety. He also informed me he had been placed in a hospital against his wish, and put with patients that were suffering from fever, but escaped. But if taken again the doctors would certify him mad and he would be placed in an asylum and there be murdered, and that _____ would never know his end. He then gave me an envelope with an address, and begged me to write _____, which I readily promised. I could not refuse his request, for he pleaded so earnestly for me to do so, and his excited manner and mental nervousness I consider justifies me making some inquiries, for I have reason now to believe that he suffers from delusions. Sincerely do I hope he is safe. For he was going to Hampstead, and wanted to get to the fields. He thought it would be safer for him. Poor fellow! I assure you, he has quite unnerved me, for he was quite the gentleman in manner and address, and if you will kindly grant me an interview this evening at 7.30 I will call and see you, and my young lady also, who can bear witness to my statements, she being with me at the time, and heard every word of this strange and startling incident.
THE MAN IN THE LIGHT OVERCOAT.
It is one of the most curious features of this strange story that many persons at that time were of opinion that this man was Jack the Ripper, and many who knew him well had certainly heard the suggestion. I shall give several statements drawn up on this point from a number of witnesses; and the accumulation of their testimony will, I believe, be found very striking.
I begin with a very remarkable letter written at the time by F K. F K is the father of one of the girls stabbed. It will be remembered that after these stabbing cases _____ was brought for trial, and that it was on these charges he was, though unable to plead, assigned to a lunatic asylum.
This is the letter which F K wrote at the time. I ask especial attention for this remarkable document - the letter was addressed to the police:-
Pardon me for suggesting an idea which has probably occurred to you in connection with the recent stabbing cases in this neighbourhood. The dagger which was found on the man now under detention is just such a one as was probably used with such dreadful success at Whitechapel, and there are several points of resemblance in the cases although those now before us are now trivial compared with the magnitude of the Whitechapel tragedies. This fellow approaches his victims from the back, and with such a weapon could very easily commit a Whitechapel murder and escape without showing any blood marks. He is catlike in his approach, very fleet of foot, and he can approach his victim unheard, and if true that he has a second dagger and revolver at home, it is probable they are intended for use in the event of an attempted capture. I think you will find on inquiry that one of the Whitechapel victims was seen in company of a man with a light coat shortly before the murder. His return - after a long absence with bleeding feet is very suggestive, and shows that his operations are performed some distance from _____.
First, mark this phrase in F K's letter - "He is catlike in his approach, very fleet of foot, and he can approach his victim unheard." Is not this an exact description of what the man must have been who could have committed the Whitechapel murders?
The allusion to the light overcoat must be taken in connection with the murder in an archway off Backchurch lane. It was there that the body of a woman unknown was discovered in September, 1889; and it was reported that she had been seen a short time before her murder talking to a man in a light overcoat. A light overcoat was among the things found at the house of the man who stabbed this girl. Finally, as F K suggests, the knife used in the two sets of cases was of the same pattern.
OTHER HOMICIDAL SCHEMES.
We now come to another branch of the evidence. Before he had been discovered in the stabbing of girls, _____ had made himself very well known as a person of homicidal tendencies.
The first case is that of a medical man. I suppress the name - but this and every other fact in our possession we shall gladly place at the disposal of the authorities:-
I remember _____ very well. He complained that he was suffering from some constitutional disease of an aggravated type. I examined him carefully, made every kind of necessary test, and came to the conclusion that he was suffering from nothing but a delusion and mental aberration. I accordingly gave him a tonic combined with a nervine sedative and humoured his whims. He came off and on for some weeks or months, but being only an outpatient, and knowing little of him and nothing of his people, I could not communicate with him. About four or five years ago a letter was given to me. It was from _____ and addressed to me. The letter, said the writer, informed me that he had been to Scotland Yard and had laid an information against me, or some nonsense of that kind.
On November 15, 1890, I received a letter from a Mr. S Y, saying that _____ had called on S Y and wanted him to lend him a pistol or money to buy one, and that the contents of it were intended for me. I took the letter to _____ police station that evening and laid the matter before the inspector. He referred me to some parish official living in _____. I saw him and he directed me to go next morning to the workhouse in _____.
When I got there I was informed that a medical officer and a Justice of the Peace had been to _____'s residence to ascertain the state of his mind, and that he had eluded them by jumping over the wall and had escaped. They advised me to lay the matter before the magistrate at _____ police court and ask him to grant a warrant for _____'s arrest. I did so, but the magistrate said the workhouse authorities must deal with the matter themselves.
THE STORY OF S Y.
It will be observed that the man alluded to in this statement is just the type of man who would commit the Whitechapel murders, having the delusions and the tendencies which are known to produce such murderers.
I pass on to the statement of S Y, which is alluded to in the letter just quoted.
S Y first states that he knew _____ at an office in which they had both been employed. _____ was dismissed on account of his eccentric conduct. S Y goes on:-
_____ called on me in 1891 and asked me to lend him a pistol to shoot Dr. _____. I have learned from Mr. D G that _____ was well known at the office, and the police have reasons to believe that he is Jack the Ripper. This appears to be founded on a statement made by one in a position to know that _____ on several occasions late at night was seen with his left sleeve covered with blood; and the theory of the authorities was that the Whitechapel murders were done by a left-handed man.
THE STORY OF D G.
And now for the story of D G. D G, who is in a legal office, first describes how the nature of his duties brings him in contact with criminals and lunatics; and then he continues with the story as to _____'s idea of shooting Dr. _____.
Among others I remember _____. He used to come here frequently and try to persuade me with a c*ck and bull story to prosecute a doctor for poisoning him. He was very strong on what he called the infamy of doctors being allowed to dispense their own prescriptions. He came and went as others do, and I took very little heed of him, just going through the old formula of listening to the same old story.
ANOTHER HOMICIDAL PLAN.
I interrupt the statement of D G at this point to call attention to the extraordinary statement which follows up that just made. It is nothing less than a description of a suspicion on the part of D G that his visitor contemplated murdering him, and, what is more remarkable, to murder him after the feline fashion in which this man stabbed the girls and the Whitechapel murderer must have killed his victims:-
One day, however, I was very busy over some papers, and only suddenly became acquainted with the fact that somebody had silently and stealthily slid into the office and had taken up his stand behind me. I felt at once that he was going to assault and possibly murder me, so I sprang up and faced him. It was _____, and so I closed with him and ran him out of the office.
LIST OF CRIMES.
And now I call the attention of the reader to the startling series of crimes either committed or contemplated by this man:-
1. Stabbing of six girls
2. Murderous assault on fellow worker in Whitechapel
3. Murderous assault on a relative
4. Murderous assault on a servant girl
5. Threat to murder Dr. _____.
6. Suspected intention to make murderous assault on D G.
Total of homicidal crimes committed or contemplated - 11.
And thus I have brought him to the point that - outside of the Whitechapel murders - this man employed in the East end at the time of the murders, and resident in a locality close to Whitechapel, was guilty of nine homicidal offences, and is strongly suspected of contemplating two more. It scarcely seems possible to imagine that there should be two men so closely associated with Whitechapel and at the same time capable of such a succession of crimes all more or less alike.
(To be continued.)
(Message edited by Chris on June 02, 2005) |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2148
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 5:28 pm: |
|
Thanks RJ
Macnaghten also said:
'It was found impossible to ascertain his movements on the nights of the Whitechapel Murders.'
I take that to mean that Thomas was at liberty and living at home throughout the entire period the crimes took place.
Personally I believe he was locked up shortly after MJK's death and the testimony of both his aunt and mother seem to confirm this.
See the post from Robert some time ago where he transcribed a report from another newspaper which had not been seen before. |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2149
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 5:44 pm: |
|
Thanks Chris
I said it was going to be a hell of a ride.
There is just so much in that last report.
The Scotland Yard connection with our Dr Brooks is provoking to say the least.
A lot of reading and thinking to do. |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 2005
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 6:14 pm: |
|
I think the point you make AP about Macnaghten
saying it had proved impossible to ascertain his movements is of crucial importance here.
Thanks again for this Chris,
Natalie |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4491
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 6:18 pm: |
|
Hi RJ
Macnaghten dates TC's supposed syphilis to "about 1888" with idleness and unemployment following. I suppose for both Macnaghten and the "Sun" to be right, TC would have contracted his supposed syphilis about the time of the MJK murder, which was also, according to the "Sun," the approximate time of his departure - either banged up etc or simply fired fron his job. It seems more likely though that TC had or believed he had syphilis before this.
Robert |
Luke Whitley
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2005 - 5:28 pm: |
|
Hi AP.
I like that, "Cool Hand Luke". I just wish it was true.
Surely Macnaghten, or any other head of Scotland Yard, would have moved to refute what they considered false claims from the press. Superintendent Cutbush could hardly be held accountable for press accusations about his nephew. Unless of course the suggestion is being made, that the Superintendent might, in some way, be implicated in the crimes. Otherwise, he cannot be held in any way responsible for a relative's actions. As the saying goes, "I am not my Brother's keeper".
I'm at a little disadvantage here AP, as I haven't read your book, but I'll certainly do so now, at the first opportunity. I read an extract from it in the "Mammoth Book of JTR", and if I remember correctly, you were pointing out the significance of 29, Aldgate High St., where Kate Eddowes was arrested, as a connection with Thomas Cutbush.
Philip Sugden is certainly no great supporter of Macnaghten, but considered him fully justified in refuting what he called the Sun's "preposterous" claims.
Superintendent Cutbush committed suicide in 1896.
That seems rather too long after the Sun's articles, for it to have any bearing on his tragic actions.
ROBERT. -- You may be right. I'll check Begg. But Sugden DID say, "But he was NOT the Whitechapel murderer"-- Page 378. Still the same thing though.
AP, I look forward to reading your book.
Regards.
LUKE WHITLEY.
|
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2150
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 2:20 pm: |
|
Thanks Cool Hand
It must be remembered that the Macnaghten Memo was an in-house document, not intended for the public eye, therefore it is quite possible that there was no official reaction from Scotland Yard to the Sun reports. I don’t know that for sure.
But I would have thought some sort of official response would have been required to refute the allegations made in the Sun.
Perhaps further transcriptions from Chris will answer that.
As regards the senior Cutbush, I’m not so sure that I agree with you about the timing of his suicide… I know that there was a long time period between the two events, but I think that doesn’t automatically cancel the one event as the catalyst for the other.
Time can weigh heavy.
Yes, I’m convinced that Charles Henry Cutbush was somehow implicitly involved in the bizarre behaviour of his ‘nephew’ - caution here, for as Robert points out we do not know the family relationship yet - but that is not to say that CHC was involved in the Whitechapel Murders.
I think he was, probably in a very stupid way, somehow connected to his wild imaginings that the Catholics of England were attempting to poison his good self.
Poor old uncle Charles was a loaded gun just waiting to go off, and he finally pulled that trigger on himself, but it is entirely possible that such a demented man may have pointed his toy pistol or toy dagger at someone else before then.
Thanks for your kind comments, and I hope you do find the time to read the Myth. |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2151
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 2:27 pm: |
|
Robert, RJ
However it does appear from the reports that Natalie and Chris are posting here that Thomas did not have syphilis but just imagined that he did… that is the opinion of the quoted doctor, who must be Brooks; and it is an opinion I have held for the last two years as well.
|
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4493
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 2:48 pm: |
|
Yes, it looks as if he had a delusion on that score, AP. Could he have sought a homeopathic remedy, I ask myself.
Robert |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2152
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 4:55 pm: |
|
Robert
Ah yes, to treat like with like, an eye for an eye, to counteract the forces of disease and infection by using that disease and infection to exterminate it.
I think our young Thomas would have understood this concept very well. |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2069
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 6:54 pm: |
|
4th part:
16 February 1894
THE STORY OF "JACK THE RIPPER."
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT MURDER MYSTERY.
HIS PERSONALITY, CAREER, AND FATE.
THE WHITECHAPEL FIEND AT BROADMOOR.
IN BROADMOOR CRIMINAL LUNATIC ASYLUM.
It has already been stated more then once that the principal features in the career of the infamous criminal, Jack the Ripper, have been known to The Sun for many weeks, and that they were previously withheld from publication to permit of the most searching and patient inquiry in every direction. When the net of evidence began to close round one man - when it had been established beyond all reasonable doubt that the perpetrator of the Whitechapel murders was under the lock and key of the law - two representatives of The Sun went to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in order to come face to face with that inscrutable criminal. The asylum is situated on the crest of some well wooded rising ground about five miles distant from Bracknell station on the South Western railway. The only way to reach the place is to walk or drive, and the muddy roads on a mid January day did not tempt towards the former alternative. There is an inn near the station, which apparently does a thriving posting business, and an inquiry directed to the landlord as to the possibility of obtaining a conveyance at once elicited the suspicious query, "Do you want an open or a closed carriage, sir?" which plainly showed that in the opinion of the local Boniface anyone requiring vehicular assistance towards Broadmoor might, or might not, be a very dangerous customer. After a pleasant drive through the crisp wintry air, the journey being beguiled by the store of local information possessed by the driver, the four wheeled dogcart containing the little party bent on such curious business commenced to ascend the tortuous road which leads to the asylum out of the main road to Farnborough.
AT THE GATES.
The well known establishment for the safe custody of the criminal lunatics of the kingdom is externally a handsome, almost an imposing, building. Constructed of red brick faced with stone, in a light and effective architectural style, with its high outer walls shrouded by trees, and its approaches decorated with evergreens and flower beds, the first appearance of Broadmoor is distinctly favourable. There is nothing of the gaol about it except the great iron-studded door and the barred windows of the porter's lodge - indeed the whole place might easily be the country mansion of some noble duke or earl. Yet within those walls there were immured over 600 human beings of whom more than 100 had taken the lives of fellow creatures under the most ghastly and terrible circumstances. To the representatives of The Sun the structure had an added interest from the fact which they alone knew at that moment - that it contained the most noted, mysterious, and world famous criminal of modern days.
Inquiry at the central entrance showed that Dr. Nicholson, the Medical Superintendent, was awaiting his expected visitors at his house, a charming little villa situated under the lee of the vast asylum, and overlooking from its drawing room windows the beautiful valley which stretches away towards Aldershot. Dr. Nicholson is a Scotchman whose geniality has survived many years of close acquaintance with the worst ruffians in Great Britain. He filled several medical appointments in penitentiaries and convict prisons before he was selected for the responsible post which he now holds and which he has held uninterruptedly for seventeen years. But if his kindly temperament has outlived the contact, he has not been so fortunate in other respects. Twice he has been assaulted with murderous intent either by a sullen convict or a lunatic, and he bears marks on his person which are eloquent testimonies to the unsavoury characters of the men whom he has had in charge. But for all that, Dr. Nicholson speaks kindly and indulgently of the afflicted beings for whose comfort and safety he is responsible, and it was easy to see during a subsequent progress through the different wards of the asylum that the Medical Superintendent is on the best of terms with all those who are sane enough to be able to appreciate the care and unremittent attention bestowed upon them.
IN THE ASYLUM.
Dr. Nicholson, after a cordial greeting, invited the representatives of The Sun to accompany him to his office, where he was soon busily engaged in transacting some necessary business which could not be left unattended. In the first place, he had to receive the reports from the doctors in charge of the various sections of the establishment, and some of these sounded very strange to unaccustomed ears. A stalwart warder stated that one man had developed dangerous symptoms during the night, and now required the constant supervision of three attendants, as he had threatened to "do for" a number of individuals, including himself. From the female ward came the report that "Tottie Fay," once well known to the frequenters of the London police courts, was very violent - "maniacal" was the word used in the official document - and had to be removed from her room to a cell where there was no furniture to break nor glass to smash.
At last Dr. Nicholson had transacted the most pressing portion of his morning's work, and was able to tell his visitors that he could place the next couple of hours at their disposal. At this time he was unaware of the exact motive which occasioned their presence in the asylum, and they guardedly broached the matter, mot knowing exactly what view the Medical Superintendent might take of it. The position taken up by Dr. Nicholson was, however, a very simple one. He was always glad to show visitors over the asylum who came armed with the official permit, and would, of course, give all the information that lay in his power as to any particular inmate whom he was questioned about. The mention of the name of the one man above all others in whom the representatives of The Sun were interested caused the production of a large brown envelope, which contained the whole of the documents relative to the case for which he was incarcerated in Broadmoor. In these there was naturally no mention of his supposed connection with the Whitechapel crimes, and Dr. Nicholson was absolutely astonished, not to say incredulous, when informed as to the identity of the wretched lunatic in whom he had previously taken no more than an official interest. However, it was but natural to expect that Dr. Nicholson would not commit himself to any opinion or give any help towards elucidating the mystery other than so far as lay in his power by showing the representatives of The Sun every hole and corner of the asylum.
THE FEMALE WARD.
After a stroll along the spacious terrace which fronts the asylum whence a lovely view is obtained of a panorama of pastoral country, Dr. Nicholson led his guests into the kitchen of the wing which is tenanted by some 200 female patients. Of these about 80% have committed crimes, yet, with very few exceptions, it was impossible to associate with these women the frightful deeds to which they owed a lifelong detention at Broadmoor. Several lunatics were assisting in the kitchen, which was spotlessly clean, and a very excellent dinner was at the moment being served up. Roast pork, pease pudding, potatoes, vegetables, and tapioca pudding constituted the menu for the day, and each of the poor creatures was allowed half a pint of mild beer with the meal if she desired it, though the attendants endeavour to encourage them towards total abstinence. The weather chanced to be particularly bright and sunshiny, and it is difficult to convey an adequate impression of the pleasant and cheery nature of the interiors of the various wards. The plan of the buildings - consisting, simply speaking, in each block, of a wide longitudinal corridor, with bedrooms or general apartments running out of it, gave ample facilities for the diffusion of light and heat, and the otherwise unfortunate inmates were certainly made quite as comfortable as circumstances permitted. They were allowed what appeared to unskilled observation to be a remarkable degree of liberty of movement, passing unhindered, if not unheeded, from recreation room to library, from library to corridor, from corridor to their private apartments, and going up or down stairs to the different storeys apparently at their own will. Indeed, the whole system of the asylum is based upon due encouragement of good qualities, and restriction is only practised in instances where the individual is given to dangerous excess. Some of the poor demented beings were shrilly demonstrative as the Medical Superintendent passed; others looked up from book or knitting to answer with a smile a kindly inquiry as to their health, whilst a few were sitting alone and motionless, gazing blankly into space, the soul dead and the body waiting for death.
IN THE MALE WARD.
Sex has it distinctiveness even in a criminal lunatic asylum. Passing from the female wing to that portion of the building inhabited by the more numerous males, it was at once clear that the tidiness and generally homelike air of the place had disappeared. Everything was, of course, spotlessly clean, but nevertheless there were lacking that semblance of comfort and general aspect of pleasant surroundings which brightened the interior of the female ward, and rendered it almost attractive. The dingy clothing of the men and the sombre uniforms of the warders were also somewhat depressing after the neat garments of patients and nurses in the section just quitted. Dr. Nicholson was evidently on the best of terms with the large majority of the inmates. Many of them had a pleasant word for him as he passed, and one man laughed heartily as he showed him some statements made in a popular weekly paper about the asylum. There were not wanting several strong hints that if the doctor's friends had well filled tobacco pouches the contents would be highly appreciated in the smoking room. These were at once met, as the Medical Superintendent gave his consent, and it was pitiful to note the eagerness of the man to obtain a share of the coveted weed. They were allowed a small quantity of tobacco each week out of the funds of the asylum.
It would not be seemly to single out individuals for comment, as the record of their eccentricities, however interesting to the general public, might cause pain to their friends. By far the larger number of the inmates are quite harmless, and some of them are to all out ward aspect perfectly sane. But the Medical Superintendent explained that when once the trait of homicidal insanity has exhibited itself it is impossible to know the moment when it may recur in violent and unexpected form. The most dangerous lunatics are those who believe that some person or persons - vaguely alluded to as "they" - are seeking to do them harm. All at once this hostile element will to their distorted senses settle on an individual or an object, and then it is bad for the man or article, as damage will be done of the lunatic be not restrained. Some of the cases are very pitiful, where men of once high intelligence have degenerated into miserable and degraded beings, but the career of one inmate of Broadmoor is decidedly humorous. He was imprisoned for some slight offence, and let out several years later on the representation of his friends that he would be taken care of. He got married, and after two years of wedded bliss resolved to return to the asylum, which he did, and he is there yet.
But the human tragedy wrapped up in this visit to Broadmoor was now drawing to its climax. Strong iron gates were opened, an extra force of warders came in attendance upon the party, an order was given by the Medical Superintendent, and in a few minutes the visitors were passing through the "dangerous" ward in order to be brought face to face with the man whom they knew to be
JACK THE RIPPER.
Perhaps we were depressed - writes one of the representatives of The Sun - by the morbid surroundings, added to a hypersensitive appreciation of the strange, wild, devilish personality of the man we were about to see. Whatever the feeling, there can be no doubt that some of the brightness had gone from the sunlight, some of the purity from the air, as we looked out through a grated window into a spacious courtyard of asphalt; bounded on two sides by a high wall, and on the others by the tall buildings which shut out the now declining rays of the January sun. In this chill and dreary enclosed space some 50 men were taking moody exercise, or loitering aimlessly in small groups. The chief warder in our company looked keenly for the man whose name we had given, and at last he exclaimed, "There he is!"
He pointed to a solitary figure sauntering in the shade of the farthest wall, removed to the utmost possible extent from his fellows, with cap pulled closely down. The sight of this listless, dejected figure, skulking there in the distance - restive and apart from all human companionship - was a thing never to be forgotten. The dread and demoniacal associations connected with his name, the brutal and bestial crimes committed by the man in the silent watches of the night, the mystery and terror and horror which for years surrounded his unknown personality - all these considerations held me spellbound, silent, oppressed, and saddened in spirit. We gazed through the iron bars at the slowly moving figure beneath the opposite wall. The ghosts of the victims of this wretched man seemed to troop by his side in the gloom and solitude. We pictured to ourselves the ghostly procession, and the appalling image possessed me to the exclusion of words. It was therefore a great relief when Dr. Nicholson said, addressing one of the warders, "Bring him here."
We passed into a little office close at hand, and, a minute later, Jack the Ripper entered with his guard. Two warders guided his uncertain steps towards a corner which was flooded with light from a large window and Dr. Nicholson, stepping forward, said in cheery tones, "Well, my man, how are you?"
No verbal response came from this strange being, but, as if seized with some sudden conception of what was required of him, he took of his loosely knotted necktie, opened his shirt collar, bared his breast, and expanded his chest in a manner suggestive of one undergoing a medical examination. But never a word did he utter.
The Medical Superintendent humoured the man; and tapped the region of his lungs, saying, "Yes, yes, that's all right. You are in fine form. You are quite comfortable here, are you not?"
No answer.
"Would you tell these gentlemen how you are getting on? They would be very glad to hear that you were well."
It was useless. The voice of the Whitechapel fiend, whose tones are stored up in the preternaturally acute sound memories of a blind boy, will never again be heard on earth by other than a warder at Broadmoor Asylum. He took not the slightest notice of the doctor, nor did he evince the least interest in his surroundings or in the strangers who were looking at him. His face was absolutely animal and unintelligent. If there was aught of good in that poor tenement of clay it was shrouded in murky night which blotted out recollection and dulled perception. The man's eyes had a morbid fascination for me, and as I afterwards found, for my companion. They looked out into vacuity - dull, vacant, unconscious of life, or care, or hope. They were not ferocious but simply stolid, like the glass eyes of a wax figure. They implied to me that in such a man all actions were possible, that to their owner it was as simple a thing to put a knife upon a human throat as upon a upon a piece of thick twist tobacco. As we gazed at him we wondered whether awful visions of the past did not at times flit across his brain and twinge with horror that impassive face - visions of squalid, ill lighted streets and alleys, with draggle haired women, of whispered consultations, of sudden stabbing and hacking at palpitating bodies, of hair breadth escapes from capture, and mad races for life through the darkness and gloom of London.
But if such dreams came to Jack the Ripper, waking or asleep, there were no signs of them in his livid face on this occasion. When, in dull and stupid manner, he perceived that apparently no further examination was required of him, he fastened his shirt, but slightly resisted one of the warders who attempted to arrange his scarf for him. The coarse mouth and fishlike eyes were still expressionless, and the motion of resistance was only visible by a momentary use of his hands.
Then he did a strange thing. He grasped his throat with his left hand, threw back his head, and placed his right hand at the base of the skull. What he meant by this action neither Dr. Nicholson nor the attendant warders knew. "He never speaks now, " the Medical Superintendent said, "and he is in the final and most troublesome stage of lunacy, having lost his self respect." The chief warder told us of some the disgusting and degrading habits practised by this miserable wretch - habits the mere recital of which made one loathe to be in his presence, and which were yet strangely in accord with our preconceived notions of that which the man must be in order to be capable of the acts which are laid to his store.
One more question was necessary before the warder who had Jack the Ripper in charge took him out of our presence. "How does he eat his food?" one of us asked.
"With either right or left hand; he doesn't seem to care which, sir," came the answer - another link in our chain of evidence, and all the more valuable because it was unconscious, as the official had not the least knowledge of the real identity of the man whom he had watched during the past three years.
At last the unkempt, haggard, soulless man was led out into the open air again, and he promptly walked across the courtyard to his haunt by the side of the deserted wall. Here he resumed his aimless stroll backwards and forwards, with bent head and rounded shoulders - screened from curious eyes by slouched cap and capelike coat. And here we left him, to turn with a great gladness to the outer light, to the beauty of the trees and the sky, to the environment of refreshing nature, as a relief from the morbid nightmare of seeing and almost conversing with one who looked like a deathly and pallid figure risen from the marble slabs of the Morgue.
(To be continued.)
(Message edited by Chris on June 03, 2005) |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4496
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 4:37 am: |
|
Thanks Chris. Interesting that Thomas was in the dangerous ward - from the account in the Canadian paper you transcribed some time ago, it had seemed that he was catatonic and harmless.
Robert |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4498
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 9:07 am: |
|
Here's a "Times" letter from Dr Nicholson. August 29th 1922.
David Nicholson was born Scotland about 1845.
Robert |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 2010
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 10:14 am: |
|
Thanks again Chris.
I posted some information on the wrong thread last night about the type of illness Thomas appeared to have suffered from.Its taken from a Medical Text book on such illnesses and their potential dangers [untreated]for society.Its on the " Cutbush 1881 census" thread instead of this one.Sorry about that!
Natalie
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Luke Whitley
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 8:59 am: |
|
Hi AP.
Yes, I am most definitely going to obtain a copy of "Jack the Myth".
Whilst I have long held my own views on the Ripper's identity, I am certainly not the sort of person to be blinkered to new or different theories on the subject.
I have enormous respect for people like yourself
someone who has put in all the long hours of research, and the writing of the book. I certainly couldn't do it. All that WE have to do, is to curl up in an armchair and read it.
I also think that it's been made harder for Authors like you to get the public's attention, because of the false claims made by others, such as Stephen Knight with his Royal conspiracy, making us wary of any new theories.
You're probably right too, about Superintendent Cutbush. As I am no authority on mental illnesses, I shouldn't put too much emphasis on the time gap between the Sun's articles, and Charles Henry Cutbush's suicide. The very fact of his suicide proves that he was seriously unbalanced.
At this moment in time, I can't believe that Thomas Cutbush was Jack the Ripper, but you've given me food for thought, and the things you have unearthed in your research deserve to be looked at very seriously.
Warmest regards AP.
LUKE WHITLEY. |
Richard Brian Nunweek
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Richardn
Post Number: 1425
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 1:36 pm: |
|
Hi,
The reference by the sun to the tones of this patients voice are stored in the memory of a blind boy clearly refers to The murder of Mcckenzie, however if my memory serves me correct they also state that Kelly had dealings with a blind boy who it is claimed had deep feelings for.
One wonders if the boy being returned to Kellys room was blind and it is this witness that heard the killers voice yet unable to see his features.
Strange...
Richard. |
Natalie Severn
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Severn
Post Number: 2011
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 1:56 pm: |
|
Several aspects to the case intrigue me now.
regarding Richard"s post which I think is of crucial importance,the voice heard by Sgt White was very musical and cultured---his face [long]and very narrow,his eyes large and glowing with a strange luminosity.He had a "slight stoop" and was thin and about 5ft 10 ins tall.Don believes
Sgt White was hiding with another policemen probably in plain clothes and probably watching for Jewish activists or"potential insurgents".
Sounds very like a description of Thomas Cutbush!
Also Don R believes Sgt White saw this man in Mitre Square.Sgt White was completely convinced he was the murderer because the victim was found seconds later.For some strange reason this sighting was totally hushed up at the time!!!
ps the man wore rubber soled shoes and surprised White with his silent movements.
|
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 4501
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 1:56 pm: |
|
Hi Richard
I thought you'd be interested in the blind boy. Actually, doesn't the passage refer to Kelly's murder? She was the only victim whose legs were hacked to the bone.
Robert |
Richard Brian Nunweek
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Richardn
Post Number: 1426
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 2:10 pm: |
|
Hi Robert,
In hope it does refer to the kelly murder, this would be a key factor in determining the existance of the boy connected to kelly that was returned to her room, and sent on a errand , but of course how could a blind boy by himself be sent anywhere?
It seems to be a reference tO Dicson the blind boy that was in the company of Mckenzie,
However.
Richard. |
R.J. Palmer
Chief Inspector
Username: Rjpalmer
Post Number: 637
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 4:15 pm: |
|
AP--Actually, I wasn't too worried about Macnaghten's claims about the syphilis. I think it might have been in a book on Henrik Ibsen that pointed out that in the 19th Century everyone with a wasting disease or a bit of eccentricity was whispered to have syphilis, just like nowadays if the family doesn't disclose the cause of death in the newspaper obituary everyone assumes suicide or AIDS. I was more puzzled by MM's claim "He had been employed as a clerk and traveller in the Tea trade at the Minories, and subsequently cavassed for a Directory in the East End, during which time he bore a good character." It's certainly a charitable statement if, in fact, Thomas threw his employer down a set of stairs. MM seemed to have been implying that Cutbush's "eccentricities" came after his "idleness" took over, but this isn't quite true. But I suppose MM might have meant it in a general way.
(Message edited by rjpalmer on June 04, 2005) |
Luke Whitley
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 2:05 pm: |
|
Hi Natalie.
Yes, Sgt.White's statement seems to be consistently ignored or overlooked. However, to me, that description fits Montague Druitt better than Cutbush.
Warmest regards.
LUKE WHITLEY. |
Howard Brown
Chief Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 503
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 9:48 pm: |
|
from my main man,Rajah...
"that in the 19th Century everyone with a wasting disease or a bit of eccentricity was whispered to have syphilis.."
Not only in this case of Cutbush,but in a few others too,R.J.
This Cutbush saga is very interesting. I read A.P.'s truncated story in the Mammoth and along with this great thread,I'm gettin' an education. Please keep this going....
HowBrown
|
Howard Brown
Chief Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 504
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, June 04, 2005 - 9:56 pm: |
|
Dear Luke....
My friend,Richard Patterson,wrote a book on Francis Thompson,and felt this Sgt.White description fit him. Tumblety was around that height,as well as the pale Stephenson.
HowBrown
|
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2074
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 05, 2005 - 12:41 am: |
|
On the question of the blind boy, I am certain the passage refers to Kelly's murders. There is, infuriatingly, a section of 5 lines at that point which I found impossible to decipher - the only three words I can definitely make are "Lord Mayor's day" which must refer to Kelly in. In the transcription, this part comes in the following place:
the only person whose identification of Jack the Ripper would be most indicative(?) is a blind boy.
<illegible> 5 lines
... fiendish hand which had done so many murders was responsible for her awful end.
Having looked at the section again, I am now sure that the words I transcribed as "most indicative" should read "almost conclusive." I am posting the section below to see if anyone's eyes can make more sense of it.
Chris
 |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2075
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 05, 2005 - 12:46 am: |
|
Stop press:-)
By a very careful look at the section above I have been able to decipher the 5 missing lines as follows:
It will be remembered that on Lord Mayor's day, November 9th, 1888, a poor unfortunate, Mary Jane Kelly, was murdered in a house in Dorset Street, Spitalfields. There could no doubt that it was the same fiendish hand etc etc
|
Richard Brian Nunweek
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Richardn
Post Number: 1427
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 05, 2005 - 3:29 am: |
|
Hi chris,
Your eyesight is far better then mind, What is your opinion on this confused story.
The passage clearly connects it to Kelly, yet Mckenzie has connections also to a blind boy..
The old A-Z contributes this article as 'Garbled'
Two points spring to mind regarding Kellys connection.
A] The boy was returned to kellys room,
B] He was begging in the streets.
Both could indicate blindness , being returned and being blind would give a better opportunety of begging.
Did he have another person nearby with him when he reached the door and the two of them went on a errand, as if he was blind he could hardly go alone?.
Regards Richard. |
|
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