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Chris Scott
Chief Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 808
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 5:04 pm: |       |
Found the report below which alleges it was a fairly widely held belief that the police in the case
A) suppressed information about the existence of further Ripper victims and
B) alleged that Ripper victims had died of natural causes
I had not seen this contemporary theory before - though it might be of interest
Chris
Atlanta Constitution
16 December 1888
JACK THE RIPPER'S LIMIT
Growing Belief that Fifteen Victims Have Already Fallen Under His Knife
London, Dec. 4.
The failure of the police to apprehend the Whitechapel murderer, vaguely known in all reports concerning his crimes and respecting his identity as Jack the Ripper, has raised the suspicion and as days and weeks have past intensified the belief that the number of murders committed by this fiend - assuming them to have been the work of one and the same person - is as much a matter of conjecture as is the real name of the monster or his present whereabouts.
The fact is still fresh in the mind of every man, woman and child in London, and, indeed, places far remote from the metropolis. that the presumed murderer chalked upon a shutter, after sending the soul of a victim from the loathsome haunts of the East End to an unknown world, a message expressing his intention to similarly dispose of a total of fifteen wretched lives before his desire for the shedding of human blood by the diabolical methodical methods he had conceived or adopted should be satiated. Who knows that he had not already reached that number, or even exceeded it?
The police, under the direction of Sir Charles Warren, were baffled in their efforts to run down the murderer until, through sheer discomfiture, the chief commissioner resigned his office. The press and the public criticised the action or inaction of the police unreservedly, and in doing so unquestionably impaired their efficiency by making it apparent that failure at whatever cost of effort would be condemned, while success would go unrewarded by even appreciation or acknowledgement of the difficulties encountered in its achievement.
The question is now asked, and with good reason, hasn't Jack the Ripper exceeded the number of murders to which he limited himself in his shutter proclamation and his communication to the Central News? The police under the ban of public censure for inefficiency certainly can have had no incentive to make public the details of additional murders while unable to capture the murderer since every fresh butchery has brought upon their heads further maledicitons from tongue and pen.
It is therefore suggested, and by many person assumed, that other bodies than the ones reported as having been deprived of life by the terrible Jack have been found by the police and quietly put out of the way, while still others have been reported as having met death by natural causes, and all means of discovering the statements removed or rendered so difficult as to restrain the curious from making one of them.
It will require the exercise of all of Commissioner Monro's recognized abilities to their full extent to allay this suspicion, and that result can only be accomplished by the prompt capture of the murderer and submission to the public of evidence that the actual number of his butcheries are no greater than the official reports have represented.
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AP Wolf
Chief Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 661
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 1:11 pm: | |
Chris
nice find.
Quite honestly it would not surprise me in the slightest if there wasn't a measure of truth in this report. One only has to consider modern police forces in action when they apprehend a killer willing to trade his neck by admitting to murders he never actually committed.
The police did - and still do like to keep their books tidy.
I haven't seen this report on the chalked writing on a shutter, it obviously doesn't refer to the grafitti we know of. Anything else on that?
I don't suppose it could have been written on the shutter that we do know was in front of the missing 29 Aldgate High Street?
Just joshing ya. |
Chris Scott
Chief Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 809
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 2:38 pm: | |
Hi AP
I am working on the 1894 map- I have isoplated where 29 Aldate High Street was - the property count on the map definitely includes it!
I'll be posting that tomorrow.
The chalked writing on the shutter I have seen mentioned persistently in the press articles and it refers always to the murder of Annie Chapman and is variously described as being on a wall or a shutter in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street
Here are some examples:
Frederick News
10 November 1888
The fourth one was found in Hanbury street, not far from the location of this one, and at the time she was discovered there was written on the wall near the body the legend:
"Fifteen before I Surrender."
Atlanta Constitution
16 December 1888
The fact is still fresh in the mind of every man, woman and child in London, and, indeed, places far remote from the metropolis. that the presumed murderer chalked upon a shutter, after sending the soul of a victim from the loathsome haunts of the East End to an unknown world, a message expressing his intention to similarly dispose of a total of fifteen wretched lives before his desire for the shedding of human blood by the diabolical methodical methods he had conceived or adopted should be satiated.
Trenton Times
17 July 1889
Chalked upon a board surface near some of the murdered women were notices signed Jack the Ripper, announcing that a specified number had been slain, and that when the fifteenth had died the murderer would announce his identity and surrender to the authorities.
I have yet to find the origin of this story as it is not, to my knowledge mentioned in any police statements or inquest testimony but it certainly seems to be both perisitent and early in origin.
All the best
Chris
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Chris Scott
Chief Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 810
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 2:45 pm: | |
Hi AP
the most specific mention I can find of the chalked message in Hanbury street is from Williamsport Sunday Grit, 15 September 1889.
It was the same old story, a dead woman, brutally cut to pieces, the head nearly severed from the body but no trace of the murderer. This one was identified as Annie Sievy, known in the district as "Dark Annie." On a brick wall was found a rude scrawl in chalk which read: "Five - fifteen more and then I give myself up."
Chris |
AP Wolf
Chief Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 662
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 4:16 pm: | |
Thanks Chris
Jack would have been a very busy boy if he had reached the twenty then.
I look forward to your news on 29 Aldgate High Street. I want it to be a common hotel, but you don't always get what you want for Christmas. |
Chris Scott
Chief Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 812
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 4:39 pm: | |
Hi AP
I'm afraid I have not been able to find out what 29 Aldgate High St was, only the exact loaction of where it was. From the 1891 census sheets I counted westwards from the public house at No 37 and eastwards from the Railway station and once property was not accounted for, the position corresponding exactly to where No 29 would be had it been listed.
It is marked on the map below in red
Hope this helps
Chris
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Chris Scott
Chief Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 813
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 5:59 pm: | |
I thought this list from the 1891 census of the businesses in Aldgate High street might give a flavour of what the area was like
Chris
Aldgate High Street 1891
Numbering starts in the census from the corner of Duke Street
North side
2 - Post Office
3 - 6 (inclusive) - Uninhabited
7 - Household of servants
Here is Church Row
15 - Restaurant (Proprietor Charles Castagna)
10-12 Hotel
13 - Public House (Proprietor Orbell Musk)
Nos 10-13 combined to make the Three Nuns Hotel under the propritorship of Frederick Ayres.
Railway Station
Tobacconist (No number gven)
19-20 (Inclusive) - Uninhabited
21 - Provision Dealer (Charles Croft)
Here is Crown Place
23 - Coffee House (Thomas Franklin)
24 - Tailor (Solomon Davison)
Here is Aldgate Avenue
26 - Pastry Cook's (Jane Leo)
27 - Jeweller's (Philip Greenbaum)
28 - Furniture Dealer (Henry Phillips)
30 - Uninhabited
31 - Tobacco Cutter (John James)
32 - Cocoa Rooms (Henry Hill)
33 - Tobacconist (Samuel Abrahams)
34 - Household of servants
Here is Black Horse Yard (Uninhabited)
35 - Fruiterer's (Henry Levey)
36 - Draper's
37 - Public House (Note says "Collected by Enumerator in Middlesex Street
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Alexander Chisholm
Detective Sergeant
Username: Alex
Post Number: 59
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 8:30 pm: | |
Hi Chris & A.P.
Regarding the persistent message, the Star, 8th Sept. 1888 page 2 reported:
The people, and even the police, were so excited that all sorts of rumours were flying about. The woman living next door declared that this morning there was written on the door of No. 29, This is the fourth, I will murder sixteen more and then give myself up. There was no basis for this story, however, there being no chalk mark on the door except 29.
Best wishes
alex
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Alexander Chisholm
Detective Sergeant
Username: Alex
Post Number: 60
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 8:55 pm: | |
Continuing from the post above, the Daily Telegraph, 10 Sept., 1888 page 3, reported:
A number of sensational stories are altogether without corroboration, such, for instance, as the tale that writing was seen on the wall of No. 29: "I have now done three, and intend to do nine more and give myself up." One version says some such threat as "Five - Fifteen more and I give myself up," was written upon a piece of paper that was picked up.
Best Wishes
alex
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Richard Brian Nunweek
Chief Inspector
Username: Richardn
Post Number: 533
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 3:06 am: | |
Hi ,
Graffiti, must have been in abundance, throughout whitechapel at the time, all sort of hoaxes,letters, and frightening messages on walls.
I do not believe we can take all these as clues,
It would appear to me that only six women , can be attributed to 'Jack' Tabram- kelly.
Richard. |
Alan Sharp
Inspector
Username: Ash
Post Number: 325
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 7:56 am: | |
Chris
On the question of trying to cover up the number of victims, this is from the Irish Times, 10th September 1888
The generally accepted theory is that the whole series of murders are the work of one, but a medical opinion is that the knife wounds on the woman found in August in George yard may after all have been self-inflicted.
Quite how they explain how someone inflicts 39 knife wounds with two different knives on themselves is another matter!!!! |
Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 537
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 1:09 pm: | |
Hi, Alan:
I always knew the Irish had a fine sense of humor. 
All the best
Chris |
Dan Norder
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, January 01, 2004 - 9:51 am: | |
Hrm. Interesting.
The whole "reported as having met death by natural causes" angle would seem to be a reference to the Rose Mylett case -- other than the fact that she didn't die until a few days after this article!
I wonder if there could have been circumstances in which they could have hidden victims from public knowledge, such as if a body was found in a secluded spot in which a police presence wouldn't be unusual.
Not that I think that it did happen, I'm just wondering if it's even feasible. |
Erin Sigler
Inspector
Username: Rapunzel676
Post Number: 182
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 1:54 am: | |
If this were indeed case, I would see it as more as evidence of bureaucractic fumbling, rather than deliberate cover-up.
Just out of curiosity, were any sort of zoning laws in place in London in 1888, or are those a fairly moden invention? |
Natalie Severn
Inspector
Username: Severn
Post Number: 194
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 11, 2004 - 5:47 pm: | |
Hi Erin.I assume by Zoning you mean planning?
Most of London"s planning was dictated by the needs of private capital which always took precedence over regulation and planning.Prior to the second World War most metropolitan improvements were fairly hotchpotch and London"s urban infrastructure in the mid 19th century couldnt support its population though gradual improvements took place from that time until just after the second World War everything began to change radically and from 1947 a new ministery of Town and Country planning was set up and given powers to control land use.
Sorry I cant be of more help but if you specify I may be able to help.
Best Wishes Natalie. |
pinkbabe
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 10:45 am: | |
hiya!
its my first time visit to this site!im doing jack the ripper as yr 10 coursework and i have to write 5 essays!i was just wandering if you can give me a little help please!i would like to know some points on how jack the ripper avoided capture?i have a rough idea of how he did but because you lot seem to know what your talking about and seem to know alot about the jack the ripper case i thought you might be able to help! post your views and thoughts PLEAASSSEEEEE! |
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