Posted on Sunday, March 02, 2003 - 11:22 am:

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quote:

Apropos of your query about Swanson and 'a note you found from him where
he marks down Frances Coles as a victim of Jack the Ripper', this could be a tricky one. Apart from the 'marginalia', Swanson wasn't recorded as saying much at all about the murders. Do you have a copy of Paul Begg's book 'Jack the Ripper: The Uncensored Facts'? If so I would draw your attention to page 208. There you will see that Begg refers to 'a document among Chief Inspector Swanson's private papers' which he describes as 'a list of the victims of the Whitechapel murders.' On page 209 he goes on to say that 'Added to the list in a hurried hand - indicating that it was appended after the list had been drawn up - is the name of Francis [sic - Frances] Coles, who was murdered on 13 February 1891. Why should Swanson have included the name of Coles if 'Kosminski' had at that time been identified and committed?' and he then goes on to expand on this.I can only think that this is the 'note' to which you alluded. It is rather unfortunate that this list amongst Swanson's papers is neither recorded in full by Begg, nor fully understood by him.The list referred to includes the following murders - 3.4.88 Emma E. Smith; 7.8.88 Martha Tabram. 31.8.88 Mary Ann Nicholls [sic] 8.9.88 Annie Chapman. 30.9.88 Elizabeth Stride. Catherine Eddowes. 9.11.88 Mary Janet [sic] Kelly. 17.7.89 Alice McKenzie. 13.2.91 Frances Coles.
The first thing to note is the fact that the Scotland Yard Whitechapel murders file contains, in all, eleven murders the first of which is the Smith murder of 3/4 April 1888 and the last the Coles murder of 13 February 1891. The two missing from the above list are the Mylett murder of 20 December 1888 and the Pinchin Street torso case of 10 September 1889, both of which are sufficiently different from the others to explain their omission from the list amongst Swanson's papers.The second point to note is the fact that 'the Whitechapel murders' and 'the Ripper murders' are NOT one and the same thing. The former being the complete series of unsolved East End murders and the latter being the small grouping of five or six similar cases that occurred between August and November 1888 and which are popularly attributed to 'Jack the Ripper'. Ergo, 'the Whitechapel murders' INCLUDED the 'Ripper murders'.All of which is not to say that Swanson 'marked down' Coles as being a victim of Jack the Ripper'. The document carrying this list is merely a sort of cover sheet recording the series of unsolved murders more or less in full, the name of Coles having been added at a later date to make the list complete, more or less, in accordance with the police files. Quite understandably you appear to have read what Begg wrote about it and put the interpretation on it that Swanson was including Coles in a list of Ripper victims.I hope that this is clear to you, and that it explains your query.The list in question is in private hands (the Swanson family), but I visited Jim Swanson and photographed this list (which appears in no book) and I can scan a copy for you if you would like to see it.Best Wishes, Stewart

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