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** This is an archived, static copy of the Casebook messages boards dating from 1998 to 2003. These threads cannot be replied to here. If you want to participate in our current forums please go to https://forum.casebook.org **
The Vigilance Committee
Casebook Message Boards: General Discussion: Miscellaneous:
The Vigilance Committee
Author: Howard Brown
Saturday, 31 August 2002 - 09:14 am |        | | Dear posters.........Does anyone know what ever became of the Whitechapel V.C. after all the smoke had cleared? Did they become a part of the community structure ? Here in America,some cities have "town watches',locals who patrol the streets by automobile,and keep an eye out for potential trouble in their own neighborhoods.Some actually become inspired to run for local alderman and council seats. Did this happen in Whitechapel ? Muchas gracias |
Author: The Viper
Saturday, 23 November 2002 - 07:21 am | | Already there are some intriguing little bits and pieces emerging from the peripheral material posted at the News from Whitechapel website. For instance, on the 13th November 1888 there is a story under a banner "Police Intelligence: Marlborough Street – Disgraceful Trick". It describes how an oilman called Henry Leake entered a pub in Berners Street on Saturday afternoon, 10th November and found himself accused of being Jack the Ripper by several men. Leake left in a hurry, but two of the group followed him out. Their names were William Avenell and Frederick Moore. They claimed to be plain-clothes detectives, grabbed hold of Leake, assaulted him and dragged him towards a road called Newman Street, before taking him back to a house at 62 Berners Street where he claimed to deliver oil regularly. At that point Leake escaped the mens’ clutches and took refuge in the house, but was followed in and grabbed by the pair. Shortly afterwards the police turned up. The men were remanded so that Leake, who was quite badly injured, could press civil charges against them, whilst the police prepared to charge Avenell with impersonating a detective (he was in fact a chimney sweep).
What’s fascinating about the story is this. In March 1893 Albert Bachert was sentenced to three months’ hard labour. Bachert, who took over the chairmanship of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in 1889, had been working for the Tower Hamlets Unemployed Investigation and Relief Society, a charitable fund. Bachert had fraudulently acquired a considerable quantity of flour and bread and passed it to a Mrs. Beers, a widow, whom he claimed was a friend of his. Beers, who kept a beershop, did not qualify for relief. Now, it transpired that her name by a former husband was Avenell – not a very common surname.
The question here is whether Mrs. Beers/Avenell had been the wife of the man charged with impersonating a detective. I would suggest that there is a very good chance that the answer to that is ‘yes’. Perhaps William Avenell really was playing at detectives – as a member of the vigilance committee to which Albert Bachert belonged, and through which the two men were acquainted. If he was these incidents don’t reflect well on the calibre of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee’s members. Avenell was part of a group in the pub with an apparent lynch mob mentality, and the arresting officer also described him as drunk. The later conviction of Bachert – not the first time he’d been to court – tells its own story.
One potential fly in the ointment about this theory is the location of the Leake incident. Berner Street, St. George’s-in-the-East (where Liz Stride was murdered), was frequently misspelt as Berners Street in the press. However, by the reference to adjacent Newman Street and the fact that the case went to court at Marlborough Street, it is obvious that in this case we are talking about Berners Street W1, north of Oxford Street and a good distance west of the murder district.
Regards, V. |
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