The Signwriter - A credible suspect

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The Signwriter - A credible suspect

Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Suspects: General Discussion : The Signwriter - A credible suspect

Author: Ron Taylor
Sunday, 26 November 2000 - 07:08 pm

Begg, Fido and Skinner in The JtR A to Z refer to the theory of David Lamb a Salvation Army Commissioner published in Tit-Bits 23 Sept 1939.

This received little attention at the time (war had just been declared )

However, I find it quite convincing.

Lamb was in London from Oct 1889 until May 1891.

Lamb claimed that his suspect said "I'll tell you who will be the next one to go 'Carrotey Nell" That was the nickname of Frances Coles killed in Feb 1891. Lamb notes that "a few days afterwards " a woman of that name was killed.

He goes on "I now have little doubt in my mind that he was Jack the Ripper himself"

He talks of the suspect's "exceptional dexterity....visions of blood... his strange demeanour "

Lamb was a man of considerable integrity and would have had no reason to invent the story.

Certainly, I think there is an extremely strong case that Lamb met nd described the killer of Frances Coles.

Of course, there is some doubt if Coles was a JtR victim.

Some possible names with ages in 1888 of signwriters in the East London area are: (from 1881 Census)

By no means an exhaustive list, and many of them were not from the immediate area.

But names worth looking out for.

William Tabor 31 St Pancras
alfred Daniell 48 Islington
John Rowe Hackney 44
Frederick Layton 48 St Giles in Fields
John Collins 40 Bethnal Green
William Bansley St George in East 22
Fred Bevan 56 Limehouse
James Jones 30 Poplar
Thomas Clemo 32 Islington
John Bock 46 Bethnal Green
Henry Pilcher 29 Whitechapel
John Wise 63 Whitechapel
Charles Ladbrook 44 Whitechapel
Charles Jeffries 34 Whitechapel
Henry Oates 47 Mile End
Edward Fleming 32 Mile End
William Sayer 55 Bow

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