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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 **
Nicolas Wassili
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Suspects: General Discussion :
Nicolas Wassili
Author: graziano
Sunday, 17 February 2002 - 12:26 pm |        | Hi Paul Begg,
just a question, a second thought about our previous posts:
is the reference on Nicolas Wassili on the L'Indépendance Belge (14 November 1888) the only reference to him in all the "Jack the Ripper" case ?
Thank you. Graziano. |
Author: Paul Begg
Monday, 18 February 2002 - 01:31 am | | Hi Graziano
No, there were other references to him in the British and American press (I don't have the sources to hand).
Cheers
Paul |
Author: graziano
Monday, 18 February 2002 - 12:17 pm | | Thank you Paul Begg.
Well let's try so to make this tread not completely useless.
Since I nevertheless think the first mention of Nicolas Wassili was made by L'Indépendance Belge the 14.11.1888, it could be interesting for historical reasons to reproduce it here for whoever would be interested and for Simon Owen to be able to train himself with the french language:
Jack the Ripper- On nous écrit de Berne les lignes suivantes à propos de ce fameux personnage:
"Bien que ce qui se passe à Londres ne nous concerne guère je prendrais la liberté de compléter les renseignements qui vous sont donnés par vos correspondants à Londres.
Voici une coïncidence curieuse qui se raconte à Lucerne: il y a seize ans environs la population de Paris fût épouvantée par les exploits d'un mystérieux assassin qui s'attaquait surtout aux femmes appartenant au demi et quart de monde. On finit par découvrir l'auteur de ces crimes. C'était un Russe, nommé Nicolas Wassili, né en 1847 à Traspol, dans le gouvernement de Kharson.
Il avait reçu une excellente éducation, il avait fait toutes ses études à l'Université d'Odessa. Une enquête fût faite, les savants s'en mêlèrent. Wassili fût déclaré fou; il avait agi sous l'empire du fanatisme religieux; il fût placé dans une maison de santé, dont il est sorti comme guéri le 1er janvier 1888. Serait-ce Jack the Ripper ?"
Nous ne reproduisons cette histoire qu'à titre de curiosité pour donner une idée de la diversité et de la multiplicité des versions qui naissent autour de ces horribles et mystérieux crimes de Whitechapel.
The last sentence which translated gives: "We reproduce this letter just as a mere curiosity to show how many different and various versions try to explain these horrible and mysterious crimes of Whitechapel.", seems to testify how little serious this letter was considered by the editor of the newspaper.
Nevertheless, since Wassili seems to have spent the 16 years prior to 1888 in a maison de santé, I am curious to know how he could be tied someway to the anarchist movement.
Or is it only because at the time (Ravachol and others were not so far away in recollections) anarchists and common criminals were often confused ?
Bye. Graziano. |
Author: R.J. Palmer
Saturday, 06 April 2002 - 04:04 pm | | | Graziano--There were evidently other articles that pre-dated the above. Something allegedly appeared in the Le Temps, Paris, and a letter by some guy named H. D'Altons that was printed in the New York Herald. The only clipping that I personally have seen is a long article from the Toronto Globe [Nov 15, 1888] which first appeared in the New York World. Wassili [or Vassili, as he is also called] is said to have belonged to a fanatical religious group in Cherson, Russia called "The Shorn". Evidently this was supressed by the Church or the government. There's a love story, treachery, the Paris slums, etc., and Vassaili ends up killing a bunch of women in Paris. Honestly, I don't know if any of the details of his story have ever been confirmed, but it seems doubtful. It's a crazy story and reads much more like French fiction than fact. I'd blame the story on Victor Hugo, but he was already dead. Anyway, Vassili is said to have been released from an asylum in Tiraspool on Jan. 1, 1888 and was heading for London. Maybe I'll post the article when I get the time. Cheers, RP |
Author: graziano
Sunday, 07 April 2002 - 05:31 am | | OK RJ, it will be interesting.
Thank you. Graziano. |
Author: Stepan Poberowski
Monday, 08 April 2002 - 05:26 am | | Graziano,
I tried to follow on all possible clues to establish a reality (or unreality) of Nikolas Vassili's existence from Russian sources. Any of them has not resulted in positive result. For example, a statement of some newspapers that Vassili had received an excellent education at the University of Odessa. The first class of the Novorossiysk University of Odessa was in 1869 (two persons). But untill to 1895 among graduates there was no person with surname Vassili.
Cherson (Kherson) was not a place of distribution of sect of "Skopetzs" (geldings, spados, eunuchs), which English-speaking newspapers named "The Shorns", and 1972 was not year of special strengthening of governmental persecutions on the sect (it was strong always - uncovered members of the sect usually banished to Siberia, to Yakutsk. A version of Vassili's revolutionary past, stated by the Petersburg newspaper "Novosti", has not received confirmation too.
R.J.Palmer,
I shall be very grateful, if you send me the above mentioned article also.
All best,
Stepan |
Author: graziano
Monday, 08 April 2002 - 08:01 am | | That's interesting Stepan,
have you also looked for all the possible Nikolas Vassilievitch ?
In any case in the next few weeks I will have to spend some time in Paris.
I will try to look there what really happened in 1872 or there around.
I will let you know.
Bye. Graziano. |
Author: R.J. Palmer
Monday, 08 April 2002 - 11:53 pm | | | Stepan--I'll try to post the article on this site sometime in the near future. Check back in a week or two and I'll try and have it up. Cheers, RP |
Author: Stepan Poberowski
Tuesday, 09 April 2002 - 04:04 am | | Hi, Graziano
I am very much interested in your Paris results.
Unfortunately, in Russia to find correct Nikolay Vasil'evich (or Nikolas Vasilievitch in other way of transcribation) even less really, than in England to find John Smith. In Russian name model "Vasilievich" is a patronymic, i.e. a father's name. However I think, that Vasiliev is a surname, instead of the askew patronymic. (alas, Vasil'ev is very useful last name in Russia in XIX century) Now I look through files of 1860th - 1870th on prosecutions of the sect of Skopetzs in the Orthodox Holy Synod archive in St.Petersburg , however lack of time - no more than two hours per week - very much delays this process as well as some my other Ripperologist projects.
R.J.Palmer - thank you
All best,
Stepan |
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