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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 **
Charles Ludwig
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Suspects: General Discussion :
Charles Ludwig
Author: Michael Leonard Tate
Friday, 08 March 2002 - 01:35 am |        | Hello,
I haven't seen much mention of him in the message boards. Here are some possible arguments for him being at least Annie Chapman's murderer:
* Approx. June: He arrives in London a couple of months before the murders began.
* 2nd Sept: Starts work at a hairdresser's in the Minories.
* 8th Sept, 5.30: Chapman seen with a suspect described as "40's, foreign-looking, shabby genteel".
* 8th Sept, a little later: Suspicious man is seen in pub close to murder sight. Appears as if he has been fighting with some blood on the hands. Leaves heading in the directions of Finsbury, walking oddly. Suspect described as foreign-looking.
* 8th Sept: Charles Ludwig turns up at his hotel in Finsbury. Landlady relates his claim to having been "injured". Anther witness sees him cleaning blood of his hands.
* 11th Sept, 1.00am: Ludwig seen playing with his knives at the hotel.
* 18th Sept Late night/early morning: Ludwig found threatening a prostitute with knife near the Minories. Threatens to cut her throat. Disturbed by police.
* 18th Sept, later, same night: Ludwig seen leading a prostitute down Commercial Street. Prostitute escapes shouting "You can do that to me!"
* 18th Sept 3.00am: Ludwig attacks customer at coffee stall in Commercial Street with knife. Is briefly apprehended. He dropped a long bladed open knife, and on him was found a razor and a long bladed pair of scissors. Described as 40's, foreign, respectably dressed (shabby-genteel?). Walks stiffly.
Not the perfect suspect by any means, nor a particularly romantic one but a possible for Chapman's murder?
He obviously travelled to London without a particular purpose (who would come all that way just to be a hairdresser?) Maybe he was escaping from Germany. Why did he choose to become a hairdresser and why was he well-dressed. Maybe he had a more respectable job back home in Germany (barber/surgeon?) and was unwilling or unused to the more manual work available in the area.
He also seemed to have an intent to injure prostitutes with knives, one of the few undoubtable factors of JtR's MO.
Cheers,
Mike |
Author: Jesse Flowers
Friday, 08 March 2002 - 01:41 pm | | Mike-
It seems that Ludwig was able to provide a satisfactory alibi to the police. Inspector Prinley of H Division stated at Ludwig's court appearance that "the prisoner had fully accounted for his whereabouts on the nights of the recent murders." Abberline added, in a report dated October 22, "With regard to the man Wetzel (Ludwig), it has been clearly proved that he was in no way concerned in the matter."
AAA88 |
Author: Michael Leonard Tate
Friday, 08 March 2002 - 02:26 pm | | Jesse,
Cheers for the info. There where a few other things bugging me about him as a suspect (some of the descriptions and the medical know-how) although the same could be said of every other suspect in the case.
I wonder what alibi he gave that was so cast-iron.
Mike |
Author: Jesse Flowers
Friday, 08 March 2002 - 03:00 pm | | Hi Mike-
Actually, if you're looking for someone who could be the murderer of just Annie Chapman (and possibly Tabram and Nichols as well), a better candidate might be Jacob Isenschmid. Isenschmid was also a foreigner over the age of 40, and his trade as a butcher could have afforded him some rough anatomical knowledge. His description tallied perfectly with that of a disheveled, bloodstained man seen at the Prince Albert pub (some 400 yards from 29 Hanbury Street) at 7 o'clock on the morning of the Chapman murder. A violent lunatic, he would spend the rest of his life in and out of asylums, dying at Colney Hatch in 1910. And so far as I know he, unlike Ludwig, never did account for his whereabouts on the nights of the earlier murders.
Of course the problem is that you have to believe that the Chapman murder is unconnected with the rest of the series, which I personally cannot envision. I do believe, though, that if the Ripper had stopped killing in London after Annie Chapman, there's a good possibility that Isenschmid would have been hanged as the Whitechapel murderer. Or, if he had never been arrested at all, someone would have written a book by now "proving" that he was the Ripper. 
AAA88 |
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