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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 **
Puckridge, Oswald
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Suspects: Specific Suspects:
Later Suspects [ 1910 - Present ]:
Puckridge, Oswald
Author: Diana Comer
Wednesday, 18 August 1999 - 05:00 am |        | | I spotted this one in the Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper. Not much information given. I can quote the whole thing here. "April: Oswald Puckridge, trained as a surgeon but confined since threatening to "rip people up", is released from an asylum." I know this will fit in nicely with what Dr. Villon has been saying. Does anybody know any more about this man? |
Author: Caz
Wednesday, 18 August 1999 - 08:18 am | | Hi Diana and All,
I thought the thing about serial killers was their ability to be seen outwardly as completely normal respectable members of society who would not harm a fly. I'm sure some of them actually believe it too! So would a man hell-bent on getting away with his series (as Jack did) really threaten openly to 'rip people up'. Bit of a give-away for an otherwise swift, silent stalker of street-walkers, I'd say.
Love,
Caz |
Author: Christopher George
Wednesday, 18 August 1999 - 11:08 am | | Hi, Caz:
Excellent point. Most probably our Jack did not make a display of going round proclaiming he would "rip" people up. More likely he was an unobtrusive type, an outwardly trustworthy individual who rather than frightening the women, set their minds at ease. Doctor? Priest? Confessor? Social worker? Kindly neighbor? Our old pal Jack....
Chris George |
Author: Jim DiPalma
Wednesday, 18 August 1999 - 12:38 pm | | Hi All,
Caz, Chris: I quite agree that our boy was likely an inconspicuous, average looking sort who did not arouse undue suspicion - a key reason he was never caught, IMHO.
To answer Diana's question, according to Sugden, Puck[e]ridge (the "e" reportedly comes and goes in different documents), Puckridge was born June 13, 1838 (making him 50 years of age at the time of the murders) at Burpham, Sussex, the fourth of five children. The family is recorded in the 1841 census. He married an Ellen Puddle or Buddle in south-east London in 1868. On the marriage certificate, his occupation is given as chemist (pharmacist to American readers).
He was committed to Hoxton House Lunatic Asylum on January 6, 1888, and discharged as "relieved, but not cured" on August 4, 1888, three days before the Tabram murder. The quote that Diana gave was apparently taken from a Sept 19 report from Warren to the Home Office in response to a request for a progress report on the investigation. Puckridge was clearly suspected by the police at that time, but the very same report also states that "No progress has as yet been made in obtaining any definite clue to the Whitechapel murderers (murders?)". Sugden speculates that this statement by Warren indicates that the CID had no hard evidence linking Puckridge to the crimes, and that the reasons he was suspected were insanity and medical knowledge, although the latter point is dubious given that he was trained as an apothecary, and not as a surgeon or doctor.
Hope this helps,
Jim |
Author: Calogridis
Saturday, 21 August 1999 - 01:19 pm | | G'Day All!
Thanks for the bio on Puckridge, Jim! I was rereading Terence Sharkey's 'JtR 100 Years of Investigation' and was struck by how similar the Red Spider of Poland in the 1960's was to the probable type of person Jack was. Lucien Staniak, a 26-year old publisher's translator. he painted pictures of women with mutilated stomachs. Jack may have had a similar clerical job, then again he may have been a butcher. In any event as others here have noted, his outward appearance was undoubtably quite normal and possibly mild.
Cheers.....Mike |
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