| Jack the Ripper: A Suspect Guide |
This text is from the E-book Jack the Ripper: A Suspect Guide by Christopher J. Morley (2005). Click here to return to the table of contents. The text is unedited, and any errors or omissions rest with the author. Our thanks go out to Christopher J. Morley for his permission to publish his E-book.
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George Francis (Frank) Miles, was born 22 April 1852 in Bingham, and was the grandson of Philip John Miles 1773-1854, an English merchant and politician for Bristol. Frank Miles was a colour blind, well known Painter, who specialized in flattering pencil drawings and portraits of society ladies. In 1880 he won the Royal Academy's Turner Prize, and was a Oxford acquaintance and friend of the playwright Oscar Wilde, living in accommodation above Wilde in Salisbury Street from 1879-81. In 1881 the two lived together, possibly as lovers, at Keats House, 3 Tite Street, Chelsea, one of his neighbours being Sir Melville Macnaghten. Miles close friendship with Wilde ended when Miles father, a clergyman, criticised Wilde's lifestyle Wilde went to America, and Miles suffered a nervous breakdown.
Theorist Thomas Toughill suggested Miles as a possible Ripper suspect in the early 1970's, though this theory is unlikely as in 1887 Miles mental health further deteriorated and he was confined to Brislington asylum near Bristol.
Brislington asylum was opened in 1806, and was mainly for people who could afford, and wished to pay for relatives to be confined in good conditions.
Edward Wakefield, in 1815 described the asylum as delightfully and cheerfully situated, and said that little, or no coercion was used. Miles remained here until his death on 15 June 1894. Even though it is rumoured Miles was homosexual, it is said he preffered exposing himself to young girls below the age of consent, for which the police once tried to arrest him.
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