| 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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Joseph Gorman Sickert, the self-alleged son of the artist Walter Sickert, makes the rather dubious claim that carman, John Netley, drove Sir William Gull and his co-conspirators around Whitechapel in his own carriage, while they committed the Jack the Ripper murders, and that the murders took place inside the vehicle. The bodies were then transported to the locations where they were subsequently found. The victims, it is claimed, were enticed inside by Gull then fed poisoned grapes. These claims, however, completely contradict the known available evidence. Blood splashes at the crime scenes clearly showed the victims had been murdered at the place where their bodies were discovered. Secondly, the contents of the victims stomachs were carefully examined, and failed to show any evidence they had been drugged or poisoned prior to their murder. John Netley's actual involvement in the crimes varies according to which version of the Royal Conspiracy theory is been postulated at the time. Some theorists have speculated Netley was responsible for the murder of Elizabeth Stride, and matched the description of her broad-shouldered assailant. Netley, it is also claimed, along with Frederico Albericci, murdered Emma Elizabeth Smith. Again this claim contradicts the actual known events. Smith clearly stated she was attacked by three men, one a youth, about nineteen years of age.
John Charles Netley was born in May 1860, in either Paddington or Kensington London. The son of an omnibus conductor. He was employed as a carman by Messrs Thompson McKay and Co, and was described as a steady worker. According to Walter Sickert, Netley was broad shouldered, 5ft 5" tall, with an insecurity about his height. He was killed in an accident in 1903 in Park Road, when the wheel of his van clipped a high kerb, he was thrown from the vehicle and trampled by the horses, his head been crushed by the wheels of his own van.
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