| 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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Gibson was named as Jack the Ripper by author Robert Graysmith in the book The Bell Tower. Graysmith makes the claim that Theo Durrant, a 24 year old medical student, who was arrested, found guilty and executed on 7 January 1898 for the murder of two women, Blanch Lamont 18, and Minnie Williams 21, in San Francisco's Baptist Church, was in fact innocent of the crime and that the real culprit was John George Gibson, the church pastor. Graysmith then goes on to claim that Gibson was also responsible for the Whitechapel murders. Graysmith claims Gibson was In London when the murders occurred, and suddenly left shortly after.
John George Gibson was born in Edinburgh on 14 August 1859, and at the time of the Whitechapel murders was 29 years of age, 5ft 9"tall, fair haired with a small sandy moustache, well built and broad shouldered. According to the San Francisco News, Gibson confessed on his deathbed to Charlie Floyd, in the spring of 1912, that it was he, and not Theo Durrant, who murdered Blanch Lamont and Minnie Williams. Unfortunately the person Gibson supposedly confessed to, Charlie Floyd, never actually existed and appears to be a hybrid of several different people. There is no evidence Gibson was in London at the time of the Ripper murders and it is believed he was serving at a church in Scotland at the time. While Graysmith produces no evidence that Gibson was responsible for the Whitechapel murders, he also provides no evidence that Gibson perpetrated the murders in San Francisco's Baptist church either, or that Theo Durrant was actually innocent of the crimes.
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