Posted on 09/08/2008 7:05:43 AM PDT by BGHater
THE Jack the Ripper ‘industry’ got a boost on the 120th anniversary of his first acknowledged murder.
The great-grandson of the police chief in charge of the 1888 Whitechapel Murders arrived at the Ripper exhibition at the Museum in Docklands in East London—just before the 120th anniversary of the murder Mary Ann Nichols, a prostitute known as ‘Polly,’ believed by many to be his first victim.
He arrived with evidence from his Victorian ancestor revealing the Ripper’s true identity.
Jack the Ripper was never caught and his identity has remained a mystery for 120 years, feeding a whole ‘industry’ that has evolved worldwide with ‘Ripperologists’ keen to tell us who he really was.
One of the strong theories re-emerged this week was when Nevill Swanson, great-grandson of Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, turned up at the museum in Canary Wharf to see the exhibition before it closes in November.
“My great-grandfather knew who Jack the Ripper was,” Nevill told the East London Advertiser.
“He solved the case—but police couldn’t prosecute because the only witness who could identify the killer in a court of law wouldn’t testify.”
Donald Swanson scribbled who he knew to be Jack the Ripper in the margin of a copy of the memoirs of Sir Robert Anderson, Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner at the time of the Whitechapel Murders, in a chapter that just referred to the main suspect, but not by name.
“The suspect was Kosminsky,” Swanson pencilled in.
Aaron Kosminsky was a Polish immigrant living in Whitechapel who had been ‘identified’ by another Polish emigre, who then refused to take the witness stand.
“The police knew the case would collapse in court,” Swanson’s great-grandson added.
“He knew Kosminsky would get away with it—so he had him committed to an asylum instead.
“There were no more murders after that.”
It was Nevill’s father who uncovered the margin notes from the family possessions when Nevill’s great aunt—daughter of Chief Inspector Swanson—died in 1978. The book with the margin notes was left to Nevill’s father.
But the story got buried for several years after he sold the rights to the News of the World in a deal worth £1,000, Nevill remembers. For some reason, the notes were never published.
It wasn’t until 2001—some 113 years after the Whitechapel Murders—that the Kosminsky theory finally emerged.
“My father died in 2001 and the book with the margin notes came down to me,” Nevill added. “I knew the significance of the notes and have since loaned the book to Scotland Yard’s Black Museum.”
It is a strong and compelling theory—but would spoil the ‘Ripper Industry’ if even this was not challenged by rival theories over the Ripper’s identity.
The marginalia was probably added some time after 1910, and Anderson wouldn’t have known anything that Swanson hadn’t told him, a reader has informed us.
Martin Fido was the person who identified Kosminsky by going through asylum records.
This week, the Australians bowled their own theory to stump the Ripperology world with a claim that it wasn’t Kosminsky at all—but an immigrant named Walter Thomas Porriott who is now buried in a cemetery in Brisbane.
The Brisbane Times claims that Porriott, another suspect on Scotland Yard’s list, was the real Jack the Ripper.
Porriott was living at Limehouse in East London at the time, just two miles from Whitechapel. He was a convicted killer, a conman, bigamist and quack doctor known to hate prostitutes, the paper insists.
The murders ended as soon as Porriott emigrated in 1888. He died in Brisbane in 1952, some 62 years later.
But there’s more... Members of the renowned Whitechapel Society—dedicated to research into East London’s Victorian and Edwardian society and the 1888 Whitechapel Murders—hold a ‘21st century public investigation’ at the Museum in Docklands this Saturday (September 6), where the most comprehensive Ripper exhibition ever has been staged all summer.
They are promising “fresh photographic evidence” when the ‘investigation’ begins at 3pm.
Three authors are putting their theories to the public, Trevor Marriott, Bill Beadle (the society’s chairman) and Frogg Moody.
Ripperologists, of course, are a determined breed, determined to keep the fires of the ‘industry’ burning with different theories—and doubtless will continue to keep them burning for the next 120 years.
Maybe for inv. or to discuss.
Another Ripper suspect.
Due process -- English style.
*shrug* We’d have gotten him on tax evasion charges...
You mean no one’s accusing Bush?
> *shrug* We’d have gotten him on tax evasion charges.
Or mail fraud. That one’s always good for at least holding charges. As I recall, the Ripper sent several of his notes to Inspector Abberline using HM Royal Post. That would persuade any judge anywhere to sign an arrest warrant.
The name of Macnaghten's second suspect was confirmed as Aaron Kosminiski in the early 1980s when a researcher came upon Donald Swanson's personal copy of Robert Anderson's book of memoirs. Both Swanson and Anderson were officers who participated in the Ripper investigation; indeed, they were the ones given the responsibility of being in charge of the case. Anderson had written in his memoirs that appeared for the first time in 1910 that the police knew who the Ripper was. According to Anderson the Ripper was a Polish Jew who was put away in an insane asylum after the crimes, and then died soon after. Swanson had made some notes in his copy of the book concerning Anderson's suspect, and wrote that the suspect's name was Kosminski. At first it seemed that the case had been solved, but research has found a number of problems with the theory. No other officer supports' Anderson's allegation, and Swanson's notes seem to question his superior's claims rather than support them. Aaron Kosminski was a real person and was placed in an insane asylum. His records show him to be a docile and harmless lunatic that heard voices in his head and would only eat food from the gutter. The dates of his incarceration are wrong, and he did not die soon after his committal but lived on until 1919. Some researchers have tried to explain the problems by saying that the name Kosminski' was confused with another insane Polish Jew, who really was dangerous.
FWIW....
Who knows?
http://www.patriciacornwell.com/books-novellas/portrait-of-a-killer/synopsis/
We all know that because of a conspiratorial cover-up by the royal, the real Jack the Ripper is has never been identified. The real Jack was Prince Albert Victor (son of Edward VII)
Naaahhh, he was in Thailand...
Mike
http://www.casebook.org/suspects/james_maybrick/maybrick.html
For example, whenever a married person is murdered the first suspect is the surviving spouse. Who else knows you well enough to want to kill you?
Therefore the police have a place to start in most cases, they know that the murderer is likely someone the victim knew, and they can fairly easily locate and investigate those people.
A prostitute? Maybe it was a regular, but just as apt to be a stranger with no discernible connection to track down. Where do you start? You can narrow it down to what? Everyone with a penis and a few bucks? Everyone who would be jealous of someone horning in on their guy or corner?
What's a cop to do? All he can. Not much. Odds are the victim is a runaway or a throwaway kid, her (or his) loved ones, if she has any, have lost track of her, and therefore she's less apt to have relatives keeping the case near the top of the pile.
Inevitably the cases that can be solved with available resources get those resources.
The cop gathers and archives as much physical evidence as possible and interviews the victims colleagues, but doesn't really expect anything to break the case open. About the best he can hope for is that the perp doesn't strike again, and/or that he shoots off his mouth.
My hat's off to guys who can do this sort of thankless drudge work, knowing that many times they will never solve the mystery.
So how did Walter Sickert’s DNA get on the stamp of the Ripper letter sent to Scotland Yard?
***Donald Swanson scribbled who he knew to be Jack the Ripper in the margin of a copy of the memoirs of Sir Robert Anderson, Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner at the time of the Whitechapel Murders,***
The same Sir Robert Anderson who wrote many books on theology. His books are still in print.
The only thing to be said - at least for myself, is that it sure takes the mind of present day affairs. What with the weather patterns and indeed now two big elections coming up in America and Canada. I saw a program about five years ago on the "new" information on the Whitechapel serial killer. The BBC man had a melodious and nicely done delivery. Yer' new man had an American connection. He was Irish born Dr Francis Tumbelty (1833-1903), spelt various ways. The BBC had visited the most remarkable cemetery in Rochester NY.
There was a pretty solid marker for "Twombelty". The person in charge of the cemetery had cheerfully waved incoming cars to nearby. He figured- yes, after the BBC documentary, they would come.
Thrown in, was the information that among Tumbelty's personal effects were two cheap imitation gold wedding rings. Purported to be one of the poor woman's possessions, I guess Tumbelty gets mention at least. (chuckle)
OJ is looking for the real murderer....
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