Poof he vanishes.

The same man recurs after every string I use to track Hutchinson. But all to no avail because he vanishes. Not dead, not emigrated, just ceases to exist in the records. So has he changed his name again? If he has assumed another identity and given a different DOB that's the end of my trail.
I don't think I'll ever finish my non-fiction JTR. I'll leave it running in the background and work on it as and when. It's done when it's done.
I'm working in London next week so I'll make time to view original data.

Was Mary Kelly a Fenian?

In the Autumn of 1884 female body parts were found with a tattoo ink mark on the forearm indicating the victim was most probably a prostitute:

Tottenham Court Road Mystery of 1884.

October 24, 1884

The Times reported that, “Yesterday considerable excitement was caused in the neighbourhood of Tottenham-court-road by the discovery of human remains, supposed to be those of a woman, under circumstances suggesting foul play.” A skull with flesh still adhering to it, as well as a large piece of flesh from the thighbone, were discovered. Around the same time, a parcel containing a human arm was found in Bedford Square. The arm, which had been thrown over the railing, contained a possible clue to the victim’s identity, a tattoo, which more then likely, meant the woman had been a prostitute.

Five days later, a police constable was passing Number 33 Fitzroy Square, when he noticed a large brown paper parcel. Upon investigating, he found it contained a portion of a human torso. The murderer, it would seem, was one who was exceedingly daring or lucking in depositing the remains. According to the Pall Mall Gazette, “the side walk in front of the house is constantly patrolled by police . . . It is believed that the parcel was deposited between ten o’clock and ten fifteen, when the police relief takes place.” The building that the remains were placed in front was also a military drill-hall and armoury.

So what’s so intriguing about that?

Allan Pinkerton

wrote to Gladstone to offer the assistance of his organisation claiming that British detectives:

 are, so far as my experience with them is concerned, a body of first class, intelligent men and many of their operations could not be excelled for brilliancy and important results. But is of the “shadows” or “informers” that I wish to speak . . . Pinkerton to Gladstone, July 8th, 1882.

(Abberline worked for Pinkerton after he retired from the police force.)

The Special Irish Branch was formed in March 1883, to combat the threat of Irish terrorism. The Fenians (Irish Nationalists) exploded a bomb at Scotland Yard in 1884, and the following year they bombed the Tower of London and Houses of Parliament. The “Irish” label was dropped in 1888 as the department’s remit was extended to cover other threats. They became known simply as Special Branch the original headquarters of the Metropolitan Police was a house at 4 Whitehall Place, not far from Trafalgar Square, but the rear entrance, which the public used, was in Scotland Yard.

Scotland Yard paid their informants.

From 1837 Cobb explored cases, particularly murders, to find the right type of officers to act as detectives. In turn, the most successful of these officers began to discover and use rudimentary methods that went on to become the basic tools of the modern day detective e g the surveillance of suspects, the use of informers and the gathering of evidence.

Monro’s memoirs confirm the use of Pinkerton’s Detective Agency as the preferred operational contact point:  (Monro memoirs, 1903).

“Pinkerton, Robert requesting assistance for his detective in Cronin case”. Entries show that the detective was a J R Saville and his job was “looking after John Hayes suspected of the murder.” Dr Patrick Cronin was a prominent Chicago member of Clan na Gael who, after falling out with its leader Alexander Sullivan over the use of the organisation’s funds, was expelled and murdered on May 4th, 1889 (Le Caron, 1894). 

Entries reveal that, whether by accident or design, Metropolitan Police Special Branch arrived at an ideal intelligence gathering scenario, with two or more informants working unknown to each other in the same organisation and hence able to supply independently corroborated information to MPSB concerning each others activities. This enabled an accurate assessment to be made concerning their veracity and afford a valuable check on whether the activities they reported to their handler corresponded to truth.

Coulon moved to 19 Fitzroy Square, taking up residence in a house that his anarchist colleagues, who were by now having their doubts about him on other matters, considered was much too respectable for a man who had just been dismissed from his teaching post at the anarchist school (Quail, 1978). The Chief Constable’s Register lends credence to this. Immediately following the second reference to his employment at the International Anarchist School comes an entry stating; “Coulon – suspected of being a police spy”.

Who was Auguste Coulon? According to Quail (1978), he was in regular correspondence with the Socialist League and possibly lived in Dublin before moving to France. Numerous entries in the Chief Constable’s Register confirm his presence in Ireland, his establishment of an Anarchist group in Dublin and the consequent interest in him by the Dublin Metropolitan Police.

Maurice Moser, an Inspector in the Metropolitan Police Irish Bureau, reveals in his memoirs how he carried out surveillance in Paris on Irish suspects. This was with the full knowledge and co-operation of the French police, which assisted in drugging the drink of a suspect, relieving him of his recently collected post, steamed a letter open, copied, and returned it to his pocket before he regained consciousness. (Moser, 1890).

Mary Kelly was Irish, travelled to Paris and her identity remains hidden. She claimed she was frightened of someone – according to Barnett. She preferred poverty in the East End to remaining in relative comfort in the West End. An inexplicable decision, but perhaps Mary Kelly is even more intriguing than we thought. Women were also on the payroll of the MPSB. So is there a connection between Mary Kelly, Fitzroy Square and the MPSB?

Kelly moved to Cardiff and lived with a cousin and worked as a prostitute. The Cardiff police have no record of her. She says she was ill and spent the best part of the time in an infirmary. None of her story, as told to Barnett, is completely verifiable.

Mary Kelly in brief:

Mary Kelly arrived in London in 1884. She may have stayed with the nuns at the Providence Row Night Refuge on Crispin Street. According to one tradition she scrubbed floors and charred there and was eventually placed into domestic service in a shop in Cleveland Street.

According to Joseph Barnett, on arriving in London, Kelly went to work in a high class brothel in the West End. She says that during this time she frequently rode in a carriage and accompanied one gentleman to Paris, which she disliked and returned to London.

Fitzroy Square is directly off Cleveland Street.

What could be in those JTR files that Scotland Yard needs to protect witnesses after one hundred and thirty years? Perhaps there is a valid reason Scotland Yards’s JTR dossiers remain sealed after all. The IRA and English are newly at peace. An open sore is healing. Is it worth jeopardising the peace for mere Ripperologist curiosity?

Mary Kelly often visited a friend in Lambeth at the Elephant and Castle. Abberline and PC Long lived in Lambeth. One the paymaster and one the assassin?

Curiously, PC Long of A division arrived in London the same year (1884) as Mary Kelly.

The common theme is London, Ireland, Paris, informants, Pinkertons, Lambeth and Fenians. This is yet another series of coincidences amid the puzzle that is JTR. But as Metropolitan Police Special Branch honed their skills, how much had they learnt of utilising smoke and mirrors?

Twelve hours later ...
Continuing this line of research, it seems it's not such an eccentric concept. A few others have postulated a Fenian involvement. Therefore, the big question therefore is why? What would the Fenians gain from JTR's slaughter? Quick answer: it's doing what terrorism does. Frightens people.

Who are you?

One of the ‘books’ in my job lot, actually an excised section from a larger volume, references two murders, which occurred in 1887. The author mentions Emma Smith, refers to Martha Tabram and sites two murders of women by ‘similar means’ – and discovered in the gutter in the early hours of the morning (one as recently as the 6th of August last).
I’ve haven’t heard of these victims. It would help if I knew the title of the book and the name of the author, all I know is the book has some age, and is a hard-copy judging by the spine. As I have a date (6th Aug) it shouldn’t be too difficult to discover the details of this crime!
Okay, the only reports I can find are on the Lipski case. But this book states: found in the gutter by similar means that's definitely not murder by poisoning and a body found under the bed.
So I could start searching for the book ... find the date of publication ...

Well, the section is taken from Chronicles of Crime, Beaver publication. No idea of the identity of the victim he mentions. Couple more strings and I'll give up on this search today.

Mary Jane McCarthy Kelly

I'm sorting through my mass of research/information and filing into an easily discoverable system! Found these:

Strange confusion of names in this article:

THE MISERY AND VICE OF LONDON. 22 December 1888, Supplement

About a year ago he rented it to a woman who looked about 30. She was popular among the females of the neighbourhood, who shared her beer generously, as I have been tearfully informed, and went under the title of Mary Jane McCarthy. Her landlord knew that she had another name, Kelly, but her friends had not heard of it. It seems that there had been a Mr. Kelly, whom Mary Jane had married in the manner which is considered satisfactory in Whitechapel. They had not gone to the expense of a license, but published the fact of matrimony by living in one small room, and sharing joy and sorrow and drunkenness there together.
Mary Jane took up her residence in the little room in Miller Court when Kelly went away. Since then her life has been that of all the women around her, her drunkenness and the number of strange men she brought to her little room being the gauges by which her sisters in wretchedness measured her prosperity.

So excepting the newspaper at its journalistic researched best, I found this McCarthy/Kelly link. Mary Jane Kelly's father's first name was John -- apparently.
Mary Kelly

Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620-1881
birth: 19 April 1864
0240, CASTLETOWN DISTRICT, LIMERICK, IRELAND
father: John Kelly
mother: Anne Mccarthy .....

Creeping about in dark places

I'm half way through a Jack the Ripper book trailer. I intended it to be scary. It's not. Carry on Screaming comes to mind -- or in this case, not. I'll persevere.
Stupid of me really. I hate horror films featuring blood and gore and creeping about in dark places. Tends to rule out JTR. But I like a challenge.
Bought a box of JTR related items at auction. No, there isn't a diary, or a bloody knife that I'm about to thrust into a suspecting public. Just books, a couple of old newspapers and press cuttings. Looks like a house-clearance lot and listed as general household. I collect old prints and books and love a  rummage. 1888 stood out as if lit by limelight. I neatly returned said cutting to it's position as a bookmark. The box is mine for twenty-five quid.

Ratcliff Highway

A good photograph of Ratcliff.

A simple matter of deduction.

It's a long time since I've written non-fiction and in book form, never. Each chapter I treat as a treatise. It's a novel approach – well, it's literally, not. Cough.

I’m writing just an aside on Abberline, or so I thought. Most of the biographical accounts are the same but differ in writing style.

I’m stalled on Abberline’s wife, Emma. Blah, blah, merchant’s daughter ... I know, but which? She vanishes and re-emerges as if she were a ghost. I have to be looking at the wrong Beamont because if I’m not there’s something peculiar in her history. I’ve allowed today to research her and then I’ll return to Hutchinson. Or maybe just ignore these two, finish the book and then follow up.

Research is a distraction.

I think I know what happened that night of the double event, which explains Blenkinsop’s 1.30 am sighting, witness statement. Clock chimes vary on the quarter strike; a man sitting alone at night (St James Place) would recognise those bell strikes. I don’t believe he was mistaken. It was 1.30 am and not 1.45 as Sugden explains.

Any colour as long as it's red or green.

I have spent the last couple of weeks reading contemporary accounts, not just of the Whitechapel murders, but the culture of the East End. My overriding impression is stink -- bloaters, liver and onions, unwashed bodies, combined with bed bugs' peculiar sweet musty smell
The warm and sunny days would introduce the season for taking the kitchen chairs outside the street doors and leaving them there until late at night to obtain a respite from the 'red army', as the bed bugs were called.
It mattered not how clean or careful we were, these horrors would invade the home, bringing misery and discomfort to all. For this reason the majority of
flats were 'decorated' by distempering. Our landlord's contribution to solving the problem was to allow us to choose any colour we liked so long as it was red or green...

For a couple of coppers.

The Torso killer used the steamboats to dispose of his neatly and portable apportioned body parts and all for a couple of coppers.

Steam-boat Piers.—If you wish to go eastward of London Bridge, on the north side of the river, you will find steam-boats at London Bridge to take you to Thames Tunnel Pier, Limehouse, Blackwall, and North Woolwich. On the south side, at the Surrey end of London Bridge, you can take boat for Rotherhithe, Commercial Docks, Greenwich, Charlton, and Woolwich. If you wish to go westward from London Bridge, on the north side, you can take boat thence for the following piers:—Bridge, Paul’s Wharf, Temple Stairs, Waterloo Bridge, Hungerford Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Millbank, Pimlico, Thames Bank, Chelsea, and Battersea; and on the south side, at Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Stairs, Vauxhall, Battersea Park, Wandsworth, Putney, Hammersmith Bridge, and Kew.

The steamers make an amazing number of trips each way daily, between these several piers, at intervals varying with the season, and at fares ranging from one penny to fourpence. For example, the fare by the Citizen boats from London Bridge to Westminster is 1d.; to Pimlico, 2d.; Chelsea and Battersea, 3d. If you wish to go quickly from Westminster Bridge to London Bridge, you will avoid delays at piers by getting one of the penny boats which run every ten minutes from Westminster to London Bridge, only calling at Hungerford. 

Steamers for Kew, in the summer, run about every half-hour from London Bridge, calling at intermediate up-river piers—return ticket, 1s. From Cadogan Pier, Chelsea, you can go to Kew for 4d. And on Sundays and Mondays you can go up as far as Richmond, if the tide allow, at half-past 10 a.m. from Hungerford—return ticket, about 1s. 6d. For more distant journeys, such as to Erith, Gravesend, Sheerness, Southend, &c., by excursion steam-boats. To Gravesend and back, the fare is 1s. 6d.; Sheerness and Southend and back, 2s. 6d. Boats generally leave Hungerford Bridge for Gravesend and Erith every half-hour up to 12, and leave London Bridge at 2 and half-past 4 p.m.; they leave Hungerford Bridge for Southend and Sheerness at various times from half-past 8, calling at London Bridge, returning in the afternoon or early evening.

On June 4, 1889 part of a female torso was fished out of the Thames at Horselydown, while at about the same time; a left leg to the body was plucked from under the Albert-bridge, Chelsea. Within the next week, numerous other parts of the same body were recovered in or near the Thames.
The London Times of June 5, reported that "in the opinion of the doctors the women had been dead only 48 hours, and the body had been dissected somewhat roughly by a person who must have had some knowledge of the joints of the human body."
The London Times on June 11, reported that the remains found so far "are as follows:

1)               Tuesday, left leg and thigh off Battersea,

2)               lower part of the abdomen at Horselydown;

3)               Thursday, the liver near Nine Elms,

4)               upper part of the body in Battersea-Park,

5)               neck and shoulders off Battersea;

6)               Friday, right foot and part of leg at Wandsworth,

7)               left leg and foot at Limehouse;

8)               Saturday, left arm and hand at Bankside,

9)               buttocks and pelvis off Battersea,

10)           right thigh at Chelsea Embankment, yesterday,

11)           right arm and hand at Bankside."

We read what we suppose exists

Interesting the information a graphologist can glean from handwriting!
Reminder to self. Do not leave notebooks lying around.
Anyway, peering at a copy of the infamous Goulston Street script. It doesn't say men. It reads : may.

That is a, Y.
Which proves we read what we suppose exists.

The From Hell letter and an archetypal serial killer's handwriting. At least this is how I would imagine a murderer would write. The length of the lower zone's Y on the word bloody is extraordinary and the loop is formed in reverse.

Searching for an image of the 14th October 1896 letter

I'm searching for an image of the 14th October 1896 letter. If anyone knows whereabouts to find  this missive on the web, point me in the right direction, please.


The 14 Oct 1896 Hoax Letter
This letter was written in red ink and said:

Dear Boss,
    You will be surprised to
find that this comes from yours
as of old Jack-the Ripper. Ha Ha
If my old friend Mr. Warren is dead
you can read it. you might
remember me if you try and
think a little Ha Ha. The last job
was a bad one and no mistake nearly
buckled, and meant it to
be best of the lot & what curse it,
Ha Ha Im alive yet and you'll
soon find it out. I mean to go
on again when I get the chance
wont it be nice dear old Boss to
have the good old times once
again. you never caught me
and you never will. Ha Ha
    You police are a smart lot, the lot
of you could nt catch one man
Where have I been Dear Boss
you d like to know. abroad, if
you would like to know, and
just come back, ready to go on
with my work and stop when
you catch me. Well good bye
Boss wish me luck. Winters coming
"The Jewes are people that are
blamed for nothing" Ha Ha
have you heard this before

                      Yours truly
                                 Jack the Ripper
According to my graphologist chum, three of the published Ripper letters are by the same hand ...

Erm.

At last.

At last. I have found 'Hutchinson's' birth registration. I've searched for him for so long I'd forgotten why I found this person interesting -- now thankfully, recalled with a a rummage through my files. Rather a strange coincidence on the BMD. I now need to find my man in the 1881 registrations. I've one person who resided in Wandsworth Prison but his place of birth isn't the same as the three earlier entries.