Saucy Jack 3

Hello and welcome back to the third installment of our series about Jack the Ripper.

Last week we looked at some of the suspects, but due to space I left out a few. Today we look at them beginning with:

Lewis Carroll

Carroll was an Oxford don, and is most famous for writing Alice in Wonderland. So how can this guy possibly be the Ripper? Well, that is a good question. There is some evidence that he was sexually assaulted as a child, which will likely mess you up. Then there are his diaries that he wrote in purple ink, except on the nights the Ripper was at work. Those days he wrote in black ink. Why? No one knows.

Some psychologists who have analyzed his poem Jabberwocky, have found evidence of a psychotic nature in some of the made up words Carroll invented, and apparently if you deconstruct and reconstruct some of his works you can recreate parts of the letters Jack (allegedly) wrote. But, you can do that with any body of work written in the English language, even the Bible so that's no kind of evidence.

Does this mean Lewis was Jack? Very unlikely, if you ask me.

Next up is Walter Sickert.

Sickert was a painter, with a taste for the odd. Some of his paintings seem to depict the postmortem pictures of the Rippers victims, and similar scenes. Besides that, he was both influential and popular. In his time he painted many of the rich and powerful, including Winston Churchill.

Sickert was not a suspect in 1888 though, that came later when author Stephen Knight published his book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution in 1976. Knight had spoken to Joseph Gorman who claimed to be Sickerts illegitimate son. According to Gorman, Sickert was forced to join in with the Ripper murders for reasons we'll get to. There is apparently no evidence that Sickert was Jack.

Alright, the last two men, Sir William Gull and Prince Albert Victor are on the list for the same reasons. This also ties in with the Sickert theory.

As the theory goes, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Queen Victoria's grandson had some slightly deviant tastes for a member of the Royal family. He liked to visit lowly prostitutes, including those at 19 Cleveland Street. That address was visited by many powerful men, as they served not only women, but also young boys. After the scandal broke, the prince was sent on a long tour of the Empire to make it impossible for him to be interviewed about the rumors of his involvement. Many witnesses were silenced or removed. A theory was put forward that he had contracted syphilis from a prostitute and sought revenge. Frankly the idea that an effeminate prince would roam around Whitechapel and brutally dismember women is ludicrous.

But there is another angle. Some say that the prince fell in love with a lowly shop girl, who happened to have been a prostitute for a while and was still friendly with a bunch of them. The story continues with the idea that Albert Victor would have married her in a Catholic ceremony and indeed gotten her pregnant. This would have been an unimaginable scandal. Since the Catholic Church forbids divorce, a commoner would suddenly have been in line to the throne, a Catholic commoner no less. At the time there were some grumblings that the Monarchy should be abolished, so they were extra keen on not having scandals like that. If you wonder why a commoner would have been such a big deal, keep in mind that Victoria wasn't just Albert's grandmother, she was also the German Kaiser's and the Russian Tzar’s grandmother. The royal houses were very interconnected with no outside blood to talk about.

So, we have a secret Catholic wedding complete with heir, and they have to go. The theory states that the bride was gotten rid of, possibly in an asylum like Bedlam, but that leaves the witnesses, the brides old friends.

Enter Sir William Gull, royal physician. According to this theory, Sir William was tasked with removing he prostitutes for the good of the Empire, but that he went quite a bit too far, possibly due to some medical issue of the mind. He is known to have suffered at least one stroke.

The Sickert connection comes in the form of the fact that he had used many of the prostitutes as models and had known about the wedding, but as a well known artist, he was too public to kill, and instead was forced to join in to make him keep silent.

One of the biggest draws of the Albert Victor theory is the idea that the police knew who the killer was but for obvious reasons couldn't arrest him. This would explain why they never caught the killer on indeed released the information they had.

The wedding theory became popular due to the graphic novel From Hell, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, which became a movie later on. The novel is amazing and the film is mediocre.

There we have it. There are of course many many more suspects, and I don't have nearly enough space to go through them all. Until next time, have a great week!

Saucy Jack 2

Welcome back to our look at the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Last week was a quick rundown of the murders and the area in which they were committed, Whitechapel. Today we look at some of the suspects.

One of the earliest suspects was a violent and aggressive butcher called John Pizer. Apparently, he confessed but it was quickly discovered that he was innocent with an alibi for two murders and that the confession had been coerced by the arresting officer Sergeant Thick. The reason he was suspect was the fact that a piece of a leather apron was found at Annie Chapman's crime scene. This lead to the public calling the murderer Leather Apron, until Jack the Ripper was coined.

Moving on to other suspects in no particular order, we have Joseph Barnett.

He was Mary Kelly's lover, a fish porter who lost his job. It seems that Mary took up prostitution to bring in some money after Joseph was laid off, and that he hated that. They broke up but were seen talking the night Mary died. Inspector Abberline interviewed Barnett and ruled him out as the Ripper.

Next we have Charles Lechmere, also known as Charles Cross. Some modern Ripperologists find it highly suspect that he used two names, but apparently it wasn't that odd back in those days. Cross was a driver for Pickfords meat company and was the man who found Polly Nichols and alerted the police. Some have suggested that instead of finding the body, he put it there, but a second person arrived moments later, and it would be almost impossible to clean up in time, so there is little to pin on Charles.

Unlike our previous suspects Frederick Deeming was a murderer. An already unhinged individual, he became a sailor and contracted syphilis from a prostitute in Whitechapel. He is alleged to have wanted to kill her if he could, and he, prompted by the illusion of his dead mother, killed two wives and four of his children. He does fit the bill in many ways, but there is some evidence that he was in South Africa taking part in a diamond scam at the time of the Ripper murders.

One of the most likely (but never proven) suspects was Aaron Kosminski, a Jewish barber and generally unhinged person. He was known to hate women and he had violent tendencies. At the time, there was a lot of speculation that the murderer could be Jewish, in part due to regular garden variety antisemitism, but also because of the famous graffiti found on Goulston Street on the night of the double murder. It read: The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing. The spelling of juwes has been the subject of much speculation, as it could be a typo, but it could also be a reference to freemasonry. Either way, Police Commissioner Charles Warren ordered it washed away immediately. Most likely, it was to prevent a wave of violence against the many Jews who lived in the area, but since he was a Mason, it became fodder for the conspiracy minded.

There are of course many more suspects, but these are some of the more average suspects. Next week we are looking at the more famous ones. Suspects like Lewis Carroll, Walter Sickert, Sir William Gull and Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, and Queen Victoria's grandson.

So tune in next week, and until then, stay safe and happy!

Saucy Jack

A month from now will mark 130 years since Jack the Ripper started his reign of terror in Whitechapel, London.

Much has been written and speculated about the identity of the killer which his still unknown. The police obviously didn't have the forensic methods available that we have today, and even so, murderers go undetected all the time. So, it's no wonder that the police in 1888 had a hard time finding the Ripper. This of course didn't stop the press and the citizens from decrying the police as incompetent.

But let's look closer at that, shall we?

Whitechapel was established as a district in 1855 and was 357 acres, or 1.44 km² in size. That may not sound that big, but the population in the 1891 census counted 74.420 people living at a density of 208 people per 0.004 square kilometers, and that's the registered population. A population that had recently swelled enormously with new immigrants, mostly Irish and Jewish. It's worth noting that the area also held a large number of illegal immigrants.

Added to this comes the fact that Whitechapel was a slum, badly built up, very poorly lit, and absolutely labyrinthine. Then we have the infamous smog and other industrial pollutants and we get a recipe for a policeman’s nightmare. On to this stage now steps the terrifying Ripper, who by the way wasn't the only serial killer in Victorian England, just the most famous and scary.

So the police has to find a killer in a labyrinth packed to the rafters with a population that's hostile to the police at the best of times, and is now almost hysterical with fear? Yeah, I wouldn't want that job either.

In case you don't know all that much about the case, here's a quick run down.

Friday, August 31, 1888. Mary Ann Nichols found at 3.40 am in Buck's Row.

Saturday, September 8, 1888. Annie Chapman found in the yard of 29 Hanbury Street.

Sunday, September 30, 1888. Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes found at Dutfield's Yard, Berner Street and Mitre Square respectively. Both discovered early in the morning.

Friday, November 9, 1888. Mary Kelly found in her bed at 10.45 am in 13 Miller's Court.

These are the canonical five, though there may have been more, considering how violent the area was. I'm not going to go into the macabre details of their deaths, except to say all had their throats cut, and the fact that Stride wasn't brutally mutilated, and that Kelly was pretty much torn apart. In all cases but Stride, there were organs missing.

This will have to do for part one. Join me next time for a look at the suspects, but until then, have a nice and safe week!

Jack the Ripper

One day, back when I was a kid, I found on my parent's bookshelf, a book on unsolved mysteries. It was one of those huge coffee table books that can cause real damage if you drop it on your foot.

I took it back to my room and started reading. It had were all the classics; The Mary Celeste, Roanoke, Kaspar Hauser, etc. But the most important one was Jack the Ripper. It was the first time I heard of the grisly murders back in Whitechapel in 1888, but it started a life long fascination.

I have since seen and read a great deal on the subject matter, one that to this day has no conclusive solution. There are many speculations, and even more wild theories, but if the facts are known and simply hidden away, no one has spoken in 129 years.

Last week when I wrote about Dracula: Dead and Loving it I, as I usually do, checked the cast list on IMDB. The woman playing Lucy Westenra, Lysette Anthony, was also in a TV series named Jack the Ripper from 1988. This peaked my interest and when I saw that Micheal Caine starred as Inspector Frederick Abberline, I was sold.

So, with the rather long intro out of the way, I'm going to talk a bit about Jack the Ripper (1988).

This series is in fact only two episodes long, but each episode is over 90 minutes, making the whole thing satisfyingly long.

Cast wise we're in good hands. Apart from Caine, we have Armand Assante, Ray McAnally, Jane Seymor, Hugh Fraser and many more. As is usual with a British production, everyone is quality and it shows.

The production is absolutely first class. At no point does it feel like anything except Victorian England, which is nice. The set, props and costumes are spot on, with one complaint. I feel that Sergeant Godley's hat is too modern. To be fair, I'm not a hat expert, but it still seems to be 20^th century to me. That is the one complaint I have of the entire production, which made me very happy.

As an example, Hugh Fraser, better known for his role as Captain Hastings in Poirot, plays Sir Charles Warren, the police commissioner. He apparently wore some of the real clothes originally worn by Sir Charles. That's authenticity for you.

The story is familiar to any Ripperologist, or indeed anyone who has seen FromHell (2001) with Johnny Depp. If you haven't, I won't spoil it. I'll just say that the 1988 production outstrips From Hell on every point except the score. On the other hand, that's not exactly hard, since From Hell is pretty mediocre. Wonderful soundtrack though.

An interesting point is that Caine's Abberline is an alcoholic, and Depp's is an opium user. There are no records suggesting that the real Abberline was a substance abuser. I have no idea where it comes from. Also, they mispronounce Abberline's name throughout the show. For some reason, they say AbberLEEN, not AbberLINE. Oh well.

Bottom line is that Jack the Ripper is a wonderfully well made show. If you like Victorian England or Jack the Ripper, go watch this if you can find it. First class all the way.

That's it for this time. Until we meet again, have a murder-free week!

Letters from Whitechapel

Last week I sauntered over to my local board game shop and purchased their last copy of Letters from Whitechapel.

LfW is a hidden movement game a la Scotland Yard and Fury of Dracula. The idea here is that Jack the Ripper moves in secret through the streets of Whitechapel, murdering his victims, and the other players as the police do their best to figure out where he is and arrest him. There's more to it than this, but that's the gist of it.

I've played it twice now, both times as Jack, and boy oh boy is it ever good. First game out, I was arrested on the third night (out of four), and in the second game, I barely scraped through and won.

This game is a complete nail-biter as you watch the police (i.e. the other players) walk around right next to you, and they don't even know it!

It's a roller coaster of emotion ranging from smug glee to spine-chilling terror and finally elation as you watch the police hunt you down.

The mechanics are super simple, with minimal set up time, but the game can run pretty long.

The board is an accurate map of Whitechapel in 1888, which is in itself a treasure if you're as crazy about the Victorian era as I am. The pieces are wood instead of plastic, which is nice, and the rule book is really simple to understand.

My copy is the English 2^nd edition, which is printed by Fantasy Flight Games. If you're familiar with their products, you know how fine the quality is.

I'm looking immensely forward to playing as one of the Inspectors, as well as taking Jack out for a spin with a full set up of cops. It's worth pointing out that whether you play against one opponent or five, all police are deployed. But the though process is very different from one person to five. I can't wait!

If you're curious to see more, I'm linking a video I found on Youtube below.

Until next time, have an exciting week!