A police theory from 1892

[Chris]

Mike Covell recently discovered a press report, published on 2 April 1892 in response to the speculation that Frederick Deeming might have committed the Whitechapel Murders, which stated that the "the Scotland-yard authorities" considered that the real murderer was in Portland Prison - apparently referring to Charles Le Grand:

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=3533

It's interesting that a few days later, in response to further speculation about Deeming, the Daily Telegraph reported a quite different police theory, according to which the murderer was not in a prison, but in an asylum.

What provoked the Telegraph's story was the following report in The Globe and Traveller of 7 April 1892 (p. 4):


DEEMING AND THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.

A GIRL'S STRANGE STORY.

The theory that Deeming committed two or more of the "Jack the Ripper" murders in Whitechapel is to-day strengthened by an extraordinary statement which has reached us. It appears that a respectable girl, a dressmaker resident in the East-end, identified the portrait published in a weekly paper last Sunday as that of a man she knew by the name of Lawson in 1888. She states that she kept company with him in the autumn of that year, and on the evening of September 29 they went for a walk. Soon after 11 p.m. they parted at Portland-road railway station, and she returned home by train. On the following morning, shortly before one o'clock, the body of Elizabeth Stride was discovered with the throat cut, outside the International and Educational Club in Berner-street, Aldgate. An hour later a constable found the mutilated body of Mrs. Eddowes in Mitre-square, a short distance from the scene of the first tragedy.

The same afternoon the girl - who desires her name to be suppressed for the present - met the man Lawson by appointment and went for a walk with him. His conversation was mostly of the murders, and she says he spoke with an intimate knowledge of the details of the tragedies. During their walk Lawson purchased a newspaper, in which it was stated that the murders were probably perpetrated soon after midnight. This passage he pointed out to her, exclaiming, "Look at the time! I couldn't have committed them, could I?" This remark the girl declares she remembers distinctly, it being made quite voluntarily, but at that time it did not occur to her that the circumstances were suspicious. She says that Lawson was on that afternoon greatly agitated, and betrayed an earnest desire to read the newspaper comments upon the crimes. A few days later, however, he disappeared, and they have not since met. Some little time afterwards she thought over the circumstances, and although she regarded them as extraordinary, she refrained from communicating with the police. It was not until she saw the portrait of Deeming that she resolved to make the statement, for she has no doubt whatever that the man she knew as Lawson was the original of the published portrait. His general bearing coincided exactly with that of Deeming; he always made an ostentatious display of his rings, and spoke of his travels abroad.

It is a somewhat extraordinary fact that although the police have succeeded in generally tracing Deeming's career under the names of Lawson, Swanston, and Williams since 1880, there is a period unaccounted for, namely, from the end of 1887 until 1889, when he appeared in South Africa, returning to Liverpool in August of that year. The above facts will probably be communicated to the Scotland-yard authorities to-day, and no doubt a searching inquiry into the girl's statement will be made.

[Chris]

The Daily Telegraph's response (8 April 1892, p. 5) ran as follows:


IS DEEMING THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERER?

From time to time various efforts have been made since the arrest of Deeming in Australia to hold him responsible for some, at least, of the Whitechapel murders. These murders, for reasons which will be presently stated, are classified into series, the two first, on April 3 and Aug. 7, 1888, being separated from the five atrocities, ascribed to one hand, which took place from Aug. 31 to Nov. 9, 1888, and which are held as quite distinct from the murder of July 17, 1889, believed to have been an imitation, and that of Feb. 13, 1891, which was a fatal throat-cutting of an ordinary kind, and attracted notoriety only because it happened in the East-End "murder area." Deeming was said to have admitted his guilt with respect to the murder of July 17, 1889, in Castle-alley, and that of Sept. 10, 1889, which, however, belonged to a different series altogether, a dismembered trunk having been found in Pinchin-street; but it was afterwards denied that Deeming had made any statement on the subject, and it was shown that at the time of these discoveries he was out of the country, and that during February, 1891, when the last tragedy of the kind was reported in Whitechapel, he was incarcerated in Hull Gaol. Hitherto no attempt has been made to suggest that Deeming was the author of the series of horrors which began with the Bucks-row mutilation on Aug. 31, 1888, and ended with the frightful display of demoniacal passion in the room in Miller's-court, Dorset-street, on Lord Mayor's Day of the same year. It does not seem possible that human nature, distorted though it might be by insanity, could sustain the shock of repetition, or even the recollection, of such a scene. Those detectives who, having studied all the circumstances, hold this opinion, incline also to the acceptance of a theory which is partly supported by fact, but is not capable of legal proof - although, in the minds of many who are or were most deeply concerned in the investigation, it disposes of the necessity for a further search for the miscreant known as "Jack the Ripper." The Whitechapel murderer, in their belief, is at the present moment confined in a private lunatic asylum, to which he was removed as soon as his madness, no longer amenable to control, was apparent to his friends. Yesterday, however, the Globe published a story which it considered strengthens the theory that Deeming committed two or more of the Whitechapel murders. The statement was as follows:

It appears that a respectable girl, a dressmaker, resident in the East-end, identified the portrait published in a weekly paper last Sunday as that of a man she knew by the name of Lawson in 1888. She states that she kept company with him in the autumn of that year, and on the evening of Sept. 29 they went for a walk. Soon after eleven p.m. they parted at Portland-road railway station, and she returned home by train. On the following morning, shortly before one o'clock, the body of Elizabeth Stride was discovered, with the throat cut, outside the International and Educational Club in Berner-street, Aldgate. An hour later a constable found the mutilated body of Mrs. Eddowes in Mitre-square, a short distance from the scene of the first tragedy.

The same afternoon the girl - who desires her name to be suppressed for the present - met the man Lawson by appointment and went for a walk with him. His conversation was mostly of the murders, and she says he spoke with an intimate knowledge of the details of the tragedies. During their walk Lawson purchased a newspaper, in which it was stated that the murders were probably perpetrated soon after midnight. This passage he pointed out to her, exclaiming, "Look at the time! I couldn't have committed them, could I?" This remark the girl declares she remembers distinctly, it being made quite voluntarily, but at that time it did not occur to her that the circumstances were suspicious. She says that Lawson was on that afternoon greatly agitated, and betrayed an earnest desire to read the newspaper comments upon the crimes. A few days later, however, he disappeared, and they have not since met. It was not until she saw the portrait of Deeming that she resolved to make the statement, for she has no doubt whatever that the man she knew as Lawson was the original of the published portrait. His general bearing coincided exactly with that of Deeming; he always made an ostentatious display of his rings, and spoke of his travels abroad.

No importance whatever, it has been ascertained, has been attached to this statement by the Scotland-yard authorities; and the City police, in whose district the Mitre-square murder took place, are without information upon the matter. With regard to the present allegation it is pointed out by a detective - who has never ceased to study the case, discarding as unproven the supposed guilt of the lunatic who is suspected by his most intimate friends to be the Whitechapel murderer - that the most the dressmaker has to tell is that she was with a man named Lawson in London on the night preceding the Berner-street and Mitre-square murders, discovered on Sunday, Sept. 30, 1888; and that on that day, when they met again, the man's conversation turned upon the tragedies, and he exclaimed, "Look at the time. I couldn't have committed them, could I?" Lawson the girl, who has recognised his portrait, declares to be Deeming. There is nothing very incriminating in this utterance, nor in the man's talk about the murders, for the subject was in everybody's mouth. The dates of Deeming's movements, however, as far as they are known here, appear to prove an alibi for him. Early in 1888 he went from Melbourne to Adelaide, stopped there with his wife and family one month, sailed thence - his third child being born on the voyage - transhipped at St. Helena, and reached Cape Town in the Dunrobin Castle about June. It has been stated that he was employed by a firm of engineers in Cape Town from the middle of the year, and subsequently he worked at Port Elizabeth, Natal, and Kimberley, where he passed as a gold mine manager. He is alleged to have been in the Transvaal in 1889, and he sailed for Durban on July 13, 1889, in the steamship Dunkeld, embarking later at Suez, on the British India steamer Jumna, on Sept. 14, 1889, and arriving at Plymouth on the 27th of the month. The statement that Deeming was in the Transvaal during that part of 1888 in which the five Whitechapel murders of the demoniacal type occurred rests, it is understood, upon the recollection of Brandt, formerly a private inquiry agent of Johannesburg, and now a detective in the Melbourne police; but his assertions have been discredited by reports from the Cape, and the matter remains doubtful, until it is cleared up in Australia, whether Deeming was really in the Transvaal during the period of the murders in London. If he were not in Africa, it is possible he might have been in London.

The strangest coincidence which has been noticed in tracing Deeming's career is that his personal appearance is considered to correspond exactly, as regards age, height, and complexion, with the only authentic description of the supposed Whitechapel murderer. He was seen on one occasion only, and for the first time the particulars now given are published in detail. Five minutes before the discovery of the mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes, in Mitre-square, at 1.15 on Sunday morning, Sept. 30, 1888, about half an hour after the murder of Elizabeth Stride was committed in Berner-street, three gentlemen, leaving a club in Duke-street, noticed a man and woman in Mitre-passage. One of these gentlemen who happened to turn round afterwards identified the clothing of the murdered woman. He could not see her face as her back was towards him, but the gaslight fell full upon the features of the man. The description he afterwards gave, which has from that time to this been kept secret, was, "A man of thirty-five, standing 5ft 7in to 5ft 8in, rather square shoulders, clean shaven with the exception of a heavy moustache, inclining to be sandy." There are, however, other facts which tell in Deeming's favour. On the morning of these two murders the assassin retraced his steps, pausing in Goulston-street, where close to the model dwellings he threw down a portion of his victim's apron, upon which he had wiped his bloodstained hands. Then with incredible self-possession he wrote with chalk on the wall, "The Jews are not the men to be blamed for nothing." It will for ever remain a blot upon the history of detective work, that by an order which was not to be disobeyed this damning handwriting on the wall was wiped out by the Metropolitan Police before a permanent record could be taken; but a City officer had time to make a rough copy of the inscription, preserving, as far as possible, the peculiarities of the lettering. This copy has been compared with letters which have been written by Deeming, and no similarity can be traced, nor is there any resemblance between his handwriting and that of the many and miscellaneous documents which have from time to time come into the hands of the police in the City, and which purport to be "Ripper" literature. Further, in comparing broadly the crimes charged to Deeming and those attributed to the Whitechapel murderer, the objects are quite distinct. Deeming's actions are those of an adventurer, it is argued by detectives, with a definite end - to gain money, and then to make away with his dupes in such a way that no one should suspect him of having compassed their death. The Whitechapel murderer had no such mercenary object; he was at no pains to conceal his crimes, he courted publicity, and his deeds are accounted for on the assumption that he was a religious maniac, who took no pleasure in killing, but revelled in the atrocities that followed.

[Chris]

I think one interesting aspect of this report is that there are clear indications that it emanated from the City, rather than the Metropolitan, police:

(1) In response to the Globe's prediction that "a searching inquiry into the girl's statement will be made" by Scotland Yard, the Telegraph says that it has been ascertained that Scotland Yard attaches no importance whatever to it, and then adds that "the City police, in whose district the Mitre-square murder took place, are without information upon the matter".

(2) In the statement on the Goulston Street writing - "It will for ever remain a blot upon the history of detective work, that by an order which was not to be disobeyed this damning handwriting on the wall was wiped out by the Metropolitan Police before a permanent record could be taken; but a City officer had time to make a rough copy of the inscription ..." - the Metropolitan police are clearly seen as the villains of the piece, with the situation only partly retrieved by the action of the City police officer (Daniel Halse). The wording given in the article is close to that recorded by Halse.

(3) The handwriting comparison referred to was between Halse's copy of the inscription, a sample of Deeming's handwriting and the supposed Ripper letters in the possession of the City police, not the Metropolitan police.

The likelihood that this theory was related to the Telegraph by a City detective is particularly interesting in view of its similarity to the view attributed to the ex-City detective Robert Sagar after his death. In the 1892 report the murderer is "confined in a private lunatic asylum, to which he was removed as soon as his madness, no longer amenable to control, was apparent to his friends", while Sagar's obituary says that it was his view "that the murders were committed by an insane man employed at Butcher's Row, Aldgate, who was subsequently placed by his friends in a private asylum."

It's also interesting that the Goulston Street incident, the obliteration of the writing and the fact that the message is "recorded among the archives at the Guildhall" is also coupled with Sagar's theory in the report of his retirement published by The City Press on 7 January 1905.

[Chris]

The strangest coincidence which has been noticed in tracing Deeming's career is that his personal appearance is considered to correspond exactly, as regards age, height, and complexion, with the only authentic description of the supposed Whitechapel murderer. He was seen on one occasion only, and for the first time the particulars now given are published in detail. Five minutes before the discovery of the mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes, in Mitre-square, at 1.15 on Sunday morning, Sept. 30, 1888, about half an hour after the murder of Elizabeth Stride was committed in Berner-street, three gentlemen, leaving a club in Duke-street, noticed a man and woman in Mitre-passage. One of these gentlemen who happened to turn round afterwards identified the clothing of the murdered woman. He could not see her face as her back was towards him, but the gaslight fell full upon the features of the man. The description he afterwards gave, which has from that time to this been kept secret, was, "A man of thirty-five, standing 5ft 7in to 5ft 8in, rather square shoulders, clean shaven with the exception of a heavy moustache, inclining to be sandy."

Obviously this passage contains several factual errors, whereas the rest of the article seems reasonably accurate on the whole. Also, Lawende's description seems to have been modified to make it sound more like Deeming - and the claim that it had hitherto been kept secret is bizarre (although it had initially been suppressed, it was published in the Police Gazette on 19 October 1888).

I suspect this part of the report has been lifted from another newspaper rather than coming from a police source. A 1991 Liverpool Echo article by Roger Bourke (http://rogerbourke.iinet.net.au/QUARTO-RIPPER.pdf) quotes the same modified description, and attributes it to the Globe, though unfortunately no date is given.

[Chris]

Perhaps this report from the Western Mail of 23 November 1892 is related to the one above. It deals with an alleged attack on 5 November on a woman named Emily Edith Smith. The whole report was transcribed a couple of years ago by Chris Scott (http://forum.casebook.org/showpost.p...8&postcount=16), and part of it reads as follows:

It is quite unnecessary for me to state that the sensational story told by the young woman Smith has been the principal topic of conversation here today. It came like a bolt from the blue. The theory that the "Ripper" had been handed over by his friends to the police as a dangerous lunatic, and was now safely under their charge, had begun to be generally credited as a fact. Today that theory has been shattered.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Chris!

An interesting thought, but it can only be considered as one theory among others!

All the best
Jukka

[Mitch Rowe]

Armchair Detective

"Look at the time! I couldn't have committed them, could I?"

Sounds like the guy is just trying to put himself in the murderers place.
How would the Woman know the details only the murderer would know?
This guy is just excited and interested in the murders. Who wouldnt be?
Perhaps we should be looking for a fellow who is not interested in the murders?

[Adam Went]

Very interesting stuff, Chris!

It's also worthwhile noting that these reports are a bit Chapman-esque, in that these sorts of reports were coming out about Deeming the month before he was hanged for murder - likewise, Chapman, in 1903, had the Abberline interview and what not a month or so before he was hanged. Seems as though the trials of these kinds of killers might have been a bit of a wake up call to press and police alike to say "could he have been the one that dunnit?".

Cheers,
Adam.