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Greetings all,
It’s been noted that the Whitechapel murders were not committed during any of the notorious pea-soup London fogs. The evenings in question had, at best, the natural light, misty fog. The thick London fogs were the result of the condensation of water vapor (on days of high relative humidity caused by the location of the Thames combined with a cold ground) on the high volume of soot in the air from ‘sea coal’ being used to heat homes. This nasty ‘smog’ has been the cause of many deaths in the past, but thanks to the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, these London fogs rarely occur.
I collected lots of info on Casebook pertaining to fog, and it’s clear that the month of October, the same month that no murders occurred, experienced the thick London fog, while the other months did not. In science, we have this issue of causation vs. correlation. There may be a correlation, but is it the cause? Well, there certainly is a correlation between the absence of the thick London fog and when the murders occurred. Note what the following piece on Bury states:
[William Henry]Bury was first named as a possible Ripper suspect as early as 1889, first by the New York Times, and later in 1988 by Euan McPherson, in an article for the Scots magazine, and in 1995 by William Beadle in the book Anatomy Of A Myth. Beadle, in an otherwise excellent book, points out that Bury stopped killing in October because the particularly heavy fog that descended on London that month curtailed his pony and cart forays into Whitechapel, thus obscuring and hindering his exit route. This remark by Beadle has caused many to summerarily dismiss Bury as a viable Ripper suspect in favour of far less credible candidates. While it is unlikely that fog would dampen the ardour's of a serial killer, no Ripperologist or author has yet offered a credible alterative explanation as to why the killings actually ceased during the month of October. [http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media...?printer=true]
I have another thought, which may turn out to be nothing, but hey… Let us assume the London fog was the cause of October being free of murders. We know the thick London fogs were a serious health issue, which even caused many to die. What if the killer was either a person with a health issue or was a medical expert who did not want to be outside and breathe the disgusting air?
Just some thoughts. Below are pertinent newspaper articles discussing the fog during the fall of 1888.
Sincerely,
Mike
Te Aroha News
New Zealand
12 January 1889
London November 16 - …The following excerpt from the "Daily News" gives a vivid picture of the scene in Spitalfields and Whitechapel on Sunday evening last. A heavy fog had shrouded the city like a pall for the greater part of the day, but towards night it cleared somewhat. The correspondent made his way back with considerable trepidation. A "Star" reporter had…
It is a dreary, dismal scene presented here in the misty gloom of this November evening and it is all the more gruesome and depressing from the revolting conversation of many of the people, especially of a line of rough looking fellows who stand with their backs against the wall opposite the head of Miller's Court, smoking short pipes, chaffing the crowd, and bandying unseemly jests about the shocking occurrence. As early as four o'clock in the morning, it is said, people began to drop round to have a look at the scene of this latest horror, and all day long they have come and gone, and still they are clustering here, and streaming in and out. But the main thoroughfares look very quiet and deserted, at all events to those familiar with them only on weekdays. The gaslights flicker feebly over the sloppy pavement, and there is a clammy fog in the air.
The Star
LONDON. SATURDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 1888.
…About ten o'clock this morning darkness descended upon London. It was not the thick darkness of a pea-soup fog, nor the dirty darkness of a smoke fog. It was a thin, grey, drizzling, damp obscurity, caused by a cloud of vapour hanging overhead, which intercepted the daylight, and upon which was reflected with a lurid glare the morning lamplight. There was very little interruption to the traffic, for the condition of things with all the street lamps lit and with the gas or the electric light streaming from every window was little worse than on any ordinary dark night. It was a kind of darkness which the light could pierce - a great advantage over the real "London particular." As we went westward things got worse. In Kensington the fog lay lower and was thicker, although at Putney the morning, though muggy, was clear. Men about town enlivened the gloom with a pleasant story to the effect that in that vague region of romance known as "up west" young gentlemen rising from sleep were deceived by the darkness into the idea that it was evening, and went down in all the shining glory of evening dress to dine at their clubs.
The phenomena is explained by the Meteorological Office as the outcome of a complex depression situated in the English Channel, and extending to the metropolis, with its centre about Hastings. This depression rises in a column, and drawing all the surrounding air towards itself causes aerial disturbances all over Europe.
The Daily Telegraph
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1888
…A LONDON FOG. - Yesterday morning, about nine o'clock, a dense fog suddenly enveloped the City and West-end, necessitating the use of artificial light in places of business. Traffic on the Thames was stopped, and the road service was carried on with difficulty by the drivers of cabs, omnibuses, &c., who were obliged to use their lamps as at nighttime.
Evening News
London, U.K.
19 October 1888
…He came up the street, and we stepped back and allowed him to pass, and he went in the direction of the Whitechapel-road. He went away so quickly that we lost sight of him in the fog, which was then very thick. The time then was just after 12.
The Star
LONDON. WEDNESDAY, 17 OCTOBER, 1888.
…London is clothed in a pea-soup colored fog to-day. It had been gathering all night, and when sub-editors and market porters came out this morning it lay thick in the suburbs. Every hour it grows blacker, and the lights of London show through the opaque atmosphere with Whistlerian dimness.
PALL MALL GAZETTE
An Evening Newspaper and Review.
THURSDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 1888.
…"Homeless and friendless." The words strike cold when uttered in a cosy room near a warm fire, when only the imagination pictures what the words convey. What they mean to the outcast, crouching hungry in the chill November evening, as the dank fog settles down on the dreary pavement, and not even the doss-house has shelter for the penniless wayfarer - what they mean to the footsore tramp, after a twelve hours' weary search for work - may no reader of them here ever know.
It’s been noted that the Whitechapel murders were not committed during any of the notorious pea-soup London fogs. The evenings in question had, at best, the natural light, misty fog. The thick London fogs were the result of the condensation of water vapor (on days of high relative humidity caused by the location of the Thames combined with a cold ground) on the high volume of soot in the air from ‘sea coal’ being used to heat homes. This nasty ‘smog’ has been the cause of many deaths in the past, but thanks to the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, these London fogs rarely occur.
I collected lots of info on Casebook pertaining to fog, and it’s clear that the month of October, the same month that no murders occurred, experienced the thick London fog, while the other months did not. In science, we have this issue of causation vs. correlation. There may be a correlation, but is it the cause? Well, there certainly is a correlation between the absence of the thick London fog and when the murders occurred. Note what the following piece on Bury states:
[William Henry]Bury was first named as a possible Ripper suspect as early as 1889, first by the New York Times, and later in 1988 by Euan McPherson, in an article for the Scots magazine, and in 1995 by William Beadle in the book Anatomy Of A Myth. Beadle, in an otherwise excellent book, points out that Bury stopped killing in October because the particularly heavy fog that descended on London that month curtailed his pony and cart forays into Whitechapel, thus obscuring and hindering his exit route. This remark by Beadle has caused many to summerarily dismiss Bury as a viable Ripper suspect in favour of far less credible candidates. While it is unlikely that fog would dampen the ardour's of a serial killer, no Ripperologist or author has yet offered a credible alterative explanation as to why the killings actually ceased during the month of October. [http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media...?printer=true]
I have another thought, which may turn out to be nothing, but hey… Let us assume the London fog was the cause of October being free of murders. We know the thick London fogs were a serious health issue, which even caused many to die. What if the killer was either a person with a health issue or was a medical expert who did not want to be outside and breathe the disgusting air?
Just some thoughts. Below are pertinent newspaper articles discussing the fog during the fall of 1888.
Sincerely,
Mike
Te Aroha News
New Zealand
12 January 1889
London November 16 - …The following excerpt from the "Daily News" gives a vivid picture of the scene in Spitalfields and Whitechapel on Sunday evening last. A heavy fog had shrouded the city like a pall for the greater part of the day, but towards night it cleared somewhat. The correspondent made his way back with considerable trepidation. A "Star" reporter had…
It is a dreary, dismal scene presented here in the misty gloom of this November evening and it is all the more gruesome and depressing from the revolting conversation of many of the people, especially of a line of rough looking fellows who stand with their backs against the wall opposite the head of Miller's Court, smoking short pipes, chaffing the crowd, and bandying unseemly jests about the shocking occurrence. As early as four o'clock in the morning, it is said, people began to drop round to have a look at the scene of this latest horror, and all day long they have come and gone, and still they are clustering here, and streaming in and out. But the main thoroughfares look very quiet and deserted, at all events to those familiar with them only on weekdays. The gaslights flicker feebly over the sloppy pavement, and there is a clammy fog in the air.
The Star
LONDON. SATURDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 1888.
…About ten o'clock this morning darkness descended upon London. It was not the thick darkness of a pea-soup fog, nor the dirty darkness of a smoke fog. It was a thin, grey, drizzling, damp obscurity, caused by a cloud of vapour hanging overhead, which intercepted the daylight, and upon which was reflected with a lurid glare the morning lamplight. There was very little interruption to the traffic, for the condition of things with all the street lamps lit and with the gas or the electric light streaming from every window was little worse than on any ordinary dark night. It was a kind of darkness which the light could pierce - a great advantage over the real "London particular." As we went westward things got worse. In Kensington the fog lay lower and was thicker, although at Putney the morning, though muggy, was clear. Men about town enlivened the gloom with a pleasant story to the effect that in that vague region of romance known as "up west" young gentlemen rising from sleep were deceived by the darkness into the idea that it was evening, and went down in all the shining glory of evening dress to dine at their clubs.
The phenomena is explained by the Meteorological Office as the outcome of a complex depression situated in the English Channel, and extending to the metropolis, with its centre about Hastings. This depression rises in a column, and drawing all the surrounding air towards itself causes aerial disturbances all over Europe.
The Daily Telegraph
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1888
…A LONDON FOG. - Yesterday morning, about nine o'clock, a dense fog suddenly enveloped the City and West-end, necessitating the use of artificial light in places of business. Traffic on the Thames was stopped, and the road service was carried on with difficulty by the drivers of cabs, omnibuses, &c., who were obliged to use their lamps as at nighttime.
Evening News
London, U.K.
19 October 1888
…He came up the street, and we stepped back and allowed him to pass, and he went in the direction of the Whitechapel-road. He went away so quickly that we lost sight of him in the fog, which was then very thick. The time then was just after 12.
The Star
LONDON. WEDNESDAY, 17 OCTOBER, 1888.
…London is clothed in a pea-soup colored fog to-day. It had been gathering all night, and when sub-editors and market porters came out this morning it lay thick in the suburbs. Every hour it grows blacker, and the lights of London show through the opaque atmosphere with Whistlerian dimness.
PALL MALL GAZETTE
An Evening Newspaper and Review.
THURSDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 1888.
…"Homeless and friendless." The words strike cold when uttered in a cosy room near a warm fire, when only the imagination pictures what the words convey. What they mean to the outcast, crouching hungry in the chill November evening, as the dank fog settles down on the dreary pavement, and not even the doss-house has shelter for the penniless wayfarer - what they mean to the footsore tramp, after a twelve hours' weary search for work - may no reader of them here ever know.
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