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Father of GWB and Albert Backert

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  • Father of GWB and Albert Backert

    Chris Morley in his "Suspects Guide" has this to say of the father of GWB as based on the letter received by Dan Farson:

    Father of G.W.B.
    A 77 year old Australian, using only the initials G.W.B, wrote to Ripper author Daniel Farson and told him the story that one day in 1889, while playing in the London streets at 9pm, his mother called out to him, 'Come in Georgie, or Jack the Ripper will get you'. The boys father overhearing this patted the boy on the head telling him, 'Don't worry, you would be the last person Jack the Ripper would touch'. Years later after an argument, when the boy challenged his father to stop beating his mother, the boys father confessed to his son that he was in fact Jack the Ripper. During this confession the father explained that at the time he did not know what he was doing, but his ambition was to get drunk and kill every prostitute that accosted him. He also claimed that when he committed the murders he wore two pairs of trousers, the outer bloodstained pair he would dispose of in the pile of manure which he sold from his cart.

    The father was born in 1850 which would make him 38 at the time of the murders. He married in 1876 and by all accounts was a violent drunkard, who would come home night after night and beat his wife and children. He had pined for a daughter, but when his only female child was born an imbecile, he took to drink and suffered severe mental problems, which resulted in him killing prostitutes. According to the son, the father told him to change his name because he was going to confess to the murders before he died. The son, who claimed his father died in 1912 constantly scanned the newspapers awaiting the revelation, which never came. Unfortunately, no researcher has found evidence to confirm if the father of G.W.B ever existed.


    I had never seen the initials GWB mentioned before in connection with any contemporary Ripper report, but the article below caught my eye. It is possible that the Farson's corespondent whose first name was, presumably, George (he is referred to as Georgie in the letter) and whose first two names were probably George William, was given the same names as his father, especially (though not exclusively so) if he were the eldest son.

    Birmingham Daily Post
    27 June 1891

    JACK THE RIPPER
    Mr Backert, chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, writes:
    "I have received another letter written in the same style and signed in the same way as the letters I received before several of the late murders. The letter is as follows:
    George Yard, Whitechapel.
    I am going to commence operations again shortly in this neighbourhood, and if you or your infernal gang in the least attempt to trace my whereabouts, so help me God, I'll put a knife in your heart. So beware and take warning, and let me alone. Let the police catch me if they can; it's their duty. But I pity them, as I never intend to be taken alive. I have nearly been caught twice.
    Yours truly, Jack the Ripper.
    G.W.B. my initials."
    Mr Backert has handed the letter to the police.

  • #2
    Here is the original:
    Attached Files

    Comment


    • #3
      Interesting find Chris.

      Wonder if this letter was widely published.

      Monty
      Monty

      https://forum.casebook.org/core/imag...t/evilgrin.gif

      Author of Capturing Jack the Ripper.

      http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1445621622

      Comment


      • #4
        Monty,
        ...you didn't read the notes I sent you then?!

        Chris,
        I did look very briefly at this before to see who was around George Yard at that time and found a George Boot living in George House, George yard in 1891. I didn't go into it in any detail as although the age roughly fitted (he was b c 1855) nothing else seemed to and I couldn't find him in 81 either to see if he had a son George....although I think it would have been a bit odd if he had given his address away! I thought maybe a grudge letter originally?

        Comment


        • #5
          Reading is one thing Debs, comprehending is something completely different.

          Apologies, its is there in black and white. I just plumb forgot. Given the Reeves, Woolf, Lusk and Bachert overload Ive had recently I think I can be forgiven for missing this one piece of information.

          Sorry

          Monty
          Monty

          https://forum.casebook.org/core/imag...t/evilgrin.gif

          Author of Capturing Jack the Ripper.

          http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1445621622

          Comment


          • #6
            Ok, Let you off Monty....just that you know how much I hate talking to myself

            Comment


            • #7
              Hi Debs
              Many thanks for the info - very interesting
              I'll see if we can find any more about Mr Boot!
              If so I'll let you know
              Regards
              Chris

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              • #8
                Cheers Chris, anything you can find will be great.
                I did happen to find a GWG Boot travelling from London to Australia, but the timing and birthdate for that individual was miles out in the end!!

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                • #9
                  I recently went by G.W.B's old home in Brooklyn at around 2 in the morning. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found. Neither was the house he once lived in, actually. And I didn't find any coffin where he might have slept the night, either. But I'll call on him again one day, garlic in hand.

                  Of course, my GWB was a Christian Socialist, Luciferian, neo-Druid. A man of many contradictions and many bright teeth.

                  Marlowe

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                  • #10
                    George Yard 1891
                    Men with surname starting with B

                    William George Bockett aged 19 born India - Carman
                    Thomas Brennan aged 40 born Durham - Dock labourer
                    Joseph Brian aged 51 born Ireland - Dock labourer
                    Joseph Brian aged 41 born Surrey - Shoemaker
                    Thomas Brenan aged 31 born Ireland - Bricklayer's labourer
                    Joseph Brian aged 30 born Ireland - Dock labourer
                    John Brown aged 63 born Ireland - Cane maker
                    Walter Bromage aged 23 born Woolwich - Merchant's clerk
                    Ernest H Bull aged 18 born Wakefield - Apprentice electrical engineer
                    Wilfrid Bishop aged 19 born Sheffield - Tea merchant's clerk
                    George Boot aged 36 born Whitechapel - Cabinet maker
                    (Wife named Lucy aged 36 and 4 children)
                    The entry for Boot and his family reads as follows:
                    28 St George's House, Whitechapel
                    Head: George Boot aged 36 born Whitechapel - Cabinet maker
                    Wife: Lucy Boot aged 36 born Holborn - Book folder
                    Children:
                    Ellen aged 17 born Bethnal Green
                    Rose aged 17 born Bethnal green
                    Charles aged 15 born Whitechapel
                    Elizabeth aged 2 born Whitechapel

                    I have found a George Boot in 1881 and he did indeed have a son named George. The family is listed in 1881 as follows:
                    8 Winbolt Street, Bethnal Green
                    Head: George Boot aged 26 born Whitechapel - Cabinet maker
                    Wife: Louisa Boot aged 26 born Bloomsbury
                    Children:
                    George aged 3 born Bethnal Green
                    Alfred aged 1 born Bethnal Green

                    Now this of course raises problems. The wife's name is different (Louisa in 1881, Lucy in 1891) and none of the 3 children listed in 1891 who are of an age to have been around in 1881 are mentioned. Also why are the two sons George and Alfred not listed in 1891? The most logical explnantion is that between the 1881 and 1891 censuses George Boot remarried and the three children in question are the offspring of his second wife, Lucy, by a former marriage.
                    In 1877 there is a marriage listed in Bethnal Green between a George Boot and Lucy Whawell. But this would negate the above theory and suggest that Louisa and Lucy were one and the same person.

                    In 1901 the family is listed as follows:
                    26&29 St George's House, Whitechapel
                    Head; George Boot aged 43 born Aldgate - Cabinet Maker
                    Wife: Lucy Boot aged 46 born St Martins Street
                    Children:
                    Rose aged 16 born Bethnal Green - Cigar maker
                    Charlie aged 14 born Whitechapel - Errand Boy
                    Elizabeth aged 12 born Whitechapel
                    Florence aged 9 born Whitechapel

                    As the children here are exactly the same as in 1891, it makes me query if the 1881 family is indeed the same one, but it seems more than coincidence to have a man of the same, comparartively unusual, name, same age, same trade, same place of birth. I have not yet resolved this problem.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Hi Chris,

                      Here's an extract of the data you transcribed from the Whitechapel Infirmary records, showing the men admitted from George Yard in 1888:

                      Click image for larger version

Name:	georgeyard.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	76.6 KB
ID:	654862

                      Not much joy there, either - but worth a try!
                      Kind regards, Sam Flynn

                      "Suche Nullen" (Nietzsche, Götzendämmerung, 1888)

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                      • #12
                        Hi Gareth
                        Many thanks for that - as you say, worth a look!
                        Chris

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                        • #13
                          Hi Chris,

                          The Lodger has those initials exactly, but none of the other details match.

                          G. Wentworth Bellsmith

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                          • #14
                            Hi Jerry
                            Indeed this is (as far as I know) the only named suspect with those initials, but, as you say, the manic Candian Bellsmith does not seem to fit with the hints in the letter, even less so with the alcoholic manure worker outlined in the original letter to Dan Farson.
                            Many thanks for the message
                            Chris

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Chris Scott View Post
                              As the children here are exactly the same as in 1891, it makes me query if the 1881 family is indeed the same one, but it seems more than coincidence to have a man of the same, comparartively unusual, name, same age, same trade, same place of birth. I have not yet resolved this problem.

                              Thanks for this info Chris, that was as far as I ventured with the George Boot info too and didn't have the stamina to go any further, especially as i'd just spent hours (with the help of Robert) trying to sort out Mary Malcolm and her 'adopted' father of 1881 at the time!....still not fathomed that one out yet.

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