Dr. George Bagster Phillips

[paul emmett]

[QUOTE=perrymason;20446]The pardon was offered to an accomplice who "at any rate, after the fact" assisted the murderer in some fashion.[QUOTE]

Hello Michael, The ECHO, after stating that Phillips was mainly responsible for the pardon, said that it was for a person who knew the killer's intentions, but was afraid of implicating himself as an accessory before or after the comission of the crimes. I think this speaks against a lookout in two ways. Phillips's connection makes the deduction of an accomplice seem medical, and the article stresses before and after, but not during.

I realize that these two points themselves are hard to reconcile.

Does anyone ever talk about the question(apparently started by Stewart) of the rumor MJK being pregnant?

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

The Times, 24th November 1888—



Regards,

Simon

[paul emmett]

Hello, Simon.

This version certianly makes it seem like people he is living with are being targeted. Matthews emphasizes after and the plural "persons." How do you think that this fits in with your earlier post regarding Phillips being responsible for the pardon? I also like the plural "circumstances" that Michael had noted earlier.

[Ben]

Hi Tom,

If you're referring to the interview with the assistant (Percy Clark?), it seems clear that he was only expressing his views (i.e. Clark's) as to which victims were killed by the same killer. He can't have been parrotting the opinions of Phillips because he went on record as stating that the killer was from the poorer classes and had no anatomical knowledge, which is in stark contrast to Phillips' views on Chapman.

Unless you're talking about a diffrerent article, it would seem that there's no written proof that Phillips attributed Chapman and Kelly to the same killer.

Best regards,
Ben

[Tom_Wescott]

Ben,

No, he was talking about Phillips' opinion. And even reading Phillips' own words one could reach the conclusion that he only accepted Nichols, Chapman and Kelly as bonafide Ripper victims.

Does anyone ever talk about the question(apparently started by Stewart) of the rumor MJK being pregnant?

I don't know how Stewart fits into this myth, but no one talks about it any more since Dr. Bond's report surfaced showing that Kelly was not pregnant when murdered.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

If HMG's decision to offer a pardon was based on Dr. Phillips' advice, he must have presented compelling evidence to prompt such a political U-turn. What might that evidence have been?

From Matthews' parliamentary answer we can infer that the murderer worked alone in Millers Court, but was given assistance in fleeing the murder scene and/or being provided with safe accommodation—a reference which could be an allusion to Anderson's suspect, the low-class Jew sheltered by his own people.

This ties in with the point made by Tom about Phillips agreeing that the murderer must have left Millers Court in a bloody condition, and in such a state couldn't have gone far unnoticed. So maybe it was this which suggested an accomplice to Doctor Phillips.

The trouble is that the murderer must surely have planned an exit strategy from Millers Court, part of which would have been to ensure that his clothes weren't covered in blood. Ergo! Strip naked before commencing operations—a fairly natural thing to do if sexual intercourse was the premise upon which murderer and victim were together in Room 13.

Fast forward an hour or so. The bloody deed is done. Once again dressed in spotless clothes, our murderer's problems are only just beginning.

Millers Court was a cul-de-sac. There was only one way out—along a narrow passageway. In order to make his escape the murderer would first have to make certain nobody was entering Millers Court along the passageway. This would require him to stick his head out of the door of Room 13 and take a look—a high-risk manoeuvre in itself. He next has to be certain that on exiting into Dorset Street he doesn't walk straight into a policeman or passer-by. From twenty-six feet down Millers Court [the length of the passageway] there's no way for him to predict this, so he has to take a chance. And if he miscalculates he has only one really safe fall-back position—return down the passageway, stick a hand through the broken window, unlock Room 13 and wait inside for another opportunity. This state of affairs could have gone on all night ad infinitum, with the chances of discovery steadily mounting. Who would have put themselves at such high risk?

Enter the accomplice.

How much more clean, simple and efficient to have someone stationed opposite Millers Court ready with a signal when the coast was clear?

Ladies and gentlemen, if Mrs Maxwell is to be ignored I offer you our accomplice, whoever that person may have been.

Regards,

Simon

[paul emmett]

I don't know how Stewart fits into this myth, but no one talks about it any more since Dr. Bond's report surfaced showing that Kelly was not pregnant when murdered.

Tom, The pregnancy myth was started by William Stewart in JTR: A NEW THEORY in like 1922. He said that word on the street was that MJK was pregnant--something that could, of course, not be proven one way or the other. I just asked because I felt that this might be something Phillips could have been checking.

Simon,your first sentence notes that IF Phillips did the convincing, "he must have presented compelling evidence." But then as you suggest that the JTR being all bloody theory might be that evidence, you yourself undercut it pretty effectively. He needn't be drenched in blood. If that leaves us with a lookout, I know Michael will be happy, but I don't see how Phillips would convince HMG with a lookout theory, and, as I said earlier, a lookout does not just help out AFTER the crime. So I wondert if they'd pardon one.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Paul,

Not being able to read Phillips' mind, all I can do is look at what's available and see on what basis he may have come to an accomplice theory. What I posted is the best I can make of it, which may not be saying much.

If, perhaps, maybe, possibly, surely—all important words in the lexicon of the Ripperologist searching for answers. I wish it were otherwise.

There's more to this mystery than meets the eye. Someone wasn't telling the truth; that's for sure. But I'm buggered if I can work out who or why.

I'm going to give Jack a rest for a while. See you next time.

Happy hunting.

Regards,

Simon

[Tom_Wescott]

Tom, The pregnancy myth was started by William Stewart in JTR: A NEW THEORY in like 1922.

OH how funny! My bad, but around here when you say Stewart it'll likely be taken to mean Stewart Evans. Like if you said 'Tom said Druitt's the only possible candidate for the Ripper', I'd get a glowing letter from Andy Spallek cuz everyone would think you meant me and not Tom Cullen.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Natalie Severn]

Simon,
I read the newspaper cutting but am baffled too.It looks to me like they did believe there to be an accomplice in the Kelly murder.We dont know what body parts were missing-if any.That could prove to be helpful.The stuff over Hutchinson is strange too.He just seems to disappear with not a word ever found on him or about his evidence,once the first flurry had passed.
My computer is playing up something shocking ,so I too may be taking a rest from the case-an enforced one mind,while it goes to get mended.
Cheers

[paul emmett]

There's more to this mystery than meets the eye. Someone wasn't telling the truth; that's for sure. But I'm buggered if I can work out who or why.

I'm going to give Jack a rest for a while. See you next time.

Happy hunting.

Yes, Simon, see you next time. Thanks for all your help.

As for hunting, "someone wasn't telling the truth"? I'm going for Matthews, and his quote about "personSS!" who assissted the murderer after the crime. First, this can't refer to a lookout; it could only refer to two or more lookouts! Second, I'm still not buying the abrupt U-turn. In light of the meetings and secrecy documented by Simon at the start of this thread, I'm saying Phillips found something that needed to remain a secret. But Matthews has to say something, so he goes back to insinuate the old standby. The Jews JTR lives with are covering his bloody ass. That's just what most would say.

There's more to this mystery than meets the eye. I concur, Simon

Yes, Natalie, what's in the pail? What if Phillips proves the body in the bed isn't pregnant, and Stewart was right that word on the street was that MJK was? Hope your computer gets well.

Tom, Tom Wescott, Tom_Wescott, I should have seen the Stewart thing.

[Fortinbras]

this is what I know from George Bagster Philips

Dr George Bagster Phillips MBBS,MRCS Eng, Lic. Midwif., LSA (1834 – October 27, 1897), was, from 1865, the Police Surgeon for the Metropolitan Police's 'H' Division, which covered London's Whitechapel district. He came to prominence during the Whitechapel Murders of 1888-1891, when he conducted or attended autopsies on the bodies of four of the victims of Jack the Ripper, namely Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. He was called by the police to the murder scene of three of them, Chapman, Stride and Kelly.
Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew, who was a detective constable in the Whitechapel CID throughout the Ripper investigation, and who knew Phillips well, remembered him as being in his fifties in 1888. "He was a character," Dew later wrote, " An elderly man, he was ultra old-fashioned both in his personal appearance and his dress. He used to look for all the world as though he had stepped out of a century-old painting. His manners were charming: he was immensely popular both with the police and the public, and he was highly skilled"[1]
Phillips lived at 2 Spital Square in Whitechapel.



Appointed a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1861,[1], Phillips is first mentioned in the British national press in The Times of 24th May 1866, when he attended on James Ashe, who had been cut with a knife and wounded by his brother-in-law, Patrick O'Donnell, a 20 year-old journeyman tailor.[2] Later, in 1870, Phillips was called to the Stepney police station concerning a case of child abuse, when he was asked to examine a 7 year-old girl and the man charged with her sexual assault. He diagnosed both as suffering from gonorrhea and also found that the young girl had a vaginal rupture, which Phillips said was an indication of "violence of some kind".[2]
The Times referred to Phillips again on the 6th March 1882 when Mary Ann Macarthy, aged 17 and living in a common lodging-house in Spitalfields, was charged on remand with feloniously cutting and wounding Henry Connor, by stabbing him with a knife. Again, Phillips dressed the wounds of the injured party

During the later Whitechapel Murders, Phillips performed the post-mortem examination of Alice McKenzie (nicknamed "Clay Pipe" Alice and who used the alias Alice Bryant), who was killed on 17th July 1889 in Castle Alley in Whitechapel. At the coroner's inquest on 22 July 1889, Phillips stated that the injuries to her throat had been caused by someone who "knew the position of the vessels, at any rate where to cut with reference to causing speedy death."[4] She had two jagged wounds in the left side of her neck. Phillips also found five superficial marks on the left side of McKenzie's abdomen, which had been made, he thought, by the pressure of a right thumb and fingers prior to mutilating her body with a knife that was held in the murderer's left hand.
Phillips was involved in investigating "The Pinchin Street Murder," a term coined after the headless and legless torso of a woman was found under a railway arch in Pinchin Street in Whitechapel on 10th September 1889. After examining the medical evidence Phillips, Commissioner James Monro and Chief Inspector Donald Swanson concluded that the murder was not committed by Jack the Ripper [5]
He also performed the autopsy on Frances Coles (also known as Frances Coleman, Frances Hawkins and nicknamed "Carrotty Nell"), born in 1865 and killed on 13th February 1891. He believed that the minor wounds on the back of her head suggested that she was thrown violently to the ground before her throat was cut three times. Otherwise there were no mutilations to the body. Phillips did not believe that her murderer displayed any medical knowledge. Cole's body was found under a railway arch in Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel.
His obituary in The Lancet on November 13th 1897 described Phillips as "a leading police surgeon in London". In it he was described by his assistant, Dr. Percy John Clark, as "a modest man who found self-advertising abhorrent... under a brusque, quick manner engendered by his busy life, there was a warm, kind heart, and a large number of men and women of all classes are feeling that by his death they have lost a very real friend".[6]
Dr George Bagster Phillips died from apoplexy on October 27 1897.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Fortinbras,

Thanks for your post which has some real nuggets of information.

Regards,

Simon

[Fortinbras]

you are the mosy welcome

Simon Wood: you are welcome I'M glad to put my 2 cent in this topic

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for adding that, Fortinbras.

Simon,

So what thoughts are formulating in your head about Dr. Phillips?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott