New claims Jack the Ripper was noted poet who studied as a priest in the North East

[Richard Patterson]

That Francis Thompson was an ex-medical student doesn't support him as the Ripper, as the medical consensus was undecided on the anatomical knowledge of the killer. Some of them opined that a mere hunter or a butcher could've inflicted the mutilations.

Thompson possessed a surgical scalpel? Again, what does this prove? Many men back then carried knives and blades about them. And it was hypothesized that the killer's weapon of choice was a thin, long-bladed weapon. That doesn't describe a surgeon's scalpel, does it?

Thompson had his heart broken by a prostitute and was motivated by revenge. Sounds good, but it's a reductionist approach at breaking down a serial killer's motivation. Many tortured artists/poets/writers have inner-demons. What percentage of them become serial killers? Also, I'm sure I read on here that the story about the prostitute was appropriated by Thompson or misattributed to him?

Thompson lived in Spitalfields during the killings? So did a lot of men.

I doubt that Thompson's six-years of medical training, in which he learned new techniques of organ removal, would have hurt his prospects if he were the Ripper. That you find medical training in a suspect irrelevant, when arguments of whether the Ripper had medical skill continue to this day, mystifying.

Equally mysterious is that you see nothing in the proximity of this suspect to the crimes. Also that you make no connection between the fact that Thompson said he carried an instrument used to dissect and remove human organs, and that the Ripper’s victims had their organs removed. That this suspect was seeking, on the streets, a woman of the very profession that the Ripper was killing matters nothing to you. It neither matters to you that he wrote, before the murders, of disembowelment and mutilation.

Tell me if I am wrong Harry, but it seems that if you met a man on the street, in 1888, Spitalfields who had training in organ removal, who told you he was carrying a dissecting knife. You would let him wander on his way. Even though if you also knew that his only reason to be there was his prolonged search to find a prostitute who had fled him. The same profession the Ripper was seeking.

It is all a matter of perspective. Some might say I am harassing a great poet, while some might say others are defending Jack the Ripper. I have no idea if Thompson was the Ripper but I know what I think of people who can't see the forest for the trees.

I am happy to harass Thompson here. I'm happy to do it in Spitalfields, as this clip from the upcoming documentary on my theory, which I provide a link here, shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gGLDun6yjM&t=73s

[MrBarnett]

That Thompson was mentally comes from various sources, all detailed in my book. That Thompson had troubles with the police is also detailed in my book and sources are given. Many biographies, on Thompson give details of his unpublished poems. I also read the Thompson's unpublished works, including this poem, when I researched in Boston College. I persist in harassing this great poet, because at the time of Kelly's murder her was living opposite the end of her street, in Spitalsfields. The only reason he gave was that he was seeking out a prostitute and he had medical skills and he wrote that he was carrying a dissecting scalpel. Anyone, who is interested in the solving the Ripper case, should want to know more about this man. Whether he was a great poet is beside the point and to ignore him on those grounds seems unreasonable.

Richard,

Have you been able to locate the original Catholics in Darkest England article which mentions the Providence Row refuge?

Gary

[Harry D]

That Francis Thompson was an ex-medical student doesn't support him as the Ripper, as the medical consensus was undecided on the anatomical knowledge of the killer. Some of them opined that a mere hunter or a butcher could've inflicted the mutilations.

Thompson possessed a surgical scalpel? Again, what does this prove? Many men back then carried knives and blades about them. And it was hypothesized that the killer's weapon of choice was a thin, long-bladed weapon. That doesn't describe a surgeon's scalpel, does it?

Thompson had his heart broken by a prostitute and was motivated by revenge. Sounds good, but it's a reductionist approach at breaking down a serial killer's motivation. Many tortured artists/poets/writers have inner-demons. What percentage of them become serial killers? Also, I'm sure I read on here that the story about the prostitute was appropriated by Thompson or misattributed to him?

Thompson lived in Spitalfields during the killings? So did a lot of men.

[Richard Patterson]

Neither of the encyclopeida articles mention more than Thompson lived in destitution for a time on the streets of Whitechapel. I know he mentions having used a scalpel to shave with in a letter. I know you think you have proof of the trouble with the police and his mental illness, but I have not encountered other sources which state this. The poem you mention about the cutting open of womens' stomachs was unpublished-- how did you learn of it?

Why do you persist in harassing this great poet?

That Thompson was mentally comes from various sources, all detailed in my book. That Thompson had troubles with the police is also detailed in my book and sources are given. Many biographies, on Thompson give details of his unpublished poems. I also read the Thompson's unpublished works, including this poem, when I researched in Boston College. I persist in harassing this great poet, because at the time of Kelly's murder her was living opposite the end of her street, in Spitalsfields. The only reason he gave was that he was seeking out a prostitute and he had medical skills and he wrote that he was carrying a dissecting scalpel. Anyone, who is interested in the solving the Ripper case, should want to know more about this man. Whether he was a great poet is beside the point and to ignore him on those grounds seems unreasonable.

[Flower and Dean]

Is the poem about "cutting women's stomachs open" "The Nightmare of the Witch Babies"? If so, I'm clearly reading very differently from you.

[Harry D]

"Ripperologists" don't care whose legacy they drag through the mud, be it a famous poet or a humble carman.

[Pcdunn]

Thanks for all the links Pc Dunn.
Here is my entry on Francis Thompson. Perhaps you could find which links you gave contradicts the following.

"Francis Thompson in 1888. He was an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, and a history of mental illness and trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women's stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a woman was knifed, as part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said was by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge."

Neither of the encyclopeida articles mention more than Thompson lived in destitution for a time on the streets of Whitechapel. I know he mentions having used a scalpel to shave with in a letter. I know you think you have proof of the trouble with the police and his mental illness, but I have not encountered other sources which state this. The poem you mention about the cutting open of womens' stomachs was unpublished-- how did you learn of it?

Why do you persist in harassing this great poet?

[Richard Patterson]

Yes Harry. Father Connolly did. He is responsible for the creation of the Francis Thompson Room at Burns Library in Boston College. Connolly's history with the poet is detailed in my book.

[harry]

A Father Connolly wrote three books on Francis Thompson.

[Richard Patterson]

Thanks for all the links Pc Dunn.
Here is my entry on Francis Thompson. Perhaps you could find which links you gave contradicts the following.

"Francis Thompson in 1888. He was an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, and a history of mental illness and trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women's stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a woman was knifed, as part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said was by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge."

[Herlock Sholmes]

Digging deeper.

It's always good to find out about a suspect but the Encyclopaedia Britannica is hardly going to say 'oh and by the way we think that he might have been Jack The Ripper.' I think that if someone has spent 10 years digging deeper it would be worth reading the results of his research. Thompson may not have been the Ripper but, as no one knows who he actually was yet, I'll keep an open mind until I've read the book. Unfortunately Ripperology is not short of suspects based on nothing more than the fact that they were breathing at the time.
Regards
HS

[Pcdunn]

I recommend researching for the facts about anyone accused of being a famous murderer.

Biographical entry on Thompson from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Thompson

Entry on Francis Thompson from The Catholic Encyclopedia:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14703b.htm

Link to his most famous poem, "The Hound of Heaven":

http://www.bartleby.com/236/239.html

Review of a novel explaining "The Hound of Heaven" as an autobiography of its author:

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/reviews.jsp?did=0700-clements

Thompson is NOT Jack the Ripper, as far as I can see.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Richard
I think that it's likely that I read about Thompson in Ripperologist which I used to get as a member of The Cloak and Dagger club. It could have been the Criminologist article or from your own writings posted there. He seems like an interesting suspect and just from reading your posts about the four points he becomes a more valid one than many. It appears, after being away from the subject for a while, that some authors consider it sufficient to just fulfill the "well he was alive at the time," criteria. Mann, Bachert, Abberline! etc and then trying to craft a scenario around this fact.
I look forward to reading your book as soon as I get it.
All the best.

[Richard Patterson]

Hi Herlock Sholmes.

Thompson was first mentioned as a suspect in 1988, in the Criminologist, in an article named 'Was Francis Thompson Jack the Ripper?' It was written by a Texan forensic pathologist named Dr. Joseph Rupp. I first suggested the same thing in a newspaper article in 1998, ten years later, although, at the time, I did not know of Dr. Rupp's article. If you had heard about this suspect ten years ago, if might have been something that I had put out there. Thompson, as a suspect, has been listed on Casebook for many years now. I hope you enjoy my book and find it useful.
Cheers.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Do I recall....?

I drifted away from all things Ripper for quite a while but I seem to recall Thompson being mentioned as a suspect before. It must have been 10 years or more ago. I'll be getting your new book soon but I was wondering if anyone else had nominated Thompson as a suspect? I may have read something by you.