Albert Backert - did he emigrate?

[Chris Scott]

When I was working on the Backert section of the "Cast of Thousands" I was never able to find a date of death for Backert. The article might explain this, as it intimates that he intended to emigrate.

Reynolds Newspaper
18 June 1893

[Debra A]

Hi Chris,
I did post a bit of this Bachert stuff but it was on JTR forums and spread over a couple of different threads, mainly to do with Albert's politics and the radicals involvement with the WVC. I think he most likely did emigrate myself too, after briefly and unsuccessfully trying to revive his political career in Bristol, he disappears from press mention altogether....and that wasn't like Albert at all!

[Fantomas]

There is a memorial to an Albert Backert in the Tyrol region of Austria. The inscription reads:


Member of the section of ski of the Club from Vosge of Guebwiller which got lost in the snow and the fog in Glashütte to die from exhaustion on this place, on February 18th, 1911. (Vosges)

[MysterySinger]

Amazing what comes to light. No jokes about him having been on a slippery slope.

[Fantomas]

Yes! The memorial is not in Tyrol but Glashutte, Germany. Here is the memorial:

[Mayerling]

There is a memorial to an Albert Backert in the Tyrol region of Austria. The inscription reads:


Member of the section of ski of the Club from Vosge of Guebwiller which got lost in the snow and the fog in Glashütte to die from exhaustion on this place, on February 18th, 1911. (Vosges)

I guess that Backert was the only one to die of exhaustion at that spot. The wording suggested that the section of the ski group got lost (more than one person) and died, but only Albert's name is on the monument.

It is not so unusual to find an individual involved in two tragedies like Backert was. One of the U.S. soldiers who fought in the action at Little Big Horn on June 1876 was an Italian immigrant named De Rudio. He had been a prisoner in Devil's Island for being one of the members of Felice Orsini's February 1858 attempt on the life of Napoleon III that killed about 14 people (but not the Emperor or his wife Eugenie), but managed to escape and reach the U.S. He died in the 1890s in San Francisco.

Jeff

[C. F. Leon]

Capt. Charles De Rudio died in Pasadena, California in 1910 (Custer in '76; Walter Camp, ed. Kenneth Hammer). His tale is MUCH more interesting that Mayering tells it in his short comment. (Not quite as involved as Peter Thompson's, though.)

[Nelson]

Just saw on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHLBdrV4lGE ,
the new book by Mick Priestly, he nominates Bachert as the Ripper.
What is the general consensus here at Casebook regarding Bachert, and this new book?

Nelson

[MysterySinger]

Can't say I would rule him out but I'm a bit doubtful of him a nominee.

[ChrisGeorge]

Just saw on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHLBdrV4lGE ,
the new book by Mick Priestly, he nominates Bachert as the Ripper.
What is the general consensus here at Casebook regarding Bachert, and this new book?

Nelson

Hi Nelson

Albert Bachert is certainly as "a person of interest." It has always seemed suspicious to me that he inserted himself into the case at so many different points, and as we know that's something that serial killers do. He certainly had a big view of himself and could be classed at the least as something of a trouble maker. This is what makes his sudden disappearance curious because, much like Roslyn D'Onston, he was a self-advertiser who was often in the news.

As for the "Albert Backert" with the memorial in Glasshutte, Germany, I don't believe it is the same fellow. If anything, if Albert emigrated he didn't go to the "Old Country" as it were, but did what most emigrants of the day did -- he went west!

See below for another line of enquiry about the Bachert family -- as noted, there is a firm of bellmakers in in Karlsruhe, Germany, named "A. Bachert." I thought conceivably they may have had enquiries from the Bachert family over the years and might be willing to share contact information with us. See http://www.bachert-glocken.de/. As you see, I attempted to contact them back in 2009 in my then capacity as an editor of Ripperologist magazine but never heard back.


From: Christopher T. George <editorctrip@yahoo.com>
Subject: Albert Bachert of London
To: abachert@bachert-glocken.de
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009, 2:06 AM

Greetings Herr Bachert

I am an editor for Ripperologist magazine published in England. You may or may not know that there was an Albert Bachert who lived in London at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 and who is mentioned in a lot of contemporary newspaper articles. He was at one time head of the local vigilance committee and also sat on a jury looking into the crimes. He was an engraver who lived in the East End of London where the crimes occurred.

The point of me contacting you is to find out if by any chance any of Mr. Bachert's descendants may have contacted you. There is no known photograph or illustration that shows the engraver Albert Bachert of London and we would really like to find out if one exists and if the family might be willing to allow us to publish it.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards

Christopher T. George
Editor, Ripperologist magazine

[ChrisGeorge]

Correcting what I wrote in 2009 to the German bell company about there being no illustration of Albert Bachert, a post by Jerry Dunlop at JtR Forums appears to correct that impression:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showpost.php?p=289123&postcount=95

[RockySullivan]

Just saw on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHLBdrV4lGE ,
the new book by Mick Priestly, he nominates Bachert as the Ripper.
What is the general consensus here at Casebook regarding Bachert, and this new book?

Nelson

how come these new ripper suspect authors are always so absent from casebook? i have to imagine that most of their research is from casebook posters

[Nelson]

RockeySullivan. I was kind of wondering the same thing.

[Nelson]

ChrisGeorge. Thanks for that. Maybe Bachert should be on Casebook's suspect list. All the other suspects seem to have reached a dead end.
Anyone here read One Autumn In Whitechapel, by Mick Priestly?

so the Bachert family are in the bell business, then there's The Ten Bells pub. coincidence? I think not.

[Nelson]

Ha! you snotty pompous self proclaimed "experts" need to find a different hobby.
Get over it.