Special Branch Register and Ledger-decison Notice

[mariab]

For me too my first (completely uninformed) reflex about “Wilson in Bushmills“ is that it simply refers to a nickname, possibly not even relevant to the Ripper case.

As discussed before, according to Clutterbuck the overall arrangement is alphabetical, with five subsections (A, E, I, O, U) for each letter of the alphabet. Within those subsections I assume it's chronological.

I've only seen a page from the “KE“ section, and it might be chronological inside of the sub-section, as the alphabetical order of the names is not completely respected.

Clutterbuck speaks of estimating dates "by taking an archaeological approach to what entries lie before or after a dated [i.e. datable?] entry." I can see that would be feasible with access to all the data, but it would be an awful lot harder using the redacted version from which all personal names have been edited out.

Absolutely.

[The Good Michael]

No wonder I can't find a racehorse named Kray.

There is one named Thatcher, and there was one named Osama, but he had to be put down.

Mike

[Trevor Marriott]

Entries from Special Branch Register

Hi all

Herewith attached are copies of the relevant entries from the register as provide to me by The Met Police.

[lynn cates]

speculation

Hello Trevor. Thanks for this. Any speculation on either?

Cheers.
LC

[mariab]

Thank you, Mr. Marriott.
(And I've been wondering what the different numbers pertain to.)

[Trevor Marriott]

Hello Trevor. Thanks for this. Any speculation on either?

Cheers.
LC

Hi Lynn

Plenty I was waiting for the entry of the gladiators !

[Lechmere]

It says "Bushmills" not Bushmills, which I think counts out the town in Northern Ireland.

[mariab]

Could “Bushmills“ be a pub then? Specializing in whiskey? :-)

[Chris]

It says "Bushmills" not Bushmills, which I think counts out the town in Northern Ireland.

Yes, I was wondering about that. But if it doesn't mean the town in Northern Ireland, what does it mean?

[Lechmere]

“Bushmills” could be a euphemism for some other place Or it could be the name of a house? From the late Victorian period to the 1930s many private houses were given names rather numbers as a snobbish affectation. Or a Hotel or Golf Club. Or a ‘House’ at a school? Or indeed the name of a whole school?
Could the subject ‘Jack the Ripper’ refer to the name or nickname given to Wilson at “Bushmills”?
Is there any date to these entries? To my eye the writing in the “Bushmills” reference looks like a later style.

[Monty]

Bushmills is a distillery, not just a town.

Therefore the commas are correct no?

Monty

[Chris]

“Bushmills” could be a euphemism for some other place Or it could be the name of a house? From the late Victorian period to the 1930s many private houses were given names rather numbers as a snobbish affectation. Or a Hotel or Golf Club. Or a ‘House’ at a school? Or indeed the name of a whole school?
Could the subject ‘Jack the Ripper’ refer to the name or nickname given to Wilson at “Bushmills”?

Yes, that's what I suggested above. Maria suggested the same thing. The only thing that would be a bit odd about that is that it seems to be entered under the heading "Jack the Ripper." If it's just a nickname I'm not sure what the point of that would be, and I should think that it would at least have been entered also under the heading "Wilson." But then, presumably that duplicate entry would also be visible in the redacted version.

This goes back to the question of whether these two (or perhaps three, including the Magrath entry) are the only ones in which references to the Whitechapel Murders/Jack the Ripper are visible in the redacted version.

[Chris]

Bushmills is a distillery, not just a town.
Therefore the commas are correct no?

Yes - it could be correct if referring to the distillery company.

According to Wikipedia, the company owned a transatlantic steamer (the S.S. Bushmills), which made its maiden voyage in 1890 and worked the Transatlantic route. Perhaps that could have been of interest to Special Branch?

[lynn cates]

hoplite try

Hello Trevor. Looks like no gladiators about. What about a tiny hoplite? (heh-heh)

Not sure the "Bushmills" is important. You recall, however, that there was an entry, "King of the Fenians." Heavy weather was made of this by a certain researcher. Turns out, according to Debs Arif, to be some local drunk with delusions of grandeur.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

irony

Hello All. Still trying the O'Brien business. Just for the heck of it I tried Mary Jane O'Brien. Like irony? Found one who was listed as a "visitor" with the Hutchison family. A second one (possibly the same one) was a servant (aged 16 in 1881) to a Davies.

Cheers.
LC