Special Branch Register and Ledger-decison Notice

[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.

[Monty]

Bushmills is a distillery, not just a town.

Therefore the commas are correct no?

Monty

[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.

[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?

[mariab]

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

[Lechmere]

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

[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 !

[mariab]

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

[lynn cates]

speculation

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

Cheers.
LC

[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.

[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

[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.

[Phil Carter]

(It was also a popular name for racehorses and greyhounds, which I thought was a bit strange until it struck me that Jack the Ripper was never caught...)

Hello Chris,

That's amusing..and clever... "Gone with the Wind"- like

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

best wishes

[Chris]

From the single page of the SB ledgers I've seen (a page apparently available to everyone in Ripperology), it's clear that the ledgers are an alphabetically, not chronologically organized list. Still, I'm sure it's possible to figure out the time-frame the ledgers cover (if it hasn't been done already) through the cases featured in them.

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.

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.

[Chris]

Just one thought about the Bushmills entry. I'm not sure how to interpret it (and I'm not actually sure how others are interpreting it) but I wonder if - rather than being directly related to the Whitechapel Murders - it is noting that someone named Wilson at Bushmills was known by the nickname "Jack the Ripper." Judging from newspaper reports, the phrase was applied metaphorically quite early on to unusually violent people. (It was also a popular name for racehorses and greyhounds, which I thought was a bit strange until it struck me that Jack the Ripper was never caught...)