1891 Ripper Collector, His Collection, and Purported Victim's Shawl

[Archaic]

Hi Stephen. I honestly don't know how accurate those 1901 articles saying Dr. Johnson was a regular at The Cheese are; I just happened to find them, so thought I'd go ahead and share them.

I was wondering how the Dr. Johnson question might be settled to everyone's satisfaction, but unless they discover that Dr. Johnson autographed a 'Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese' tablecloth, it seems unlikely to be settled after all this time. I enjoy Dr. Johnson, but personally I was more interested to learn that Dickens frequented the pub, at that my all-time favorite, William Shakespeare () was a patron of the pub that stood on that site prior to the Great Fire.

Hi Cris, thanks very much. I'm glad you're enjoying the thread. It's fun when a number of people contribute...we end up learning about all kinds of interesting subjects, don't we?

Best regards,
Archaic

[Mayerling]

On collecting things criminal....

Hi all,

This is a fascinating side issue. Just what would make a coal dealer decide to create such a collection?

Well actually it is not so unusual. Hangman like Jame Berry had "souvenirs" of their judicial victims (Berry actually was robbed of some). Mostly people collected portions of the ropes used to hang famous (or temporarily famous) criminals. William Roughead's grandfather had a portion of the skin of William Burke that had been tanned into a square of "leather" and Roughead looking at it with fascination as a boy while hearing another retelling of the West Port Murders Case.

I'm just wondering at the man's gullibility - how did he know if the provenance of the items was true or not. A contemporary incident in France of a scholar who collected ancient letters signed by the likes of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, Cicero, Ovid and the rest has been written up as a fascinating example of foolishness - the letters were in French!

By the way, in the original edition of Donald Rumbelow's THE COMPLETE JACK THE RIPPER had a story that the author pointed out regarding himself meeting a fellow Ripperologist who spooked with his collection of models of the five victims as they were found. Like the reporter in 1891 with the Coal Merchant, Rumbelow left very early due to a creepy feeling.

Jeff