William Henry Hurlbert

[Tom_Wescott]

Regarding post #34 by Simon, it's interesting that Hurlbert was described by the British police as both 'stout' and as having a 'military appearance'. George Hutchinson devotees might find something in that.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[lynn cates]

military bearing

Hello Tom. I'll say. Of course, there are other good suspects with that bearing. (Heh-heh.)

Cheers.
LC

[Tom_Wescott]

Stout and military bearing? I'm sure there are, but I don't know who you're referring to.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stewart P Evans]

Surprised

Hello (again) Simon. I fear I did not do justice to your post.
""The [City] detectives had no reason to doubt this story and every effort by advertisements and handbills was made to discover the man who had talked with Catharine Beddowes (sic) a week before the murder and given her five shillings. Up to the present the personality of this man remains shrouded in mystery. The detectives argued that if he was innocent in intent he would at once have come forward, most people will be inclined to agree with them."
I notice that the City of London detectives did not doubt the story about Kate. I think this significant as it indicates that they, like me, never bought John Kelly's rubbish about hop picking.
After all, how can one be both hop picking in Kent AND receiving money in London at the same time?
Cheers.
LC

I am surprised to see this extract from the Philadelphia Times of December 3, 1888, being discussed as if it were something new as it was published way back in 2000 in The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook (Companion), where it forms chapter 25 'December 1888 - An American View'. The cutting is preserved in the official Scotland Yard files, MEPO 3/140.

[lynn cates]

Clg

Hello Tom. I was thinking your lad was not short or scrawny. Did he not have an erect bearing?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

read the book

Hello Mr. Evans. No, not new--but frequently overlooked.

I have noted before that almost everything one needs to solve this case is in your book. Sadly, we are so busy looking for single subjects of a certain kind that we may tend to overlook the simple alternative--which, by the way, has lain unread in your book.

I believe that your book also contains the snippet from "The Times" of October 2 or 3 where the MET was thinking in terms of more than one killer.

Moral to the story? Read the book!

Thanks.

Cheers.
LC

[Tom_Wescott]

Hello Tom. I was thinking your lad was not short or scrawny. Did he not have an erect bearing?

Not short or scrawny, but he doesn't appear to have been stout, which I take to mean fat or round.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[lynn cates]

stout

Hello Tom. I thought the LVP take on "stout" involved muscular? Or possibly "well built"?

Was MJK once described as stout?

Cheers.
LC

[Simon Wood]

Hi Lynn,

The levels of intrigue going on during the LVP make The Borgias look like The Waltons.

I've been digging into the New Orleans anti-lottery newspaper New Delta and its city editor Aubrey Wilfred Murray [see post #7].

There's not a sniff of him, which doesn't really surprise me. Wilfred Murray was about as real as Jack the Ripper.

Check out this crock of a story.

New York Sun, 8th October 1893—

There Was a Wilfred Murray.

"We reprint elsewhere an interesting letter written by Mrs. W. H. HURLBURT to Mr. LABOUCHERE of the London Truth, in which she vindicates her husband from the accusations of his enemies.

"It will be remembered that in the action for breach of promise of marriage, brought by one GLADYS EVELYN, against Mr. W. H. HURLBURT, the plaintiff put forward a lot of indecent letters signed WILFRED MURRAY. which she imputed to the defendant, and which, at the first glance, appeared to be in his handwriting.

"Mr. HURLBURT swore that he did not write the letters; that WILFRED MURRAY was a real person who had been employed by him at various times during a term of years; and that the said MURRAY'S handwriting bore a remarkable resemblance to his own. Those who for political or personal reasons were unfriendly to Mr. HURLBURT, denounced his assertions in relation to this matter as not only ridiculous, but perjured; and ultimately, during his absence in the United States, persuaded the Public Prosecutor to issue an order of arrest against him upon the charge of perjury. Now Mrs. HURLBURT comes forward and produces evidence to show that both of her husband's assertions were well founded; that such a man as WILFRED MURRAY did exist, and that his handwriting did, in point of fact, bear a curious resemblance to her husband's.

"Not only is there such a person as WILFRED MURRAY, but Mrs. HURLBURT herself has seen him. She first saw him, it appears, in New York, In the early winter of 1885. when he accosted her husband in the street. Her husband told her his name at the time, adding: " He says he is a relative of GRENVILLE MURRAY, the author of 'Side Lights of English Society'.

"Mrs. HURLBURT next saw MURRAY at her own house in London, where, for reasons of his own, he flgured under the name of ROLLAND. The visits of the man calling himself ROLLAND to Mr. HURLBURT'S house were conclusively proved on the trial of the breach of promise case. Mrs. HURLBURT'S testimony is corroborated by the affidavits of three persons, each of whom testifies that he knew MURRAY, and one of whom bears witness to the extraordinary similarity ot MURRAY'S handwriting to that of Mr. HURLBURT. One of these witnesses also swears that in 1884 MURRAY brought him a letter about some business matters from Mr. HURLBURT, who had employed him in translating some Spanish documents relating to a diplomatic and financial transaction.

"Touching the resemblance of chlrography, Mrs. HURLBURT further testifies that, while examining a box of papers just after the verdict in her husband's favor, which box had not been opened since it came from America several years before, she found, among a number of Spanish documents, a manuscript, on the outside of which was written. In a handwriting hardly distinguishable, even by herself from that of her husband, a note signed W. M. to the effect that the enclosed copy had been compared with the original. With regard to this same matter of handwriting, Mrs. HURLBURT brings forward the testimony of the well-known author, Mr. MARION CRAWFORD, who recalls a conversation with her husband In June 1885, in the course of which Mr. HURLBURT mentioned WILFRED MURRAY by name as writing a hand which it was almost impossible to distinguish from his own. Mrs. HURLBURT adds that she has in her possession a note received by her husband in London in 1883 from WILFRED MURRAY, who was then in Washington, in which MURRAY asked Mr. HURLBURT to use his influence with the editor of an English quarterly in behalf of a friend of his who had written a novel. It only remains to say that, in regard to certain letters alleged by GLADYS EVELYN to have been written by Mr. HURLBURT to her from Ireland in February and March 1888. Mrs. HURLBURT has in her hands absolute proof, both written and printed, to show that her husband was not in these places on the days when the letters falsely imputed to him were written. Yet, on the trial of the breach of promise case, Mr. Justice CAVE declared that, if Mr. HURLBURT could prove "even in regard to one of these Irish letters, that he was not in the place from which it was written, at the time that it was written, it would establish the fact that there must have been some person other than himself writing those letters."

"We consider it impossible for any disinterested person to read Mrs. HURLBURT'S letter, and weigh the evidence which she brings forward, without being convinced that such a person as WILFRED MURRAY existed; that his handwriting bears a strong resemblance to her husband's; and that, owing to this fact and to the conspiracy based upon it, Mr. HURLBURT has been made the victim of a monstrous calumny."

It makes you wonder why they didn't just subpoeana the city editor of the New Delta and be done with it.

Goodnight, Cesare. Good night, Lucrezia. Good night, John Boy.

Regards,

Simon

[lynn cates]

It's about time.

Hello Simon. Thanks. Wasn't Alexander VI a Borgia Pope? (Heh-heh)

I believe that story wishful thinking on Katherine's part.

I'm wondering, do we have a timeline of his affair with Gladys? What about his movements in the autumn of 1888?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

book in

Hello All. the post was kind to me today. Professor Crofts' book about Hurlbert has arrived. Crofts is the history professor who first identified Hurlbert as the writer of "The Diary of a Public Man."

According to the good professor, there are anonymous letters that are now being identified as Hurlbert's work.

Cheers.
LC

[TradeName]

Here's an odd fragment which says that Aubrey Murray's name came up in connection with the Hurlbert case in 1891:

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9135, 16 July 1891, Page 3


An energetic search has been made for Wilfrid Murray, whose name figured in the Hurlbert breach of promise c[a]se, but the books at the Metropolitan club at Washington fail to show any record of him. Mr Aubrey Murray, formerly of the World, but now at New Orleans, denies that he is the man referred to, having been in the city since 1882.

[TradeName]

A puzzling (to me) article I found on the fultonhistory site:

New York Herald, February 6, 1886, Page 4

[lynn cates]

Gertrude Ellis

Hello Trade. Thanks for posting these.

I just found out that:

1. Gladys Evelyn was an alias for Gertrude Ellis (born ca. 1859).

2. Her house was burglarised and some of his love letters were removed.

This is a very interesting chap.

Cheers.
LC

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

They seek him here, they seek him there, They seek that Murray everywhere . . .

New York Herald, 30th July 1888—

'SLUGGED' BY FOOTPADS

Aubrey Murray, a newspaper reporter, claims to have been assaulted and robbed by footpads early on Saturday evening, near the gate of Bellevue Hospital, on East Twenty-sixth street. He says that he visited the Morgue to inquire about the identification of a young woman who had been found drowned. He had passed through the hospital gate, and as he was approaching First Avenue was suddenly attacked by three roughly dreesed young men who were loitering on the sidewalk.

He thinks that he was struck on the left side of the head with a sand club, because when he regained consciousness there was only a bruise on his scalp, yet he had a terrible pain in the head and he was bleeding freely from the nose.

Murray sent a letter to the Detective Bureau, in which he gave the facts of his adventure with the highwaymen and complained that he had been robbed of a diamond pin and a silk umbrella. He resides at No. 44 South Washington Square.

Skaneatleles Free Press, 31 December 1892—

"Aubrey Murray is an English military-looking gentleman who is now on a visit to St. Louis. He has recently obtained some notoriety from his connection with the Gladys Evelyn case. He was right in the midst of all the frenzied excitement of the cholera scourge of 1877 and maddening suffering of the epidemic, and refers to them with a shudder."

Murray went on to describe conditions in Peshawar, where he witnessed 1500 deaths per day, but made no further mention of Gladys Evelyn or Hurlburt.

Regards,

Simon