Politics

[Jonathan H]

In 1965, the American Marxist, Tom Cullen published 'When London Walked in Terror' aka 'Autumn of Terror' which theorised not only that Sir Melville Macnaghten had positively identified Montague John Druitt as the Ripper.

But why would D ruitt, who lived at Blackheath, trawl for victims in such an inhospitable area, and keep going back there after it was a place of police and tabloid saturation?

Cullen felt he had found the answer to this puzzle when he read Bernard Shaw, who wrote the following:


"Blood Money To Whitechapel"
George Bernard Shaw
The Star, September 24th 1888.

BLOOD MONEY TO WHITECHAPEL.
O

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE STAR."


SIR,-- Will you allow me to make a comment on the success of the Whitechapel murderer in calling attention for a moment to the social question? Less than a year ago the West-end press, headed by the St. James's Gazette, the Times, and the Saturday Review, were literally clamering for the blood of the people--hounding on Sir Charles Warren to thrash and muzzle the scum who dared to complain that they were starving--heaping insult and reckless calumny on those who interceded for the victims--applauding to the skies the open class bias of those magistrates and judges who zealously did their very worst in the criminal proceedings which followed--behaving, in short as the proprietary class always does behave when the workers throw it into a frenzy of terror by venturing to show their teeth. Quite lost on these journals and their patrons were indignant remonstrances, argument, speeches, and sacrifices, appeals to history, philosophy, biology, economics, and statistics; references to the reports of inspectors, registrar generals, city missionaries, Parliamentary commissions, and newspapers; collections of evidence by the five senses at every turn; and house-to-house investigations into the condition of the unemployed, all unanswered and unanswerable, and all pointing the same way. The Saturday Review was still frankly for hanging the appellants; and the Times denounced them as "pests of society." This was still the tone of the class Press as lately as the strike of the Bryant and May girls. Now all is changed. Private enterprise has succeeded where Socialism failed. Whilst we conventional Social Democrats were wasting our time on education, agitation, and organisation, some independent genius has taken the matter in hand, and by simply murdering and disembowelling four women, converted the proprietary press to an inept sort of communism. The moral is a pretty one, and the Insurrectionists, the Dynamitards, the Invincibles, and the extreme left of the Anarchist party will not be slow to draw it. "Humanity, political science, economics, and religion," they will say, "are all rot; the one argument that touches your lady and gentleman is the knife." That is so pleasant for the party of Hope and Perseverance in their toughening struggle with the party of Desperation and Death!

However, these things have to be faced. If the line to be taken is that suggested by the converted West-end papers--if the people are still to yield up their wealth to the Clanricarde class, and get what they can back as charity through Lady Bountiful, then the policy for the people is plainly a policy of terror. Every gaol blown up, every window broken, every shop looted, every corpse found disembowelled, means another ten pound note for "ransom." The riots of 1886 brought in £78,000 and a People's Palace; it remains to be seen how much these murders may prove worth to the East-end in panem et circenses. Indeed, if the habits of duchesses only admitted of their being decoyed into Whitechapel back-yards, a single experiment in slaughterhouse anatomy on an artistocratic victim might fetch in a round half million and save the necessity of sacrificing four women of the people. Such is the stark-naked reality of these abominable bastard Utopias of genteel charity, in which the poor are first to be robbed and then pauperised by way of compensation, in order that the rich man may combine the idle luxury of the protected thief with the unctuous self-satisfaction of the pious philanthropist.


Shaw was making a satirical point, but his fellow Leftist, Cullen, took this notion literally.

For the modern American had what Shaw lacked: the probable identity of the fiend at least according to a highly regarded police chief who was, incredibly enough, from the Etonian ruling elite.

Macnaghten picked an Oxonian gentleman -- Cullen could not have cared less about his profession compared to Druitt's class -- and Cullen discovered that such graduates were being encouraged to 'go east' and help the impoverished.

Therefore, Cullen proposed Druitt as a deranged social reformer who was successfully drawing the 'better classes' attention to the squalor in their midst. He pointed out that all five murders took place in exactly the area social reformers had called the worst of the worst: the 'evil, quarter mile'. The murders were mostly in the street to create maximum shock value. And Kelly had been horrifically mutilated, and found, to spoil Lord Mayor's Day.

I am the only person who takes the Jack the Reformer theory seriously. It gained no traction in the 60's and in fact disappointment over the surgeon being a barrister opened the way for the Royal rubbish.

[Phil Carter]

Hi Phil,

My mind is well and truly boggled.

Trust all is well.

Regards,

Simon

Hello Simon,

I refer yous boggled mind to the firelighting celebrations after the death of a certain Irishman was killed just outside a port in South Africa. Just my mind rambling.. Esp MJK.

All busy moving etc- but ok. Hope you are ok?

Best wishes

Phil

[Simon Wood]

Hi Phil,

My mind is well and truly boggled.

Trust all is well.

Regards,

Simon

[Phil Carter]

Hello all,

I have a question for those with access to Irish newspapers immediately after 30th September and 9th November 1888,

Are there any reports of fires or bonfires lit straight after these murder dates?
Thank you in advance.

Best wishes

Phil

[Tom_Wescott]

By 'lone nut' do you mean to say that you think the Ripper murders were the work of one man who had a fanatical political agenda?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Scorpio]

I only have a vague feel for the unstable, volatile personality and the political flavour of that place and time. Something like what American culture sometimes refers to as a ' lone nut ', within a Victorian context of course.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Scorpio. You seem to have formed something of an idea as to who might have been behind the murders, and clearly your thinking is along political lines. What are your ideas?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Scorpio]

I don't believe for one second that the crimes were politically motivated.
As evidence to illustrate the point, I would suggest two things.
Firstly - what a way to make a point, the brutal slaying and butchering of 'innocent' women (that is, women who were not politically or socially connected) - overkill to the nth degree.
And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, if it was a political/social statement it failed utterly - we don't know what the statement was, and despite us still discussing the advertising campaign over 100 years later, we are none the wiser.
Indeed, although the crimes were shocking, I don't believe this was the primary motive of the killer, rather, it was an unhappy by-product.
My two-pennorth, for what it's worth.

Firstly, to use an example, releasing nerve gas in subways is overkill;but it was still done, and the victims were not ' connected ' either.
Secondly, anarchism needs to be nothing but submersive in order to achieve its end.

[mariab]

Thank you so much Lynn. Spashiba. :-) So sorry about Stanford.

[lynn cates]

Palo Alto

Hello Maria. If I find anything, I'll let you know.

The student? She informed me that, "Nyet--nothing of interest. By the way, I worked an extra 3 hours. Please remit. Bolshoi Spascibo. Do Svdanyah."

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

revenge

Hello Mac. OK, but Miller's Court is a good bit different. If my hypothesis is correct, and there is political fanaticism at work, then it may be almost underkill.

Say, you might wish to read about some of the slain informants against Clan-na-Gael and the Irish National Invincibles. I posted a link to an 1889 book that includes a good bit about that. It is in my "Secret Resettlement" thread.

Cheers.
LC

[mariab]

Happy to discuss Rachkovski. Of course, Palo Alto is on hold UNTIL I learn to read Cyrillic script.

If you had any info on French detective agencies implicated with him, I'd be eternally grateful, Lynn.
What happened with Palo Alto and that student of yours, all expenses payed?
Or maybe Simon Wood knows some Russians in California? (Even from the mafia, lol.) ;-)

[Fleetwood Mac]

Hi Lynn,

I think another point which strongly argues against the political angle is this:

He spends a lot of time in Miller's Court, and so increases the risk of being caught.

He clearly doesn't need to where the motive is political. He simply needs to spend 10 minutes doing an 'Eddowes' to maintain the momentum.

In my view, the fact he spends so much time doing such a complete job suggests there is a great deal of value in going to town on her and that value is in satisfying his blood lust.

[lynn cates]

Piotr Rachkovski

Hello Maria. Oddly, I would have picked about that same date to write a letter if I were Rachkovski. But my main complaint is that V is not yet an "Anarchist."

If I am PR, and wishing to "implicate" anarchists with a "Double Event," my letter to the editor would mention that he is "definitely an anarchist."

Happy to discuss Rachkovski. Of course, Palo Alto is on hold UNTIL I learn to read Cyrillic script.

Cheers.
LC

[mariab]

murder and politics

Would the yard not suggest a counter-theory: some group was attempting to undermine the anarchists?

Precisely, FM. The Stride slaying looks very much like a provocatory act to me too.

I just mean I think it's quite possible that the murderer was an anarchist, as the movement is well-known to attract nutcases.

Very strongly disagree. The GSG for one thing implies something like what FM and Lynn said. But I agree with you about the possibility that Kozminsky might have had anarchist ties.

The Berner street group were rather too peaceable for such. The club Autonomie? Sure, but a motive? And if it's just to kill, why the "gutting"?
Rachkovski's Okhrana was a good guess, but his Vassiliev story was off by a few weeks and significantly weakens any claim of authorship.

What do you mean "off by a few weeks", Lynn? The first mention of Vassiliev in London newspapers occurred on October 6, 1888, and the Okhrana was real quick to instrumentalize the Stride slaying for their own agenda:
The Times from October 6, 1888, immediately picked up by The Star. (Courtesy of Paul Begg.)

A FRENCH CHAPTER OF WHITECHAPEL HORRORS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir, - The terror which has naturally been so widespread among the masses in the districts where the recent shocking murders were committed was intense enough without its being aggravated by the gratuitous theory of the Coroner, that these horrible outrages were not the act of a maniac, but had been coolly committed by a sane person, who wished to earn a few pounds by gratifying the whims of an eccentric American anatomist. It will, no doubt, be found that the idea that Yankee enterprise gave a stimulus to these terrible atrocities is utterly baseless.
For weeks I have been expecting that some one would draw attention to the fact that precisely the same crimes were many years ago committed in Paris, and were ultimately found to have been the acts of a monomaniac.
Last summer, while travelling in France, I picked up and glanced over a French work resembling "Hone's Every Day Book," which gave an account of a remarkable criminal who must have strongly resembled the fiend who has created such consternation in the East-end of London. For months women of the lowest class of "unfortunates" were found murdered and mutilated in a shocking manner. In the poorest districts of the city a "reign of terror" prevailed. The police seemed powerless to afford any help or protection, and in spite of all their watchfulness fresh cases were from time to time reported, all the victims belonging to the same class, and all having been mutilated in the same fiendish way.
At last a girl one night was accosted in the street by a workman, who asked her to take a walk with him. When, by the light of a lamp, she saw his face, it inspired her with a strange feeling of fear and aversion; and it instantly flashed upon her that he must be the murderer. She therefore gave him in charge of the police, who, on inquiry, found that her woman's instinct had accomplished what had baffled the skill and the exertions of all their detectives. The long-sought criminal had been at last found.
It subsequently came to light that he had been impelled to commit these crimes by a brutal form of homicidal monomania. He had sense enough to know that from this class of women being out late at night, and being friendless and unprotected, he could indulge his horrible craze on them with comparative safety and impunity, and he therefore avoided selecting his victims from a more respectable class.
He was convicted and executed, to the great relief of the public; and if any persons were afterwards tempted to imitate him, his prompt punishment effectually deterred them.
This notorious case must be well known to the Parisian police and to thousands of persons in France, and if inquiry is made its history can be easily procured.
No doubt a ruffian like him has turned up in East London, and will be also detected. When he is, we must trust that he will meet with the same stern justice that was meted out to his French prototype.
Yours obediently, MICHAEL MACK

Lynn, there are some things I'd like to discuss with you pertaining to researching Rachkovsky's ties with detective agencies in BOTH London and Paris. This most obviously will interest Tom as well. I assume that the Palo Alto papers didn't bring much info forward? Or is this thing still pending?

Another fascinating aspect of this case is the fact that one of the suspects implicated himself into the Parnell matter. That's very much what I wanna try to research when I finish with (lots of) previous stuff. For me this could be one of the most fascinating aspects of the Ripper case. All the president's men and all that, lol. Should we make another Watergate out of it?