Frederick Gehringer: Barrow Lender, Lodging House Keeper and Crime Lord?

[seanr]

Frederick Gehringer was the proprietor of 24 Bastwick Street in 1902. I wonder if he was already running the property in January 1887, when a man accidentally set himself on fire.

Morning Post, 21st of January, 1887.

[seanr]

Sean,

Is this Fred Gehringer the ‘crime lord’ who left a paltry £500 in his will?

Gary

Yes, his address is given as 31 Great Pearl Street in the Finsbury Report of Public Health, where the fines are detailed. It does seem to be the same man who left effects of £564. I'm not sure this figure was that paltry, even if it isn't to the scale of the estates of lodging house keepers. It'd be worth something like £67,575 in todays money, so a small fortune.

If he owned 39 houses in Berwick Street with an income of about £135 a year each, I make that an income of about £5265 per annum. Even if he pays a £60 rent for each to a free-holder, that'd still leave an income of £2965 per annum. And we know he had other income streams the lodging houses in Spitalfields and the barrow letting business. So, even if he didn't own the homes, I find the ~£500 figure somewhat surprising, unless he was extremely spend-thrift with his money.

The term 'crime lord' or more exact wording 'some sort of crime lord' is the impression one of his own descendents has about him, which seems to come down through the generations as the story told by the family. As to whether he really was a 'crime lord' or not is one of the things I'd be interested in establishing.

It does look like his father also Frederick Adam Geringher, the landlord of the City of Norwich, and his mother (or possibly step-mother) Emma Gehringer do appear as though they may have been involved in a criminal enterprise distributing stolen goods in 1872. Then he himself is accused of the slightly less than savoury sounding practice of house farming. There's a definite suggestion of crime around his and his family's business practices in the years leading up to his death in 1909. As to whether this was dodgy business practices or if it ever crossed the line into serious crime, I don't know.

[MrBarnett]

A crime ‘Lord’?

[MrBarnett]

Sean,

Is this Fred Gehringer the ‘crime lord’ who left a paltry £500 in his will?

Gary

[seanr]

London Evening Standard - Friday 25 April 1902





Fines reported in Finsbury Report on Public Health 1903:

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

Very interesting find Seanr.

[DJA]

MacCarthy is none other than our very own John McCarthy of Millers Court fame. Geringer is actually Frederick Gehringer, a local barrow lender and lodging house keeper.

McCarthy kept barrows overnight in his "front room".

Most barrows were rented out.
Hiller Brothers dominated the market.

There was another thread on the Gehringer's a few years back.
Very interesting family.

Casebook's search facility can be very handy.

Best of luck!

[seanr]

https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?name=18720819

The trial of George Munro and Henry Skett, 19th August 1872. Henry Skett was a lodger at the City of Norwich and Emma Gehringer herself appears as a witness.

The facts of the case are a William Johnson deposited a portmanteau box of boots at Shoreditch station. A Henry Mytten, cloak room attendant, testifies to having received the box. Alfred Jones, a cab driver, reports picking up two men from Shoreditch Station carrying a portmanteau box and he has been able to identify Henry Skett and George Munro as the two men.

William Musgrove, Policeman H25, after watching the City of Norwich enters the pub and the room of Henry Skett charging him with the theft. On searching the room the portmanteau is found with the label of the Great Eastern Railway with a number of other boxes which appeared to have been broken into.

George Munro provided an alibi which falls apart.

Emma Gehringer (here spelt Gerringer, another variant spelling of the name) appears as a defence witness. She provides an alibi for Henry Skett that he was in bagatelle room of the City of Norwich all night on the evening in question. She also states that the portmanteau and the boxes had been in the pub for some four years and had not appeared there recently. She states the portmanteau belongs to Hermann Faber. She denies ever telling the inspector she did not know who the boxes belonged to.

Thomas Jay, umbrella maker of 89 Wentworth Street, appears in defence. His mother recommended Henry Skett to the Gehringer's as a lodger. Mr Jay says he was with Henry Skett in the bagatelle room on the night in question.

Hermann Faber, a journeyman baker, states the portmanteau is indeed his and he had left it at the City of Norwich thirteen weeks ago.

Emma Gehringer appears commit perjury in cahoots with Thomas Jay and Hermann Faber. At least the jury must have been convinced they were lying to have returned the guilty verdict.

It's worth remembering Jacob Isenschmid was a journeyman butcher and here Emma Gehringer states 'my house is a house of call for journeymen bakers and butchers' in her testimony. In 1888 when William Thick questioned her at about Jacob, she claims he could not possibly have drank at the City of Norwich as at that time only the regulars ever visited the pub. William Thick was able to identify the City of Norwich as the pub Isenschmid's wife had said he was visiting regularly. Was Jacob Isenschmid involved with the Gehringer gang?

In any case The City of Norwich pub sounds as though it is in receipt of stolen goods in 1872. Emma's explanation as to how so many boxes in her house appear to have been broken into is not very convincing - "I can't say how they came to have their locks broken and their sides damaged, except that they were thrown about by the servant in the lumber room, and sometimes the young men broke the locks themselves if they lost the keys".

Obviously it's quite the leap to go from receiving stolen goods to brutal murder but there's still the proximity of the City of Norwich to the attack sites of Emma Smith and Martha Tabram. The last place that Polly Nichols was seen alive by Emily Holland. Turning up again in relation to Jacob Isenschmid, suspect in the murder of Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman.
Then there's that bothersome Yarmouth Letter which names 14 Dorset Street.
Still, the Henry Skett case is the strongest evidence I've seen yet of an organised Gehringer gang and it definitely would have been Fredrick Adam Gehringer the senior who was the landlord of the City of Norwich in 1872.
As always, I wonder...

[seanr]

There definitely were two Frederick Adam Gehringers.

Frederick Adam Gehringer, born Born in Württemberg, Germany around 1823 and is reported to have died 1 January 1888. This was the older Gehringer and was the landlord of the City of Norwich.

Frederick Adam Gehringer, born in Spitalfields in 1853 and died 1909. This was the Frederick Adam Gehringer of Little Pearl Street and the son of landlord.

https://www.ancestry.ca/genealogy/records/adam-frederick-gehringer-24-1qf1

It's worth being clear these were two different people. I've found something exciting, well exciting to me anyway.

[seanr]

Hi Sean, great research! I was just wondering if you're thinking that a Gehringer was possibly connected with the murders or possibly knew something about them? Or are you just getting as much info as you can on the slum lords of the said areas? I'd definitely be interested in any Jewish connections to this case.
Keep up the fantastic work!

I'm interested in the slum lords of the area in general, yes. I'm particularly interested in Gehringer/ the Gehringers because of Booth/ Duckworth's assertion that McCarthy controlled an area and Gehringer controlled another area (Dorset Street and Great Pearl Street, respectively). Raising the possibility that McCarthy and Gehringer were rivals.
If these two men really led organised criminal gangs over simply turning a profit by having a blind eye to illegal activities on their premises, then that really changes the picture as to the context in which the murders took place.

Furthermore, if Gehringer really did own 18 George Street and sold it to a 'rival gang' shortly before the Whitechapel Murders started then, the proximity of 'The City of Essex' to the early murders and the possible connection to a suspect for the Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman killings, is definitely intriguing. Maybe Gehringer knew more about the murders. I think the possibility is worth further thought and research.

[RedBundy13]

I feel like it's appropriate to spin out some of material about Frederick Gehringer which surfaced from the 'Socialism in the East End' thread. There's still some facts which I'm trying to trace down about the Gehringers and some intriguing bits which I'm mulling over.

Hi Sean, great research! I was just wondering if you're thinking that a Gehringer was possibly connected with the murders or possibly knew something about them? Or are you just getting as much info as you can on the slum lords of the said areas? I'd definitely be interested in any Jewish connections to this case.
Keep up the fantastic work!

[seanr]

I've just realised my clipping above from ‘All About History: Jack the Ripper’ is unreadable. I'll quote the relevant parts:

18 George Street was first registered as a common lodging house in 1864 by George Wilmott [...] Originally it was licensed to accommodate 21 lodgers housed in 3 rooms, one on each of the floors. The property was later taken over by a local publican named Frederick Gehringer and he managed to subdivide the floors, packing in more than double the previous number of tenants. [...] He sold No.18 in 1886 to man named Daniel Lewis, another local lodging house keeper, who owned it at the time of the [Emma Smith] murder.

Tom Westcott in the 'Bank Holiday Murders' quotes an article 'The Rookery: The Lodging Houses of 'Flowery Dean' in the late Victorian Period' by John Bennett, from Ripperologist, no 105, August 2009, which seems to have stated Daniel Lewis purchased 18 George Street directly from George Wilmott. I don't have this article to go on, only the reference to it.

So, it's a mystery to me. Did Frederick Gehringer ever own 18 George Street? - if he did, was this the older Fredrick Gehringer who became the landlord of the City of Norwich around 1855 or his son, the barrow lender who later ran his business from 22 Little Pearl Street?

[seanr]

A few more related bits. I found the Post Office Directories from the period online at http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/d...on/p16445coll4 and have been able to trace a few Frederick Gehringers in the area of 1852 onwards.

Post Office London Directory (Small edition), 1852 has an entry which I believe may be the senior Frederick Gehringer living and working as a baker at Brick Lane.

Post Office London Directory (Small edition), 1882 has an entry for Frederick Gehringer, 61 Wentworth Street

The Business Directory of London, 1884. [Part 1: Alphabetical Section] lists John Nafzgher LV, 'City of Norwich', 61 Wentworth Street, Whitechapel

Kelly's London Suburban Directory, 1901. [Vol. I: Northern. Part 2: Trades & Court Directories, etc.] and the Post Office London Directory, 1899. [Part 2: Street Directory] both have the following entries:

22 Little Pearl Street - F.Gehringer - Barrow Lender

41 White Lion Street - Frederick Adam Gehringer - Cart Builder

The Post Office London Directory, 1915. [Part 4: Trades & Professional Directory] has Frederick Adam Gehringer, 34 Great Pearl Street under Barrow Lenders

Frederick Gehringer 'crime lord' died sometime around 1909, so the entry in 1915 is likely to be someone else related to Frederick Gehringer, probably the cart builder from the 1901 directory.

[seanr]

I’ve stumbled on another source of sorts namely ‘All About History: Jack the Ripper’ which claims that Daniel Lewis purchased 18 George Street from Frederick Gehringer the publican in 1886, after some investment had been made to the property to double the number of possible tenants. I don't currently have another source for this claim:




Daniel Lewis, John Satchell, John McCarthy, John Cooney, the Smith Family, and William Crossingham are listed together as ‘The Lords of Spitalfields’ in ‘The Bank Holiday Murders’. Gehringer is notable by his absence from the list. Is there a reason Gehringer is not listed amongst them?

Is it at all possible that with the sale of 18 George Street in 1886, control of the house passed from a family opposed to John McCarthy to one which was aligned with him?

Emma Smith was living at 18 George Street when she was attacked at the corner of Osborne Street. Here’s a map from the previously mentioned ‘All About History’ which helpfully shows the vicinity of the attack location to ‘The City of Norwich’ (there are two red stars marking the attack location because the attack is variously reported as being at the junction and further up Brick Lane so both locations are marked):



Martha Tabram was living at John Satchel’s house at 19 George Street at the time she was murdered. Here’s a map from the ‘All About History’ again showing how close the murder site was to ‘The City of Norwich’ pub:



So possibly Frederick Gehringer senior possibly sold off 18 George Street to a man possibly aligned with John McCarthy and John Satchell in 1886 and within two years, the women of 18 and 19 George Street start getting attacked when close to the Gehringer's pub.

After the murders of Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman, Jacob Isenschmid a Swiss butcher from Holloway comes under suspicion. When trying to find him, his wife mentions he frequents ‘a Public House kept by a ‘German’ named Gerlinger in Wentworth Street’. This pub fits the description of ‘The City of Norwich’.

Sergeant Thick went to the pub and spoke to ‘Mrs Gerlingher, the person referred to in the wife’s statement’, probably Emma Gehringer the wife of Frederick senior. She stated she did not know Jacob Isenschmid and no person but her regular customers had visited her house, a “Public House” - the quote marks around “Public House” were Thick’s, perhaps indicating Thick thought (as I do…) that Emma Gehringer’s claim that only the regulars ever drunk in her house and therefore Mrs Gehringer might not be entirely truthful.

Isenschmid’s wife can’t have just made up an accurate name of a landlord and the pub location, she got these details from somewhere and they seem reliable. So, Mrs Gehringer denial that it’s even possible Isenschmid had been in ‘The City of Norwich’ seems dubious. Far more plausible would be to admit the possibility but be unable to identify the man or say for certain if he had been there as many people come to the pub to drink.

So, the Gehringer’s and ‘The City of Norwich’ turn up in relation to or in the vicinity of 18 George Street, the attack on Emma Smith, the murder of Martha Tabram and the murders of Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman. Perhaps this really is all just a coincidence, but I’m intrigued.

[seanr]

Both Fiona Rule and Cruikshank write about Frederick Gehringer lodging house keeper and the landlord of ‘The City of Norwich’ public house. However, it’s actually clear that there were in fact two Frederick Gehringers, a father and a son.

Frederick Gehringer the senior was the landlord of ‘The City of Norwich’ - https://pubshistory.com/LondonPubs/S...orthSt61.shtml, I haven’t found any evidence that the son was ever the landlord of the pub.

I’ve been in contact with a descendent of Frederick Gehringer, who describes Adam Frederick Gehringer (who sometimes went by the name Frederick Adam) as some sort of crime lord controlling 4 streets including Great Pearl Street (now Calvin Street) and Little Pearl Street (now Jerome Street). This Adam Fredrick Gehringer died childless in 1909 and shared the Gehringer estate amongst his nieces and nephews, leaving 31 Great Pearl Street to his nephew Frederick William Nafzger, who adopted the name Gehringer for business purposes.

Frederick William Nafzger was the son of Johan Gotlob Nafzger and Catherine Louisa Gehringer. Catherine Louisa Gehringer was the daughter of Frederick Gehringer senior. She is listed at ‘The City of Norwich’ as the daughter in the 1861 census (from the pubshistory link above). Therefore, if Frederick William was the nephew of Fredrick Gehringer ‘the crime lord’, then this Frederick Gehringer was the younger one - the son of the landlord of ‘The City of Norwich’.

So, were both Frederick Gehringer senior and Frederick Gehringer junior involved in crime and controlling areas of territory? Or was it only the younger Frederick?

Did Frederick Gehringer senior own lodging houses or is it Frederick Gehringer junior who built the (crime?) empire?