Last survivor of the case

[OctavBotnar]

Just wondering who was the last survivor of the JTR case ? (no not the victims) I mean anyone associated with the case during the time and who is mentioned by name in records/archives ?

[Scott Nelson]

Frederick Wensley (later MET Chief Constable) was a PC at the time of the murders. He lived until 1949. There was also a woman who acted as a decoy (can't recall her name) who lived until the late 1950s.

[C. F. Leon]

Damn, you got me beat. Walter Dew (died 1947) was the last that I had found when doing a cursory search recently for the last survivor. I hadn't checked ALL the police personnel, witnesses or suspects, though.

How about some of the incidentals, like the lodgers at Hanbury St., for example? Several were children at the time, and that could potentially get you to the 1960s or even the '70s.

(Wouldn't it be a giggle, if the last survivor was Mr. Diddles?)

Hey, I just thought- one of the guests on a podcast suggested Edgar Rice Burroughs as a suspect- he died in 1955!

[MrBarnett]

It’s possible that someone alive today has spoken to someone who was at or near one of the murder sites when the murders happened.

[C. F. Leon]

So we're playing "Six Degrees of Jack the Ripper"? Does it have to be personal connections? Because Paul Begg and several other visitors to this site had contact with Joseph Gorman/Sickert. Now, Alice Crook was his mother, which he claimed was the child of Ripper suspect Prince Eddie and he at least CLAIMED a biological relationship with Walter Sickert. And even though WS was probably not the Ripper, he CERTAINLY was contemporous and had an interest with the Whitechapel Murders, visiting some of the sites shortly after the events.

So we have 3 degrees of separation:

1 Walter Sickert- contemporous, visited sites
2 Joseph Gorman/Sickert- he claimed WS was his father. Alice Crook was his mother for another connection a degree removed.
3 Paul Begg & others- corresponded & met JS
and any of us who have talked to any of those people makes 4 degrees.

Another line might be whoever was the writer that interviewed Water Dew late in life. If that was D. Farson or someone who one of our visitors knew...

[MrBarnett]

So we're playing "Six Degrees of Jack the Ripper"? Does it have to be personal connections? Because Paul Begg and several other visitors to this site had contact with Joseph Gorman/Sickert. Now, Alice Crook was his mother, which he claimed was the child of Ripper suspect Prince Eddie and he at least CLAIMED a biological relationship with Walter Sickert. And even though WS was probably not the Ripper, he CERTAINLY was contemporous and had an interest with the Whitechapel Murders, visiting some of the sites shortly after the events.

So we have 3 degrees of separation:

1 Walter Sickert- contemporous, visited sites
2 Joseph Gorman/Sickert- he claimed WS was his father. Alice Crook was his mother for another connection a degree removed.
3 Paul Begg & others- corresponded & met JS
and any of us who have talked to any of those people makes 4 degrees.

Another line might be whoever was the writer that interviewed Water Dew late in life. If that was D. Farson or someone who one of our visitors knew...

I had in mind my maternal grandfather, who lived in George Yard Buildings between March, 1888 and April, 1890 when his father died. By 1891 his widowed mother had moved the family to nearby Angel Alley.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Scott,

Here ya go.



Regards,

Simon

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/10/irene-triplett-last-civil-war-pensioner-73-monthly-dies/5333830002/

[Scott Nelson]

Thank you Simon.