Any new developments concerning those Ledgers?

[spyglass]

Hi all,
I have been out of the loop for a while now and trying to catch up on events.
What is happening concerning the Special Branch Ledgers...has there been any new developments ?

[auspirograph]

Those Ledgers...

Hi all,
I have been out of the loop for a while now and trying to catch up on events.
What is happening concerning the Special Branch Ledgers...has there been any new developments ?

Hi Spyglass,

Welcome back to the loop…

The UK Information Commissioner handed down the decision to not release the surviving Metropolitan Police Special Branch index ledgers having accepted police arguments taking into account that the material was generally and readily available with the 2002 Clutterbuck thesis. Dr. Lindsay Clutterbuck, a Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard and a counter-terrorism policy advisor, was given full access to the ledgers to research his thesis.

The police argued they had a legitimate claim to not disclose the material as it contained names of past informants and that their release would impact current investigations.

But the material on the Whitechapel murders or rather, index entries to files not known to have survived routine paper purges, is known in some depth and of sufficient detail to draw credible conclusions on an alternative and internal investigation of Jack the Ripper from 1888 to around 1892, the dates encompassing the Chief Constable's CID Register: "Special Branch".

Williamson was the initial CID Chief Constable with Macnaghten assisting from 1889 to his appointment. Entries are also found made by Anderson, Littlechild and Swanson.

What they contain on the Whitechapel murders is summarised by Clutterbuck that it, "…does enable an outline to be constructed of an intriguing story involving an extreme Irish nationalist who is suspected of being 'Jack the Ripper', an alleged plot to assassinate the Secretary for Ireland, Balfour, and the activities of a private detective agency."

Elements of this outline occur in only one other known place; The Rise of Scotland Yard (1956) by Douglas Browne. The book had special access to Scotland Yard files so the two sources can confirm each other.

I have fully researched and appraised these and other supporting sources of the relevance and importance of the surviving Special Branch ledgers to the Whitechapel murders and their history in my recent book.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10148600-jack-the-ripper-and-black-magic

It is the only book available to have examined them in depth and gives a complete background to their existence and importance on the contemporary police investigation of Jack the Ripper and, historical impact on subsequent and public senior police statements.

[spyglass]

Hi
a delayed thanks...I will get stuck in and catch up.

[auspirograph]

Hi
a delayed thanks...I will get stuck in and catch up.

You're very welcome...