Is the information in this source reliable? (1888-90)

[AuroraSarintacos]

While in question, are newspaper sources reliable and credible in the information they provide? For it seems that they too are unaffected in their unwavering ability to romanticize and give false information on the crimes in order to sell.

It has been suggested by other Ripperologists that while the crimes were being perpetrated, the victims were generally drawn in rather sexually 'enlightening' ways - better clothing, hour-glass figures, small feet and hands, and rather 'submissive' poses - one could say that this has lead to the romanticism of Mary Kelly, generally viewed to be the last of the 'canonical' Ripper's victims.

What seems so ironic to me is while the crimes are lust-murders, the view taken up and exploited to the public seemed to have capitalized on sex: it sells.

Anyways, I ran across this little snippet on a former site.

Could anyone possibly explain its source and if any of the information portrayed in it is reliable? If so, perhaps there are more photos of the victims out there somewhere.

For those who do not want to strain their eyes by trying to read the newspaper, it states: "The portraits of the fallen women to which he had singled out to wreak his morbid passion accompanying this stride are, in every instance, authentic. They have been collected from one source and another. Some of them are cheap tin-types owned by friends of the murdered women.

The picture of Mary Jeannette Kelly, who was otherwise known as 'Fair Emma,' was pictured from her parents in Limerick. Of the several victims of Jack the Ripper she is most interesting. The woman was comely even to the day she was slaughtered, although at that time she fallen into the depths of degradation.

She was a child of striking beauty, and when only sixteen she was wedded to a miner in Cardiff. He was killed in an explosion, and the captain of a trading steamer, who was quite wealthy, took a fancy to her. He hired masters for her and she acquired quite a smattering of education. . ."

Now, is this just all fabricated and made up to sell? Where did the author get this information? Also, if one is to believe, apparently Mary Kelly's family had been found, or at least a photograph of her existed at one point. Also, who is this captain? Mary Kelly was said to have had a relationship with a captain before, I believe - is there any information on this?

Interesting food for thought.

[GUT]

I'm not sure what your point is?

[AuroraSarintacos]

I'm not sure what your point is?

To see if anyone has any further information on this? I think it is pretty self-evident.

For instance, it has been noted that Kelly was connected to a 'sea-captain' before by Joe Barnett; could this be the same captain?

Is there a photo of her (Kelly), as well as the other victims alive out there?

Is all of this embellished?

It is new information to me; fascinating, but I doubt a lot of the authenticity.

[MysterySinger]

I didn't think her family had been traced and I hadn't heard the one about the mariner. However, there is a resonance because I'm sure I read somewhere in a description of her room that there was a painting on the wall of a shipwrecked mariner I think?

[Pcdunn]

Do you know the title of the newspaper (or book) that snippet was taken from?
That could go a long way to telling if it is credible or not.

People doing genealogical research on Mary Jane Kelly are hampered by not knowing her maiden name. She may have been born in Ireland and raised in Wales, but even that is uncertain.

The paper might have created (or at least embellished) the few details her neighbors were able to supply.

[David Orsam]

From a quick Google search, I found that this article was posted in full by Chris Scott in JTR Forums in 2010.

The article comes from the St Louis Republic of 5 January 1889 and was entitled "Seven of the Slain". The full extract as it relates to MJK says:

The picture of Mary Jeannette Kelly, who was otherwise and more familiarly known as "Fair Emma," was procured from her parents in Limerick. Of the seven victims of "jack the Ripper" she is far the most interesting. The woman was comely even to the day she was slaughtered, although at that time she had fallen to the depths of degradation. She was a child of striking beauty and when only 16 she was wedded to a miner in Cardiff. He was killed by an explosion, and the captain of a trading steamer, who was quite wealthy, took a fancy to her. He hired masters for her and she acquired quite a smattering of education, and for a while he lived with her in a country town, where she had every comfort, and was supposed to be the wife of her protector. One day, however, she got tired of her quasi respectability and ran away from the captain, taking a good sum of money, which she had evidently saved for the purpose, and a bundle of fine clothes and jewelry. She opened a low class refreshment house in East London and made money fast, but lost it as quickly in gambling and drinking, and after two years her furniture was seized for rent and other debt. Then for a while she lived with a burglar named Kelly, and when the latter was jailed she supported herself by street peddling, nominally as a ballad singer. She was killed in her lodgings, and just before the murder sang "Sweet Violets" for the man who took her life. "Fair Emma" was the last victim of "The Ripper" so far reported, and her corpse was shockingly mutilated.

[David Orsam]

The article begins:

"From the New York Press.
LONDON, Dec 14"

[Mayerling]

From a quick Google search, I found that this article was posted in full by Chris Scott in JTR Forums in 2010.

The article comes from the St Louis Republic of 5 January 1889 and was entitled "Seven of the Slain". The full extract as it relates to MJK says:

The picture of Mary Jeannette Kelly, who was otherwise and more familiarly known as "Fair Emma," was procured from her parents in Limerick. Of the seven victims of "jack the Ripper" she is far the most interesting. The woman was comely even to the day she was slaughtered, although at that time she had fallen to the depths of degradation. She was a child of striking beauty and when only 16 she was wedded to a miner in Cardiff. He was killed by an explosion, and the captain of a trading steamer, who was quite wealthy, took a fancy to her. He hired masters for her and she acquired quite a smattering of education, and for a while he lived with her in a country town, where she had every comfort, and was supposed to be the wife of her protector. One day, however, she got tired of her quasi respectability and ran away from the captain, taking a good sum of money, which she had evidently saved for the purpose, and a bundle of fine clothes and jewelry. She opened a low class refreshment house in East London and made money fast, but lost it as quickly in gambling and drinking, and after two years her furniture was seized for rent and other debt. Then for a while she lived with a burglar named Kelly, and when the latter was jailed she supported herself by street peddling, nominally as a ballad singer. She was killed in her lodgings, and just before the murder sang "Sweet Violets" for the man who took her life. "Fair Emma" was the last victim of "The Ripper" so far reported, and her corpse was shockingly mutilated.

If there is any truth in this it would be hard to find. How to trace the sea captain, for instance? But I wonder if we simply have an inventive newspaper writer here.

1) It is generally accepted that Mary sang "Sweet Violets" before she died, and so we know she can sing popular ballads.
2) She was supposedly quite beautiful (though some have doubted this - one drawing of her shows her as rather beefy and dour looking. So how attractive was she really?
3) She is described as having sung songs in the street as a form of begging. How true is this?
4) Has someone been looking through a criminal encyclopedia? One of the victims of Burke and Hare was a strikingly beautiful woman too, a prostitute though a choosy one, who was well known on the streets of 19th Century Edinburgh in the late 1820s. I don't know if she sang (one film based on those crimes made her a blind street singer, but that is a movie effect).

Small point but it would be curious if anyone would look into or respond about any other source mentioning Mary's singing.

Jeff

[David Orsam]

On the bit about her opening "a low class refreshment house in East London", it brought to mind the evidence of Charles Preston about Elizabeth Stride at her inquest:

"He had some recollection of her saying her husband was a seafaring man, and also that she had kept a coffee house in Poplar."

[GUT]

On the bit about her opening "a low class refreshment house in East London", it brought to mind the evidence of Charles Preston about Elizabeth Stride at her inquest:

"He had some recollection of her saying her husband was a seafaring man, and also that she had kept a coffee house in Poplar."

So perhaps a mush mah of victims.

[Michael W Richards]

So perhaps a mush mah of victims.

Although there are some striking coincidences...the miner who died, the fancy clothes which she apparently did own and tried to recover, the song she sang is correct, ...her family hadnt been traced but Limmerick would fit with some stories....the main point Im trying to make is that the woman killed in room 13 may well have had a history like this, some of which is corroberated by what she had told others. The problem we have is that almost certainly Mary Jane Kelly was not her name at birth.