American Jack the Ripper - True Crime Conference, Baltimore, April 7-8, 2018

[ChrisGeorge]

More trivia -- and this time it's a double whammy! Somebody could walk away with a one, maybe two nice prizes. Good luck!



Question #1.

Mrs. Maybrick was for a time in Walton Prison, Liverpool. But I want you to name the other major prison in Liverpool that saw a number of hangings. If you are the first with the answer, you could win an as-new pamphlet history of the prison, from which the above illustration is taken.

Question #2.

Name the comic novel about Jack published in the 70th anniversary year of the murders. Subsequently became a hit movie. A clue for y'all: author's last name is the name of a London borough. You could win a paperback edition of said novel. Heck, if you're first with the answers to both questions #1 and #2 you could make off with both prizes!

As usual, to be fair, if you have won swag from RipperCon before you can't answer. And .... er, no Googling!

[ChrisGeorge]

RipperCon 2018 Speaker Announcement!



We are pleased to announce that JANIS WILSON will be speaking at RipperCon in Baltimore April 7-8 on "Could Sherlock Holmes Have Solved the Jack the Ripper Murders?"

Wilson was co-organizer for RipperCon 2016 in this city. She is a Baltimore-based Ripperologist and Sherlockian. She is the author of the novel Goulston Street, expected to be available shortly. A former newspaper reporter and trial lawyer, Wilson took the Ripper Tour in Whitechapel many years ago under the direction of Donald Rumbelow. The tour allowed her to appreciate how the world-famous slayer managed to repeatedly escape capture. After extensive study of the Ripper, she taught a course about the unknown serial killer at Temple University in Philadelphia. In addition to her writing career, Wilson is a commentator on true crime for the Investigation Discovery Channel and has appeared in such programs as “Deadly Affairs” and the “Nightmare Next Door.”



Sherlock Holmes Statue in Baker Street, London, by Julian Balogh

Don’t miss out on RipperCon in Baltimore, April 7-8. Only fifty places available! See information at www.RipperCon.com

[ChrisGeorge]

RipperCon 2018 Speaker Announcement!



CHRIS JONES—“The Maybricks of Liverpool: More George & Ringo than Lennon & McCartney?”—Sunday morning speaker

Chris Jones taught for 36 years in secondary schools in Liverpool, served for many years as Head of History in a Merseyside school, and later as Deputy Head Teacher at one of the city's largest comprehensive schools. A few months ago, he retired from teaching and formed his own hiking company, Simply Trekking. He spent three weeks in September trekking up to Everest base camp.

In 2007, Jones organised the Trial of James Maybrick at the Liverpool Cricket Club across the street from the former Maybrick mansion, Battlecrease House. Following the success of this event, he wrote the widely acclaimed book The Maybrick A to Z in which he tried to take an objective review of the evidence surrounding Florence Maybrick's 1889 trial for the arsenic murder husband James and also James' alleged links to the Ripper murders. He has continued his research into James and especially Florence, and has given talks on the Maybricks in both Britain and the United States, including in Florence's home town of Mobile, Alabama. He has written several articles about the Maybrick case, most recently a critique of Bruce Robinson's We All Love Jack, in which Robinson made certain doubtful claims with regard to the conduct of Florence's trial. His current research is focused on the claims that the so-called Maybrick Diary was found by electricians working in Battlecrease House on March 9, 1992.

***

For a week in August 1889, the eyes of the world were focused on a sensational trial in Liverpool. A young American, Florence Maybrick, was on trial for the murder of her much older husband, a respected city cotton trader, whom she allegedly killed by means of arsenic poisoning. Finally released from prison in 1904 (but never pardoned), she returned to the U.S. the following year, when she again dominated the front pages of major newspapers.

In 1992, the supposed Diary of Jack the Ripper was "discovered" and overnight it turned James Maybrick into arguably the most controversial of all Ripper suspects. Not considered a suspect at the time of the Whitechapel murders and unmentioned in the famous Macnaghten Memorandum or any other contemporary police document, Maybrick was not linked to the killings until the emergence of the so-called Diary. His credibility as a Ripper suspect is therefore intrinsically bound up with the authenticity of this document—or the lack of it.

In his talk, Jones will look at both Florence and James Maybrick. Was one a manipulative, clever murderer and was the other the most infamous serial killer of all time? Or, are both of them relatively ordinary individuals who have been unjustly accused of crimes they didn’t commit? He will examine the key moments in Florence’s trial and why the jury produced a guilty verdict. He will then address the big question—did Florence really kill James?

Jones will then review the key arguments for and against James being a credible Ripper suspect. He will analyse the new evidence that has recently surfaced that arguably provides some much needed provenance for the Diary. Was James Maybrick really Jack the Ripper or instead an arsenic addict whose name has been cleverly woven into a forged document in an elaborate and clever hoax?


Don’t miss out on RipperCon in Baltimore, April 7-8. Only fifty places available! See information at www.RipperCon.com

[Steadmund Brand]

It helps to be a degenerate gambler sometimes!!!!

Steadmund Brand

[ChrisGeorge]

Too late, Simon.

The correct answer was provided by Steadmund Brand, who correctly guessed that the answer is Pimlico, which is the area of Baltimore where the racetrack is located where the famous "Preakness Stakes" is held each May, and which bears the same name as the district in London where the Queen's palace is located.

According to Hamill Kenny in The Place Names of Maryland: Their Name and Meaning, pp. 193-94, former Captain of the
Rangers John Oldton. . . had been in England in about 1698. [It] is supposed that on his return he named his land 'Pimlico' for the district of Pimlico, London," which in turn apparently received its name from a "certain Italian" named Pimlico who resided in the area some centuries earlier.

Best regards

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Chris,

I believe the connection is Emmeline Pankhurst.

Regards,

Simon

Explain that connection if you would, Simon.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[Simon Wood]

Hi Chris,

I believe the connection is Emmeline Pankhurst.

Regards,

Simon

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello everyone

Latest trivia question:

What connects Baltimore with Buckingham Palace? Note that I am not thinking of the future Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield, whose mum kept a boarding house here. This is something else.

First to answer receives a special prize. Although it won't be the true identity of the Ripper, ha ha. Let me say "Sorry!" in advance.

This might be a hard one. As usual, to be fair to others, anyone who has won swag from RipperCon before can't answer. Fortunately, this includes recent winner Joe Chetcuti who might well have the answer.

Joe though may email me privately with an answer if he wishes. He just can't win again. It's fair do's all round, Playmates!

Cheers

Chris

I still need an answer to this question, so here is another clue for you all --

.......................................P

And it is not police, palace, Preakness, prostitute, or Prince Eddy.

Good luck!!!!

Cheers

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

RipperCon 2018 Speaker Announcement!




JACKIE MURPHY—“Jack the Ripper’s London”—Saturday morning speaker and RipperCon M/C

Jackie Murphy was born in North London, but brought up in Essex, 30 miles east of Whitechapel. She became interested in Jack the Ripper at age 13 when she was allowed to watch the six-part “Barlow and Watt” TV program about the case. She got further hooked on the case a few years later when she read Stephen Knight’s book. Then family life took over, but in the run up to the centenary of the case in 1988 the increase in books and documentaries really sparked her interest.

In 1999, Murphy joined the Cloak and Dagger Club, now the Whitechapel Society, and has contributed to journals and books for the society, as well as other publications. She lives with her partner Alan Hunt in Dorchester, Dorset—Thomas Hardy country. Now a semi-retired teacher, Murphy works at the local history research center and makes quilts.

Murphy tells us, “My ancestor was Benjamin Disraeli, or rather I am the result of his brother's affair with the housekeeper! A more famous claim to fame is that my great, great grandfather owned Top Withins Farm, the basis for Wuthering Heights.”

Don’t miss out on RipperCon in Baltimore, April 7-8. Only fifty places available! See information at www.RipperCon.com

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello everyone

Latest trivia question:

What connects Baltimore with Buckingham Palace? Note that I am not thinking of the future Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Warfield, whose mum kept a boarding house here. This is something else.

First to answer receives a special prize. Although it won't be the true identity of the Ripper, ha ha. Let me say "Sorry!" in advance.

This might be a hard one. As usual, to be fair to others, anyone who has won swag from RipperCon before can't answer. Fortunately, this includes recent winner Joe Chetcuti who might well have the answer.

Joe though may email me privately with an answer if he wishes. He just can't win again. It's fair do's all round, Playmates!

Cheers

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Here's another trivia question for you all. No googling.

Under the old Sterling system in the UK and the Empire, it was pounds, shillings and pence, sometimes expressed as £ s d -- but why "d" and not "p"?

First to answer wins a specimen of the old coinage and a vintage postcard. To be fair to others, those who have won swag from RipperCon before can't answer. Good luck.

Caroline Morris got the correct answer at JtR Forums.

Caz wrote: "From memory, Chris, it's Latin: denarius - signifying a penny."

True. Joshua was warm therefore. Close but no cigar as they say.

For prospective daughter no. 2, my wife and I are equally looking for someone to help with out infant.

I know Donna is on the way to doing some work around the house.

Best regards

Chris

[Pcdunn]

Too easy that one.

It surely was an easy one, Gut.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Thanks for the clue Joshua and for confirming what a few on here might have already suspected.......that I'm an idiot!

With that embarrassing end to the evening I'm off to bed....

I'll blame being tired

[Joshua Rogan]

I think you need to be Roman to know that.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I'm embarrassed to say that I'm English and I don't know that!