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

[Simon Wood]

Hi Chris,

I believe the connection is Emmeline Pankhurst.

Regards,

Simon

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Chris,

I believe the connection is Emmeline Pankhurst.

Regards,

Simon

Explain that connection if you would, Simon.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[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

[Steadmund Brand]

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

Steadmund Brand

[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

[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]

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]

I might have a winner at least for question #1 elsewhere. The answer I was looking for was Kirkdale Prison.

[Abby Normal]

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!

Hi Chris
For number two: from hell? Although I think published later.

[Pcdunn]

Hi Chris
For number two: from hell? Although I think published later.

Hi, Abby,

No, "From Hell" was published in serial format from 1989 to 1996, so it was closer to the 100th anniversary.

I think the 70th anniversary was 1958.

[MrBarnett]

Hi, Abby,

No, "From Hell" was published in serial format from 1989 to 1996, so it was closer to the 100th anniversary.

I think the 70th anniversary was 1958.

And, as far as I know, there isn't a London Borough of Moore or Campbell.

[Abby Normal]

Hi, Abby,

No, "From Hell" was published in serial format from 1989 to 1996, so it was closer to the 100th anniversary.

I think the 70th anniversary was 1958.

Yes. Your probably right. I was pretty sure from hell graphic novel was later too.
But for the life of me I can’t think of anything else.

I’m biting my lip though not getting on google. LOL!

[MrBarnett]

Yes. Your probably right. I was pretty sure from hell graphic novel was later too.
But for the life of me I can’t think of anything else.

I’m biting my lip though not getting on google. LOL!

Abby,

Aren't you barred from competing on the grounds that you have already won a prize?

Gary

[MrBarnett]

When Chris says a comic novel, does he mean a graphic novel or a humorous one?

[Abby Normal]

Abby,

Aren't you barred from competing on the grounds that you have already won a prize?

Gary

Probably. But I don’t know the fine print, because even though I won, I was unable to accept, because do to the nature of my work I am unable to give out my address.

However, the question and the prize on this one has me so intrigued, that if I won and am able to get the exceptionally cool prize, which also happens to be the answer, that I may just have to drive up to Baltimore and pick it up.