American Conference 2016

[Barrister]

Sign Up Now!!!

We have many exciting talks planned for RipperCon in Baltimore. The conference will be held on April 8 to 10. Please hurry and sign up. We do not want anyone to miss out on this great program. Mike Hawley has promised to disclose several discoveries on the suspect Tumblety. No one should miss that.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all,

I would like to add an enticement. I will be using the RipperCon to present over a dozen discoveries on Whitechapel murder suspect Francis Tumblety (I've been busy this year!); some quite significant. Additionally, I have the permission of Roger Palmer and Joe Chetcuti to present their discoveries. I can guarantee your opinions on Francis Tumblety as a Ripper suspect are based upon incomplete information. These discoveries need to be scrutinized, so I hope you can make it!

Sincerely,

Mike

Hi Mike

Sounds fabulous! We'll look forward to hearing your talk. Clearly your talk is going to be packed with new nuggets of information on this intriguing suspect.... the ever enigmatic Dr T. You might need more than the one hour I was planning to allocate to you. Ha ha.

Cheers

Chris

[mklhawley]

Hi all,

I would like to add an enticement. I will be using the RipperCon to present over a dozen discoveries on Whitechapel murder suspect Francis Tumblety (I've been busy this year!); some quite significant. Additionally, I have the permission of Roger Palmer and Joe Chetcuti to present their discoveries. I can guarantee your opinions on Francis Tumblety as a Ripper suspect are based upon incomplete information. These discoveries need to be scrutinized, so I hope you can make it!

Sincerely,

Mike

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

As noted earlier, our RipperCon entertainment for the night of the banquet on Saturday, April 9 at the Mount Vernon Hotel is "Poe's Last Stanza" by C. J. Crowe. My co-organizer, Janis Wilson, and I went to preview the show last week. We were impressed. Janis and I think attendees at RipperCon will like the Ms. Crowe's diversion, which captures something of the famous writer's life and connections to Baltimore. Here is a short Youtube video that gives you a taste of the presentation as well as various audience members' reactions to the show --

https://youtu.be/ky729kmnCcI

Despite the fact that, as with previous U.S. and U.K. conferences, the event will naturally largely focus on the Whitechapel Murders, as you might expecte, for the first time in a JtR conference on either side of the Atlantic, there will be a strong element about Poe and the writer's many connections to Baltimore, and, unlike earlier U.S. conferences, we are meeting in a downtown historic area which will add materially to the experience of the weekend.

Our Sunday RipperCon bus tour of Baltimore will visit Edgar Poe's tomb and house on S. Amity Street and other locations, including the site of his death, the site of the tavern where he was found in a dying condition, and the house, still standing (!), where Poe secured his first literary success. Also -- we will point out sites connected to John Wilkes Booth, the Pinkertons, the U.S. Civil War, and Jack the Ripper suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety, who lived in the city at the time of the 1900 U.S. Census.

Don't miss out!!!!!

Best regards

Chris




The late actor Vincent Price at Edgar Allan Poe's tomb in Baltimore. Courtesy, Jeff Jerome.

[ChrisGeorge]

NOTE: The hotel for RipperCon, currently known as the Wyndham Mount Vernon Hotel, shortly to become the Mount Vernon Hotel, will not take bookings for RipperCon until after February 2. Our contact at the hotel advises: "So please hold off until I get a definitive booking information and our hotel is loaded on the Global Distribution System (GDS) so that folks can find us. Right now they would not be able to book as Wyndham ends Feb 2. Once we have more info I will then give you the web site to the hotel."

Anyone flying into Baltimore should preferably choose to fly into Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) in preference to Dulles Airport or Reagan Airport in D.C., both of which are further away. The Mount Vernon Hotel which will be our base for #RipperCon is a fairly short cab ride from BWI.

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

NOTE: The hotel for RipperCon, currently known as the Wyndham Mount Vernon Hotel, shortly to become the Mount Vernon Hotel, will not take bookings for RipperCon until after February 2. Our contact at the hotel advises: "So please hold off until I get a definitive booking information and our hotel is loaded on the Global Distribution System (GDS) so that folks can find us. Right now they would not be able to book as Wyndham ends Feb 2. Once we have more info I will then give you the web site to the hotel."

[ChrisGeorge]

Jonathan Menges has informed me that because of the rebranding of the hotel, they will not accept reservations for our group until February. Thanks for the notification, Jonathan. We will keep everyone informed as to when the reservation desk is open for Rippercon room bookings.

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Facebook page for the 2016 Jack the Ripper Conference in Baltimore, MD

https://www.facebook.com/RipperCon-1667584686829648/

JM

Thanks, Jonathan. Yes the official website is coming. Meanwhile thanks for posting the Facebook address for RipperCon which we hope will enable a number of people to get the information about the event and sign up.

The speakers are --

• Martin Fido - “Ripperology and Anti-Semitism”
• David Sterritt - "The Ripper, the Lodger, and Hitchcock's Existential Outsider"
• Stephen Hunter - “Finding a Voice for the Ripper (Writing Ripper fiction)”
• Mike Hawley - “Francis Tumblety - Amongst the Best Suspects”
• Robert Anderson - "Long Island Serial Killer"
• Sarah Beth Hopton - "Jill the Ripper/Mary Pearce"
• Howard Brown - "Diamonds in the Rough: A Positive View of the Contemporary Papers"
• Christopher T. George - The Last Days of Edgar Allan Poe -- Murder or Something Else?"
• Fiction panel chaired by Janis Wilson featuring David Sterritt, Stephen Hunter, and Mr. Hunter's researcher Lenne Miller
• Other panels and surprises throughout weekend

M/Cs for the weekend are Jonathan Menges of Casebook: Jack the Ripper's Rippercast and Casebook's Ally Ryder.

Unfortunately Robert House, previously announced, has had to withdraw for financial reasons.

Registration for RipperCon is $250 payable by Paypal to editorctrip@yahoo.com or by check made out to Christopher T. George, 3800 Canterbury Road, Apt 3E, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. U.S. Funds only please. Sunday bus tour of Baltimore, Maryland, including Edgar Allan Poe Grave and House, Tumblety and John Wilkes Booth associated sites and Nutshell Studies, is $40.00 extra. Tour includes on your own lunch at a restaurant in Baltimore's famed Inner Harbor. Registration of $250 includes talks and panels Friday 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm and Saturday 9:00 to 5:00 pm at the Maryland Historical Society including lunch and refreshments; Friday night reception at the Mount Vernon Hotel, and Saturday evening banquet at the hotel. After dinner entertainment is Poe's Last Stanza http://doordiemystery.com/poes-last-stanza/

The special room rate for the hotel that we negotiated is $119 per night. The hotel is changing its name to the Mount Vernon Hotel in early February but for now it is the Wyndham Mount Vernon Hotel, phone no. 410-727-7101. Our contact person at the hotel is Gretchen Shaffer --

Gretchen Shaffer
Business Travel and Corporate Sales
Wyndham Baltimore Mt. Vernon Hotel
Direct: 410-727-7101 ext 3104
Fax: 410-789-3312
Gretchen.Shaffer@BaltimoreWyndham.com

https://www.wyndhambaltimoremtvernon.com

Cheers

Chris

[Barrister]

My apologies to my colleagues who have been looking for information about RipperCon but we have been attending to details to ensure a great conference. Yes, it is going to happen in Baltimore. The dates are April 8 to 10 and our keynote speaker will be the great Martin Fido. We will be staying at the Mount Vernon Hotel, a historic building with lovely rooms and a gym. The meetings will occur at the Maryland Historical Society, which is a well-appointed and highly interesting location.


We will convene on Friday afternoon and will kick off the conference with a talk by Mr. Fido. We have a great reception planned in the hotel that evening and will have a full day of interesting talks on Saturday. On Sunday, we will offer a bus tour of key Baltimore sites, including Edgar Allen Poe's home and gravesite for a small additional charge.
As we are understandably proud of Baltimore's own Mr. Poe, we will offer a performance by him and a mysterious woman. Co-organizer Chris George and I previewed the performance this week and can attest you will find it compelling.
We are well under way and are eager to start the enrollment process. The enrollment fee to RipperCon is $250 payable by Paypal to editorctrip@yahoo.com or by check made out to Christopher T. George, 3800 Canterbury Road, Apt 3E, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. US Funds only please.
Please keep checking this space and follow us on Facebook. We hope to have the website up very soon.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Baltimore.
Cheers!
Janis Wilson

[jmenges]

Facebook page for the 2016 Jack the Ripper Conference in Baltimore, MD

https://www.facebook.com/RipperCon-1667584686829648/

JM

[jmenges]

Hi all,

Let me say first off that I'm not one of the organizers of the US Conference and, like you, have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a website and a real place where delegates can book their spots. I was hesitant to book my own flight out to Baltimore, and I'm one of the emcees. Anyway, the official website appears to be coming very soon and so, despite the massive delay, rest assured that the conference is going forward and if it's not too late for everyone to request time off work, look into travel and hotel accommodations, please do so.

I know some of you have contacted me privately to ask questions and I'm always available to answer them- within reason. Since, as I said, I'm not on the organizing team, only a very interested party to the event.

I hope to be able to see you all in Baltimore,

All the best,

JM

[Pcdunn]

My finances won't allow me to attend, but I'd like to find out if there are supporting memberships, or a chance to at least get a tee.

[Steadmund Brand]

Yep...same boat here, Hotel, plane and possibly Orioles tickets....plus getting time off work.... Plus conference tickets....

And we need to figure out a way to get GUT outta OZ and over to the States....might help if he knew just how close Baltimore is to Washington DC and the Smithsonian museums' ��

Steadmund Brand

[Barnaby]

I have the same question. I'd like to make hotel reservations as soon as possible!

[Sam Gafford]

Details?

Are there any details about this upcoming conference in Baltimore in April? I can't find anything online and would really like to attend!