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October's London Fog

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  • October's London Fog

    Greetings all,

    It’s been noted that the Whitechapel murders were not committed during any of the notorious pea-soup London fogs. The evenings in question had, at best, the natural light, misty fog. The thick London fogs were the result of the condensation of water vapor (on days of high relative humidity caused by the location of the Thames combined with a cold ground) on the high volume of soot in the air from ‘sea coal’ being used to heat homes. This nasty ‘smog’ has been the cause of many deaths in the past, but thanks to the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, these London fogs rarely occur.

    I collected lots of info on Casebook pertaining to fog, and it’s clear that the month of October, the same month that no murders occurred, experienced the thick London fog, while the other months did not. In science, we have this issue of causation vs. correlation. There may be a correlation, but is it the cause? Well, there certainly is a correlation between the absence of the thick London fog and when the murders occurred. Note what the following piece on Bury states:

    [William Henry]Bury was first named as a possible Ripper suspect as early as 1889, first by the New York Times, and later in 1988 by Euan McPherson, in an article for the Scots magazine, and in 1995 by William Beadle in the book Anatomy Of A Myth. Beadle, in an otherwise excellent book, points out that Bury stopped killing in October because the particularly heavy fog that descended on London that month curtailed his pony and cart forays into Whitechapel, thus obscuring and hindering his exit route. This remark by Beadle has caused many to summerarily dismiss Bury as a viable Ripper suspect in favour of far less credible candidates. While it is unlikely that fog would dampen the ardour's of a serial killer, no Ripperologist or author has yet offered a credible alterative explanation as to why the killings actually ceased during the month of October. [http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media...?printer=true]


    I have another thought, which may turn out to be nothing, but hey… Let us assume the London fog was the cause of October being free of murders. We know the thick London fogs were a serious health issue, which even caused many to die. What if the killer was either a person with a health issue or was a medical expert who did not want to be outside and breathe the disgusting air?

    Just some thoughts. Below are pertinent newspaper articles discussing the fog during the fall of 1888.

    Sincerely,

    Mike

    Te Aroha News
    New Zealand
    12 January 1889

    London November 16 - …The following excerpt from the "Daily News" gives a vivid picture of the scene in Spitalfields and Whitechapel on Sunday evening last. A heavy fog had shrouded the city like a pall for the greater part of the day, but towards night it cleared somewhat. The correspondent made his way back with considerable trepidation. A "Star" reporter had…
    It is a dreary, dismal scene presented here in the misty gloom of this November evening and it is all the more gruesome and depressing from the revolting conversation of many of the people, especially of a line of rough looking fellows who stand with their backs against the wall opposite the head of Miller's Court, smoking short pipes, chaffing the crowd, and bandying unseemly jests about the shocking occurrence. As early as four o'clock in the morning, it is said, people began to drop round to have a look at the scene of this latest horror, and all day long they have come and gone, and still they are clustering here, and streaming in and out. But the main thoroughfares look very quiet and deserted, at all events to those familiar with them only on weekdays. The gaslights flicker feebly over the sloppy pavement, and there is a clammy fog in the air.


    The Star
    LONDON. SATURDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 1888.

    …About ten o'clock this morning darkness descended upon London. It was not the thick darkness of a pea-soup fog, nor the dirty darkness of a smoke fog. It was a thin, grey, drizzling, damp obscurity, caused by a cloud of vapour hanging overhead, which intercepted the daylight, and upon which was reflected with a lurid glare the morning lamplight. There was very little interruption to the traffic, for the condition of things with all the street lamps lit and with the gas or the electric light streaming from every window was little worse than on any ordinary dark night. It was a kind of darkness which the light could pierce - a great advantage over the real "London particular." As we went westward things got worse. In Kensington the fog lay lower and was thicker, although at Putney the morning, though muggy, was clear. Men about town enlivened the gloom with a pleasant story to the effect that in that vague region of romance known as "up west" young gentlemen rising from sleep were deceived by the darkness into the idea that it was evening, and went down in all the shining glory of evening dress to dine at their clubs.
    The phenomena is explained by the Meteorological Office as the outcome of a complex depression situated in the English Channel, and extending to the metropolis, with its centre about Hastings. This depression rises in a column, and drawing all the surrounding air towards itself causes aerial disturbances all over Europe.


    The Daily Telegraph
    FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1888

    …A LONDON FOG. - Yesterday morning, about nine o'clock, a dense fog suddenly enveloped the City and West-end, necessitating the use of artificial light in places of business. Traffic on the Thames was stopped, and the road service was carried on with difficulty by the drivers of cabs, omnibuses, &c., who were obliged to use their lamps as at nighttime.


    Evening News
    London, U.K.
    19 October 1888
    …He came up the street, and we stepped back and allowed him to pass, and he went in the direction of the Whitechapel-road. He went away so quickly that we lost sight of him in the fog, which was then very thick. The time then was just after 12.


    The Star
    LONDON. WEDNESDAY, 17 OCTOBER, 1888.

    …London is clothed in a pea-soup colored fog to-day. It had been gathering all night, and when sub-editors and market porters came out this morning it lay thick in the suburbs. Every hour it grows blacker, and the lights of London show through the opaque atmosphere with Whistlerian dimness.

    PALL MALL GAZETTE
    An Evening Newspaper and Review.
    THURSDAY, 15 NOVEMBER 1888.

    …"Homeless and friendless." The words strike cold when uttered in a cosy room near a warm fire, when only the imagination pictures what the words convey. What they mean to the outcast, crouching hungry in the chill November evening, as the dank fog settles down on the dreary pavement, and not even the doss-house has shelter for the penniless wayfarer - what they mean to the footsore tramp, after a twelve hours' weary search for work - may no reader of them here ever know.
    The Ripper's Haunts/JtR Suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety (Sunbury Press)
    http://www.michaelLhawley.com

  • #2
    Hi Mike

    I`ve always believed that visibility was the main concern for the Ripper, if the fog was indeed the cause for a quiet October. Visibility was down to a few yards which worked against the Ripper, and the place was crawling with Police and Vigilantes.

    Comment


    • #3
      Hi Jon,

      For sure. In a way, it's counter-intuitive, since one might think the killer would feel comfortable masked in a thick fog, but from the perspective of someone perpetrating a crime, who knows if a police constable might be feet from you.

      Sincerely,

      Mike
      The Ripper's Haunts/JtR Suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety (Sunbury Press)
      http://www.michaelLhawley.com

      Comment


      • #4
        Well done Mike...(You're running clean against all the erstwhile romantics with swirling capes and billowing fogs)...I agree it's counter-intuitive...but Jack as an asthmatic? That's enough to take one's breath away...oops...

        Sorry!

        Dave

        Comment


        • #5
          Hi All,

          Interesting, then, that Jolly Jack so studiously avoided foggy mornings.

          Regards,

          Simon
          Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.

          Comment


          • #6
            I hear footsteps...

            Interesting ideas gentlemen. It might be open to debate whether fog would help the ripper........

            He may not see someone till they were right on him but he would hear them.........which is probably what alerted him on murder nights anyway......think Mitre Square

            Also, even if seen he might jump into the fog and still escape.......now what this fog was like at ground level (in Whitechapel) at night I haven't the foggiest.........


            Greg
            Attached Files

            Comment


            • #7
              He may not see someone till they were right on him but he would hear them.........which is probably what alerted him on murder nights anyway......think Mitre Square
              Hi Greg

              According to Fisherman on the Lechmere/Cross as Ripper thread, think Bucks Row (Cross apparently didn't hear Paul until he was 40 yards away, yet earlier PC Neil heard his colleague on the next beat 110 yards away)...Must admit when I heard this I did think of early morning mist with it's incumbent, sometimes freaky, aural effects....are we sure there was no thick early morning mist (as opposed to fog perhaps) in the early hours of 31st August 1888?

              Dave

              Comment


              • #8
                There must have been some reason why there were no Ripper murders in October. The presence of fog in that month, coupled with its absence in August, September & early November must be one possibility.

                The likely alternatives, I guess, would be that the Ripper was ill, that he wasn't in London or that something (illness? the presence of family otherwise absent?) prevented him from killing.

                Regards, Bridewell.
                I won't always agree but I'll try not to be disagreeable.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I wonder what effect the fog had on the East End's prostitutes. I doubt it would have stopped them from going out but might it have made them feel more isolated and therefore more vigilant? Or it could have increased their risky behaviour as there may have been less passing trade about.

                  Best wishes,
                  Steve.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    no ripper murders

                    Hello Colin.

                    "There must have been some reason why there were no Ripper murders in October. "

                    Indeed. Could it be that there was no RIPPER in October? (Or any other month, for that matter.)

                    Cheers.
                    LC

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by lynn cates View Post
                      Hello Colin.

                      "There must have been some reason why there were no Ripper murders in October. "

                      Indeed. Could it be that there was no RIPPER in October? (Or any other month, for that matter.)

                      Cheers.
                      LC
                      Hello everyone,

                      But of course his topic has been discussed before. In Ripperologist 96 (Oct 2008) -exactly 120 years after the thick October London fog, Don Sougen wrote an article titled, Why No October Surprise?

                      Here's list of reasons he compiled from posters on Casebook:

                      - A prolonged, heavy fog;
                      - Increased police presence made him cautious;
                      - Jack was seen by witnesses during the “double event;”
                      - He did attempt October murders, but failed in the execution;
                      - Jack left the country for Paris, Dublin or points unknown;
                      - He was in jail and/or a mental institution;
                      - He suffered septicaemia that resulted from mutilating Eddowes;
                      - The arrival of bloodhounds Barnaby and Burgho made him more wary;
                      - He was planning a move indoors and was biding his time;
                      - His work schedule changed;
                      - He was ill with something other than septicaemia;
                      - He was a sailor whose regular trips to London were interrupted;
                      - The suddenly huge rewards offered made him more wary;
                      - He had Mary Jane Kelly in mind all along and waited for a chance;
                      - He was suffering from an “emotional hangover” after the double event;
                      - He was too busy with his day job;
                      - He filled his October “quota” with the double event;
                      - He broke or lost his knife and had to get a new one.

                      He states about the fog reason: Without a doubt, a mixed bag of suggestions, but none without some merit. Even those that might seem at first rather risible are worthy of a second look. With the hackneyed stereotype of a top-hatted Jack disappearing into a distant mist we tend to dismiss anything about Jack that deals with such low-lying clouds. Yet it is a fact that a heavy fog, a proverbial “pea-souper,” descended upon London in October and hung around for a while. Whether such a fog would have hurt or enhanced Jack’s murderous efforts is debatable, but all myths to the contrary, none of the his killings were committed when the city might have been rightly called “foggy London town.”

                      Someday the fog may lift and we'll come up with the answer (I'm trying Dave )

                      Sincerely,

                      Mike
                      The Ripper's Haunts/JtR Suspect Dr. Francis Tumblety (Sunbury Press)
                      http://www.michaelLhawley.com

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        It might be that prostitutes, normally unafraid enough of the bogey man (JTR) to stop plying their trade, were quite a bit more uncomfortable when they couldn't see a bloke approaching them. I imagine they generally thought, "This can't happen to me. I'm too clever. I can tell the difference between a customer and a killer." Yet, when the fog was too thick, the fears were heightened. Jack's too perhaps.

                        Mike
                        huh?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by lynn cates View Post
                          Hello Colin.

                          "There must have been some reason why there were no Ripper murders in October. "

                          Indeed. Could it be that there was no RIPPER in October? (Or any other month, for that matter.)

                          Cheers.
                          LC
                          Hi Lynn,

                          It could have been but, in my view, probably wasn't.

                          Regards, Bridewell.
                          I won't always agree but I'll try not to be disagreeable.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Good Point

                            Originally posted by The Good Michael View Post
                            It might be that prostitutes, normally unafraid enough of the bogey man (JTR) to stop plying their trade, were quite a bit more uncomfortable when they couldn't see a bloke approaching them. I imagine they generally thought, "This can't happen to me. I'm too clever. I can tell the difference between a customer and a killer." Yet, when the fog was too thick, the fears were heightened. Jack's too perhaps.

                            Mike
                            I think that quite likely, Michael.

                            Regards, Bridewell
                            I won't always agree but I'll try not to be disagreeable.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              A heavy fog would hinder the Ripper only to the extent that it kept working women indoors. Otherwise, I can't help feeling it would help him. Yes, he might not see the police, but he is listening for the police. The police are not necessarily listening for him. He is the predator who has the element of surprise. The fog would work in his favor.

                              Comment

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