Why did Aberline resign?

[Steve S]

Early retirement and a move into Security management was a preferred choice for quite a few CID until at least a few years back......Maybe Mr.A started the trend?

Steve

[bkohatl]

That is the great regret

It certainly wasn't because he needed plenty of spare time to write his memoirs. If only he had done just that.....

Or who knows? It might have just made an unsolvable case even murkier.

He had a lot of information that no one else had and absolute integrity.

[curious4]

Abberline - retirement

Donīt know what it was at the turn of the century, but I do know that the retirement age used to be fifty for policemen (my grandfather was a police officer, joined I think, after W.W.II), so he would not have had a long time left in the police force anyway.

[sleekviper]

I would imagine that fielding questions on a daily basis may have played a role.
Who was the ripper?- If we knew that, we would have arrested him.
How did he get away?- Same answer as first question.
How many did he kill?- When we find him, we will be sure to ask.
Any new developments?-Read the paper!
Local guy you think?- Ok, that is it! I am out of here!

[KatBradshaw]

I take the point but I find it strange that he left to go and join a detective agency, whcih is basically doing the same job without the security and prestige, and also without the same workforce behind you. Just seems surprising.

Also having rewatched the BBC Jack the Ripper I do agree that in the Cleveland St case Aberline's behaviour was odd. They claim "he wasn't trying".. either way the delays and hiccups do strike me as odd. Is the view that Aberline was a good detective (which elsewhere the BBC programme asserts) a generally held one?

Which BBC one are you refering too?

[The Grave Maurice]

I don't see the problem here. Abberline had worked long enough to earn a full pension, and then accepted a job as a private enquiry agent at Monte Carlo (nice weather) and then with Pinkerton's (nice money). Seem to me like smart moves to make.

[jason_c]

I take the point but I find it strange that he left to go and join a detective agency, whcih is basically doing the same job without the security and prestige, and also without the same workforce behind you. Just seems surprising.

Also having rewatched the BBC Jack the Ripper I do agree that in the Cleveland St case Aberline's behaviour was odd. They claim "he wasn't trying".. either way the delays and hiccups do strike me as odd. Is the view that Aberline was a good detective (which elsewhere the BBC programme asserts) a generally held one?

His reputation is probably over-rated.

If his actions in the Cleveland Street case were carried out by any other major police figure their reputation today would be in tatters - Anderson, McNaughten etc.

He in all likelihood pilfered police files from Scotland Yard.

The best look at Abberlines police work is an essay by Stewart Evans here on casebook. It deals with his "interrogation" of George Hutchinson.

[Writerboy]

I take the point but I find it strange that he left to go and join a detective agency, whcih is basically doing the same job without the security and prestige, and also without the same workforce behind you. Just seems surprising.

Also having rewatched the BBC Jack the Ripper I do agree that in the Cleveland St case Aberline's behaviour was odd. They claim "he wasn't trying".. either way the delays and hiccups do strike me as odd. Is the view that Aberline was a good detective (which elsewhere the BBC programme asserts) a generally held one?

[corey123]

Hello Brenda,

Yes, that would indeed be intruiging.

[Brenda]

It certainly wasn't because he needed plenty of spare time to write his memoirs. If only he had done just that.....

Or who knows? It might have just made an unsolvable case even murkier.

[corey123]

Hello Writer,

Probally because he was set for an early pension, and that was enough to keep him happy. He had a normally long career, I don't know if there would be any real reason aside form the pension.

[Writerboy]

Has this been established? He left in his later forties and worked for a detective agency... seems an odd move...