Images of Abberline

[Bridewell]

Is anyone able to help with this? I have always taken it that Abberline had an unruly curl of hair to the left side of his forehead but am now unsure as to whether this is the case. Is it hair or a mark/shadow on the wall behind? (The uncertainty is caused by "Mrs Bridewell" who is of the opinion that it's not hair!).

[Steven Russell]

Hats and whiskers

In the two sketches of FGA where he is wearing a hat, the hats are clearly not the same - one being tallish and squarish as worn by Jude Law in the new Holmes films, and the other lower and more rounded. Although it's difficult to say for certain, Rob's guy appears to be wearing neither - his looking more like what you might call a classic bowler. However, the facial hair in all three sketches and the guy in the photo looks pretty much identical. Probably doesn't mean anything but there it is.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Beowulf]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Abberline

Detail from a group shot of H Division at Leman Street police station in London 1886. Authors Wolf Vanderlinden and Donald Rumbelow tentatively identify this as Abberline

In the Complete Jack the Ripper A to Z I remember reading that Inspector Abberline was given at his retirement a walking stick. I'm wondering if the picture with him below with a cane is the reason why Rumbelow thought it a possible photo of him.

Further on this cane give to Abberline, here is an nteresting post to the Casebook by Christopher George, with pics of the head of the cane. Rumors suggested this to be the head of Jack the Ripper:

http://www.casebook.org/forum/messages/4924/13776.html

[Jon Guy]

Hi Jon,

No I dont know who he is and yes I do know when it was taken, and where.

Monty

Thanks for that, Neil ;-)

[Monty]

Hi Jon,

No I dont know who he is and yes I do know when it was taken, and where.

Monty

[Jon Guy]

Same Guy?

If so then we can rule him out as Abberline in my opinion.

Hi Neil

They do look very similar. Do you know who that chap is and any ideas when that photo was taken?

[Cogidubnus]

Don't know so much JtRMordke

To my poor old eyes it looks like Monty's cracked it! Good spot!

All the best

Dave

[JtRMordke]

I did a basic overlay of the photos, though I may just have made a mess of it! See what you think. The one to the left is rather pixelised if you ask me so they may look more similar than they truly are.

[Monty]

Same Guy?

If so then we can rule him out as Abberline in my opinion.

Monty

[Jon Guy]

Hi Paul

Yes, when I first saw Rob`s post showing the hidden Abberline I honestly first thought he`d photo shopped it in for a laugh. I then checked out the photo again and realised that he was indeed there, hiding behind someone`s shoulder. I was gobsmacked as I had just not noticed him before, and I`d spent hours perusing the photo, and judging by the posts that followed, he had alluded many others too.

I don`t doubt for a minute that others including you had seen him it`s just that Rob seems to have been the first to stick a big red arrow on him and added the matching illustrations for us to compare.

I`m not surprised that I didn`t see him as i`m as blind as a bat, and I don`t have an inbuilt radar (not that radar would have helped a bat study the Leman St group photo).

[Nemo]

Thanks Jon

Yes, that's correct

Don't you find it amazing that nobody had contemplated that character in the photo before, despite scanning the faces for a likeness of Abberline?

I wouldn't claim to have "discovered" Abberline in that photo as I wouldn't expect to have been the first to notice him - you'd have to be blind not to notice him IMO

Not to steal the thunder from "Rob's discovery" of course

[Jon Guy]

Yes, Paul, I can see that you did indeed ask why the other two in bowler hats were not been considered (the day before RH`s discovery).
But, as Sam noted, weren`t there four wearing bowler hats(or five, because Sam hadn`t apparently noticed RH`s errr.. sorry.. Nemo`s Abberline in the photo before) :-)

[Nemo]

Here's the thread I was referring to...

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=6918

Oh look, I made my comment on 29th, Sam Flynn disagreed, and Rob posted his "discovery" on the 30th, with Sam's follow-up on 7th that he hadn't considered that man in the photo, one of the two with a bowler hat whom I was referring to, there being 3 possible candidates (IMO) for Abberline in the photo

[Nemo]

Could be Jon, I was just thinking that - maybe my memory fails me

I remember asking the question though and it wasn't on that thread

No matter

[Jon Guy]

Don`t think it was, Nemo

If it was new to Sam Flynn in 2009, it was definitely a new find.