PC Richard Brown

[The Good Michael]

Hi, I wanted to start this thread or this interesting idea up again. Here is a post by Chris George from 2004 regarding Brown:

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Hi, Alan

I hope you do read my article on P.C. Richard Brown in Ripperologist 49. It is quite an interesting story. His background is murky. In joining the Met's E Division in August 1886 and also earlier when he joined the Royal Artillery in Liverpool in March 1878, he claimed to have been born in Adelaide, South Australia, but the address given does not check out. Additionally when he deserted from the artillery and joined the Northumberland Fusiliers on November 12, 1878, he gave his place of birth as Heligoland, which is an island off Germany, then a British possession but later traded by the British for Zanzibar. He was courtmartialed spent time in the Millbank Military Prison and went back into the Royal Artillery, being honorably discharged in spring 1886, several months before joining the Met. A notation in his Army papers indicates that his address was Bethnal Green, in the East End, although so far I have been unable to find a specific address.

Brown was let go from the police on Tuesday, 13 November 1888 (four days after the murder of Mary Jane Kelly) for failing to appear on parade for night duty at a quarter to ten, and was said in the Police Orders for that day to be "considered unfit for the Police Force", although his conduct otherwise while serving in the Met appears to have been good. He was allowed to resign from the police in order to keep his testimonial. After his resignation, he told acquaintances he had plans to go abroad, bought a revolver supposedly for protection during his trip, then shot himself at midday on Friday, 16 November while seated on a park bench in Hyde Park, not far from the Hyde Park police station, on a path leading to the Serpentine.

The question of a whistle heard about the time of the suicide was not resolved. P.C. Duncan McKenzie, 593A, heard the whistle, which he thought was a police whistle, walked down the path toward the lake and found Brown slumped on a park bench "with the revolver tightly clasped in his right hand and blood flowing from his mouth." (The Times, 20 November 1888).

In the Jewish Chronicle of 29 December 1888, reporting belatedly on the inquest it was stated that "It transpired that Sir Charles Warren had shown him great kindness and the deceased became very depressed when the resignation of the late Chief Commissioner [of the Metropolitan Police] was announced."

The circumstances of Richard Brown's life and death are certainly odd but whether his death had anything to do with the murders remains to be seen.

I do plan a follow-up article for a future issue of Ripperologist.

Best regards

Chris George

[The Good Michael]

If I'm not mistaken, Brown's failure to report for duty was the same evening Kelly's murder saga begins. Brown was not a Whitechapel constable, but it has been surmised that he could have been reassigned to the East End for temporary duty.

Cheers,

Mike

[Chris George]

If I'm not mistaken, Brown's failure to report for duty was the same evening Kelly's murder saga begins. Brown was not a Whitechapel constable, but it has been surmised that he could have been reassigned to the East End for temporary duty.

Cheers,

Mike

Hello Mike

Yes that is what I assume might have occurred. Direct proof that P.C. Brown was assigned to patrol in the Whitechapel - Spitalfields area during the period of the murders is, however, so far elusive.

Chris

[Chris]

In the Jewish Chronicle of 29 December 1888, reporting belatedly on the inquest it was stated that "It transpired that Sir Charles Warren had shown him great kindness and the deceased became very depressed when the resignation of the late Chief Commissioner [of the Metropolitan Police] was announced."

Here's the whole report, in case it's of interest. It actually appeared on 23 November 1888.

[halomanuk]

Thats an interesting but sad article there.

He seemed a very lonely and unhappy man.
You never know what goes through peoples minds to make them do something like that,especially with the Ripper murders supposedly still in full swing.

[The Good Michael]

Wow! He was a Jew. I always assumed he was Irish because of his surname. I guess that it was derivative of Braun or a longer surname with the 'Braun' prefix.

I also didn't know that he was a soldier so recently.

Why does Druitt have so much interest, but not Brown? What is missing from this suicide?

Cheers,

Mike

[halomanuk]

Was Brown in the area for each of the murders ?

[The Good Michael]

Brown was in the area and not too far away when compared with Druitt. He also fits the ages given by Lawende and Schwartz.

Cheers,

Mike

[halomanuk]

And it would explain the trust from the girls on the street and the fact he could get away without being seen every time.

It would also explain the sound of footsteps that 'might have been from a policeman ' on the morning of Mary Kelly being discovered,leaving Millers Court.

And,he lived on his own so he had nobody to answer to with his 'trophies' and his suicide on 29th November coincides with the end of the Ripper murders.
Maybe this also explains why the Jews were less than forthcoming with any information also - a jewish policeman murderer.
The Army also could have screwed up his mind before he even became a policeman.

Very very interesting and it fits....

[The Good Michael]

As I recall, he had no family except for an uncle, or a cousin with whom he'd had dinner a few nights before he killed himself. The relative said that he was upset about something.

Cheers,

Mike

[Howard Brown]

Hmmm.... "institutionalized anti-Semitism...."

In the Jewish Chronicle of 29 December 1888, reporting belatedly on the inquest it was stated that "It transpired that Sir Charles Warren had shown him great kindness and the deceased became very depressed when the resignation of the late Chief Commissioner [of the Metropolitan Police] was announced."

[PC2267]

Interesting & thought provoking theory!! Curious about the police whistle being heard prior to death, assume no whistle was found on his person? I'd also like to learn more about the footsteps that sounded like that of a policeman being heard walking away from Miller Court. Who said this? I'd always assumed that Miller Court being so close to Spitalfields market and the Ten Bells etc that there'd have been people coming and going at all hours of the day and night?

Something that I hadn't thought of until learning about PC Brown, is I have an 1887 medal to a PC from C Division, he served in J Division between the 10th August 1888 and 15th August 1890, he died on duty as part of E Division in May 1892. Could he have been Jack......

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

And it would explain the trust from the girls on the street and the fact he could get away without being seen every time.

It would also explain the sound of footsteps that 'might have been from a policeman ' on the morning of Mary Kelly being discovered,leaving Millers Court.

And,he lived on his own so he had nobody to answer to with his 'trophies' and his suicide on 29th November coincides with the end of the Ripper murders.
Maybe this also explains why the Jews were less than forthcoming with any information also - a jewish policeman murderer.
The Army also could have screwed up his mind before he even became a policeman.

Very very interesting and it fits....

Yes.

This explains everything - or almost everything.

Now all that needs to be explained is:

Why Macnaghten knew of a Jewish suspect named Kosminski but not of a Jewish suspect named Brown.

Why Anderson thought the murderer was not an Australian Jew but a Polish Jew.

Why Swanson thought Kosminski was the suspect when it was really Brown.

Why Macnaghten's or Sagar's Pc witness, on seeing a Jewish suspect, did not realise that the suspect was also a Pc, and why Macnaghten and Sagar were unaware of it.

Why it is so obvious that Brown was the Whitechapel Murderer that no-one thought of it at the time.

[DJA]

Doubt Jack the Ripper was an Australian Jew

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

Doubt Jack the Ripper was an Australian Jew

We don't know that Brown was Australian, but I think somehow he would not have been able to conceal a Polish accent and there seems to be no record of that.

His British Army files record his religion as Church of England, which suggests that he was a plausible Englishman or Australian, even if he came from somewhere else.