Masonic Police

[Vigilantee]

Is there any info available on who in the case was a Freemason. I'm not dragging up the nutty theory of S Knight but I think it might be relevant.

I know Warren definitely was, Munro almost certainly was (as most officials in the East India Company were), and so his buddy McNaughton probably was.
Anderson should have been given his name! But may not have been. Supt Charles Cutbush appears to have been.

Studies show even today the majority of serving Police are Masons (as high as 66% perhaps), so I would think it was even more prevalent in Victorian times.

[claire]

Lusk.

[Vigilantee]

Oh that's an interesting one. Bit marginal to the investigation though?

[Vigilantee]

One form of test for Masonic membership could be unusual speed of promotion.

Of course Mason is a bit vague, as the actual lodge and Grand Lodge is a factor. For instance Warren was the founder and master of the QC research lodge (and possibly a knight mason, given his interests, as well as rubbing shoulders with some curious esoteric brethren) and so under UGLE jurisdiction. Where as Munro and Macnaghten, and other former East India Company - Indian Civil Service people (and those in the textile, tea and opium trades) could be of various Grand Lodges, though the Grand Lodge of Scotland was very influential here, and given the origins of this two it would be the most likely authority for them. It's at least historically well established that it was very difficult to obtain a senior position in the British East India Company or related Civil Service without being on the square. I suspect Anderson was a Mason too, because almost every senior figure in the Victorian Metropolitan and City Police was, and due to his Intelligence work against Irish Nationalists (a mileau
traditionally entwined with Freemasonry in Ireland). But this would put him under the jurisdiction of Irish Grand Lodge. All three Grand Lodges had their own lodges in London, so the upshot of this is that the Warren, Munro and Anderson cliques even if Masonic could not have shared the same lodges. The political infighting between these groups, particularly between the liberal Warren and the conservative Munro, would have made this undesirable even if they could. Of course all would have shared the 'universal recognition signs'
of a brother mason, and this would have been enough to serve their careers (one reason faith in the regularity of a Grand Lodge is important for mainstream Masons), however this wouldn't have been enough for any 'illicit associations' which would have at least required same lodge membership and probably even greater inner circle trust. Though of course 'understandings' and 'favours' would still apply between all Masons (this being the whole point of Masonry for most members, as it is for the Rotary Club or any Old School network or Mutual Society).

These fine tunings make the big Masonic 'conspiracy theories' impossible and ridiculous, but they do open up possibilities for misuse of Masonry or any Fraternal network), particularly in the past when oversight was not well developed.

I find it interesting that the political influence was with Munro and his Special Branch circle at the time of the murders, who also have other interesting connections. Even a slight hint of anything dodgy here would have sent the conspiracy theorists going, and this might partly explain the rise of the 'Ripper conspiracy' theories that led to Knights book. While these theories are absurd (not least for their focus on Warren, who would have been well out of the loop) there may have been some grain of truth to them, as there is a lot of evidence for some kind of 'cover up' and 'misinformation'.

[Vigilantee]

It would be difficult to tell Masonic allegiance of any of the lower ranks of the Police or Judiciary but the following articles give an objective assessment:

Home Office
Report http://www.charlton.demon.co.uk/masonic/report.html

Government Survey http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ce-Masons.html

News Report

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/defiant-police-to-set-up-new-masonic-lodge-726700.html

Seven years on the controversy above has died down, though while the numbers seem to be declining they are still large.

Masonic involvement in Victorian times is widely regarded to have dwarfed the current interest.

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

Doctor Frederick Gordon Brown was a mason.

And I have it on good authority [although I haven't yet found any supporting documentary evidence] that John McCarthy and Abberline were in the same lodge as Swanson and Reid, together with a number of City of London police.

Regards,

Simon

[Vigilantee]

wo hoooo

Maybe that relates to Abbeline's alleged 'oath of silence'

[Vigilantee]

I just noticed John McCarthy in there, that's well dodgy...

[Natalie Severn]

Yes,John McCarthy bent over backwards to keep in police and local authority good books.He donated large sums of money to The Whitechapel Hospital and was regarded as a great local benefactor [but not by the local villains who called him a "bully" or "pimp"].But McCarthy made his money like Rackman did,by buying up slum property and behaving like a slum landlord does.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Norma,

Solid masonic principles.

One for all, and all for me.

Regards,

Simon

[Vigilantee]

Swanson was probably the master of the lodge and was a close friend of Anderson and Munro. If Supt Cutbush was a mason he may well have been in Munro's lodge. So we have Irish McCarthy a slum landlord and the anti Catholic Cutbush supervising lodging houses and all linked to Anderson, and his anti Fenian projects, interesting

[Natalie Severn]

Clearly there is something in what you say about the Masons,Vigilantee. Membership could well have protected someone like Supt Charles Cutbush from the excruciating embarrassment of having his "nephew"s name bandied about as Jack the Ripper. But I doubt it would have prevented Thomas Cutbush from being investigated---in fact he was investigated and arrested in 1891.The problem for me lies not so much in a conspiracy theory about Cutbush but in the police just not considering him being capable of being Jack the Ripper.
They said exactly the same things as they say today.How could a killer such as The Ripper go from committing the horrific Millers Court murder ,a murderer that is who took care to be swift, silent and unseen, to flying out with a knife in Kennington, stabbing several women and getting caught?
And the only answer I myself have, is that the killer could,like Thomas Cutbush, have been a paranoid schizophrenic and, as such , beat a very different drum from a sane more "conventional" or predictable criminal.It may all have depended on what "commands" he was carrying out!
Best
Norma

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Norma,

Solid masonic principles.

One for all, and all for me.

Regards,

Simon

Thats a lovely line Simon

[Vigilantee]

That's true, and I think part of the story, but if the 'cover up' was organised by a handful of people in Munro's lodge, he could have told Anderson it was all a state secret linked to say Tumblety and the Fenians, then the seperate Swanson lodge could act on that cover up (using Kosminsky as a decoy, as did Anderson and Macnaghton). With Littlechild later working out half of what was going on. How about that for conspiracy all the theories in one )

[Natalie Severn]

Well Vigilantee,there is no doubt that conspiracy theories can be great fun---and in the case of the one around Gull, Netley and co, hugely lucrative.I tend to think they were all fairly baffled by the ripper and had absolutely no idea who he was. Moreover its pretty clear they were all ready to ridicule each other and pour scorn on each other"s suspects as Abberline and Smith did.
I suspect there was very little agreement between them about the various "theories".