Just what did Scotland Yard send to other Police Agencies around the globe?

[Mayerling]

On a thread started by GUT under the "Letters" Section, in the "General Queries" subsection is one about some letter referred to in an Australian (actually Tasmanian) newspaper "Just what did the letter refer to". In answering (or trying to answer) GUT's inquiries here, I came across a matter - maybe this has cropped before - that bothers me.

One of the newspaper items I referred to in my answers on that thread was from The Evening Post, a New Zealand newspaper, that reads like this:

Evening Post, Vol. XL, Issue 28, 1 August 1890, P.2:

"JACK THE RIPPER.

A SYDNEY SCARE.

[United Press Association]

Sydney, 31st July.

Ten days ago the Sydney police received a letter signed "Jack the Ripper" stating that he had arrived and intended to commence operations in a certain street within a week of his writing. [My capital lettering here] WHEN COMPARED WITH FACSIMILIES OF THE LETTERS RECEIVED FROM THE LONDON POLICE, the letters showed a strong resemblance and the police and detectives were strengthened and kept on the alert. The affair, however, is believed to be a hoax. The police are reticent and the press is silent about the matter."

No doubt it was a hoax. GUT responded on that thread that the Sydney newspapers printed the same matter.

But my question now becomes this - in the investigations into the Whitechapel Murders, Scotland Yard had to contact as many imperial police agencies (hence the Australian colonies, and presumably Canadian, New Zealand, Indian, South African - African, Caribbean, Pacific, etc.) and non-British Imperial police (especially Europe, the U.S., the Latin American countries) as possible. But what did Scotland Yard send them in terms of items for these groups to have on hand for comparisons to clues from London itself?

We are dealing with the technology of 1888 - say 1910. They have printing and photography. How did they send out facsimiles of "Ripper letters" to the distant police stations, and when? After the "double header" killing of September 30, 1888? After Mary Kelly's in November 1888? Did they restrain themselves from sending any material out, due to a self-image pride that they should solve it alone?

Has anybody ever come across any Ripper material in a foreign (i.e. non-British) police archive that shows what was sent to them. Keep in mind this is not only telegram messages - it is sharing information by any means.

As far as I know the first person to experiment with what we'd call "fax machines" was the co-inventor of the telephone, Elisha Gray. At least that was what I heard once. How true that is I don't know, but I am certain if it is true his work would not have been available to Scotland Yard in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Jeff

[Simon Wood]

Hi Jeff,

I have the feeling that Friday 1st August 1890 may have been a slow news day in New Zealand.

Trawling the Australian press for 1890 will net you a wealth of JtR stories, one from as far afield as Mongolia.

One of my favourites is from the Northern Argus [SA], 27th June 1890—

"It is said that the English authorities are still in pursuit of 'Jack the Ripper,' and that one of the best known detective inspectors devotes his whole time to the case."

As if.

Another is from the wonderfully-named Queenscliff Sentinel, Portarlington and Sorrento Advertiser, 5th July 1890—

"The normal circulation of the London Star is about 100,000, but every time a Whitechapel murder was announced it jumped to 300,000 . . . We have heard somewhere, perhaps a little bird told us, that Jack the Ripper was occasionally secretly employed when business was slack to furnish material for sensational copy."

Regards,

Simon

[Scott Nelson]

Damn, I've got to get a copy of your book, Simon.

[Simon Wood]

You will, Scott. One way or another, you will.

[GUT]

I'm not persuaded that a slow news day is the whole answer to Mayerling's question.

[Simon Wood]

Hi GUT,

No offense intended towards anybody, but the Evening Post [NZ] story was just another example of all the Ripper BS swirling around.

Jack was a guaranteed column-filler.

Regards,

Simon

[GUT]

Yes Jack was [and to a large extent still is] a column filler and guaranteed seller, just look at some of the rubbish published.

But was the claim that the police had a copy of Dear Boss BS?

That to me is the biggy that arises here.

[Rosella]

There was a scanning phototelegraph machine that was invented in 1881, a development of the early fax machines. I don't know whether Scotland Yard used it, though.

[GUT]

There was a scanning phototelegraph machine that was invented in 1881, a development of the early fax machines. I don't know whether Scotland Yard used it, though.

Goes a bit further even the newsreport is almost 2 years after "Dear Boss" now I know mail was slow but it would have got to Sydney n that time, after all we weren't relying on modern day Australia Post

[Pcdunn]

Could the "facsimiles" have been made with tracing paper?

Or perhaps a form of rotogravure?

Interesting question.

[GUT]

Could the "facsimiles" have been made with tracing paper?

Or perhaps a form of rotogravure?

Interesting question.

I suspect Hectograph was used to make the copies, the big questions to me are how widely were they distributed and how.

[Mayerling]

I suspect Hectograph was used to make the copies, the big questions to me are how widely were they distributed and how.

G'day GUT,

The big questions remain how extensive the access to any information from the Yard was abroad, what was sent and what was not, and the timing of the information. We (on this and similar boards) are working with hindsight. In August 1888 when Mary Ann Nichols was killed, there was no feeling about a criminal's campaign of violence in the East End (not officially anyway). After Annie Chapman's there might have been some consideration of this, but it was only two officially noted murders - the Yard was not openly stating that the murders of Emma Smith or Martha Turner were also suspected as part of a series - in fact the Yard admitted the possibility of either of those being in the series (as far as we know). It has to be the double event of September 30th that is the key - and just barely. Had it only been one more murder, would the Yard have admitted any pattern? It could have been three random murders. But the second murder pushes the envelope (and I realize one of these two murders have been seriously questioned on this board - I am looking at it from the point of view of the authorities on October 1, 1888). Then we have a hiatus for five and a half weeks, and then the butchery in Miller's Court. After Nov. 9, 1888 something would have had to have been sent out. Judging from the newspaper accounts (especially regarding Dr. Tumblety's career) British police had been in contact with their Canadian opposite numbers and the American and (to some extent) French police regarding the Doctor's movements. Was he the only subject of interest the Yard inquired about from foreign sources? Or the only related subject to the case that involved distant police response? We know that afterwards there is more intense response - in 1892 when the career of Deeming is discussed, American, Australian, British, and South African news services send out information of various extents of truth or hearsay about Deeming's career. Since he was arrested for fraud in 1890 in Uruguay there may have been some papers from Montivideo covering that matter too.

There is a phenomenon in the post - Whitechapel career of the Ripper that few have really tackled totally. Whitechapel is a crazy kind of milestone in International Criminal Case coverage. There had been major homicides (like Lincoln's Assassination) that were global in their coverage, but those are political events. In 1881, for example, Tsar Alexander II of Russia and President James Garfield were both assassinated, and the Tsar's murder (with nitroglycerin bombs) was particularly horrible for the dying man, while Garfield (due to medical incompetence) lost a battle for survival he might have won - and suffered for two months in dying. That same year Britain had two major homicide cases (one tried the following year): the murder of Frederick Isaac Gold on a car of the Brighton line railroad by Percy Lefroy Mapleton, and the Wimbledon poisoning of Percy Johns by his brother - in - law Dr. George Lamson. The news coverage of both was somewhat big in the U.S., because Lefroy managed to evade capture for two weeks, and Lamson had some roots in the United States that played a role in delaying his execution for a few days in 1882. But the coverage was not intensive - not like the Whitechapel case.

However this began changing after 1881. The changes are not initially due to British cases or American cases. Instead it was due to a Belgian case, the "Peltzer" Case, wherein the victim was shot to death in a rented building, and the police of Belgium, France, Britain, and two or three other countries spent months looking for one "Harry Vaughn", an Englishman who was suspected of killing the victim. It turned out to be a straw man figure concocted by Armand and Leon Peltzer to throw the police off the track (and almost worked).

Later there were two French cases of 1886 - 1887 involving the careers of two murderers, Henri Pranzini and Prado that also got intense coverage. Both operated on multi-national scales, and with possible female victims in several countries. Therefore the interest in both crimes was intense. Whitechapel was even more intense because of the viciousness of the criminal acts, and the fact that no official resolution was made.

It continued after 1888 with the "Blenheim Forest" Murder in Ontario, Canada. This was in 1890, and involved the discovery of the dead body of one Frederick Benwell, a young Englishman who had come to Canada to look into a farming opportunity. The case resulted in the arrest of an ex-Oxford student (he was thrown out of Oxford) named Reginald Birchell. The coverage on this case (especially in the U.S., Britain, and Canada - of course) was huge. Birchell was eventually convicted and hanged.

The phenomenon was also big with French crimes. The murder of Gouffe by Michel Eyraud and Gabrielle Bombard involved a long process in establishing the actual murder (as Gouffe had disappeared, and then his remains had to be identified) and Eyraud and Bombard fled to the Westen Hemisphere. Eyraud would be arrested in Cuba, while Bombard would find another lover and crisscross the U.S. with him before being arrested.

It is after all this that the crimes of Deeming (Britain, South Africa?, Uruguay, Australia), and Cream (Canada, the U.S., Britain) are also given international attention. After 1892 it becomes more prevalent to news readers that major regular homicides are committed globally.

To this phenomenon the Whitechapel Murders contributed it's effects. Unlike the other cases it was unsolved. Indeed it got linked to the Deeming and Cream cases by suggestions from the press of questionable rumors. But altogether the modern news media's expansion on criminal items of a global extant date from this period (1882 - 1892).

Jeff

[GUT]

G'day Jeff

G'day GUT,

The big questions remain how extensive the access to any information from the Yard was abroad, what was sent and what was not, and the timing of the information. We (on this and similar boards) are working with hindsight. In August 1888 when Mary Ann Nichols was killed, there was no feeling about a criminal's campaign of violence in the East End (not officially anyway). After Annie Chapman's there might have been some consideration of this, but it was only two officially noted murders - the Yard was not openly stating that the murders of Emma Smith or Martha Turner were also suspected as part of a series - in fact the Yard admitted the possibility of either of those being in the series (as far as we know). It has to be the double event of September 30th that is the key - and just barely. Had it only been one more murder, would the Yard have admitted any pattern? It could have been three random murders. But the second murder pushes the envelope (and I realize one of these two murders have been seriously questioned on this board - I am looking at it from the point of view of the authorities on October 1, 1888). Then we have a hiatus for five and a half weeks, and then the butchery in Miller's Court. After Nov. 9, 1888 something would have had to have been sent out. Judging from the newspaper accounts (especially regarding Dr. Tumblety's career) British police had been in contact with their Canadian opposite numbers and the American and (to some extent) French police regarding the Doctor's movements. Was he the only subject of interest the Yard inquired about from foreign sources? Or the only related subject to the case that involved distant police response? We know that afterwards there is more intense response - in 1892 when the career of Deeming is discussed, American, Australian, British, and South African news services send out information of various extents of truth or hearsay about Deeming's career. Since he was arrested for fraud in 1890 in Uruguay there may have been some papers from Montivideo covering that matter too.


Jeff

I need to give some issues in your post a bit more head time before I respond, but in regards to the police view of the serial nature some news reports here in Aus [and I'll have to go back and search them out] were referring to the "fourth murder" before the Double Event, so at least some were considering a series to be in play fairly early.

[GUT]

Slightly off thread but there are some reports that a man named Williams was at one stage detained in England "on suspicion", this was reported as some type of link between Deeming and Jack [Williams being one of about 9,999 aliases he used] does anyone know of such an "arrest". Not specifically of deeming but of someone named Williams.

[jason_c]

I think the question is an interesting one, but not necessarily on the global scale. I've often wondered if there are any further files or pieces of information about the case scattered amongst local police areas. For instance when checking the story of George Hutchinson I assume some correspondence was sent between the Met and Romford.