Littlechild - Whitechapel Murders Find

[mklhawley]

Which specific cases did they have in mind in November 1888?

Exactly.

[mklhawley]

Hi Monty

Although we may never know for sure I have the hunch that the involvement of Special Branch in the Whitechapel murders was only tangential, that Special Branch men heard of leads to the murderer through their work in combatting and monitoring the Fenians. This could have been how Littlechild knew about Tumblety as being a suspicious character. Considering that the Whitechapel murders generated thousands of leads about who the Whitechapel murderer could have been, it would be surprising if there wasn't something about the murders in the Special Branch files. Although any speculation about what that information was is probably useless since as Trevor Marriott remarked in his talk at the recent Whitechapel Society conference, the actual files with the information have seemingly been destroyed. What is left is a ledger that only summarizes the information and gives tantalizing leads that go nowhere.

Best regards

Chris

Chris,
Special Branch was involved with political issues and the Whitechapel embarrassment was certainly quite political. Maybe they were involved more than they wanted the public to know.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Mike,

If you say so . . .

Regards,

Simon

[mklhawley]

Hi Mike,

If you say so . . .

Regards,

Simon

Hi Simon,

I'm referring to Lynn's post where it states Anderson took over the case.

Mike

[ChrisGeorge]

Chris,
Special Branch was involved with political issues and the Whitechapel embarrassment was certainly quite political. Maybe they were involved more than they wanted the public to know.

Yes but the Whitechapel murders would have been viewed as being primarily a police matter, to be attended to by the Met and the City Police. Inasmuch as the main body of murders, the canonicals, took place from the end of August to the beginning of November, knowing how slow the wheels of bureaucracy turn, I have a feeling that despite the political embarrassment the murders were causing, it would not have been possible in that short time frame to focus the efforts on Special Branch on the Whitechapel crimes. Possibly as time went on, although I still think the question of the Whitechapel murders would not have taken up much time of Special Branch officers.

Chris

[mklhawley]

Yes but the Whitechapel murders would have been viewed as being primarily a police matter, to be attended to by the Met and the City Police. Inasmuch as the main body of murders, the canonicals, took place from the end of August to the beginning of November, knowing how slow the wheels of bureaucracy turn, I have a feeling that despite the political embarrassment the murders were causing, it would not have been possible in that short time frame to focus the efforts on Special Branch on the Whitechapel crimes. Possibly as time went on, although I still think the question of the Whitechapel murders would not have taken up much time of Special Branch officers.

Chris

Hi Chris,

I see where you are coming from. I'm sure they got involved when their Irish interests were suspects. Note this Big Jim McDermott thread for example:

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=4859

I'm sure there were numerous Irish suspects.

Mike

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Chris,

I see where you are coming from. I'm sure they got involved when their Irish interests were suspects. Note this Big Jim McDermott thread for example:

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=4859

I'm sure there were numerous Irish suspects.

Mike

Thanks, Mike. We know for a fact that there were hundreds of men who were suspects during the Whitechapel murders so it makes sense that Special Branch could have been involved with the cases of some Irish suspects or knew about them at least.

All the best

Chris

[lynn cates]

Millen

Hello Neil. Thanks. Wish we could find Callan's confession. I'd love to see what he had to say about Frank Millen.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Crawford Letter

Hello Mike. Thanks. I wonder if Stephen Ryder came across it when he found the Crawford Letter?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Piggott

Hello Mr. Begg.

"Which specific cases did they have in mind in November 1888?"

I presume HM government was concerned on other fronts at this time. They were sweating bullets about Richard Piggot and his letters--had been for nearly a month.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Millen

Hello Mike.

"Maybe they were involved more than they wanted the public to know."

It may be more likely that Lord Salisbury wished not to rattle too many cages, since Millen might have fallen out. Perhaps he put a bug in their ear?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Sra

Hello Mike. Well, the intrusion of SRA was claimed by Campbell in his book. There was a cover letter stating that SRA had taken charge of the statement to Littlechild.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Parnell Commission

Hello Chris.

"I still think the question of the Whitechapel murders would not have taken up much time of Special Branch officers."

Completely agree. The Parnell Commission was taking center stage at this time.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Red Jim

Hello Mike.

"I'm sure there were numerous Irish suspects."

Indeed. And Red Jim was amongst them. If you recall, he and O'Brien were both blackmailing Sir Ed. That may have been the impetus for Sir Ed "spilling his guts" to Michael Davitt.

Cheers.
LC

[FISHY1118]

Hi Monty

Although we may never know for sure I have the hunch that the involvement of Special Branch in the Whitechapel murders was only tangential, that Special Branch men heard of leads to the murderer through their work in combatting and monitoring the Fenians. This could have been how Littlechild knew about Tumblety as being a suspicious character. Considering that the Whitechapel murders generated thousands of leads about who the Whitechapel murderer could have been, it would be surprising if there wasn't something about the murders in the Special Branch files. Although any speculation about what that information was is probably useless since as Trevor Marriott remarked in his talk at the recent Whitechapel Society conference, the actual files with the information have seemingly been destroyed. What is left is a ledger that only summarizes the information and gives tantalizing leads that go nowhere.

Best regards

Chris

I have a hunch about Littlechild ,im sure some files still exist.