And he becomes a suspect because...?

[RavenDarkendale]

Just like to know how this man becomes a candidate for JtR. Anyone willing to share knowledge with someone who can be objective, since I know nothing of this suspect?

God Bless

Darkendale

[miss marple]

Agree with Darkendale, This is absurd., All we have about Blanchard is Darkendale asking who is Blanchard?

PLEASE someone enlighten us! Who is Blanchard and why is he a suspect?

Miss Marple

[Bridewell]

This may help:

http://www.casebook.org/suspects/blanchard.html

[Dave O]

He was cleared pretty quickly. So no, he's not to be considered a suspect. I think he was just one of those unhealthy people trying to be a big shot or having a laugh off other people's misery and tying up resources doing it. I think that article went into the "Suspects" section because it doesn't fit into any of the others.

If I recall right, at the time (around 2004), someone had suggested to Stephen that it would be good to have some articles on some of the people who were mentioned in the press reports. I volunteered to do some and somewhere there was this big index on Casebook. I started with "B" (I don't remember why I started with "B"). I did a little summary of what was known about Albert Bachert at the time, and Blanchard came after that as he was mentioned in some of the London papers. As I started, there wasn't much detail on him in the articles that had been transcribed in the Press Project and I wanted more.

This was shortly before the newspaper databases became available. As it happened, in Handsworth, they were just beginning the process of digitalization but didn't have anything up yet. But I wrote them looking for some local coverage of Blanchard, hoping to get a little more information. I lucked out that one of the people there, Chris Sutton, had a passing interest in the Whitechapel Murders and he was willing to provide me with the relevant articles. If I remember right, he went to the great trouble of accessing physical copies that they had in storage. So, thanks to Chris Sutton, and Chris Scott who pulled some census information for me, and several others, I was able to write a bit more about Blanchard that what was known about him at that time.

I never got to any of the other "B"'s as it was right after this that I got interested in the workings of inquests (sorry, Stephen).

So this is why there's an article about Alfred Blanchard in the Suspects section.

Dave

[miss marple]

So not a suspect then. Perhaps' False Confessions' should have their own thread, like letters. It would be interesting to see them all together.

Miss Marple

[Dave O]

Go for it!

[miss marple]

Might just do that

[RavenDarkendale]

Thank you, Bridewell and Dave O for clearing that up. A lot of people confess to horrible crimes just for the attention, which hampers the police, but all roads must be considered. Good catch by the Whitechapel investigators. With all the publicity and public opinion they would have been hard pressed to find JtR. Here was a man with a confession. They could have went for it, but they investigated the claim and ruled him out. Solid stuff!

God Bless

Darkendale