William Bury the Whitechapel Murderer ?

There are worse 'suspects' to be honest- but Mr Bury isn't amongst my list of dinner guests to be honest!!! So I randomly went for a 7 !!

Bury is probably as viable a suspect as any other!

In light of the demographics that prevailed in the murder 'locale', in 1888; I would guess that the probability of his having been the 'Ripper' would be somewhere in the neighborhood of ~0.0002% (i.e. ~ one in 500,000).

Fine now!
Let's hope How doesn't see his 'Memorial Gateway'!!!!!

[Suzi]

Fine now!
Let's hope How doesn't see his 'Memorial Gateway'!!!!!

[ATTACH]6460[/ATTACH]
St. Mary's Church (The Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard) & How Memorial Gateway, High Street, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard

I obviously had a little trouble with the above attachment.

Let's have another go!


St. Mary's Church (The Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard) & How Memorial Gateway, High Street, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard

[Suzi]

Hi Colin
There are worse 'suspects' to be honest- but Mr Bury isn't amongst my list of dinner guests to be honest!!! So I randomly went for a 7 !!

Great pics though :-)

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Figure 5: Derelict Churchyard; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

Approximately one third of St. Mary's Church stood in the immediate foreground (i.e. this side of the hedgerow); …

[ATTACH]6445[/ATTACH]
Figure 6: Blackwall Tunnel; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

… while its remaining two thirds stood here (at an elevation of approximately six feet above the highway).

Actually, the entirety of St. Mary's Church stood at an elevation of approximately six feet, above what is now a portion of the Blackwall Tunnel.


Figure 1: 'Footprint' of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (As Depicted in 1894 OS) (Click to View in flickr)
Underlying Aerial Imagery: Copyright Google Earth, 2007
Overlying Plots, Labels and Color-Shadings: Copyright Colin C. Roberts, 2009

I had misplaced this image, which I compiled a couple of years ago, by way of an 1894 OS overlay. Obviously, I had forgotten the extent, to which the memory of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard had been 'erased'.


St. Mary's Church (The Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard) & How Memorial Gateway, High Street, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard

… as seen from the northwest (i.e. from Bromley High Street)


Figure 2: How Memorial Gateway, High Street, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)


Figure 3: How Memorial Gateway, High Street, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

It would seem likely that Reverend How presided over the Holy Matrimony of Mr. & Mrs. William Bury.


St. Mary's Church (The Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard)

Another 'St. Mary's Church' stood a mere 350 yards to the northwest; quite literally in the middle of Bow Road, Parish of St. Mary Stratford Bow.


Figure 4: Parish Church of St. Mary Stratford Bow (Click to View in flickr)


Figure 5: Parish Church of St. Mary Stratford Bow (Click to View in flickr)

Farther west, along Bow Road …


Figure 6: Vestry Hall (Bromley), Bow Road, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)


Vestry Hall (Bromley), Bow Road, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (left)

And immediately opposite …


Vestry Hall (Bow), Bow Road, Parish of St. Mary Stratford Bow (right)

To the immediate east of Bromley Vestry Hall …


Figure 7: Headquarters, Metropolitan Police Force, K Division ('Bow'), Bow Road, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

And to the immediate west of Bromley Vestry Hall …


Figure 8: The 'Bow Bells', Bow Road, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

I do not know when the pub came to be known as the 'Bow Bells'; but its name is obviously a play on the notion that the sound of 'Bow Bells' emanates from St. Mary's Church (Bow Road), rather than the Parish Church of St. Mary le Bow, Cheap Ward, City of London.

The confusion that this notion might have generated, is perhaps one of the reasons the term 'Cockney' has come to be used specifically in reference to 'East Enders', rather than all Londoners.

[Mr Chumley]

More chalk messages

i first read about him some time ago and would have gone for a 7 based on the information presented, but now i have given him a 3 and have similar views to Sam on this one

[johns]

No probs SB.

Here's a photo of Swaton Road I took a few years ago when I did my walk round Buryland and the Whitechapel area.

The park on the left is where Bury's house used to be.

Thanks for those photos SB. Hope you're well my man.

I am, John. And I hope you are doing well.

My apologies for not getting these photos posted any sooner. It has been, after all, the better part of two years since I took them.

I guess I mistakenly Bury-ed them.

[Sam Flynn]

One of the reasons I leapt on Bury so whole-heartedly because he's the kind of suspect I would expect the criminal to be (i.e. no great conspiracy's, or many accomplices acting together, just a loner lashing out at innocent women).

I agree to an extent, Cubitt - in fact, I voted a "2" in the poll which, for me, is quite generous (I'm serious, too!). That said, Bury's offence was that of a domestic murder, which isn't quite the same as what Jack got up to (and I'm not being flippant). There have been many husbands or lovers who have strangled their wives - and quite a few who tried to make the murder look like it was someone else's fault, thoughts about which I'm sure Bury entertained at first, before handing himself in.

Whether he determined to make Ellen's death look like one of the Ripper's we can't know for certain, although a case could be made for the idea. If he did, then his attempt was pretty feeble, with a few pathetic "rips" of no appreciable depth or length, and some stab-wounds. Bearing in mind that this was "post-Kelly", and that Bury had all the time in the world at his disposal to completely dismantle his victim, his tentative pricking of Ellen's corpse was a pretty poor show.

[johns]

Thanks for those photos SB. Hope you're well my man.

I wish that I had managed to find time to perform the task I set myself 2 years ago when I met you at the Wolverhampton conference.

I had this idea of plotting all the pubs and butcher shops in the East End on a map. My plan never got off the ground due to this damn thing called "real life" and being "self-employed" working a gazillion hours a week just to stay afloat.

Not that it would have proved much I suppose but I was attempting to discover if the 2 largest users of Bury's wares (sawdust) tended to congregate round the Whitechapel area rather than Bury's area. Not that it would have proved much as I say... but it may have been interesting.

[Cubitt]

Please realize that I was not addressing what might have been specifically your misconception. Rather, I was addressing a very widely held misconception: That Bury's various 'East End' residences qualified him as a 'local'.

One consequence of this is that there would have been absolutely no need for Bury to venture so far as (West) Whitechapel in order to kill - there were plenty of debauched women on the streets of Bow and Poplar for him to target, had he truly been the Ripper.

You make some great points and the logic makes total sense to me. One of the reasons I leapt on Bury so whole-heartedly because he's the kind of suspect I would expect the criminal to be (i.e. no great conspiracy's, or many accomplices acting together, just a loner lashing out at innocent women).

If it wasn't Bury (and I realise it almost certainly wasn't) then I would expect the real killer to be someone like him, albeit much nearer to the Whitechapel area.

The other reason I liked the look of him was the manner in which he killed his wife. Did many domestic murders of the age involve this type of mutilation, does anyone know?

Btw, Septic Blue many thanks for the photos, they look great!

I simply say local in the sense that Mile End is "nearish" to Whitechapel (and closer than, say, Blackheath which was where Druitt lived at the time he was suspected of carrying out the murders).

I understand.

Please realize that I was not addressing what might have been specifically your misconception. Rather, I was addressing a very widely held misconception: That Bury's various 'East End' residences qualified him as a 'local'.

Some photographs of Bury's manor: The Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (October 2007)


Figure 1: Derelict Churchyard; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

Bury was married in St. Mary's Church, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard; which was built on the site of the medieval Chapel of St. Mary, on the grounds of the Priory of St. Leonard.



St. Mary's Church and its medieval foundations were destroyed during German bombing, in World War II.


Figure 2: Derelict Churchyard; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)


Figure 3: Derelict Churchyard; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)


Figure 4: Derelict Churchyard; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)


Figure 5: Derelict Churchyard; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

Approximately one third of St. Mary's Church stood in the immediate foreground (i.e. this side of the hedgerow); …


Figure 6: Blackwall Tunnel; Site of the Parish Church of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)

… while its remaining two thirds stood here (at an elevation of approximately six feet above the highway).


Figure 7: High Street, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard (Click to View in flickr)


Figure 8: 3 Spanby Road, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard ??? (Click to View in flickr)

Today's 3 Spanby Road, at its northern end / east side.


Figure 9: 3 Spanby Road, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard ??? (Click to View in flickr)

What I believe to have been 3 Spanby Road, Parish of Bromley St. Leonard, in 1888; at its southern end / east side (second door from the right).

[Sam Flynn]

Bear in mind also, Cubitt, that even being "near-ish", when seen in the context of the overcrowded East End, would mean a cushion of several tens of thousands of people between Bury and the Ripper's murder sites. One consequence of this is that there would have been absolutely no need for Bury to venture so far as (West) Whitechapel in order to kill - there were plenty of debauched women on the streets of Bow and Poplar for him to target, had he truly been the Ripper. Another consequence of the high population density of the East End is that someone bent on lawlessness didn't have to travel very far to achieve anonymity - and with Bury being a comparative newcomer to the district, this was even more true.

[Cubitt]

While 'accessibility' should certainly be a "requirement"; 'proximity' should not!

Good point!

There can be no justification for the suggestion that William Bury was 'local'.

My eyes! I'm dazzled by your data. I bow to your knowledge and reasoning on the subject.

I simply say local in the sense that Mile End is "nearish" to Whitechapel (and closer than, say, Blackheath which was where Druitt lived at the time he was suspected of carrying out the murders).

But frankly your reasoned logic and impressive diagrams knock my "nearish" arguement into a cocked hat!

[Sam Flynn]

Hi Sam, I see the word Stables twice on this 1873 map which is contained here on the site

Thanks for that, Roy - I wasn't aware of that map. Whether they were public stables - or, indeed, whether they were still used as such in 1888 - is another matter. Either way, the notion that Bury "might have" parked his pony there at dead of night is utterly conjectural, and applies equally whether said stables were in George Yard, Whitechapel Road or George Yard, Cable Street.