Tweet
The Batty Street Lodger story is one of those interesting little ‘sides’ attached to the autumn of terror, the truth of which, based on the various different newspaper accounts, seems virtually impenetrable. If there is any truth in it, it seems that: ‘This man was said to have returned to his lodging at an early hour on the Sunday morning on which the Berner-street and Mitre-square murders were committed. His landlady was disturbed by his movements, and she noticed next morning that he had changed his clothes”.
He left behind a blood stained (soaked in some accounts) shirt. In some versions it seems the man was never traced, in others he was traced and released. Everything else sounds like a lot of hocus pocus to be honest. There is a very good and long account here: Mr's Kuer's Lodger (https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rip-kuer.html).
What follows is basically gratuitous, outrageous suspect-based speculation. Just an idea, not to be taken too seriously, before anyone goes bananas! The statements of Hastings are From Steve Earp's post here: http://williambury.org/blog6/2022/09...s-on-hastings/.
**********************************
When Norman Hastings spoke to detectives who had worked the Bury case, he uncovered some interesting information about where Bury was staying at the time of some of the murders. The wording of one of these statements allows for a lot of speculation:
But why think that Bury was using a lodging house in the first place?
So where was Bury for the some of the murders? The police found out where Bury was staying at the time of the Chapman murder, plus three others:
1- The police knew where Bury was staying at the time of the Chapman murder:
It seems highly unlikely the police knew where Bury stayed for Nicholls and one of the double event murders but not the other, as it is the same night, so the two other murders must be the Stride and Eddowes.
So the police knew where Bury stayed on the double event night – could ‘he absented himself from the house for that night in the most suspicious manner’ be a reference to Batty Street? Honestly, no idea, but Bury does seem to have had other addresses than Bow, and he could have been using lodging houses. Whatever the police were referring to with 'most suspicious manner' it must have been serious.
If it was thought he had the opportunity to commit the crimes, wherever these other addresses were must have been close to or even in Whitechapel. In thinking about Bury and the double event, it’s also useful to remember Bury was said to have had a ‘powerful chest’ (BS man?) and more importantly, Bury inflicted some deeply perverted injuries on his wife, virtually identical in nature to those found on Eddowes.
I suppose the lodger could have been Bury. Seems high risk though. The lodger story could also account for the GSG not being there on the first pass, but dropped after the lodger changed and left a bit later. Where would Bury have been going though – another house; to get his horse and cart and head home?
In terms of other ideas, I know there is theory of Tumblety. Unless I missed something on the Mr's Kuer's Lodger post, I can’t see how someone (possibly Tumblety) staying in a hotel in the west end relates to Batty Street.
Anyway, just an idea, not to be taken too seriously.
He left behind a blood stained (soaked in some accounts) shirt. In some versions it seems the man was never traced, in others he was traced and released. Everything else sounds like a lot of hocus pocus to be honest. There is a very good and long account here: Mr's Kuer's Lodger (https://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rip-kuer.html).
What follows is basically gratuitous, outrageous suspect-based speculation. Just an idea, not to be taken too seriously, before anyone goes bananas! The statements of Hastings are From Steve Earp's post here: http://williambury.org/blog6/2022/09...s-on-hastings/.
**********************************
When Norman Hastings spoke to detectives who had worked the Bury case, he uncovered some interesting information about where Bury was staying at the time of some of the murders. The wording of one of these statements allows for a lot of speculation:
- Scotland Yard learned that “on one occasion when he was definitely known to be staying in the East End at the time of a Ripper crime, he (Bury) had absented himself from the house for that night in the most suspicious manner”
But why think that Bury was using a lodging house in the first place?
- "Scotland Yard learned that after returning to London following his August 1888 trip to Wolverhampton, Bury “had apparently constantly changed his address and although the police were able to trace several of these, there were important gaps in his history which they were never able to fill.”
So where was Bury for the some of the murders? The police found out where Bury was staying at the time of the Chapman murder, plus three others:
- Scotland Yard knew where Bury was staying on the night of the Chapman murder, and “established where he had been staying on the nights of three other of the Whitechapel murders, and from the recollection of those who lived nearby, it was quite possible that he had the opportunity to commit them”.
1- The police knew where Bury was staying at the time of the Chapman murder:
- “The home of Bury in the East End at the time of the Hanbury Street murder was traced, and again it was ascertained that on that night Bury had kept away from his home, and his manner on his return home the next afternoon suggested a madman”.
- Scotland Yard “had established the fact that he was missing from his lodgings on the night that Marie Kelly was done to death in her home in Dorset Street”
- “his description was very like that of the man who had been speaking to the young woman Kelly on the night of the crime”
- Hastings states: ‘Bury did not return to his hometown of Wolverhampton, which took place in mid-August 1888, until “just after the time of the first Whitechapel murder, when he brought with him the woman he called his wife”
- Hastings wrote that “No one knew where he stayed in the East End prior to going to his new landlord’s home” (this is a reference to Spanby Road, where he moved on 11th August 1888).
It seems highly unlikely the police knew where Bury stayed for Nicholls and one of the double event murders but not the other, as it is the same night, so the two other murders must be the Stride and Eddowes.
So the police knew where Bury stayed on the double event night – could ‘he absented himself from the house for that night in the most suspicious manner’ be a reference to Batty Street? Honestly, no idea, but Bury does seem to have had other addresses than Bow, and he could have been using lodging houses. Whatever the police were referring to with 'most suspicious manner' it must have been serious.
If it was thought he had the opportunity to commit the crimes, wherever these other addresses were must have been close to or even in Whitechapel. In thinking about Bury and the double event, it’s also useful to remember Bury was said to have had a ‘powerful chest’ (BS man?) and more importantly, Bury inflicted some deeply perverted injuries on his wife, virtually identical in nature to those found on Eddowes.
I suppose the lodger could have been Bury. Seems high risk though. The lodger story could also account for the GSG not being there on the first pass, but dropped after the lodger changed and left a bit later. Where would Bury have been going though – another house; to get his horse and cart and head home?
In terms of other ideas, I know there is theory of Tumblety. Unless I missed something on the Mr's Kuer's Lodger post, I can’t see how someone (possibly Tumblety) staying in a hotel in the west end relates to Batty Street.
Anyway, just an idea, not to be taken too seriously.
Comment