Broadmoor Archives finally open

[brummie]

Thanks Natalie for the info on paranoid schizophrenia, certainly a plausible explanation. From the posts on this thread it would seem to have been established that Thomas Cutbush was not in fact nephew of police officer Cutbush, is this the case and he had no connection at all or was a different form of relative? In the Sun report it mentions the possibility of incidents at work indicating a mental disorder: "we can give the names of his employers, their places of business, the terms of his service there, and the incidents of his
connection with them - incidents which clearly show that he was in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel at the time when the
murders were committed; that he developed tendencies even in his employment of homicidal insanity; " Do we have any knowledge of what his employment was, I understand he was a clerk, and what these incidents at work might have been?

[Cap'n Jack]

True, Robert, but he certainly left some family behind him.
The father fathered many sons
and his true son fathered none
that soap in sud
or worm in bud.

I think his skin condition might have been related to his unusual eye colour. I think this is why he is described as 'singular'.

[Robert]

Hi AP

Yes, ten bob sounds a lot.

Re TTC, they'd have had to kill Thomas for him to be with his dad, for TTC died in 1886.

It's all very strange.

[Cap'n Jack]

Robert, if you gave 10 shillings in 1891 to someone to get to Margate in Kent, how far would they get?
And what good would it do them if they were on the run from the police?
They would get a lot farther away than Margate, Kent, on ten bob.
And it wouldn't do them any good at all if they only got to Margate, Kent, for the Met commonly went down to Margate in that year to arrest criminal suspects.
Why should Thomas have written when he was at Margate, for more money?
It was only an hour away by train.
Tom's mother says she shall come down to Margate, but Margate is not down from London, it is across from London.
Was the plan to send Thomas to Margate, in Queensland, Australia, to be with his father, Thomas Taylor?

[Robert]

Maybe, Nats. Still, you'd have thought at some point someone would have had a word with Supt Cutbush.

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Robert,
Perhaps Thomas wrote to certain members of Scotland Yard about his "uncle"----you know in the vein of "Watch out,my dad"s a policeman ,too".He may have been a close enough family member to assert he was his uncle---maybe a first cousin once removed for example.

[Robert]

That's the weird thing, Nats. How did Macnaghten get the idea that he was the uncle of THC?

Of course, if he was somehow related, that might help to explain the "hereditary" comment on Thomas's insanity - provided that Supt Cutbush was manifesting signs of mental instability as early as spring /summer 1891. He did of course develop a persecution complex, but how much of this was down to his headaches, is difficult to gauge.

[Natalie Severn]

Yes Nats, I have his record somewhere too. Just the one scar, wasn't it?

Certainly in the spring/summer of 1891, Supt Cutbush was probably feeling rather unwell, as he retired owing to ill health a little later in the year. He might have been down in Margate. I think there was some sort of sea bathing home there, but I don't know when it opened.

Correct Robert,
He had "knife wounds" on his right thigh.That is the exact wording.His height,like Thomas Cutbush"s was 5ft 9 1/2 ins,and he was born in Ashford ,Kent.He lived near Abberline latterly in Stockwell----quite nearby Swanson too.

[Robert]

Yes Nats, I have his record somewhere too. Just the one scar, wasn't it?

Certainly in the spring/summer of 1891, Supt Cutbush was probably feeling rather unwell, as he retired owing to ill health a little later in the year. He might have been down in Margate. I think there was some sort of sea bathing home there, but I don't know when it opened.

[Natalie Severn]

The evidence certainly seems to be stacking up against Cutbush, but one thing I'm having trouble getting my head around is I understand Cutbush was committed in 1891 while Mary Kelly was killed in 1888. I find it hard to believe that the maniac who so horribly murdered those women in 1888, including completely butchering MJK, was so sated by the act he did nothing for 2 years. Is this possible? I'm no expert on the criminally insane perhaps other members know of other cases where this has happened.

If Thomas Cutbush suffered from paranoid schizophrenia then there is no contradiction whatsoever,Brummie.The illness isnt one that builds up into one volcanic eruption as you imply, but happens in episodes.These episodes can vary in intensity according to the opportunities that present themselves such as the perfect opportunity the killer had to murder and mutilate Mary Kelly in Millers Court and they can vary because a paranoid schizophrenic killer often believes he is under a command from God to destroy the person.If,for example, his particular delusion happens to be that God wishes him to kill and destroy the inner -and outer-reproductive organs of prostitutes, -because therein lies the seat of all evil,so he thinks-then he will seek to do so until,and probably only until , he ceases to "hear" the command from God as he thinks----but which will happen as he surfaces into remission from the particular episode of psychosis he has experienced.The next violent episode of psychosis could be one where he believes God is instructing him to stab women in the buttocks
-because,for example, women have been wearing "fake buttocks' or "bustles" to provoke and allure unsuspecting men in the streets.
In between all this he could be dwelling on the bible and sins of the world from which he gets his "promptings".

AP and Robert,
Do you remember me going to the Kew Record office and finding in the Mepo files Supt. Charles Cutbush"s records? Do you remember there were those notes saying he had knife scars down below?

[Robert]

AP, I should think there was someone there. As far as I know, Uncle Charles had no links with Margate - Dover, yes.

Michael, I don't know. "Blotchy" suggests booze to me, rather than acne.

Hi all,

Was the word blotchy ever associated with severe acne....in the same way you Brits have referred to the condition as having "spots", or "spotty'?

Best regards all.

[Cap'n Jack]

Sorry Robert, it was Margate rather than Clacton.
His mother gave him 10 shillings to go there, promising to either join him there or send more money once he established.
One wonders whether the family had some kind of arrangement, or even a relative, in Margate, where his behaviour could be more strictly controlled?
Perhaps even some kind of Seaside Home, under the eye of a watchful uncle?
Better still if that uncle was a senior policeman, eh?

[Robert]

AP, that would provide a nice explanation, should we ever manage to trace such a stay in a home. He might perhaps have recovered sufficiently to be released, and then, as the illness took hold again, he started again at the bottom, if you'll forgive the expression.

Playing devil's advocate, though, if THC was the Ripper he would likely have made remarks which would have caused the home's owners to alert the authorities.

It's all very difficult.

I noticed on the site that published a few snippets of the records (to which I won't return because it apparently has a virus) that the insanity was attributed to "over study" AND heredity factors. One wonders again about Thomas Taylor Cutbush. He doesn't seem to have been insane - he contracted two bigamous marriages, fathered four children and seems to have made money - but I think there were one or two press reports in which he is said to have been cruel to his family while in England. Maybe he had a dark side.

[Mike Covell]

Did anyone see a feature on TV about skin tourism. Apparently there is a spar in Turkey where you lay in a pool and tiny fish eat the dead skin off your body...It is apparently the best cure for Sarriasis (sorry cant spell this word) However man eating fish are apparently the cure..

No i'm not making this up

Pirate

There is a lake in Wales with fish that nibble the dead skin off your toes possibly at Pavey Ark.