Broadmoor Archives finally open

[Stephen Thomas]

From the Sun articles Feb 16th 1894

The man's eyes had a morbid fascination for me......dull, vacant, unconscious of life or care or hope. They were not ferocious but simply stolid, like the glass eyes of a wax figure. They implied to me that in such a man all actions were possible, that to their owner it was as simple a thing to put a knife upon a human throat as upon a piece of thick twist tobacco. As we gazed at him we wondered whether awful visions of the past did not at times flit across his brain and twinge with horror that impassive face - visions of squalid, ill lighted streets and alleys, with draggle haired women, of whispered consultations, of sudden stabbing and hacking at palpitating bodies, of hair breadth escapes from capture, and mad races for life through the darkness

I suppose a photo would be too much to expect.

[Robert]

Stephen, we do know that THC's appearance seems to have been odd - one report describes it as "terrible" and another as "very singular." He was I think born in 1865, but his birth cert, which I have somewhere, would confirm that.

The White sighting hasn't won favour with Ripperologists in general. Lawende's sighting seems the best bet to me.

Nats, he may have reacted against the female upbringing he received, though we should remember that his grandad was alive for part of his childhood.

And of course in the background lurks "Uncle" Charles. Would there have been seaside excursions for candy floss, ice cream and gull shooting?

[Captain Hook]

Cutbush's language

'At times he was found talking in a language known only to him and would become violent if his books were taken away.'

Thomas thought he had a direct line to God, so he spoke in tongues that only God would understand... he knew his bible.
He was 'chosen'.
I imagine he spoke 'Yiddish'.

Hello A P,

You may be right that Thomas Cutbush spoke in tongues that he thought only God would understand and that he knew his Bible. But I don't believe he would have spoken "Yiddish" - a comment I understand to refer to an imaginary language he thought was Yiddish. If anything, Cutbush would have spoken "Hebrew", if he was confining his interest to the Old Testament, or "Greek", if he included the New Testament. No part of the Bible was written in Yiddish and Jews have always used Hebrew in matters of religion.

All the best,
Hook

[Cap'n Jack]

Yes, sorry about that Hook, I had an Anderson moment where I blamed the Yids for everything; but I have since taken a Macnaghten and now blame the Poles, Russians and young gay barristers.

[The Grave Maurice]

Here's a news blurb about this that appeared today. It doesn't add a lot of info, but there's a nice picture.

[Robert]

Of course, Thomas didn't kill Miss Johnson.

I wonder whether Dadd was a Daddaist artist.

[Stephen Thomas]

I suppose that the bottom line is that we shall see what we will see on this one.

[Jeff Leahy]

Yes hopefully very soon...if you were looking at the files, what questions would you wish answered? looked at?

[Robert]

Bottom line? Jobbing? Tsk, tsk, Stephen.

[Cap'n Jack]

It is of abiding interest that Thomas was able to change the old saying 'don't bite the hand that feeds you' to that of 'don't bite the face that feeds you'.
He's beginning to sound like Hannibel Electroplate... and young boys too.
That bloke Kraft Cheese-Slices wud ave a right toastie with im; e bit his mum's face cos he subbed his tongue for is tonge and er left nostril was er babybox.
Colin Wilson reckons the interview room was a vagina, and the corridor outside a bloody great penis.
I reckon he hated the procreative powers of his mother.

[Sam Flynn]

I reckon [Colin Wilson] hated the procreative powers of his mother.

...at last, AP, we find something on which you and Mr Wilson might agree

[Vigilantee]

Hello again folks. Well it looks like we got him, I change my position, Cutbush seems the most likely suspect. now even more than my old suspect Mr Cohen.

Perhaps the limp is what caused one suspect to be regarded as drunk that time, though I'd have to review my earlier posts on that. Just shows how new evidence can change the entire picture.

As for Mr S, I still don't buy any toff wandering around in Whitechapel at night theories, far too dangerous.

[Vigilantee]

And if Cutbush was the rozzer's nephew does this mean we have to consider a slighly more plausible masonic cover up??

I like the idea of everyone having a tiny bit of the truth

[Robert]

Hi Vigilantee

Thomas is my favourite suspect, but I'm blowed if I can see how he could possibly have been Supt Cutbush's nephew. I wish he had been, but he wasn't.

However, this may be beside the point, for Macnaghten seems to have believed that he was, and if other high ranking officers agreed with Macnaghten, then the motive for a cover-up is certainly available.

I'm jiggered if I can see why they thought he was his nephew, though. Swanson lived not far from Supt Cutbush, and I've an idea one or two other top officers did too. All they needed to do was trot round to his house, ring his doorbell and ask.

[Cap'n Jack]

Robert, what say you to his 'dark' complexion?
In view of the fact that he never saw the sun, and was a good white protestant.