Favoured Suspects

[curious4]

The cost of a telegram in 1880 was a shilling for the first twenty words. One shilling in today's money would be worth about £5 or around 7 dollars. I don't think cost was a big issue when looking for Jack, but as GUT reminded me the postal service was amazing - I believe there were up to six deliveries per day.

C4

[Ben]

I apologise, didn't realise English was your second language. I said "freely", which doesn't mean free but widely used.

No, it doesn't.

It means without being controlled or limited, and one very good example of a limitation is having to pay high prices for each letter.

Anyway, meanwhile back on topic...

[curious4]

I apologise, didn't realise English was your second language. I said "freely", which doesn't mean free but widely used.

C4

[Ben]

Telegrams at the time were freely used for speedy communication. As emails are used today.

Actually - and if you'll forgive my "arrogance" in pointing this out - morse code wasn't "free" at all; it was very expensive. The 1888 police used ABC telegraphy, but it was much more time-consuming and quite unlike sending an email.

[GUT]

And mail delivery was wonderful.

[curious4]

Cheers Rosella!

I have spent the last forty odd years immersing myself in the period between roughly 1850 and 1950 reading books, diaries and letters in four languages from the point of view of what and how people thought and acted at the time. "The past is another country".

C4

[Rosella]

They were indeed. I've read a couple of diaries of the period where they were used to confirm directions for a tea party that day and that person's attendance at it, quite unimportant in comparison to investigating murder.

[curious4]

Very unlikely, C4.

I can't imagine the police would have spent money and resources trying to confirm one minor aspect of his story. Let's assume they sent the following telegram:

"Send officer Joe Bloggs & Sons High St Romford STOP check if Geo Hutchinson sought work there Thurs 8th inst STOP"

Lets further assume they miraculously received confirmation from Romford in time for Abberline to write his report on Hutchinson. What exactly would this achieved in terms of verifying his actual story, which centred around events not in Romford but in Spitalfields in the early morning of the 9th? Absolutely nothing.

If "casual work was available at the markets" from 4.00am onwards, it would tend to make a nonsense of his decision to visit Romford (where there were also markets) at all, let alone return from it in the small hours. He told the press that he "walked about all night" after abandoning his Dorset Street vigil; he didn't say anything about looking for work at the markets.

But you're right, it's getting rather Hutch-heavy over here, so I agree it's probably best to draw a veil over this topic for now.

All the best,
Ben

Telegrams at the time were freely used for speedy communication. As emails are used today. Perhaps if you knew a little more about the period you are writing about, you would be a a little less arrogant.

C4

[Ben]

The police accepted Hutchinson' s story, no doubt after checking with someone who had seen him there. A telegram to the nearest police station in Romford would do this, a local officer would be able to check this.

Very unlikely, C4.

I can't imagine the police would have spent money and resources trying to confirm one minor aspect of his story. Let's assume they sent the following telegram:

"Send officer Joe Bloggs & Sons High St Romford STOP check if Geo Hutchinson sought work there Thurs 8th inst STOP"

Lets further assume they miraculously received confirmation from Romford in time for Abberline to write his report on Hutchinson. What exactly would this achieved in terms of verifying his actual story, which centred around events not in Romford but in Spitalfields in the early morning of the 9th? Absolutely nothing.

If "casual work was available at the markets" from 4.00am onwards, it would tend to make a nonsense of his decision to visit Romford (where there were also markets) at all, let alone return from it in the small hours. He told the press that he "walked about all night" after abandoning his Dorset Street vigil; he didn't say anything about looking for work at the markets.

But you're right, it's getting rather Hutch-heavy over here, so I agree it's probably best to draw a veil over this topic for now.

All the best,
Ben

[wigngown]

I've always held the belief that Hutchinson gave a detailed description for no other reason than to remove himself from suspicion. Hutchinson was a fantasist, but not a murderer.

[GUT]

To me the leading fascinating figures are Druitt, D'Onston Stephenson, and Doc Tumblety. It's not a matter of whether or not they are the Ripper - their personalities intrigue me. And (in Montie's case) his demons. Aside from them, being a criminal historian, it is those killers like Chapman, Cream, Deeming, Bury, and Mary Pearcey who attract my attention -for their own crimes though).

Jeff

I must agree, I am fascinated by Druitt (my family knew his, certainly in Australia and with near certainty in England) and I was told when I was just a Nipper that people in our family knew "who dun it", so that fascination is probably understandable.

I find Deeming almost irresistible as a study in being a right Royal B.

And Doc, a real character.

We're any of them Jack? I doubt it, but at least two of them are, in my opinion as good a suspect as most thrown around here.

[Mayerling]

To me the leading fascinating figures are Druitt, D'Onston Stephenson, and Doc Tumblety. It's not a matter of whether or not they are the Ripper - their personalities intrigue me. And (in Montie's case) his demons. Aside from them, being a criminal historian, it is those killers like Chapman, Cream, Deeming, Bury, and Mary Pearcey who attract my attention -for their own crimes though).

Jeff

[Pcdunn]

Favorite suspects? Hmmm...

Who are peoples favoured suspects and why?

I always liked Druitt, but then I seem rather traditional, having started reading books in the 1980s and '90s. He's on the short list of the police authorities (along with Kos,of course), and they should be the ones to know more about the deaths.

Tumblety is a fascinating character, and the American papers loved writing about him, good or bad. he had plenty of problems and personality flaws, but I'm not sure he was a murdering type.

James Kelly's story is so bizarre, you've got to wonder if there is something to it. Why confess to all of these murders if he was innocent? (Besides the being crazy explanation, of course, which does weigh against his story...)

The Danish man named "Frank" who seems likely to be the real killer of Carrie "Old Shakespeare" Brown, may be worth following in the U.S. (if he didn't end up in South America), and I am trying to investigate the 1890s murders of prostitutes in Denver, CO. One account of a witness seeing someone put bloodied clothing into an outhouse is interesting, but I need to see if it is reported more than once.

[Abby Normal]

Possibly the police initially believed his story but then later started to feel he was another Pearly Poll.

exactly

[MsWeatherwax]

One of the many problems with witness statements in this case is that we are talking about a group of people who are extremely poor, and either destitute or one minor personal crisis away from destitution. Who could blame someone in that situation for saying that they'd seen a murder victim just before she died, or that they'd seen a suspicious character loitering near the place that she was found? If your story gets you a couple of drinks or a few pennies or whatever little bonus it might hold, then to these people it was probably worth telling.