Morford the surgeon

[Craig H]

Sugden's book includes an interesting article from The Star (September 24) about a man called Morford who had been lodging at Great Ormond Street then mysteriously disappeared. Police interest was because a pawnbroker said Morford had pledged surgical instruments to him and his behaviour seemed odd.

Morford was described as a man who was trained as a surgeon but "lost standing in the community due to drink"

Sugden's research couldn't find a surgeon called Morford, but did find a John Orford, a Senior Resident Medical Officer at the Royal Free Hospital in
Gray's Inn Road (Medical Directory, 1888) which is close to Great Ormond Rd.

This is likely to be the John Orford born 1857 in Ipswich, Suffolk. Father was a barrister.

In 1881 Census, he is a student of medicine living at Lambeth. In 1891 Census, he is a medical practitioner inYork - not married. In 1901, he is now a surgeon. - still in Prontefact, York with wife Fanny Florence and daughter Florence.

It's curious why he pledged his surgical instruments. Was he having a tough time due to drink and had no money, or was he getting rid of knives he used in killings ?

[Rosella]

If he was struggling along on a intern/junior doctor's salary in 1888 maybe he'd got into financial difficulties. Living in London isn't cheap, then and now, and if he had a problem with drink that wouldn't have helped.

Couldn't Orford have just washed and cleaned the knives and kept on using them if he was Jack? If there were traces left, well, he was a doctor and it was a pre-forensic testing age. No-one knew what Jack's knives really looked like either, and it would have been a bit expensive to repurchase surgical knives.

Good to see he got married and continued as a surgeon when he got older. Perhaps he disappeared up to Yorkshire during the Ripper scare. He may have had relatives/friends up there and just wanted to get away and get his life back in order. If Orford was Jack he didn't repeat his behaviour in York (as far as we know!)

[Craig H]

Hi Rosella

Here's the link to the article "Is it a Clue" from The Star newspaper.

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/star/s880924.html

I think what made the police suspicious - and why they did a search trying to find "Morford" - is he left his lodging which was booked to later in September, the Pawnbroker who took his surgical instruments thought his behaviour seemed strange, and there was a belief at the time that the killer could have been a doctor or someone with surgical knowledge.

Craig