Case Solved: it was Oscar Wilde!!

[Stephen Thomas]

And here it is:


The Bluegate Fields sequences in the 1945 movie were pretty neat as I remember.

And George Sanders' Oscar Wilde imitation too.

'In my experience, Madam, the husbands of beautiful women invariably belong to the criminal classes'.

[Stephen Thomas]

Ha! Yes, Wikipedia, not exactly faultless, is it? There is also this, with a link to 18th C map showing the areachance to overlay 1880 maps.

http://www.victorianlondon.org/districts/bluegate.htm

Thanks Claire and Simon

OK. Cable Street. Got it.

[claire]

Ha! Yes, Wikipedia, not exactly faultless, is it? There is also this, with a link to 18th C map showing the area...but I haven't had a chance to overlay 1880 maps.

http://www.victorianlondon.org/districts/bluegate.htm

[Simon Wood]

Hi Stephen,

Wikipedia tells us [so it's got to be true!] that "Bluegate Fields (also known as Blue Gate Fields) was one of the worst slum areas that once existed just north of the old, East London docks during the Victorian era. Two streets in the area had actually been named Bluegate Fields at different times – present-day Dellow St. (along the eastern edge of the St. George’s-in-the-East church yard) is one of them – Cable Street (along the northern edge of the church yard) is the other.

Regards,

Simon

[claire]

Yup, I'm not completely delusional!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluegate_Fields

[Stephen Thomas]

I think if she could be persuaded that Wilde's fingerprints could be found on the actual page of manuscript where he mentions Bluegate Fields, she'd be keen.

Was there a real Bluegate Fields, anybody?

[Robert]

Undoubtedly, the mystery solved. Wilde approached Eddowes and whispered in her ear, "One of us has got to go." Wilde decided that Kate, rather than himself, should be that person. Kate of course disagreed, and her dying words were, "I wish I'd said that."

[Fisherman]

Sorry guys, it was NOT Wilde. He was alive and kickin´ back in 1888, and since we are looking for a phantom, it could not have been him.

Henry Fielding, anybody..?

The best,
Fisherman

[claire]

I think if she could be persuaded that Wilde's fingerprints could be found on the actual page of manuscript where he mentions Bluegate Fields, she'd be keen.

[Moriarty]

I think you may be onto something here. Regarding the handbag quip, too, it is clear that Wilde was referring to the uterus, a clear allusion to the Ripper crimes.

I tell you something else very interesting, too. Did you notice that in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' Wilde does actually refer to the area around Whitechapel, when he mentions Gray visiting opium dens in Bluegate Fields? Bluegate Fields is absolutely in that vicinity. The fact that he couldn't bring himself to mention Whitechapel directly is very, very indicative of his guilt.

Do you want to call Patricia or shall I?

You think she might be prepared to front up a few quid for a DNA analysis of a Wilde first edition? That could be interesting....

[claire]

I think you may be onto something here. Regarding the handbag quip, too, it is clear that Wilde was referring to the uterus, a clear allusion to the Ripper crimes.

I tell you something else very interesting, too. Did you notice that in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' Wilde does actually refer to the area around Whitechapel, when he mentions Gray visiting opium dens in Bluegate Fields? Bluegate Fields is absolutely in that vicinity. The fact that he couldn't bring himself to mention Whitechapel directly is very, very indicative of his guilt.

Do you want to call Patricia or shall I?

[Moriarty]

The prima facie case against Wilde is a strong one.

(1) The Whitechapel Connection: there isn’t one. Wilde had no knowledge of the killing area. Nor had he lived there. Nor did he visit. This cultivated non-connection to the Whitechapel area would have provided the perfect cover. For many years it has been assumed that the killer would have actually had to have been present in the area in order to commit the crimes. This assumption is misconceived, as Wilde’s candidacy makes clear.

(2) Anatomical knowledge: it is now believed that the killer would have not required any rudimentary anatomical knowledge in order to commit the murders. Wilde had no anatomical knowledge whatsoever (not of the female type, at least). Thus here, too, he fits the profile perfectly.

(3) Literary clues: in his recent paper “Wilde About You: the taxonomy of Ripper motifs in the plays of Oscar Wilde” Professor Everard Snipe adumbrates a significant number of Ripper references in the Wilde plays (the complementarity with Walter Sickert is striking here). In particular he argues that the famous “handbag” quip in “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a reference to several witness reports of a distinguished gentleman carrying a black medicine bag at the time of the Whitechapel murders. As we have already seen, Wilde was never actually in Whitechapel, ever. We can conclude that the obvious Ripper reference is an example of Wildean humour.

(4) The motive: here we can only speculate. It is, however, quite possible to imagine Wilde sidling up to his victim’s and saying “I have nothing to declare except my genius” and, on being met with a blank stare, falling into a terrible homicidal rage. This will explain the somewhat lacklustre killing of Stride: it might well be that she at least was able to raise a smile, thus blunting the famous Wilde rage.

(5) Why did he stop? Wilde was notoriously thin skinned when it came to reviews. It is quite possible that he “took his ball home” after reading unsatisfactory newspaper accounts of his activities.

Taken individually there is no “killer fact” here. However, considered collectively the case against Wilde seems pretty strong.