Looking for Jack in a new place

[smezenen]

I have been visiting casebook for a little over a year now and have read almost everything here at least once.The more I read the more intrigued I get. It is my opinion that Jack only stopped killing becouse he got pinched for something else or he died.

Last evening just after reading thru a few of the suspect articles again, I was watching a History Channel program about Australia. part of the program was about Cockatoo Island and the prison built there in the late 1800's. that got me to thinking, Could Jack have been arrested for some other offense and possibly sent there. The telivision programm seemed to imply that alot of the prisoners sent to the Australian colony where actually sent there more for thier professional skills than for thier crimes with the belief that after release they would help build the colony.

So this morning I fired up the computer and started searching the internet for information about the prison. I discovered that from 1841 to the early 1900's prisoners where sent from England to Darlinghurst Gaol. I have tried to access the records for prisoners sent there from 1888 and after but to no luck. I did find an article by Philip Anthony Norrie Titled An Analysis of the Causes of Death in Darlinghurst Gaol 1867-1914 and the Fate of the Homeless in Nineteenth Century Sydney http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/1862 that sugests that some very good records where kept about the residents. It would be interesting to compare those records with census and arrest records from whitechaple. If anyone is in a position to investigate please feel free to take this information where it might lead.

[Nemo]

Hi Smezenen,

Interesting - but transportation as such was abolished in 1868

Most criminals transported to Australia arrived in the late 1700s and early 1800s

It is unlikely therefore that a Ripper candidate would have been sentenced to a stretch in an Australian prison from 1888 onwards

There are some suspects that have links with Australia. I see no reason why the Ripper may not have emigrated. In which case I would still expect him to commit further crimes and possibly show up un the Australian penal system.

However, this applies also to America, continental Europe and other countries - so the field of search is greatly expanded unless we have a clue to the person we are looking for.

[smezenen]

Hi Nemo,
Yep after a little more investigation it would seem that my theory is about 20 years off the mark. however I am still ofthe opinion that Mr. Jack got himself arrested for something else or died. In this day and age we know thru profiling of other more modern monsters that they dont just quit on their own. thanks for pointing me in the right direction on prisoner transfer policys.

[Celesta]

Hi Smezenen,

Australia seems to rear it's head on occasion, doesn't it? I think, in general, that your idea is not a bad one. In fact, people have been known to cruise the Old Bailey records, and such, for clues to JTR.

Welcome to the Casebook, by the way.

Best,

Cel