We have him...

[Mike Covell]

How about this one, Western Mail, dated Friday Feb 26th 1892

[m_w_r]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the useful link. I think the interesting thing is that the Belgian, whoever he was, was meant to have been convicted in about October 1891; the Western Mail, however, has a very similar sort of story a clear eight months before that. The "imprisoned for another offence" and "chain of evidence nearly complete" aspects of both stories certainly match, and it's almost as if the police were bouncing optimistically from one suspect to another, post-conviction for separate offences, with each new individual more suspicious than the last ... it seems that the press might have thought so, anyway.

Regards,

Mark

[Mike Covell]

Thanks Chris and Mark. Howard Brown and Debra Arif have found the original report published in the Belfast News Letter dated March 28th 1892 here, http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread....ed=1#post90819

[m_w_r]

Hi Mike,

This is interesting stuff. In the 1901 census, there is one inmate in Portland Prison who was born in Belgium - one John Turner, a British subject, according to the enumerator. Of course, it's quite possible that the Belgian in the newspaper report you posted could have been moved to another prison in the intervening years.

You might be interested in this clipping, from the Western Mail, 14 February 1891.



Regards,

Mark

[Chris]

According to the 1901 census there was at that time only one convict of Belgian birth in Portland Prison: a John Turner, married, aged 53, Sawyer (Wood), born Belgium (British Subject) [RG 13/1997, f. 112v].

[Mike Covell]

Thanks Phil, just looked at the official HM Prisons page for the prison.

http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/prisoninformation/locateaprison/prison.asp?id=630,15,2,15,630,0

Here is the wiki for the prison,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_(HM_Prison)

Notable former inmates....Roy Chubby Brown!

[Phil Carter]

Mike,

and another lot..

here's the link needed I think..

http://www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/resourcecentre/research/

best wishes

Phil

[Phil Carter]

Good thinking Phil, at least the article gives us a rough date of imprisonment, nationality and the crime he was committed for. Shouldn't be too hard to find him.

Mike, just a background snippet to start with..

Portland Prison opened in 1848 and held convict adults. It was from here in 1855, that 80 convicts were transported on the ship William Hammond to Western Australia. The prison also held a number of high profile Irish Republican prisoners. In 1921 Portland was converted into a Borstal and in 1988 Portland was re-rolled as a Young Offenders Institution, and has held young males aged 18 to 21 ever since.

best wishes

Phil

[Mike Covell]

National Archives has the records for Portland Prison.

[Mike Covell]

Good thinking Phil, at least the article gives us a rough date of imprisonment, nationality and the crime he was committed for. Shouldn't be too hard to find him.

[Phil Carter]

Cheers Chris, wonder who it was that they had.

Mike,


Very Interesting indeed.
It would be REALLY interesting if this person is listed within the missing suspects file. However, I digress.

1) What do we know of Portland prison records.Find name, age, length of attendance at prison etc etc.
2) Has this Belgian previous? Can this Belgian's previous crimes be traced?


Ive left out masses of the obvious of course... but it seems to me that Portland prison records are to be sorted through. Pronto.

best wishes

Phil

[lynn cates]

Belgian

Hello Belinda. Zeese feverish speculations, zey will not do.

The best.
LC

[belinda]

That's very interesting Mike. A Belgian?

That'll set the little grey cells working

[Mike Covell]

Cheers Chris, wonder who it was that they had.

[Chris]

The following article appeared in the Hull and North Lincolnshire Times on April 2nd 1892. The article looks at Deeming, but then makes an unusual claim....

That's interesting. The same story shows up around this time in a couple of the New Zealand newspapers covered by Google News Archive Search, but with less detail than given above:

Inangahua Times, 31 March 1892

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=IT18920331.2.5

Colonist, 2 April 1892

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TC18920402.2.10