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There's a young man here who might warrant a second look.
Initially I'd ruled him out owing to the fact that he seemed to be elsewhere at the time of the murders, however, diligent research by somebody better than me at such things might prove otherwise, then again it might not.
Sampson Silas Salmon was executed in 19th. February 1901 at Newate for cutting the throat of Lucy Smith in her home at Bow, nearly severing the head. Link to case below:
Apart from the similarities in the crime (noting also the differences), I was attracted to Salmon for the following resons:
1) The Tabram killing may have been comitted by a soldier (P.C. Barret states a private of the guards age 22-26 height 5ft 9-10 no medals, one good conduct badge, Connely describes a private of the guuards but later believes him to be a private of the Coldstream Guards)
At the time of this event Salmon was a 5ft 8in tall 21 year old private of the RMLI with one good conduct badge and no medals
2) The FBI profile on JTR suggests a deprived upbringing, a tendency to violence when drunk and the possibility of infection with syphilis (noting here the limits of profiling as an investigative tool)
Salmon ticks all of these boxes
In the light of the above we may have a subject worthy of further investigation; the key question must be: Where was Salmon on the nights of the cannonical murders:
Service records indicate that between 6th April and 7th November 1888 he was aboard HMS Duke of Wellington, then a supply ship in Plymouth - this should catagorically rule him out,but :-
During this period of service he was DSQ (Discharged to Sick Quaters), there is a slim possibilty that such discharge would have been to either the marine infirmary at Woolwich or the Royal Herbert Hospital, which would place him fairly close at the time.
Another seemingly fatal flaw would be that he appears to have returned to Chatham on 8th November 1888 ruling him out for the MJK murder.
Having turned up the above I had given up on this suspect until a recent conversation with a friend who is a fairly competent amateur geneologist. She suggests that military service records were often simplified (she used another term which I won't repeat here) due to the obligation to show continuous service and it was quite concievable for a marine to be sent from his ship to a hospital and from there either to another ship or back to barracks with the time spent in hospital not being shown in the record.
The unlikley story therefore follows that Salmon was DSQ to London sometime before the Tabram murder, was then a patient there (Most patients were not at this time confined to bed) returning to Chatham after the MJK murder the dates simply being glossed over by a clerk somewhere. Personally I don't buy it and as I write it down it seems even more absurd. But if somebody out there can shed some light on 1888 military venereal medicine and perhaps obtain some medical records of this 'suspect' they might hit an unlikley jackpot.
Personally I've had enough of Sampson Silas Salmon so there's a few other chaps I'll be looking at:
The Manzi Brothers (Charles and Joseph) - The firestarters of Butcher Row
PC George Samuel Cooke - the wife murderer
Albert Laermans - The fake doctor and abortionist
William Anthony - Whitechapels serial arsonist
If anybody knows about these individuals to count them in or out let me know.
One more thing. If pigs do indeed fly and Salmon is Jack - You heard it here first
Initially I'd ruled him out owing to the fact that he seemed to be elsewhere at the time of the murders, however, diligent research by somebody better than me at such things might prove otherwise, then again it might not.
Sampson Silas Salmon was executed in 19th. February 1901 at Newate for cutting the throat of Lucy Smith in her home at Bow, nearly severing the head. Link to case below:
Apart from the similarities in the crime (noting also the differences), I was attracted to Salmon for the following resons:
1) The Tabram killing may have been comitted by a soldier (P.C. Barret states a private of the guards age 22-26 height 5ft 9-10 no medals, one good conduct badge, Connely describes a private of the guuards but later believes him to be a private of the Coldstream Guards)
At the time of this event Salmon was a 5ft 8in tall 21 year old private of the RMLI with one good conduct badge and no medals
2) The FBI profile on JTR suggests a deprived upbringing, a tendency to violence when drunk and the possibility of infection with syphilis (noting here the limits of profiling as an investigative tool)
Salmon ticks all of these boxes
In the light of the above we may have a subject worthy of further investigation; the key question must be: Where was Salmon on the nights of the cannonical murders:
Service records indicate that between 6th April and 7th November 1888 he was aboard HMS Duke of Wellington, then a supply ship in Plymouth - this should catagorically rule him out,but :-
During this period of service he was DSQ (Discharged to Sick Quaters), there is a slim possibilty that such discharge would have been to either the marine infirmary at Woolwich or the Royal Herbert Hospital, which would place him fairly close at the time.
Another seemingly fatal flaw would be that he appears to have returned to Chatham on 8th November 1888 ruling him out for the MJK murder.
Having turned up the above I had given up on this suspect until a recent conversation with a friend who is a fairly competent amateur geneologist. She suggests that military service records were often simplified (she used another term which I won't repeat here) due to the obligation to show continuous service and it was quite concievable for a marine to be sent from his ship to a hospital and from there either to another ship or back to barracks with the time spent in hospital not being shown in the record.
The unlikley story therefore follows that Salmon was DSQ to London sometime before the Tabram murder, was then a patient there (Most patients were not at this time confined to bed) returning to Chatham after the MJK murder the dates simply being glossed over by a clerk somewhere. Personally I don't buy it and as I write it down it seems even more absurd. But if somebody out there can shed some light on 1888 military venereal medicine and perhaps obtain some medical records of this 'suspect' they might hit an unlikley jackpot.
Personally I've had enough of Sampson Silas Salmon so there's a few other chaps I'll be looking at:
The Manzi Brothers (Charles and Joseph) - The firestarters of Butcher Row
PC George Samuel Cooke - the wife murderer
Albert Laermans - The fake doctor and abortionist
William Anthony - Whitechapels serial arsonist
If anybody knows about these individuals to count them in or out let me know.
One more thing. If pigs do indeed fly and Salmon is Jack - You heard it here first
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