William Magrath

[Chris]

But are we 100% sure that William Magrath the artist and William McGrath the suspect are one and the same?

Well, nothing in this life can be 100% certain. But I don't think there can really be any doubt that they are one and the same.

Although perhaps I'm biased. Having speculated - on the basis that 57 Bedford Gardens was inhabited by artists - that "William McGrath" of 57 Bedford Gardens might have been William Magrath the artist, I took the successive discoveries (1) that William Magrath was indeed in the British Isles in late 1888, and (2) that William Magrath was actually at that precise address in late 1888, as convincing confirmation of that identification.

So far, such indications as there are seem to be that Magrath was an Irish nationalist of a rather sentimental kind. Perhaps that, in combination with his frequent journeys between the USA, London and Ireland, would have been enough to arouse the interest of Special Branch. We can only try to find out more.

[Tom_Wescott]

Great pics, Chris. It really gets the imagination going.

As for Magrath, I personally don't think there was an association with Tumblety. Many men could have been associated with Tumblety so what makes him so special?

There were two lines about him, one calling him 'suspicious' and the other associating him with the Whitechapel murders. So it seems to me he had personally done something to make himself 'suspicious', though not necessarily of murder. The Whitechapel murder suspicion might have come about as a result of investigation into the first. So could this be the leader of a plot to assassinate Balfour?

The earliest explanation for this is (once again) Tumblety, but that simply doesn't wash. I think Hainsworth's recent explanation is crazy enough that it might very well be the truth. A brilliant piece of work on Jonathan's part. As much as I want to be convinced by Hainsworth's explanation, something tells me that Magrath MIGHT fit into this mould as well.

But are we 100% sure that William Magrath the artist and William McGrath the suspect are one and the same?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Chris]

Here are a couple of snaps of the former 57 Bedford Gardens (now numbers 77-79), where William Magrath had a studio in late 1888.

F. H. W. Sheppard, ed., The Survey of London, vol. 37, p. 80 (1973) (available at British History Online), says of this building, "Of the later houses, the most interesting is No. 77, which was built in 1882–3 by Perry and Company of Bow to the designs of R. Stark Wilkinson to contain ten studios, some with living quarters attached."

Comparison of the Post Office Directories for 1916 and 1917 confirms that the number of the house was then changed from 57 to 77.

[Edit: Obviously the white house to the left also contained artists' studios, though on a smaller scale than number 57.]

[mariab]

Jonathan H wrote:
We may simply be underestimating the agitation and enmity felt by Anglican English towards anybody foreign, Catholic, Irish, and Irish-American, or all of the above.
Very-very well said. And I also totally agree with this:
Tom Wescott wrote:
Sickert's not connected with the case. He's connected with the lore of Jack the Ripper.

[B]Jonathan H wrote:Walter Sickert [a painting of his hangs here in the Adelaide Art Gallery] was fascinated with the Ripper murders, and told a party-piece story about lodging in the killer's rooms. A tale, I think, lifted from the 1911 novel 'the Lodger'.
This is a tale many a landlady would have told to impress her lodger in the 1890s. There's a painting by Sickert featuring his own bedroom called Jack the Ripper's room. There's also an excellent essay by Wolf Vanderlinden on casebook discussing Walther Sickert's art and the authors who have suspected him, including Patricia Cornwell, who was everything but the first. http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-artofmurder.html
Donald McCormick in The Identity of Jack the Ripper (in the 1970 reprint of the book) was the first author to discuss Sickert as a suspect, as documented by Stephen Knight in Jack the Ripper: The final solution (1976), followed by Jean Overton Fuller in Sickert and the Ripper crimes (1990).

[B]Jonathan H wrote:I suspect Sickert's ghost adores the delusional slander created by Patricia Cornwell. She should have done it as a work of fiction, at which she is very proficient, rather than as an over-reaching work of balderdash. All those millions expended, and yet she does not even know that Abberline, whom she reveres, chose Chapman as the Fiend?!
Cornwell (who used to be a very good fiction writer for thrillers such as her Scarpetta series, especially the early ones, before the books become serialized) has clearly broken through open doors here. Her sad attempt at scholarship bordering on the slanderous, her lack of experience, sloppyness and manipulation of the facts/results that didn't fit her theory, all make perfect sense when one considers her curriculum. She grew up “white trash“ in North Carolina, aspired to be adopted by Ruth Graham, was so impressed by her college professor that she married him (briefly) at 17, she worked as an intern in a morgue and volunteered at a police station. Then she writes Postmortem, gets rich too quickly through her early Scarpetta books, starts modelling herself after her formidable heroine, gets done I don't know how many face jobs, starts buying spots on the boards of forensic institutions, and she's starting to believe she's the great Kay Scarpetta herself. Wishes to conduct forensic investigation for real, finds a girlfriend who has a PhD from Harvard Medical School, oops, now she wants to solve the Ripper case and to be granted membership into the Harvard private club. I almost feel for the woman, and I can kinda see how it happened this way...!
Best regards,
Maria

[Chris]

I must admit I hadn't realised that Thomas Moore's lyric, "The harp that once through Tara's Hall," which according to the obituary posted above provided the inspiration for Magrath's "great work," can be read as a very powerful statement of Irish nationalism. The "national aspirations," in the event of whose realisation an admirer wished to adorn a historic building with Magrath's painting, must refer to Irish independence.

The harp that once through Tara's Hall
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's wall
As if that soul were fled.
So sleeps the pride of former days
So glory's thrill is o'er
And hearts that once beat high for praise
Now feel that pulse no more.

No more to chiefs and ladies bright,
The harp of Tara swells;
The chord alone, that breaks at night,
Its tale of ruin tells.
Thus freedom now so seldom wakes,
The only throb she gives
Is when some heart indignant breaks,
To show that still she lives.

http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/eire/taraharp.htm

[Jonathan H]

To Tom

Yes, that is what I was getting at, mate.

That it might be that somebody simply acquainted with Tumbelty, a flamboyant faker who seem to have pushily mixed with writers and other hoi poloi, and so Magrath's name -- probably quite innocently -- ended up being noted in a file, instantly forgotten.

Does not mean for a moment that Tumblety was the Ripper.

We may simply be underestimating the agitation and enmity felt by Anglican English towards anybody foreign, Catholic, Irish, and Irish-American, or all of the above.

As in, they are all swine, all in it together to undermine Her Majesty's realm, against whom there were a number of assassination attempts despite her reclusive, all-in-black, life-style following Prince Albert's premature demise.

Walter Sickert [a painting of his hangs here in the Adelaide Art Gallery] was fascinated with the Ripper murders, and told a party-piece story about lodging in the killer's rooms. A tale, I think, lifted from the 1911 novel 'the Lodger'.

I suspect Sickert's ghost adores the delusional slander created by Patricia Cornwall. She should have done it as a work of fiction, at which she is very proficient, rather than as an over-reaching work of balderdash. All those millions expended, and yet she does not even know that Abberline, whom she reveres, chose Chapman as the Fiend?!

[Phil Carter]

Hello Chris,

Yes, I agree, "connected to" suggests, to me, one of these things...

1) That the name(s) of the suspected perpetrator(s) is/are already known, and he is connected in some way to them.

2) The methodology surrounding the perpetrators around the crimes is already known, and he is connected to it.

3) That he has been seen, stopped or questioned in the area at the time in connection with the murders.

4) That he is a witness, connecting him to the murders, and has given evidence.

5) That he is known to be connected to a known specific suspect.

6) That his movements at the time caused the connection.

All very intruiging. "Connected to the Whitechapel murders" can mean many a thing. We can only wait and see if there is any further evidence, more specific.

best wishes

Phil

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Spy. Sickert's not connected with the case. He's connected with the lore of Jack the Ripper, but that all came about decades later.

Anyway, there was a suspect described who was taken to an asylum and produced excellent pencil sketches. Thomas Toughill suggested this was his suspect, Frank Miles, but maybe it was Magrath?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[spyglass]

Tom,
I dont know much about art, but I know what I like.
I was assuming that he was fairly famous, but will admit I had problems trying to find much info on him on the net.
As for Sickert, I think you know where I was coming from with that, you cant say he is'nt linked with the case ( again with gritted teeth )

Oh those conspiracey theories again, I just cant let them go!

[Chris]

Regarding my last post, I just re-read what the Special Branch registers had to see and I see where JH is coming from. They don't actually name him as a suspect per se, but as someone 'connected to the Whitechapel murders.'

It is quite an odd phrase to use, isn't it? It makes me wonder in what way someone could be suspected of being "connected" to the murders, rather than simply of being the murderer.

[Tom_Wescott]

Would you consider Magrath a 'famous artist'? I wouldn't. And in any event, Sickert has no attachment to the Ripper case. He was never a Ripper suspect and he did not suspect a fellow artist of being the Ripper, so I don't see how any sore of acquaintance between the two would be of significance to us.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[spyglass]

Hi Tom,
But there are Artists, and there are famous artists. I would'nt mind betting the latter type had various meeting places.
I think it would be worth a tenner on 50 to 1 shot.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Spy. I don't see why. The London area was literally swarming with artists, good bad and indifferent, so I see no reason to assume these two men would have known each other.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[spyglass]

Hi all,

One thing for certain or at least very likely ( and I say this through gritted teeth whilst wincing ) A good chance he would have known or at least met a
certain Mr Sickett...yes ?....No ?

[Tom_Wescott]

Regarding my last post, I just re-read what the Special Branch registers had to see and I see where JH is coming from. They don't actually name him as a suspect per se, but as someone 'connected to the Whitechapel murders.'

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott