William Magrath

[Tom_Wescott]

Did Tumblety know every Irish American? Is there any indication these men knew each other or ran in the same circle? And how would that make Magrath a 'suspect' as opposed to a character witness or informant if Tumblety was the true suspect?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Jonathan H]

Because he was Irish, American, and knew Tumblety.

[Chris]

Here is an obituary of William Magrath that appeared in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 2nd series vol. 24, pp. 45-47 (1918). It was accompanied by a photograph of him in old age. As soon as I have a presentable copy of that, I'll post it.

[Chris]

I have put together a page in the wiki section on William Magrath (1838-1918), the Irish-American artist "said to be connected to Whitechapel murders" in the Chief Constable's Register which was among the Special Branch records concerning which Simon Wood started a thread recently:

http://wiki.casebook.org/index.php/William_Magrath

I should make it clear that much of the information included in the wiki page was discovered by Debra Arif, who has been generous enough to share it with me.

To be fair to the memory of William Magrath, I should also make it clear that to all appearances he is shaping up to be perhaps the most unlikely Ripper suspect since Lewis Carroll. But as a corollary of that, it would be fascinating to know why it would ever have entered anyone's mind that he could have been connected with the murders.