Kansas Physician Confirms Howard Report

[Nemo]

Hi Tradename

I've only just found and skimmed over this thread - I'll read it in full later

I was particularly interested in the Winslow interview in your last post

As for Dr Howard reports from 1889, I just thought I'd mention discussion going on at the moment concerning the suspect William Grant/Grainger 1895

His solicitor, George Kebble claimed in 1895 that Grainger was a medical student at St Bartholomews hospital, leaving there in 1889 and disappearing to all intents

I just noticed the bit about Dr Howard being in an asylum under an assumed name which was the same phrase used in Grainger's case in 1895, as it appears he might have changed his name from1889 onwards

[TradeName]

Another Mention of Forbes Winslow's Letter

Thanks for the information regarding Grainger, Nemo.

Here's another mention by Forbes of an alleged letter from Jack the Ripper. (Is this the letter on which he allegedly altered the postmark?)

New York Times, June 25, 1911, link

"MURDERERS I HAVE MET," BY DR. FORBES L. WINSLOW

[...]

But no crime, I believe, has brought me such a succession of thrills as the
notorious "Jack-the-Ripper" murders. Scores of correspondents advised me to
wash my hands of the affair, but I was too fascinated to listen, and I honestly believe that had I been rendered the requisite assistance, I would have captured "Jack" on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. He was a religious maniac.

Do you remember the famous threatening letter I received? "This week," it read, "you will hear from me. Signed Jack the Ripper."

It was an exciting week. My pockets were picked in Whitechapel twice, and I
am wondering still who were the two men men who insisted on dogging my footsteps while I was trying to dog the murderer's. And the woman, too, who implored me to minister to her sick child. Who was she? She hadn't a child at all.

Was she in league with my shadower? And were the three in league with the "Ripper"; and was it really "Jack-the-Ripper" who wrote me, or was the writer a poor deluded friend of mine?

[...]

--end

[Nemo]

Hi Tradename

I think you are referring to the longer letter he received in Oct 89 which was altered to read Oct 88, causing the letter to seemingly predict Kelly's murder on 9th Nov 88

However, that one mentioned in the article you have posted is similar in that I think he again received it in Oct 89 but later variously claimed he received it just before the McKenzie killing, or that it was sent in 1888, before the Chapman killing if not before Emma Smith, so pre-dating the Dear Boss with the use of the term "Jack the Ripper"

[TradeName]

Shobal Vail Clevenger

So Winslow had two different letters which he misrepresented. Interesting.

I don't know if the Chicago doctor who wrote the following had any source other than newspaper reports, but I'll throw this out here anyway.

Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity, or, Forensic Psychiatry (Rochester, NY: Lawyers' Co-operative, 1898), Volume 1, Pages 96-97
by Shobal Vail Clevenger, M.D.

Epilepsy is, at times, particularly homicidal. Revolting and motiveless crimes have been committed in the insane and unconscious states of this disease, and epileptics are capable of both planned and premeditated crimes of which no recollection maybe preserved. Undoubtedly many mysterious murders have been perpetrated by epileptics that were not known even to the perpetrators. Dr. Forbes Winslow predicted years before the capture of "Jack the Ripper" that the murders would be traceable to some form of periodical homicidal insanity, and the London physician who was finally found to be the guilty person appears to have experienced the "double consciousness" states that characterize epilepsy in some of its forms.

Volume 2, Page 1056

The notorious murderer, "Jack, the Ripper," it has been claimed, was finally discovered in the person of a London physician, who, in the interim of his epileptic-like mental attacks, led an irreproachable life. Such systematic brutalities are quite consistent with some phases of epileptic insanity; and Forbes Winslow, the well-known English alienist, is given as authority for the statement that this murderer is now in an asylum and is violently insane. Many such crimes, otherwise inexplicable, have been perpetrated which have not been sufficiently studied in connection with epilepsy and somnambulism, owing, doubtless, to failure to recognize such phenomena in the individual, or to ignorance that apparently insignificant epileptic characteristics had anything to to with such matters.

[TradeName]

Winslow's Prediction

This may be what Clevenger, above, was referring to as Winslow's prediction about JtR.

Evening News
London, U.K.
11 September 1888, link

AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. FORBES WINSLOW.

[...]

"Homicidal mania is absolutely incurable, however long a time may elapse between the recurrent attacks of it. As such, I repeat to you what I said yesterday at Scotland-Yard. I should begin by communicating with the authorities not only of every public and private lunatic asylum round and in London but throughout the length and breadth of the land. I should want not only a list of all those who have escaped, but also of those who have been discharged as 'quasi-cured.' You may give it as my firm opinion that the murderer of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman and the woman in George-yard is a lunatic at large - and, what is more, a well-to-do lunatic, probably living in the West-end. All the ordinary means of detection will fail, because, once more, the moment his fit of mania is passed, he becomes quite rational. He may, as your leader of yesterday suggests, not even be aware of having committed the murder. That would be what we denominate epileptic stupor. Such a man would, if caught and tried, sell his own life in the dock for the mere hint that he is a maniac would evoke a storm of indignation on his part. If, on the other hand he is aware of having committed this deed, his position in life will enable him to keep coy during the day. The only way to capture him would be with the fit strong upon him. For this a decoy, and nothing but a decoy, would be effectual. The decoy is merely one part of my programme. I have not thought out the matter fully, but will communicate with you again."

[TradeName]

The Literary Winslow

While venting his spleen at the behavior of visiting British medical practitioners, an American medical editorial writer offered some criticism of a poem written by Forbes Winslow. A second piece looks at the expert testimony of Winslow at an American trial.

The Cincinnati Medical Journal, Volume 10, November, 1895, Pages 773-775

Ethics and Politics

Among the Pharisees

[...]

In fact he [Earnest Hart] came so near covering the whole ground that Dr. Forbes Winslow who is the last exponent of the English medical man to visit our shores, has been driven into writing alleged poetry, as the only field left unworked by Hart. Forbes Winslow, D. C. L., is not a success in poetry as any one can see from the tenor of the following doggerel clipped from one of the great eastern dailies:

PASTEUR-IN MEMORIAM.

Heroic deeds to benefit mankind
Will live forever, acts of science find
A lasting record, in history a place,
As benefactors of our mortal race,
To stamp the virulence of dread disease,
And by experiments our ills appease.
Jenner, the first to risk a life so true
Has robbed the smallpox of its deadliest hue;
Now Pasteur's gone; let's honor well his name,
Illustrious scientist, whose glorious fame
And deeds of brav'ry known to all the world,
The rabid virus from his throne he hurled.
Both poor and rich repaired from far and near
To have his treatment; he allayed all fear.
O! may his deeds be crowned with victory.
He risked his life to save humanity.

FORBES WINSLOW, D. C. L., Oxon.

Westminister Hotel, Sept. 29, 1893.

A lesser light than Forbes Winslow, D. C. L., who would dare offer for publication such an inane jingle as the foregoing would lay himself open to a strong suspicion of being a victim of paresis; and indeed it is a question if he himself has not succumbed, as often happens, to the very diseases that most engage his attention viz., mental and nervous disorders.

December, 1895, Pages 831-833

Ethics and Politics

With Tail Feathers Driven In


Notice of the death of Winslow's son Percy.

The Lancet, May 30, 1891, Page 1221

Mr. Percy Forbes Winslow, eldest grandson of the late Dr. Forbes Winslow, has just died, at the age of twenty-two, under somewhat painful circumstances. Mr. Winslow had recently completed his medical education, but was still pursuing his studies at Charing-cross Hospital, where he contracted blood-poisoning. The illness was at first very obscure, and after undergoing four operations under chloroform he sank from exhaustion on Sunday the 17th inst. Dr. Abercrombie and Mr. Boyd of Charing-cross Hospital were unremitting in their attentions to him during his painful illness.

Page 1235

Deaths

FORBES-WINSLOW.--On May 17th at Rivercourt, Hammersmith, Percy
Forbes, eldest and much beloved son of Dr. L. Forbes-Winslow,
aged 22, Student of Charing-cross Hospital, after fives months'
terrible suffering, the result of blood-poisoning.

[TradeName]

Misc. Sir Gilbert Campbell Info

In 1874 Campbell became involved with a Spanish civil war as a member of the English Carlist Committee.

New York Times, October 12, 1874, link

The Civil War in Spain

New York Times, November 2, 1874, link

The Civil War in Spain



In 1881 Campbell tried to extort money from his life insurance company by threatening to commit suicide.

New York Times, October 23, 1881, link

A DESPONDENT BARONET

SINGULAR METHOD OF RAISING FUNDS--ARRESTED FOR THREATENING SUICIDE


An article about the fate of Campbell's son.

Calgary Daily Herald, November 16, 1910, Page 11

Strange Mystery of the Two Baronets

[TradeName]

A Bit about the New York Press

Here's a bit of information about the New York Press, the paper that ran the original 1894 Forbes Winslow interview in which he claimed that a doctor's wife came to him with suspicions that her husband was JtR.

I have not found any information identifying the London correspondent of the Press in 1894.

The Bookseller and Newsman, Volume 12, February, 1895, Page 19

THE PRESS UNDER NEW OWNERS.

On February 1st, James Phillips, Jr., James R. Dougge and all who have been interested with them in the stock of the New York Press Company, Limited, sold and transferred their several interests to Henry L. Einstein. The Press was started six years ago by Frank Hatton in conjunction with Robert P. Porter. At first it was a campaign experiment, but winning a substanial circulation, it was continued and the ownership transferred to the recent proprietors. Since Mr. Hatton left the paper it has been controlled by James Phillips, Jr., one of the largest woolen manufacturers in this country.

The Press to-day, claims a circulation of more than 135,000 copies daily, and the largest circulation of any republican paper in this country. Its popularity has been constantly increasing and the careful painstaking manner in which it has been conducted, has made for it a place in New York journalism hardly equalled by any other cosmopolitan newspaper. What was started as an experiment, is now a property which is estimated to be worth dose to a million dollars. Its success proves that there is room always for enterprise, reliability and brains in the newspaper field.

Its new officers are composed of Henry L. Einstein, president and treasurer; Lemuel E. Quigg, vice-president editor and publisher and William Leary, secretary of the company. Mr. Einstein is the owner of the property, and a retired millionaire. Mr. Quigg is a member of congress and is recognized in New York as a young man of energy, brains and ability. He is also a political leader of force and authority, with plenty of ideas to command public attention.

It is to be regretted that Mr. Phillips is to leave the field of journalism. He promised to be one of the ablest and most picturesque characters in active metropolitan newspaper work to-day. Always genial and kindly, he made friends steadfast and without number. It is to be hoped that another opportunity awaits him in the path where he can do so much good for the advancement of better morals and journalism.

--end

Another article based on the Winslow interview:

The Philadelphia Record, November 26, 1894, Page 9

Jack the Ripper's Fate

The Famous Assassin Said to Be Imprisoned in an Insane Asylum

The mystery of "Jack the Ripper"
is one of the darkest of the unsolved
chapters in the annals of human
crime. So dramatically horrible were
his murders and so fascinatingly baffling
was the identity of this secret assassin
that the whole world was startled and
astounded from the moment of the
dicovery of his first work of butchery.
Mankind recognized a new species of
crime, a new type of criminal, such as
had hitherto never been revealed. A
great sociological problem was provoked
and "Jack the Ripper" became world-
famous. He disclosed, so to speak, a
distinct genius for crime, and has left
upon the bloody pages of modern vice a
name to stand beside that of the poisonous
Borgia. He chose, indeed, a fit
theatre for this hideous iniquity,
emerging like a grisly and ghaslty spectre of
sin from the wretched shambles and
purlieus of Whitechapel.

The stories of the murders read like
the creeping fantasies of Poe. The
scenes of his crimes resembled the
horrors of the Rue Morgue. The same
chilling mystery made the blood to
curdle. The tragedy of the forlorn
miserable women, the outcasts of hope
who were his victims, moved all hearts to
pity, while the murderer's bold audacity
added a touch of sinister romance.
There was the forewarning letter
written in a disguided hand to Dr.
Forbes Winslow, the famous English
physician, which simply read: "You will
hear of me in a few days. Jack the
Ripper." And then on the wall over
the first dead body that was soon after
found had been written the single bombastic
line: "I will give myself up when
I have killed fifteen. Jack the Ripper."
The undoubted intelligence of the crafty
executioner of the fallen women of London
heightened, indeed, the intense public
interest case.

Now comes this very Dr. Winslow,
who received the primal salutation of
the unknown, and makes positive assertion
through the agency of a well-known
news syndicate, whose authority has
always seemed to be reliable, that he
knows who "Jack the Ripper" is. Says
he substantially: "Jack the Ripper at
this moment is an inmate of a London
insane asylum, where he has been confined
for three years." According to
Dr. Winslow's story, this peculiar patient,
upon whose shoulders rests such a
heavy load of guilt, was a highly-honored
physician of London, who suddenly
became a slave to this uncontrollable
impulse for blood and butchery. His wife
finally discovered his own terrible
secret and revealed it to Dr. Winslow.

"She told me," he declares, "that she
believed her husband to be the man who
had committed the 'Jack the Ripper'
murders. At this information, I naturally
was horrified and astounded. I
knew who her husband was, and I knew
her to be a practitioner of supposed
responsibility, and so incredible did her
suspicion appear to me that I thought
she herself had become crazed in some
way and this awful idea had taken
possession of her. I questioned her carefully
on other subjects until she had calmed
down somewhat, which the revelation
of her secret seemed to aid her in doing,
and then I asked her the reasons she
had for this belief. She accounted to
me the singular action of her husband at
certain periods, how he appeared for a
day or two to become irresponsible and
how she finally noticed that upon
the occasions when these murders were
committed he had been absent from
home and had returned in such a mental
exhilaration, followed by terrible
mental depression that she felt confident he
had passed through some extraordinary
experience."

Of course Dr. Winslow speedily
investigated the case ended by becoming
convinced, and quietly imprisoned the
mentally irresponsible culprit in a
London asylum. Strange as this story reads,
it does not seem more improbable than
the original story of crime.

"Dr Winslow's reputation for veracity
is beyond dispute in medical matters,"
asserted a prominent neurologist
of this city, when questioned yesterday
concerning the report. "He is perhaps
the greatest of the insanity experts
of Great Britain. The fact that he
received the original letter foreshadowing
the now-famous murders renders
plausible the news that he witnessed also
the denouement. There was more than
a coincidence in this. The wife undoubtedly
understood to whom she was making
confession. That Dr. Winslow did
not guess who his strange correspondent
was at the very start was due, of
course, to the disguised chirography, but
he now states that he identified the
same handwriting on the wall above
the body, which scrawling was nearly
effaced by a stupid police. It is
very probable, indeed, that with becoming
professional modesty Dr. Winslow
is seeking to avoid the public announcement
that he actually ferreted the
mystery himself and ran the assassin to
the hole.

"The wife, in her distress, might naturally
have appled to him as a great expert
on insanity, especially as he was
probably a professional friend of her
husband. But it is just as likely, indeed,
that Dr. Winslow first revealed to the
wife his own suspcions based on reliable
evidence. His own curiosity would have
been piqued by the first letter, it goes
without saying, and he would have been
deeply interested anyway in such a
unique episode of crime. That he was
greatly interested anyway in such a
unique episode of crime. That he was
greatly interested is shown by his
acknowledged offer to the London Commissioner
of Police to co-operate in the
detective work. The refusal of the police
would only have doubly incited him to
the trail. The police threw aside his
clues and plan with contempt. Is it not
justifiable to believe his pride was
touched and he followed up the
secret alone?

"From the first there could have been
little doubt in his mind of two things.
One of these was that Jack the Ripper
was a monomaniac; the other, that he
was a medical man. All the
circumstances pointed to monomania. The
threat to kill fifteen victims could not
have been reasonably ascribed to a
thirst for revenge. It was rather the
symptom of a greed for blood. the
notoriety-seeking actions of the
assassin revealed his deep-settled insanity
upon this one thing. Had he been a
totally insane man, he could not--even
with the stealthy craft of a crazy
person--have hidden his tracks so
successfully. Then, too, the horrible
mutilations proved him conclusively to be
someone experienced to the dissection
and surgery of human bodies. His skill
in the use of the knife was unmistakable."

"The fact that the fifteen murders
were not all committed," remarked a
friend who sat nearby during these
remarks, "is proof evident that revenge
was not the motive. And the further
fact that 'Jack the Ripper' has been
practically dead for the past three
years lends a corroborative aid to the
news story. But until Dr. Winslow
unbosoms more, even at the expense of the
insane physicians's family, 'Jack the
Ripper' will remain as much of a
mystery as the 'Man in the Iron
Mask.'"


--end

[TradeName]

Atlanta Constitution

Part of an earlier interview with Forbes Winslow which mentions the alleged JtR letter but which says nothing about JtR being confined to an asylum.

Atlanta Constitution, June 17, 1894, Page 23

FUTURE OF THE RACE

[...]

The importance of Dr Forbes Winslow is
overshadowing. A representative of this
paper called upon him at his residence, 33
Devonshire street, N W , three weeks ago,
and the utterance that followed was made
rapidly and enthusiastically. It should be
said that almost every criminal case In
Great Britain where insanity figures Is referred
to Dr Winslow. It was to him that
the home secretary turned for an opinion
on Mrs Mabryck's [sic] responsibility when the
queen was petitioned to commute her sentence
of death and it was owing to the doctor's
answer that the life of the unfortunate
woman was spared. It was to Dr
Winslow that Jack the Ripper wrote the
now famous letter

Dear Sir You will hear from me.
"JACK THE RIPPER"

The whole world did hear from him shortly
afterward through thirteen dreadful
murders. This letter is framed and hangs
upon the wall of the doctor's study, and
shows the mysterious criminal to have
been a good penman and an epigram
writer. The formation of the letters in this
note corresponds with the writing the
murderer left near the bodies of his victims
and there is no questioning its authentity.

[...]

--end

[TradeName]

J. Carter Hart's Undated Statement Part 1 of 4

I think I posted a transcription but not the scans.

[TradeName]

J. Carter Hart's Undated Statement Part 2 of 4

Page 2

[TradeName]

J. Carter Hart's Undated Statement Part 3 of 4

Page 3

[TradeName]

J. Carter Hart's Undated Statement Part 4 of 4

Page 4

[TradeName]

Another Version from Forbes Winslow

Another 1895 New York interview with Forbes Winslow. In this version the suspected "medical student" was found drowned in the Thames.

The Albany Law Journal, September 7, 1895, Pages 147-150

The Medico-Legal Society commenced its congress at the United States court rooms in the city of New York, on the 4th, 5th and 6th of September, under a committee of arrangements of which Hon. Rastus S. Ransom was chairman, and Clark Bell, Esq., secretary. Many eminent doctors and lawyers have consented to read papers, and, among others, Dr. Forbes Winslow of London will discuss "Suicide, considered as a Mental Epidemic." In a recent interview Dr. Winslow gave many interesting and valuable facts from his experience, which has been greatly devoted to insanity in criminal cases, on which he said:

[...]

"My theory of the Jack the Ripper murders was that they were the work of a religious maniac who fancied that he had some grudge to pay against these women. When I proposed this theory first in London I got letters from every quarter. After the third murder I got one signed 'Jack the Ripper,' saying: 'This week you shall hear from me.' The police at Scotland Yard got the same letter in the same handwriting, which proved also to be the same writing that was found on the arches in Whitechapel after the murders were committed. One of the people who wrote to me at that time was a lodging-house keeper. He said that a young medical student lived with him, and he described this man's actions on the nights when the first three murders occurred. At each time he had gone from the house differently dressed, and had come back with his shoes and clothes covered with blood. He was a religious monomaniac and went to St. Paul's Cathedral every morning. He came home after the murders, changed his clothes, and got out of the house in time to go to early service. The men that kept the lodging-house told me these facts. I investigated them and found them to be true. I got a pair of the man's shoes that were covered with human blood. After the third murder the medical student disappeared and no trace could be found of him. I went to Scotland Yard and asked them to assist me in the matter and put an officer at my disposal, so that we could look for the man, but they refused to do that, and I was unwilling to undertake the whole thing myself. Later, I wrote to one of the newspapers an account of this young man and my theory of the way in which the murders were committed. From that time there was not another murder, and that strengthened me more than ever in the belief that I could hit upon the right man. Somewhat later the body of this medical student was found in the Thames. He had drowned himself.["]

[...]

[TradeName]

Winslow 1895 NY Story Parallels to MacNaghten Memorandum

In the interview published in the NewYork Times of September 1, 1895 Forbes Winslow refers to his JtR suspect as "a medical student of good family." In the Albany Law Journal interview in the post above Winslow says his suspect was found drowned in the Thames.

There are similarities with the Macnaghten memoranda's description of Druitt:

"A Mr M. J. Druitt, said to be a doctor & of good family -- who disappeared at the time of the Miller's Court murder, & whose body (which was said to have been upwards of a month in the water) was found in the Thames on 31st December -- or about 7 weeks after that murder. He was sexually insane and from private information I have little doubt but that his own family believed him to have been the murderer."

Did Winslow graft details about Druitt onto the story of his 1889 suspect? Or is it a coincidence? Where could he have learned the information about Druitt? In the NYT interview he says his suspect was "removed to a lunatic asylum." Macnaghten says Kosminski was "was removed to a lunatic asylum."
Another coincidence?