What criteria should a suspect meet?

[harry]

Mariab,
The author is hardly a newbie.The book was published 1981,and revised 1988,quite a while before most Ripper books were published I think.I have previously posted the authors name.It was Alice Monaghan,should anyone be interested.

[mariab]

Harry,
it appears that Pedachenko/Konovalov/Luisovo is likely a garbling of different stories by William Le Queux (see Things I know, 1928). Lynn Cates, Debra Arif, and I are considering the possibility that the alleged “Rasputin connection“ in Le Queux was a mixup with the known (female) anarchist Rasputina. As for Donald McCormick's Identity of Jack the Ripper (1959), which pushes Pedachenko as the main suspect, it's reportedly one of the possibly worst publications in Ripperology, containing almost entirely fabricated/altered evidence. As for the Alice Monaghan book from 1981, I've looked around and asked around without any success so far, but I'm sure that other people than you have read it and might come forward. My guess is that Monaghan most probably regurgitates McCormick? Also, when you say that Monaghan “is hardly a newbie“, you probably refer to her book having been around for 30 years. Let me please remind you that the term “newbie“ refers to the inexperience and not to the age of the subject in question. ;-)
Significantly enough, I've just noticed that The Ultimate doesn't even mention Pedachenko.
For a reference to Basil Thompson's (alleged) opinion on Pedachenko as a suspect, see http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/rps.fleet.html, the paragraph 4th before last (aka The Radio Times 1924).

PS.: Sorry. Is Monaghan an article, or a book? You've referred alternatively to both in your posts.

[harry]

Mariab,
It was an article in a book,I believe I was clear on that when first posting on the subject.I know nothing about Alice Monaghan,and I posted hoping someone could supply information on the person.As for newbie,each to their own interpretation.

[mariab]

Pedachenko vs. Vasiliev and Le Grand

Harry, I've asked around among the experienced Ripperologists about Alice Monaghan, and I expect that sooner or later someone who's heard of her will come forward. In which book did her article appear? From what you've said so far, it appears that her article is based on LeQueux and McCormick.
I'm afraid that Pedachenko is a dead lead, esp. since Lynn Cates recently discovered (through newspaper reports) that the so-called “Rasputin connection“ LeQueux raved about so enthusiastically pertains in reality to a female spy named Rasputina – who was NOT Rasputin's wife. ;-)

There is another, more plausible lead, pertaining to a Nikolai Vasiliev. This guy has been presented in the Russian and British Victorian press as an active anarchist and an alleged killer of prostitutes in Paris, yet there are NO records whatsoever pertaining to his alleged crimes, incarceration, and even existence. It appears that this was a campaign in the British Press orchestrated by the Okhrana. We are about to start researching this. Personally I'm interested to see if The Echo and The North Eastern Gazette participated at all in this Vasiliev campaign, because The Echo and The North Eastern Gazette are newspapers who printed stories planted by Charles Le Grand, to murk the waters in the Berner Street investigation. Lynn Cates and I are interested to see if the Okhrana might have had any interest in approaching Le Grand, as it was their MO to hire local, small detective agencies to pursue their agenda. We're still in the initial stage of researching this, but it appears that Le Grand stopped posting newspaper adds for his detective agency about a month after Okhrana member Piòtr Rachkovsky settled down in London, in the summer of 1888. (Still, the latter part of my last sentence can be proven wrong, since we haven't gone through all newspapers yet.)

[Tom_Wescott]

Sir Basil Thomson

I didn't think this Thomson/Pedachenko thing would go on, but since it has, let's put a finish to it. Thomson did not think Pedachenko was the Ripper. J Hall Richardson reported that Thomson had said the Ripper was a Russian doctor who committed suicide in the Thames after the last Ripper murder. Clearly, Thomson had been exposed to the Macnaghten memoranda and either he, or Richardson in remembrance, confused the entries for Ostrog and Druitt. Unfortunately, there's no more to it than that. Later uninformed writers assumed Thomson's alleged Russian suspect must be Pedachenko.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Wow! Le Grand became Ostrog, and Ostrog became Pedachenko in the mind of some people. Hail to pen pushers police officials and early Ripperologists for making this case almost unsolvable.

[harry]

I believe it would help if Alice Monoghan could be found and asked how she came to the conclusion Thomson had the opinion Padechenko was the ripper.Her article has Padechenko returning to Russia.That her source was previously published material may be correct,but untill that is confirmed,one can only guess,and I thought posters here didn't go much on guesswork.

[mariab]

I've already addressed this in my post #77. I can only repeat myself:
For a reference to Basil Thompson's (alleged) opinion on Pedachenko as a suspect, see http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/rps.fleet.html, the paragraph 4th before last (aka The Radio Times 1924).

PS.: Harry, Wolf Vanderlinden explained this to you as well in the Alice Monaghan thread.

[Abby Normal]

Hi Abby,

I'm concerned to hear that there's a problem with ordering that issue. You can send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll see what I can do.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

Thanks Tom
Will do! I am very interested in reading it and look forward to receiving it.