American Slouch Hat Origins

[mklhawley]

George Hutchinson watched Mary Jane Kelly with a suspicious man in Commercial St late Friday night, November 9, 1888. His description:
"dress long, dark coat, collar and cuffs trimmed astracan [sic] and a dark jacket under, light waistcoat, dark trousers, dark felt hat turned down in the middle, button boots and gaiters with white buttons, wore a very thick gold chain, white linen collar, black tie with horse shoe pin, respectable appearance walked very sharp..."


I found the killer

[mklhawley]

Hi Mike.



I’ve always wondered if Mathew Packer’s description of a man wearing “kind of Yankee hat” started it. The “double event” was the height of the Ripper scare and by that time six women had been murdered and the press and people of London were up in arms and the police were left clutching at straws.

However, the Albert Chambers suspect was not arrested because of his hat. He was arrested because he frightened the people of the lodging house with his talk about the murders.

“After repeated questioning he stated that yesterday a tall dark man, wearing an American hat, took a bed in the house. He was in the house all day, associated with the other lodgers, entered into their various amusements, but somehow seemed to be rather reserved, and, at times, absent-minded. Towards evening he commenced conversing about the latest horrors in the East-end. He entered very vigorously into the details as supplied by the Sunday papers, and expressed an opinion that the police would never capture the murderer, who would remain at large until he gave himself up.
‘Oh,’ said he, ‘he's a lot too cute for these London detectives.’
The ‘deputy’s’ attention was attracted to this mysterious individual by the singular amount of excitement he displayed while discoursing upon the subject. There were about twelve men in the room- a long, scrupulously clean, though somewhat scantily furnished, apartment. Each one seemed afraid of the individual, and ultimately the police were summoned, and the luckless American was marched off in custody as a ‘suspect.’”
The Echo, 1 October, 1888.

The suspect was quickly released when no evidence could be found against him and he returned to Albert Chambers.

Wolf.

Interestingly, this conforms to Wolf's suspicions.


The Sun, October 2, 1888, LONDON’S GREAT SCARE

LONDON, Oct. 1. – There is no real news about the Whitechapel women-killing mystery, but London’s fear and excitement keep bubbling over in all kinds of rumors and speculations. Queerly enough, the West End of London, and particularly maids and valets in the big hotels, who may be excused for forming queer ideas as to our United States habits, have generated the idea that some American is responsible for the crime. This original theory appears to be based principally upon the fact that some poor wretch dragged from his lodging house on suspicion in the middle of last night and released at once was described by his fellow lodgers as an uneasy gentleman with an American hat. What may be the Whitechapel lodgers’ precise conception of our national headgear it would be difficult to say –probably a modified form of the sombrero made popular by Buffalo Bill.

Mike

[GregBaron]

No Top Hats please...

Gentlemen,

I've been trying to get a grip on the whole Hat thing....for I think if we find the hat we find the man......I mean what kind of guys would wear deerstalkers in Whitechapel at that time.......hunters? Who hunts besides the bluebloods after the poor foxes....? Anyway, here's the Hat hit parade...maybe we'll find an old dusty one in someone's attic and trace it back to the fiend.....! Ha, I am dreaming aren't I......

Clockwise: Deerstalker, Homburg, Fedora, Wideawake, American Slouch

Greg

[ChrisGeorge]

Gentlemen,

I've been trying to get a grip on the whole Hat thing....for I think if we find the hat we find the man......I mean what kind of guys would wear deerstalkers in Whitechapel at that time.......hunters? Who hunts besides the bluebloods after the poor foxes....? Anyway, here's the Hat hit parade...maybe we'll find an old dusty one in someone's attic and trace it back to the fiend.....! Ha, I am dreaming aren't I......

Clockwise: Deerstalker, Homburg, Fedora, Wideawake, American Slouch

Greg

Hi Greg

Thanks for the hat illustrations. The different hats possibly seem more significant to us now because far less men wear hats now than they did in that era. Back then, most people, both men and women, when they went out would have worn a hat. To us today, wearing a deerstalker or one of the more unusual hats would stand out but I should think back then it would go less noticed than to us today, because most would have a hat, and a deerstalker was not such unusual headwear at that time.

All the best

Chris

[GregBaron]

French Beret anyone..?

Hi Chris,

Yes sir, I completely agree that hats were an essential part of the wardrobe back then. I imagine much might be inferred from one's choice of hat. It seems gentlemen often wore top hats, working class probably others, sailors or military men still others....etc....of course the condition of the hat might tell if one was well scrubbed or merely shabby genteel.....the few street scenes I've been able to find do show quite a variety of headgear......

[mklhawley]

Hi Greg,

A picture is worth a thousand words. Excellent photos.

Mike

[Archaic]

"Cute"

Hi Mike and everyone. I'm just catching up on this thread, and I noticed the following sentence in the piece from The Echo quoted by Wolf Vanderlinden: ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘he's a lot too cute for these London detectives.’

A friend asked me what the word "cute" means in this context. It's Victorian slang for "acute", meaning "sharp", "clever", "knowing" and "artful".

I suspect that's where the familiar warning phrase "Don't get cute with me!" comes from.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Supe]

Greg,

......I mean what kind of guys would wear deerstalkers in Whitechapel at that time.......hunters? Who hunts besides the bluebloods after the poor foxes...

Anyone showing up for a fox hunt wearing a deerstalker would be laughed into the next county. Moreover, many folk hunted legally and likely as many or more poached.

The hat itself was favored for country wear by city folk. The two bills protected one from rain fore and after and the ear flaps were a godsend when it got chilly. Actually, a rather useful bit of headgear.

As for who might wear one in Whitechapel, you must remember the great used clothes sales barrows centered on Petticoat Lane. The fashion dictum in the area was often "If it's cheap and fits, I'll wear it."

Don.

[GregBaron]

Gimme the cheapest one you got...

Anyone showing up for a fox hunt wearing a deerstalker would be laughed into the next county. Moreover, many folk hunted legally and likely as many or more poached

.

No one laughs at Sherlock Holmes surely...at their own peril I would think......ha....no that's good stuff Supe.......thanks for the info.....I agree also that cheap would be the mantra of Whitechapel....

A picture is worth a thousand words. Excellent photos

Thanks Mike and I agree....some of us are visually oriented and learn more from pictures.......

BTW, I just re-looked at that large street scene.....at the center bottom I see Pipeman.........at the far bottom right could that be Astro-Man? And I think I see BS man just above and to the right of Pipeman....there you have it........if we figure out this photo we solve our mystery...!

Greg

[Supe]

Greg,

No one laughs at Sherlock Holmes surely...

Aye that. No one tugs on Superman's cape or laughs at Sherlock Holmes.

Interestingly. a deerstalker was never mentioned by Conan Doyle. The closest instance is in "The Adventure of the Silver Blaze" when Watson writes "...Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp eager face framed in his earflapped travelling cap ..." That is likely a reference to a deerstalker, but since the Strand's illustrator, Sidney Paget, owned and enjoyed several deerstalkers, he often pictured Holmes wearing one. But, unlike film directors and purveyors of popular lore, Paget never, never, never had Holmes wear a deerstalker in an urban setting; it was always on a train heading to the countryside or actually in rural areas.

Don.

[GregBaron]

it was always on a train heading to the countryside or actually in rural areas.

Again, thanks Supe, you learn something new every day as they say....I do believe this is how our friend Holmes is shown(with deerstalker) at least in the movies as he heads to the Moors for example as in "The Hound of the Baskervilles".....funny how myths get started but I believe it's also true than in the stories Sherlock never once says 'Elementary my dear Watson' as has become the popular mythological expression................

What I think is another great irony of this case is the fact that "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hide" was playing in the East End simultaneously with the murders and Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" came out the year before. A perfect storm of ironies indeed....I'm stating this from memory without verification so excuse if I'm mistaken................

Now off to figure out the percentage of men who wore deerstalkers in Whitechapel Fall of 88..........I think I'll need one of these statistical gurus.....!

Greg