New Suspect - Aleme Chatelle

[merlyn555]

Good day ladies and gentlemen, I am new here and this is my first post. I have been working for the last few years on a murder in the backwoods of Ontario Canada that is so similar to the canonical five that even at the time there was much talk that it was the work of Jack.

The victim was a 14 year old girl by the name of Jessie Keith murdered on Oct 19th 1894 in the woods just outside the town of Listowel Ontario.

The man apprehended and hung for the crime Aleme Chatelle was at first glance innocent as far as I could see when I began to investigate the incident. You see I had it figured out that Dr. Francis Tumblety could have done it but that is another story.

Chatelle is a person of mystery, the only official record I can find on him is a listing in the 1852 Census of Quebec that shows he was resident in the town of St. Hyacinth and was 5 years of age. It does not list names of parents or any association of any kind except the fact the he is Catholic.

When interviewed and questioned he did say he had been a sailor working out of Boston and that at the end of one voyage his shipmates took him to the Boston Insane Assylum and admitted him.

Physically he matches the descriptions given by a lot of the witnesses. He was 5' 6" tall about 175 pounds well muscled. he was very hairy all over his body but kept his beard and mustache neatly trimmed even though he lived as a tramp. He also walked with a piculiar rolling gate.

The really interesting thing is that the investigating officer was very much taken back that dispite his state of dress and carriage he spoke like a well educated gentleman and showed extremely good manners and a knowledge of edicate. His english was excellent and his French Canadian accent sounded refined and polished and was very subtle.

This man is the right age, had the opportunity to be in London at the time and there is very little known about him.

What makes him such a good candidate is the similarities of the victims.

Even though Jessie was only 14 and it was broad daylight at the time of the murder she meets the criteria for being a victim. She is female, alone in a place where there is little chance of being disturbed she is naive and therefore vunerable and she is wearing a black bonnet, a long black coat over a red dress and black gloves.

Her throat was cut twice very deep almost severing the head, there was an item of clothing around her neck that is not hers. The abdomen was slashed open and the entrails and intestines removed and thrown about. Parts of her were missing at the autposy. There was a weak attempt to hide the body.

Chatelle was arrested three days after the murder and charged with the crime he was later hung in Stratford County Jail on May 31 1895

so let me know what you think and if you have information about Chatelle I would appreciate knowing about it.

Chris

[Magpie]

Hi Chris.

Interesting character. Couple of arguments against Chatelle: Jessie Keith was raped, and she seems to have been dismembered.

Here's some articles you might find interesting, if you haven't already seen them:

http://dicksonscorners.blogspot.com/2010/02/murderer-at-door.html

http://members.shaw.ca/canada_legal_history/on_notes.htm

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/02/27/13050981.html

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/perth_courier/941102.html

There's also a chapter on the case in Henri Caron's "Memoirs of a Great Detective"

[merlyn555]

Hello Magpie and thanks for the links.

The dismemberment and rape are wrongly reported.

I have a copy of the Coroner's Inquest and the Dr.'s report is very specific that no sexual assault was obvious. Wounds to the body of Jessie Keith consisted of cuts to the throat and abdomen. The only thing that could be closely conisdered as an attempt at dismemberment was the fact that the cuts to the throat were so deep and violent that they nicked the vertebrae and the spinal cord and almost detached the head from the torso.

The intestines and internal organs were also removed from the body cavity, certain organs like the liver and the uterus were seperated but present and accounted for when the autopsy was preformed. There were small pieces of flesh and innards unacounted for but that could be due to the fact that there was snow on the ground and the area was very wet with small pools of water here and there.

Also the crime scene was trampled over quite a bit by the time the police arrived because the father of the victim and one of the friends searching for Jessie had found the body and knowing nothing of good police proceedures did not take much care in where they walked.

Chapter LX of the book Memoirs of a Great Detective written about Provincial Constable John Wilson Murray is about the murder and the first paragraph reads like a cheap detective novel from the thirties. When you read the whole book it becomes apparant that Murray thinks very highly of himself and considers himself to be the ultimate detective. He did though contact the London Metropolitan Police to see if there could be any connection but he was apparently told that the matter was closed. Oh how I would like to see a copy of that reply but sadly it like so much other information in the case has dissappeared.

[Hatchett]

Hi Merlyn555,

Welcome. Another interesting post. That is quite a similarity. Particularly the nicks in the vetebrae.

Best wishes.

[Bob Hinton]

Really?

Hi Merlyn555,

Welcome. Another interesting post. That is quite a similarity. Particularly the nicks in the vetebrae.

Best wishes.

Not really. When someone’s throat is slashed deeply the first thing that stops the knife from going all the way through is the spine, hence nicks in the vertebrae. A case I am working on at the moment exactly the same thing is noticed.

I cannot really see any similarity between the cases. Disembowelling a victim is not that unusual, in fact there was a case in Australia (New Zealand) not so long ago where a male shop keeper was disembowelled.

The two cases are entirely different in all other aspects.

[Hatchett]

Hi,

Maybe so but interesting all the same. Always good to have another direction to research.

Best wishes.

[merlyn555]

I cannot really see any similarity between the cases. Disembowelling a victim is not that unusual, in fact there was a case in Australia (New Zealand) not so long ago where a male shop keeper was disembowelled.

The two cases are entirely different in all other aspects.

I agree that on the surface this case does appear to have some glaring differences but when you get past them and see the Modus Operandi then they are startlingly similar.

Okay Jessie was not a drunken prostitute, she was a naive young farm girl of 14 years of age. She does not have the fear of strangers that city folk have she is more trusting and therefore vunerable, she becomes as helpless as a drunken prostitute.

And granted the attack took place in broad daylight but this does not matter because JtR was an "opportunistic hunter". She was alone in a secluded spot where no one would hear her cries and Jack happened to be there at the same time. Other than the time of day everything else fits.

Jessie Keith was attacked from the front and strangled manually. Then at some point a set of ladies drawers (not her own they were supplied by the attacker) were tied around her neck. Then her throat was slashed two times following the line of the garment around her neck. Once this was completed the clothes were removed and the disembowling began.

The disembowling was disorganized and messy but all the cuts were clean and decisive and in the opinion of the doctor who preformed the autopsy done with skill and percision.

Also small parts of the insides were removed and never found.

When you read the autopsy report it is very similar indeed with those written about Jacks victims.

[jerryd]

Hi Merlynn,

I had come across Chatelle awhile back and thought he was interesting as well. I didn't do much research on him but I remember trying to place him in Whitechapel at the right times to no avail. Below is the link to my short thread on him. Nothing new from this thread though.

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread...lmeda+chatelle

[merlyn555]

Hi Merlynn,

I had come across Chatelle awhile back and thought he was interesting as well. I didn't do much research on him but I remember trying to place him in Whitechapel at the right times to no avail. Below is the link to my short thread on him. Nothing new from this thread though.

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread...lmeda+chatelle

Hi Jerryd and thanks for the links.

There really isn't much information available on Chatelle. He was born in St. Hyacinth Quebec in 1847 and appears in the 1852 Census and that is it until his arrest.

He claims to have worked as a sailor out of Boston and if I could get someone to check out the maritime crew records from about 1860-1890 then maybe we could narrow down where and when he sailed. Trouble is the records are only available in person and I am a long ways away.

It would also be interesting to find out when he was admitted to the Boston Insane Assylum. this was a progressive hospital that believed in treatment not warehousing, their records are also only available in person.

Anyone in the Boston area like to do some down and dirty investigating??

Chris

[Versa]

Interesting stuff, personally I believe JTR was killing and 'neutering' prostitutes specifically not just because they were easy prey but because of a real hatred for them (maybe his mother had resorted to prostitution at times as he was growing up) Its also true that killers sometimes miss the mark and kill women that aren't prostitutes and that don't entirely fit their MO. It would be interesting too to find out what work he did on board ship (IMO cook would be nice if he were to truly be a candidate)

[Mascara & Paranoia]

The sailor angle and him being about the right age (I'm crap at maths but my calculations put this dude at 36 at the time of the Ripper killings) is interesting. And obviously the evisceration et cetera - as surely these killers can't all have had the same taste for mutilation and/or be copycats, especially during such a close time period (we're talking what, six years?).

That being said, I don't honestly buy into this suspect (mostly because this victim was a child - though some might argue he wanted to up the weirdo ante after the Kelly murder), but it's yet another strange coincidence and theory.

I'm intrigued but, as Versa said, I think the Ripper was a prostitute/woman-only type of killer.

[merlyn555]

The sailor angle and him being about the right age (I'm crap at maths but my calculations put this dude at 36 at the time of the Ripper killings) is interesting. And obviously the evisceration et cetera - as surely these killers can't all have had the same taste for mutilation and/or be copycats, especially during such a close time period (we're talking what, six years?).

That being said, I don't honestly buy into this suspect (mostly because this victim was a child - though some might argue he wanted to up the weirdo ante after the Kelly murder), but it's yet another strange coincidence and theory.

I'm intrigued but, as Versa said, I think the Ripper was a prostitute/woman-only type of killer.

It is no coincidence that the victims that top the serial killers list are prostitutes and children.................. this is not a quess it is a scientific fact.

Prostitutes and children are the most targeted because they are the most vunerable and easiest to obtain, both in their own way is defenseless against the serial killer.

To me it makes sense that when a serial killer gets the urge to kill he will do the first victim that comes along that meets his needs.

You must also consider that a girl of 14-18 years of age at this time is of ripe marrying age and thought of as a woman.