Frenchy No.2 aka Arbie La Bruckman/ John Francis

[Versa]

Hi,

Firstly I don't know anything about this suspect other than what has been written on the dissertation boards by Michael Conlon here http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-frenchys.html

There are several things that interest me regarding 'Frenchy No.2 aka Arbie La Bruckman/ John Francis'

1. He is in London when JtR is killing and America when similar murders occur and at least in the case of Carrie Brown, alias "Old Shakespeare" murdered- April 24?, 1891 he does appear to be the likely culprit.

2. He is arrested in BOTH London and America on suspicion of being the ripper/murderer.

3. His description- was of a light complexion. He had a light brown moustache, light hair, long, sharp nose and might of been wearing 'sailors clothing' matches that of at least some of the descriptions of JtR.

4. He was known to be cruel to animals "the sailors on the cattle ships tell horrible stories of his cruelty to the dumb brutes in his care. When one of these animals would break a leg or receive some injury that necessitated its slaughter, 'Frenchy', they say, would take apparent delight in carving it up alive while the sailors looked on. No one dared oppose him, his temper was so bad."

5. He had a cousin 'Ameer Ben Ali' who looked very much like him but was described as a "dark complexioned man with a black moustache and black hair. This description also fits some of the descriptions given by witnesses.

6. A little after Christmas, 1889 he was arrested and locked up in London-placed on trial and duly acquitted on suspicion of being JtR. Upon aquittal he claims to have been give money to by new clothes.

7. arrived in America via steamer April 10 1889 from London where upon the murders in London stopped and similar killings took place in America.


Now I've never been a fan of the theory that two men were at work but its not unheard of of one murder to have an accomplice that either actively took part or was dominated and afraid of the main perpetrator and there is at least some evidence that 2 men could of been involved at some level for some of the killings....

What I'd love to know (but have no way of finding out other than to appeal to the skilled and knowledgeable researchers on the forums) is

A. Where was Arbie La Bruckman aka John Francis staying in London?

B. Was his Cousin Ameer Ben Ali with him in London at any point during 1888?



If any of the assertions made here are false please tell me!

Thanks for reading I hope my ramblings made sense!

[Errata]

Hi,

A. Where was Arbie La Bruckman aka John Francis staying in London?

B. Was his Cousin Ameer Ben Ali with him in London at any point during 1888?

I cannot answer either question. However, there may be another AKA here that may prove useful.

Geographically speaking, the name Arbie La Bruckman is a mess. Arbie is french, clearly La is French, Bruckman is German. La Bruckman is a very bizarre mashup of french and german, and anyway, technically it should be Le Bruckman, as Bruckman is masculine and not feminine. If someone wishes to convert their name to something more french, it is far more likely that they would translate the name to french, not just stick a french "La" in front of it. So it's definitely a weird name.

Which isn't to say this doesn't happen. I grew up with a Klaus Rising Eagle. Everyone thought he was lying. He was not.

Ameer Ben Ali is also kind of strange. Ameer and Ali are both Muslim names. However, the correct name in Muslim form should be Ameer Bin Ali, or Ameer Ibn Ali. Ameer Ben Ali is a Jewish form of "Ameer son of Ali". Which could mean he was Jewish, but then why on earth would he and his father have such markedly Muslim names? Now it's certainly possible that the man said "Bin" and the guy writing it down heard "Ben", but thats the kind of thing people usually get a little upset about, and correct. So it's interesting.

Ben Ali sounds Algerian... ie: a French Colonial from North Africa (Algeria is as good as any place else) . If he and La Bruckman are first cousins, then possibilities arise. Ben Ali likely had two North African parents. Clearly his father was, and the notion of a good french girl marrying a colonial is still kinda not done. This would mean that La Bruckman would have to have at least one Algerian parent, and if his real last name was La Bruckman, it would have to be his mother. If he had a relationship with his cousin at all, that would typically mean he also had a Muslim identity. I say this because people who marry outside the faith were generally cut off by the family, unless some remnant of the faith remained (same with many Jews). If he had a Muslim identity, likely he had a Muslim name that his extended family called him by. Which would mean a third name he could go by, rent rooms by, whatever. But La Bruckman is such an odd name, it could be false. Or it could be so odd that it has to be true

The real kicker would be if you found that La Bruckman and Ben Ali were never in the same place at the same time. And then I think it becomes a possibility that Ben Ali WAS La Bruckman's Muslim name. Just to add some 1940's mystery plot twist to your day.

So I guess really my purpose here has just been to possibly make your search that much more difficult, and certainly be of no real assistance. It's my way.

[Versa]

He's certainly a mystery....

I wouldnt be suprised if neither of the names listed for him were real at all, I rather suspect that he had several aliases. I supose that he at least spoke French due to his nickname of 'Frenchy'. They were 'supposed' to be Algerians and I see no reason to disput that fact at least. I don't know if they were true cousins or just called 'cousins' because they were close friends and came from the same region....

Its certain that Ben Ali and La Bruckman were different people as their descriptions were very different and they were known to people at the time (according to Michael Conlon's dissertation here on the boards) as 'Frenchy 1 and Frenchy 2'.

I wonder what name was listed as on the boat that he worked on and if its possible to work out where that boat was docked while it was in London..... Also which name he was arrested under iin London and America (New York i think)

Was there an area in Whitechapel that Sailors would stay while on leave or was that totally arbitary?

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Hi Versa.

If any of the assertions made here are false please tell me!

Okay, here goes.

1. He is in London when JtR is killing and America when similar murders occur and at least in the case of Carrie Brown, alias "Old Shakespeare" murdered- April 24?, 1891 he does appear to be the likely culprit.

La Bruckman was a drover aboard cattle boats which did sail to the UK but we don’t know exactly when he was there, in which British Port, or when he was in New York or sailing across the Atlantic. He claimed to have been in London around Christmas, 1889, but that’s all we can say for sure. Other than the murder of Carrie Brown, 24 April, 1891, there were no “similar murders” in America and La Bruckman didn’t kill Brown, a Danish stablehand named “Frank” (no last name) did.

2. He is arrested in BOTH London and America on suspicion of being the ripper/murderer.

Actually his story changed several times in the space of a day. He claimed to have been arrested in London on suspicion of being the Ripper, held for a period of time and then released due to lack of evidence. He also said he was held several weeks and then put on trial but was found innocent. His ever changing story had him in custody for two weeks, four weeks and six weeks. There is absolutely no evidence to support any of this anywhere. He was arrested in connection with the Carrie Brown murder not by the New York Police but by the Jersey City Police who assumed that he was “Frenchy No. 2.” When a New York Central Office Detective arrived to interview him he was quickly released because he wasn’t “Frenchy No. 2” and had no connection with the Brown murder.

3. His description- was of a light complexion. He had a light brown moustache, light hair, long, sharp nose and might of been wearing 'sailors clothing' matches that of at least some of the descriptions of JtR.

This is the description given by Mary Miniter of the man who entered the East River Hotel with Carrie Brown and who murdered her. This is not the description of Arbie La Bruckman. La Bruckman had a dark complexion, black hair and a dark brown mustache.

4. He was known to be cruel to animals "the sailors on the cattle ships tell horrible stories of his cruelty to the dumb brutes in his care. When one of these animals would break a leg or receive some injury that necessitated its slaughter, 'Frenchy', they say, would take apparent delight in carving it up alive while the sailors looked on. No one dared oppose him, his temper was so bad."

This story comes from an anonymous writer and it appeared in the New York World, 30 April, 1891. The writer got some of the facts surrounding La Bruckman’s life wrong. No one else ever corroborated the story of La Bruckman’s supposed cruelty to animals and other, more credible, sources stated that La Bruckman was a conscientious and hard worker who was fairly mild in character and that several Steamship Captains specifically asked for him when crewing their ships.

5. He had a cousin 'Ameer Ben Ali' who looked very much like him but was described as a "dark complexioned man with a black moustache and black hair. This description also fits some of the descriptions given by witnesses.

La Bruckman and Ameer Ben Ali weren’t cousins, nor, apparently, had they ever met. The problem, caused by Michael Conlon’s sloppy research, is that Arbie La Bruckman wasn’t the man known as “Frenchy No. 2,” or “Frenchy’s [Ameer Ben Ali’s] cousin.” This was another man altogether who was interviewed by the New York Police and cleared due to his air tight alibi.

: 6. A little after Christmas, 1889 he was arrested and locked up in London-placed on trial and duly acquitted on suspicion of being JtR. Upon aquittal he claims to have been give money to by new clothes.

See above.

7. arrived in America via steamer April 10 1889 from London where upon the murders in London stopped and similar killings took place in America.

La Bruckman lived in and around New York and only traveled to the UK because of his job on cattle boats. There were no other similar killings in America.

To answer your two questions:

A. Where was Arbie La Bruckman aka John Francis staying in London?

No one knows, although he didn’t use the alias “John Francis.” John Francis was supposedly one of Ameer Ben Ali’s aliases which has been confused with Arbie La Bruckman by Michael Conlon because of newspaper garbling between “Frenchy No. 1,” “Frenchy No. 2.”

B. Was his Cousin Ameer Ben Ali with him in London at any point during 1888?

As far as we know Ameer Ben Ali was never in London at any time. His timeline is unclear but around 1888 he traveled from Algiers, his home, to Tunis and from there to the port of Marseille, France, where he boarded a ship for Para in Brazil. He eventually made his way to New York.

Hope this helps.

Wolf.

[Versa]

Hi wolf,

thanks for clearing all that up for me

I want my 15 mins back from reading that dissertaion then! If it is clearly all wrong and nonsence it ought to be removed from the boards or at the very least come with a warning that its full of errors.