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Between 1890 - 1891 Francis Hermann was a pastor who moved from England to America, traveling around under settling in Salt Lake City. At the time of his disappearance he was suspected of killing 7 with two confirmed murders of women who attended his church.
Nothing is known of his life in England except it was reported he had a wife there who mysteriously disappeared and he was well educated. He is thought to be 45 years of age in 1896 and therefore born in 1851.
He was very interested in human anatomy and dissection.
The first confirmed victim was poisoned, dismembered and burned and the second confirmed victim was poisoned, dismembered and her body parts placed in a wooden box to be transported with him to Kansas city. This was confirmed when a box of poisonous drugs discovered. He had also recently performed an abortion on the second victim.
The murder weapons used were two razors and a large butchers knife from England.
To me this seems very similar to the Thames Torso Killer. First of all, Elizabeth Jackson had a abortion performed on her before her death and there is potential she was poisoned. However her stomach was removed making it impossible to confirm. The last torso killing was in 1889 which would fit in with the timeline of him moving to America. And the fact he was born in 1851 would mean he was old enough to have committed the 1873-4 torso murders.
Due to him taking the dismembered body parts with him to Kansas before his disappeared I wonder if he intended to distribute them around the city like the torso killer did.
He is described in 1896 as 45 years of age, five feet six inches high, 180 pounds and sandy hair and mustache.
I checked the census, birth and death archives for England and discovered that his name must be an alias he used upon arriving in America as their are only three records of anyone by the name of Francis Hermann in England, the first was a death certificate in 1871 Bethnal Green, and the second was a Census in 1881 for a Francis Hermann living in Poplar, however he was born in 1838 making he too old to be our and the final record was for the older Francis Hermann who died the same year as the Census in 1881. I do wonder if murders used alias of people the knew especially if they were deceased. I know James Kelly used the name of his dead father he had never met as a common alias. If, and a big if, hypothetically our one knew one of these Francis Hermann's and used his name as an alias then it would be a link to the close vicinity of the torso killings.
One of the biggest questions for me is where did the information come from about the potential murder of his wife in England, because if it was from British police I wonder what they were investigating him for.
Sources:
Nothing is known of his life in England except it was reported he had a wife there who mysteriously disappeared and he was well educated. He is thought to be 45 years of age in 1896 and therefore born in 1851.
He was very interested in human anatomy and dissection.
The first confirmed victim was poisoned, dismembered and burned and the second confirmed victim was poisoned, dismembered and her body parts placed in a wooden box to be transported with him to Kansas city. This was confirmed when a box of poisonous drugs discovered. He had also recently performed an abortion on the second victim.
The murder weapons used were two razors and a large butchers knife from England.
To me this seems very similar to the Thames Torso Killer. First of all, Elizabeth Jackson had a abortion performed on her before her death and there is potential she was poisoned. However her stomach was removed making it impossible to confirm. The last torso killing was in 1889 which would fit in with the timeline of him moving to America. And the fact he was born in 1851 would mean he was old enough to have committed the 1873-4 torso murders.
Due to him taking the dismembered body parts with him to Kansas before his disappeared I wonder if he intended to distribute them around the city like the torso killer did.
He is described in 1896 as 45 years of age, five feet six inches high, 180 pounds and sandy hair and mustache.
I checked the census, birth and death archives for England and discovered that his name must be an alias he used upon arriving in America as their are only three records of anyone by the name of Francis Hermann in England, the first was a death certificate in 1871 Bethnal Green, and the second was a Census in 1881 for a Francis Hermann living in Poplar, however he was born in 1838 making he too old to be our and the final record was for the older Francis Hermann who died the same year as the Census in 1881. I do wonder if murders used alias of people the knew especially if they were deceased. I know James Kelly used the name of his dead father he had never met as a common alias. If, and a big if, hypothetically our one knew one of these Francis Hermann's and used his name as an alias then it would be a link to the close vicinity of the torso killings.
One of the biggest questions for me is where did the information come from about the potential murder of his wife in England, because if it was from British police I wonder what they were investigating him for.
Sources:
Attached Files