Jack The Ripper solved?

[Lechmere]

Ha!
My guess is the picture is intentionally vague to conjure the general feeling and to fit in with numerous accounts - so that figure could be intended to be either Hutchinson, the Lewis wide awake hat man or Cox!
All rolled into one.

[Jon Guy]

Here she is with that hat on ... ?

[Lechmere]

It looks like it's supposed to be a man to me - facing away.

[Jon Guy]

There was also that man with top hat in the backyard of 29 Hanbury St.

[Jon Guy]

The main one I would suggest is clearly Hutchinson’s A-man – notice there’s a man lurking at the end of the court.
.

Isn`t that Mary Ann Cox at the end of the court in the Mr A illustration.

[Nick Spring]

Hi Nick, as the pub was run by Mrs Ringer I would presume both. I recall that Melvin Harris once commented on this illustration to me saying that he wondered if the drawing was totally accurate and that it actually had 'Ringers' painted on it.

Hi Stewart,

Thanks for that, yes that's what made me wonder seeing Ringers on the illustration.

Best

Nick

[Lechmere]

I think the top hat image of 17th November is probably impressionisitic, to give a general feel for the atmosphere preceding Kelly’s death, and is probably a composite of several statements. The main one I would suggest is clearly Hutchinson’s A-man – notice there’s a man lurking at the end of the court.
This is interesting as it illustrates (doubly so) that Hutchinson’s tale was still being given credence at that date.
If a top hat was so out of place in the East End, I doubt it would have been incorporated into that picture as it would have struck people as ridiculous and undermined the intended effect.
If well-dressed people populated the contemporary stories then we have no reason to doubt the possibility of their existence.
For example we know Abberline believed Hutchinson’s toff tale and also believed that Hutchinson could see the details he mentioned with the level of lighting available at that hour. I would suggest that Abberline was in a better position to determine what was believable in Hutchinson's account than we are now.
This area of the East End was not one of total and unrelenting squalor. This is a myth that was born of these murders – as a contrast and moral reproach to West End society.
I keep saying that according to Booth this district ranked 58th out of the 134 that he divided London into, in terms of poverty for 1888-89. This was despite it containing the largest concentration of Common Lodging Houses in the East End. Without those lodging houses skewing the data it would undoubtedly have been quite affluent.

[Stewart P Evans]

Ringers

Hi Stewart,
Interesting stuff and a great illustration of the Britannia. Was it just known locally as Ringers or the Britannia or both.
Best
Nick

Hi Nick, as the pub was run by Mrs Ringer I would presume both. I recall that Melvin Harris once commented on this illustration to me saying that he wondered if the drawing was totally accurate and that it actually had 'Ringers' painted on it.

[Nick Spring]

Ringers

The top hatted image of the Ripper depicted on the cover of the Penny Illustrated Paper of 17 November 1888 obviously originated from, or owed a lot to, the story of the suspicious 'gentleman' given by Mrs Paumier in the very same issue.

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Hi Stewart,

Interesting stuff and a great illustration of the Britannia. Was it just known locally as Ringers or the Britannia or both.

Best

Nick

[Stewart P Evans]

'A Swell'

Continuing in the same vein, the Ludwig coffee stall incident of 19 September 1888, occurred in the area at 3-45 am. Fineberg, the victim, described the well dressed Ludwig by stating, "There goes a swell..."

[Stewart P Evans]

Some of the villains...

Some of the villains were obviously well dressed too, as witness this report of 4 September 1888.

[Stewart P Evans]

Top Hatted Image

The top hatted image of the Ripper depicted on the cover of the Penny Illustrated Paper of 17 November 1888 obviously originated from, or owed a lot to, the story of the suspicious 'gentleman' given by Mrs Paumier in the very same issue.

[Stewart P Evans]

Well dressed

...
The fact that the popular depiction of Jack as a "top-hatted toff" is not a modern Hollywood invention (as rightly pointed out) doesn't make it any more ridiculously remote from the likely appearance of the real killer. There were certainly no reliable police-endorsed witnesses who described men with top hats, capes or gladstone bags in the company of the victims, whereas there were several reports of opulently dressed men being accosted in that area for appearing conspicuously wealthy and out-of-place.
It is extremely doubtful that doctors and theatre-goers working and playing in Whitechapel were "upper class, wealthy men" or that they wore clothes befitting of same in the small hours. The Pavilion theatre, far from being the reserve of "toffs", was known to cater for Yiddish theatrical tastes, in recognition of the large, local, non-wealthy Jewish community. And the vast majority of "slummers" had nouse enough to dress down for the occasion.
So I'd suggest forgetting the idea that the alleged (but very unlikely) presence of toffs wearing expensive-looking clothes on the streets of Whitechapel played any part at all in the contemporary image of Jack in a top hat. It is perhaps more likely that popular culture, specifically the performances of Jekyll and Hyde, were influential in that regard.
In summary, then:
Is Jack the top-hatted toff a purely modern depiction?
No.
Does that stop it from being utter nonsense?
No.
As you were...
All the best,
Ben

They didn't have to be 'toffs', or even 'opulently dressed' to be wearing a top (silk) hat and be well dressed.

There is ample evidence to show that well dressed men were indeed in Whitechapel at night. Some even wearing top hats. Indeed many newspapers actually reported a statement by McCarthy that Mary Kelly herself had been seen at 11.00 pm, on the eve of her murder, in the Britannia with a 'very respectable, well dressed', young man with a dark moustache.

[Ben]

I'd like very briefly to address a tangential issue raised here in relation to one particular "ripper myth", before returning - immediately, and without a fuss - back on topic.

The fact that the popular depiction of Jack as a "top-hatted toff" is not a modern Hollywood invention (as rightly pointed out) doesn't make it any more ridiculously remote from the likely appearance of the real killer. There were certainly no reliable police-endorsed witnesses who described men with top hats, capes or gladstone bags in the company of the victims, whereas there were several reports of opulently dressed men being accosted in that area for appearing conspicuously wealthy and out-of-place.

It is extremely doubtful that doctors and theatre-goers working and playing in Whitechapel were "upper class, wealthy men" or that they wore clothes befitting of same in the small hours. The Pavilion theatre, far from being the reserve of "toffs", was known to cater for Yiddish theatrical tastes, in recognition of the large, local, non-wealthy Jewish community. And the vast majority of "slummers" had nouse enough to dress down for the occasion.

So I'd suggest forgetting the idea that the alleged (but very unlikely) presence of toffs wearing expensive-looking clothes on the streets of Whitechapel played any part at all in the contemporary image of Jack in a top hat. It is perhaps more likely that popular culture, specifically the performances of Jekyll and Hyde, were influential in that regard.

In summary, then:

Is Jack the top-hatted toff a purely modern depiction?

No.

Does that stop it from being utter nonsense?

No.

As you were...

All the best,
Ben

[Tom_Wescott]

Its not that what you seem to dismiss is flawed. It just doesn't sell like a new suspect, or a new angle on this 125 year old case does. Being contrary to what's established gets attention. And notoriety and attention is what its all about, isn't it? You are not the first of this genre, Trevor, and you won't be the last. And thus, myths about these events and what took place will continue to be perpetuated because it is ripe for the picking.

Hi Cris. Can you think of any other well-known Ripper books from say the 90's or later that presented a new suspect and offered ideas "contrary to what's established" that you actually liked and feel are worthwhile or are you saying they're all just hack pieces of notoriety seeking Yankee dollar machines?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott