The 'Dartmoor' Suspect

[Cap'n Jack]

Sometime shortly after 1888, Joseph Holland - aka Joseph Frederick Pearson - found himself locked up in Dartmoor for five years. He was quite mad.
Bouncing around from asylum to asylum he was eventually detained at HMP in Broadmoor for murdering a woman unknown to him by cutting her throat and mutilating her with a hammer. This was in 1896 when he was 27.
What sort of caught my eye though was his ravings about a 'coin table' and his attempts to use arithmetic to explain things.

[revpetero]

Definitely got hold of a candidate for serial nutcase killer. Just too young? if we go by common theories and supposed witnesses. JTR jnr?

[Cap'n Jack]

I thought him to be the perfect age.

[revpetero]

if he was 27 in 1896 then 19 in 1888.

Old enough to commit the crimes but surely not to fit the description.

[Tom_Wescott]

Only enough to have committed murder in 1888, certainly, but not old enough for a sight to have committed THESE murders.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[aspallek]

I don't know much about this suspect but I wouldn't absolutely rule him out due to his age. Some people look far older than they actually are and it was very dark, after all. Witness descriptions are not the most reliable information to go on.

[aspallek]

From The Illustrated Police News of 1 Feb 1896:





The same, 8 Feb 1886:

[Tom_Wescott]

I don't know much about this suspect but I wouldn't absolutely rule him out due to his age. Some people look far older than they actually are and it was very dark, after all. Witness descriptions are not the most reliable information to go on.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm ruling out this suspect based on the crimes committed and not the witness descriptions. A kid DID NOT commit the Ripper murders. That should be obvious to anyone who has studied murder.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[aspallek]

Hiya Tom,

He doesn't seem a particularly good suspect to me at the moment, either, because there is nothing to tie him with the WM and no indication that the police suspected him of the WM. One or the other almost needs to be true in order to have a viable suspect. However, a 19-year old man is not a "kid."

I don't know for sure but #4 here may be him. He is the right age in the 1881census:

1. Name James PEARSON Relationship Head Condition M Gender M Age 44 Occupation Carpenter Birthplace St Georges, Middlesex, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

2. Name Charlotte PEARSON Relationship Wife Condition M Gender F Age 42 Occupation – Birthplace Camberwell, Surrey, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

3. Name James L. PEARSON Relationship Son Condition U Gender M Age 20 Occupation – Birthplace Kensington, Middlesex, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

4. Name Joseph PEARSON Relationship Son Condition U Gender M Age 12 Occupation – Birthplace Kensington, Middlesex, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

5. Name Ellen PEARSON Relationship Daur Condition U Gender F Age 9 Occupation – Birthplace Kensington, Middlesex, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

6. Name Caroline PEARSON Relationship Daur Condition – Gender F Age 6 Occupation – Birthplace Kensington, Middlesex, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

7. Name Louisa PEARSON Relationship Daur Condition – Gender F Age 4 Occupation – Birthplace Fulham, Middlesex, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

8. Name Isabella LEGGE Relationship Lodger Condition U Gender F Age 20 Occupation Housekeeper (Dom) Birthplace Dorset, York, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

9. Name Elizabeth LEGGE Relationship Lodger Condition U Gender F Age 27 Occupation Cook Birthplace Hook, Dorset, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

10. Name Sarah L. LEGGE Relationship Lodger Condition U Gender F Age 24 Occupation Milliner Etc Birthplace Hook, Dorset, England Address 5 Ashton Road, London, Middlesex, England PRO ref RG11/0067 Folio 24 Page 44 FHL film no. 1341015
Amount paid £0.00

[Cap'n Jack]

Thanks for all that, Andy.
I'm trying to see if I can't get more information on the offence he committed for which he was in Dartmoor for 5 years. It is listed as 'house breaking' or something similar, but he would not have had 5 years in Dartmoor for that.

Tom, in direct contrast to you, I have always seen the hand of a 'kid' in the Whitechapel Murders. The crimes are the immature tinkerings of a child, or at least an adult suffering from arrested development.
Funny how this killer throws his victim down the stairs first.
Now who does that remind me of?

[Chris Scott]

The Times
29 January 1896

At West London, Jospeh Frederick Pearson, who had given the name of "Joseph Holland," was brought up on remand charged with the wilful murder of Annie Florence Chambers, who occupied the house at 12 Greenside road, Shepherd's Bush, on January 20, by cutting her throat. Mr. Sims appeared to prosecute on bahalf of the Treasury, the prisoner being defended by Mr. Hanson; Mr. Nicholas Moody watched the case on behalf of the family of the deceased. The circumstances in which the crime were committed were reported on the 22nd inst., and the prisoner, who is said to have exhibited symptoms of being "queer in the head" was committed for trial on the capital charge.

Described in IPN as a coachman.
Possible in 1891:
H M Prison Gillingham
Convict:
Joseph Holland aged 21 born Bermondsey

However, from AP's info Holand would still have been in Dartmoor at the time of the 1891 census:
"Sometime shortly after 1888... Holland found himself locked up in Dartmoor for five years"
There is a listing of 1891 prisoners at Dartmoor Prison at

http://blacksheepancestors.com/uk/dartmoor.shtml

There is no Joseph Pearson or Joseph Holland listed.
The Devon County Asylum from 1845 was at Exminster which fibnally closed in 1985
There were also the Exeter City Asylum and Plymouth Borough Asylum
I cannot find info that Dartmoor Prison was used as an asylum and in 1891 it is definitely listed as a "convict prison."
In 1881 I cannot find a listing for the Joseph Holland born in Bermondsey listed as convict in 1891. However there is a Joseph Pearson of the right age and place of birth:
4 Falcon Terrace, Camberwell
Head: James Pearson aged 44 born Bermondsey - Leather dresser
Wife: Elaine Pearson aged 43 born Hampshire
Children:
Charles aged 20 - Plasterer?
William aged 18 - Barman
Joseph aged 12
Benjamin aged 10
Eliza aged 6
All born in Bermondsey

[Cap'n Jack]

Thanks chaps, this is the quote from Dr. Bastian:

'I ascertained that he was in Dartmoor five years—he was sentenced to six years' penal servitude for house-breaking—after his discharge he was at Pentonville a week, he was then sent home on September 25th—I did not ask him as to his treatment at the infirmary.'

[Chris Scott]

Here is the Old Bailey link to the trial

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?path=sessionsPapers%2F18960224.xml

[Cap'n Jack]

Thanks Chris.
I must say that a sentence of 5 to 6 years was remarkable for 'house breaking'.
The normal sentence would have been 12 to 15 months.
Something not quite right here.

[Cap'n Jack]

And Tom, Dr. Bastian specialised in these sort of murder cases, and in 1886 he was giving evidence against a man who brutally murdered a young girl in Whitechapel.
The killer was aged 18 at the time.