Francis Spurzheim Craig

[richardnunweek]

Hi
There is a lot of points that fit in this theory, but I still go back to Elizabeth McCarthy's sending personal effects on to the dead woman's army brother Johnto..
According to the author his family relative . who he calls Johnto, was not in the Scots guards, in order for him to be right , we have to discount not only Mrs, M, but Barnett, who also mentions that regiment..
I am not suggesting that his theory is not without merit, but a lot of what we have accepted over the years, has to be tossed away..?
Regards Richard.

[Hatchett]

Hi

If he is wearing glasses in the sketch they could have been reading glasses, in which case he would not have needed them for murder.

Best wishes.

[Sally]

I think most people believe that a journalist was behind the "Dear Boss" letter proving who wrote it would be a very exciting twist to this story but it dosnt mean we have found jack the ripper.I wouldn't be to surprised that shortly after the murders that some senior policemen did some sleuthing and checked some journalists handwriting .

You're right Jason, proving the author of the Dear Boss letter wouldn't prove that the same person was the Ripper.

Having said that, if there was sufficient cause to think that it might have been Craig; and if EWD did turn out to have been MJK - well, I think that would be quite interesting.

[Sally]

Hi
There is a lot of points that fit in this theory, but I still go back to Elizabeth McCarthy's sending personal effects on to the dead woman's army brother Johnto..
According to the author his family relative . who he calls Johnto, was not in the Scots guards, in order for him to be right , we have to discount not only Mrs, M, but Barnett, who also mentions that regiment..
I am not suggesting that his theory is not without merit, but a lot of what we have accepted over the years, has to be tossed away..?
Regards Richard.

Hi Richard,

Do we need to discount anybody? All we need to accept is that MJK's story may not have been 100% factual - a mixture of fact and fiction, perhaps. If [another 'if'] she was EWD adopting an identity, we might expect that parts of her story might have been invented.

Perhaps the point, in this case, is that there do seem to be ample points of connection between what can be shown of EWD's life and the stories told by MJK to warrant a closer look.

They may well have been the same woman - time will tell.

[pinkmoon]

[QUOTE=Sally;348711]You're right Jason, proving the author of the Dear Boss letter wouldn't prove that the same person was the Ripper.

Having said that, if there was sufficient cause to think that it might have been Craig; and if EWD did turn out to have been MJK - well, I think that would be quite interesting.[/QUOTE
I wonder why Mr Davies has waited so late in his life to go public about this story.

[jmenges]

the sketching of him at Annie Chapman's inquest,looks to me,to be showing he wore glasses.If this is correct,did any witness sightings of 'jack' mention a suspect with glasses?
Or would he have taken them off prior to his slayings?

Not a witness, but a brothel owner named Bella Freeman was reported to have a photograph of the Ripper, from which this illustration is was based.



Read all about it over at Howard's:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?p=102057

JM

[Livia]

Hi
There is a lot of points that fit in this theory, but I still go back to Elizabeth McCarthy's sending personal effects on to the dead woman's army brother Johnto..
According to the author his family relative . who he calls Johnto, was not in the Scots guards, in order for him to be right , we have to discount not only Mrs, M, but Barnett, who also mentions that regiment..
I am not suggesting that his theory is not without merit, but a lot of what we have accepted over the years, has to be tossed away..?
Regards Richard.

Hello Richard,

We only have Mrs McCarthy's word that she sent
on MJK's things to her brother in the Scot's Guards.
And yet, just last year a McCarthy descendant donated
an ornate fish knife, said to have been passed down in her
family (from Jack to Steve to Shaun who used it as
a letter opener) which was auctioned off at the
conference. (A common streetwalker who owned a
fish knife when most of them used whatever utensils
were available in the common kitchens of the lodging
houses?) MJK was behind in her rent at the time of
her death according to McCarthy.

So far, no link has been found between a Kelly and
the Scot's Guards. But there is a link (admittedly
tenuous) between EWD and the Guards. Her former
employer, Lady Mary Cornelia Vane-Tempest, had
a brother in law Adolphus Vane-Tempest, who was
a member of the Scot's Fusilier Guards (which became
the Scot's Guards in 1877 by order of Victoria) for many
years. It could be that EWD combined a detail from her
employer's family with her brother John to create a sibling
who served in the Army and then told Barnett about it,
who told Mrs McCarthy.

So if EWD was employed by the Vane-Tempests
(and it appears that she could have been as she was
living as a lady's maid in 1881 on the street behind
the Vane-Tempest's London home on Park Lane), then
this could explain MJK's possession of the fish knife and
the connection to the Scot's Guards.

Liv

[Livia]

Not a witness, but a brothel owner named Bella Freeman was reported to have a photograph of the Ripper, from which this illustration is was based.



Read all about it over at Howard's:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?p=102057

JM

Edward Thomas Craig, father of Francis Spurzheim Craig
from 1883.

[DJA]

A Wikipedia page was started today.

[pinkmoon]

Hi
There is a lot of points that fit in this theory, but I still go back to Elizabeth McCarthy's sending personal effects on to the dead woman's army brother Johnto..
According to the author his family relative . who he calls Johnto, was not in the Scots guards, in order for him to be right , we have to discount not only Mrs, M, but Barnett, who also mentions that regiment..
I am not suggesting that his theory is not without merit, but a lot of what we have accepted over the years, has to be tossed away..?
Regards Richard.

It was very easy to enlist in the British army with no questions asked I recently read a book about rourkes drift and the author was unable to identify some on the defenders because they had enlisted under false names.

[Sally]

The drawing potentially showing Craig at the Chapman Inquest does resemble both of those above somewhat.

Whatever that means.

[Abby Normal]

I wonder if the sideburns and glasses were gone by 1888 and if he grew a mustache.

Not really looking like any of the witness descriptions though.

[Robert]

The sketch of ETC reminds me of Anthony Hopkins.

[Abby Normal]

when did Francis Craig kill himself?

[Sally]

1903

Razor, apparently.