Author of New Book Claims Francis Thompson Was the Ripper

[Whitechapel]

Thanks Rosella.

I like Richard Patterson's theory because in my opinion the Ripper hated women and the focus of his anger was directed at female prostitutes, unique in the way he mutilated them after he had slit their throat.

Richard provides not only a motive but a reason for the timing, that is critical in the Ripper enquiries, ie why did he start ? and why did he stop ? I also like Tumblety as a suspect as he was a woman hater with anatomical knowledge. He started over the Summer as he arrived in England for his holiday and it ended when he returned to America.

I think the other significant factor for timing is the pattern around the end of the first week and the end of the month at weekends. I think Richard will have to explain this. I like Trevor Marriott's theory as it focuses on this timing and explains it as corresponding to the movements of merchant seaman. Of course you can turn it on its head and say that the timing was determined by the work patterns of prostitutes who worked at night as these women were the focus of interest.

In answer to Richard & Karl's 3 points and replies.
1. The murder weapon was never found but what if there was more than one knife and he arrived with a wallet of knives. There could have been one knife to slit the throats and another to dissect the victims. The police surgeon Frederick Gordon Brown who examined Catherine Eddowes mentions the liver and thigh being stabbed with a pointed instrument but at the same time talks of another 2 jagged cuts. Also on Eddowes and Kelly the eyelids were removed that must have involved a smaller and finer knife. Brown said "The wounds on the face and abdomen prove that they were inflicted by a sharp, pointed knife, and that in the abdomen by one six inches or longer. "
2. The police surgeon Frederick Gordon Brown said after examining Catherine Eddowes "I believe the perpetrator of the act must have had considerable knowledge of the position of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them. It required a great deal of medical knowledge to have removed the kidney and to know where it was placed. The parts removed would be of no use for any professional purpose." I have no medical knowledge so I defer to him. I think it is significant that the killer was selective of the organs. There seemed to be a purpose and it was not a case of just a frenzied slash at the body so the 'Ripper' tag maybe a misnomer. There was more damage to Kelly's body because the killer wanted more organs.

Finally there have been articles in the papers recently about 'the Yorkshire Ripper' Peter Sutcliffe and his motives. He started killing prostitutes because he heard a voice in his head while he was grave digging that he interpreted as from God telling him to kill prostitutes. "It kept saying I had got to go on a mission and it had a purpose. It was to remove the prostitutes. To get rid of them"(The Sun on Sunday 11.10.15). His Modus Operandi was to hit them on the head with a hammer. "Hammers and screwdrivers were his killing tools of choice and he also took along a knife to disembowel and mutilate his victims, earning himself his Ripper nickname . . The knife was part of a wedding gift when he married Sonia in 1974" (The Sun on Sunday 11.10.15).

His motive was a hatred of women. "Sutcliffe found out his girlfriend Sonia had been seeing another man, and he had recently had his first experience with a prostitute. He claimed she had fiddled him out of £5 change and made him a laughing stock at the local pub" (The Sun on Sunday 11.10.15).
Of his second victim Emily Jackson, he said "I was seething with hate for her". He attacked his 12th victim Marguerite Walls shouting "filthy prostitute" (The Sun on Sunday 11.10.15).

The timing of the nights was determined by his wife. "A year after their wedding while Sonia was working night shifts at a care home, Sutcliffe began his reign of terror" (The Sun on Sunday 11.10.15).

Is it a case of hell hath no fury like a MAN scorned ?

Anyway I hope Richard finds a publisher and he puts his argument out there. There are 35 suspects listed on this forum including Thompson and all the evidence is circumstantial and wouldn't convince a jury. Sutcliffe was only caught red handed by police officers when he had a prostitute in his car. He was local to the Yorkshire area.

[spyglass]

A new book!
Blimey just what I need, still getting to grips with Bruce Robinson's 800 pager.( a book that hasn't caused to much debate on here strangle, unlike on JTR Forums ).
Isn't that at least three this year already? and I feel still more to come.

Regards.

[SuspectZero]

My books have gone through different incarnations since 1997. You wil find some versions free to read if you trawl through the net. Last year I wrote a horror novel on the theory that Thompson was the Ripper. (Francis Thompson and the Ripper Paradox) This currently sells on Amazon and although in reading it, you will learn heaps about Thompson, most might find it too expensive. My new book (Francis Thompson - A Ripper Suspect) is only at Manuscript stage and will be available as a book when I secure a publisher and have it looked at by a good editor. While the 2014 novel is chiefly concerned in providing a strong narrative and biography of Thompson, the new book will be non-fiction and be aimed at sharing all that 20 years of research can do to show what makes him a strong candidate for the Ripper.

My website for the book is designed as an online book proposal.

http://www.francisjthompson.com/

It also has a detailed breakdown of the contents of the planned book and a history of the theory in newspaper reports, reviews and articles I have written for the Whitechapel Journal and the Ripperologists. BTW I have written to casebook a few times asking if I could update my very early summary on Thompson in their suspects section, but nobody has ever responded. Here is the summary, much like what i would suggest.

-----

The theory began in 1988, on the centenary of the murders, when the article titled, 'Was Francis Thompson Jack the Ripper?’ came out in the Criminologist. The writer was, forensic pathologist, Dr Joseph C Rupp, M.D., Ph.D. He was the Medical Examiner for Nueces County, Texas.

Further research shows Thompson, whose fame grew soon after the murders, lived in Whitechapel. He was there when all the prostitutes were murders. It is true too that on the night that the 5th victim, Mary Kelly was killed, he could look from the room that had his bed, to the covered passage, that led to the room that had her bed. Supposedly, Mary Kelly and Thompson stayed at the same address. A friend of his is believed to have said Thompson and Mary were friends.

Thompson was ex-medical school student, who kept a dissecting knife under his coat. He was also taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of the victim. Before the murders and after the murders he was writing about killing prostitutes with knives. His alibi for being in Whitechapel was that he was seeking out a prostitute who had jilted him.

Prior 1888, he had showed signs of religious mania, pyromania and the urge to mutilate females. He had a nervous breakdown, being in trouble with the police, had became a drug addict, been rejected by the priesthood, failed six years of medical school, kicked out of the, army, and fired from his jobs at a medical instruments factory and shoemaker.

The editor, who rescued Thompson from homelessness in Mid-November 1888, had a keen interested in the Ripper murders. He tightly controlled Thompson’s finances and the poet, who was hardly known in his lifetime, lived the life of a hermit. After Thompson died, his editor altered and destroyed much of Thompson’s personal papers.

I believe he was an opium user. I have a letter from someone who refers to a letter she owns from Thompson with opium stains on it. Coincidentally, the letter I have referring to this is from Marie Belloc Lowndes, the author of "The Lodger".

[Richard Patterson]

I believe he was an opium user. I have a letter from someone who refers to a letter she owns from Thompson with opium stains on it. Coincidentally, the letter I have referring to this is from Marie Belloc Lowndes, the author of "The Lodger".

I do like coincidences. Of course if Thompson is not Jack the Ripper that's all they are. It must be further coincidences that Thompson's editor, Wilfrid Meynell, who rescued Thompson off the streets of Spitalfields, a few days after the murder of Mary Kelly, knew Belloc Lowndes. Meynell was a lifelong friend and neighbour of Hilair Belloc, her brother. Another coincidence is that Meynell, who had a strong interest in the Ripper murders, worked for Methuen, they were the publishers that released the Lodger. Methuen's officers were on the same street and two doors down, from Meynell's offices. Coincidences continue - An inquest is held in Lowndes’ novel where an eyewitness, gives a description of a suspect that conforms eerily to that of the poet suspect Thompson.

'He was a grim, gaunt man, was this stranger, Mr Coroner with a very odd-looking face, I should say an educated man in common parlance, a gentleman. What drew my special attention to him was that he was talking aloud to himself- in fact he seemed to be repeating poetry.'

Funny enough (sorry coincidentally) the Lodger was first published in 1913 while also in 1913 Thompson's complete works (which includes Thompson's 1889 only story about a man who makes a female victim unconscious and then stabs her to death) was first published. Needless to say both Belloc and Meynell made a fortune from their Ripper-like fictions.

[John Wheat]

I do like coincidences. Of course if Thompson is not Jack the Ripper that's all they are. It must be further coincidences that Thompson's editor, Wilfrid Meynell, who rescued Thompson off the streets of Spitalfields, a few days after the murder of Mary Kelly, knew Belloc Lowndes. Meynell was a lifelong friend and neighbour of Hilair Belloc, her brother. Another coincidence is that Meynell, who had a strong interest in the Ripper murders, worked for Methuen, they were the publishers that released the Lodger. Methuen's officers were on the same street and two doors down, from Meynell's offices. Coincidences continue - An inquest is held in Lowndes’ novel where an eyewitness, gives a description of a suspect that conforms eerily to that of the poet suspect Thompson.

'He was a grim, gaunt man, was this stranger, Mr Coroner with a very odd-looking face, I should say an educated man in common parlance, a gentleman. What drew my special attention to him was that he was talking aloud to himself- in fact he seemed to be repeating poetry.'

Funny enough (sorry coincidentally) the Lodger was first published in 1913 while also in 1913 Thompson's complete works (which includes Thompson's 1889 only story about a man who makes a female victim unconscious and then stabs her to death) was first published. Needless to say both Belloc and Meynell made a fortune from their Ripper-like fictions.

Its not been determined wether Thompson was The Lodger other Ripper suspects such as Tumblety and Wentworth Bellsmith could also have been The Lodger. Besides if you ask me The Lodger would be much more likely to be The Torso Killer rather than the Ripper.

Cheers John

[SuspectZero]

I do like coincidences. Of course if Thompson is not Jack the Ripper that's all they are. It must be further coincidences that Thompson's editor, Wilfrid Meynell, who rescued Thompson off the streets of Spitalfields, a few days after the murder of Mary Kelly, knew Belloc Lowndes. Meynell was a lifelong friend and neighbour of Hilair Belloc, her brother. Another coincidence is that Meynell, who had a strong interest in the Ripper murders, worked for Methuen, they were the publishers that released the Lodger. Methuen's officers were on the same street and two doors down, from Meynell's offices. Coincidences continue - An inquest is held in Lowndes’ novel where an eyewitness, gives a description of a suspect that conforms eerily to that of the poet suspect Thompson.

'He was a grim, gaunt man, was this stranger, Mr Coroner with a very odd-looking face, I should say an educated man in common parlance, a gentleman. What drew my special attention to him was that he was talking aloud to himself- in fact he seemed to be repeating poetry.'

Funny enough (sorry coincidentally) the Lodger was first published in 1913 while also in 1913 Thompson's complete works (which includes Thompson's 1889 only story about a man who makes a female victim unconscious and then stabs her to death) was first published. Needless to say both Belloc and Meynell made a fortune from their Ripper-like fictions.

Yes. In addition to writing, Marie dabbled in selling letters of the many writers she knew and had corresponded with. Many of the letters that I have from her allude to sales of Thompson, Stevenson and Eliot letters she was looking to make money from.

[Richard Patterson]

A Fact Sheet on Francis Thompson, Book, Bio, Theory.

Here is a fact sheet on my book, myself and the theory.

http://www.francisjthompson.com/uploads/4/8/7/5/48754857/866262.jpg?890

The just released non-fiction eBook, 'Francis Thompson - A Ripper Suspect'
is on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BLKWKDW

The website to the book and the theory is at:

http://www.francisjthompson.com/