I’ve just re-read James Tully’s The Secret Of Prisoner 1167: Was This Man Jack The Ripper, which I hadn’t read since it came out in 1997, and the first thing that I have to say is that I was reminded of just how good a book this is. One of the best written in my opinion.
Kelly gets few mentions these days as he seems to have become almost a forgotten suspect but all on here will be aware of him. I don’t know if everyone has read this book so I’ll give a summary of Kelly’s life which might also serve as a bit of a reminder for those who, like me, haven’t read anything about him for a while.
James Kelly was born in Preston in 1860. His mother was Sarah but she wasn’t married to Kelly’s father (John Miller) He deserted her never to be seen again. He was raised thinking that his grandmother was actually his mother until he was 15, by which time it appears that he was deeply religious after living in their religious household.
At 18 he got work at a Pawnbroker’s and showed the first signs of mental instability at the age of 18. He became unreliable and flew into a rage over trivial things. He went to London to find work but returned when he was 19 only to go back 2 years later when he met Sarah Brider who was an ‘Indian Envelope Folder’ who lived with her parents at 21 Cottage Lane. She was 21 when she met Kelly in 1881. In March of 1882 Kelly moved in as the family’s second lodger and became the 9th person in the household. Despite the lack of privacy the couple ended up having sex but it was a disaster which he put down to a physical problem with Sarah. She claimed that it stemmed from a time when she’d sat on her uncle’s knee which suggests the possibility of childhood abuse. From that point Kelly suffered from depression with stabbing pains in his head which he believed was due to an abscess, but he never saw a doctor.
Then things appeared to settle down and he asked Sarah to marry him but she wasn’t sure. He wanted her to see a doctor but she wasn’t keen. She agreed to marry him though and around that time Kelly found out that he’s caught a sexually transmitted disease. The couple married on June 4th 1883. After the marriage Kelly’s behaviour worsened and his behaviour became more irrational and wild. At that time Sarah’s mother found a syringe, a phial and some ointment in his room (he and Sarah didn’t have a shared room) Kelly said that the items weren’t his but he began to believe that Sarah (and her mother) were prostitutes and that Sarah had given him syphilis. Then he would change his mind before reverting to his original belief. He attacked her whilst holding a knife, calling her names, then he was full of remorse.
One day Sarah was late getting home. Kelly said that he’d seen her earlier in the street (they used to meet after work and walk home together) and that he didn’t like that she was walking ‘in such an upright style…’ that he didn’t go over to her. When she got home he called her a whore and then apologised. Then he grabbed her, pulled her head down, and stabbed her in the neck with a pocket knife and began digging away with it into her neck. He threw his mother-in-law down as she tried pulling him away by his hair. He then went to his room. Mrs. Brider used a towel on the wound before running into the street for help.
Kelly was taken to Old Street Police Station and was questioned. He said “I don’t know what I am about, I must be mad.”
His trial started on August 1st 1883 where he was found guilty but with a recommendation for mercy. His solicitors petitioned the Home Secretary for an appeal but they were unsuccessful but Kelly was lucky. At that time a draft bill for The Criminal Lunatics Act 1884 was passing through which required the Home Secretary to appoint 2 or more doctors to enquire into anyone sentenced to death whose sanity had been questioned. On August 7th he was found to be of defective mental capacity. On the 24th he was admitted to Broadmoor where he had persecution delusions and showed signs of religious mania. People tended to avoid him because he couldn’t hold a rational conversation.
On January 23rd 1888 he escaped by using a manufactured key. A description of Kelly at the time of his escape was - age 27, 5’7”, spare build, complexion dark olive, thin pale face, hair black, moustache and eyes dark.
Years later another version of this description was - 5’7”, complexion dark (olive), hair black (heavy moustache) eyes dark, spare build, face pale and thin.
Kelly went to Liverpool and then down to Harwich where he got a berth on a ship but he was recognised by a police officer and had to flee; ending up in the East End in the first half of 1888. He then managed to get to Dieppe on a cross channel steamer. He stayed in the Dieppe/Boulogne area before walking to Paris. He finally returned to England at the end of January of 1892. He then went to New York then on to Pennsylvania where he stayed for 18 months.
In 1895 his friend John Motler described him as: slight build, small nose, dark hair, dark eyes and about 35.
In 1895 there was a rumour that Kelly had been seen in Liverpool but he went back to the USA travelling around before on January 27th, 1896 he walked into the British Consulate in New Orleans and gave himself up. No one could decide what to do even though the Home Secretary was informed. No one appeared to want Kelly back. It was arranged that he could work his passage back on SS Capella to Liverpool. He used the name John Miller. He expected to be arrested when he got back on the 27th March 1896 but the ship berthed on the 26th. Kelly got away. He later went to Canada and in 1901 claimed to have helped decorate Vancouver for the visit of the Duke of Cornwall and York (later George V) and his wife the future Queen Mary. After that Kelly went to the British Consul and again tried to give himself up but after 3 months the government did nothing again, so he worked his passage home intending to give himself up but changed his mind during the journey home.
It has to be said that the efforts to track him down were pathetic considering the information that they had been given as to his whereabouts and the alias that he was using. The police said that they had no photograph of Kelly but they used to have one so what happened to it. Broadmoor certainly had one. And why did the police circular say that Kelly shouldn’t be arrested? Kelly was basically given up an and Broadmoor discharged him in 1907.
In 1917 Kelly went totally deaf. He continued to work as an upholsterer but his strange behaviour led to him being the target of abuse. In 1924 his health began to fail. His Union found him easier but lesser payed work but Kelly felt that sinister forces were working against him. Around August of 1925, with Kelly being 65, he became unemployable. He returned to London, walked the streets and earned a little money doing odd jobs. Then on Friday February 11th 1927 he appeared at the main gates of Broadmoor. The Superintendant thought that Kelly should be sent to a workhouse and that he wouldn’t be considered insane but the Home Office ignored him and made a second request for a report on his movements since his escape. Three days later, without seeing him, the HO stated that Kelly was now insane and should remain in Broadmoor under observation. Kelly wrote a few pages about how he’d escaped and what he’d done overseas but little else. By 1929 Kelly was unhappy about his treatment and tried to get out but he was too old and escape was impossible as since 1892 there was a 16’ wall around the perimeter. At 7.15am Tuesday September 17th 1929 he died.
Some of Tully’s points in favour of Kelly as a potential ripper:
- Serious, violent mental health issues.
- The trauma of learning that his grandmother was actually his mother and that he’s been abandoned.
- He believed that his wife and mother were prostitutes.
- He believed that his wife (according to him a prostitute) had given him syphilis.
- Just after his escape James Munro wrote 3 letters to Broadmoor about him then on September 22nd the Home Secretary told his Private Secretary the Munro might be willing to give the CID a hint in regard to the murders.
- Someone with the initials CET took out the Kelly file for the first time in 8 months and asked about what steps had been taken to recapture Kelly.
- The day after the Kelly murder ‘detectives’ visited the Brider house looking for Kelly (she wrote a letter of complaint through her solicitor) but no record of this visit exists.
- Might any risks that the killer took be explained by the fact that Kelly knew that he wouldn’t hang. As an escaped lunatic he’d just have been returned to Broadmoor?
- Why is Kelly’s Home Office file closed until 2030 when far more recent ones are in the public domain?
- Why does his file have written on it that they must not be destroyed and yet 2 weeks prior to that files had been destroyed?
- Why are there documents missing from his Broadmoor file?
- Why did it appear that no one wanted him back in England after he’d turned himself in to the Consul whilst in the USA?
- As an upholsterer by trade one of his tools was a ‘ripping chisel.’ Could this have led to his ‘trade name?’
- Why did Munro’s son say that his father’s take on the case was a ‘hot potato?’ Was it that the ripper was an escapee from Broadmoor?
- Why in a 1906 police circular did it say that Kelly should be traced but not arrested?
- Why is there no record of Kelly being questioned about the murders after his return to Broadmoor?
- Why was Kelly given a ‘chemical cosh’ at Broadmoor when he wasn’t violent?
- What weighed so heavily on Kelly’s conscience that even as late as 1927 he would burst into tears?
- Why was the police presence in the East End scaled down after the Kelly murder?
- Why was there no mention of Kelly as a suspect until John Morrison mentioned him over 100 years later?
I think that Kelly has become a kind of forgotten suspect. For me he’s right up there.
Kelly gets few mentions these days as he seems to have become almost a forgotten suspect but all on here will be aware of him. I don’t know if everyone has read this book so I’ll give a summary of Kelly’s life which might also serve as a bit of a reminder for those who, like me, haven’t read anything about him for a while.
James Kelly was born in Preston in 1860. His mother was Sarah but she wasn’t married to Kelly’s father (John Miller) He deserted her never to be seen again. He was raised thinking that his grandmother was actually his mother until he was 15, by which time it appears that he was deeply religious after living in their religious household.
At 18 he got work at a Pawnbroker’s and showed the first signs of mental instability at the age of 18. He became unreliable and flew into a rage over trivial things. He went to London to find work but returned when he was 19 only to go back 2 years later when he met Sarah Brider who was an ‘Indian Envelope Folder’ who lived with her parents at 21 Cottage Lane. She was 21 when she met Kelly in 1881. In March of 1882 Kelly moved in as the family’s second lodger and became the 9th person in the household. Despite the lack of privacy the couple ended up having sex but it was a disaster which he put down to a physical problem with Sarah. She claimed that it stemmed from a time when she’d sat on her uncle’s knee which suggests the possibility of childhood abuse. From that point Kelly suffered from depression with stabbing pains in his head which he believed was due to an abscess, but he never saw a doctor.
Then things appeared to settle down and he asked Sarah to marry him but she wasn’t sure. He wanted her to see a doctor but she wasn’t keen. She agreed to marry him though and around that time Kelly found out that he’s caught a sexually transmitted disease. The couple married on June 4th 1883. After the marriage Kelly’s behaviour worsened and his behaviour became more irrational and wild. At that time Sarah’s mother found a syringe, a phial and some ointment in his room (he and Sarah didn’t have a shared room) Kelly said that the items weren’t his but he began to believe that Sarah (and her mother) were prostitutes and that Sarah had given him syphilis. Then he would change his mind before reverting to his original belief. He attacked her whilst holding a knife, calling her names, then he was full of remorse.
One day Sarah was late getting home. Kelly said that he’d seen her earlier in the street (they used to meet after work and walk home together) and that he didn’t like that she was walking ‘in such an upright style…’ that he didn’t go over to her. When she got home he called her a whore and then apologised. Then he grabbed her, pulled her head down, and stabbed her in the neck with a pocket knife and began digging away with it into her neck. He threw his mother-in-law down as she tried pulling him away by his hair. He then went to his room. Mrs. Brider used a towel on the wound before running into the street for help.
Kelly was taken to Old Street Police Station and was questioned. He said “I don’t know what I am about, I must be mad.”
His trial started on August 1st 1883 where he was found guilty but with a recommendation for mercy. His solicitors petitioned the Home Secretary for an appeal but they were unsuccessful but Kelly was lucky. At that time a draft bill for The Criminal Lunatics Act 1884 was passing through which required the Home Secretary to appoint 2 or more doctors to enquire into anyone sentenced to death whose sanity had been questioned. On August 7th he was found to be of defective mental capacity. On the 24th he was admitted to Broadmoor where he had persecution delusions and showed signs of religious mania. People tended to avoid him because he couldn’t hold a rational conversation.
On January 23rd 1888 he escaped by using a manufactured key. A description of Kelly at the time of his escape was - age 27, 5’7”, spare build, complexion dark olive, thin pale face, hair black, moustache and eyes dark.
Years later another version of this description was - 5’7”, complexion dark (olive), hair black (heavy moustache) eyes dark, spare build, face pale and thin.
Kelly went to Liverpool and then down to Harwich where he got a berth on a ship but he was recognised by a police officer and had to flee; ending up in the East End in the first half of 1888. He then managed to get to Dieppe on a cross channel steamer. He stayed in the Dieppe/Boulogne area before walking to Paris. He finally returned to England at the end of January of 1892. He then went to New York then on to Pennsylvania where he stayed for 18 months.
In 1895 his friend John Motler described him as: slight build, small nose, dark hair, dark eyes and about 35.
In 1895 there was a rumour that Kelly had been seen in Liverpool but he went back to the USA travelling around before on January 27th, 1896 he walked into the British Consulate in New Orleans and gave himself up. No one could decide what to do even though the Home Secretary was informed. No one appeared to want Kelly back. It was arranged that he could work his passage back on SS Capella to Liverpool. He used the name John Miller. He expected to be arrested when he got back on the 27th March 1896 but the ship berthed on the 26th. Kelly got away. He later went to Canada and in 1901 claimed to have helped decorate Vancouver for the visit of the Duke of Cornwall and York (later George V) and his wife the future Queen Mary. After that Kelly went to the British Consul and again tried to give himself up but after 3 months the government did nothing again, so he worked his passage home intending to give himself up but changed his mind during the journey home.
It has to be said that the efforts to track him down were pathetic considering the information that they had been given as to his whereabouts and the alias that he was using. The police said that they had no photograph of Kelly but they used to have one so what happened to it. Broadmoor certainly had one. And why did the police circular say that Kelly shouldn’t be arrested? Kelly was basically given up an and Broadmoor discharged him in 1907.
In 1917 Kelly went totally deaf. He continued to work as an upholsterer but his strange behaviour led to him being the target of abuse. In 1924 his health began to fail. His Union found him easier but lesser payed work but Kelly felt that sinister forces were working against him. Around August of 1925, with Kelly being 65, he became unemployable. He returned to London, walked the streets and earned a little money doing odd jobs. Then on Friday February 11th 1927 he appeared at the main gates of Broadmoor. The Superintendant thought that Kelly should be sent to a workhouse and that he wouldn’t be considered insane but the Home Office ignored him and made a second request for a report on his movements since his escape. Three days later, without seeing him, the HO stated that Kelly was now insane and should remain in Broadmoor under observation. Kelly wrote a few pages about how he’d escaped and what he’d done overseas but little else. By 1929 Kelly was unhappy about his treatment and tried to get out but he was too old and escape was impossible as since 1892 there was a 16’ wall around the perimeter. At 7.15am Tuesday September 17th 1929 he died.
Some of Tully’s points in favour of Kelly as a potential ripper:
- Serious, violent mental health issues.
- The trauma of learning that his grandmother was actually his mother and that he’s been abandoned.
- He believed that his wife and mother were prostitutes.
- He believed that his wife (according to him a prostitute) had given him syphilis.
- Just after his escape James Munro wrote 3 letters to Broadmoor about him then on September 22nd the Home Secretary told his Private Secretary the Munro might be willing to give the CID a hint in regard to the murders.
- Someone with the initials CET took out the Kelly file for the first time in 8 months and asked about what steps had been taken to recapture Kelly.
- The day after the Kelly murder ‘detectives’ visited the Brider house looking for Kelly (she wrote a letter of complaint through her solicitor) but no record of this visit exists.
- Might any risks that the killer took be explained by the fact that Kelly knew that he wouldn’t hang. As an escaped lunatic he’d just have been returned to Broadmoor?
- Why is Kelly’s Home Office file closed until 2030 when far more recent ones are in the public domain?
- Why does his file have written on it that they must not be destroyed and yet 2 weeks prior to that files had been destroyed?
- Why are there documents missing from his Broadmoor file?
- Why did it appear that no one wanted him back in England after he’d turned himself in to the Consul whilst in the USA?
- As an upholsterer by trade one of his tools was a ‘ripping chisel.’ Could this have led to his ‘trade name?’
- Why did Munro’s son say that his father’s take on the case was a ‘hot potato?’ Was it that the ripper was an escapee from Broadmoor?
- Why in a 1906 police circular did it say that Kelly should be traced but not arrested?
- Why is there no record of Kelly being questioned about the murders after his return to Broadmoor?
- Why was Kelly given a ‘chemical cosh’ at Broadmoor when he wasn’t violent?
- What weighed so heavily on Kelly’s conscience that even as late as 1927 he would burst into tears?
- Why was the police presence in the East End scaled down after the Kelly murder?
- Why was there no mention of Kelly as a suspect until John Morrison mentioned him over 100 years later?
I think that Kelly has become a kind of forgotten suspect. For me he’s right up there.
Comment