Detective Inspector Robert Fabian

[HelenaWojtczak]

Apparently this man after retiring from Scotland Yard was famous in the 50s for writing and presenting his true crime experiences as TV programmes.

I was rather startled to read, then, that Chapman "beheaded" his first wife in Poland and that is why he fled to England. He pinched the idea from Edward Marjoribanks's 1932 work Carson the Advocate and embellished it a little.

But where on earth did Marjoribanks get that notion?

Helena

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Helena

First time I've heard this claim. Isn't Chapman's story colorful enough without adding to it? It almost sounds as if Marjoribanks or Fabian confused Chapman with some other murderer, or else misconstrued the alleged Lucy Baderski claim that he threatened her with a knife, transposing the tale from New Jersey to Poland and having her actually be beheaded. Oh dear.

Chris

[HelenaWojtczak]

Hi Helena
It almost sounds as if Marjoribanks or Fabian confused Chapman with some other murderer, or else misconstrued the alleged Lucy Baderski claim that he threatened her with a knife, transposing the tale from New Jersey to Poland and having her actually be beheaded. Oh dear.

Chris

I nearly fell off my chair, Chris when I read Marjoribanks casual off the cuff assertion that Kłosowski had ‘married a woman in Poland and beheaded her’. He then just blithely goes on to write about something else, as though you can make a statment as shocking as that in a throwaway manner!

So, whose story did Marjoribanks get mixed up with?

And you are right that the story about Lucy and the knife IS 'alleged'. I read in an American paper today that Lucy testified on oath that he had done that to her, when in fact, as we know, she never testified. So, if THAT story isn't true, then what is? Turns out there is not one shred of evidence that the couple ever even went to New Jersey!

Helena

PS My narration of the story is constantly being held up by having to read and assess, and correct, the avalanche of lies, misinformation and Chinese whispers connected with the Chapman story.

[HelenaWojtczak]

I think that all of these stories were created to encourage the Chapman-as-Ripper theory.

Now that I have read widely, I don't even think the New Jersey knife threat is a true story (and it was only ever a verbal threat, NOT, as many have written, an attempt to kill).

[Mayerling]

I nearly fell off my chair, Chris when I read Marjoribanks casual off the cuff assertion that Kłosowski had ‘married a woman in Poland and beheaded her’. He then just blithely goes on to write about something else, as though you can make a statment as shocking as that in a throwaway manner!

So, whose story did Marjoribanks get mixed up with?

And you are right that the story about Lucy and the knife IS 'alleged'. I read in an American paper today that Lucy testified on oath that he had done that to her, when in fact, as we know, she never testified. So, if THAT story isn't true, then what is? Turns out there is not one shred of evidence that the couple ever even went to New Jersey!

Helena

PS My narration of the story is constantly being held up by having to read and assess, and correct, the avalanche of lies, misinformation and Chinese whispers connected with the Chapman story.

Hi Helena,

Years ago I was reading Majoribanks' other biography of Marshall-Hall, FOR HE DEFENSE, and came across references to a man who threatened the Earl of Sheffield as "Jack the Ripper" that Marshall Hall prosecuted, Frederick Deeming, and Dr. Neill Cream. If you read the three pages, it looks like a flow of ideas one after another linked by three serial killers of 1888-1892. I discovered that the account of Deeming (with Marshall-Hall assisting as junior in front of the Privy Counsel on his appeal in May 1892 was (shall we say) "flawed", as he did not help Gerald Geoghegan (the leader for Deeming at that appeal) according to other sources. As for Cream, Marjorbanks may not have started the "doppelganger" Cream theory of a second evil serial killer who looked like Cream and who (with Neill) gave each other alibis to protect them from prison sentences, but his account (attributing the theory to Marshall-Hall) gave that story some impetus. It still float around now and then.

Majoribanks was an unstable man - he eventually killed himself. That biography of Carson where the Chapman appears was not completed by Majoribanks.

Jeff

[HelenaWojtczak]

Hi Helena,

Majoribanks was an unstable man - he eventually killed himself. That biography of Carson where the Chapman appears was not completed by Majoribanks.

Jeff

Thanks for drawing my attention to that, I will mention it in my book

Thanks

Helena