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Chapman in America and the "ripper" killings there
Roy Corduroy has pointed out an error on the casebook biog of Chapman, which says.
"Actually, there was only one similar murder, that of an elderly prostitute named Carrie Brown...in Jersey City, New Jersey on April 24, 1891, first strangled and then savagely mutilated."
Roy said:
"Carrie Brown was murdered in Manhattan, New York...Which probably doesn't matter to most folks, because in the final analysis it has absolutely nothing to do with the Whitechapel murders."
(I am disappointed that Roy's attempt to get casebook to correct the error came to nowt.)
It is yet another of those niggling little errors that creep in all the time. But it does matter, Roy, because if people are trying to do their own research, who can say which small error may send them barking up the wrong tree? If someone had a theory, say, that depended on their suspect being in New York and not New Jersey, a small error could throw their hypothesis into the bin.
Having now perused every mini-biography of Chapman that I can lay my hands on, I can tell you that none of them is without error.
I'll tell you something curious: everyone, everywhere recites as 'fact' that Chapman was in Jersey City. In fact there is not one single piece of evidence or proof that he was ever there. Isn't that remarkable?
There are no official documents placing Chapman in New Jersey (or anywhere in the US). There is no court witness testimony that he went there.
At his 16 police court hearings and four full days at the Old Bailey, not one of the witnesses mentioned New Jersey. Chapman's brother in law and sister in law are the only witnesses who mentioned his going to the USA and all they said was, he and Lucy went to America then came back to London. Some other witnesses mentioned that Chapman himself had told them he had 'been to America' but he never specified where.
When he attempted to claim US citizenship he said he was born in Boston; but at other times he said Michigan, and he claimed to have lived in Jersey City Heights but ONLY as a young teenager, dealing in horses. The only street names he could remember were those in New York (he claimed to have lived near the Hoboken Ferry).
The only reason people believe he lived in New Jersey was a press report in 1903, printed AFTER he had been sentenced to death, that stated that Lucy Kłosowska had claimed that her husband had threatened to kill her in a barbershop in Jersey City. The paper did not say whether she had told this to a newspaper reporter or to the police. Not that it matters a great deal, because even if the story came from her lips, it is her word alone, uncorroborated and not even under oath, for Lucy did not give evidence at his trial.
A week after the news report, another newspaper said that investigation by the Jersey City police revealed no trace of any Klosowski or Chapman having lived there (not that that proves he didn't -- but we can't prove he did).
I did investigate R. Michael Gordon's claims that Chapman was responsible for four murders, two in NJ and two in NY and find he arrived too late for the first and left too early for the last, which leaves two. Neither of the two were Ripper style OR Chapman-style.
Comments on this are extremely welcome -- especially if someone can provide proof that Chapman was ever in New Jersey!
Helena
"Actually, there was only one similar murder, that of an elderly prostitute named Carrie Brown...in Jersey City, New Jersey on April 24, 1891, first strangled and then savagely mutilated."
Roy said:
"Carrie Brown was murdered in Manhattan, New York...Which probably doesn't matter to most folks, because in the final analysis it has absolutely nothing to do with the Whitechapel murders."
(I am disappointed that Roy's attempt to get casebook to correct the error came to nowt.)
It is yet another of those niggling little errors that creep in all the time. But it does matter, Roy, because if people are trying to do their own research, who can say which small error may send them barking up the wrong tree? If someone had a theory, say, that depended on their suspect being in New York and not New Jersey, a small error could throw their hypothesis into the bin.
Having now perused every mini-biography of Chapman that I can lay my hands on, I can tell you that none of them is without error.
I'll tell you something curious: everyone, everywhere recites as 'fact' that Chapman was in Jersey City. In fact there is not one single piece of evidence or proof that he was ever there. Isn't that remarkable?
There are no official documents placing Chapman in New Jersey (or anywhere in the US). There is no court witness testimony that he went there.
At his 16 police court hearings and four full days at the Old Bailey, not one of the witnesses mentioned New Jersey. Chapman's brother in law and sister in law are the only witnesses who mentioned his going to the USA and all they said was, he and Lucy went to America then came back to London. Some other witnesses mentioned that Chapman himself had told them he had 'been to America' but he never specified where.
When he attempted to claim US citizenship he said he was born in Boston; but at other times he said Michigan, and he claimed to have lived in Jersey City Heights but ONLY as a young teenager, dealing in horses. The only street names he could remember were those in New York (he claimed to have lived near the Hoboken Ferry).
The only reason people believe he lived in New Jersey was a press report in 1903, printed AFTER he had been sentenced to death, that stated that Lucy Kłosowska had claimed that her husband had threatened to kill her in a barbershop in Jersey City. The paper did not say whether she had told this to a newspaper reporter or to the police. Not that it matters a great deal, because even if the story came from her lips, it is her word alone, uncorroborated and not even under oath, for Lucy did not give evidence at his trial.
A week after the news report, another newspaper said that investigation by the Jersey City police revealed no trace of any Klosowski or Chapman having lived there (not that that proves he didn't -- but we can't prove he did).
I did investigate R. Michael Gordon's claims that Chapman was responsible for four murders, two in NJ and two in NY and find he arrived too late for the first and left too early for the last, which leaves two. Neither of the two were Ripper style OR Chapman-style.
Comments on this are extremely welcome -- especially if someone can provide proof that Chapman was ever in New Jersey!
Helena
Sink the Bismark
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