Why isn't La Bruckman talked about? Is what is supposed true about him?

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Hi Rob.

I wrote a lengthy article which was published in Ripper Notes # 16, 17 and 19. This was the most in depth article ever written on the Carrie Brown murder, but, as there’s so very little that has actually been published on the crime, that’s not saying a lot. In the last six years I have spent thousands of dollars on trips to places like New York and Salem Mass., and have put together the largest collection of Brown related material in the world, however. I may or may not write an article on La Bruckman but I am writing a book on the Brown murder. To a certain extent, therefore, I already know, and have already published, “what actually happened with Carrie Brown, and with these other characters (La Bruckman, Ben Ali, Frenchy #1 and 2, etc).”

So, what does all this mean? Well, for one thing I am without a doubt the authority on the Brown murder. I don’t say this egotistically but state it as a fact based on the vast amount of time spent and research I have done on the case. When I wrote “Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me since there is absolutely no evidence that Arbie La Bruckman had anything to do with the Carrie Brown murder let alone the Whitechapel Murders,” I did so based on my many years of researching the case so I hardly “jumped to conclusions” about La Bruckman. As I have posted, La Bruckman’s involvement in the case was minimal. He was briefly of interest to the police because the newspapers made him a suspect but was quickly cleared and released. His fantasy that he was put on trial for the Ripper murders is just that, a fantasy. Unfortunately, Michael Conlon made much more of La Bruckman than the evidence proves, or even provides. He was fitted into the mantle of Jack the Ripper like a square peg being pounded into a round hole.

Wolf.

[robhouse]

Well, I would be very interested to hear about your findings... I assume that you don't have any idea who actually did kill Carrie Brown? I think you should publish something anyways... I don't have the articles you mentioned, but from the sound of it, you have done more research since writing them.

RH

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Hi Rob.

If you are interested I can e-mail you copies of two of the articles (the second article, The New York Affair part 2, can be found here on the Casebook) if you want to leave me a private message with your e-mail address. Unfortunately, some of what I wrote several years ago has now been proved to be incorrect, especially the weight I attached to Michael Conlon's work at a time when I didn't have access to the sources he had.

Who might have killed Brown? I am now leaning towards the "Danish Farmhand," information about him can be found at http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=760

Wolf.

[robhouse]

Wolf,

I sent you my email in a private message. I have had the same problem... the articles I had published in Ripperologist have a lot of mistakes in them too.

Rob H

[The Good Michael]

Just a thought:

LeGrand was jailed in late 1891. He was also jailed in 1889 for 18 months. I think at the time of Carrie Brown's death in April 1891, he was free.
That is the background or the foreshadowing to my thought.

Arbie LaBruckman was suspect of killing Carrie Brown initially, though how seriously, it is unknown. Could Arbie LaBruckman (Frenchy) have been LeGrand? I don't have the information of where LeGrand was in April, and I don't know who might, though I suspect Tom Wescott might know.

It's just somewhat coincidental (as are many things in the JTR world) that there was a victim with massive amounts of mutilation in Brown. She was a prostitute. Her lodging house or room for the night was also owned by a man of Irish Descent (Fitzgerald). There was a man with a foreign accent, nicknamed Frenchy that was at least in the general area and was considered to be a baaaad man like LeGrand. He also seems to have been in jail in 1889 in London, much like LeGrand, and his name is French and actually sounds totally made up.

There seems to have been no real corroboration of where he came from and really who he was. It doesn't even seem as if officials checked him out. It took reporters to do that.

If they are the same men, could LeGrand have been crossing the ocean to follow a lead? Or was he the murderer?

Maybe someone (Tom) who has more knowledge of LeGrand's movements can jump in.

Cheers,

Mike

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Hi Mike.

Arbie LaBruckman was suspect of killing Carrie Brown initially, though how seriously, it is unknown. Could Arbie LaBruckman (Frenchy) have been LeGrand? I don't have the information of where LeGrand was in April, and I don't know who might, though I suspect Tom Wescott might know.

It's just somewhat coincidental (as are many things in the JTR world) that there was a victim with massive amounts of mutilation in Brown. She was a prostitute. Her lodging house or room for the night was also owned by a man of Irish Descent (Fitzgerald). There was a man with a foreign accent, nicknamed Frenchy that was at least in the general area and was considered to be a baaaad man like LeGrand. He also seems to have been in jail in 1889 in London, much like LeGrand, and his name is French and actually sounds totally made up.

There are several things wrong with your theory, I'm afraid, not the least of which is the fact that La Bruckman was able to provide an alibi for the night of the murder of Carrie Brown. This alibi, that he was at Tommy Bennett’s lodging house at No. 81 James Street, was fully corroborated by the people at the lodging house and the police dropped him as a suspect. He had nothing to do with Carrie Brown’s murder.

It should also be pointed out that there was enough information provided by La Bruckman himself, and people who knew him, to both track his movements and prove who he said he was: a 29 year old, originally from Morocco, who had moved to New York with his mother and sister in 1870, and who had become a cattleman on board cattle boats which operated between New York and London and who had done this since the age of 15. There is absolutely no evidence that he was arrested or in jail in London in 1889. He was not LeGrand

Brown’s body was mutilated but there were not “massive amounts” and the mutilation didn’t compare with that inflicted upon the Whitechapel victims. The man who owned the East River Hotel was not named Fitzgerald (he was merely the 21 year old night doorman and sometime assistant bartender) but James Jennings. The Lower East Side was filled with men with foreign accents and “Frenchy” was a common nickname because of this and the Water Street area around the hotel where Brown was murdered was considered one of the worst in the city and was filled with “baaaaad” men. None of this connects Charles LeGrand with Arbie LaBruckman.

Wolf.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Michael,

I'm just now seeing this thread. I have to agree with Wolf that there's no relation here. However, one of Le Grand's popular nicknames was 'The French Colonel' and it is actually possible he was in America in April 1891.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott