Francis Thompson. The Perfect Suspect.

[Richard Patterson]

Hi Gut. Circumstantial evidence has led to many successful prosecutions, including that of American bomber Timothy McVeigh. Speaking on the strength of this sort of evidence, University of Michigan law professor Robert Precht who, was a defence attorney in the World Trade Center bombing, has said,

‘Circumstantial evidence can be, and often is much more powerful than direct evidence.’ This is because a long sequence of coincidences can reasonably infer a person’s guilt. When the chain of circumstances, pointing away from innocence, is long enough the implication towards guilt becomes clear.’

[GUT]

Facts on Francis Thompson as a Jack the Ripper suspect. He was a poet who had trained as a surgeon for 6-years at a prestigious medical school before one coroner of the murders concluded that Jack the Ripper must have had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge.

Right before the murders of these prostitutes, Thompson broke up with one and wrote about killing women of that profession. He was carrying a razor sharp knife, showed signs of severe mental illness and he was known to police.

Looking at these facts, there is no other suspect, or anyone living or dead, anywhere in the world, pointing so strongly to being Jack the Jack the Ripper.

Fact. After 3 years as a vagrant in London, Thompson had only been living four nights in a refuge when, a minute walk away, the Ripper killed his last victim. It was reported that London’s City Police might have interviewed him, but his ex-boss vouched for him and he was let go.

Within a few days of the slaying, Thompson was put in isolation at a distant monastery. He spent the rest of his life under observation or at secluded country retreats where he succumbed to drug addiction and wrote.

After his death in 1907, his editors, portraying him as an innocent victim of the streets, made a fortune from his books. Although members of Thompson’s own family felt he was Jack the Ripper.

In 1988, a century after the murders, a Texan forensic pathologist, who made the discovery accidentally, published an article in the Criminologist named, 'Was Francis Thompson Jack the Ripper?’ In courts of law dealing in major crimes circumstantial evidence is much more powerful than direct when the coincidences points clearly toward guilt.

After decades of global research, no fact yet found does not point to the reasonable conclusion that he was Jack the Ripper.

Richard I can’t let the sentence about circumstantial evidence being more powerful than direct evidence, go unchallenged, perhaps you worded it wrong, I’m unsure, but it just isn’t true. And prosecutor would prefer direct evidence about any aspect of a case to circumstantial evidence on the same issue.

[Richard Patterson]

Facts leading to a reasonable conclusion.

Facts on Francis Thompson as a Jack the Ripper suspect. He was a poet who had trained as a surgeon for 6-years at a prestigious medical school before one coroner of the murders concluded that Jack the Ripper must have had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge.

Right before the murders of these prostitutes, Thompson broke up with one and wrote about killing women of that profession. He was carrying a razor sharp knife, showed signs of severe mental illness and he was known to police.

Just with these facts, there is no other suspect, or anyone living or dead, anywhere in the world, pointing so strongly to being the Ripper.

Fact. After 3 years as a vagrant in London, Thompson had only been living four nights in a refuge when, a minute walk away, the Ripper killed his last victim. It was reported that London’s City Police might have interviewed him, but his ex-boss vouched for him and he was let go.

Within a few days of the slaying, Thompson was put in isolation at a distant monastery. He spent the rest of his life under observation or at secluded country retreats where he succumbed to drug addiction and wrote.

After his death in 1907, his editors, portraying him as an innocent victim of the streets, made a fortune from his books. Although members of Thompson’s own family felt he was the Ripper.

In 1988, a century after the murders, a Texan forensic pathologist, who made the discovery accidentally, published an article in the Criminologist named, 'Was Francis Thompson Jack the Ripper?’

In courts of law dealing in major crimes circumstantial evidence is much more powerful than direct when the coincidences points clearly toward guilt.

After decades of global research, no fact yet found does not point to the reasonable conclusion that he was the Ripper.

[SuspectZero]

The fact you even had to point this out is a damning indictment of Ripper suspectology.

Valid point. Although to be fair, I think if you can make a case of circumstantial evidence (more than just being in possession of a knife) + being on the radar of police of the time, that should qualify someone to be considered a valid suspect.

[SuspectZero]

Or Richardson sitting on hi# back step

Or Kelly

Or ......

Probably any number of other possibles.

ah, yes! You're correct. I forgot him.

[Harry D]

It says something about how we go about trying to solve the case when it becomes a core issue whether somebody had access to a knife or not. 99 per cent of the grown population did. .

The fact you even had to point this out is a damning indictment of Ripper suspectology.

[Abby Normal]

No contemporary suspects had any connection to the murders. Which is why none were charged. The Ripper was not caught because nobody was found to have any real connection to the murders.

Thompson, unlike most suspects, was said to be in the area. His editor, who rescued him from the streets days after the murder of Mary Kelly, held a keen interest in the Ripper murders, and discussed them with dignitaries. Thompson's biographer John Walsh believed Thompson may have been questioned by the police on suspicion that he was the Ripper.

These things, as well as him resembling several eye-witness descriptions of the Ripper makes him more connected to the murders than most of the other 100 suspects.

Having a connection to the case and being caught are two very obviously different things. FT has zero connection to the case except for one of the seemingly infinite of after the fact pet theories.

[GUT]

Or probably Cross even, most Carmen appear to have.

[GUT]

Hi Richard,
Love your research on Francis Thompson. All well done. However one thing that is not correct, is your statement above. There was another suspect who admits to carrying around a knife at the time of the murders and in the neighborhood of the crimes - George R. Sims (yes he was a suspect), in a story by Percy Cross Standing for Cassell’s Magazine.

Or Richardson sitting on hi# back step

Or Kelly

Or ......

Probably any number of other possibles.

[Fisherman]

It says something about how we go about trying to solve the case when it becomes a core issue whether somebody had access to a knife or not. 99 per cent of the grown population did.
If we could establish the exact type of knife the Ripper used, then it could be useful to look at who carried such a knife along with himself - but we don´t know these things in any detail either.
Thompson was in the habit at some stage of carrying a scalpel along with himself, I believe - and correct me if that is wrong, Richard, please! - and a scalpel tallies poorly with the weapon that killed Chapman, for example, just as it is a bad fit for the Nichols murder too, I believe.
But that is somewhat beside the point, since I am sure that Thompson too could well have had access to for example a kitchen knife.

If Thompson - or any other suspect - had been known to wield his blade ferociously in public, it would become another story, of course. But this is not the case.

All in all, I don´t think that accessibility to an appropriate weapon poses any obstacle at all to any suspect at all, and consequently, I fail to see why a proven accesibility would make for any useful evidence at all. A drastic comparison would be how all of the suspects carried hands, and so either one of them could have strangled or partially strangled the victims.

[SuspectZero]

Out of the more than 100 Ripper suspects ever named, only one can be shown to have had a knife at the time of the murders, where they occurred - Francis Thompson. In 1888, he was a mentally ill, drug addicted man who carried a razor- sharp dissecting knife, kept from his years of studying medicine. He had already been in trouble with the police and had a history of arson, theft, and mutilating. His sole purpose for living in the Providence Row refuge, less than 100 yards from where Jack the Ripper victim, Mary Kelly, was killed was to find a prostitute who had humiliated him. He had already written about ripping their stomachs open.

But don't worry about any of that because it all comes down to interpreting his poetry.

Hi Richard,
Love your research on Francis Thompson. All well done. However one thing that is not correct, is your statement above. There was another suspect who admits to carrying around a knife at the time of the murders and in the neighborhood of the crimes - George R. Sims (yes he was a suspect), in a story by Percy Cross Standing for Cassell’s Magazine.

[Richard Patterson]

It comes down to he has absolutely no connection to the ripper murders whatsoever, either as a suspect, person of interest, witness or even peripheral character, like so many after the fact modern “suspects”.

But I guess he may have been in the area, so at least he’s got that going for him.

But a very interesting character, that’s for sure.

No contemporary suspects had any connection to the murders. Which is why none were charged. The Ripper was not caught because nobody was found to have any real connection to the murders.

Thompson, unlike most suspects, was said to be in the area. His editor, who rescued him from the streets days after the murder of Mary Kelly, held a keen interest in the Ripper murders, and discussed them with dignitaries. Thompson's biographer John Walsh believed Thompson may have been questioned by the police on suspicion that he was the Ripper.

These things, as well as him resembling several eye-witness descriptions of the Ripper makes him more connected to the murders than most of the other 100 suspects.

[Abby Normal]

Out of the more than 100 Ripper suspects ever named, only one can be shown to have had a knife at the time of the murders, where they occurred - Francis Thompson. In 1888, he was a mentally ill, drug addicted man who carried a razor- sharp dissecting knife, kept from his years of studying medicine. He had already been in trouble with the police and had a history of arson, theft, and mutilating. His sole purpose for living in the Providence Row refuge, less than 100 yards from where Jack the Ripper victim, Mary Kelly, was killed was to find a prostitute who had humiliated him. He had already written about ripping their stomachs open.

But don't worry about any of that because it all comes down to interpreting his poetry.

It comes down to he has absolutely no connection to the ripper murders whatsoever, either as a suspect, person of interest, witness or even peripheral character, like so many after the fact modern “suspects”.

But I guess he may have been in the area, so at least he’s got that going for him.

But a very interesting character, that’s for sure.

[Richard Patterson]

Out of the more than 100 Ripper suspects ever named, only one can be shown to have had a knife at the time of the murders, where they occurred - Francis Thompson. In 1888, he was a mentally ill, drug addicted man who carried a razor- sharp dissecting knife, kept from his years of studying medicine. He had already been in trouble with the police and had a history of arson, theft, and mutilating. His sole purpose for living in the Providence Row refuge, less than 100 yards from where Jack the Ripper victim, Mary Kelly, was killed was to find a prostitute who had humiliated him. He had already written about ripping their stomachs open.

But don't worry about any of that because it all comes down to interpreting his poetry.

[Roy Corduroy]

"a strange, biased reading of his poetry"

Luckily no one died from Tchaikowsky's 1812 Overture