Francis Thompson. The Perfect Suspect.

[Richard Patterson]

G'day Richard

This is the stuff that makes him interesting as a suspect, not imagery in poems and patterns in sites.

Good work.

I am still not sure though that it is certain he was living in the area at the time of MJK's death, and still have issues about his supposed hospitalisation in Oct Nov.

Thank you. I am still uncertain too. My FaceBook group has been trying to get firm dates. We contacted the Sisters of Mercy to ask if they have a registry for 1888, at Providence Row. They did not respond. I contacted Storrington Priory to find out what exact dates he entered and left. They said they would find out, but weeks later they have not responded. We have contacted Ushaw College to find out the details from their catalogue of in that he claims to have stayed at Providence Row. They did not respond. We contacted Storrington Museum to get dates. They did not respond. No biographer has been able to find any exact dates or details of Thompson’s hospitalization. All we know is that it was apparently for six weeks and before he went to Storrington.

[GUT]

Thank you. I am still uncertain too. My FaceBook group has been trying to get firm dates. We contacted the Sisters of Mercy to ask if they have a registry for 1888, at Providence Row. They did not respond. I contacted Storrington Priory to find out what exact dates he entered and left. They said they would find out, but weeks later they have not responded. We have contacted Ushaw College to find out the details from their catalogue of in that he claims to have stayed at Providence Row. They did not respond. We contacted Storrington Museum to get dates. They did not respond. No biographer has been able to find any exact dates or details of Thompson’s hospitalization. All we know is that it was apparently for six weeks and before he went to Storrington.

If you can pin those down he jumps way up the list to my mind.

[Amanda]

Doors.....

Thank you. I am still uncertain too. My FaceBook group has been trying to get firm dates. We contacted the Sisters of Mercy to ask if they have a registry for 1888, at Providence Row. They did not respond. I contacted Storrington Priory to find out what exact dates he entered and left. They said they would find out, but weeks later they have not responded. We have contacted Ushaw College to find out the details from their catalogue of in that he claims to have stayed at Providence Row. They did not respond. We contacted Storrington Museum to get dates. They did not respond. No biographer has been able to find any exact dates or details of Thompson’s hospitalization. All we know is that it was apparently for six weeks and before he went to Storrington.

Hi Richard,
In my mind, some of the best research is done by good old-fashioned legwork.

If I were you I'd be knocking on the Priory door....

Amanda

[GUT]

Hi Richard,
In my mind, some of the best research is done by good old-fashioned legwork.

If I were you I'd be knocking on the Priory door....

Amanda

I think Richard may have a problem unless he has really long arms.

[Amanda]

Mmmmm...

I think Richard may have a problem unless he has really long arms.

Hi Gut,

Just realised that Richard's in Australia.

Still, if he believes in his theory, it'd be well worth a trip to Blighty.

Amanda

[Richard Patterson]

To actually visit is a great Idea. I do live in Australia now so doing so is now very difficult for me to do so. In the summer of 2006, I visited Our Lady of England Priory in Storrington, but the priory only had one caretaker and although she was friendly, she could not help me. In 2012 the Premonstratensian religious order (aka Norbertines) that, took Thompson in, left. After 130 years of habitation, the Chemin Neuf Community moved into the priory and Norbertine Canons left the after over 130 years in Storrington. I believe that the only branch of the Norbertines in England is at St. Philip's Priory, in Chelmsford, England. The message I emailed them was,

‘Hello. I am researching the life of the English poet, Francis Joseph Thompson (1859-1907) I have read that he may have, at one time, been housed in the Premonstratensian priory at Storrington, West Sussex., Could you please be able to tell me the dates in which he arrived and left. . This would be very appreciated.’

Their initial response, from one of the Reverends, was, ‘I have an interest in him as well. I visited Storrington years ago and saw the crucifix about which he wrote a poem. I believe there is another object at Storrington as well. Painting? Can't recall. I am emailing a member of the former Storrington who I know and see if he can shed any light on this. A brief foray into the internet does not pinpoint the dates. I will get back to you.’

He did not get back to me. This seems to be the pattern when trying to get firm dates on Thompson circa 1888. It would be good to have some clear information. I hope that any response does not rely on the ‘The Oxford dictionary of National Biography’. This states that Thompson entered the priory at the start of 1888, which is wrong. We know this because all other timelines in every biography suggest the end of 1888 or the start of 1889. This is backed up by when his works were first published and the letters Thompson wrote to his editor. I have 140 members in my Thompson Facebook group. Maybe one of them can do the footwork. Of course if anyone on Casebook would like to help get to the bottom of this, information on him and Providence Row, the hospital, or the priory. It would be really appreciated.

[GUT]

Hi Gut,

Just realised that Richard's in Australia.

Still, if he believes in his theory, it'd be well worth a trip to Blighty.

Amanda

Not exactly cheep though and very time consuming.

But if he wants he can pay for me to get there by ship and I'll do the knocking for him

[pinkmoon]

Hi Gut,

Just realised that Richard's in Australia.

Still, if he believes in his theory, it'd be well worth a trip to Blighty.

Amanda

What someone actually checking facts and researching things properly that died out years ago in the world of jtr literature I mean look at the last major offering we had .

[Amanda]

Morning

Good Morning Pinkmoon,

I trust it IS morning with you as I checked your location!

Based on the significant lack of legwork required to write a JtR book I'm now thinking of embarking on a work about Ned Kelly.
However, I will neither travel to Australia nor pick up the phone to call people who might be able to assist my research....

Amanda

[GUT]

Good Morning Pinkmoon,

I trust it IS morning with you as I checked your location!

Based on the significant lack of legwork required to write a JtR book I'm now thinking of embarking on a work about Ned Kelly.
However, I will neither travel to Australia nor pick up the phone to call people who might be able to assist my research....

Amanda

Now Ned you will get as many opinions as there are people.

But if you are gonna write a book on him you have to come down under as any excuse is a good excuse to visit.

[Amanda]

Visiting Oz

Now Ned you will get as many opinions as there are people.

But if you are gonna write a book on him you have to come down under as any excuse is a good excuse to visit.

Hi Gut,

I was over there about five years ago & thoroughly enjoyed my trip, stayed at a lovely place called Palm Cove near Cairns.

I'll definitely be back, but in the meantime I'm busy doing boring old legwork researching my next literary offering.
Amanda

[Richard Patterson]

You know. I grew up in Benalla which is the town 10 kilometers from Glenrowan where Ned Kelly was captured. I used to go mushroom picking with my mum on the old Kelly homestead. I should have been researching him, not the Ripper on the other side of the world.

[Amanda]

You know. I grew up in Benalla which is the town 10 kilometers from Glenrowan where Ned Kelly was captured. I used to go mushroom picking with my mum on the old Kelly homestead. I should have been researching him, not the Ripper on the other side of the world.

Now that's much more rational thinking Richard

[Richard Patterson]

Was Francis Thompson almost arrested for the Ripper Murders?

There are some similarities that show that Thompson may have been Major Henry Smith’s Haymarket suspect, During the Ripper murders the papers suggested that the criminal was using coins to confuse his victims. The ‘Telegraph’, a daily paper, made reported that next to Chapman's body, in Hanbury Street,
'There were also found two farthings brightly polished and according to some, these coins had been passed off as half-sovereigns upon the deceased by her murderer.'
The “Daily Telegraph” would add that the coins, two polished farthings, were found placed neatly near to the head, side by side. There were also two brass rings (owned by Chapman) similarly placed side by side. These and other ritualistic features of the crimes, such as the positioning of the bodies have left researchers perplexed. These details were not reported on in the inquest into Chapman’s murder. Either they did not happen and the papers were making things up, or the police did not divulge it.
The paper’s account of the murderer supposedly confusing his victims with polished coins of changing value is interesting in that Thompson near the time of the murders also had his own experience with coins whose value changed. For Thompson’s the nights and days of torment in hunger and addiction appeared endless and then a minor miracle occurred. He was walking, more to keep warm than in any particular direction, along a crowded street when heard a clinking sound and saw a coin rolling in the gutter. He watched as it weaved itself about the feet of the passing pedestrians and revolved to a stop. Thompson picked it up and because no one approached him to claim it, he kept it. Believing that the coin was a newly minted halfpenny, Thompson put it in his waistcoat pocket and walked on. Then he decided to turn back the way that he had come. When Thompson reached the same spot where he had found the first coin, he saw another coin glittering on the road. Thompson, thinking that it was another halfpenny, picked it up as well. He looked at the coin in his hand and saw a golden sovereign. Francis took the first coin from his pocket and when he held both coins together, he saw that they were both gold. Everard Meynell recorded, in his "Life of Francis Thompson", the homeless poet's reaction to the finding of the equivalent of two pounds, which was equivalent to a fortnight’s working wage,
'"That was a sovereign too, Evi; I looked and saw that it was a sovereign too!" he ended with a rising voice and tremulous laughter.'
Biographer of Thompson J.C Reid expressed Thompson’s love of ritual. 'Certainly he was always fascinated by ritual…’ritual is poetry addressed to the eye….he found in ceremonial an end in itself rather than a means, that the rite was at least as important, as perhaps more important than, the creed.’ FBI Criminal profiler told of the Ripper’s obsession with ritual, ‘However, the personal desires and the needs of the subject are expressed in the ritual aspect of the crime. The ritual is something that he must do because it is the acting out of the fantasy.'
In the 1888, the Acting Police Commissioner for the City was Major Henry Smith. In his 1910 memoir, ‘From Constable to Commissioner,’ Smith wrote, ‘There is no man living who knows as much about the murders as I do.’ Written 22 years after the crimes, Ripperologists chide Smith’s boast because his memoirs show mistakes in how he described some events. Smith’s memoir told that he had learnt through his informants of an ex-medical student living in Haymarket who was passing off coins to Prostitutes. Smith had also read further reports on this. Smith’s informants tracked down a suspect for the crimes, who was living in London’s Haymarket district. Major Smith felt this man certainly had the qualifications. He had been a medical student, he had been in a lunatic asylum; he had spent all his time with women of loose character, whom he tricked by giving them polished pennies, like those reportedly found with Chapman's body, but the man explained his circumstances and his innocence and Smith’s men let him go. Smith officers had questioned the man when they found him in Rupert Street, Haymarket. Less than a hundred meters was Panton Street. This was where Francis Thompson resided from August 1886 to January 1887. He had been found wandering the streets and hired by a shoemaker and churchwarden who offered him a job and accommodation. The shoemaker had checked Thompson’s criminal history with the police before hiring him. Both Haymarket people, Smith’s suspect and Thompson, were ex-medical students, had mental breakdowns, and their own stories about mysteriously changing coins. Perhaps Smith’s man was Thompson, but his alibi of working for a churchwarden and being an ex-priest and a doctor’s son convinced the Major of his good character. Perhaps it was Smith’s letting him go that Thompson was referring to in his notebooks, written while on the streets, ‘Policeman who aided me’ That Thompson may have questioned for the Ripper murders is supported by his biographer John Walsh, who wrote that the police might have interviewed him over the crimes but let go. FBI profiler Douglas also stated that he thought the Ripper would have been questioned but he would have talked his way out of it.

[Richard Patterson]

29 Hanbury Street & Thompson.

In 1896 Thompson’s stepmother, Ann Richardson would not let Thompson into the house in the days leading to the funeral of his father. Thompson had to seek shelter in a nearby monastery instead. She had convinced his late father, to cut him out of the will. It was because Thompson had discovered his father Charles was going to marry Richardson that a fight occurred, on the night of November 9 1885. It led to Thompson fleeing to London. Charles Thompson accused his son of being a drunk, even though his strange behavior and flushed face was because of laudanum. His son Francis Thompson expressed hostility to the idea of his father remarrying replacing their mother with Richardson. Thompson stormed off and that night wrote a note telling he was leaving, and crept out of the house. He walked to Manchester where he asked his father to wire money for a train fare to London. During the next three, years when he was homeless, he returned home once, only to find out that his father and Richardson had set a date to be married. She saw him as a good-for-nothing freeloader. He was not invited to the wedding because of Ann Richardson's loathing of him.

The 2nd Ripper victim’s name was Ann and she was killed the back of a house whose front sign read, 'Mrs A. Richardson.’