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  • Francis Thompson. The Perfect Suspect.

    During the reign of the Ripper, London's East End held 900,000 people. Francis Thompson was just one East Ender. You might well ask how come, out them all, I think Thompson is the likely suspect for Jack the Ripper. It is because he is the only one who has combined all four main traits that people look for in the Ripper - ability, opportunity, motive, and a weapon.

    Ability:
    Thompson trained as a surgeon for 6 years, at Owens Medical College Manchester, where he cut up hundreds of cadavers. There he was taught the very new and rare technique of heart removal called the Virchow method. This entails the removal of the heart via the pericardium. Doctor Thomas Bond, who performed Mary Kelly’s Autopsy, told the killer had used this method to remove her heart.

    Opportunity:
    Thompson was able to walk the streets at all hours. Being homeless for 3 years in the East End, he was part of the landscape and could come and go without rousing suspicion.

    Motive:
    Thompson had a resentment of prostitutes. At the start of June 1888 his year long relationship with an unnamed Chelsea prostitute ended angrily and suddenly. After he told her his first poems were to be published, she said she did not want the attention and she threatened to leave him. She since disappeared without a trace.

    Weapon:
    Thompson not only possessed a knife, it was a dissecting scalpel, which was the perfect weapon for the Ripper crimes.

    Out of the thousands of existing suspects out there, from of all the books that have been written, surely somebody can present one that can match these 4 necessary traits. If only I can then I've just shot Thompson, the perfect suspect, to the top of the list.

    More information can be found on Facebook at: ‘Francis Thompson and the Ripper Paradox Book Group’

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/502480266521400/
    Author of

    "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

    http://www.francisjthompson.com/

  • #2
    Except that your interpretation of necessary traits may not necessarily be that of others.
    Best Wishes,
    Hunter
    ____________________________________________

    When evidence is not to be had, theories abound. Even the most plausible of them do not carry conviction- London Times Nov. 10.1888

    Comment


    • #3
      Hello, Richard.

      As I previously confessed, Thompson was one of the first suspects I looked at when I first delved into the murky world of Ripperology. You're right that he does have some points in his favour.

      How do you account for Thompson's poor health at the time? Nevermind the skill, did he have the required strength to subdue the victims and perform the mutilations? Isn't it generally accepted the Ripper was right-handed? Thompson was a southpaw, was he not?

      Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
      Out of the thousands of existing suspects out there, from of all the books that have been written, surely somebody can present one that can match these 4 necessary traits.
      Gladly. Look no further than Jacob Levy.

      Ability: Was a butcher by trade, in fact it was the family business. No matter what anyone says, I believe the killer was skilled with a knife and had a crude anatomical knowledge. Levy's background fits the bill.

      Opportunity: Levy lived in the heart of the area, and according to his wife was known to wander the streets at all hours and feared he would do violence upon someone.

      Motive: Levy was diagnosed with syphilis. This gives him a motive for targeting prostitutes. A possible stressor could also be that his mother died a couple of months before the murders started.

      Weapon: Levy was a butcher, 'nuff said. Although, to be honest, I doubt it would've been difficult for anyone to have acquired the right blade for the murders.
      Last edited by Harry D; 11-30-2014, 06:19 AM.

      Comment


      • #4
        Hi,

        I dont think that there is anything that connects him to Whitechapel, let alone to murder or violence of any kind.

        Really, just a sad and talented soul who lost his way.

        Comment


        • #5
          Hi,

          Isnt it strange that the story of a prostitute befriending Thompson when he was down and out and then disappearing because she thought she would hinder his career is the same story that Thomas De Quincey wrote about himself when he was under the same sircumstances in Confessions of An Opium Eater.

          Comment


          • #6
            Levy, De' Quincey & Thompson.

            Two points.

            Levy:
            Jacob Levy is thought to be as a very strong suspect, but he doesn’t even come close to Thompson. Levy, knew how to cut up carcasses while Thompson knew how to cut up people. Levy was an East Ender living in Aldgate while Thompson was an East Ender living in Limehouse. Levy had no motive. People guess that Levy’s sexual disease may have been a reason for him to blame prostitutes even though there is nothing to say he even visited one. Thompson has a clear motive. He was devastated when his prostitute friend broke off their intimate year-long relationship. Levy had butchers knives designed to cut up carcasses while Thompson had a dissecting scalpel designed to cut up humans.

            De’ Quincey:
            During the Ripper murders the “Times” newspaper suggested to its audience it would have to seek out, on their own, the works of gothic horror of the likes of, ‘De Quincey’s (Confessions of an English Opium Eater) to reinforce the heinousness of the crimes.’ Bye the way, Thompson was a huge fan of the English poet Thomas De Quincey, showing a fondness of this earlier writer’s essay, “Murder Considered One of the Fine Arts” in an essay of his own on De’ Quincey Thompson could not conceal his admiration,
            'The famous “Murder as One of the Fine Arts” is the only specimen which we need pause upon. ...The passage which describes how murder leads at last to procrastination and incivility –“Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder which he thought little of at the time”-...In this, as in other things, De Quincey was an innovator and, like other innovators, has been eclipsed by his successors.'

            Thompson so often quoted the works of Thomas De' Quincey, that his biographer, son of his publishers, was brought to remark upon the relationship between Thompson and De' Quincey, 'De' Quincey's words become his own by right of succession'. The connections between Thompson and De’ Quincey are so many, that it is worthwhile having them listed in point form.

            Both were connected to Manchester.
            Both fled to London
            Both became vagrants in London.
            Both fell for a prostitute.
            Both affairs ended badly.
            Both became addicted to laudanum
            Both showed, in their writing a fascination, of murder.
            The crimes, written about in De Quincey’s essay were about the 1811 Mar family murders in Whitechapel in which the murder weapon was a tool called a ‘ripping hook’. 77 years later we had Jack the Ripper. De' Quincey had earlier written a story about a murdering religious crusader and avenger, Thompson also wrote a story about a murdering religionist.
            Author of

            "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

            http://www.francisjthompson.com/

            Comment


            • #7
              If ability, motive, opportunity and weapon are irrelevant traits for a ripper suspect, I'd love to know what they might be. Possibly a forged diary or faulty dna results or being a Jew or a keen cricket player? If the four traits that I have listed do not warrant serious discussion here then, like Druitt, I'm stumped. No wonder he got away with it for a hundred years, if what I have seen so far here is any indication of what we can expect in reason based critical thinking. Thankfully I believe it more a reflection of the limited world-view of a few rather the many.
              Author of

              "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

              http://www.francisjthompson.com/

              Comment


              • #8
                Hi,

                I think it was a ripping hook and more importantly a maul that figured in the Hatcliffe Highway murders and mystery.

                Best wishes.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
                  Jacob Levy is thought to be as a very strong suspect, but he doesn’t even come close to Thompson.
                  I may have missed it, but have you accounted for Thompson's poor physical state and left-handedness?

                  Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
                  Levy, knew how to cut up carcasses while Thompson knew how to cut up people.
                  Doctors at the time were split on how skilled the killer was. I believe he had to have some rough anatomical knowledge to commit these kinds of mutilations under pressure, but to what kind of level is still open to debate.

                  Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
                  Levy was an East Ender living in Aldgate while Thompson was an East Ender living in Limehouse.
                  Relevance?

                  Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
                  Levy had no motive. People guess that Levy’s sexual disease may have been a reason for him to blame prostitutes even though there is nothing to say he even visited one.
                  Levy's wife didn't have it, nor did he inherit it from his father. Syphilis is usually transmitted via sexual intercourse. Living in a neighbourhood full of loose women, we have good reason to suspect that Levy caught it the old-fashioned way. Speculative, yes, but then that's the case for every possible suspect. We can only explore a range possibilities of what might be, based on the information available to us.

                  Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
                  Thompson has a clear motive. He was devastated when his prostitute friend broke off their intimate year-long relationship.
                  How is that a clear motive? In his own words, Thompson described her as his 'saviour', therefore while he was surely upset by her leaving him, there's nothing to imply he was embittered enough to start butchering women.

                  Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post
                  Levy had butchers knives designed to cut up carcasses while Thompson had a dissecting scalpel designed to cut up humans.
                  There is no consensus on what specific type of knife was used. A butcher's knife could've done the trick.

                  - We can link Levy to one of the witnesses - who acted suspiciously according to reports.
                  - We know his brother, Isaac, was living in the Wentworth Building on Goulston St.

                  Do you have ANYTHING connecting Thompson to the case?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hi,

                    As I hinted at before, it is highly likely that Thompson's story about the prosititute girl friend was "borrowed" from De Quincey.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Thanks Harry D for your questions and points. You have shown that you have put much consideration into your post. You also show that you have been looking at Thompson’s life, which I respect.

                      You ask can I account for Thompson’s poor physical state. It is true that Thompson is often depicted as desperately weak, yet he was strong enough to work in a medical infirmary for 6 years. In 1885 he was fit enough to pass recruitment tests and be accepted into the army. When he ran away from his Manchester’s home on Nov 9th, 1885, he was strong enough to walk the 262 kilometers (163 miles) to London. FT also survived 3 winters on the streets. Autopsies do require strength and dexterity but things are made a little easier if one can boast, as one might with a dissecting scalpel, ‘My knife's so nice and sharp.’

                      You ask about Thompson’s left-handiness. I know that many people have concluded that the Ripper was right handed, although it strikes me as strange that many lists over many decades on famous left handers not only include Thompson but also Jack the Ripper. Perhaps this originated from the testimony of Police surgeon, Dr. Rees Ralph Llewellyn, a witness to the inquest of Ripper victim, Mary Ann Nichols who thought that her throat was cut by a left handed person.

                      It is true that whether the Ripper had the skills of a doctor is the subject of much debate. I should remind you that I am not saying that the Ripper had to be a doctor only that he needs to have ability, this could be include professions such as soldiers with experience with a bayonet or knife and butchers. I wonder if we have any butchers or soldiers on Casebook who could let us know how easily their professions trains them to cut into a female bodies? I know that doctors can and so could Thompson.

                      This is what in 1988, Doctor Joseph C. Rupp, a Texan Medical Examiner for Nueces County said about Thompson in the “Criminologist”,
                      'Francis Thompson spent six years in medical school, in effect, he went through medical school three times. It is unlikely, no matter how disinterested he was or how few lectures he attended, that he did not absorb a significant amount of medical knowledge.’

                      I suppose only I see the irony of Thompson who trained for so long to be a doctor only to miss final examinations and turn his attention to writing poetry. He submitted little gems to a magazine, on the eve of the murders, such as his “Nightmare of the Witch Babies”. Considered to gruesome to be published, this was about a “knight” who wanders the foggy nightime streets slicing women’s stomachs open to look for “witch babies” inside them,

                      Two witch babies, Ho! Ho! Ho!
                      And its paunch [stomach] was rent
                      Like a brasted [bursting] drum;
                      And the blubbered fat
                      From its belly doth come
                      It was a stream ran bloodily
                      Under the wall
                      O Stream, you cannot run too red
                      To tell a maid her widowhead!
                      It was a stream ran bloodily
                      Under the wall.
                      With a sickening ooze-Hell made it so!
                      Two witch babies, Ho! Ho! Ho!'

                      This poem conveys a sickening sense of humour with the narrator laughing all the time,

                      A lusty knight,
                      Ha! Ha!…
                      A rotten mist,
                      Ha! Ha!…
                      No one life there,
                      Ha! Ha!…
                      'Swiftly he followed her
                      Ha! Ha!…
                      Into the fogginess
                      Ha! Ha!…

                      Here is Thompson, a failed doctor, turned into a poet, echoing the words within the “Dear Boss” letter who goads the police and their frantic efforts to catch the killer, ‘No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha' Remember, ha ha was underlined in the letter.

                      Probably the reason so many think we should be looking for a doctor is because some of the doctors that appeared at the murder inquests thought so too. Dr Frederick Gordon Brown, the doctor who gave evidence at the inquest for Ripper victim, Catherine Eddowes, replied when asked if the killer possessed great anatomical skill, ‘A good deal of knowledge as to the positions of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them.’ Then there is Doctor Thomas Bond who, who performed Mary Kelly’s Autopsy. He described how the killer had removed her heat via the pericardium. This is the same technique as taught using the then rare and new Virchow method. From 1878 to 1883 Thompson studied as a surgeon at Owens Medical College, in Manchester and also trained at Manchester’s Royal Infirmary. Francis Thompson’s lecturer of pathology at Medical College was Julius Dreschfeld, a pupil of Virchow. Dreschfeld had just returned from Germany having learned his methods, and is known to be instrumental in introducing it to England.

                      You ask why is it relevant that is said that Jacob Levy was living in Aldgate while Thompson was living in Limehouse. I wrote this because the fact that Levy lived in the East End makes many people see he had an opportunity to carry out these crimes. I wanted to show that this is also true for Thompson. Others have told me here on Casebook that they do not see anything that connects Thompson to Whitechapel but here is something. In 1896 planned to write a book on London describing the streets he walked while homeless. Thompson’s told that he desired to wanted to include a description of the petrol fuelled naphtha lamps that lit Mile End Road in Tower Hamlets, because as he said, ‘I have seen it most peculiarly under those aspects.'

                      As to Levy’s syphilis being a motive to kill these prostitutes. As you rightly say, this is purely speculative. There is nothing to say that Levy caught this disease from a prostitute. Also, if it is so common for these “fallen women” to have this disease then isn’t it remarkable that none of the 5 Ripper victims carried it! You say that Thompson saw his prostitute “friend as his savior. I’m sure she was, until she left him. Here’s what Thompson said about the prostitutes,
                      ‘These girls whose Practice is a putrid ulceration of love, venting foul and purulent discharge- for their very utterance is a hideous blasphemy against the sacrosanctity [sacred ways] of lover's language!... , the girls harlots in the mother's womb’

                      Unlike Levy simply having a sexual disease, Thompson demonstrated a clear hatred of this profession without any need for speculation.

                      You say that for the Ripper’s weapon that butcher’s knife could have worked just as well, I am sure there is a many reason why surgeons prefer using a dissecting scalpel to cut into a corpses.

                      Speaking of speculation the “link” between Levy to one of the witnesses just that.

                      Let me end by saying how surprised I am that you would continue with Levy as having an ability, motive, opportunity and weapon equal to Thompson. Is it because out of them all Levy is the only suspect that can be brought to me to argue against Thompson. If this is true then how pitiful must be the other existing suspects?
                      Author of

                      "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

                      http://www.francisjthompson.com/

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Hi. Hatchett. So are you saying that Thompson was a liar?
                        Author of

                        "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

                        http://www.francisjthompson.com/

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Richard Patterson View Post

                          Let me end by saying how surprised I am that you would continue with Levy as having an ability, motive, opportunity and weapon equal to Thompson. Is it because out of them all Levy is the only suspect that can be brought to me to argue against Thompson. If this is true then how pitiful must be the other existing suspects?
                          Levy was given as an example to the four criteria that you presented.

                          Now it's you questioning Levy as viable because it's purely speculative?

                          I addressed your "4 points" in a respectful manner and the reply was to join a facebook page to learn more. Do you have a twitter and youtube account we should follow/like too?
                          Last edited by gnote; 12-05-2014, 09:03 PM.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by gnote View Post
                            Levy was given as an example to the four criteria that you presented.

                            Now it's you questioning Levy as viable because it's purely speculative?

                            I addressed your "4 points" in a respectful manner and the reply was to join a facebook page to learn more. Do you have a twitter and youtube account we should follow/like too?
                            Hi gnote.
                            I appreciate you efforts and for going as far as saying that he was, not a ‘ridiculous suspect’, which was mighty noble of you. Levy is certainly a viable suspect, if by viable you mean capable of succeeding, but perhaps I should have been more exact in regard to the four criteria and asked for people not to submit suspects with so many maybes attached to them. Levy maybe had a motive, if we make assumptions and speculate on his syphilis. Also maybe when the East End was in hysteria and on the lookout for a butcher, Levy was wandering about with his butcher’s knife belt, which was designed to be worn over an apron. This would have during a time when people had grown to fear the press’s ‘Leather Apron’ with word on the street and in the papers, that the murderer was a Jewish butcher. Maybe 5 women simply ignored these warnings, of the press, police and mobs and walked off alone and into the darkness with Levy, but that’s a lot of maybes.

                            With respect, since Thompson seems barely discussed on Casebook. I speculated that it was simply because others here were ignorant of him rather than bizarrely purposely ignoring him, as if the murder of 5 women is a trivial thing. You yourself wrote, ‘I don't know enough about Thompson to dismiss him,’ I am sure I am not wrong in my speculation on your ignorance rather than any malfeasance on your part, and that was why I gave my Facebook group’s link. It was so you and others could, as I told, be able to read one of the first biographies on FT, written by Everard Meynell, someone who him well, that I gave the link.

                            I don’t Twitter but I do have a YouTube account. Once again, so people can know more about Thompson, who even if you may never agree is the most likely suspect, is certainly the most interesting, here is the link:

                            https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9m...ZlDLJm8O-9mPRw
                            Last edited by Richard Patterson; 12-05-2014, 10:24 PM.
                            Author of

                            "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson"

                            http://www.francisjthompson.com/

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Hi,

                              I am not saying that Thompson was a liar. But he was a writer and poet, and it is well know that writers "borrow" things. The actual story of the prositute in De Quincys "Confessions ...." is a very haunting, lost romance, story. Just such a story that Thompson could have borrowed for himself, as a way of living it.

                              Comment

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