British Paper Reports Tall Man Attacks Woman

[spyglass]

Tom,
Many thanks. There is me relying on what I read in the updated Mammoth Book Of JTR that I leave at work so as to read snippets when I get spare time.

All my other books are packed away in ready for moving house, so having to rely on memory at mo ( and I have a bad memory)

[Hunter]

I personally believe that Ostrog was never a suspect and that his details were confused with my suspect, Charles Le Grand.

Hi Tom,

There's a good chance that Ostrog was a suspect as a notice was circulated in the Oct. 1888, Police Gazette , with the notation: 'Special attention is called to this dangerous man.'

Now, it is true that Ostrog had graced their pages before for failure to report and there is no mention of the murders in this notice, but he had been missing for seven months before they decided to worry with him... and this, after the double murder and when the medical knowledge/ lunatic theory was at its peak. The City police were investigating asylums for any releases prior to the murders as well.

Ostrog had still not been accounted for when Mac wrote his memorandum in '94 and the medical knowledge/ lunatic belief - as Ostrog was considered to posess the former and be the latter - was the foundation of Ostrog's inclusion in Mac's report.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Hunter. Just so there's no confusion for those reading, the Police Gazette was not a newspaper but a report circulated amongst police stations by Monro that featured the mugshots of a number of criminals, namely those who failed to show after given probation. Ostrog was in there simply because he was let out on probation and did not show up. There's absolutely no indication here, in the press, or in the files, that he was suspected of the Ripper crimes. His past crimes gave the police no reason to suspect him and since he was in France at the time he obviously could not have done anything to draw suspicion on himself during the course of the murders. Either Macnaghten was blatantly lying when he said Ostrog carried knives and was habitually cruel to women, or he was confusing him with another suspect. I conclude that he was confusing him with Le Grand because both men were about 6ft tall, were career criminals, went by the same alias (Grant) were foreigners. Unlike Ostrog, Le Grand was definitely a Ripper suspect, was habitually cruel to women, possessed a knife collection, and when arrested for the last time in 1891 was carrying a bag filled with a variety of weapons, which he claimed were to be used on policemen. There are other reasons for suspecting Macnaghten confused these two men, but that's enough for now.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mklhawley]

I believe it's time to check out my Casebook Examiner 2 for some of these answers. It's out today!

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Mike, you're correct. The new Examiner is out and already being hailed as one of the best Ripperological offerings of all time.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Simon Wood]

Hi Hunter,

Ostrog had still not been accounted for when Mac wrote his memorandum in '94 and the medical knowledge/ lunatic belief - as Ostrog was considered to posess the former and be the latter - was the foundation of Ostrog's inclusion in Mac's report.

Released from prison in March 1888, Ostrog failed to report regularly to the police and, despite notices asking for his whereabouts which appeared in the Police Gazette during the Whitechapel Murders, was not rearrested until April 1891, when he was charged at Bow Street and declared insane. On 7 May 1891 he was sent to Banstead Asylum.

On the same day, Macnaghten wrote to the medical officer at the Asylum—

‘I shall feel obliged if you will cause immediate information to be sent to this office in the event of his discharge, as the Magistrate adjourned the case sine die [without any future date being designated for a resumption of proceedings], in order that he might again be brought up and dealt with for failing to report himself if it is found that he is feigning insanity.’

Macnaghten’s letter was unequivocal. In May 1891 there was not a hint of Ostrog being wanted in connection with anything more serious than failing to report to the police.

Ostrog was finally discharged ‘recovered’ from Banstead Lunatic Asylum on 29 May 1893. On 6 June 1894, Ostrog was arrested in London. In July he appeared at Aylesbury Quarter Sessions charged with two counts of theft, one of them from a jeweller in Eton, Berkshire, on 13 May 1889. Ostrog pleaded his innocence, telling the court he had been in a French asylum until 1890, but the court did not believe his story and sentenced him to five years’ penal servitude. Yet after he had served three months of his sentence a letter dated 9 October 1894, seemingly from the Home Office to the Treasury, confirmed the fact of his French incarceration and stated that he was to be released from prison and paid £10 compensation for wrongful conviction.

Quite knowingly, Macnaghten put an innocent man in the frame for the Whitechapel murders.

Regards,

Simon

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Simon. As with ALL of your posts lately, that was excellent and informative. Thanks!

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks Simon,
Just shows you. Macnaghten was no better than he should have been in such matters---Old Etonion too!

[claire]

Thanks, Simon...so nice to see a straightforward, well-informed post LOL @ Natalie

[mklhawley]

New York World (U.S.A.)
19 November 1888

HE IS "ECCENTRIC" DR. TWOMBLETY
The Amercian Suspected of the Whitechapel Crimes Well Known Here.
A special London despatch to THE WORLD yesterday morning announced the arrest of a man in connection with the Whitechapel crimes, who gave his name as Dr. Kumblety, of New York. He could not be held on suspicion, but the police succeeded in getting him held under the special law passed soon after the "Modern Babylon" exposures...


Well, the source for this particular article, one of the first to comment upon Tumblety, came from London AND it clearly states Tumblety was a JTR suspect. A warrant was issued (five days prior to this report (14 Nov)) for Tumblety two days after one of these incidents. Nowadays, a judge issuing a warrant requires a substantial amount of evidence. Would the warrent have been issued on mere conjecture in 1888? Also, Tumblety was arrested five times for gross indecency (July 27, Aug 31, Oct 14, Nov 2, & Nov 7) prior to this warrent. Why would they have released him on Nov 7 and then issue a warrent to arrest him for gross indecency a sixth time? Were they finally sick of dealing with him? In view of the information given by the London source of this article, the warrent seems to be for JTR stuff.

Regardless if the British papers chose to publish about Tumblety or not, it came from London and not from someone in the U.S. creating a sensational story for the American press. As I have reprinted above, British papers did report incidents of a "tall" man they believed may have had possible connections to the Whitechapel murders. At the same time of the murders a "tall" American quack doctor was on the streets of Whitechapel.

Sincerely,

Mike

Greetings all,

I love when threads have two quality stories going on. This one is back to Tumblety. I've just read Roger Palmer's pt 2. Even if you have not, the thread link below connects with this one.

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?p=136980#post136980

[Jonathan H]

To Simon

I completely agree with you, that Macnaghten was ruthlessly pointing at Ostrog as a Ripper suspect knowing that this was untrue -- though we differ on the reason.

[Tom_Wescott]

I completely agree with you, that Macnaghten was ruthlessly pointing at Ostrog as a Ripper suspect knowing that this was untrue -- though we differ on the reason.

Either you and Simon have me on ignore or neither of you are moved by the fact that there was another suspect with a collection of knives, habitually abusive to prostitutes, who shared an alias with Ostrog, and who was strongly suspected by Scotland Yard of the murders. I find both explanations for your lack of comment remarkable.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Jonathan H]

To Tom

I apologize if you thought I was ignoring your opinion about Le Grand. I was going to comment after giving the relevant article a proper read.

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for that, Jonathan, although I don't mention Ostrog in my essay. I wanted as little speculation as possible in the essay, except where I felt necessary. There's an awful lot that didn't make it in there but will be in my book. Also, I need to do a lot more homework because I present anything regarding my Le Grand/Ostrog theory in a published format. Simon's post today regarding Macnaghten and Ostrog was totally new to me, and I'm sure there's much else I need to see and consider. Before it's all done I might completely change my mind. But that's what message boards are for, tossing it out there and seeing what comes back, which is why I'd enjoy feedback from you and Simon, who have made Macnaghten and his suspects a special focus of research.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Simon Wood]

Hi Tom,

Me ignore you? Perish the thought.

Regretfully, though, I am not yet an "Examiner" subscriber.

Regards,

Simon