British Paper Reports Tall Man Attacks Woman

[Natalie Severn]

Tom,
I am looking forward to reading your article- especially since you write that Debs has assisted with the research -so what with your neat turn of phrase and her brilliant research input, this should be quite something of an article![and even though you totally ignored my article on Chapman last year !]
In fact there are several articles I can"t wait to read but I need to be able to concentrate and its getting late here and I have only had the article available for about two hours!
All the Best
Norma
Thanks Claire!

[Simon Wood]

Hi Tom,

Could you tell me something?

Was Le Grand ever actually named as one of the private detectives working for the vigilance committee?

Regards,

Simon

[Tom_Wescott]

I am looking forward to reading your article- especially since you write that Debs has assisted with the research

I use her name liberally to inbue my work with more credibility than it would otherwise possess. That and she's one of the 'Holy Trinity' of Ripper research.

and even though you totally ignored my article on Chapman last year

It's not that I ignored it, it's that I haven't yet read it. At that time I had no interest in George Chapman. Only in recent weeks did Adam Went (and a re-read of Sugden) convince me that, although Chapman is (in my mind) a very unlikely suspect, he does deserve a spot in the shortlist of official police suspects (albeit non-contemporary). I actually have your essay bookmarked to reference for my book.

Was Le Grand ever actually named as one of the private detectives working for the vigilance committee?

Yes, by no less than the police. It's in 'Ultimate', although right now I couldn't tell you what page. But there's no question and Charles Le Grand and J.H. Batchelor were the two PI's employed by Lusk and Aarons. That's why I made a cryptic remark regarding the ledger entry in your thread that the police inquired into the 'activities of a certain private detective agency'. Who do you think that's referring to? You and I are following completely different lines of inquiry, but I have a feeling they're going to dovetail together at some point, and won't that be exciting.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Hunter]

Hi Hunter,



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.

Thank you Simon, for that information. I was under the impression that Ostrog's location during the Autumn of 1888 was not known until after Macnaghten's memorandum. This certainly puts a whole new light on more than just Ostrog... as you suggest.