How intelligent was Liz?!

[sdreid]

I wonder if Mary was even functionally literate. Didn't she have Barnett read her the newspaper accounts regarding the murders?

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

That's true, Stan, but then we have to consider this was 1888. In those days reading out loud to one another (usually the task given to one in the household or family) was a common tradition or homely entertainment in the days before radio and television, so it doesn't necessarily imply that Mary couldn't read.
But then again, I wouldn't rule it out either.

All the best

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

Yes, the MJK points are all very good!

And then there is the possibility, that she had some difficulties in her eye-sight.

And that she was hiding that, just like everything else...

Here is something about her on the "Victims" introduction:
"Joseph Barnett and Mrs. Carthy, a woman with whom she lived at one time, say that she came from a family that was "fairly well off" (Barnett) and "well to do people" (Carthy). Mrs. Carthy also states that Kelly was "an excellent scholar and an artist of no mean degree.""

But then, since she could hide her backround, she could very well have been acting as a better-off originating!

To come back to the subject of this thread;

As a farm-girl, Liz didn't have much of a chance of getting above-the-basic education in Sweden of the time! Did she, Glenn?!

All the best
Jukka

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

I did start a thread on the vanished boards about this issue, but I think the following question fits to this discussion;

how well did Liz write in English, any records or reports about it?!

Since she had been running a coffee shop, probably she could write at least the necessary book-keeping English!

All the best
Jukka

[Jeff Leahy]

Born 1843, one of four children to a small farm owner Gustof Erricson. Her mother died when she was 21 years old, which seems to have effect her enormously. She went to a local parish school. She was arrested for prostitution in 1865 and gave birth to a still born child in 1886. She seems to have spent her life running away and escaping something, leaving for England. She must have known someone in England? She was left 65 krona in her mothers will a considerable sum then. Was well educated and may have spoken several languages. Her sister married a shoe maker Bernard Olsson in gothenburg.

She marries John Thomas Stride, a man twice her age in 1869. Johns father seems to have been a man of considerable wealth owning a large amount of property in Sheerness Kent. However for some reason they fall out with William Stride and are cut out of the will. They open a respectable Coffee Shop in Poplar and do well for themselves.

PRINCESS ALICE DISASTER
In 1878 the paddle Steamer The Princess Alice is involved in a collision with a collier ship on the Thames. 600 people loss there lives. Out line the
story of the disaster. Elizabeth Stride claims that her husband and children
were killed in the disaster and applies for money to the Mansion House fund. It is a tale she is to repeat in various forms over the years. Indeed liz' life
seems to have a series of strange tales the purpose of which may have been to gain money. However this is largely the subject of speculation. It is possible that she was impersonating Mrs Malcolm's sister, she also collected money from the church.

Whatever the truth she was a colourful character. In 1881 she splits from Thomas Stride moving into various lodging houses. Thomas dies in 1884 and the following year she meets the violent Michael Kidney who has also been put forward as a JtR suspect at various times.

Hi Guys

dont know if any of this helps..theres some interesting Stuff in Sue and Andy Palours book about the Swedish Church-StGeorges -in-the-east. but I've miss placed it at present.

I think a case could be made that Liz was the most well off of the Ripper Victims at one time, and probably the best educated, although Annie Chapman's also had some education and her children appear to have been well educated in Windsor...

Yours Jeff

[YankeeSergeant]

Accent

Hello you all!

Well, she lived for almost twenty years in London. So, she had time to learn to speak the language fluently!

All the best
Jukka

Jukka and all; I have to wonder about the accent. Growing up when I lived in Chicago we lived near a SWedidh family and although the mother and father spoke English beautifully, the accent was most noticible and they had been in America at that point for almost thirty yearsStride may have been a quick study and been adept at picking up the accent of East End London or she may well have just spoke English really well and in a polyglot area was assumend to speak with little accent.