The "Canonical Group" defines the Ripper...but accurately?

[Simon Wood]

Hi Jonathan and Lynn,

If this report is accurate, it kinda blows Macnaghten, Farquharson and Druitt out of the water.

Western Mail, 26th February 1892—



Regards,

Simon

PS. I think you're right about the style of the Rocky Mountain News article, Roy.

[Tom_Wescott]

The suspect described in the Western Mail article posted by Simon is, of course, Charles Le Grand, although the reporter got a bit garbled in his facts. It doesn't at all blow Druitt or anybody out of the water. The reporter is merely saying that if his detective sources who suspect Le Grand are correct in their suspicions, then obviously Farquarson's theory is incorrect, which stands to reason. Of course the opposite would apply as well, or neither suspects may have been the Ripper.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

To Maria,

I tried to PM you, but you don't have PM or e-mail set up on your profile.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[lynn cates]

explicit

Hello Simon. Say, this is rather explicit. If what is said is true, then, of course, Farquaharson must be in error.

There were many stories floating about concerning people being watched day and night. I wonder if:

1. They have a common origin?

2. They were inspired by Kosminski?

I wonder further if SY's considered opinion in the article sheds light on the contemporary view of the canonical 5?

Thanks for posting this.

The best.
LC

[Simon Wood]

Hi Lynn,

This is probably just one of those annoying coincidences in the WM, but on January 7th 1892, just five days after the Rocky Mountain News reported a royal commission into the Whitechapel murders, Chief Inspector Frederick George Abberline tendered his resignation from the Metropolitan Police.

Regards,

Simon

[lynn cates]

Pinkerton

Hello Simon. Thanks for that.

And from thence to Pickerton's for FGA?

Cheers.
LC

[Simon Wood]

Hi Lynn,

Indeed. Together with John G. Littlechild and Superintendent John Shore.

Regards,

Simon

[Phil Carter]

Hi Lynn,

Indeed. Together with John G. Littlechild and Superintendent John Shore.

Regards,

Simon

Hello Simon,

Hereby known as the "Forceful 3" perhaps?

best wishes

Phil

[lynn cates]

wink wink squire

Hello Simon and Phil. Say no more, lads. I get it.

Cheers.
LC

[protohistorian]

Hi Lynn,

This is probably just one of those annoying coincidences in the WM, but on January 7th 1892, just five days after the Rocky Mountain News reported a royal commission into the Whitechapel murders, Chief Inspector Frederick George Abberline tendered his resignation from the Metropolitan Police.

Regards,

Simon

Hello Simon. Coincidence or thrown under the bus? Dave

[Tom_Wescott]

Simon, Phil, Lynn,

What's all the 'wink, wink' about? Too bad AP and Mike Richards aren't here, you guys could team up and find Atlantis and the man on the grassy knoll while you're at it.

I noticed you guys lost all interest in the Western Mail report once I pointed out it's about Le Grand. Did that thwart some new conspiracy theory? Incidentally, It was discovered by Mike Covell and included in my Examiner essay. At least to my knowledge. If Simon had previously posted it, please let me know when/where so I can properly credit him.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Simon Wood]

Hi Tom,

We were merely discussing factual anomalies and coincidences. Nothing more.

Your derision does you a disservice.

Regards,

Simon

[Jonathan H]

To Hunter

Regarding the C-5 I think we are somewhat at cross-purposes.

I do not mean that Mac was the first person, on record, to ever think of this theory.

I mean that he was the first to lock it in as a Scotland Yard fact -- or so he claimed. He did this initially with his internal report of 1894, official version, which rewrote the Ripper mystery of 1888 to 1891.

These 'only five' murders being by 'Jack' are treated as fact; 'to give the Devil his due'. What he buries in that Report is that this information, rightly or wrongly, came from the Druitts themselves: who 'believed', not 'suspected'.

Mac then publicly disseminated this 'fact' via Griffiths, in 1898, with his COVERTLY semi-fictional story of a supposedly contemporaneous doctor suspect.

This was only months ahead of a North Country Vicar's revelation, who was going to do the same with an OVERTLY, admittedly semi-fictional story which locked in Kelly as the last victim, and is also about a Gentile Gentleman -- and not a contemporaneous police suspect -- who was 'at one time a surgeon', or is that fiction too?

Because 'doctor' sure is a fictional detail in Mac's tale about Druitt fed to Griffiths, the latter further fictionalizing it by turning his 'family' into 'friends'.

By the time George Sims gets going Druitt further spins off into the realms of fiction -- is, in my opinion, made even more libel-proof.

In Sims the un-named Druitt -- who diligently held down two demanding jobs -- is both so rich and so mentally unstable that he does not even work for a living at all! Just idles his time at cafes and on public transport, somehow monitored by concerned chums, until the next homicidal eruption ...

Therefore the rendering-in-concrete of the C-5, as a fact as opposed to a theory by Bond or anybody else, resides with Macnaghten.

I appreciate that you subscribe to the theory that Macnaghten was a hopelessly amateur Sherlock, just putting together bits and pieces. Obviously, my interpretation is diametrically opposed -- for what that is worth -- as I am creating a new Mac. The Top Cop who solved the Ripper mystery, albeit posthumously.

To Lynn

Andy Spalleck tried to hunt down the Vicar but came up empty.

He and I thought that it might be the cleric Charles Druitt, the Ripper's cousin, as he worked in a parish called Whitechurch and the Vicar piece is headed with the mistake: 'The Whitechurch Murders'.

I do not think the Vicar is a relative at all, but he is connected enough to the Druitts that his name will give away their identity in Dorset circles. That is also why the detail about 'suicide' was not mentioned either.

I think that the piece about a Catholic confession might be a garbled leak about Montie's confessing to an Anglican minister?

Or just a coincidence.

To Tom

I agree. If the MP is wrong then that's that for Druitt.

On the other hand this source -- in my opinion -- solved the Ripper mystery as it identified the blabber-mouthed politician, and thus conclusively linked him to Druitt. For the first time we had a source on druitt which predated the Mac Report of 1894.

This meant that Macnaghten probably did have access to a contact with accurate information about this suspect, torpedoing the previously reasonable, perplexed argument by Odell and Begg, and others, that Mac knew nothing accurate about Druitt.

Of course know about the 'son of a surgeon' -- and changed those details, to make his chief suspect both libel-proof and [falsely] contemporaneous to the 1888 investigation.

Also, a tabloid source like that, in which the police are portrayed as on the job, on the ball, closing in, is an attempt to bury embarrassment about a long dead suspect. That the MP is excruciatingly correct, and the tale of another suspect which surrounds it, is false.

My evidence for that is the way Mac commits himself to the MP's suspect for the rest of his life, yet is aware of the embarrassment of a long dead suspect by the way he pretends in his official Report that Druitt was contemporaneous but minor, pretends with his literary cronies that Druitt was contemporaneous and yet major, and finally in his memoirs admits that the un-named Druitt was major and yet not contemporaneous.

[lynn cates]

wavering

Hello Jonathan. Thanks. One thing is quite clear, Mac never wavered from his position vis-a-vis Monty--as you point out. Nor does he seem to question his canonical 5.

Cheers.
LC

[Roy Corduroy]

January 1892

I think that the piece about a Catholic confession might be a garbled leak about Montie's confessing to an Anglican minister?

Or just a coincidence.

The coincidence I see in the Jan 17th, 1892 article in the American paper is that Cardinal Manning died on the 14th.* But the London byline is the 2nd of the month.

Roy

*Prince Albert Victor died that day, too.