Albert Backert at the Frances Coles inquest and a sighting

[Dave O]

Hi Robert and Chris,

Thanks Chris, that was a good find that you made. I'm sure you've got the right person based on the points you've made. I wonder if that was the same Sidney Street where the siege happened a decade later.

Cheers,
Dave

[Robert]

Thanks Chris. I wonder if the boarder Arthur Steff was related to Flora's husband.

[Chris Scott]

Hi Dave and Robert
Backert is listed in 1901 living with his sister as follows:
42 Sidney Street, Mile End
Head: Flora Stiffens (Married) aged 31 born Mile End
Children:
Robert aged 6
George aged 4
Rosa aged 2
Annie M aged 1 month
Brother:
Albert Becker (sic) aged 26 born Mile End - Engraver

The surname (Becker) and the age are causes for concern but to me the following facts show that this is indeed Albert Backert.
1) We know that Albert had a sister named Flora.
"The Backerts were still at 13 Newnham Street at the time of the 1891 census:
Head
John Backert aged 50 born Meckleburg, Germany (BS) - Tailor
Wife
Georgina Backert aged 49 born Hanover Germany
Children
Albert aged 22 born Whitechapel - Copper plate engraver
Flora aged 19 born Whitechapel
Boarders
Arthur Steff aged 36 born Stettin, Germany - Mercantile Clerk
Charles Wagner born Steetin, Germany - Wine traveller
(From Cast of Thousands)
2) In 1894 Flora Bachert (sic) married Robert Charles Steffen, and I am sure that the Flora Stiffens of Sidney Street is indeed Flora Steffen, née Bachert
3) Albert trade is still shown as that of an engraver

With regard to the question of Albert's age given as 26, this is consistent with the discrepancies in earlier censuses. In cast of Thousands I wrote this:
The question of Albert's date of birth and age is not an easy one to resolve. In the 1871 data his age is given as 8 years of age, which would place his birth in or around 1863. However, I have checked the BMD registers for the period 1860 to 1865 and the only possible entry that could refer to him is the record of a William Albert Bachert, whose birth was registered in Whitechapel in the last quarter of 1860. If this is indeed the Albert Backert under discussion, then his actual age at the time of the 1871 census would have been 10 years old.

However, the extraordinary nature of the ages recorded for Backert in successive censuses make this two-year discrepancy seem positively trivial. In 1871 he is recorded as 8 years old, in 1881 he is 18 years old, in 1891 he is 22 years old and in 1901 his age is given as 26! I have in the course of my researches seen some wildly varied ages given over the course of different returns for what is undoubtedly the same individual, but this is probably the most extreme example I have encountered.

[Robert]

Hi Dave

I thought that Bachert disappeared from the radar around June 1893, after his prison sentence, when he mentioned a fund for sending him abroad.

[Dave O]

Hello all,

It's been some time ago, but didn't Chris Scott once post census info showing Bachert living in or near Sydney Street about the turn of the century?

I cannot think of a single layman who made more appearances in the press than Albert Bachert.

[Monty]

Debs,

Maybe.

Monty

[Debra A]

Debs,

Any idea where?

My money is on Canada.

Monty

Really? That makes me think you know something you're not telling Monty?!

[Monty]

Debs,

Any idea where?

My money is on Canada.

Monty

[Chris Scott]

Ooh - the Bristol connection is a new one on me - could you mail me some brief details pls?
The articles Ive found related to his activities in Tower Hill and other parts of London
All the best
chris

[Debra A]

Chris,
like I said on another thread, he went to Bristol to stir up trouble amongst the unemployed there and then falls off the planet newswise! I think he emigrated as threatened.

[Chris Scott]

Debs
A very odd man indeed!
He seems to have intruded himself into the case at every available opportunity. And, apart from the Ripper case, he stayed in the headlines for some time after with his varied activities in the mettings of the unemployed.
Still, it would be interesting to know what finally happened to him.
Regards
Chris

[Debra A]

Regarding the July 1889 sailor incident, In other versions of the story Bachert said he was stood at the corner of Goulston and Wentworth Street when he saw the woman with the sailor, he says they were later opposite a butcher's shop (Woods) near Aldgate East station when the attack happened.


Bachert appears in about 35 different press stories between 88 and 93, most of them connected to the various Ripper murders and incidents, some to his political career and others to his drunkeness, amongst them one incident in East India Dock Road and one in Aldgate High Street in a butcher's shop.

A very odd man.

[Chris Scott]

Hi Rob
Many thanks indeed for that - very useful
I'd hardly describe that distance as "only a few yards"!

here is yet another example of Albert's involvement:

20 September 1889

THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
The chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, Mr Albert Backert, stated yesterday that the police at Leman Street Station have received a letter stating that it has been ascertained that a tall, strong woman has for some time been working at different slaughter houses attired as a man. Searching inquiries were yesterday morning made at the slaughter houses in Aldgate and Whitechapel by the police. It is presumed (says a press agency) that this has something to do with the recent Whitechapel murders, and it has given rise to a theory that the victims may have been murdered by the hands of a woman. It is remarked that in each case there is no evidence of a man being seen in the vicinity at the time of the murder.

[Rob Clack]

I've marked on this map Albert Bachert's address at 13 Newnman Street and Swallow Gardens.



Rob

[Mike Covell]

Sailor - South Shields - Knife - Jack the Ripper - It's gotta be Sickert