American Jack: Jack the Ripper and the United States

[Simon Webb]

Hope folks won't mind if I plug my new book 'American Jack', re-examining Ripper suspects with American connections, available for Kindle and as a paperback. Just launched the paperback yesterday.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Hi Simon

I'm sure that no one will complain about you plugging your new book. I'll get it as soon as I've reduced my pile of 'still to read' books!

Best of luck with it. I'm sure that there's a space for a new thread for a discussion of your research.

Regards
Herlock

[Simon Webb]

Thanks Herlock :-)

[Simon Webb]

In case anyone's interested, here's the URL to buy the book for Kindle in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Ja...ack+simon+webb

And in the US: https://www.amazon.com/American-Jack...+american+jack

[Simon Webb]

Yes, I have such a pile as well, Herlock: good luck with yours!

[Simon Webb]

Here's the blurb for the book, by the way:

'Dear Boss - I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they won't fix me just yet.'

Was Jack the Ripper an American, or had he lived in the United States? Did he commit any of the Ripper-style murders carried out in the U.S. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

Simon Webb's first non-fiction book about the Whitechapel killer re-tells the stories of the murders usually attributed to this mysterious figure, and re-examines the evidence surrounding a number of suspects with American connections.

[PaulB]

In case anyone's interested, here's the URL to buy the book for Kindle in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Ja...ack+simon+webb

And in the US: https://www.amazon.com/American-Jack...+american+jack

How about the paperback, Simon. I'd like a copy to review for Ripperologist/

[Steadmund Brand]

Plug away Simon.... reminded me to pick it up

Steadmund Brand

[Simon Webb]

No problem PaulB - UK Amazon is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Ja...ack+simon+webb

US Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/American-Jack...ack+simon+webb

And it'd be great to see a copy of the review.

[Simon Webb]

Suspects covered in the book

The suspects I cover in the book, who all had connections with the U.S., are as follows: George Chapman, Jack Gibson, John Kelly, Arbie La Bruckman, Neill Cream, Black Elk, Robert Donston Stephenson, Francis Tumblety and James Maybrick.

True, Stephenson's links to America may just have been figments of his imagination, but he's a fascinating suspect anyway. Stephenson also brought with himself into the book the occultist Aleister Crowley, who is not a suspect but claimed to know who Jack was.

[Pcdunn]

Black Elk? Is this related to the presence of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show?

[Simon Webb]

Yes he was in the UK because of Cody and then continued with another, similar show led by a Mexican Joe, about whom I've been able to discover very little (by contrast there's a lot of information, and several books, on Cody). In American Jack I try to cover both sides of every argument, but I have to admit that he's a very unlikely suspect. Great excuse to read the main book about him, Black Elk Speaks though. One of the many problems relating to him as a suspect is what I'd call 'The Moustache Question'. Black Elk never seems to have had any facial hair, and the Ripper witnesses often seem to have seen men with 'taches.

[PaulB]

Yes he was in the UK because of Cody and then continued with another, similar show led by a Mexican Joe, about whom I've been able to discover very little (by contrast there's a lot of information, and several books, on Cody). In American Jack I try to cover both sides of every argument, but I have to admit that he's a very unlikely suspect. Great excuse to read the main book about him, Black Elk Speaks though. One of the many problems relating to him as a suspect is what I'd call 'The Moustache Question'. Black Elk never seems to have had any facial hair, and the Ripper witnesses often seem to have seen men with 'taches.

You probably know this already, but 'Mexican Joe' was Colonel Joseph Shelley, who toured with a wild west show that supposedly rivalled Buffalo Bill Cody’s. He performed in the United States (with partner Broncho John).The troop had sailed from New York aboard the steamer Italy at the end of July 1887 and in August was part of the Liverpool Royal Jubilee Exhibition. He opened in London on Boxing Day, 26 December, 1887, at the failing Albert Palace, Battersea. “Mexican Joe” wasn’t Mexican and most of what he claimed about his life on the frontier is untrue; he did not kill the Indian Victorio in hand-to-hand combat (he was killed in northern Mexico by soldiers of the Mexican army commanded by Colonal Joaquin Terraza) and he didn’t found the Texas Rangers. In the early 1890s, his show ceased to be a purely wild west entertainment and in 1894 he appears to have gone bankrupt. By August 1895 he and a confrere named “Broncho Bill” were giving free talks on Blackpool sands and appearing with other acts in concert halls. In October 1897 he advertised from 22 Spring Gardens, Bradford, for 300 men for an expedition to the Klondyke. He then vanishes from the newspapers. One of the famous stories concerning “Mexican Joe” is that of Black Elk, the leader of a group of Lakota Indians who had come to England with Buffalo Bill’s show, but became separated from Bill’s company in Salford. Buffalo Bill’s company went from Salford to Hull, where it sailed for the United States. The Indians went to London, where fortunately “Mexican Joe” engaged them as performers.
"Mexican Joe": (Colonel Joseph Shelley). His Wonderful Life! Exploits! and Adventures! Aldine Publishing Company, 1890.]

Another cowboy suspect was 'Colorado Charley' - real name Charley Utter - a friend of Wild Bill Hickock (see Agnes Wright Spring, Good Little Bad Man: The Life of Colorado Charley Utter. Pruett Publishing, 1987) Sometime after February 1880 Utter disappears from the pages of history.

[drstrange169]

Hah! I only know of Charley Utter from the TV series, "Deadwood".

I must check out the book, thanks for the tip Paul and best of success for your book Simon.

[Simon Webb]

Thanks PaulB. Looks like fakery, fake news and con artistry are not just 21st century concerns. An issue I came across when researching American Jack was whether Black Elk and his companions were tricked into missing Cody's boat or whether it was just an accident: on balance I think it was accidental as even people who have excellent English and have lived in the UK all their lives still miss trains, planes, etc.