Jack the Ripper A-Z

[Tom_Wescott]

I have friends. Begg, Fido and Skinner must like me to mention me 8 TIMES their book, so NYUUUUUUUUHHHH!.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

P.S. I don't get the Buddha/misheard joke.

[Rob Clack]

They wouldnt do that.

Monty

I would.

Incidentally, the text is searchable on Amazon's website, which makes it easy to see that there are 11 occurrences of "Robert Clack," 5 of "Philip Hutchinson" and 4 of "Robert Linford."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1844...ref=sib_dp_ptu

Thanks Chris, something to casually mention to Philip

Rob

[Stewart P Evans]

Don't Worry

Don't worry lads - you'll get over it.

[lynn cates]

Buddha

Hello Tom. They seem to be picking up on the Buddha's ontology in that he claimed there was no self (ie, ego).

I had a student once who claimed that the problem of self-identity was best solved through the Buddha's position that there is no self. It was a fairly well written paper and he would have gotten top mark, but, as I pointed out to him, I had difficulty assigning the mark since he had no self. As I recall, the lad changed his mind.

Cheers.
LC

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Lynn, that's funny.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Monty]

I would.

Yes, I know. ;-)

Monty

[Robert]

Philip is now searching the book for PhiLLip Hutchinson. Never say die.

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

I did one of these on the Carrie Brown entry over at JtRforums. Here's one for the Casebook:

Page 279.

“La Bruckman, Arbie aka John Francis (b. c. 1860)”

La Bruckman stated that he was born in 1862.

“A Moroccan (or possibly Algerian) seaman…”

La Bruckman stated that he was born in Morocco although one person interviewed by the newspapers stated that he spoke with an “Alsatian” accent (which might indicate his family heritage).

“…supposedly cousin to Amir ben Ali, the Algerian convicted of Carrie Brown’s murder, and the suspect described as ‘Frenchy no. 2’ in that case, where ben Ali was ‘Frenchy no. 1.’”

Although “Amir” is probably the correct modern spelling Ben Ali’s name was always given as “Ameer” in the news reports. La Bruckman was not related to Ameer Ben Ali and, apparently, had never even met him nor was he the suspect known as ‘Frenchy No. 2.’ This confusion can be laid at the door of Michael Conlon who made this claim, now disproven, in his articles while trying to prove that La Bruckman was the Ripper.

“While Ali was arrested as a suspicious resident of the hotel in which Carrie Brown was killed, the initial police statements said that his cousin La Bruckman, of similar appearance but with lighter complexion, moustache and hair, was the prime suspect.”

At a news conference held on the night of 25 April, 1891, Chief Inspector Byrnes and Inspector McLaughlin claimed that Frenchy’s cousin, who became known as ‘Frenchy No. 2,’ was the murderer. As stated above, this was not La Bruckman but another man.
La Bruckman did not have a “lighter complexion, moustache and hair” (like ‘C. Knicklo,’ the man who entered the hotel with Carrie Brown) but, instead, had a dark and swarthy complexion with black hair and dark brown moustache.
La Bruckman was never ‘the prime suspect,’ the man known as ‘Frenchy’s cousin,’ or ‘Frenchy No. 2,’ was.

“Although New York police failed to find ‘Frenchy no. 2’ and turned their energies to concocting a case against ‘Frenchy no. 1,’ he was actually arrested in New Jersey during April as ‘Suspect no. 120’ in the ‘Old Shakespeare’ case and questioned by New York police detective McCloskey, who declared he was indeed ‘Frenchy no. 2,’ but was not the murderer.”

‘Frenchy No. 2’ was arrested by the NYPD either on the 25th or on the 26th of April. La Bruckman was arrested by the Jersey City police on the 29th of April. He did claim that he thought he might be ‘Frenchy No. 2’ but he was not known as such in the Lower East Side.
Detective McCloskey did say that La Bruckman was ‘Frenchy No. 2,’ exactly why is unclear, but Chief Inspector Byrnes denied this and stated that the real ‘Frenchy No. 2’ was arrested and released, after his alibi was checked and corroborated, on Sunday the 26th of April.

“Allegedly La Bruckman said he had been arrested in London on suspicion of being Jack the Ripper; had been held in custody for a month before being tried and cleared…”

Actually La Bruckman told different stories about how long he had been under arrest in London. He told the police that he had been held for two weeks but later that same day told a reporter that it had been four weeks followed by a two week trial. Still later that day he told another reporter that he had been held for four weeks before he was released.

“It was said that he had a savage temper, enjoyed slaughtering and dismembering injured cattle on the Meyer Goldsmith National Line of cattle freighters, which he had worked between London and New York for 14 years…”

La Bruckman’s bad reputation came from an anonymous letter to the New York World (which had some of the details of La Bruckman’s life wrong) but various shipping people who knew La Bruckman disagreed with this assessment saying that he was a hard working, reliable and trustworthy worker who some Captains asked for by name.
Although he did sail on the ships of the National Line he also sailed on other lines as well.

Wolf.

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for that, Wolf. I just read the La Bruckman entry last night. I'm obviously a slower reader than yourself and Chris.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Scott Nelson]

I note that Martin Roberts' suspect, Dr. James Cockburn Gloster wasn't mentioned.

[Tom_Wescott]

A Few Minor Errors

Here's a few minor errors I picked up on.

Diemschutz - correct spelling is Diemshitz, which I demonstrated to the satisfaction of all a year or two ago.

Mrs. Diemschutz - Her name should be spelled correctly as well, and her first name was Sarah.

Michael Kidney - As I demonstrated in my CE article, Kidney was never accused of padlocking Liz Stride in their rooms. This is a myth borne from misconstruing a press report.

Le Grand entry - J.W. Batchelor should read J.H. Batchelor.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Hi Tom.

Actually I've only read the sections on Carrie Brown and La Bruckman (I should have commented on Aarons, Joseph and Zverieff, Nicholas in order to appear really quick). The funny thing is that I was wondering about all the errors that others had pointed out and thinking how bad could it be? The very first thing I read was "Brown, Carrie 'Old Shakespeare' (d. 1894)" (she died in 1891, a year engraved on my brain from all the research I've done on the Brown murder). I guess that answers my question.

Wolf.

[Debra A]

Philip is now searching the book for PhiLLip Hutchinson. Never say die.

Worked for me when I added an extra 'i' to my name...got one more!

[The Grave Maurice]

My copies of the new A-Z have just arrived. I'll get back to you in a few days.

[Chris]

It's perhaps also worth noting that it's doubtful whether the well-known drawing reproduced on p. 414 (which comes from an article in the Star of 11 September 1888) really depicts John Pizer.

Immediately after its publication Pizer was quoted by the press as complaining that the picture "has no more resemblance to me than it has to the man in the moon" [Star, 12 September], and the Evening News later [15 September] claimed that it really depicted another suspect entirely, William Pigott. Press descriptions of Pizer's description agree in giving him a moustache and side-whiskers but no beard, whereas the man in the picture has a prominent one.