A New Ripper Book

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Chris. BECAUSE the Star and the CNA did not have a working relationship, it's all the more reason for Best and co. to 'poison the waters' for the other papers by passing on false info to the CNA to distribute to their competition. The Leather Apron story, for instance.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Chris]

Hi Chris. BECAUSE the Star and the CNA did not have a working relationship, it's all the more reason for Best and co. to 'poison the waters' for the other papers by passing on false info to the CNA to distribute to their competition. The Leather Apron story, for instance.

I don't quite follow that. Surely the competition copied the Leather Apron stories directly from the Star, not from Central News?

Another interesting feature not touched upon by Cook, because he doesn't discuss the 1966 Crime and Detection article about "Best", is the claim that the letters were faked by Best in collaboration with a provincial colleague. I'm not sure what the siginificance of that is, unless it's just that it allowed him to claim responsibility for letters posted outside London.

[Chris]

I have been trying to make a list of the new pieces of information in Andrew Cook's book.

It's far from easy, as he almost never cites his sources. At best they may be included in a list of sources for the whole chapter, but often they don't even seem to be mentioned there.

I shall post details of the information relating to Frederick Best on a separate thread, but my list of general Ripper-related information is as follows:


Pages 72, 73:

Extracts from O'Connor's memoirs, relating the story of how Pizer was invited to the Star offices and asked for £100, and how Parke had induced him to accept £50 by telling him he could get another £50 from another paper which had made insinuations against him.

Apparently from another source, Cook states that actually Pizer called at the Star Offices of his own volition and demanded to see the editor, but as O'Connor was in parliament and the assistant editor, Massingham, refused to see him, Parke met him.

Cook also says that the proprietors got wind of this "close shave" over Pizer and berated O'Connor for his recklessness.

Presumably the second and third items here come from "Records of the Newspaper Publishing Company Ltd (Reg # 24991)". There is no information about where these records are; I can't find any mention of them in the National Register of Archives.


Page 73:

Cook says that the indecent assault case against Pizer in August 1888 had been dismissed because his female accuser had failed to appear.

Perhaps this indicates Cook has found a new source of information about this incident? Sugden (p. 146) cites only the court registers, and says it is not recorded why the case was dismissed.


Page 97:

Cook says that Thomas Bulling was a director and shareholder of Central News, and remained so for some time after Bismarck's death.

Presumably this comes from "Records of Central News Ltd (Reg # 14404)". Again, there is no information about the location of these records.


Pages 154, 155:

There is a short quotation from something written by Sir Basil Thomson "in his papers", containing nothing particularly controversial - he refers to the letters as "bogus", says that the victims were ripped up by "what appeared to be surgical knives of extreme sharpness" and mentions widespread criticism of the CID over the murders. Cook then says Thomson felt the killer had between '3 and 6' victims.

Presumably this comes from the source he describes as "The Papers of Sir Basil Thomson". Again, there is no indication where these papers are.


That seems to be about it, apart from some new biographical information about Percy Clark, and a photograph of him.

I am assuming that the opinions of Clark's neighbour, Dr George Savage, quoted on p. 190, come from the article in the Fortnightly Review mentioned by Begg (The Facts, p. 133).

[Tom_Wescott]

Thanks for that, Chris. I'm just persuing all angles. So none of Cook's sources actually say 'Fred Best invented the name Jack the Ripper and hoaxed the original Ripper letters'? That's a shame. Also a shame is how Cook unaccountably does not give the location of his source material. It seems his research will need to be re-researched! Nevertheless, this is some interesting stuff.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Jeff Leahy]

I have gathered that the TV documentary has been cancelled for Tuesday 9th 2009. However I can find no reference for its reschedule, indeed no reference at all.

I am curious if copyright problems have influenced this decision or whether other factors may be the cause. Does anyone know the new date?

I also came across a rather good review by Alex Chisholm, which gives far better detail about Cooks claims that a different knife was used on Liz Stride.

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?p=69032#post69032

All the best

Pirate

PS If posting info between the two sites is annoying anyone please PM me and I will stop..Jeff

[Chris]

I have gathered that the TV documentary has been cancelled for Tuesday 9th 2009. However I can find no reference for its reschedule, indeed no reference at all.

Stewart Evans posted on jtrforums.com that he'd been told it had been rescheduled to 24 June:

http://www.jtrforums.com/showpost.php?p=69137&postcount=276

I also came across a rather good review by Alex Chisholm, which gives far better detail about Cooks claims that a different knife was used on Liz Stride.

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?p=69032#post69032

Thanks for posting a link to that. I had been checking the older thread on Cook's book, and hadn't seen the new one. That's a very authoritative critique of Cook's work.

Incidentally, I posted the piece from Lippincott's Monthly Magazine here last September, and some discussion of it followed, in which Simon Wood was a participant:

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=1361

[John Malcolm]

"Sir Basil Thomson's papers" appear to be housed between the covers of his book The Story of Scotland Yard, the quote being taken directly from page 189, although I can't seem to find where Thomson talks of the number of victims, other than "Altogether five (with a possible sixth) were ascribed to 'Jack the Ripper.'"

[Chris]

"Sir Basil Thomson's papers" appear to be housed between the covers of his book The Story of Scotland Yard, the quote being taken directly from page 189, although I can't seem to find where Thomson talks of the number of victims, other than "Altogether five (with a possible sixth) were ascribed to 'Jack the Ripper.'"

Thanks for identifying that quotation. I must admit I had a nagging suspicion that might turn out to be the case, but had hoped that it might not.

[Jeff Leahy]

Many thanks for that info Chris. Jeff

[Stewart P Evans]

Leather Apron and The Star

I have been trying to make a list of the new pieces of information in Andrew Cook's book.
It's far from easy, as he almost never cites his sources. At best they may be included in a list of sources for the whole chapter, but often they don't even seem to be mentioned there...
Pages 72, 73:

Extracts from O'Connor's memoirs, relating the story of how Pizer was invited to the Star offices and asked for £100, and how Parke had induced him to accept £50 by telling him he could get another £50 from another paper which had made insinuations against him.
Apparently from another source, Cook states that actually Pizer called at the Star Offices of his own volition and demanded to see the editor, but as O'Connor was in parliament and the assistant editor, Massingham, refused to see him, Parke met him.
Cook also says that the proprietors got wind of this "close shave" over Pizer and berated O'Connor for his recklessness.

From Memoirs of an Old Parliamentarian by the Rt. Hon. T. P. O'Connor, Volume Two, London, Ernest Benn, 1929 -

[Chris]

From Memoirs of an Old Parliamentarian by the Rt. Hon. T. P. O'Connor, Volume Two, London, Ernest Benn, 1929

Thanks for posting that extract. Not unknown, evidently, though I hadn't seen it before (not that that means much).

I note that the Echo of 24 September reported that Pizer was likely to sue a New York paper, as well as "the two London newspapers which dubbed him a lunatic and a murderer", and that the Galveston Daily News two days later (presumably copying from somewhere else) specified the Daily Telegraph and the Star.

[The Grave Maurice]

I just started reading the book this weekend. I'm not in the mood to scroll through 50 pages of posts to see if this has been mentioned before...but, for heaven's sake, have they never heard of proofreaders at Amberley? I lost track of the number of typos, spelling errors, and omitted words. The author, editor, and publisher should hang their collective heads in shame.

[Bailey]

I just started reading the book this weekend. I'm not in the mood to scroll through 50 pages of posts to see if this has been mentioned before...but, for heaven's sake, have they never heard of proofreaders at Amberley? I lost track of the number of typos, spelling errors, and omitted words. The author, editor, and publisher should hang their collective heads in shame.

Ugh, I definitely won't be buying it then. I can tolerate the cover and any amount of bollocks theorising or even bad writing, but that's not acceptable. Besides, he was off the list when he nicked Philip's photo.

Bad show all around!

B.

[Tom_Wescott]

Grave,

Short of the poor editing and proofreading, what did you think of the work...the arguments, evidence, etc.?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[The Grave Maurice]

Well like I say, Tom, I just started it yesterday so I'm not in a position to comment on the contents. From what I've read so far, it looks as though the review in the latest Rip is pretty much on the mark.