Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession-(Monaghan, 2010)

[Pcdunn]

Thanks Pcdunn,

In my opinion the absolute best information on Jack Saul and the Cleveland Street Scandal is the book authored by Glenn Chandler, The Sins of Jack Saul. His in depth research on the life of Saul and Charles Hammond as well as most of the important people involved in the scandal is second to none. The book was a real eye opener into the life of the "mary ann" (male prostitutes) of the day. There is a lot of intertwining between the Whitechapel Murders and the Cleveland Street Scandal in regard to familiar names.

You're welcome, Jerryd. It is interesting that "The Alienist" was concerned about murders of boy prostitutes in 1890s New York, and that the current drama series is following the book closely in that regard.
I may look into the book about Saul. It is definitely an under-researched area of the Victorian era.

A few years ago I found a reference to a young Thomas Conway that fits exactly to the age of the son of Catherine Eddowes that was a male recruiter working for Charles Hammond. A later reference found by Debra Arif showed this particular young man headed to the east end to find work as a cross dresser. For years I have tried to find if it was indeed Eddowes son but to no avail as of yet. My search goes on.

That is really interesting! Let us know if you do get the proof of a connection.

[SuspectZero]

Just read this thread and wondered about this chap I found . He was put into Hoxton Asylum on 29th Jan 1889 and let out 29th April 1889. See the notes on his mania regarding Jack the Ripper (2nd)

As it did not give an age I dont know if he is connected to the lad of the same name who was sentenced in 1866 aged 17 at the Old Bailey for raping a Martha Hunt. He was let off death penalty due to his age and given 5 years.

See below......Pat

Well the Hoxton chap is certainly not the Walter of "Secret Life" as he would have been dead already.

[Paddy]

Now this sounds like an interesting theory. Has anyone ever made the link between Walter and JtR before? If someone did, I must have missed
it.

Just read this thread and wondered about this chap I found . He was put into Hoxton Asylum on 29th Jan 1889 and let out 29th April 1889. See the notes on his mania regarding Jack the Ripper (2nd)

As it did not give an age I dont know if he is connected to the lad of the same name who was sentenced in 1866 aged 17 at the Old Bailey for raping a Martha Hunt. He was let off death penalty due to his age and given 5 years.

See below......Pat

[SuspectZero]

Fascinating thread and subject.

RE: Henry Ashby, alias William Lazenby-- any luck finding him in the genealogical sources?

Would be interesting to see how old he was at the time of these offenses.

Actually I believe the author of Secret Life was really William Lazenby, AKA "Henry Ashby", "Duncan Cameron", "Thomas Judd". Lazenby was the author of the Pearl, "The Cremorne" and many other pieces of erotica. He was prosecuted in 1886 for obscenity and sentenced to 2 years for selling indecent books. He would have been released in late November 1888 at the age of 63.
See the attached link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lazenby

[jerryd]

Thought I recognized that name. Interesting stuff here as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Saul_(prostitute)

Thanks Pcdunn,

In my opinion the absolute best information on Jack Saul and the Cleveland Street Scandal is the book authored by Glenn Chandler, The Sins of Jack Saul. His in depth research on the life of Saul and Charles Hammond as well as most of the important people involved in the scandal is second to none. The book was a real eye opener into the life of the "mary ann" (male prostitutes) of the day. There is a lot of intertwining between the Whitechapel Murders and the Cleveland Street Scandal in regard to familiar names.

A few years ago I found a reference to a young Thomas Conway that fits exactly to the age of the son of Catherine Eddowes that was a male recruiter working for Charles Hammond. A later reference found by Debra Arif showed this particular young man headed to the east end to find work as a cross dresser. For years I have tried to find if it was indeed Eddowes son but to no avail as of yet. My search goes on.

[Pcdunn]

Thought I recognized that name. Interesting stuff here as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Saul_(prostitute)

[jerryd]

Here is my take on 'My Secret Life' after some research I did into William Simpson Potter and Paul Harry Ferdinando aka Charles Carrington. It appears that Carrington was thought to be the courier of the MSL manuscript between the author and Auguste Brancart, the man credited with the first publication of the series. Carrington was an author and publisher of erotica. Oscar Wilde visited his friend Carrington in Paris after his release from Reading Gaol and stated Carrington looked twisted and hysterical. Probably due to his having contracted syphilis which later killed him. He was also friends with the infamous Jack Saul who was involved in the Cleveland Street Scandal and Dublin Castle Scandal. Saul authored the book, Sins of the Cities of the Plain, which is extremely similar to the writing in My Secret Life. The author of my Secret Life uses fantasy and reality similar to Jack Saul's fantasy and reality in his book. I feel Saul had at least a hand in the writing of My Secret Life if he wasn't in fact the sole author himself.

Here is the link to a thread I started regarding this interesting topic.

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=23103&highlight=jack+saul

[Pcdunn]

Fascinating thread and subject.

RE: Henry Ashby, alias William Lazenby-- any luck finding him in the genealogical sources?

Would be interesting to see how old he was at the time of these offenses.

[SuspectZero]

I thought people here would find this interesting.



Line 3 of the second group of 10 reads:

Henry Ashby alias William Lazenby, offense: Obscene pictures, Imprisonment: 2 years. Date 17 July 1871. Location: Middlesex Clerkenwell p. 187



William Lazenby, Offense: soliciting to sell obscene books, Imprisonment: 18 months without hard labor. Date 18 September 1876. Location: Surrey, Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey Line 3 page 122

They're from a database at Ancestry, England and Wales Criminal Registry 1791-1892.

I hoped it would display a bit better than it did. Sorry.

Livia, I believe you have located the actual author of My Secret Life.

[SuspectZero]

How could this theory be taken seriously?

I read the original 1888 version of My Secret Life. Not sure how this was taken seriously as "diary" written by the author of the Whitechapel murders.
My reasons for this belief...
1. Secret Life was published in 1888.
2. In the Preface, the author's friend says he is already dead.
3. Since it was published in 1888, the author was describing events that happened "prior" to 1888, since he is already dead.
4. The description of Mary Davis' room is not in line with descriptions of Mary Kelly's room.
5. The description of Mary Kelly is not in line with contemporary descriptions.

Fascinating read on Victorian sex-capades but Walter definitely doesn't fit as a Jack the Ripper candidate.

[David Monaghan]

Ashbee records

Livia,

fascinating find. To be frank I'd not looked too hard at primary material on Ashbee as Walter/Ripper as I am pretty sure he is not the author.

But Walter and Ashbee do share traits - they both collected porn pictures!

Walter talks of pulling out an illustrated Fanny Hill, and also of pornographic photographs.

regards

David Monaghan
Author
Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession

[Livia]

I thought people here would find this interesting.



Line 3 of the second group of 10 reads:

Henry Ashby alias William Lazenby, offense: Obscene pictures, Imprisonment: 2 years. Date 17 July 1871. Location: Middlesex Clerkenwell p. 187



William Lazenby, Offense: soliciting to sell obscene books, Imprisonment: 18 months without hard labor. Date 18 September 1876. Location: Surrey, Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey Line 3 page 122

They're from a database at Ancestry, England and Wales Criminal Registry 1791-1892.

I hoped it would display a bit better than it did. Sorry.

[David Monaghan]

Shreds that link Walter to JtR

I finished reading the book last night. It was interesting enough on it's own right, but I wouldn't say a strong argument was made for Walter being JTR.

The only thing I came away with was that Ashbee was not Walter. The strongest case being made was the last man discussed, the architect. '

Whoever Walter was, he was clearly a sexual sadist and a very disturbed individual, but there really wasn't one shred of evidence to link him to JTR.

The only thing that is really thought provoking is he wrote or edited it close enough to 1888 to make a passing remark about one of the Torso murders, but not one single mention about JTR. Someone as twisted as Walter would undoubtably have SOME interest in the JTR killings. That's really the only thing I found puzzling at all.

Glad to hear my book is getting a reading. But quite puzzled you could see no "shred" linking Walter to JtR. The mere fact this man was a sexual sadist aroused by blood who used low class East End prostitutes must be some sort of shred. The fact he chose to describe one of his major secret sexual liasons as poor and beautiful "Mary Davies" - married name of Mary Jane Kelly - is a strange co-incidence indeed. That Krafft-Ebing, the periods pre-eminent homicide psychiatrist who had studied sex mutilation murderers and predicted abdomen mutilation killers with innard removal would be men who fetishised virgin breaking, is fascinating when one consider's Walter's pre-occupation was this Victorian criminal cult. To link himself to the Thames Torso killing of 1889 is a link to the JtR killings in itself and must make him a suspect the year's previous carnage. From his boyhood Walter atrributes his sexual leaning to an incident in Whitechapel, when he glimpsed a woman's genitals and saw the "slit throat of a dog" - a shred that put's him in the frame both psycho-sexually and geographically. The absence of mention of the Ripper crimes in Walter's vast memoir is the dog that did not bark in the night. The author describes casting 80 page chunks of his sex diary "to the flames" for containing crimes worse that the rape, sadism, paedophilia and threats to kill during sex that Walter boasts of.

Very pleased you've given my theory some thought.

I hope you might reconsider what makes a shred!

Regards
David Monaghan
Author
Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession

[David Monaghan]

Where do you think I can buy the entire diary, don't know much about it. But would like to read the diary before I read the Ripper book so I could understand what I'm reading.

You are wise to read the Diary - all million words of it. However, I'd written my book specifically as a breakdown of, and introduction to the diary, to give a roadmap to understanding it. All previous efforts since the mid 1960s - when the diaries reappeared - had been more or less associated with the re-marketting of "My Secret Life" as an "erotic" product. This had shockingly misdirected any reader from the sheer brutality of the text, as publishers seemed to find it more palatable to highlight Walter as a great "lover", rather than a violent rapist and sex criminal.

regards
David Monaghan
Author
Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession

[David Monaghan]

Good luck the with the reading!

regards

David Monaghan
Author
Jack the Ripper's Secret Confession