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This is a cautionary tale regarding Ripper research and the use of sources, primary and secondary, in writing about the Ripper murders.
In 1890 Metropolitan Police Commissioner James Monro gave an interview to Cassell’s Saturday Journal, shortly before he resigned. He was asked if he had a theory on the recent Whitechapel murders and he replied, “Decidedly, I have.” Asked to enlarge upon that he stated, “I can hardly take you so far into my confidence as that, but I may say this, when I do theorise it is from a practical standpoint, and not upon a more visionary foundation.”
“Are you in possession of any clue at all?”, his interviewer persisted.
“Nothing positive. You see, crimes of this kind – when we consider the particular class of victims selected – are the most easy of all crimes to commit. The person entrapped is as anxious to secure secrecy as the murderer himself.”
At this reply, and fearing he would get no further, the interviewer asked no more about the murders. This is an intriguing reference to Monro and what he thought, and it originates from an 1890 interview.
Monro wrote no memoirs and his intriguing comments could be pursued no further. However, after the 1973 BBC TV series in which fictional detectives Barlow and Watt investigated the case a letter appeared in the Radio Times from Christopher Monro, James Monro’s grandson. In this letter Christopher Monro made reference to some notes left by his grandfather, “He bequeathed his notes on the affair to his eldest son who died in 1928, and it is possible that some cousins of mine may retain them to this day.” On reading this researcher Keith Skinner began a search for the family members. He was working on his centenary book The Ripper Legacy (1987) with Martin Howells. After a few letters members of the Monro family were traced living in Scotland. It was here that they discovered James Monro’s handwritten memoirs, written in 1903 for the benefit of his children, ‘safely tucked away at the back of a cupboard in an Edinburgh suburb…’ Although intriguing and important to some of his ‘secret’ work, the ‘memoirs’ disappointingly made no reference to the Whitechapel murders. Nonetheless, Keith had made an important find.
The ‘memoirs’ were mentioned in The Jack the Ripper A to Z when it was published in 1991, and in subsequent editions. In 2002 a ‘Ripper research myth’ was born when Fenian Fire by Christy Campbell was published. In this book the author wrote, “Two prominent researchers, Paul Beggs [sic] and Martin Fido, ploughed on. In 1985, after a twelve-year hunt [!] for Monro’s surviving descendants, they found what they described as ‘James Monro’s handwritten memoirs, written for the benefit of his children, safely tucked away at the back of a cupboard in an Edinburgh suburb…” The document should have been a golden key to solving the greatest mystery in criminal investigation, but its discoverers were disappointed: ‘When we read the papers we found not a single mention of Jack the Ripper or any associated murder investigation.'”
And so, with this simple error, another myth of Ripper lore was created. Paul Begg and Martin Fido, and not Keith Skinner, the true finder, had located Monro’s ‘memoirs.’ As Fenian Fire is not a Ripper book, however, it would be a few years before this particular mistake filtered through to a mainstream Ripper book. It is an object lesson in using secondary sources. Jack the Ripper British Intelligence Agent? By Tom Slemen and Keith Andrews has just been published (May 2010). On page 290 appears the following, “In 1985, Paul Begg and Martin Fido, two respected authors and researchers into the Whitechapel murders, finally traced the whereabouts of James Monro’s memoirs in Edinburgh. For over a decade, Begg and Fido had searched for the memoirs of Monro, Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner… Begg and Fido imagined that Monro’s handwritten memoirs would surely throw some new light on the hoary Jack the Ripper enigma, but they were sorely disappointed, because there wasn’t a single mention of the Whitechapel murders within the bundle of papers.”
With this endorsement a myth about the quest for primary Ripper source material has entered mainstream Ripperology. I mean nothing detrimental to Paul and Martin, but Keith Skinner, and Martin Howells, are the true discoverers of this document. Indeed, Paul and Martin had not even entered Ripper research at the time claimed above, let alone engaged in a ‘twelve-year hunt’!
In 1890 Metropolitan Police Commissioner James Monro gave an interview to Cassell’s Saturday Journal, shortly before he resigned. He was asked if he had a theory on the recent Whitechapel murders and he replied, “Decidedly, I have.” Asked to enlarge upon that he stated, “I can hardly take you so far into my confidence as that, but I may say this, when I do theorise it is from a practical standpoint, and not upon a more visionary foundation.”
“Are you in possession of any clue at all?”, his interviewer persisted.
“Nothing positive. You see, crimes of this kind – when we consider the particular class of victims selected – are the most easy of all crimes to commit. The person entrapped is as anxious to secure secrecy as the murderer himself.”
At this reply, and fearing he would get no further, the interviewer asked no more about the murders. This is an intriguing reference to Monro and what he thought, and it originates from an 1890 interview.
Monro wrote no memoirs and his intriguing comments could be pursued no further. However, after the 1973 BBC TV series in which fictional detectives Barlow and Watt investigated the case a letter appeared in the Radio Times from Christopher Monro, James Monro’s grandson. In this letter Christopher Monro made reference to some notes left by his grandfather, “He bequeathed his notes on the affair to his eldest son who died in 1928, and it is possible that some cousins of mine may retain them to this day.” On reading this researcher Keith Skinner began a search for the family members. He was working on his centenary book The Ripper Legacy (1987) with Martin Howells. After a few letters members of the Monro family were traced living in Scotland. It was here that they discovered James Monro’s handwritten memoirs, written in 1903 for the benefit of his children, ‘safely tucked away at the back of a cupboard in an Edinburgh suburb…’ Although intriguing and important to some of his ‘secret’ work, the ‘memoirs’ disappointingly made no reference to the Whitechapel murders. Nonetheless, Keith had made an important find.
The ‘memoirs’ were mentioned in The Jack the Ripper A to Z when it was published in 1991, and in subsequent editions. In 2002 a ‘Ripper research myth’ was born when Fenian Fire by Christy Campbell was published. In this book the author wrote, “Two prominent researchers, Paul Beggs [sic] and Martin Fido, ploughed on. In 1985, after a twelve-year hunt [!] for Monro’s surviving descendants, they found what they described as ‘James Monro’s handwritten memoirs, written for the benefit of his children, safely tucked away at the back of a cupboard in an Edinburgh suburb…” The document should have been a golden key to solving the greatest mystery in criminal investigation, but its discoverers were disappointed: ‘When we read the papers we found not a single mention of Jack the Ripper or any associated murder investigation.'”
And so, with this simple error, another myth of Ripper lore was created. Paul Begg and Martin Fido, and not Keith Skinner, the true finder, had located Monro’s ‘memoirs.’ As Fenian Fire is not a Ripper book, however, it would be a few years before this particular mistake filtered through to a mainstream Ripper book. It is an object lesson in using secondary sources. Jack the Ripper British Intelligence Agent? By Tom Slemen and Keith Andrews has just been published (May 2010). On page 290 appears the following, “In 1985, Paul Begg and Martin Fido, two respected authors and researchers into the Whitechapel murders, finally traced the whereabouts of James Monro’s memoirs in Edinburgh. For over a decade, Begg and Fido had searched for the memoirs of Monro, Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner… Begg and Fido imagined that Monro’s handwritten memoirs would surely throw some new light on the hoary Jack the Ripper enigma, but they were sorely disappointed, because there wasn’t a single mention of the Whitechapel murders within the bundle of papers.”
With this endorsement a myth about the quest for primary Ripper source material has entered mainstream Ripperology. I mean nothing detrimental to Paul and Martin, but Keith Skinner, and Martin Howells, are the true discoverers of this document. Indeed, Paul and Martin had not even entered Ripper research at the time claimed above, let alone engaged in a ‘twelve-year hunt’!
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