The Thames Mystery 1873

[miss marple]

Hi ALL,
Can anyone with access to the Times online, throw any light on this snippet from the Police News 27/9, 1873.
Thames Mystery- Murder and Mutilation of a woman
''As there is yet no evidence that the police are on the track of the murderer in this mysterious case. With great patience the officers have carried out the story of each missing woman who has been reported to them as the deceased is supposed to have looked and it is mornful to reflect upon the amount of accounts of women being missing, that there are so many missing from home.
There is a new theory and it is certainly worth mentioning for the sake of its novelty. Iy certainly savours strongly of the Poe school of ideas, but is not wanting in force. Given shortly, it is an account of the escaped criminal lunatics from Broadmoor Asylum- men it will be remembered of murderous propensities- with outrages of late upon life in the west. It is said that Blagrove is thought to be at Staines or in the neighbourhood, and there are not wanting those who have pictured the possibility of his hiding along the islands of Battersea Park, and thus securing a place remote from observation for the perpetuation of a crime which required strength of body, the deepest cunning and a brutal disregard for all human feeling.''
There are two illustrated pictures, The body in the bath at Wandsworth Union
and Other portions of the body in spirits.
Questions I am interested in
I take it Blagrove was an escaped lunatic, was he ever caught or charged with this murder?
Was the victim ever identified?
What were the mutilations to the body, apart form the chopping of the limbs and does this case connect with the Pinchin St torso case? How many women pre ripper were chopped up and mutilated in London
Miss Marple

[Mike Covell]

Thames Torso thread with newspaper snippings here,

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=301

Including the 1873 case.

[miss marple]

Thanks Mike, I had not read all through the torso thread and had not picked up on the 1873.
I see that the woman was killed by a blow to the head and then professionally cut apart by possibly a butcher?
Jack the Ripper did not emerge out of nowhere and the level of everyday violence against women in the 19th century often went without comment, except in extreme cases, some of which are horrific. I wonder if the number of dismembered torsos is connected to the vast number of slaughterhouses, meat processing factories and number of butchers, slaughterers and offal dressers in London? The handling and chopping of meat was so familiar in a lot of trades that chopping a human body would not have been a problem. And pre health and safety,bloody clothes and bloody hands, in the vicinity of these places would not attract attention.
Miss Marple

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

I highly recommend reading R. Michael Gordon's The Thames Torso Murders of Victorian London It is a good book, and goes into the Torso crimes very well, but some of his theories connecting these crimes to the Ripper crimes fall flat. After reading John Douglas's book The Cases that Haunt Us, and reading his profile of the Ripper, its obvious that two different perps were at work here. Its still a very enjoyable book.