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The Life of William Henry Bury

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  • #91
    Hi Wyatt

    I've only just seen this. Nice website I must say.

    John

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    • #92
      Originally posted by Wyatt Earp View Post
      If you're still interested in reading the article, a slightly improved version ("The Bury ID") is available at http://www.williambury.org (it's essentially the same article, I just added a few remarks and tried to improve the writing here and there).
      Thanks, Wyatt. I really enjoyed it.

      curious

      Comment


      • #93
        Thanks, guys. By the way, if anyone has an interest in contributing Bury-related material to the website, pm me and let me know. It would have to be material where copyright wouldn't be a problem. I'm not familiar with the U.K. copyright laws nor how things could be complicated by the website and I being in the U.S., which is why for the time being I've steered clear of using the old newspaper images on the site (the image of Bury on the front page is supposed to be a public domain image). I could put guest posts, interviews, photos, etc. on the site if people are interested in contributing material.
        “When a major serial killer case is finally solved and all the paperwork completed, police are sometimes amazed at how obvious the killer was and how they were unable to see what was right before their noses.” —Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes, The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations

        William Bury, Victorian Murderer
        http://www.williambury.org

        Comment


        • #94
          I found this in West Yorkshire, England, Prison Records, 1801-1914. I’m not good with Victorian handwriting, so bear with me. I don’t know if this is news to anybody or not, but I didn’t see it mentioned in the books by Beadle or Macpherson.

          Register no: 2795
          Name: William Henry Bury
          Date of committal: May 23, 1884
          Place of committal: Dewsbury WR
          Offense: Vagrancy?
          (Looks like an “so” or “do.” I’m not familiar with prison record abbreviations. Further up the page, another guy’s offense is “vagrancy,” and then there are a bunch of guys beneath him, including Bury, with this abbreviation in the offense column, so I’m guessing that Bury’s offense was vagrancy as well.)
          Sentence: 14 days tth
          Education: looks like “Mp”
          Age: 25
          (Beadle gives DOB as 5/25/59, Macpherson as 11/20/59, so according to their dates Bury should still have been 24 at the time of committal, but this is very close.)
          Height: 5’2” (Bury was 5’3”—very close.)
          Hair: brown (Matches.)
          Occupation: Warehouseman (Matches—according to Macpherson, Bury was working at Osbourne’s warehouse about that time.)
          Physical characteristics: cut on forehead and on right side of neck
          Religion: Church
          Place of birth: Stourbridge (Matches.)
          Previous convictions: None
          Date of discharge: June 5, 1884

          If this is our Bury, then this would constitute his first conviction and evidence that he spent a couple of weeks in the can in 1884.
          Last edited by Wyatt Earp; 02-15-2018, 03:48 PM.
          “When a major serial killer case is finally solved and all the paperwork completed, police are sometimes amazed at how obvious the killer was and how they were unable to see what was right before their noses.” —Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes, The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations

          William Bury, Victorian Murderer
          http://www.williambury.org

          Comment


          • #95
            Wyatt, I think "do." was an abbreviation in old records for "ditto"-- meaning the same as above, so they probably all were in on the same offense.
            Pat D. https://forum.casebook.org/core/imag...rt/reading.gif
            ---------------
            Von Konigswald: Jack the Ripper plays shuffleboard. -- Happy Birthday, Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut, c.1970.
            ---------------

            Comment


            • #96
              Originally posted by Wyatt Earp View Post
              I found this in West Yorkshire, England, Prison Records, 1801-1914. I’m not good with Victorian handwriting, so bear with me. I don’t know if this is news to anybody or not, but I didn’t see it mentioned in the books by Beadle or Macpherson.

              Register no: 2795
              Name: William Henry Bury
              Date of committal: May 23, 1884
              Place of committal: Dewsbury WR
              Offense: Vagrancy?
              (Looks like an “so” or “do.” I’m not familiar with prison record abbreviations. Further up the page, another guy’s offense is “vagrancy,” and then there are a bunch of guys beneath him, including Bury, with this abbreviation in the offense column, so I’m guessing that Bury’s offense was vagrancy as well.)
              Sentence: 14 days tth
              Education: looks like “Mp”
              Age: 25
              (Beadle gives DOB as 5/25/59, Macpherson as 11/20/59, so according to their dates Bury should still have been 24 at the time of committal, but this is very close.)
              Height: 5’2” (Bury was 5’3”—very close.)
              Hair: brown (Matches.)
              Occupation: Warehouseman (Matches—according to Macpherson, Bury was working at Osbourne’s warehouse about that time.)
              Physical characteristics: cut on forehead and on right side of neck
              Religion: Church
              Place of birth: Stourbridge (Matches.)
              Previous convictions: None
              Date of discharge: June 5, 1884

              If this is our Bury, then this would constitute his first conviction and evidence that he spent a couple of weeks in the can in 1884.
              Yeah I agree with PC Dunn below. Nice find!

              Comment


              • #97
                Excellent discovery

                Comment


                • #98
                  Thank you Pcdunn, phantom and johns. Regarding the age discrepancy, I’m not sure if they would have recorded his age coming in or going out. If it was coming in, Bury would have been within two days of his 25th birthday (per the birth certificate information posted by johns in an earlier thread), and so he could have fudged and simply said 25. If it was going out, then Bury would have turned 25 by then, and there would be no discrepancy. In any event, it looks like Bury spent his 25th birthday in jail.
                  “When a major serial killer case is finally solved and all the paperwork completed, police are sometimes amazed at how obvious the killer was and how they were unable to see what was right before their noses.” —Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes, The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations

                  William Bury, Victorian Murderer
                  http://www.williambury.org

                  Comment


                  • #99
                    Originally posted by Wyatt Earp View Post
                    Register no: 2795
                    Name: William Henry Bury
                    Date of committal: May 23, 1884
                    Place of committal: Dewsbury WR
                    Offense: Vagrancy?
                    (Looks like an “so” or “do.” I’m not familiar with prison record abbreviations. Further up the page, another guy’s offense is “vagrancy,” and then there are a bunch of guys beneath him, including Bury, with this abbreviation in the offense column, so I’m guessing that Bury’s offense was vagrancy as well.)
                    Sentence: 14 days tth
                    Education: looks like “Mp”
                    Age: 25
                    (Beadle gives DOB as 5/25/59, Macpherson as 11/20/59, so according to their dates Bury should still have been 24 at the time of committal, but this is very close.)
                    Height: 5’2” (Bury was 5’3”—very close.)
                    Hair: brown (Matches.)
                    Occupation: Warehouseman (Matches—according to Macpherson, Bury was working at Osbourne’s warehouse about that time.)
                    Physical characteristics: cut on forehead and on right side of neck
                    Religion: Church
                    Place of birth: Stourbridge (Matches.)
                    Previous convictions: None
                    Date of discharge: June 5, 1884
                    A few notes about the prison record—

                    The place of committal is given as “Dewsbury WR.” In the first post of this thread http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=129, johns provided a newspaper article which states that Bury “is said for some time to have been at Dewsbury.”

                    In their books about Bury, Beadle (p.50) and Macpherson (p.19) both give Bury’s height as 5’3½”, but they don’t provide their sources for that (that said, the Dundee Courier does give Bury’s height as 5’3½”). The prison record, however, is providing an official measurement of 5’2”. It doesn’t seem very likely that Bury would have grown an inch and a half after his twenty-fifth birthday, so there’s a conflict here. I’ve been looking through some old newspapers, and I’ve come across something which appears to reconcile the two measurements. According to the March 19 Dundee Advertiser, Bury was 5’3½” “in his boots.” In the August 1888 portrait of the Burys, he is shown wearing boots with some pretty good heels, so that sounds about right. Interestingly, the February 12 Aberdeen Journal does give Bury’s height as 5’2”. James Berry gives Bury’s height as 5’3”, but he may have been giving an “in his shoes” height. In any event, I’ve updated the Bury website in a few spots to make it clear that the 5’3½” I’m giving is a “boots” height (one of the nice things about having your work on your own website is that you can make immediate edits).

                    The March 30 Dundee People’s Journal gives Bury’s religion as Episcopalian. The prison record gives Bury’s religion as “Church.” Would “Church” be an abbreviation for “Church of England”?
                    “When a major serial killer case is finally solved and all the paperwork completed, police are sometimes amazed at how obvious the killer was and how they were unable to see what was right before their noses.” —Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes, The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations

                    William Bury, Victorian Murderer
                    http://www.williambury.org

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by Wyatt Earp View Post
                      A few notes about the prison record—

                      The place of committal is given as “Dewsbury WR.” In the first post of this thread http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=129, johns provided a newspaper article which states that Bury “is said for some time to have been at Dewsbury.”

                      In their books about Bury, Beadle (p.50) and Macpherson (p.19) both give Bury’s height as 5’3½”, but they don’t provide their sources for that (that said, the Dundee Courier does give Bury’s height as 5’3½”). The prison record, however, is providing an official measurement of 5’2”. It doesn’t seem very likely that Bury would have grown an inch and a half after his twenty-fifth birthday, so there’s a conflict here. I’ve been looking through some old newspapers, and I’ve come across something which appears to reconcile the two measurements. According to the March 19 Dundee Advertiser, Bury was 5’3½” “in his boots.” In the August 1888 portrait of the Burys, he is shown wearing boots with some pretty good heels, so that sounds about right. Interestingly, the February 12 Aberdeen Journal does give Bury’s height as 5’2”. James Berry gives Bury’s height as 5’3”, but he may have been giving an “in his shoes” height. In any event, I’ve updated the Bury website in a few spots to make it clear that the 5’3½” I’m giving is a “boots” height (one of the nice things about having your work on your own website is that you can make immediate edits).

                      The March 30 Dundee People’s Journal gives Bury’s religion as Episcopalian. The prison record gives Bury’s religion as “Church.” Would “Church” be an abbreviation for “Church of England”?
                      awesome wyatt.

                      any way you could display the portrait of the burys here? where is it from? ive never heard of it before.
                      "Is all that we see or seem
                      but a dream within a dream?"

                      -Edgar Allan Poe


                      "...the man and the peaked cap he is said to have worn
                      quite tallies with the descriptions I got of him."

                      -Frederick G. Abberline

                      Comment


                      • It's in my article in Ripperologist 139. If you're a subscriber to Ripperologist, you can access the back issues through those links that come with each issue. You can also find it on page 101 of Beadle's Jack the Ripper Unmasked. If neither of those work for you, pm me your email address and I'll send you a scan sometime tomorrow.
                        “When a major serial killer case is finally solved and all the paperwork completed, police are sometimes amazed at how obvious the killer was and how they were unable to see what was right before their noses.” —Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes, The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations

                        William Bury, Victorian Murderer
                        http://www.williambury.org

                        Comment


                        • Originally posted by Wyatt Earp View Post
                          It's in my article in Ripperologist 139. If you're a subscriber to Ripperologist, you can access the back issues through those links that come with each issue. You can also find it on page 101 of Beadle's Jack the Ripper Unmasked. If neither of those work for you, pm me your email address and I'll send you a scan sometime tomorrow.
                          cool! Ill check it out.
                          "Is all that we see or seem
                          but a dream within a dream?"

                          -Edgar Allan Poe


                          "...the man and the peaked cap he is said to have worn
                          quite tallies with the descriptions I got of him."

                          -Frederick G. Abberline

                          Comment


                          • Ive just had a look on the Bury website. Hes an interesting suspect. In my opinion one of the few worth considering. Although its been a while since i read the three books reviewed but i recall, at the time, thinking that Bill Beadle’s book ‘Unmasked’ was one of the best that id read.

                            I need to read more and update myself on Bury (i did briefly meet Bill Beadle once at a Cloak And Dagger Club meeting years ago...nice guy.) My only ‘concern’ and its one that i have in general with ripperology, is over confidence. Steve appears to speak as if the case is over and its settled that Bury was guilty.

                            I live less than 30 minutes in a car from Stourbridge by the way.
                            Regards

                            Sir Herlock Sholmes.

                            “A house of delusions is cheap to build but draughty to live in.”

                            Comment


                            • Good one Herlock. I too think Bury needs some more investigating as do quite a few names, who I wouldn't mind see obliterated from this site

                              Comment


                              • Hi BB,

                                It’s always going to be a source of heated debate if we try and come up with a ranking list for suspects. Barring conspiracy theory I’d think that we can safely eliminated Prince Eddy due to court circulars proving him to be elsewhere. We can eliminate Neil Cream, Van Gogh (I hate even mentioning him) because they weren’t in the country. Likewise HH Holmes because it can’t be shown that he was in the country at the time. So that trims the herd a little.

                                Then there’s ‘suspects’ like Mann and Bachert who, as far as I can recall, were suspects purely because they were in the area at the time! So in the absence of anything like evidence I tend to ‘dump’ these too.

                                Fanciful one’s like Lewis Carroll shouldn’t really detain anyone. The case for Sickert appears to only convince Patricia Cornwell. And The Royal Conspiracy has been thoroughly disproven.

                                Maybrick is totally reliant on the diary and as we stand the weight of evidence is heavily in favour of forgery.

                                We have witnesses like Hutchinson and Lechmere that some believe could have been guilty. Debate will go on and we cannot completely exonerate either. We can only comment and debate the likelihood.

                                I don’t think that Tumblety was the ripper but he has to be in the ‘genuine suspect’ class. Less so Chapman in my opinion.

                                And so for me, and I certainly wouldn’t bet any cash in it, the best remaining are Kosminski/Cohen, Druitt (I know, people tend to dismiss him) and Bury.

                                I still think it’s likeliest that the Ripper has yet to be named and probably never will.
                                Regards

                                Sir Herlock Sholmes.

                                “A house of delusions is cheap to build but draughty to live in.”

                                Comment

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