Text Of The O'Donnell Chapter 9

[Howard Brown]

D'Onston & The Ripper: Chapter 9
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[Howard Brown]

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[Howard Brown]

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[Howard Brown]

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[Howard Brown]

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[Howard Brown]

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[Howard Brown]

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[Howard Brown]

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[Howard Brown]

The following page ends the ninth chapter of This Man Was Jack The Ripper.
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[Chris Scott]

The first section of Chapter Nine:-

CHAPTER NINE.
D'ONSTON AND THE "RIPPER."
　
In an earlier chapter I stated that D'Onston left his signature at the scene of the Ripper crimes as surely as if he had left a visiting card emblazoned with his name.
To elucidate this remark it will be necessary to briefly revisit the places where the murders were committed. It was Lord Crawford who first drew attention to the Black Magical significance of these locations, when he pointed out that by drawing two lines through them, the outline of a Cross was formed (see sketch).
But, as I have pointed out, the geographical significance did not end there. The five places where the Ripper victims were slain, also formed that most powerful of all Magical symbols - the Pentagram (see sketch), of which Levi wrote:-
"Those who set at naught the sign of the Cross, tremble before the sign of the Microcosm."
As Swift points out, "Philosophers say that man is a microcosm, or little world, resembling in miniature every part of the great; and the body natural may be compared to the body politic."
Which is another way of saying that man is a diminutive of the universe being governed by the same natural laws; and that in consequence a knowledge of the universe yields a knowledge of mankind.
It was in this sense that Levi uses the work Microcosm instead of Pentagram, in the above quotation.
This emphasis on the Microcosm is important to our enquiry into the Pentagram as formed at the scenes of the Ripper murders; for in philosophy the Microcosm implies that every astrological aspect of the universe - the planets and signs of the Zodiac - are reproduced in the organs of man. And while the various authorities differs as to which organ represents which planet, they are all agreed that these outer worlds in space did and do exercise a great influence on the human body.
Dr. Givry epitomises this connection between man and the universe when he states:-
"The universe, or Cosmos, is an immense organic being, all the parts of which are interlinked. It is the Macrocosm, or Great World, in contrast to man who is the Microcosm or Little World."
Applied to man, Cornelius Agrippa describes the Microcosm in greater detail as a circle in which is seen a human figure with arms and legs outstretched, and head in the ascendant. He goes on to say:-
"This circle, described with the lowest part of the pecien (pubis) as centre, will be divided into five equal parts which makes a perfect pentagon, and the heels in relation to the navel will make an equilateral triangle."
As depicted by Agrippa, the man's body with arms outstretched on either side, makes the form of a Cross, and Levi adds to the significance of the Microcosm when he declares:-
"The Pentagram is the figure of the human body having the four limbs and a single point representing the head. A human figure head downwards, naturally represents a demon - that is, intellectual subversion, disorder or madness."
And that is precisely how the Pentagram is revealed at the locations of the Ripper murders. As an inverted figure, with arms outstretched in the form of a Cross; its downward head, and two feet, reproducing in outline the horns and beard of the Sabbatic Goat of the Black Magician.
One could scarcely accuse D'Onston of madness, but that he suffered intellectual subversion would scarcely be argued by those who have read his published words, and listened in to his conversations with Mrs. Cremers as related in these pages.
In view of the recognised importance of the Pentagram in all Magical rites and ceremonies - no matter whether White or Black - is there not something strangely coincidental in the emergence of this figure, the inverted Pentagram, at the scene of the Ripper crimes.
Hark back to the story of Diosy told by Sir Max Pemberton and supported by Ingleby Oddie the Coroner concerning the five candles found at the scene of one of the crimes, set out in the form of a Pentagram. Recall too, the story of Mrs. Cremers in which she saw burning on D'Onston's mantelpiece, the grimy stubs of a number of candles which he said he had made. Mrs. Cremers - ignorant of Magic at that time - paid no particular attention to the number of candles or how they were set out, except that they were "in a bunch" at the side of the clock.
He had made them, said D'Onston, and one may well ask, "From what?"
Lord Crawford in referring to the book of Levi published in England shortly before the Ripper crimes, mentions a number of revolting ingredients used in Black Magical evocations. Among them, you will recall was "a preparation made from a certain portion of the body of a harlot."
And we know that in at least two instances, the Ripper extracted the uterus from his prostitute victims. We also know that "human candles" made from human fat, are a requisite of the Black Magician.
What were those candles made of which D'Onston manufactured? How were they set out upon his mantel piece, and for what reason? Not for the light they gave! That much is certain. Both the purpose and distribution must inevitably remain a mystery; but one cannot help but wonder, however, whether they, too, formed the figure of a Pentagram.
I come now to the most direct and definite connection between Roslyn D'Onston and the signature he left behind at the scene of the Ripper crimes.
It lies in the Hermetic name which he assumed, and by which the articles wrote for both Lucifer and Borderland were signed.
The name is Tautriadelta, and it is the name which appears under the picture of Roslyn D'Onston and figures as our frontispiece. This is the picture published in Borderland, of D'Onston, the man of whom W.T. Stead declared his suspicions as far back as 1896, that he was "the veritable Jack the Ripper."
A peculiar name, one may think, this nom de plume of D'Onston, but then, he was a rather peculiar man. And his Magical name becomes no less peculiar when it is broken down into the three syllables which comprise it, as explained by D'Onston himself.
Tau is from the Greek for the number 3 which Levi described as "the most perfect of all the odd numbers because it is the trilogy of unity." According to Christian dogma there are also three persons in God, these three constituting only one Deity.
Delta is the name given to the Greek letter D, which is written in the shape of a triangle - again a symbol of great importance in all things Magical, as we have seen.
So the name Tautriadelta when reduced to a common denominator in this way, gives us the peculiar combination of Cross - Three - Triangles, as the Magical name selected by D'Onston. An unwieldy and meaningless name to the lay mind, and that is how it struck Mrs. Cremers when D'Onston handed over to her his article for Lucifer, signed in that way.
She commented on the strangeness of the signature at the time and asked him what it meant. After explaining what it stood for D'Onston went on to say:-
"Yes, V. - a strange signature, but one that means a devil of a lot if you only knew. A devil of a lot," he added grimly. And then a little later, he told her, "There are lots of people who would like to know why I use that name - Cross - Three - Triangles. If they had the least idea it would create a tremendous sensation... But they will never find out, V.... never."
What did D'Onston mean by this cryptic explanation of the name Tautriadelta? Why should it create a tremendous sensation if its meaning became known? And why would lots of people be interested in this signature? D'Onston as D'Onston (or Tautriadelta) meant nothing to the world at large, and, of himself was of no interest whatsoever. Why then this extravagant claim?
And let me point out that the interpretation of his Magical name - Cross - Three - Triangles - came from D'Onston himself when explaining its derivation. It is not something which I deduced merely to further my case, but his own lateral explanation of his magical pseudonym.
When once I learned from Mrs. Cremers that D'Onston called himself Tautriadelta, and when once I had run to earth the article of Lord Crawford in the Pall Mall Gazette with its reference to the Cross, the connection between the Tau in Tautriadelta and the Ripper crimes at once struck me. But for some time I was completely baffled regarding the remaining syllables triadelta - Three - Triangles. I knew that the triangle played a prominent part in all magical ceremonials, but the significance of Three - Triangles with the Ripper crimes continued to elude me.
It was not until I happened to be glancing through Levi's "Transcendental Magic" to check up on his reference as to the Pentagram, that I chanced upon the true significance of the name Tautriadelta in connection with the five murders all committed within the one square mile of London's East End.
I was gazing at the pictorial illustration of this Magical figure in Levi's chapter on The Blazing Pentagram. It is shown there with one point in the ascendant. I turned the book upside down to view the symbol in its more sinister aspect, and even as I did so the three triangles of its construction impinged upon my sight. The triadelta of D'Onston's chosen name became crystal clear.
Hurriedly I grasped scissors and paper - as I suggest you do now - and after tracing a triangle as shown in Levi's figure, I snipped it out. The triangle was the ordinary geometrical figure of a three sided cone with its base slightly longer than its two sides. I cut out two other similar triangles, and then arranged them. The first one I placed in an almost upright position. The second triangle I placed with one of its short sides running down the long side of triangle No. 1. I then took my third triangle and placed it in position with its apex upward, producing the complete Pentagram.
A reference to the accompanying sketches will explain the entire process. I would, however, point out that this somewhat lengthy performance is by no means necessary to check my statement as the three triangles are clearly visible at a glance without recourse to any cutting out. They are plainly outlined for all to see, and there can be little doubt that D'Onston was quite right when he declared in almost challenging tones that "lots of people" would be interested to know what Tautriadelta stood for, and that such knowledge would have created a "tremendous sensation." It certainly would have done had anyone been able to trace the connection between the writer of the Tautriadelta articles and the Whitechapel murders.
It would be stretching the long arm of coincidence unduly to suppose that all the acts and symbols of Black Magic which I have described happened by accident to congregate within that square mile of London, all within the space of seventy days.
And why choose the East End? Why choose prostitutes? Why resort to murder and mutilation? What was D'Onston's object, even supposing he was attracted by the Magical powers he hoped to achieve?
This is the moment to reintroduce Mrs. Cremers into our story; for, as a Theosophist she held her own views on the subject; and, seeing that she probably knew D'Onston better than any other human being apart from Mabel Collins, her views are of intriguing interest. They concern D'Onston's love affair with the woman Ada.
The story of his infatuation for this woman of the streets, and the physical, mental and moral collapse that followed her suicide on the night of their final parting, was told to Mrs. Cremers by Mabel Collins.
D'Onston never once mentioned the name of his dead sweetheart to Mrs. Cremers, or breathed a single word about his shattered romance. That was a confidence reposed in Mabel Collins alone, who in turn passed on the main facts to her friend Mrs. Cremers.
And, as the latter has told us, over and over again at various times, Mabel Collins remarked of D'Onston, "He loved Ada," "he has never been capable of loving any other woman," or "Ada's suicide ruined his life and broke his heart."
According to D'Onston's own story as told to Mabel Collins you will remember, he suffered such a severe mental breakdown - brain fever was how he described it - after the tragedy, that a year later he was so ill he had to be wheeled in a bath chair to Westminster Bridge in pursuance of the vow they jointly made on the night of their parting, that, "living or dead, we meet," a year hence.
The Ripper murders in the opinion of Mrs. Cremers were the final act in D'Onston's initiation. In the notes which she jotted down to assist me an understanding of occult matter, she wrote:-
"Occult training is a Flash Light - all dark spots, weaknesses, must be killed - dominated... D'Onston's love for Ada was from the highest standpoint a weakness which led to his undoing on the material plane.
"The circumstances of her death - suicide by drowning - is of great significance in occult philosophy. Violent death results in the spirit of the victim becoming earthbound. This would provide the motive for D'Onston's efforts to free the earthbound spirit of the only woman he ever loved, and his adherence to the practice of Black Magic.
"Ever since I came to the conclusion that D'Onston was Jack the Ripper, I have always felt that the Ada incident marked the turning point in his life; from that moment he turned from the Right Hand to the Left Hand path of Magic, determining that henceforth he would devote himself to wresting the Secret of Life and Death from the unknown.
"It must be assumed that in connection with the Whitechapel murders D'Onston was taking his last test - performing the last exercise imposed upon him by his Master in a final initiation. The Master would know his disciple; he would know of his love for Ada the prostitute, and of the tragedy which had darkened D'Onston's life. And so, the last test would be ordered to determine whether or not the initiate had in fact conquered all his weaknesses.
"Therefore, what more likely than the Master should command:- 'You shall slay, and all your victims shall be prostitutes!'"
Of course we cannot be certain that the surmise of Mrs. Cremers is correct; but it is borne out to a large extent by the facts; and even if it happened that the decision to kill and mutilate was entirely D'Onston's own idea, there emerges for the very first time a plausible motive for the Ripper crimes; the only motive in fact which fits into all the surrounding circumstances, and stands up to critical examination.
Is there not, for example, in the very class of woman the Ripper set out to slay and mutilate, a link between them and the one woman whom D'Onston loved? Ada, who came from that same degraded sisterhood; Ada, the woman for whom he had sacrificed his career, and who, in the grief of parting, had taken her own life by flinging herself over Westminster Bridge. What more probable with this profound belief in Magic that D'Onston should determine to reach out into the unknown to evoke the spirit of his beloved?
When, in his student days, D'Onston was initiated into the Hermetic Order by Bulwer Lytton, he entered upon his career as a Magician by the Right Hand path, or the path of White Magic; but after the death of Ada, and following his Magical experiences in Africa, Italy and elsewhere, did his feet turn towards the Left Hand path - that of Black Magic?
Mrs. Cremers believed they did. That is what she meant when she remarked that in her view "the Ada incident marked the turning point in his life." I am inclined to disagree with her, for I think his interest in Black Magic began much earlier; in those days when he was engaged in the doppelganger experiments with Karl. But of course Mrs. Cremers knew nothing of these exploits on the part of D'Onston, when expressing her views.
But, whenever it was that D'Onston forsook White for Black, we know from his writings that at the time of the Ripper murders he was an avowed believer in the powers to be attained by the practice of the Black Arts. And if, as Mrs. Cremers suggests, it was the desire to evoke the spirit of Ada which inspired his crimes, it would be - in view of his professed beliefs - but a short step to murder, sacrilege and mutilation of the dead to accomplish that end.
It would also explain the progression of villainy as crime followed crime; it would explain why the last murder were the more devilish than any of the others, and account for the fact that the five crimes completed the most powerful symbol know to Magic - the five pointed start of the Pentagram.
Having come to the decision - or been ordered by his Master - that his victims should be prostitutes and that they sites where they were slain should form the outline of a Cross and a Pentagram, would not a man like D'Onston, calm, self possessed and "passionless" as demanded by Levi, and as the Ripper proved himself to be, carefully reconnoitre the locality before embarking on such a series of crimes, selecting with care those places to which he intended to lure his victims?
That is precisely how D'Onston described the methods employed by the Jack the Ripper he claimed to know. Repeating what his doctor friend had confided to him, D'Onston told Mrs. Cremers:-
"He said that he always selected beforehand the place where he intended to murder his victim, for a very special reason!"
What was that very special reason of it was not the unholy determination to profane the Cross and the Pentagram?
And why the Whitechapel area of the East End?
The answer is simple! Because he lived there.

[Chris Scott]

Here is the remainder of Chapter 9 - on to the last chapter:-)

That is what he told Mrs. Cremers you will remember, when relating the story of how he had met Jack the Ripper.
"I was living in Whitechapel at the time of the murders," he said, "and was taken suddenly ill. I had to go into hospital, and it was while I was there that I met him, V."
Living in the neighbourhood, it would be a simple matter for D'Onston to scout around at his leisure, seeking out the most suitable, ill lit and unfrequented spots for carrying out his crimes. Places near which he could lurk, awaiting his opportunity to waylay some unfortunate and lure her to her death.
Take another look at the plan of the murders, for as a plan I regard it. Observe how the line from Bucks Row to Mitre Square runs from East to West almost directly along the Whitechapel Road, continuing along Whitechapel High Street and Aldgate. Then note how the line from Hanbury Street to Berner Street bisects the first line almost at right angles, to form a perfect Cross.
The Berner Street murder is to my mind particularly significant for more reasons than one. All the other crimes were committed to the north of the Whitechapel Road. Berner Street is far to the south, being some hundreds of yards south of Commercial Road.
Why should the Ripper switch suddenly from Hanbury Street to Berner Street, right across two main thoroughfares to commit his third murder? Three weeks had elapsed since his last crime, (the murder of Annie Chapman) and although terror still reigned over the Whitechapel district it had abated to some extent because of this lull in the activities of the Ripper, Berner Street was right off the beaten track of the other two murders, nor did the murderer ever return south of Whitechapel or Commercial Roads to commit another.
Another reason why I regard the Berner Street crime as important in a Black Magical sense, is because of its partial failure. Observe too, how it all revolves around the figure of the Pentagram.
The Ripper was disturbed in the murder of Stride on September 30 by the unexpected arrival of Louis Diemschutz driving his pony and cart into the darkness of the yard where lay the body of the murderer's third victim.
Only the slashed throat gave a clue to the killer, for this was the inevitable hallmark of all the Ripper's crimes. His opening gambit, as it were, for on this occasion he had not had time to complete ghoulish task; there were none of the usual mutilations; he was compelled to flee the scene before he could carry them out. But even in his flight and in the sequel, there is a grim Black Magical significance.
Within one hour of the Stride slaying, the Ripper left the scene of his unfinished crime and sped westward through the night to Mitre Square, there to commit his fourth murder, one more revolting than any of the other three.
Why this haste to commit two murders in one night? Why this apparently urgent necessity to calmly and callously kill Catherine Eddowes within an hour of murdering Stride?
The answer is to be found in Levi's Transcendental Magic, in which he is at pains to emphasis that any Magical ceremony once embarked on, must be carried through to absolute completion.
In the chapter on The Blazing Pentagram Levi describes the methods to be employed in evoking the spirits of the dead.
"The Pentagram should be placed upon the altar of perfumes and under the tripods of evocations," he states. "When a spirit of lights is evoked, the head of the star should be directed towards the tripod of evocations, and the two inferior points towards the altar of perfumes. In the case of a spirit of darkness, the opposite course is pursued... Now the word of will must be given in its completeness so that it may be transformed into action; and a single negligence, representing an idle speech or a doubt, falsifies and paralyses the whole process, turning back upon the operator all the forces thus expended in vain. We must therefore abstain absolutely from Magical ceremonies or scrupulously and exactly fulfil them all."
There must be no half measures, and any failure to complete any Magical operation (no matter what its hue) Levi warns, will turn back upon the Magician all the forces he employed to gain his ends.
"The omission of even one of these difficult and apparently arbitrary ceremonies," Levi declares, "makes void the entire success of the great works of science."
And D'Onston had failed! Through the fortuitous appearance of Louis Diemschutz upon the scene, he had been frustrated in "scrupulously and exactly" fulfilling his Magical task. And D'Onston would understand the consequences of failure.
Is there the least doubt that D'Onston, steeped as he was in the study and practice of Magic, had obtained a copy of Levi's recently published book and avidly devoured it? Levi was recognised as the greatest modern authority on Magic in all its aspects; and any serious student of the occult would be certain to resort to his works. And there are traces in his own published writings, that D'Onston had read Levi's book. In his first article in the Pall Mall Gazette on January 3, 1889, for example, referring to the Black Magic of the Obeeyah women in Africa, he declared that they "possessed powers far exceeding anything yet imagined in the wildest pages of fiction... There is nothing on record in the ancient myths of any religion that is not done by the Obeeyah woman of today... and whatsoever you have read of Magical powers - especially those of necromancy (evocation of the dead) - are absolutely accomplished."
Compare this extract with the following quotation from the introduction to Levi's Transcendental Magic:-
"Does Magic exist? Is there an occult knowledge which is in truth and works wonders comparable to the miracles of authorised religions?... There was and there still is a potent and real Magic; all that is said of it in legend is true after a certain manner, yet - contrary to the common course of popular exaggeration - it falls below the truth."
Does not D'Onston's claim on behalf of the Obeeyah women paraphrase almost word for word the quotation from Levi?
He writes of their powers exceeding "anything imagined in the wildest pages of fiction." Levi declares that the reality of Magical powers "falls below the truth."
D'Onston mentions that there is "nothing on record in the ancient myths of any religion;" Levi insists that occult power, "is in truth a power and works wonders comparable to the miracles of authorised religions."
D'Onston declares that "whatsoever you have read of magical powers they are absolutely possible and true..." Levi puts it in this way:-
"All that is said of it (Magic) in legend is true after a certain manner..."
Are not the words of D'Onston the words of Levi, even to the sequence of their utterance? Is it not clear therefore that he had read, and become a close student of Levi's book published in England not long before the Ripper murders? I could quote other examples proving the influence of Levi upon D'Onston, but space forbids.
The fact I almost anxious to emphasise is, that on the night of September 30, D'Onston, having "failed" in the completion of his "will" regarding the murder of Stride, was well aware of the dire Magical consequence which was likely to follow this failure, against which Levi so strongly warned his readers. D'Onston would know - and be mortally afraid - that by his "negligence" in not fulfilling his task, all the evil forces of Black Magic would be unleashed, to "turn back" upon him, as Levi puts it. So D'Onston dare not let failure stand.
The ordinary murderer would have felt such relief at so narrow an escape from apprehension in the case of the Stride murder - for the Ripper was nearer capture on this occasion than at any other time during his exploits - that he would have hurried off to safety rather than straightway hasten to seek out another victim. But D'Onston was not an ordinary murderer; nor was the motive which animated him, an ordinary motive. He had been set - or else had set himself an exercise of initiation and had not carried it to completion. There can be little doubt that had it not been for the arrival of Louis Deimschutz the Ripper would have completed his exercise by carrying out similar mutilations to those inflicted on his other victims. The body of Stride was already laid out for this purpose when the murderer was interrupted and had to flee the scene. This failure constituted a "weakness" and D'Onston would know that it was essential that he should redeem himself or - reap the harvest of that failure.
Hence the reason for his dash from Berner Street to Aldgate where in the vicinity of Mitre Street he lay in wait for his fourth victim. Is there any other conceivable explanation for this second murder within an hour of the first? No murderer of ordinary calibre would ever contemplate such a risk. No man in his right senses - and however we may regard the crimes themselves it is obvious that in their preparation and carrying out the Ripper was not mad - would ever have gone straight from one killing to another without some vast irresistible urge. There has always been a time lapse between the crimes of any mass murderer.
And now let us consider how the second murder on that same night bears out my view that it was committed to wipe out, as it were, the failure of the first.
The Ripper's arrival in the Mitre Square area must have coincided with the release of Catherine Eddowes from her temporary detention as a "drunk and disorderly." Where precisely she met the Ripper will never be known. We do know that it was some time after she left Bishopsgate Police Station; and that having made the approach he lured her into the solitude of Mitre Square and there slew her; silently, savagely, but leisurely. And, as though intent on removing the stigma of failure in the case of Stride, the mutilations inflicted upon Catherine Eddowes were more diabolical than ever.
Not only did he disembowel his victim, but he removed two organs from her body - the uterus and left kidney. For the first time too, he carried out ghastly facial mutilations even to the extent of nicking the eyelids of the unfortunate woman.
You will recall that Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown, the City Police Surgeon stated that the murderer possessed a "good deal of knowledge as to the position of the organs in the abdominal cavity and the way of removing them."
He stated that the organs taken away were of no use for professional purposes, and, in reply to Mr. Crawford, Solicitor to the City of London Police, who asked, "Can you as a professional man give any reason for the removal of certain organs?" Dr. Brown replied, "I cannot!"
But D'Onston could have done! He could have given the same reason that I have given above. One of the reasons which caused Lord Crawford to suspect that the Ripper murders were the work of a Black Magician.
Again I ask, what other purpose could there have been for the taking away of these gruesome trophies than the making of magical candles from human fat? And D'Onston made candles. Not for the mere decoration of his mantelpiece but for the more sinister purpose I have indicated. To his devil worshipping mind, the fact that they were made from "a certain portion of the body of a harlot," as Lord Crawford mentioned, would given them an additional virtue in D'Onston's eyes.
But let us spend a few more minutes at the scene of this second crime of September 30. The Ripper had only fifteen minutes in which to murder, mutilate, and set out the thimble and other oddments on the ground beside his victim's hand. And this, in the darkness of a lampless square, surrounded by towering warehouses and gaunt private dwellings.
And how did the Ripper behave after his orgy of murder? We are able to trace his movements to some extent, for, having finished his surgical operations in the circumstances described, he tore a strip from the old coarse apron which his victim was wearing, and as he made his way through dingy courts and back streets via Church Passage into Duke Street, then across Houndsditch into Goulston Street, he wiped his bloodstained hands upon it and flung it into the passageway leads to Nos 118 and 119 Goulston Street where it was found at about 2.55 a.m. still wet with the blood of Eddowes.
We have established then that having carried out his crime the Ripper made his way eastward from the City in the direction of the Whitechapel area. Already this district was abuzz with excitement and horror at the discovery of Stride's dead body in Berner Street. The fact that the Ripper went in this direction indicates that he lived in the Whitechapel neighbourhood, and - it will be recalled that D'Onston told Mrs. Cremers that he was living there at the time of the murders.
In connecting Jack the Ripper with Roslyn D'Onston there is then, the fact that so far as our information goes, both lived in the comparatively restricted area where the crimes were committed. But it is in the Magical aspect of the surrounding circumstances that our chief interest lies. One observes the significance of the two murders in one night to wipe out any suggestion of failure; one can appreciate the significance of the taking away of certain organs from the dead bodies of his victims to make "human candles." But it is in what I have termed the geographical architecture of the crimes that the strongest connection lies.
There is such obvious design in the choice of these spots that one is inevitably led to the conclusion that they were the selected rendezvous of the murderer, who lay in wait nearby until one of the drabs of the locality appeared on the scene. Inspector Helson at the inquest upon Chapman declared that in his view, the murderer was "not only familiar with the district, but lived in the locality." Inspector Reid at the inquest on Eddowes stated that he could not account for the murder of Eddowes being committed in Mitre Square, because his records showed that "it had never been the resort of women of the streets."
From which it would seem certain that it was the Ripper who selected the scenes of the murders, and not the women who led him to them.
Archibald Forbes the famous war correspondent who took a keen interest in the murders and wrote several letters to the Press enunciating his views, wrote on one occasion:-
"Clearly he is a man familiar with the geography of Whitechapel. Why does he use Whitechapel as his exclusive shambles? If his single aim were prostitute murder in a seclusion offering all but certainty of immunity from detection, there are innumerable regions in this metropolis haunted by possible victims than those of teeming Whitechapel.
"All parks at night are fringed by poor creatures plying their sad vocation. Its bosky resorts are out of ken, even to the infrequent policemen... but this murderous monomaniac goes afield no wither; he had restricted himself wholly to the East End, and to one particularly narrow area of that wide lying region. We have then, a murderous monomaniac who murders only lost women and those of poorer grade, and confines his operations to Whitechapel and its environs, and he mutilates as well as slays, and further is not apparently actuated by fanaticism."
The italics are mine to emphasise the fact that Archibald Forbes held the view that the Ripper crimes were not the outcome of blood lust or religious mania, but the result of a fixation idea. Which in the case of D'Onston would be his belief in Black Magic.
Forbes gives a fair summary of the known facts endorsing the idea that the Ripper murders were confined to the one small area of the East End for one compelling reason whatever that might be.
We know the nature of that all compelling reason attributed to his doctor friend by D'Onston. It was a "very special reason" he told Mrs. Cremers, and one may well wonder how it was that he came by such uncanny knowledge if the Ripper's motives and methods even to the minutest detail; to the extent of saying that, having got the women to the selected locations, he "manoeuvred to get behind them..."
D'Onston declared that "the doctor told me." But is it not a little more than strange that his graphic story to Mrs. Cremers was a remarkable true analysis of all those facts which had baffled police and criminologists alike, and confounded the finest brains in Fleet Street. It was a complete explanation of the Ripper crimes, the motive underlying them, and the methods adopted to carry them out. And - as I have stated before - it is the only explanation which stands up to a critical examination of all the facts from all angles.
What was the purpose of D'Onston's amazing story regarding the confession of his mysterious doctor friend? Why was he at such pains to pass it on to Mrs. Cremers? Consider the period and the circumstances in which he related this fantastic narrative.
In the first place is there not more of design than coincidence in D'Onston's apparently idle remark, "Did I ever tell you when I knew Jack the Ripper, V.?" Is there not more of design than coincidence in his telling such a story at that particular time when Mabel Collins had broken off all association with him? He knew of the close friendship which had existed between Mabel Collins and Mrs. Cremers, and would realise that any knowledge the former had of him, might be passed on to Mrs. Cremers.
And in this possibility lay a grave danger. He would know that Mabel Collins suspected, even if she did not actually know, that he was Jack the Ripper. There was absolutely no reason why he should ever have mentioned his meeting with the infamous Jack to Mrs. Cremers unless - he himself was the Ripper and was anxious to allay any suspicions that might exist in her mind on that score.
For my part I do not believe that such a person as this doctor ever existed outside the brain of Roslyn D'Onston. According to the latter the murderer attended him in hospital; but can anyone believe that any person in his right senses would make such a confession? Certainly not a person possessed of the cunning and resources of Jack the Ripper. It is not clear that D'Onston's reason for inventing this mythical doctor was as I have suggested above?
Coincidence or design? Those are the two alternatives which face us in considering the question of the motive and nature of the Ripper crimes.
Was it coincidence that his victims were of the same class of woman from which came the one D'Onston loved above all others? Was it by sheer coincidence that all five murders were committed within an area of one square mile in the district where D'Onston said he lived? Was it coincidence that the locations from a Cross and a Pentagram? And was it mere coincidence that Roslyn D'Onston signed his articles on Black Magic, with the unusual nom de plume, Tautriadelta?
Cross - Three - Triangles. Is it not clear that the locations were not chosen haphazard by a monomaniac out on a crusade of vengeance, but were deliberately selected because they formed the Magical symbols embodied in the Hermetic name of D'Onston?