Blimey!

[A.P. Wolf]

I've never seen this before.
This is a report from the 'St Paul Daily News' of September 12th, 1889, where it is reported that the London police have a famous doctor and surgeon in view as a suspect for the Whitechapel Murders.
This has got to predate Knight's theories by almost 100 years.
What do you know!

http://i908.photobucket.com/albums/ac287/HowieNina/Photo%20Thanksgiving/clue1.jpg

[Sam Flynn]

Hi AP,

So, Mary Kelly's mutilations were "artistic" were they?

Stephen Knight notwithstanding, this article predates Picasso's cubism by some 20 years also ;)

[Robert Linford]

AP, Gareth

I've seen something like this before. Maybe it's somewhere in the Casebook press section.

Anyway, I seem to remember that the alleged distinctive style of the murderer/surgeon relates to McKenzie. Might be wrong though.

Robert

[A.P. Wolf]

Well Robert, the only two medics who examined dear old Claypipe were Phillips and Bond, and they were at each other's throats on this case.
So there was no consensus of opinion there.

[Sam Flynn]

Anyway, I seem to remember that the alleged distinctive style of the murderer/surgeon relates to McKenzie.
Minimalism! Even further ahead of its time :)

[Natalie Severn]

I knew they had suspected a surgeon at the time.There was also something about Conan Doyle going to some conference in the 1890"s about this type of suspect.
Thanks for the news item AP.
Natalie

[A.P. Wolf]

Sam
while handing down the fire it would be nice to see a flame, even a flicker would help.
Got a Bic?

[Robert Linford]

Gareth, the Tabram stabs undoubtedly indicate pointillism at work.:lol:

[Sam Flynn]

while handing down the fire it would be nice to see a flame, even a flicker would help.
Ah, if only I could! You're older than me, AP, therefore I can only hand things up to you, which kind of defeats the object of having "traditions" in the first place.

I notice that you sometimes drop one or two things in my general direction however, which for a youngster like me is a great honour. I daresay Gustav Mahler would have been impressed every time you dropped one as well.

Deep joy and brandy!

[A.P. Wolf]

Thanks Sam
all these thoughts of flames, brandy and dropping one in front of obscure and aspiring artists makes me glad I have extinguished the naptha lamp.
Please remember Einstein's formula:
Age does not equal respect unless it deserves it.

[R.J.Palmer]

There is another much more detailed version of this same article, which, is, in fact, rather interesting; it's a number of years now, and my memory is hazy, but I believe it refers to the Pinchin Street torso case, hence the date Sept. 12, 1889. The allegation is that one specific wound (to an organ?) resembled the technique taught by a well-known London surgeon. The claim seemed to run directly in the face of the inquest testimony, where Dr. Bagster Phillips made no mention of anything that could have been construed as an allusion to this injury, and states " I have no reason for thinking that the person who cut up the body had any anatomical knowledge." But he seemed to confine his remarks to the cutting-up of the body. I'll try to find the other article.

[A.P. Wolf]

So RJP, who do you reckon this famous physician and surgeon was?
He must have worked with Bond and Phillips for them to know his works and deeds.

[Debra Arif]

Thanks for posting this AP
Just wondering if anyone does have any thoughts on who this famous physician and surgeon was? Or which murder the article is talking about?
I noticed there were a couple of press reports from 1888 that report one theory from Paris is that the murderer is a fanatical vivisectionist and disciple of Hoeckel, the German naturalist, who followed in the steps of Darwin in studying theorigin of the species, and who advanced some stratling ideas that have not yet been established. A naturalist's aim is visible in the way the knife was applied on a couple of the victims. In Hudson's Leather Apron he specifically mentions 'the woman mutilated in Hanbury Street' as being the victim who's mutilations resemble that particular knifework.
Charles Kingston in The bench and the dock says Munro was given anonymous information that a well known West End doctor was behind the murders, but as he had been in Italy at the time of the murders so no notice was taken of the accusation.

I wonder if the combination of these stories is what became the 1895 Chicago story supposedly told by a Dr Howard that Robert Lees had identified the Ripper as being a well known physician, and had followed him to his West End home. The doctor in this story is also an 'ardent vivisectionist' which is where the Gull theory originally eminates from I believe?

But if Kingston was right, Monro was given a suspected doctors name and must have followed it up to at least find out he was in Italy at the time. I wonder who that doctor was? Anyone know? Unlike Nats I hadn't ever heard of a West End doctor being actually suspected at the time.

[Debra Arif]

I'm probably just rambling on to myself as usual here, but I've been wondering about this 'Dr Howard' from the 1895 Chicago Robert Lees story. I understand he has never really been identified (if he existed at all) as a first name was never actually given? Although a Dr Benjamin Howard did come out and deny the claims thinking it was referring to him.
These are just coincidences I'm sure, but I just found out that Le Caron spent his final years from around 89 to his death in 94 using the alias 'Dr Howard' and living in Kensington and also in the Dr Howard press story the mad doctor who was supposedly caged in an asylum and underwent a fake death and burial ended up eventually being buried in the family vault at Kensal Green. When I checked who was burried in Kensal Green to see if any name jumped out I saw that Robert Druitt, Monty's uncle was burried there....small world

[A.P. Wolf]

Debs
ramble away, your thoughts are always of great interest.
What I've been thinking is that if the two police surgeons who examined the body felt that they knew a fellow surgeon whose work it strongly resembled, then they must have worked with the fellow fairly intimately.
That is why I give you Dr. Charles Howard Jackman (LRCPE), Divisional Police Surgeon, resident in Stoke Newington Road, simply known as Dr Howard in some reports; and obviously intimately connected to his fellow police surgeons.
What a name anyway!
Jack Man.