How Brown
03-26-2008, 06:34 PM
Thanks to John for helping out here !!
1. What area of the Case have you found yourself most attracted to since the Baltimore Conference in 2006?
2. Regarding Martha Tabram....are you in agreement with Sir Robert Anderson's view that she should be considered a Ripper victim?
3. Briefly give your opinion on the whole Pearly Poll scenario.
4. Have you ever been to the PRO...and if so, what areas did you investigate?
5. If you've read any Ripper fiction....without giving the name of the book(s)....unless you wish to...give us your impression of the genre.
6. Have you ever been to any of the sites that John Bennett has photographed at night or in the day ? What are your impressions of the areas he covered and his photographic efforts ?
7. Briefly, because some people here might like to know what the cameraderie is like at a Whitechapel Society meeting ( Not me, I'm just nosey), could you describe your experience(s) there?
1. I've always been struck by the certainty with which Sir Robert Anderson speaks about the case and subsequently the criticisms (both from students of the case today and Anderson's contemporaries) leveled against him; this was perhaps what tipped the scales for me when trying to decide if I could afford to go to the '06 Conference. Seeing that Alan Sharp was going to give a talk on the former Assistant Commissioner and knowing he had done extensive research on the man, I figured that after I'd heard the talk I would most probably have to abandon my "pro-Anderson" views and take a position more with the mainstream that Anderson was full of it. As I've found it to be impossible to be completely objective, I've tried just as hard to disprove my own "theories" as I have to prove them and I was completely prepared to be embarrassed by my views and admit how wrong my thinking was, but that never happened. Alan's talk was excellent, but it didn't shake my opinions. So, needless to say, it's the whole "Polish Jew" thing that I have (probably unhealthily) spent the most time pondering since the Conference. Of course that also means digging at Anderson even deeper, so I've been spending lots of time reading his religious works as well as re-reading everything I have that concerns the man and his "theory".
2. (I feel kind of stupid here, but I'm not clear that SRA believed Tabram to be a victim of JtR- the only time I can remember him being specific about the victims- besides McKenzie and [gulp] Mylett- is in TLSoMOL where he says "The second of the crimes known as the Whitechapel murders..." He is obviously referring to Tabram here, but is this an opinion or am I forgetting something?) I find it incredibly difficult to imagine that the Tabram murder was an isolated incident, as there are many more similarities to the later crimes than there are differences. Without rehashing all the arguments pro and con, I think there is a significant clue that is rarely mentioned that convinces me that it is most probable that this murder is directly related: at Tabram's inquest, Coroner Collier describes the various stabs to Martha's body (specifically 39)- "5 to the left lung, 2 to the right," etc., but curiously, they only add up to 21; so where were the other wounds? Swanson says in his report "body, neck and private part", so this to me would indicate the remaining wounds were from the neck and, more significantly "private part". It doesn't appear anyone at the inquest felt like doing the math, but it looks like something was withheld, seemingly the assault on Tabram's "private part". Of course had it been Baxter presiding...
3. This is another frustrating set of events. Clearly Connelly had second thoughts about going to the police in the first place, when she failed to show for the first scheduled identity parade
and had to be tracked down later. She seemed truthful when stating at the first parade that none of the soldiers matched and that the two who were with her and Tabram had white bands 'round their caps. So why, if she was going to lie about an i.d., would she have gone through the trouble of waiting for the second parade to do so? Both she and P.C. Barrett seemed confident in the men they picked out, and although all four men "proved" sufficient alibis, there seems to be something very fishy going on here...but I have no clue.
4. Regretfully, I have never seen any of the official documents in person and have so far limited my research by relying on such things as The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook. I guess I have been a vulture picking at the bones of somebody else's kill since the beginning, but I hope some day to have the time to investigate for myself. If I could be so ambitious as to make a specific plan ahead of time, maybe I wouldn't always just say "Well, let's just go to the pub."
5. I only have three fictional treatments of the Whitechapel murders in my collection (one of them the Stuart James book, given to me by our own Sir Robert Anderson at the Conference in '06), so my experience is very limited, but I don't think that I will ever be sufficiently moved by the genre to spend much more time with it than I have already.
6. I've been to many of the sites, but some of the areas, such as Limehouse, I've not yet ventured into. John's work has been moving and inspiring, and in the years to come we will all be indebted to him for capturing not only the disappearing places, but an incredible ambience that is nearly impossible to capture in broad daylight. It's great that he ventures so far off the beaten path, some of his images are truly intense. I've spent a good deal of my times in London wandering the East End, day and night, but even with hundreds of photos and hours of video, nothing I've done compares with Mr. Bennett's work. His narratives on the places he's photographed are a perfect companion also. I can't wait for his book.
7. As I've only been to one official meeting and one interim, I've missed out on lots of the fun, but I've had the good fortune of being able to hang out with a handful of Society members the last several trips over that way, meeting up with them at the pub on "off" nights. This may sound corny, but everyone I've met and shared pints with feels like family to me, I wish I could see them more often. They're all genuinely good people and the Whitechapel Society 1888 is a great organization that I expect always to be part of my life. Everyone interested in the case and the history of the East End should spend some time checking it out, if they haven't already.
1. What area of the Case have you found yourself most attracted to since the Baltimore Conference in 2006?
2. Regarding Martha Tabram....are you in agreement with Sir Robert Anderson's view that she should be considered a Ripper victim?
3. Briefly give your opinion on the whole Pearly Poll scenario.
4. Have you ever been to the PRO...and if so, what areas did you investigate?
5. If you've read any Ripper fiction....without giving the name of the book(s)....unless you wish to...give us your impression of the genre.
6. Have you ever been to any of the sites that John Bennett has photographed at night or in the day ? What are your impressions of the areas he covered and his photographic efforts ?
7. Briefly, because some people here might like to know what the cameraderie is like at a Whitechapel Society meeting ( Not me, I'm just nosey), could you describe your experience(s) there?
1. I've always been struck by the certainty with which Sir Robert Anderson speaks about the case and subsequently the criticisms (both from students of the case today and Anderson's contemporaries) leveled against him; this was perhaps what tipped the scales for me when trying to decide if I could afford to go to the '06 Conference. Seeing that Alan Sharp was going to give a talk on the former Assistant Commissioner and knowing he had done extensive research on the man, I figured that after I'd heard the talk I would most probably have to abandon my "pro-Anderson" views and take a position more with the mainstream that Anderson was full of it. As I've found it to be impossible to be completely objective, I've tried just as hard to disprove my own "theories" as I have to prove them and I was completely prepared to be embarrassed by my views and admit how wrong my thinking was, but that never happened. Alan's talk was excellent, but it didn't shake my opinions. So, needless to say, it's the whole "Polish Jew" thing that I have (probably unhealthily) spent the most time pondering since the Conference. Of course that also means digging at Anderson even deeper, so I've been spending lots of time reading his religious works as well as re-reading everything I have that concerns the man and his "theory".
2. (I feel kind of stupid here, but I'm not clear that SRA believed Tabram to be a victim of JtR- the only time I can remember him being specific about the victims- besides McKenzie and [gulp] Mylett- is in TLSoMOL where he says "The second of the crimes known as the Whitechapel murders..." He is obviously referring to Tabram here, but is this an opinion or am I forgetting something?) I find it incredibly difficult to imagine that the Tabram murder was an isolated incident, as there are many more similarities to the later crimes than there are differences. Without rehashing all the arguments pro and con, I think there is a significant clue that is rarely mentioned that convinces me that it is most probable that this murder is directly related: at Tabram's inquest, Coroner Collier describes the various stabs to Martha's body (specifically 39)- "5 to the left lung, 2 to the right," etc., but curiously, they only add up to 21; so where were the other wounds? Swanson says in his report "body, neck and private part", so this to me would indicate the remaining wounds were from the neck and, more significantly "private part". It doesn't appear anyone at the inquest felt like doing the math, but it looks like something was withheld, seemingly the assault on Tabram's "private part". Of course had it been Baxter presiding...
3. This is another frustrating set of events. Clearly Connelly had second thoughts about going to the police in the first place, when she failed to show for the first scheduled identity parade
and had to be tracked down later. She seemed truthful when stating at the first parade that none of the soldiers matched and that the two who were with her and Tabram had white bands 'round their caps. So why, if she was going to lie about an i.d., would she have gone through the trouble of waiting for the second parade to do so? Both she and P.C. Barrett seemed confident in the men they picked out, and although all four men "proved" sufficient alibis, there seems to be something very fishy going on here...but I have no clue.
4. Regretfully, I have never seen any of the official documents in person and have so far limited my research by relying on such things as The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook. I guess I have been a vulture picking at the bones of somebody else's kill since the beginning, but I hope some day to have the time to investigate for myself. If I could be so ambitious as to make a specific plan ahead of time, maybe I wouldn't always just say "Well, let's just go to the pub."
5. I only have three fictional treatments of the Whitechapel murders in my collection (one of them the Stuart James book, given to me by our own Sir Robert Anderson at the Conference in '06), so my experience is very limited, but I don't think that I will ever be sufficiently moved by the genre to spend much more time with it than I have already.
6. I've been to many of the sites, but some of the areas, such as Limehouse, I've not yet ventured into. John's work has been moving and inspiring, and in the years to come we will all be indebted to him for capturing not only the disappearing places, but an incredible ambience that is nearly impossible to capture in broad daylight. It's great that he ventures so far off the beaten path, some of his images are truly intense. I've spent a good deal of my times in London wandering the East End, day and night, but even with hundreds of photos and hours of video, nothing I've done compares with Mr. Bennett's work. His narratives on the places he's photographed are a perfect companion also. I can't wait for his book.
7. As I've only been to one official meeting and one interim, I've missed out on lots of the fun, but I've had the good fortune of being able to hang out with a handful of Society members the last several trips over that way, meeting up with them at the pub on "off" nights. This may sound corny, but everyone I've met and shared pints with feels like family to me, I wish I could see them more often. They're all genuinely good people and the Whitechapel Society 1888 is a great organization that I expect always to be part of my life. Everyone interested in the case and the history of the East End should spend some time checking it out, if they haven't already.