5 Questions for How Brown

[admin tim]

What to you is the most important aspect of the Whitechapel Murders? Identity, Methodology, or Motive/Reason
Do you believe that JTR has already been identified, or does he remain a complete unknown?
Do you believe that the murders began deliberately or as an initial random act?
What reason do you give for the murders' ending Novermber 9, 1888 - or did they?
Do you think that anyone else ever knew the ripper's identity?

[How Brown]

What to you is the most important aspect of the Whitechapel Murders? Identity, Methodology, or Motive/Reason
Do you believe that JTR has already been identified, or does he remain a complete unknown?
Do you believe that the murders began deliberately or as an initial random act?
What reason do you give for the murders' ending Novermber 9, 1888 - or did they?
Do you think that anyone else ever knew the ripper's identity? ***********************************
1. Right now, since from time to time I believe its good to switch horses...I am most interested in genealogical/newspaper research and elimination of the herd. METHODOLOGY

2. I still do not know what to make of the Anderson Declaration that the "suspect" was identified. As much as I agree with most of what SPE and others have to say about the implausibility of the Ripper being known to only a pair ( possibly more) of police officials, its still a possibility. I am not sure what to make of it all yet. My answer is NO...today,subject to change down the road...and YES, he's an unknown or hasn't been researched sufficiently yet.

I do think its possible that the Ripper was stopped or detained for a minute or so or even taken to the station house. This wouldn't be the only time a suspect or murderer was released for one reason or the other.

3. For whatever motive they were for, I believe they were intentional and not spur of the moment decisions. I am of the opinion that the Double Event was a Double Event and that of all the "seen" men in company of the victims, that Broad Shoulders Man is my current flavor of the month...or maybe longer.

4. I don't think its etched in stone that the murders ceased in November. However, for now,let me just posit my 2 cents and say they could have continued elsewhere...in Europe,perhaps...but... YES..they ceased in the East End would be my answer for today.

5. I wouldn't put it past the Ripper to have talked it up over a pint or two and bragged on it...but in the end to an unconvinced party. As far as immediate family, its possible. If anyone in a family knew,a woman knew, in my current view...like a wife or mother, who were dependent on the income he provided. My answer for today is YES

Thanks for asking.

[admin tim]

So what single event was it that finally killed off D'Onston as a suspect for you?
Do you think D'Onston was a congenital liar?
Do you think D'Onston was a psychopath?
Do you think it was mere coincidence that D'Onston was in London Hospital during the run of the Whitechapel Murders?
Do you think D'Onston possessed any medical knowledge over and above that of the LVP layman?

[How Brown]

So what single event was it that finally killed off D'Onston as a suspect for you?
Do you think D'Onston was a congenital liar?
Do you think D'Onston was a psychopath?
Do you think it was mere coincidence that D'Onston was in London Hospital during the run of the Whitechapel Murders?
Do you think D'Onston possessed any medical knowledge over and above that of the LVP layman?
*********************************

1. The first inkling that I had that there was something rotten in Denmark about the issue of his suspectworthiness was when pressed to counter some easy to counter arguments* against RDS-as-Ripper, I got a very unusual reaction from a pro-Donston author. So,I decided to look into what really kept him afloat ...spending X amount of hours per day because I knew I was right and forming the Gang of Four who have been very instrumental in eliminating this innocent chap.

Many,if not most Ripperologists considered RDS as a no-brainer, non starter...but for the wrong reasons.

It could have been a legitimate basis to posit the idea that Stephenson was a viable suspect or even Jack The Ripper if the argument of whether his stay at the hospital was as it was promoted by the pro-authors. A simple stay in a hospital with access to the streets at night as the authors intended it to appear. If someone had questioned the viability of a man being in a hospital or institution and possibly being a murderer, all one had to do was point to the Cleveland Torso Killer case for a modern example of someone theorized as the possible killer using a hospital as a sanctuary.

Fortunately,due to the efforts of Mike Covell, we now know Stephenson could not go waltzing around at night in the East End due to the security protocol of the Currie Ward. The argument,which I have seen posited elsewhere , that there would be no problem for RDS to access the street fails to address the seminal issue of "why would he" ? Without the original baseless premises laid out by Harris and then his protege,Edwards, the issue of him desiring to leave the facility at night would have never arisen. Without all the false claims made by the pro-authors, no one would have ever suspected a man inside a facility with a security protocol to prevent outsiders from going in and insiders going out of being remotely considered as a viable suspect. This protocol differs from the protocol which existed in the Cleveland case completely.

In fact, the onus of promoting Stephenson as a suspect in light of all that Mike and Spiro Dimolianis brought out in 2006 & 2007 is now in the hands of someone other than Harris and his protege,Edwards, in consideration of the alarming fact that both of them either disavowed him even being in the Currie Ward or obstinately,like a child, refusing to accept that he was in the Currie Ward despite tangible evidence that he was. In short, Harris never even mentions that Stephenson was in the Currie Ward ( a fact that he had to know without one iota of doubt whatsoever ) and the aformentioned former protege & Ripperologist who still denies this fact...a fact that Ripperologists with no agenda to fulfill who have also provided evidence that he did indeed stay in the Currie Ward.

In any event, the other "counter arguments" that I brought up at the time were actually ones Mike and I could demolish in a second if we were "pro-Donstonites"

One being that he had a bolthole. The answer to that would be that if the hospital protocol for the Currie Ward was unknown to the one questioning his candidacy....it would be easy to sidestep the issue and mention that people were able to peruse Joe Merrick,who was in the LH at the time of RDS' 134 day stay. However, we cannot do that now,since we know of the protocol. Whether he had a bolthole outside the LH would be considered irrelevant....and it is.

Another would be the issue of RDS claiming to be arrested. A naysayer could claim that there is no proof that he was...which is what I did...and yet I could now say that whether he was arrested or not is irrelevant...and it is.

Another would be whether he murdered his wife and how that might be a clue to his character. A naysayer could argue that there is no proof that he did and in fact, my wife Nina's find of a newspaper article which shows she was still alive in 1895 still doesn't detract from whether he could have killed 5 strangers and her find is irrelevant towards his candidacy....and it is.

There are actually 5 pillars which held up the argument for him to be JTR...and they were:

1. The Marsh Statement
2. The Cremers Memoirs
3. The Customs House Records
4. The Faked Neurasthenia
5. The Hospital As A Revolving Door Theory

More to come tomorrow....

....and thanks for asking.

[How Brown]

Number 1 continued:

More On The Dead Horse

The first question asked me what killed him off. The reason I placed the 4 other items is to get to that here.

Neither the counter- neurasthenia argument...the Marsh episode....the Cremers memoirs...or the record from his days in Hull from 1863-1868 as a clerk detract from the possibility that he indeed may have been Jack The Ripper or at least, a highly plausible suspect.

Nor does the fact that one pro-author actually had two scenarios/explanations for his 19 week stay in the LH.....

What killed him off is the Currie Ward and its protocol. We owe this to the efforts of Spiro Dimolianis who first posted this fact in 2006....and Mike Covell for actually following through in 2007 by finding out the protocol. That he had been in this ward and not mentioned in any of the three books on RDS had been noticed by me prior to these two crucial finds by the guys, but I admittedly did not know what to make of them until Mike went to the LH. We still would be considering him as a possible suspect if it were dependent on me to sort things out.

[How Brown]

The second question was whether I believe RDS was a congenital liar.

I believe that as a fiction writer, for Stead, he was merely writing stories to "sell" for Stead. To me,that doesn't constitute a congenital liar,considering the nature of the material he was covering. Of course, he fabricated the 1889 PMG stories...and the outrageous 1896 Borderland article, as well as the "Ada Louise" saga in 1892. As to him being a congenital liar in "real life", we have only to look at what he described himself as in 1871 and 1881 on the U.K. censuses. In the former,he was a lieutenant in the Coast Guard and the second as a "non-practicing" physician. So...yes, I see him having a bit of difficulty, to say the least, in establishing the truth in both his writings ( understandable) and real life....but whether he was a pathological liar, we have no idea...only gut feelings and gut feelings don't count for much in Ripperology.

[How Brown]

The third question was whether or not I feel RDS was a psychopath.

Ordinarily, a psychopath would leave behind a trail of either physical or emotional damage. In his case, we see none. I don't think he was a psychopath if we judge him by the known details of his life.

It may come as a surprise to some, but I think Mike Covell will understand the following...in that I think Stephenson had the Faustian spirit within him,despite physical debilitations, to tackle a committment such as to put together the Patristic Gospels...an effort, whether one "likes" the work or not...of serious devotion and dedication. I believe he endeavored to know of things for the sake of knowing them and did his best to be an authority or scholar,despite any obstacle. I admire RDS for this.

[How Brown]

Do you think it was mere coincidence that D'Onston was in London Hospital during the run of the Whitechapel Murders?

The issue of mere coincidence, to me, is more in line with him being an eventual victim of circumstance. His mouth in the Prince Albert Public House with George Marsh, is the cause for the initial "suspicion" to his candidacy in the Case....and the subsequent literature on him either distorts or embellishes him to the point where I see him as a victim of both himself and the vested interests of others..

[How Brown]

Do you think D'Onston possessed any medical knowledge over and above that of the LVP layman? ...

I sense that the question is an inference towards whether his medical knowledge is seminal to his candidacy. If so, no, I don't think his knowledge of medical application is relevant to his candidacy...and yes,I think he was above average in his acumen of medical knowledge compared to the LVP layman.