Who Knew ? James Kelly & The News Of The World

[Roy Corduroy]

When James Kelly escaped from Broadmoore in 1888, the alert was put out to police and ports. A reward notice was placed in the Police Gazette.

At that time, did the general public know of his escape? Was it reported in the regular press then?

[How Brown]

Dear Roy:

When I get home from work, I'll throw his name in the American newspaper search engine. I doubt that I'll locate anything there....because I think I've already looked for Kelly there last year...but it won't hurt to look again.

Anyone up to looking for references to what Roy mentions in British papers?

[How Brown]

Roy:

I had a little time this morning and examined the 191 excerpts with the name James Kelly for 1888, but none were relevant. Sorry.

[Roy Corduroy]

Howard, thank you for your prompt response.

Why does it matter? Because to me it goes to Kelly's freedom of movement. Of course he knew the police were looking for him, but if the general public was unaware of the escape, if there was no reporting of it in the British papers, or any papers for that matter, it could give him somewhat more freedom of movement. Somewhat. I am most interested to know if the British papers carried the story right then in 1888. This would be the most germane to a discussion of his possible involvement in the Whitechapel Murder series.

Author James Tully quoted from a News of the World article which gave some details of the escape, but gave no date for said article. It may have been a retrospective written years later. I just don't know.

Again, any help is appreciated.

Roy

[How Brown]

Roy: My first post of the night was intended for you and it was to mention the N.O.T.W. excerpt mentioned on page 61 of Mr. Tully's book. Obviously, if the excerpt was contemporaneous of his escape, we'd need to find someone who has access ( if that is possible at this point in time ) to N.O.T.W. from early in 1888. I can't help out there,Roy...I'm sorry. This looks like a challenge...Maybe some British archivist has some old copies floating around somewhere. I don't know about you, Roy, but the excerpt gives me the impression as though it was written retrospectively, not contemporaneously, and somehow relative to the reemergence of Kelly at the Gates of Broadmoor.I'll try looking later on buddy...good luck on your end too.

[How Brown]

Dear Roy:

Two things:

Stephen Ryder has this in his Press Report section ( That 1929 Bottomley article...which you probably have seen )

http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/john_blunts_monthly/291216.html

I put it here in case you hadn't and it might shake a few cobwebs loose...

However...I have just stumbled upon what I think might be the right avenue to pursue to determine the date of the N.O.T.W. article which you mentioned in your first post.

Look on page 91 of Tully's book. Look at the reference to February 11th, 1927 and the following bit..."as the N.O.T.W. described him..."

This may mean that Mr. Tully probably used a 1927 N.O.T.W. article that described his return to the institution.

Now, if this is so, and we cannot locate any newspaper article or excerpt from January 24th, 1888 ( the morning of the following day of his escape ) until 1927...then it may mean that no public alert was issued via the Press....at least in London.

Tell me Roy...is there a newspaper in the Broadmoor Institution vicinity which may have alerted those Brits, not necessarily Londoners, of his escape?

Hard to believe there would be a 39 year gap between the time of his escape and the first reference to him in the papers...an escaped lunatic murderer...after that escape...isn't it?

[Roy Corduroy]

A search of the London Times online archive yields articles about Broadmoor over the years but not about this escape. If newspapers in Berkshire had carried the story, it would have hit the London papers, too. Bottom line, the escape was treated as a police matter only. The public didn't know. Otherwise, the author would have mentioned it in his book, or there would be other research finds since its publication.

Roy

[How Brown]

Thanks for that Roy.

In your research, is this precedence for this sort of thing? If individuals escaped asylums was there this sort of blackout in the media as it appears happened in the case of James Kelly?

[Roy Corduroy]

No, there was no precedent for the secrecy. In an 1878 McMillan's Magazine article penned after a visit to Broadmoor, Daniel Hack Tuke, MD* wrote:

I find in regard to escapes that, from the opening of the asylum (1863) up to the end of 1877, there have not been more than twenty-three. During the last three years there have been none. The majority were recaptured on the next, or following day; one not till three months, and four were never discovered.

And indeed, during 1873-74 the London Times had five articles about Broadmoor escapes.

Roy

* no relation to the Chiswick Manor House Tukes

[Debra Arif]

When James Kelly escaped from Broadmoore in 1888, the alert was put out to police and ports. A reward notice was placed in the Police Gazette.

At that time, did the general public know of his escape? Was it reported in the regular press then?

Hi Roy,
I think your later conclusions are right, in that it wasn't reported in the regular press and remained a police matter only.
I've checked the British Library newspaper archives and there is no mention of the escape in 88 that I can see, only the escape and recapture of the murderer Frederick Marshall in Nov. 88.
I also checked for other reports of escaped Broadmoor inmates and noticed several papers reporting an escape incident only after an inmate had been safely recaptured again, as in Marshall's case. Perhaps this was the policy?

Debs

[Stephen Thomas]

Funny that Macnaghton never mentioned Kelly as a possibility, isn't it?

[How Brown]

Whats even more bizarre Stephen is that at lunch time today...thats exactly what I mentioned to Nina and I never thought of it before until Roy created this thread and Debra responded with her insights and of course you mentioned that first here, for what I think is the first time I've ever seen that in print. Very good of you to come up with it, because frankly, I would have forgotten to mention it....until 10 years later,as usual, on another thread:banghead:... this is yet another example of how a lot of us seem to be thinking alike on the Forums on certain aspects within the Case. What if Macnaghten never heard of Kelly or his escape ? Is that possible?

Its very startling as well, when today Nina also asked me whether I ever remembered any asylum escapee in my newspaper trawling being mentioned. I gave it some thought and my answer was in the negative. Nina used to breathe those newspaper archives and she responded in kind. Thats a LOT of newspaper study on this little lady's part too.

Has Roy Corduroy found something here that has gone unmentioned ( at least as far as I know ) up until now????...that asylum escapees didn't get mentioned in the press UNTIL they were apprehended? This is alarming,I think, because the whole time the WM were underway, not one word of Kelly's escape leaked out.

Could there....a longshot here,maybe...could there have been others as well who didn't get the ink?

This might be a task for one or more of our researchers to look into. Great thread, Roy !
*******************

Stephen... by the way,the same holds true in our time. I cannot remember reading about an escaped asylum patient until after he was apprehended.

[Celesta]

Even if the news was kept from the public, it still seems that Macnaghten, Anderson, or some of that bunch would have heard of Kelly's escape. They had to know he was dangerous. Could it be that because Kelly didn't live in the immediate vicinity of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, etc, during the time of the murders, he was less interesting as a potential Ripper suspect? The mother-in-law was under survellance, wasn't she? The investigators were expecting him to turn up at her house.

[How Brown]

Cellie:

That mother in law story is worth its own thread because its really strange on its own, isn't it ?

One element of his escape that would have made ME worry in early 1888 is that he seemed to have more of his ducks in order than the rank and file lunatic.

[Roy Corduroy]

I've checked the British Library newspaper archives and there is no mention of the escape in 88 that I can see...
Thank you, Debra for looking into it.
I also checked for other reports of escaped Broadmoor inmates and noticed several papers reporting an escape incident only after an inmate had been safely recaptured again, as in Marshall's case. Perhaps this was the policy?
I see. So in fact, secrecy may well have been the norm.

Roy

[Celesta]

Cellie:


One element of his escape that would have made ME worry in early 1888 is that he seemed to have more of his ducks in order than the rank and file lunatic.


Yes, and he managed to do it well enough to remain free for a very long time! Definitely not one of the rank and file lunatics.

I was thinking about what Stephen said. As a potential Ripper suspect, Kelly seemed to stay below the radar for some reason. Was he not named as a possible suspect because he escaped and wasn't caught, and they didn't want the public speculating on that? I also wondered if he wasn't taken seriously as a suspect, as far as we know, because the police were looking for a local man, and Kelly wasn't local enough.

Now that you mention it, the mother-in-law business was rather weird. I believe she knew he still had inheritance money and wanted to get her hands on it.