The Dead End Streets

[How Brown]

Inspired by the comments made by Nemo,Rob House, and Debra Arif on an article that SPE provided a day or so ago regarding the Polish Jew and a gentleman named Dr. Halpen....this thread is set up to discuss some of the dead end research efforts we've engaged in during our collective experiences.

To start it off, to give folks an idea of what I'm driving at....for a few years ( not every day of course), I, as well as David Knott but independent of his research...attempted to find a reference in those horrible grimoires related to the Occult...in regard to the comment found in the Pall Mall Gazette article written by Robert Stephenson which finds D'Onston claiming that organs from prostitutes were used in rituals.

None were found. I remember getting headaches from reading the jibberish.

Now....

Is there any dead end that you have searched in vain for ?

The remote possibility exists that if you didn't find what you were looking for, perhaps someone else has or could in the future. Last year, some finds in regard to the Pompadour Cosmetique Company and its Baker Street location surfaced here on JTRForums. Mike Covell and I had both searched for similar material but were not quite as lucky. In one case, it was a matter of a Google search turning the material up, since Google had a link to that material at the time of the find. Also, Debra Arif and Rob Clack provided material on the PCC & Baker Street locale to compliment the Google provided finds by another member. So it might be good to keep this in mind. Just because one can't locate something they're looking for, another might

Thank you.

[A.P. Wolf]

Google can be a right buggar, How.
I remember years ago when using Google I found an obscure reference that eventually led me to photographs and details of Thomas Taylor's second wife's grave in Wellington, New Zealand. This was located on the 53rd page of the search; and I think others may have given up well before then.
What I find is that Google Books will often turn something up that standard Google will not... in that regard I'm doing some local history research on another subject and I was able recently to discover on Google Books a previously unknown image of a deeply historical and ancient site that places it a good half mile from where the historians say it was!
I have my critics for my use of electronic resources for my research and subsequent writing, but it is my contention that if you want to get to the moon you are better employed with a Voyager space craft than Stephenson's Rocket.

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

In my researches I've been up more dead ends than a necrophiliac, and I have to say that the still-in-its-infancy digitisation of books and newspapers on the Internet sure beats travelling to distant reference libraries, going half-blind staring at microfilm whizzing past your eyes and indulging in all that other romantic guff people spout about musty books and rolling up your sleeves to do real research. I've done it all and have no wish to do it again.

Today's essentials are a fast internet connection, a telephone and a coterie of well-placed friends. And in this latter regard I count myself as blessed.

I'm with AP aboard Voyager. To quote Buzz Lightyear—"To infinity and beyond".

Regards,

Simon

[A.P. Wolf]

'I've been up more dead ends than a necrophiliac,'

Simon, it is not often that someone can make me laugh so much that I spit my beer all over my pc, but you just did that thing!
Bless you too.

[Natalie Severn]

Well Thanks Simon, and I was thinking you were going to play in my yard!You watch out with Ap on HMS Voyager---you might find you"re up s**t creek without a paddle after a few knots!:peep:

[Nemo]

The supposed coded diary written by Dr Hlpen's suspect makes me think of the pieces of evidence "created" within ripperology that would possibly send a student on a wild goose chase

Items like the Dutton notes and photographs, Rasputin's notes, Forbes Winslow's papers written by the lodger, blood-stained ties and the like

How many of such physical items can you think of that may alter the case if found?

[Mike Covell]

Some of the stuff I have tried to get hold of in vain are:

The East End Murderer- I knew Him! :rip:

The sworn statement made by Robert D'Onston Stephenson saying he was an occultist.

The two records of arrest and questioning of Robert D'Onston Stephenson.

The death details of Richard Stephenson Jnr.

The grave of the Stephenson family. I have been close on numerous occasions, but still have failed to find it.

The Last Will and Testament of Isabella Stephenson.

The Last Will and Testament of Robert D'Onston Stephenson, if he had one.

On the other hand I have found things indirectly, usually when looking for something unrelated, and this makes it all the more special.

Funnily enough, I was searching through a genealogy site recently and found a lady who herself had found an album full of photo's of the Reynoldson family of Hull. It transpired that she has a pictorial record of the family that Frederick Bailey Deeming had defrauded during his brief stay in Hull!

[How Brown]

Nemo:

We need another Eric Barton and SPE combination with a new suspect mentioned in police files.

We need another Sam Hardy or Don Rumbelow ( the one we have is too busy walking civilians around in the East End...) to locate photos related to the Case.


Mike:

Don't hold your breath,brudda...you won't find any arrest records on RDS because he wasn't able to be arrested unless it was while he was in the LH.

If he was arrested ( detained is more like it ), it may have been in relation to letters he sent. He doesn't state that his arrests were for the latter reason, only that he was arrested in conjunction with the murders.

Of course, thats just what Cremers or O'Donnell said he said too. I don't place that much faith in either anymore.

I don't think anyone will locate any reference to him as an occultist either, but it doesn't hurt to try. Writing about it doesn't make the man a magi.

[Roy Corduroy]

....this thread is set up to discuss some of the dead end research efforts we've engaged in during our collective experiences.

Howie, getting distracted can be a dead end. Side tracked. Something pops up that makes you go...huh?

Like this one from 1884 -

7347

Now I picture a whole brigade of them. :cool:

[How Brown]

Roy:

If thats a phone directory from the 1880's you've got there....please look up

Robert C.Linford
Stewart P. Evans

I believe John Savage is listed in the first directory. His phone number was "3".