"Ex-Officers Under Suspicion"

[Howard Brown]

This article appeared soon after the Mackenzie murder.

Notice the reference to John Royal.
Even though he is( without looking) likely to be found in the major reference works...I must admit I have never heard of this event or the man in question.

I wonder if some of our geneaologists have checked into Royal's background before.

Omaha Daily Bee
July 21, 1889
**********

[Jerry Dunlop]

Howard,

Quoting from your post.

New York Herald Cable
"The information of police matters possessed by the Ripper seems sufficient grounds for an investigation of such ex-members as spend time in or about Whitechapel."


There happened to be an ex-Metro policeman in the vicinity at the time of the murder.

Decatur Daily Despatch
Illinois, U.S.A.
19 July 1889

"An ex member of the Metropolitan police,who was standing talking with a friend at the corner of Castle alley, not more than forty yards distant,
about the time of the murder, neither saw nor heard anything."

Wonder who this guy was? Maybe George Morris had another restless night and walked up the street from K&T? Probably not, but my point is to me it really does sound like the murderer of Alice McKenzie had an intricate knowledge of police procedures and beat timing that night. The article goes on to state that their belief is the WM had this same knowledge of police customs and rules in all the murders. I tend to agree.

I think a murderer armed with this knowledge could pull off the feats that Jack the Ripper pulled off. Without that knowledge, he is an extraordinary magician.

[Howard Brown]

Food for thought, Jerry....nice work, buddy.
I wonder who it could have been myself.

[Jerry Dunlop]

The other very interesting thing to note in the Herald article is the police force that was beefed up after the 1888 murderers was reduced to forty uniformed and plain clothes by July of 1889. Then as soon as they withdrew these 40 men on Monday, July 15th, the very next night on the 16th, Alice McKenzie is murdered.

[Jerry Dunlop]

I must add too, this escalation in police awareness and extra patrols may have been cause for the murderer to eventually take his work indoors with Mary Kelly.

[Edward Stow]

Maybe the culprit was someone who had a family connection to the police and perhaps still knew some policemen who gossiped about what was going on - eg the withdrawal of police numbers.

[Howard Brown]

Good eye, JD.

[Jerry Dunlop]

Thanks Howard, Ed,

This also brings to mind the story the late Bernard Brown uncovered of Emily Wood being stabbed by a uniformed police officer in 1899 off Commercial Road. He was never identified.

[Robert Linford]

I don't know what happened to Royal.

[Jerry Dunlop]

PC Alfred Long

PC Alfred Long was dismissed in July of 1889 for being drunk on duty.

Decatur Daily Despatch
Illinois, U.S.A.
19 July 1889

"An ex member of the Metropolitan police,who was standing talking with a friend at the corner of Castle alley, not more than forty yards distant,
about the time of the murder, neither saw nor heard anything."


Of course we all know Castle Alley was close to PC Long's beat the night of the Eddowes murder as well as the location the famous GSG. Would he have been hanging out with his old pals in Whitechapel after being sacked?

The following is the altered account John Arnold gave two reporters about who had told him of the body in Backchurch Lane.

New York Herald
[London edition]
11 September 1889

The two reporters went out, and one of them stopped on the landing of the stairway in going down, and asked the man some more questions. Under this examination he varied slightly, saying that the man who had told him was not a police inspector, but an ex-member of the police force. This statement has, perhaps, some significance to all who have been following the murders closely.

We also know that the Pinchin torso case involved a bit of Graffitii [John Cleary is a fool] just as the Eddowes murder.

PC Long was a transplant from A Division, [Whitehall]. Monty may have to answer this but where did PC Long reside before and after his tenure in Whitechapel. Could he have known a news vendor in Charing Cross by the name of John Arnold by patrolling in A Division? What are the chances he was the ex-cop mentioned in both these articles? Slim to none, right? When exactly was Long dismissed in July?

[Curryong]

PC Alfred Long was reinstated in the police force, Jerry. He was a serving policeman in the 1891 census records and a sergeant in the 1901 census, living with his wife and family. He lived in Holborn at one time, I believe. Reinstatement probably wasn't that unusual, given the drinking habits of the Victorian working classes at that time (and most Victorian policemen had working class backgrounds.) provided of course that you were a good policeman, anyway.

Long's census records etc are over in Casbook Jack the Ripper, on the Long, PC. Alfred (recovered) thread.

[Jerry Dunlop]

PC Alfred Long was reinstated in the police force, Jerry. He was a serving policeman in the 1891 census records and a sergeant in the 1901 census, living with his wife and family. He lived in Holborn at one time, I believe. Reinstatement probably wasn't that unusual, given the drinking habits of the Victorian working classes at that time (and most Victorian policemen had working class backgrounds.) provided of course that you were a good policeman, anyway.

Long's census records etc are over in Casbook Jack the Ripper, on the Long, PC. Alfred (recovered) thread.

Curryong,

This is a direct quote from Bernie Brown's research from that same (recovered) thread.

"I recently had occasion to read the information on the Casebook with regard to P.C. Long (of Goulston St fame) which was posted on 28 June 2006.

I fear that you may be in pursuit of the wrong P C Long.

I hope you do not mind me adding to your antecedents of Long, but there is nothing worse than chasing a false trail.

As you know PC 254A Long was dismissed in July 1889. The 1891/1901 cenuses show him residing in Kennington working as a ship stoker in the docks. He was NOT reinstated.

The policeman known as PC Alfred Long (after 1889) was a 'C' division PC (St James) Warrant No 70299 who joined the Met in March 1885 and resigned March 1911 as a detective sargent on 'V'division (Wandsworth) & 'L' division (Lambeth), born in Ware in Herts. Whereas PC 254A Long was born in Sussex but may be related.

I would be interested in the Kings College Hospital entry for Long.

I hope this info is of use"

Bernie Brown
M.P.H.S

[Jerry Dunlop]

Hi (again) Curryong,

An interesting note about PC Long from Ware, Herts. In the 1891 census, he is in Kings College Hospital while his family is living at 60 Duncan Buildings, Verulam Street, St Andrew Holborn. His first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1888 in Holborn.

If they resided at the Verulam address in 1888 they lived right down the street from the Grays Inn Temporary Workhouse where Polly Nichols stayed on August 1st and 2nd shortly before her demise.

This, however, is the other PC Long according to Bernie Brown but interesting none-the-less..