Our Gal Hal Setting The Record Straight !

[Howard Brown]

https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.u...ripper-3150949


The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women – for this was the mysterious killer ‘Jack The Ripper’.

You’d be forgiven for wondering why we didn’t write prostitute in their list of similarities, after all for more than a century, we were led to believe that it was in these back alleys that 'The Ripper’ preyed – but as Hallie Rubenhold shares, not only is there no proof that this was the case, but it has also prevented the real stories of these fascinating women being told – indeed It is astonishing how little we know about these five, apart from their names.

[Michael Banks]

I think she’s well on her way to Sainthood How. This woman can do no wrong. I don’t know why she didn’t just spend an extra hour or two researching and she could have unmasked the killer too?

I think she knows who did it but she just won’t tell us.

[Gary Barnett]

Just discovered this. It may be of interest.


Speaking of John Stride’s exclusion from his father’s will, HR tells us:

John’s elder brother, William James, who had been born deaf and struggled financially as a labourer in Sheerness all of his life was similarly excluded...’

Interesting. But if you take a gander at WJ’s Census entries, a different picture emerges.

Born deaf?

The 1871 census clearly says ‘deaf not from birth’.

Struggled financially?

Well, he married a school mistress and appears to have had a steady job at the Royal Dockyard, evidenced by the 1881 census on which he gave his occupation as ‘Shipyard retired labourer and pensioner’. And when died in 1882 he left £66 in his will. Not exactly a fortune, but he clearly wasn’t living from hand to mouth - he had considerably more than a year’s wages put away.

In Sheerness all his life?

Er, no. In 1881 he was living in Whitechapel. The census recorded him as the head of household in the Mission Hall in Fieldgate Street. Living on his own it would seem. Perhaps he was acting as a caretaker for the Salvation Army?

His 1882 probate record makes interesting reading. A secretary of the Salvation Army was one of his executors and his last address was 102, Christian Street, a few yards from Berners Street. A previous address in Limehouse was also mentioned.

HR paints a picture of William Stride, John’s father, as a hard-hearted, callous father who disinherited his son and was therefore partly responsible for Liz Stride’s descent into the ‘abyss’. Suggesting he treated another son, a disabled man who had remained close to him in Sheerness in the same mean-spirited way helps reinforce the negative view of William senior.

WJ had married the widow of another dockyard labourer, possibly a colleague of his. Perhaps his father didn’t approve of the marriage. And we mustn’t forget how much antipathy there was towards the Sally Army. Perhaps William Snr and Jr had serious religious differences. Perhaps in his own mind William Snr had valid reasons for disinheriting WJ. Who knows, he may have disinherited John because he disapproved of his wife. But HR felt the need for a villain in the piece and Wm senior was shoehorned into the role.