Bulling & Moore...and Dear Boss

[Robert Linford]

Well AP, looking at the pic of Sir Robert above, who is so desperately sending in the coupons, you might have something there.

[AP Wolf]

Thanks Robert
I had seen a reference to Sims and his patented treatment for men losing their hair, but that ad certainly brings it to life.
Perhaps this is why the senior officers of the Met force liked him so much, for weren't they all failing in that regard without exception?

[SirRobertAnderson]

I'm never tired of posting this one :

And I'll keep sending in that coupon - no response yet but I'm hopeful.

[Robert Linford]

Hi AP

Then we're looking for a hairy man - Sims was remarkably hairy, and even advertised "Tatcho" the wonder hair restorer.

I'm never tired of posting this one :

[AP Wolf]

Sims was not exactly a wallflower when it came to the case of Jack anway, as his own thoughts show:

'George Sims, My Life (1917)

The journalistic campaigns of which I am proudest are those I have been permitted to undertake on behalf of the children and the youth of the vast and mighty city in which I was born. I have always received the generous assistance of my friends the officers and officials of the Metropolitan Police.

When I was writing The Cry of the Children I received the greatest assistance from the police, who were as keenly interested as I was in a campaign that had for its object the safeguarding of infant life. It was in connection with this investigation that for many weeks I walked about London in every direction through the long night and often far into the dawn, and was able to publish facts with regard to the infamous White Slave traffic that was carried on by foreigners - principally Germans.

As a journalist I followed the Jack the Ripper crimes at close quarters. I had a personal interest in the matter, for my portrait, which appeared outside the cover of a sixpenny edition of my Social Kaleidoscope, was taken to Scotland Yard by a coffee-stall keeper (who had a conversation with Jack the Ripper on the night of the double murder) as the likeness of the assassin. But it was quite a pardonable mistake. The redoubtable Ripper was not unlike me as I was at that time.'

[AP Wolf]

And, Robert, his grand battleship not a few years after.
Whenever I read a document that has several points of reference to a document written some 25 years later and there is a claim that the two are not related, my alarm bells start ringing.
In this case we have the CNA, a letter, Jack the Ripper, Bismarck and an 'enterprising journal' or 'journalist'.

[Robert Linford]

Hi AP

I think Bismarck died 10 years after the Ripper murders, so this would have been when Bulling made his faux pas.

Robert

[AP Wolf]

And then in Sims writings about the case in September of 1888 we are able to find the following:

'Bismarck might come over here and chalk a rude name on Sir Morell Mackenzie's front door; '

Bismarck.

And in the same article Sims refers to 'one enterprising journal'.
Kinda neat that, I thought.

[AP Wolf]

Chris has made a good and valid point concerning the exchange of information between Littlechild and Sims in 1913 concerning the activities of Bulling and the CNA.
I mean if Sims possessed the following insight into the Jack the Ripper letters in early October of 1888 then why the devil was Littlechild telling him about in 1913?
I think the horse had bolted long before this.

'
The fact that the self-postcard-proclaimed assassin sent his imitation blood-besmeared communication to the Central News people opens up a wide field for theory. How many among you, my dear readers, would have hit upon the idea of "the Central News" as a receptacle for your confidence? You might have sent your joke to the Telegraph, the Times, any morning or any evening paper, but I will lay long odds that it would never have occurred to communicate with a Press agency. Curious, is it not, that this maniac makes his communication to an agency which serves the entire Press? It is an idea which might occur to a Pressman perhaps; and even then it would probably only occur to someone connected with the editorial department of a newspaper, someone who knew what the Central News was, and the place it filled in the business of news supply. This proceeding on Jack's part betrays an inner knowledge of the newspaper world which is certainly surprising. Everything therefore points to the fact that the jokist is professionally connected with the Press. And if he is telling the truth and not fooling us, then we are brought face to face with the fact that the Whitechapel murders have been committed by a practical journalist - perhaps by a real live editor! Which is absurd, and at that I think I will leave it.'

That was written in 1888.
Is not the ending of the piece somehow familiar to us?

[AP Wolf]

Yes, well done, Robert
I had just found the report in The Times myself, and thought 'wow', checked to see if anyone else had found it, and blow me down me old mate Robert was there three years before me!

I thought it interesting that dear old Tom - Westcott I mean, not Bulling - reached the following conclusion on Bulling's involvement with the letters some considerable time ago in his dissertation on the subject:

'After reviewing the evidence it seems at least questionable that the 'enterprising London journalist' theory is correct.'

I wondered at the time when I first read this whether Tom realised that he was actually questioning the veracity of the Littlechild letter with his conclusion?

[Robert Linford]

Thanks for that, Chris.

[Chris G.]

Hi Robert

You may have already found this out but the dignitary Bulling was apparently trying to see was Shahzada Nasrullah Khan, second son of the Emir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman Khan. The Shahzada had been sent by his father to pay his respects to Queen Victoria, which he did at Windsor on 27 May 1895. He left England on 3 September and arrived in Karachi on 16 October on his way back to Kabul. Also see Chronology: the reigns of Abdur Rahman Khan and Habibullah, 1881-1919.

Chris

[Robert Linford]

Thanks Chris. A minor matter : on just now searching for more Bullingiana, I was surprised to see that the date of the article was actually June 10th 1895. So, for some inexplicable reason, I must have adopted the American convention for dating when I filed it away two or three years ago.

[Chris G.]

I am posting something i originally posted on Casebook.

TIMES, 6th Oct 1895

Hi Robert

Thanks, I missed this story when you posted it on Casebook, so I am glad you have posted it here as well. A good find!

Chris

[Robert Linford]

I am posting something i originally posted on Casebook.

TIMES, 6th Oct 1895