James Maybrick of 46 Lime Street, London...

[Jay Hartley]

I had posted this research at the other place, but there may be some on here who do not use the other side that might find this interesting.

I can place James Maybrick with an address in London in the late 1860s which is a five-minute walk from Mitre Square.

https://jayhartley.com/lemons-lime/

[Edward Stow]

5 minutes...
...and twenty years.

[Jay Hartley]

5 minutes...
...and twenty years.

Was the purpose of the article to have absolute documented proof that James Maybrick had the knife in his hand standing over Eddowes body in Mitre Square on 30th September 1888?

Or was it just another circumstantial strand of evidence we can lay at his door? It proves he most likely had geographical knowledge of the local area.

Can anyone add that to the evidence for the likes of Druitt for example?

[Gary Barnett]

Why would a businessman who had once had an office in the City and had had a relationship with someone who had briefly lived near the Tower have ‘likely’ had geographical knowledge of Whitechapel, Spitalfields and St George in the East?

[Jay Hartley]

Why would a businessman who had once had an office in the City and had had a relationship with someone who had briefly lived near the Tower have ‘likely’ had geographical knowledge of Whitechapel, Spitalfields and St George in the East?

Sarah Ann Robertson spent a lot more than a brief period in Whitechapel - as you well know. She also lived in Stepney - the other side of Whitechapel and on Fenchurch Street in the city.

He didn’t need to have intimate knowledge just a general knowledge of Whitechapel. The victims most likely selected the murder sites, we certainly know that in MJK.

[Gary Barnett]

Sarah Ann Robertson spent a lot more than a brief period in Whitechapel - as you well know. She also lived in Stepney - the other side of Whitechapel and on Fenchurch Street in the city.

He didn’t need to have intimate knowledge just a general knowledge of Whitechapel. The victims most likely selected the murder sites, we certainly know that in MJK.

Perhaps you can remind us exactly where in Whitechapel she lived? In your blog you mention the Whitechapel census district. What does that mean?

Excellent research in tracking Robertson down, by the way. And well presented - apart from the misleading ‘Whitechapel’ mantra.

[Edward Stow]

I think from memory she lived near the old Stepney East Station - way east of the murder district - near the northern entrance to Rotherhithe Tunnel.
The Lime Street address would have been an office address. How often did he go there... ever?

Admittedly these things provide evidence of vague familiarity with areas not too far from the murder district but hardly offers an explanation for why he chose to murder there and there only during that brief period (oh, and one in Manchester wasn't it? Did they have a sub office in Manchester?)
Comparing Maybrick to Druitt as a realistic suspect doesn't enhance his standing.

[Gary Barnett]

I think from memory she lived near the old Stepney East Station - way east of the murder district - near the northern entrance to Rotherhithe Tunnel.
The Lime Street address would have been an office address. How often did he go there... ever?

Admittedly these things provide evidence of vague familiarity with areas not too far from the murder district but hardly offers an explanation for why he chose to murder there and there only during that brief period (oh, and one in Manchester wasn't it? Did they have a sub office in Manchester?)
Comparing Maybrick to Druitt as a realistic suspect doesn't enhance his standing.

I think some people fail to understand the compartmentalised nature of London. You could live in a particular parish for years - decades - and have little or no knowledge of the parish next door. Especially if you were a middle class businessman with an office in the City and the contiguous parish was Whitechapel.

[Edward Stow]

Yes... but I doubt parish boundaries were the constraint.

[Gary Barnett]

Postern Row, just north of the Tower, was in the Whitechapel registration district. If you were born, got married or died there, the event would have been recorded as having occurred in Whitechapel. Ditto if the event occurred within the Tower precincts.

Someone living in Postern Row would have been closer to the Bank of England than to Bucks Row.

[Gary Barnett]

Yes... but I doubt parish boundaries were the constraint.

To the extent that they reflected societal extremes they would have. A City businessman might have an office in Fenchurch Street which was much closer to Dorset Street than it was to Jermyn Street or Saville Row, but the proximity would not equate to a greater familiarity with the Spitalfields rookery than the fashionable West End.

[Gary Barnett]

Why do we hear about the activity of ‘slumming’? Because it was a perverse, adventurous, rather risky thing to do. Not because every City businessman already knew ‘Whitechapel’ like the back of his hand.

[Edward Stow]

Particularly streets in the depths of the East End such as Bucks Row or Berner Street.

[Jay Hartley]

You both have your biased viewpoints and you are welcome to them, but this links James Maybrick to that area. That is a fact. Readers can make their own judgments on how important that may or may not be in the overall grand scheme of things.

He can no longer be accused of not being anywhere near the crime scenes in his lifetime. You can argue all day long about what streets he knew or didn’t know, but what cannot be dismissed is his connection to the geographical proximity of the murders.

Very few candidates have that marked in the ‘for’ column in terms of their candidacy and now Maybrick does.

[Gary Barnett]

You both have your biased viewpoints and you are welcome to them, but this links James Maybrick to that area. That is a fact. Readers can make their own judgments on how important that may or may not be in the overall grand scheme of things.

He can no longer be accused of not being anywhere near the crime scenes in his lifetime. You can argue all day long about what streets he knew or didn’t know, but what cannot be dismissed is his connection to the geographical proximity of the murders.

Very few candidates have that marked in the ‘for’ column in terms of their candidacy and now Maybrick does.

In what way are my views biased?

My interest in the case is predominantly geographical. My interest in Charles Lechmere, for example, is underpinned by the fact that he/his family had a connection to a small corner of St George E for decades.

In your blog you use a totally meaningless term ‘Whitechapel census district’ and your readers are left with the impression that that somehow links Maybrick to the various crime scenes. It doesn’t.

I thought the main part of the blog, your description of how you (with the help of RJ) managed to track Robertson down, is excellent.