Sign of Suppression?

[Howard Brown]

Thread for discussing or dismissing the possibility of a cover up or suppression of information...in and pertinent to...any aspect of the Case....by police,press,or medicos.

For starters...Dr. Phillips' reluctance to discuss his inquiry into Annie Chapman's remains after the murder...

Abberline being sent to investigate the Cleveland St. scandal despite his then current involvement in the WM investigation....

or,

the comparitively abbreviated Kelly Inquest.

Anyone?

[jmenges]

The following is not a case of official suppression, but suppression none the less.

I'm reading that book Origins of the Vigilant State and wondered of the possibility that Littlechild purposely suppressed his knowledge of the true facts of Tumblety's flight and escape in his letter to Sims.

This has probably been kicked around before and/or elsewhere but...

If the Special Branch suspected that Tumblety was a Fenian, it would have been common practice to put a shadow on him. The modus operandi of a shadow was to make it obvious to the target that he is being shadowed, in order to deter the suspected Fenian from engaging in any Fenian activity, thereby preventing any future crime. Shadowing of Fenian suspects occurred over seas as well as in England and Ireland. So, I was thinking that an example of this type of open shadowing is Byrnes' shadowing of Tumblety in New York "just to know where he is" by pacing back and forth in front of T's lodging house.

Which leads to Littlechild's letter. Special Branch activities were top secret.

Is it possible that Littlechild knew full well what happened to Tumblety but purposefully mislead Sims because if he told the truth he would have been exposing classified information?

Or in this case, would it have been more likely that Littlechild would have refrained from even mentioning Tumbelty if it involved secrets, rather than concoct a fictitious account of his demise?

JM

[Caroline Brown]

Hi JM,

I think the latter. I can't see why Littlechild would be loose-tongued at all, and even mention Tumblety, if he knew secrets involving what happened to him after the ripper murders that he wasn't going to tell. He was, after all, 'inflicting' this letter on Sims, and presumably had no need to give him any information, or to name any names.

Love,

Caz
X

[Howard Brown]

Good points JM...and Caz as well.

I don't know if this is germane,but I'm sure that there were other "Doctor __'s" as well as "D's" and "T's" that were considered worthy of inquiry around that time in late 1888 and after 1888 that could have come to mind. It is ponderable that 15 years later,the first one Littlechild mentions as the alternative to the "Dr.D." is "Dr.T."

[Dan Norder]

Byrnes' shadowing of Tumblety in New York "just to know where he is" by pacing back and forth in front of T's lodging house.

I think you're thinking of a report that claimed an odd looking man paced in front of the house and was thought by the writer to have been working for the London police. That story has always seemed really bizarre and fishy to me. It doesn't sound at all like what anyone really associated with the police (New York or London) would have actually done.

[Robert Linford]

There may have been little things, e.g. I cannot recall any mention being made of a policeman patrolling Dorset St/ Millers Court. It may be that there was such a policeman but, since he heard and saw nothing, his name never came up. However, if by any chance a constable whose beat included Dorset St decided to skip the street, well I can't imagine the police letting on about it. The public and Press would have been up in arms.

Robert

[Big Jon]

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