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The Nantes connection
I am wondering if anyone has information about the case in Nantes, 1894, in which an elderly woman was murdered.
The murder was reported in a Danish paper August 23rd 1894, and mentions that searches for the murderer have so far been in vain, so I imagine it would have happened sometime around 15-20. August. The victim was reported to be a 63-year old woman living in poverty, who was murdered and eviscerated.
The reason it is seems relevant is because it is mentioned in the A-Z and elsewhere that the local medical examiner, Gustave Ollive, wrote a letter to the Home Office, requesting a copy of Dr Bond's report on the Ripper. And HO complied.
A-Z, p. 116:
Presumably this refers to Dr. Bond's report of November 10th 1888 to Anderson. The report was forwarded by Anderson to HO and received there 14th Nov. 1888..
It should be noted that an American doctor in 1892 requested access to the files about the murders, but was denied (A-Z, p. 110).
Also note that in "Did Kelly Have a Heart - A Follow-Up", Dave Yost in Ripper Notes Vol. 1, no. 2, 1999, in discussing how dr Hebbert contributed notes to Dr. Harris' A System of Legal Medicine, mentions that "Bond himself 'deflected' a similar request by a Dr Gustave Ollive of Nantes, France (who was investigaing a ripper-like murder near there) to the Home Office in November 1894." This implies that Dr. Ollive originally wrote to Dr. Bond, who then referred the matter to the HO?
I've looked most places I could think of but I've nowhere found answers to some of the important questions this must lead to:
1. Who did Dr. Ollive write to - Bond, the HO or the police? Did Dr. Ollive specifically ask for Dr. Bond's report? If so, how did he know about it? Or did he merely ask for general summary of the ripper cases, in order to compare his local murder with the ripper?
The letters are not reproduced in the Ultimate, does anyone have a photo or scan of them?
2. Dr. Ollive was instructed by the local juge d'instruction, a judicial magistrate authorising police and others in their investigations. Would not archives in Nantes contain remnants of this institution and its handling of the case? While the local Nantes-case presumably is of little direct relevance to the ripper-case, any remaining correspondance with HO or others could be of great value - practically speaking, which report was actually sent? and if it, as seems likely, was Bond's Nov. 10th report, is the copy completely unaltered compared to the original? Is there a covering letter containing information about the views of HO or the police in 1894 as opposed to 1888, e.g. mentions of how the report supposes something but it has since been learned that... etc.
Has this correspondance been sought out before on the French side?
As a doctor, Gustave Ollive (1854-1943) is more likely than ordinary grunts to have left papers in an archive, perhaps at the institution where he taught or at a local or regional archive close to his family home. In 1895 I believe he was president of Societe academique de Nantes e de la Loire-Atlantique, also seems to have been active with other learned societies.
He does not seem to have been active as a writer, mostly some medical texts about diseases and paralysis etc., but in 1914, he did write a text to Archives de l'anthropologie criminelle etc about the murder of an entire household in 1913 by a 15-year old, so perhaps more relevant articles can turn up.
The murder was reported in a Danish paper August 23rd 1894, and mentions that searches for the murderer have so far been in vain, so I imagine it would have happened sometime around 15-20. August. The victim was reported to be a 63-year old woman living in poverty, who was murdered and eviscerated.
The reason it is seems relevant is because it is mentioned in the A-Z and elsewhere that the local medical examiner, Gustave Ollive, wrote a letter to the Home Office, requesting a copy of Dr Bond's report on the Ripper. And HO complied.
A-Z, p. 116:
36. 8 Nov. 94. Letter from Dr. Gustave Olive of Nantes requesting a copy of Dr. Bond's report, having been directed by the Juge d'Instruction to investigate a similar case there.
37. 22 Nov. 94. Re above. Report sent.
37. 22 Nov. 94. Re above. Report sent.
It should be noted that an American doctor in 1892 requested access to the files about the murders, but was denied (A-Z, p. 110).
Also note that in "Did Kelly Have a Heart - A Follow-Up", Dave Yost in Ripper Notes Vol. 1, no. 2, 1999, in discussing how dr Hebbert contributed notes to Dr. Harris' A System of Legal Medicine, mentions that "Bond himself 'deflected' a similar request by a Dr Gustave Ollive of Nantes, France (who was investigaing a ripper-like murder near there) to the Home Office in November 1894." This implies that Dr. Ollive originally wrote to Dr. Bond, who then referred the matter to the HO?
I've looked most places I could think of but I've nowhere found answers to some of the important questions this must lead to:
1. Who did Dr. Ollive write to - Bond, the HO or the police? Did Dr. Ollive specifically ask for Dr. Bond's report? If so, how did he know about it? Or did he merely ask for general summary of the ripper cases, in order to compare his local murder with the ripper?
The letters are not reproduced in the Ultimate, does anyone have a photo or scan of them?
2. Dr. Ollive was instructed by the local juge d'instruction, a judicial magistrate authorising police and others in their investigations. Would not archives in Nantes contain remnants of this institution and its handling of the case? While the local Nantes-case presumably is of little direct relevance to the ripper-case, any remaining correspondance with HO or others could be of great value - practically speaking, which report was actually sent? and if it, as seems likely, was Bond's Nov. 10th report, is the copy completely unaltered compared to the original? Is there a covering letter containing information about the views of HO or the police in 1894 as opposed to 1888, e.g. mentions of how the report supposes something but it has since been learned that... etc.
Has this correspondance been sought out before on the French side?
As a doctor, Gustave Ollive (1854-1943) is more likely than ordinary grunts to have left papers in an archive, perhaps at the institution where he taught or at a local or regional archive close to his family home. In 1895 I believe he was president of Societe academique de Nantes e de la Loire-Atlantique, also seems to have been active with other learned societies.
He does not seem to have been active as a writer, mostly some medical texts about diseases and paralysis etc., but in 1914, he did write a text to Archives de l'anthropologie criminelle etc about the murder of an entire household in 1913 by a 15-year old, so perhaps more relevant articles can turn up.
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