1889 In The News

[Howard Brown]

First up, a Glaswegian outrage which bore comparison to the deeds of the Whitechapel fiend.

Belfast News Letter
January 4, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

Another child murder and close in time to that of the Bradford Murder.

Daily News
January 4, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

The Illustrated Police News asks the question on many a mind.....

IPN
January 5, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

Added solely for the sheer ferocity of this crime.
The perpetrator was no spring chicken either.
He eventually was sentenced to an appointment with Mr. Billington.

Manchester Times
January 5, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

Lloyd's Weekly
January 6, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

A sad and short piece.......

http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?p=116417#post116417

[Howard Brown]

Debra Arif & Robert Clack provided an outstanding article on the Mylett case back in November of 2009 ( Issue 108)...for Ripperologist Magazine.

This following excerpt will be carried over to the new thread I started today on Mylett's wound.

Notice Dr. Bond's observation and compare it to the remark made in the other thread about the visibility of the marks on Mylett's throat.

Lloyd's Weekly
January 6, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

One more murder which was compared for one aspect or the other to the Whitechapel Murders. We'll see an increase in this sort of thing in Britain which began in early 1889...made its way to the great nations of Australia,Canada, New Zealand...and the Mother Continent as well as the United States...and in particular, the United States.

In America, murders at home and elsewhere were being compared to the Whitechapel skein in the 1920's and beyond.

Sheffield & Rotherham Independent
January 09, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

I've already placed the following on the Forums....but in case it hasn't been seen here it is once more.

If true, its a shame and if true in this instance, you have to wonder if other establishments were financially affected to this degree in the neighborhood.

It's ironic in the sense that other businesses ( particularly newspapers, locksmiths, gun manufacturers,and the like ) capitalized on the crimes even if not located in the immediate vicinity of the Whitechapel murders....but here's an example of a local firm which felt the impact of the skein full on.

In discussing this story briefly with Nina back when I first put it up on the site, neither of us could remember a series of murders or single murder which caused the collapse of a business. Others may remember a parallel case.

North-Eastern Daily Gazette
January 10, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

Here's the preceding article with a little more meat to it.

From Freeman's Journal (Dublin,Ireland...same date)

[Howard Brown]

The Perspective From Birmingham

Recapping the previous 9 months.

By all means, if anyone has an observation they wish to make or other comments they would like to add, please do so in regard to the following post or any of the articles I have posted to this thread as well.
Thank you.
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Birmingham Daily Post
January 11, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

I doubt that during my personal and ongoing trek through the newspapers that there was a period of time in British history where murders of the nature found in the WM and the half dozen years or so afterwards existed.
I'm obviously only a student of British crime history and this observation is based only on what I have read, not from a year by year accounting going back into the centuries preceding the 19th.

If my perception is accurate, I find it hard to accept that the Ripper was not a catalyst for the "copycat" or similar murders which occurred in those years.

We hear from some corners in the Ripper world that murders of women and of this nature ( mutilation,overkill,murders of strangers with the perpetrator never being apprehended for that specific crime,etc...) were commonplace and that the WM were embellished for the purposes of exposing the affluent or contemporary powers that be to the living conditions of East Enders. Certainly part of that is true as newspapers, the vox populi, included the sobering facts of life which the lumpen prole in Spitalfields had to contend with on a daily basis.

However, I am, as I suspect others are as well, of the opinion that the WM and its perpetrator did influence those murders which we read about in a significant way in the years after the Smith,Tabram, and Nichols murders.

How about you ?

[Howard Brown]

Another comparison to the Whitechapel Murders

Birmingham Daily Post
January 11, 1889
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[Howard Brown]

Tragic story...

Birmingham Daily Post
January 11, 1889
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[Cris Malone]

Lloyd's Weekly
January 6, 1889
Comment on the 'Poplar Mystery' article in post 7

Of all the WM's this one is truely a mystery with conflicting opinions as to the interpretation of the evidence ( the conflict largely being promoted by Bond, of course who had reversed an earlier conclusion). Dr. Brownfield makes no metion of murder to his superiors (according to Monro) until he publicly states his belief at the inquest and despite the legal finding of the jury that a murder had taken place, Anderson, in a letter, refuses to further an investigation on those findings because he disagrees with it!... an offense that should have resulted in his immediate dismissal, but didn't.

It is interesting that, in this article, she was reportedly found in a semi-prone position and bloody mucus was discharged from her nostrils... an indication to the unqualified little ol' me (as Trevor catagorized my opinion on anything forensic)... that this woman was throttled; instead of an accidental self strangulation that would not have resulted in finger marks ( which were found) or the trauma inflicted upon the larnyx... unless her collar was made of something more rigid than even a stiff cloth... not to mention the controversial mark that comes and goes.

Here again - as in Phillips' testimonies in the Chapman and Stride inquests - we have Brownfield stating that he smelled no alcohol in Mylett's stomach contents though she was known to be 'drunk more often than sober' and some officials claiming that the self strangulation was a result of her drunken stupor. It is also odd that they make a big deal out of her not showing visible signs of strangulation -i.e- protruding toungue, fixed eyes and a livid expression - yet, either way she was strangled!

It is obvious that the killer (or killers) of Stride and Eddowes gained some sort of method of control over them that quickly disabled them, had them on the ground and then their throats cut with no visible signs of a struggle.

Certainly Mylett's throat wasn't cut, but neither was Stride mutilated. And, where was the motive? I ain't buying the idea that these vagabonds were victims of a robbery, though Mylett had only one earring.

Since we are awash in theories here...and instead of minimalizing and dispersing the killers involved here...lets go in the other direction. What about the possibility of an individual that was capable of just killing 'unfortunates' on some occasions and mutilating them on others? That would turn some 'profiles' inside out, now wouldn't it?

Some folks - modern suspect theorists and high police official theorists - seem/seemed to be incensed with the notion to end this series with Kelly. On what grounds?... that someone who did what he did to Kelly couldn't have possibly been able to function after inflicting such damage? Tell that to the Torso murderer - if this was one individual - who managed to dismember at least four women over a much longer period of time. How did he keep on functioning... and what was the motive there?... which brings me to... well...strange that all of a sudden several different individuals emerge at the same time, in the same general area with the idea to kill the same kind of women ( at least the women who were identified).