Going through Abberlines 31st of March 1903 interview in the Pall Mall Gazette, there was something I have not given much thought before. Here are three passages illuminating what it is I´m after:
"You can state most emphatically," said Mr. Abberline, "that Scotland Yard is really no wiser on the subject than it was fifteen years ago...
...I am, and always have been, in the closest touch with Scotland Yard, and it would have been next to impossible for me not to have known all about it...
...to convince those who have any doubts on the point, Mr. Abberline produced recent documentary evidence which put the ignorance of Scotland Yard as to the perpetrator beyond the shadow of a doubt."
So Abberline, having retired from the Met in 1892, did eleven years after that fact have access to documents, arguably from the Met, that put Scotland Yards failure to identify the Ripper "beyond a shadow of a doubt". Meaning, of course, that the documents he displayed to the press were watertight proof that the Met had failed to identify Jack the Ripper.
If this was true, then away goes Andersons certainty about Kosminski as well as Macnaghtens ditto about Druitt. This was also certified by Abberline in the same interview:
"I know," continued the well-known detective, "that it has been stated in several quarters that 'Jack the Ripper' was a man who died in a lunatic asylum a few years ago, but there is nothing at all of a tangible nature to support such a theory."
Adieu Kosminski.
"Yes,' said Mr. Abberline, "I know all about that story. But what does it amount to? Simply this. Soon after the last murder in Whitechapel the body of a young doctor was found in the Thames, but there is absolutely nothing beyond the fact that he was found at that time to incriminate him. A report was made to the Home Office about the matter, but that it was 'considered final and conclusive' is going altogether beyond the truth."
Fare thee well, Druitt.
Question: What was the documentary evidence mentioned in the Gazette? Any idea, anybody? And to what degree did Abberline have access to the Mets intelligence? He described it like this himself in the interview:
"I am, and always have been, in the closest touch with Scotland Yard, and it would have been next to impossible for me not to have known all about it."
"You can state most emphatically," said Mr. Abberline, "that Scotland Yard is really no wiser on the subject than it was fifteen years ago...
...I am, and always have been, in the closest touch with Scotland Yard, and it would have been next to impossible for me not to have known all about it...
...to convince those who have any doubts on the point, Mr. Abberline produced recent documentary evidence which put the ignorance of Scotland Yard as to the perpetrator beyond the shadow of a doubt."
So Abberline, having retired from the Met in 1892, did eleven years after that fact have access to documents, arguably from the Met, that put Scotland Yards failure to identify the Ripper "beyond a shadow of a doubt". Meaning, of course, that the documents he displayed to the press were watertight proof that the Met had failed to identify Jack the Ripper.
If this was true, then away goes Andersons certainty about Kosminski as well as Macnaghtens ditto about Druitt. This was also certified by Abberline in the same interview:
"I know," continued the well-known detective, "that it has been stated in several quarters that 'Jack the Ripper' was a man who died in a lunatic asylum a few years ago, but there is nothing at all of a tangible nature to support such a theory."
Adieu Kosminski.
"Yes,' said Mr. Abberline, "I know all about that story. But what does it amount to? Simply this. Soon after the last murder in Whitechapel the body of a young doctor was found in the Thames, but there is absolutely nothing beyond the fact that he was found at that time to incriminate him. A report was made to the Home Office about the matter, but that it was 'considered final and conclusive' is going altogether beyond the truth."
Fare thee well, Druitt.
Question: What was the documentary evidence mentioned in the Gazette? Any idea, anybody? And to what degree did Abberline have access to the Mets intelligence? He described it like this himself in the interview:
"I am, and always have been, in the closest touch with Scotland Yard, and it would have been next to impossible for me not to have known all about it."
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