Saturday, August 26, 2017

Jack the Ripper - Identified?

For those of you keeping score at home, we now have the identity of Jack the Ripper. I know this because History is airing a multi-part series about H. H.
H. H. Holmes
Holmes, a notorious 19th century conman and killer. He was allegedly hanged in 1896 after being convicted for the murder of
Benjamin Pitezel. But according to those on History, they have linked, sort of, Holmes to the Ripper murders in 1888, a time that Holmes might have been in London according to passenger lists of various steam ship lines of the times. An H. Holmes does appear arriving in London prior to the first murder and seems to have left at the last. Of course, according to them, Holmes used a variety of identities and in a time in which no documentation was needed to move about the world, he could have traveled under one of those names… There is no evidence that the H. Holmes that appeared on the list was the Holmes. Many people have the same name and if you don’t buy that, just google your own name and see how many you can find.

But wait, there’s more, as they say on television. We now have a diary apparently kept by one James Maybrick. It surfaced a couple of decades ago, in 1993, when it was published. At the time most rejected it as an authentic diary of Jack the Ripper. The diary passed into the hands of Robert Smith (and to prove a point, I interviewed a Robert Smith in conjunction with the Roswell UFO crash but it was not the same guy, obviously) who claimed to have been a writer. Three years after that, Smith said that he had made up the whole thing… but, of course, he later retracted that statement.
James Maybrick

There has been a number of tests run on the ink in the diary and they all seem to confirm that it is from a period prior to the writing of the diary which simply means that it can’t be ruled out as an authentic document. Had the ink formula been developed after Maybrick’s death, that would have been proof the diary was forged.

As happens in Ufology, in Ripperology (if that’s really a word), nothing is ever that simple. There is now a team of experts who say that the diary is real. Bruce Robinson, who lead the team, said that they have evidence that the diary is genuine and that Maybrick was Jack the Ripper. The problem here? Robinson is a film maker and is working on a documentary about Jack the Ripper.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

So, we have two suspects being touted as the real Jack the Ripper, all of this coming out in the last few months. But what would Jack the Ripper be if there isn’t a third or fourth suspect? I mention this simply because, several years ago I completed a book, Conversations, that dealt with past life regressions that had originally started as an abduction case. In one of those lives, the subject, whom I called Jenny, told of being one of two men who had worked in tandem as Jack the Ripper.

Although originally reluctant to provide a name, she did give clues to his identity.
Montague John Druitt
Eventually, because of those clues she gave us we learned that the Ripper had been Montague John Druitt, a lawyer and the son of a doctor. That implied that he had some sort of the specialized knowledge that it is claimed the Ripper had.

As mentioned, she said that there were two men involved which explained some of the original problems with identifying the Ripper. There is legal precedence for this. There are cases in which neither person might have killed had the other not been there as some sort of symbiotic relation. That kind of thing was seen by the two men who killed the Clutter family in Kansas, or the Hillside Stranglers, or even the Manson clan.

Although these names all surfaced at some point, Maybrick and Holmes are the two being pushed today. I included Druitt because that was the name I had learned in those regression sessions, but also because of the suggestion that the Ripper wasn’t one man but two.


We are at the point, which is a point that has been around for decades, that you look at the evidence and pick your Ripper. There is solid evidence that points to each of these men, and other evidence that seems to exclude them. If I was forced to make a choice, I think it would be Maybrick, but I’d be rooting for Druitt just so that it would be another confirmation of Jenny’s weird tale.

9 comments:

RedTornado2008 said...

I had been watching the program on the History Channel (now just History) until I realized they were going to give this subject the same treatment as Oak Island. We would be given snippets of possible clues only to have to tune in to the next episode to find out anything. Of course, there are more red herrings than an Agatha Christie mystery so on to the next clue.

The show is not going to be a miniseries as originally stated but an ongoing one. I bet we are left with a cliffhanger as to whether or not it is Holmes' body buried in the cemetery. (It probably is as we will find out in season 2 only to chase the next clue.)

The name you found out is just as valid as the dozens of other names which have come up through the years. Most claim their man is the Ripper, but in the end this mystery will never be solved.

purrlgurrl said...

Don't forget suspects George Chapman, Aaron Kosminski, Michael Ostrog, John Pizer, James Thomas Sadler, Francis Tumblety, and Walter Sickert. Even Lewis Carroll has been proposed as the Ripper. And then there's the enduring legend that he was a member of the British royal family.

Every new investigation will uncover a new suspect. The enduring appeal of this mystery is that anyone can try to solve it. But because of the amount of time passed and dearth of evidence, nobody ever will conclusively.

KRandle said...

Red -

I believe we learn more about whose in Holmes' grave (is it really anyone other than Holmes?) on the last episode this season. And even if it is, doesn't mean he wasn't Jack, only that those crimes that followed his execution can't be blamed on him.

Purrlgurrl -

Didn't mention all those others because they weren't relevant to this post. I was only talking about those that have been "promoted" as the Ripper in the last couple of months... other than Druitt, which I discussed at length in Conversations.

cda said...

My 'Murderers Who's Who' says Holmes' real name was Herman Webster Mudgett.

Unknown said...

I admit it! I'm Jack the Ripper. I routinely travel back and forth in time. When is the next MUFON Symposium? I'm sure I can get booked. . .

gef the talking mongoose said...

I for one would be much happier if the Robert Smith to whom the diary was passed was the same-named lead singer of the Cure. Same goes for the Robert Smith you spoke with about Roswell.

Paul Young said...

I'd reckon that, currently, Maybrick is as good a shout as anybody.
Everyone presumed it a hoax at first because the Maybrick diaries came not too long after the "Hitler diaries" fiasco...but he is now seen as a serious contender.

However, I'd say that Don Rumbelow, nails it when he said,
"On the day of Judgement when all things are known to all men, and we ask for Jack the Ripper to step-forth from the Pearly Gates, and he does, we will all say Who Are You ?".

And you're quite correct Kevin..."ripperologist" is an actual term...coined by the late ripperologist, and ufologist, Colin Wilson. (a favourite author of mine)
Strange that us UFO enthusiasts share a common interest in old Jack!

RedTornado2008 said...

I did watch the season finale and they did tell us the DNA found at the cemetery matched that of Mr Jeff Mudgett. I am right about this being a continuing show as we will have to wait for season 2 next summer (just like Oak Island, this show is not going to end).

Terry the Censor said...

Ah, telling stories, pretending to have secret knowledge...

Years ago, out of misguided curiosity, I read some Sherlock Holmes pastiches (S.H. stories not written by A.C. Doyle). One had the bumbling Lestrade as the protagonist. In the story, a simple young lady helps him out, he falls in lust with her, they consummate their allegiance, etc., but in the very last paragraphs came the twist: the young lady was the murderer all along! But as if that wasn't enough, she confesses to also being Moriarty! Then she confesses to being Jack the Ripper! [end scene]

The author succumbed to the conceit of injecting his own devised character into legendary tales. (If that reminds anyone of a certain foundational UFO case often mentioned on this blog, I won't prevent you from doing so!)