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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 1209
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 11:00 am: | 
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I found this illustration from a 1928 article (The Athens Messenger, 1 March 1928) and as I had not seen it before I though I'd post it. It is labelled "The Fiend Calmly Surveys His Work - Reproduction of a Rare Old Etching Depicting a Jack the Ripper Episode."
The article does not give the date or source of the original etching.
As the murder depicted is obviously indoors I assume it is loosely based on the Kelly murder.
Chris
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Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3086
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 11:35 am: |
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Hi Chris -
This illustration appeared (I assume for the first time) in The History of the Whitechapel Murders: A Full and Authentic Narrative of the Above Murders, With Sketches, by Richard K. Fox, 1888. Most likely late November or December of 1888, as the text references the Kelly murder.
It appears between pages 16/17, in the middle of the discussion into the Annie Chapman murder. I'm not sure its supposed to reference any particular murder (certainly, not Chapman's).
There is also an additional illustration in the original, seen below:
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Michael Raney
Inspector
Username: Mikey559
Post Number: 353
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 12:05 pm: |
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Chris,
As usual, what a fabulous find. Quite interesting to say the least. I really enjoy looking at illustrations from that period such as those found in the Illustrated Police News or whatever it was called. The illustrations have a way of letting us see it as people of that time saw it. Quite different from our instant news, mass media society of today.
Mikey |
Suzi Hanney
Chief Inspector
Username: Suzi
Post Number: 733
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 4:17 pm: |
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Mikey!!
Arent they great!!! The first step in the brutes work!!! Love it!....hmmmm bit clean tho ...xx suzi
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2430
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 4:44 pm: |
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When I look at the figure of the fiend surveying his work I think "ballet dancer". There's a touch of that in "The First Step" too. I wonder whether the artist was used to drawing ballet?
Robert |
stevezen
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 9:01 am: |
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I think it is worth considering that the ripper was addicted to opiates ie laudanum and all purpose elixers as there happened to be traces of opiates at the scenes of the murders.  . |
Jon Smyth
Detective Sergeant
Username: Jon
Post Number: 108
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 9:13 am: |
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From time to time it occurs to me how frequently an axe appears in some portion of a story to do with the death of Mary Kelly.
If you recall it was McCarthy who is said to have broke into the room using an axe. Apparently, according to one authority there appears to be a wound on Kelly's thigh which may have been the result of a blow by an axe.
Also, according to one newspaper account an axe was found in Kelly's room.
Take another look at that 'First Step' sketch again, what is that figure next to the bucket on the left of the room?.
regards, Jon |
Jennifer D. Pegg
Inspector
Username: Jdpegg
Post Number: 495
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 10:00 am: |
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Jon,
yep your right!
Jennifer
"Think things, not words." - O.W. Holmes jr
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d g cornelius
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - 1:07 am: |
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D.S. Smyth and Inspector Pegg:
Unless it's a broom and a dust pan, for sweeping up loose viscera. Note also the sink full of dishes...is our culprit going to do them before exitting?
respex
d g cornelius |
Jennifer D. Pegg
Chief Inspector
Username: Jdpegg
Post Number: 518
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 6:22 am: |
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DG,
who knows - you never can tell what these crazy serial killers will do. Seriously though. It is possible it could be many things, but it would have to be a very small broom,
Regards
Jennifer
"Think things, not words." - O.W. Holmes jr
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Jon Smyth
Detective Sergeant
Username: Jon
Post Number: 110
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 5:11 pm: |
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Hi D.G.
I suspect that the kindlin (bits of wood) in front of the stove, is mutually supportive of the inclusion of the axe in the picture, (not that Kelly actually had a stove).
I also suspect that the kindlin is another touch of 'colonial' inspiration due to the fact that the Fox publication was American. Fox possibly assumed the tenents of the back streets of London just strolled out to chop wood as their American cousins did :-) ...who knows?.
There appears to be no separate credits for the sketches provided in the publication.
There's another sketch on facing page 21 entitled "Arrest by the police on suspicion",....pictured is your typical 'American' police officer :-)
Ah, the devil is in the details.....
Regards, Jon
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Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2709
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 15, 2004 - 5:58 pm: |
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Hi Jon
I suppose Jack may have had an axe in 13 Room. But if he burned the clothes for light/warmth, wouldn't he have also availed himself of the crummy, easily choppable furniture? There doesn't seem to have been any tables or chairs burnt.
Robert |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 1186
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 5:12 pm: |
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Valid point, Robert, though I have always fancied that Jack was following some kind of ritual by burning fatty parts of the body he had dismembered.
Once saw a documentary which had as its core the theory that you should never keep a dead pig in a hotel, for if there was a fire and it reached the dead pig the hotel would burn down despite the best efforts of the firemen to put it out.
Apparently the amount of highly volatile fat in a pig's body is catastrophic in a fire, and the documentary was in fact saying that fatal fires wouldn't be fatal if there were no humans in the building. I know that doesn't make any sort of sense, but I understood it.
I still believe it to have been a sacrificial crime.
Based on what a young man had read.
In his books. |
Robert Charles Linford
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Robert
Post Number: 2714
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 5:24 pm: |
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AP, I once nearly set fire to my chimney when I tossed a piece of cheese on the fire. I remember there was something on TV a while ago about spontaneous human combustion, and how a body could become its own fuel, virtually obliterating itself by its own burning. This was linked to modern methods of cremation in which, apparently, the body is wrapped in a sort of blanket and burns slowly but very thoroughly away.
Robert |
Dan Norder
Inspector
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 168
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 16, 2004 - 5:41 pm: |
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From everything I've read, humans are actually a lot less likely to burn well than you'd think. From some of these comments you'd think we're walking explosives.
Certain parts no doubt burn easier than others, but I'd take anything that a TV shows says about spontaneous human combustion and house fires being caused by flaming people as dramatic entertainment and not as facts until they are supported by real research.
Dan Norder, editor, Ripper Notes
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Jack the Nipper
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2005 - 9:02 pm: |
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His hair is made to look like a horn and the woman's dress forms a tail... that's subtlety. :P
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