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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2213
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 03, 2005 - 2:34 am: | 
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Dr Spitzka
The New York Herald carried the following report on 14 December 1888:
The fifty-eighth regular meeting of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence and State Medicine was held last night at the hall of the Academy of Medicine, No. 17 West Thirty-first street.
A paper on the "Whitechapel Murders and Criminal Lunacy" was read by Mr. Austin Abbott, of the New York Bar, and was discussed by Dr. E. C. Spitzka, Dr. J. A. Irwin, Dr. Barnes, Dr. N. E. Brill and others.
I have recently found an account which claims that Spitzka actually believed that he had spoken with and treated the Whitechapel murderer. It is not clear at what stage this alleged interview took place,
The report below comes from a US paper, the Anaconda Standard, dated 5 May 1901:
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2214
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 03, 2005 - 2:38 am: |
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A picture and brief biography of Spitzka can be found at
http://www.aneuroa.org/html/c19html/005-early_pres.htm
(Message edited by Chris on October 03, 2005) |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2215
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 03, 2005 - 2:42 am: |
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A fuller account is to be found at:
http://www.famousamericans.net/edwardcharlesspitzka/ |
Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2216
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, October 03, 2005 - 2:45 am: |
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What puzzles me is how Spitzka, who was American, and, as far as I can see, was based in the US during his working life, could have claimed to have treated this lunatic while the murders were going on.
Curious. |
Dan Norder
Chief Inspector
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 923
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Monday, October 03, 2005 - 4:07 am: |
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Hi Chris,
This article and an analysis of it was printed as part of Wolf Vanerlinden's "From the Newspaper Morgue" column in the July 2005 issue of Ripper Notes.
Dr. Spitzka was an interesting man. During earlier readings about his life I found it quite noteworthy that he was considered to be quite the rebel in the mental health community at the time yet seemed most of the time to fall on the side of issues that have now gained widespread acceptance.
Of course his claim for having treated the Ripper seems way, way out there.
Dan Norder, Editor
Ripper Notes: The International Journal for Ripper Studies
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