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Chris Phillips
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Cgp100
Post Number: 1056
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 9:31 am: | 
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Can anyone shed any further light on this? (I mentioned this on one of the Goulston Street threads, but probably not many people are following those closely.)
Sugden (p. 254 of 2002 paperback edn) says:
And Chief Inspector Henry Moore and Sir Robert Anderson are both on record as having explicitly stated their belief that the message was written by the murder.
The relevant part of the note (p. 507) says:
letter of Sir Robert Anderson, April 1910, to a daily paper, quoted by Richardson, From the City to Fleet Street, p. 217
Is the letter itself known, or can anyone quote what Richardson says about it?
If not, I'll try to look at Richardson's book later this week.
Chris Phillips
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David O'Flaherty
Chief Inspector
Username: Oberlin
Post Number: 926
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 10:44 am: |
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Hi Chris:
I don't know about this particular letter, but Sourcebook has a chapter "The Anderson Suspect" and quotes an earlier source. The Daily Chronicle ran an interview with Anderson, September 1 1908. Anderson said:
"Something of the same kind happened in the Ripper crimes. In two cases of that terrible series there were distinct clues destroyed, wiped out absolutely--clues that might very easily have secured for us proof of the identity of the assassin.
"In one case it was a clay pipe. Before we could get to the scene of the murder the doctor had taken it up, thrown it into the fireplace and smashed it beyond recognition.
"In another case there was writing in chalk on the wall--a most valuable clue; handwriting that might have been at once recognised as belonging to a certain individual. . ." (pg. 690).
Hope that helps.
Dave
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Chris Phillips
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Cgp100
Post Number: 1058
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 11:26 am: |
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Thanks Dave - I should have remembered that one.
But I think the letter would still be interesting, as the date would place it in the middle of the row about Anderson's assertion that the murderer was Jewish. Presumably it would shed some light on how he understood the "Juwes" comment.
Chris Phillips
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2098
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 7:05 pm: |
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This situation is quite complex.
In March 1910 press reports appeared regarding Anderson's identification of the killer. For example, the Washington Post on 21 March 1910 said:
Sir Robert Anderson, for more than 30 years chief of the criminal investigation department of the British government, and head of the detective bureau at Scotland Yard, has at length raised the veil of mystery which for nearly two decades has enveloped the identity of the perpetrator of those atrocious crimes known as the Whitechapel murders.
In that article there is no mention of a letter to the British press.
However later in 1910 this story was repeated in various press reports with the addition that -
in an article over his signature in one of the leading London reviews and supplemented by a letter in the London Times
As far as I know this letter to the Times has never been traced.
Hope this helps
Chris
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Chris Scott
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chris
Post Number: 2099
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 7:10 pm: |
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As far as I can trace in the course of 1910 there were three letters from Robert Anderson published by The Times:
April 12 1910 - headed Parnellism and Crime
April 22 1910 - headed Sir Robert Anderson and Mr Asquith
April 30 1910 - headed Sir Robert Anderson and Mr Balfour
All of this correspondence deals with the Parnellism and Crime articles of 1887 and makes no mention of the Whitechapel killing.
Chris |
Howard Brown
Chief Inspector
Username: Howard
Post Number: 576
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 9:38 pm: |
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Chris..
Believe it or not, I was re-reading the True Face today and re-read the piece about Anderson in that Daily Chronicle article of September 1st,1908.
In the True Face, on page 32, it states what Dave O mentions above in his post about the smashed clay pipe and the eradication of the GSG.
Anderson ostensibly called it..."a most valuable clue".
Hope this helps,C.P.
How
HowBrown
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Chris Phillips
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Cgp100
Post Number: 1061
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 4:31 am: |
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Chris and Howard
Thanks for those comments.
As far as I can trace in the course of 1910 there were three letters from Robert Anderson published by The Times:
April 12 1910 - headed Parnellism and Crime
April 22 1910 - headed Sir Robert Anderson and Mr Asquith
April 30 1910 - headed Sir Robert Anderson and Mr Balfour
All of this correspondence deals with the Parnellism and Crime articles of 1887 and makes no mention of the Whitechapel killing.
Yes, we discussed that business about Anderson's alleged letter to the Times a couple of years ago, didn't we?
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Chris Phillips
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Cgp100
Post Number: 1062
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 5:40 am: |
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Actually, the relevant chapter of Richardson's book is already on the Casebook!
http://casebook.org/ripper_media/rps.fleet.html
Here's what it says about Anderson's letter:
In April, 1910, Sir Robert Anderson, who was then writing his reminiscences, objecting to criticism, wrote to one of the daily papers:
" In your notice of my article in this month's Blackwood, you refer back to what I wrote last month about the Whitechapel murders, and you add: `In that connection he might have recalled - but did not - the crass stupidity of Scotland Yard men, who wiped out from the wall of the labourers' buildings in Goulstone Street, the only tangible piece of evidence ever obtained pointing to the identity of Jack the Ripper.'
" I beg to assure you that here you do an injustice, not only to me, but to the Criminal Investigation Department. The night on which the murder in question was committed I was on my way home from Paris, and great was my indignation when, next day, I heard of what you rightly call an act of 'crass stupidity.' But the Scotland Yard men were in no way responsible for it - it was done by the officers of the uniform force in the division, upon an order issued by one of my colleagues. The exact words of `the mural inscription' which the murderer chalked upon the wall were, 'The Jewes are not the men to be blamed for nothing.'
" May I add that all this was in the MS. of my article, but a wish to avoid what seemed to reflect upon others, led me to strike out the paragraph."
Chris Phillips
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