John Anderson
5: JOHN ANDERSON Anderson was a sailor, who according to shipmate James Brame, while on board the Annie Speer, confessed on his deathbed to having committed the Whitechapel murders. This account was published in Lloyd's weekly newspaper October 1896. According to Brame, Anderson had been robbed and almost ruined by a prostitute while in London, he would brood on this day and night and swore revenge on the whole prostitute class. Having little money he took lodgings at a quite farmhouse near Bromley, where he would venture out on an evening to commit the terrible deed. The knife he used was similar to that used by a slaughter man. He had an accomplice in this who would keep a lookout for him and wait at an appointed location with a clean smock, which he would draw over his bloodstained garments, thus avoiding any suspicion. Two days before his death, Anderson, delirious with fever, would scream out, 'There's another one, how she bleeds'. According to Brame, Anderson was described as 38 years old, of fair complexion, red hair and moustache and his face was pitted with smallpox scars and was believed to have had some medical knowledge
Though there is little evidence to substantiate if this story has any truth to it, or if Anderson even existed, many Ripperologists have noted Anderson resembles the description of the suspect, blotchy face, seen by Mary Ann Cox entering Miller's Court with Mary Kelly, shortly before she was murdered. Cox described the man as having a thick carroty moustache, a fair complexion and blotches on his face.
