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Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2719
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Monday, April 28, 2003 - 12:20 pm: |       |
Courtesy of Chris Scott
Zanesville Times Recorder (Ohio)
21 February 1972
Another named As Murderer
London (UPI)
A British civil servant Sunday added another name to the list of those who might have been Jack the Ripper, a 19th century murderer who stalked London's streets and was never caught.
Brian Reilly, in an article in the City of London Police magazine, suggested the man whose pseudonym became a synonym for a brutal killer could have been a Dr. Merchant, a tubercular physician who lies buried in a pauper's grave.
The true identity of Jack the Ripper has fascinated criminologists and the general public since his first victim, a London prostitute named Mary Ann (Polly) Nicholls, was found dead Aug. 31, 1888.
Like three other prostitutes who died in the east End slums in the following months, her throat was slashed and she was disemboweled. In all, police attibuted at least five and as many as 15 murders to the man who wrote them maniacal, gloating letters about the victims he claimed and signed them "Jack the Ripper."
In the years since then, various police officials, amateur criminologists and crime authors have offered their suspects for the Ripper.
Last year British newspapers, developing a theory offered by Dr. Thomas Stowell in the police journal, The Criminologist, speculated Jack the Ripper might have been no less a personage than Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence and Queen Victoria's grandson, who died in 1892.
Reilly, who has a civil service job, advances circumstantial evidence to support his candidate for Jack the Ripper, Dr. Merchant.
Accordint to his article, police constable Robert Spicer arrested the doctor in the heart of the Ripper's hunting ground soon after two prostitutes were murdered within half an hour on Sept. 30, 1888.
The smartly dressed doctor was sitting with another prostitute named Rosie in an alleyway. But at the police station Merchant said he was doing social work among prostitutes, and senior officers did not share Spicer's suspicions. The let Merchant go without even opening the valise he carried.
Reilly says Merchant had a possible reason for daring to take the "bold" risks of the Ripper. He was suffering from a tubercular disease that took him to a pauper's grave in December, 1888, a few eeks after the Ripper's last murder.
Merchant was 37. Reilly said most witnesses described the Ripper as about 35.
Reilly said he began checking Merchant when he found the doctor had a professional connection with Liverpool. At least one of the Ripper's challenges to police to catch him was mailed from Liverpool.
Stephen P. Ryder, Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper |
Jim DiPalma
Sergeant
Username: Jimd
Post Number: 16
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 10:24 am: | |
Hi All,
Interesting article, Stephen, though IMO Mr. Reilly's suspect seems a bit too pat - medical doctor, fit the general description, died shortly after the last murder.
I seem to recall that the doctor in the PC Spicer story had been traced and identified as a man from Brixton named Chapman (no relation to either victim or suspect by the same name). Does this ring a bell with anyone else??
Best to all,
Jim |
Robert Clack
Detective Sergeant
Username: Rclack
Post Number: 70
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 4:59 pm: | |
Hi Jim
According to the "Jack the Ripper A-Z" The Doctors name was Frederick Richard Chapman (1851 - 1888). Born in Poona, India and died of septic tubercular abscess.
N. P. Warren wrote an article in "Criminologist" Spring 1992.
All the best
Rob |
Jim DiPalma
Sergeant
Username: Jimd
Post Number: 17
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - 10:51 am: | |
Hi Robert,
Thanks for the reference and for jogging my memory.
Regards,
Jim |
jeroen paalman
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 3:45 am: | |
is this the same guy were knight was talking about in his book? |
Phil Hill
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 9:34 am: | |
According to the A-Z Reilly and Chapman are one and the same, although I believe that this has been questioned.
The story of PC Spicer and Rosy was one of the first "Ripper" anecdotes of which I was ever aware. I read about it as a child.
Phil |
Stan Russo
Detective Sergeant
Username: Stan
Post Number: 113
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 12:16 pm: | |
Phil,
I hate to burst your bubble but B. E. Reilly was the theorist, not the murderer. Dr. Frederick Chapman has been suggested as the "Dr. Merchant", originating from the PC Spicer anectdote.
Dr. Merchant was not definitely the man PC Spicer claimed to have arrested, and was most positively not 'Jack the Ripper', within about a 99.9% degree of certainty. Chapman was so sick during the time of the murders that it becomes logistically challengeable that he had the physical capacity to commit these crimes.
Perhaps the answer lies in PC Spicer himself. Why must his story be true? Quite frankly it wreaks of logistical errors and probably never took place. I was not there so I could be wrong, but outside of that logic decrees that PC Spicer's story holds no real weight, and therefore 'Dr. Merchant' and Dr. Frederick Chapman can be theoretically eliminated from consideration as suspects. THEORETICALLY ELIMINATED.
STAN RUSSO |
Jennifer D. Pegg
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Jdpegg
Post Number: 1369
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 07, 2004 - 12:38 pm: | |
Stan,
thanks for that it was interesting.
Did this story appear around the 1930s original or am I making that up?
of course it is true we can never definately eliminate anyone to everyones satifaction i guess!
Jenni |
Phil Hill
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 08, 2004 - 5:10 am: | |
My sincere apologies, I mis-read my notes. "Dr Merchant" is, as stated, Mr Reilly's pseudonym for his suspect FR Chapman.
Phil |
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