Elizabeth Prater DEBRA ARIF with Information on Mary Jane Kelly’S Friend and Neighbour
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No. 148 February 2016 Elizabeth Prater DEBRA ARIF with information on Mary Jane Kelly’s friend and neighbour JOHN FRIZZELL on the Ripper’s Moniker TREVOR BOND and JON REES with a six-month report on the Jack the Ripper Museum From the Archives: SOME NOTES OF THE HISTORY OF COLNEY HATCH ASYLUM JAN BONDESON’S RIVALS OF THE RIPPER NINA and HOWARD BROWN Victorian Fiction by Jørgen Vilhelm Bergsøe Ripperologist 118 January 2011 1 Quote for the month “Jack the Ripper was a serial killer of women. The Moors Murders are history and dramatic too. Would they be considered suitable for history? Or the Yorkshire Ripper?” Unnamed member of MumsNet.com reacts to news that aspects of the Whitechapel murders are being taught to schoolchildren as young as eleven after lesson plans and worksheets were uploaded to the Times Educational Supplement forum www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3458637/Schoolchildren-aged-11-given-history-lessons-Jack-Ripper-killed-prostitutes.html#ixzz41Yd0hDKq Ripperologist 148 February 2016 EDITORIAL: EXECUTIVE EDITOR RIPPERCON IN BALTIMORE, APRIL 8-10, 2016 Adam Wood by Christopher T George EDITORS GOODNIGHT OLD DEAR Gareth Williams by Debra Arif Eduardo Zinna THE RIPPER MONIKER: JACK THE RIPPER AND HIS REVIEWS EDITOR Paul Begg SIGNIFICANCE AS A PRECEDENT FOR SERIAL MURDER by John Frizzell EDITOR-AT-LARGE Christopher T George THE JACK THE RIPPER MUSEUM: A SIX MONTH UPDATE COLUMNISTS by Trevor Bond and Jon Rees Nina and Howard Brown David Green FROM THE ARCHIVES: The Gentle Author SOME NOTES OF THE HISTORY OF THE COLNEY HATCH ASYLUM ARTWORK by Rev Henry Hawkins, Late Chaplain (1901) Adam Wood RIVALS OF THE RIPPER: THE GREAT CORAM STREET MURDER, 1872 Follow the latest news at by Jan Bondeson www.facebook.com/ripperologist Ripperologist magazine is free of A FATAL AFFINITY: CHAPTER 7 charge. To be added to the mailing list, Nina and Howard Brown send an email to contact@ripperologist. biz. I BEG TO REPORT Back issues form 62-146 are Latest news from the Ripper world available in PDF format: ask at [email protected] VICTORIAN FICTION: THE AMPUTATED ARMS To contribute an article, please email us at [email protected] By Jørgen Vilhelm Bergsøe Contact us for advertising rates. REVIEWS: Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect and more! www.ripperologist.biz Ripperologist is published by Mango Books. The views, conclusions and opinions expressed in signed articles, essays, letters and other items published in Ripperologist are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, conclusions and opinions of Ripperologist, its editors or the publisher. The views, conclusions and opinions expressed in unsigned articles, essays, news reports, reviews and other items published in Ripperologist are the responsibility of Ripperologist and its editorial team, but do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher. We occasionally use material we believe has been placed in the public domain. It is not always possible to identify and contact the copyright holder; if you claim ownership of something we have published we will be pleased to make a proper acknowledgement. The contents of Ripperologist No. 148, February 2016, including the compilation of all materials and the unsigned articles, essays, news reports, reviews and other items are copyright © 2016 Ripperologist/Mango Books. The authors of signed articles, essays, letters, news reports, reviews and other items retain the copyright of their respective contributions. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise circulated in any form or by any means, including digital, electronic, printed, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any other, without the prior permission in writing of Ripperologist. The unauthorised reproduction or circulation of this publication or any part thereof, whether for monetary gain or not, is strictly prohibited and may constitute copyright infringement as defined in domestic laws and international agreements and give riseRipperologist to civil liability 118 and criminalJanuary prosecution. 2011 2 RipperCon in Baltimore, April 8-10, 2016 EDITORIAL by CHRISTOPHER T GEORGE Twenty years ago, an intrepid band of American-based Ripperologists, including myself, Dave Yost, and Christopher-Michael DiGrazia, came together in the chat room at Stephen Ryder’s Casebook: Jack the Ripper website (now at www.casebook.org). We resolved to form an organization called Casebook Productions, Inc, an independent but (at least name-wise!) adjunct entity to Stephen’s site that would publish a magazine called Ripper Notes and mount the first American Jack the Ripper convention, which took place at the Park Ridge, New Jersey, Marriott Hotel in April 2000. Our guest of honor was noted Ripperologist and historian Paul Begg and we also brought in serial killer expert Stephen Michaud. Mr Michaud played for the convention attendees some chilling recordings of Ted Bundy and told us what is was like dealing with that notorious killer. And perhaps most amazing of all, in addition to support from members of the Cloak and Dagger Club (now the Whitechapel Society 1888) such as Jo Edgington, Andy Aliffe, and the late Des McKenna and his wife who flew over from England, the entire cast of Frogg Moody and David Taylor’s “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” came over from the UK and performed for the assembled multitude! Now, 16 years later, after lamentably no such U.S. conferences since 2008, Baltimore novelist and crime expert Janis Wilson and I are reviving the biennial American Ripper conferences. RipperCon will be held in Baltimore’s historic Mt Vernon district at the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS) and the Mt Vernon Baltimore Hotel on April 8–10. We will have as our keynote speaker to open the conference in France Hall of MdHS at 1:00 pm on Friday, April 8, the redoubtable Martin Fido, who along with Paul Begg and Keith Skinner makes up triumvirate of Ripper experts who produce The Complete Jack the Ripper A to Z. Martin’s keynote speech ties 1888 to the modern-day in that he will be speaking about “Ripperology and Anti-Semitism.” He will also be part of a panel on Ripper suspects on Saturday at MdHS with Robert Anderson and Tumblety expert Michael Hawley to be moderated by Jonathan Menges of Casebook’s Rippercast. Mr Menges will serve as co-moderator for the weekend along with Casebook administrator Ally Ryder. The complete schedule and pricing for RipperCon can be found at RipperCon.com. Just as Casebook Productions brought in Mr Michaud to speak to the 2000 conference about murders other than the Ripper crimes, Robert Anderson will address the topic of “The Long Island Serial Killer” - the unknown killer who has slaughtered as many as 12 to 17 sex trade workers on Long Island. We believe that to include discussion of other murder series is important. Ripperologists often act as if the Ripper case occurred in a hermetic chamber isolated from other serial murder series, and there are lessons to be learned! In the same sense, in this issue of the Rip, the article by John Frizzell, “The Ripper Moniker: Jack the Ripper and his Significance as a Precedent for Serial Murder,” is noteworthy in pointing out the similarities and dissimilarities with other killers who have been likened to the Ripper, specifically Joseph Vacher, the French serial killer; Jack the Stripper, the never-apprehended London serial killer of the early Sixties; and the Yorkshire Ripper of the Seventies and early Eighties, Peter Sutcliffe, who is now serving a life sentence. Each of these murderers terrorized the populace much as the Ripper terrorized the East End of London. Robert Anderson Ripperologist 148 February 2016 1 Stephen Hunter Dr David Sterritt At RipperCon, Dr David Sterritt, professor of film at the Maryland Institute College of Art and an expert on the films of Alfred Hitchcock, will talk about “The Ripper, the Lodger, and Hitchcock’s Existential Outsider.” Indeed it might be argued that the spectre of the Ripper haunted the London-born director. His 1927 silent film of Marie Belloc Lowndes’ novel The Lodger, starring Ivor Novello as “The Avenger” is a classic, and some 45 years later he was back in London to film “Frenzy” (1972) about a serial strangler. Hitchcock’s 1927 “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog,” incidentally, is available in its entirety on Youtube (youtu.be/PzlVNRzU1FE). Baltimore resident and best-selling novelist Stephen Hunter, author of the recent I, Ripper, will discuss “Finding a Voice for the Ripper (Writing Ripper Fiction)” and he and his researcher Lenne Miller and Dr Sterritt will be a panel to talk about Ripper Fiction moderated by Janis Wilson. Mary Pearcey probably was not “Jill the Ripper” but her bona fides as the Hampstead murderer will be examined on Saturday at RipperCon by Dr Sarah Beth Hopton. Dr Hopton, author of the forthcoming Woman at the Devil’s Door: The Extraordinary True Story of Mary Pearcey and the Hampstead Murders - the first full-length examination of the case - will discuss “Mary Pearcey, the Hampstead Murders, and Debunking the Myth of Jill the Ripper.” The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, believed that the killer of Whitechapel could have been a woman, and Janis Wilson and I will lead a discussion on Doyle’s theories at MdHS on Saturday afternoon. The Ripper’s crimes had effects far and wide in the imagination of the world, partly because they were widely reported at the time in the world’s press. Howard Brown of JtRForums. com has been making a study of how for years after 1888 individuals sought to emulate the London serial killer Dr Sarah Beth Hopton by committing murders or just writing “Jack the Ripper” letters to the press.