December 2017/January 2018 No. 159 JAN BONDESON and BART FM DROOG on The Dutch Jack the Ripper, Hendrik De Jong STEVEN BLOMER’S NINA and HOW BROWN musings on Bucks Row on the detectives who dressed as women to capture the Ripper TIM MOSLEY and SCOTT NELSON VICTORIAN FICTION: ask how the Ripper A STRANGE CHRISTMAS escaped into history GAME by Charlotte Riddell HEATHER TWEED on The Wondrous Letines THE LATEST BOOK REVIEWS Ripperologist 118 January 2011 1 Ripperologist 159 December 2017 / January 2018 EDITORIAL: TRIAL OF JACK THE RIPPER Adam Wood THE DUTCH JACK THE RIPPER: NEW LIGHT ON HENDRIK DE JONG, THE ‘CONTINENTAL SUSPECT’ Jan Bondeson and Bart FM Droog MUSINGS ON BUCKS ROW Steven Blomer DISAPPEARING INTO HISTORY Tim Mosley and Scott Nelson THE WONDROUS LETINE TROUPE: A MUSIC HALL MURDER TRAGEDY Heather Tweed WOMAN’S WORK: AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF CAPTURING THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERER PART ONE Nina and Howard Brown VICTORIAN FICTION: A STRANGE CHRISTMAS GAME By Charlotte Riddell Eduardo Zinna BOOK REVIEWS Paul Begg and David Green Ripperologist magazine is published by Mango Books (www.mangobooks.co.uk). 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The unauthorised reproduction or international agreements and give rise to civil liability and criminal prosecution. 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 Ripperologist 159 December 2017 / January 2018 Editorial Trial of Jack the Ripper ADAM WOOD Executive Editor Last week I was speaking with a barrister turned best-selling author about various EXECUTIVE EDITOR true crime cases, when conversation turned to the Notable British Trial series. Adam Wood Discussing which infamous cases would be worthy additions to the long-running NBT EDITORS catalogue, my colleague stated that with my background, a Trial of Jack the Ripper would be a Gareth Williams runaway best-seller. Perhaps, I replied, but who would be named in the book’s pages? Possible Eduardo Zinna Rippers already featured in the original series are Thomas Neill Cream and George Chapman; EDITOR-AT-LARGE who else was there whose trial would generate great public interest? Jonathan Menges Step forward William Bury. REVIEWS EDITOR With almost perfect timing, UK television historian Dan Snow hosted a restaging of the Paul Begg 1889 Dundee trial of the wife murderer, put forward by some as Jack the Ripper, and the last man to be hanged in that city. COLUMNISTS Nina and Howard Brown Forensic anthropologist Dame Sue Black and her team at Dundee University presented the David Green medical evidence given at the original trial, with a modern-day jury hearing the evidence. ARTWORK History Hit television programme and will be aired later Adam Wood in the year. Interested parties didn’t have to wait for the show, however, as Mark MacKay, The trial was filmed for Snow’s a reporter from the Dundee Courier, was on hand to live tweet the evidence heard. It was fascinating stuff, and what seemed to me as the perfect marrying of modern technology with historic criminal trials. MacKay’s snappy tweets included “Witness from a provisioner, a Mrs Martin, on Princes Street recalled Bury visiting to buy a piece of cord. He looked at a number before declaring “this one will do nicely” and “Bury said he’d feared being apprehended as Jack the Ripper and so had cut her up and put her in a box. She was still there.” Ripperologist magazine is Some of today’s top experts were called to review the medical evidence, with Dr John Clark, published six times a year and a pathologist for more than 35 years, examining the wounds to Ellen Bury’s body. Professor supplied in digital format. It is free Richard Shepherd, involved in the investigations into cases such as 9/11 and the death of of charge to subscribers. Princess Diana appeared as a witness for the defence. He did such a good job of bringing doubt Back issues from 62-158 are to the events surrounding Ellen’s death that the jury returned a verdict of not guilty – meaning available in PDF format. that William Bury would have been a free man, a direct contradiction of the original trial, when An index to Ripperologist Bury was found guilty and hanged. magazine can be downloaded from The jury’s conclusion didn’t prevent the judge, Lord Matthews, declaring that he was ripperologist.biz/ripindex.pdf convinced Bury was Jack the Ripper and, to laughter from the court, sent him to Perth Prison To be added to the mailing list, to be executed. to submit a book for review or The Courier’s tweets can be read on their website, and make for a very interesting read: to place an advertisement, get in touch at contact@ripperologist. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/dundee/593261/live-updates-retrial-william-bury- biz. last-man-hanged-dundee. We welcome well-researched In reality, a Trial of Jack the Ripper is very unlikely to appear, at least in the Notable British articles on any aspect of the Whitechapel murders, the East shown by the defending counsel in the retrial of William Bury, what chance of a conviction? End or the Victorian era in general. Trials series, given the lack of firm evidence against a single suspect. And anyway, given the skill 1 Ripperologist 159 December 2017 / January 2018 The Dutch Jack the Ripper: New Light on Hendrik De Jong, the ‘Continental Suspect’ By JAN BONDESON and BART FM DROOG It is not generally known that in October 1893, the the older brother Frans (1860-1901), and the sister European boulevard press proclaimed that Jack the Elisabeth (1867-1937)1, whom he sometimes visited and Ripper had just been captured by the Dutch police: corresponded with later in life.2 the Whitechapel Fiend was in fact identical to the Mr. L.H.J. Lamberts Hurrelbrinck, his solicitor in 1894, career criminal Hendrik de Jong, who had been disparagingly wrote that: “The father was a slovenly arrested for the murders of two women. There was relief throughout Europe, among credulous people, drunkard, and as a result, the family soon saw poverty, that the Ripper had finally been caged, but the quality misery and distress. Instead of going to school, the young newspapers did not share their enthusiasm, and pooh- Hendrik and his brothers had to beg in the street if they poohed the purported evidence that was brought did not want to die of starvation. Throughout his entire forward. To this day, Hendrik de Jong remains a life he received only four months of formal education.”3 shadowy figure well outside mainstream Ripperology: Later, young Hendrik spent some time in an orphanage although he gets the occasional mention on various in Weesp, where he was remembered as a child having Internet chimaeras, he is nowhere mentioned in the “arrogant, adventurous and dishonest character.”4 As Jack the Ripper A-Z, and no English-language book Lamberts Hurrelbrinck wrote: “Older, he grew up as a discusses him as a Ripper suspect. servant on a farm, from which he soon walked away; then he led a wandering life, once in this city, again in one the full story of the life and crimes of Hendrik de Jong. We In this article, we will chronicle, for the first time ever, another, each time with different patrons, only staying will provide evidence that de Jong was an opportunist serial for a short time, then ran off or was chased away. All the killer of women, claiming at least four victims in Holland bosses were unanimous in their disapproving judgment and Belgium between 1893 and 1898. His activities in about this lazy, indescribable, confused boy.”5 1888 will be scrutinized, as will his mysterious escape from justice and disappearance in 1898; his potential in the tinned goods department of the Van Houten cacao Ripperine candidature, which was taken so very seriously Hendrik de Jong’s first proper job was as an apprentice by the Continental boulevard newspapers in 1893, will be factory in Weesp, where he was described by a colleague thoroughly assessed. as being “proud, full of big ideas and troublesome of 1. THE EARLY YEARS OF HENDRIK DE JONG, and Gelders archief, Arnhem. And: M.R. Aartsen. Genealogie 1 Birth and death certificates, Provincial Archive Noord-Holland 1861-1892 Aartsen, De Jong, Vleming, Van Schooten » Willem Hendriksz de Jong, Coret Genealogie.