August/September 2017 No. 157 Home Office Spin? We remember DON SOUDEN with two of his greatest articles THE DEVIL IN SIR ARTHUR, OBITUARY: A DOMINO SCOTLAND YARD, RICHARD GORDON Simon Stern SHERLOCK HOLMES AND A SERIAL KILLER: THE BLACKHEATH JACK IN FOUR COLORS A VERY TANGLED MYSTERY and THE Dave M Gray SKEIN TOOTING HORROR Daniel L. Friedman and Jan Bondeson MAYWEATHER VS Eugene B. Friedman McGREGOR VICTORIAN STYLE DRAGNET! PT 1 VICTORIAN FICTION Brian Young Nina and Howard BrownRipperologistWilliam 118 January Hope 2011 Hodgson1 Ripperologist 157 August/September 2017 EDITORIAL: FAREWELL, SUPE Adam Wood PARDON ME: SPIN CONTROL AT THE HOME OFFICE? Don Souden WHAT’S WRONG WITH BEING UNMOTIVATED? Don Souden THE DEVIL IN A DOMINO Simon Stern SIR ARTHUR, SCOTLAND YARD, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND A SERIAL KILLER: A VERY TANGLED SKEIN Daniel L. Friedman and Eugene B. Friedman JACK IN FOUR COLORS Dave M Gray MAYWEATHER VS McGREGOR VICTORIAN STYLE Brian Young OBITUARY: RICHARD GORDON THE BLACKHEATH MYSTERY and THE TOOTING HORROR Jan Bondeson DRAGNET! PT 1 Nina and Howard Brown VICTORIAN FICTION: THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT By William Hope Hodgson BOOK REVIEWS Ripperologist magazine is published by Mango Books (www.mangobooks.co.uk). The views, conclusions and opinions expressed in signed articles, essays, letters and other items published in Ripperologist 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 are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, conclusions and opinions of doWe not occasionally necessarily use reflect material the weopinions believe of has the been publisher. placed in the public domain. 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The unauthorised reproduction or circulation of agreements and give rise to civil liability and criminal prosecution. 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 Ripperologist 157 August/September 2017 Editorial Farewell, Supe ADAM WOOD Executive Editor We were deeply saddened to learn recently of the passing of Don ‘Supe’ Souden, a EXECUTIVE EDITOR former long-standing member of Ripperologist’s editorial team, after a long illness. Adam Wood Don joined us in July 2006 with issue 69. We’d steadied the ship following our EDITORS transition seven months earlier from a print magazine to electronic format, but Don’s Gareth Williams infectious enthusiam and drive saw the good ship Ripperologist soon reach a rate of knots Eduardo Zinna following his arrival. He was able to turn his hand to just about anything: it was his idea to EDITOR-AT-LARGE prepare our four-part series The Autumn of Terror, an intense investigation into a myriad Jonathan Menges of aspects of the case published over consecutive months to makr the 120th anniversary REVIEWS EDITOR of the crimes. It was he, too, who nonchalently penned the series The Detectives, in which Paul Begg COLUMNISTS Don departed in January 2010 following the publication of issue 110, taking the helm famous fictional sleuths such as Miss Marple would be placed in 1880s Whitechapel. Nina and Howard Brown of the Casebook Examiner in time for its launch in April that year. Seven information- David Green packed issues were produced over the course of the following year before the title ceased publication; Don soon reappeared with the New Independent Review, which sadly ran ARTWORK Adam Wood for just four issues between September 2011 and November 2012, when Don announced that his failing health meant he could no longer cope with the demands of running the magazine. Although few were aware at the time, he entered a rehabilitation centre following severe diabetes problems. Despite initially showing signs of recovery, Don suffered a Connecticut. stroke on 8 August 2013 and would spend his remaining years in hospital in his native But rather than dwell on the problems of his later years, we’d like to remember Don’s studying the case, and had a knack of approaching it from angles few would contemplate; incredible work in the Ripper field. He was one of the most knowledgeable people Ripperologist magazine is his understanding of particular intricacies admirable. He was as much as at home sparring published six times a year and on the Ripper message boards as penning published articles, and it is there that most will supplied in digital format. It is free have fond memories of his sharing of genial insights and locking of horns, all the while of charge to subscribers. with the intelligent, easy-going nature which won him so many friends. Back issues from 62-156 are Those joining the Ripper community in more recent years will have no knowledge of available in PDF format. Don’s work, and that’s a great pity. We feel it very appropriate, therefore, to republish over An index to Ripperologist the following pages two of his articles from issues of Ripperologist gone by. Reading them, magazine can be downloaded from it’s impossible not to admire the man’s talent but to also miss him terribly. ripperologist.biz/ripindex.pdf Rest in Peace, Supe. To be added to the mailing list, to submit a book for review or to place an advertisement, get in Donald Ogilvie Souden: 21 October 1941 - 30 July 2017 touch at contact@ripperologist. biz. While mourning the loss of Don, we’re pleased to welcome with this issue our new Editor-at-Large, Jonathan Menges, who will be known to many of you as the brains behind We welcome well-researched articles on any aspect of the Whitechapel murders, the East podcast interviews with more than 100 Ripper authors, researchers and commentators. End or the Victorian era in general. the phenomenal Casebook: Rippercast project, which since February 2008 has seen Welcome JM! 1 Ripperologist 157 August/September 2017 Pardon Me Spin Control at the Home Office? By DONALD SOUDEN One of the fallacies to guard against when doing LVP exercise in “spin control.” any sort of historical theorizing is that of applying Of course, the government of the moment and the modern concepts to centuries-old problems. What seems clever and even natural to us today may not (thinking, perhaps, it referred to an uprising of “whirling only be misplaced when applied retroactively but Home Office officials would not have understood the term dervishes”), but if the phrase might have seemed strange actually quite counter-factual in practice. This fallacy also applies to any speculation about Jack the Ripper the purpose would have been quite clear. The public, the and is one reason that profiling, when applied to the press and even the monarch were growing ever more events of the fall of 1888 in Whitechapel, may be little disenchanted with the inability to catch Jack the Ripper more than a dodgy parlor trick. That said, however, and the governing party - rightly or not - was getting there is one group of people whose basic instincts and increasing criticism for the string of murders in the East behavior has changed little over the course of human End of London. Clearly, something had to be done and, as history - and no, I am not talking about serial killers ever, the prime imperative was CYA! but rather about politicians. But, before taking a long look at the end result of the Oh, the issues may change with the times, though among government’s exercise in spin control it would be wise to the British variety of politician the old cry “We have to take a look at the whole issue of Crown rewards and pardons teach those demmed [insert here a word like colonials, or foreigners or lower classes or upper classes] a good lesson!” of anywhere from £200 to £2,000 (even going as high as resonated well for centuries and the notion of spending as unfolded in the late 1880s. In fact, government rewards other people’s money in big bundles to buy popularity £15,000 for the infamous Phoenix Park assassinations in is a perennial favorite everywhere - even in places like Dublin) were accepted policy for several centuries. But Zimbabwe where the money is literally not worth the arranged for an explosion at the German Embassy and effort to print it. In the same way, the perquisites of power that all changed in 1884 when some innovative criminals may vary over time, with $400 blow-dry hairstylings and a then framed an innocent man as the culprit in order to helicopter at one’s beck and call topping the charts today, collect the posted reward. This, naturally, suggested the just as powdered perukes and personal sedan chairs were possibility of future such conspiracies so the then Home once the favored preserve of politicians. Secretary, Sir William Harcourt, ended the practice and Nonetheless, if there is one guiding principle to which even though he was from the other side of political divide his action provided the governing Conservatives with a protofolk moot to that of multi-national parliaments it is precedent to cite in denying appeals for a reward in the all politicians have subscribed from the time of the first 1 the simple notion of CYA (cover your butt in less graphic Ripper case.