The Invention of Murder (81 page)

425
supposed murder in Whitechapel:
This newspaper article, and all others mentioned in the Jack the Ripper case, can be found on the excellent www.casebook.org site, unless noted separately.
newspaper success:
Cited in Nicholas Rance, ‘Jonathan’s Great Knife: Dracula Meets Jack the Ripper’,
Victorian Literature and Culture,
30, 2002, pp.439–53.

426
Lloyd’s 750,000:
Jennifer Ann Bars, ‘Defining Murder in Victorian London: An Analysis of Cases 1862–1892’ (Oxford, D.Phil, 1994), pp.301–2.
say there were none:
Circulation figures in Curtis,
Jack the Ripper and the London Press,
p.59; the round-the-clock printing was reported by H.W. Massingham, assistant editor of the
Star,
cited in Stawell Heard,
Jack the Ripper in the Provinces: The English Provincial Press Reporting of the Whitechapel Murders
(London, self-published, 2005). Curtis’s book on the press is invaluable, and I have relied heavily on it for the discussion of the press reporting that follows.

428
ought not to: Ousby, Bloodhounds of Heaven, pp.128–9.

429
Birmingham 4.5: Petrow, Policing Morals, pp.59–60.
one Scotland Yard inspector:
The information on the restructuring of the Yard, and Anderson’s holiday arrangements, Cobb,
Critical Years at the Yard,
pp.107, 181, 225–8.

430
outraged to death: Curtis, Jack the Ripper, p.93.
intimate bleeding:
‘Police Criticized Over G20 Cordon’, 6 August 2009, www.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8187343/stm.

432
nursed to violence: Punch,
22 September 1888, pp.138–9; 20 September 1888, pp.150–51.
we should smile: Sporting Times,
8 September 1888, p.5.

434
righter-of-wrongs: The Times
reported various sightings, including 9 January, 22 February, 3 March 1838. Plays: J.T. Haines,
Spring-Heel’d Jack: The Terror of London
appeared in 1840; Anon.,
Spring-Heel’d Jack, or, The Felon’s Wrongs
in 1863; W.G. Wills,
Spring-Heel’d Jack
in 1870; penny-dreadfuls, serial versions: Anon.,
The Apprehension and Examination of Spring-Heeled Jack, who appeared as a Ghost, Bear, Baboon, Demon, &c.
(no place of publication or printer,?1840s); Anon.,
Spring-Heel’d Jack, the Terror of London
(London, Newsagents’ Publishing Co., [1850?]).
upon the tiger: Cited in Martin A. Danahay and Alex Chisholm, Jekyll and Hyde Dramatized: The 1887 Richard Mansfield Script and the Evolution of the Story on Stage (Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Co., 2005), p.174. Murd—: Punch, 13 October 1888, p.170.

437
circulation double: Fun,
September 1888, cited in Frayling, ‘The House that Jack Built’, pp.212–13.
arresting myself: Punch,
22 September 1888, p.135.

438
to catch him: ‘Florence Warden’ [Florence Alice Price], The House on the Marsh, in The Family Story-Teller, 1883.
pipe in his mouth: Wilkie Collins, My Lady’s Money, in Bleiler, Three Victorian Detective Novels, pp.109–10, 112.

439
Western Morning News:
These appear in Conan Doyle,
A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four,
‘The Adventure of the Cardboard Box’, ‘The Adventure of the Dancing Men’ and
The Hound of the Baskervilles.

440
could print: Catling, My Life’s Pilgrimage, pp.183–4.

441
twenty-four issues: Curtis, Jack the Ripper, pp.201–6. murderer was a Jew: Friedland, Trials of Israel Lipski, p.202.

442
Maiden Lane: Manchester Guardian, 17 December 1897, p.12.
pieces in Whitechapel: Compton Mackenzie, My Life and Times, Octave One: 1883–1891 (London, Chatto & Windus, 1963), pp.164–5.
Un penney:
Gaston Marot and Louis Péricaud,
Jack l’Éventreur: Drame en cinq actes et sept tableaux
(Paris, Tresse & Stock, 1889), pp.97–8. The translation here and later is my own. The authors’ names may be pseudonyms; the names of Xavier Bertrand and Louis Clairian also appear in connection with this play.

444
the bloodhound Truth: Pall Mall Gazette, ‘A Ballad of Bloodhounds’, 9 October 1888. a quiet suburb: Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, p.63.
satisfactory solution: Punch,
‘Conundrums’, 20 October 1888, p.189.

445
Misery, Jobbery: Reynolds’s,
‘Pickpockets’ Pageant’, 21 October 1888.
under instructions:
Anon.,
The Whitechapel Murders, or, The Mysteries of the East End
(London, G. Purkess, [1888?]), p.30. The first five issues are in the Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, c.435.

446
& in A Bag Danahay and Chisholm, Jekyll and Hyde Dramatized, p.38.
in Whitechapel-road:
All these cases appear in
The Times,
9 October 1888, p.3; 10 October

1888, p.3; 15 November 1888, p.21.
in that city: Cited in Curtis, Jack the Ripper, p.172.

447
spot at once:
Jane Beetmoor:
The Times,
24 September, p.6; 26 September, p.10; Glasgow police: 12 November 1888, p.6.

448
of his work:
Conan Doyle, ‘The Adventure of the Cardboard Box’, in
His Last Bow,
pp.49, 53.

449
ruled by Scotland Yard: Fun,
‘Tragedies at the East-End’, 24 October 1888.

450
the police rate:
Charles Warren, ‘The Police of the Metropolis’,
Murray’s Magazine,
4, 23, November 1888, pp.577–94.
was too late: Jack the Ripper at Work Again. Another Terrible Murder & Mutilation in Whitechapel…
(4-page pamphlet, no place of publication or printer, [1888]), Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, Crime 6 (11).

452
Chamber of Horrors:
Marie Belloc Lowndes,
The Lodger,
ed. Laura Marcus ([1913], Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996), p.195.
too strong:
I have found two references to waxworks in the Whitechapel Road in the autumn of 1888: in the
Daily News,
10 September 1888, p.6; and in
The Times,
6 February 1889, p.8 (referring to the events of the previous autumn). There is no way of telling if this was one and the same exhibition, or whether there were two.
Ripper victims: Era,
20 April 1889, p.20;
Era,
3 December 1892, p.23.

453 upon Mitre Square: John Francis Brewer,
The Curse upon Mitre Square A.D. 1530–1888
(London, Simpkin, Marshall, 1888).
I’m a Gentile:
‘John Law’ [Margaret Harkness],
Captain Lobe: A Story of the Salvation Army
([1889], London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1915]). The novel also appeared under the title
In Darkest London.

454
series of murders: Thou Art the Man
(London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., [1894]), pp.75, 95, 153.
impostors, and more:
William Westall,
Back to Africa: A Confession
(London, Ward & Downey, 1891); J.W. Nicholas,
The House of Mystery
(Bristol, J.W. Arrowsmith, [1891]). Yet another novel, by ‘Chas. L’Epine’,
The Devil in a Domino: A Realistic Study
(London, Lawrence Greening & Co., 1897), is so bad I can’t even bring myself to summarize it in the text. It too has a scientist-psychopath murderer.

455
was in Whitechapel:
Bram Stoker,
Dracula. A Tale
(London, A. Constable & Co., 1897); for the parallels between
Dracula
and Jack the Ripper I am indebted to Rance, ‘Jonathan’s Great Knife’.
dens in London:
Oscar Wilde,
The Picture of Dorian Gray,
ed. Robert Mighall ([1891], Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 2003), pp.124, 145.

456
SMITE THEM ALL:
‘Rodissi’ [pseud. Jacob Ringgold],
Lord Jacquelin Burkney: The Whitechapel Terror
(New York, Anton Publishing Co., 1889).
more recent cases:
B.G. Johns, ‘The Literature of Seven Dials’,
National Review,
2, December 1883, pp.478–9.
founder of the
Daily Mail: British Library, shelfmark x200.318.
the Whitechapel Horrors: The Times,
1 October 1888, p.3; ‘The Whitechapel Blood Book’ is noted in Curtis,
Jack the Ripper,
p.187;
Daily News,
13 November 1888, p.5.
has survived:
Anon.,
Two More Horrible Murders in the East-End
(London, n.p., [1888]). The British Library catalogue gives 1889 as its publication date, but I can see no reason for this except perhaps the library’s acquisition-stamp date. Indeed, there is no way of knowing if the sheets were ever a single pamphlet – they are now individually mounted – although they share a format and a typeface. The sheets must have been printed before early November 1888, as there is no mention of Mary Jane Kelly’s murder. The song beginning ‘Now ladies all beware’ appears again on a ballad sheet held in the Bodleian Library, Harding B.20(196), this time with the information that it is to be sung to the tune of ‘Railway Train’.

458
comic song above:
Anon.,
Jack the Ripper at Work Again. Another Terrible Murder & Mutilation in Whitechapel…
(4-page pamphlet, no place of publication or printer, [1888]), Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, Crime 6 (11).
Vitechapel murders: Daily News,
10 September 1888, p.6;
Observer,
11 November 1888, p.5.
I’m not a butcher …: Cited in MacNaghten, Days of My Youth, p.54.

459
rest of it: Sporting Times,
‘Told by the Pudding Shop Keeper’, 6 October 1888.
worthy of remark:
The dog that drew condemnation was in the
Belfast News-Letter,
9 October 1888, p.3; it reappeared on 24 December 1888; three other dogs:
Newcastle Weekly Courant,
4 January 1890,
County Gentleman,
5 July 1890, and
Belfast News-Letter,
27 January, 30 March 1891 and 2 February 1892; the horses:
Freeman’s Journal,
1 April 1889, p.7, 25 April 1889, p.7, 11 April 1890, p.7, 15 September 1896, p.7, 31 August 1897, p.7;
Liverpool Mercury,
23 April 1889, p.7, 8 August 1893, p.7;
Ipswich Journal,
21 June 1889, p.3;
County Gentleman:
29 March 1890, p.435, 23 June 1894, p.816;
Belfast News-Letter,
26 December 1889, p.3;
Horse and Hound:
10 May 1890.
best to himself
Filho da Puta,
Sporting Times,
22 January 1881, p.3; information on names permitted today by Weatherby’s, personal communication;
Bell’s,
‘Rough Notes on Turf Nomenclature’, 31 December 1864.

460
Zadkiel’s Almanac: The Times, 20 October 1888, p.2.
Haynes & Co.: Myra’s Journal of Dress and Fashion,
1 December 1889, p.637.
heads of families: Pall Mall Gazette,
‘The Shows in the London Shops’, 15 January 1889.
Brooklyn Opera House: Era,
‘Theatrical Gossip’, 10 August 1889;
Pall Mall Gazette,
‘Today’s Tittle Tattle’, 12 August 1889;
Graphic,
‘Theatres’, 17 August 1889. See also
Reynolds’s,
11 August 1889,
Era,
24 August 1889,
Derby Mercury,
28 August 1889,
Pall Mall Gazette,
28 August 1889,
Graphic,
31 August 1889.

461
as he did:
Marot and Louis,
Jack l’Éventreur.
I have followed the most frequently used spellings for the names, which appear inconsistently throughout the text.
Era,
7 September 1889, p.9;
Lloyd’s,
‘Jack the Ripper on the Stage’, 1 September 1889. The plot summary I give is from the published script.
Lloyd’s
description of the evening is substantially different, although whether because the staged performance varied from the script, or because their reporter spoke no French, I cannot say.

462
conquered this night:
Frank Wedekind,
Die Büchse der Pandora
([1904], Verlag Jürgen Hausser, Darmstadt, 1990). I am grateful to the late Robin Gibson for his translation. (The English translation by Stephen Spender,
The Lulu Plays and Other Sex Tragedies
(London, Vision, 1952), is slightly abridged and omits much of this Ripperiana.)
gave no particulars:
H.A. Saintsbury, ‘The Doctor’s Shadow’, unpublished playscript for performance at the Prince’s Theatre, Accrington, January 1896, Lord Chamberlain’s Plays, BL Add 53590 (K); death of Mrs Kelly: cited in Gary Coville and Patrick Lucanio,
Jack the Ripper: His Life and Crimes in Popular Entertainment
(Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Co., 1999), p.17; Miss Edith Manley:
Era,
30 July 1892, p.14.

463
game’s own sake:
‘The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans’ (1908) in
His Last Bow and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,
p.108.
take it up:
Anon.,
Reaping the Whirlwind,
p.32; Arthur Morrison,
Martin Hewitt, Investigator
(London, Ward, Lock & Bowden, 1894), p.121. Arthur Morrison (1863–1945) is of course more famous today for his classic novel of the East End slum,
A Child of the Jago
(1896).