Sensational Jack the Ripper theory: Ripper suspect lies in Toowong grave in Australia

GRISLY HISTORY: Steve Wilson with his assistant,
Tameika Jane Roebuck, has uncovered more evidence
that his Great Great Grandfather was Jack The Ripper.

RESEARCH: Is this the face of evil?
Alleged Jack the Ripper Andrew John Gibson,
also known as Walter Thomas Porriott

FAMILY OUTS RELATIVE AS WORLD'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER

 

 

STEVE Wilson, 55, is convinced he is related to one of the most infamous serial killers who ever lived.

He has spent much of the past 25 years hunting down the truth about his great-great grandfather, Walter Thomas Porriott, a convicted killer and conman who died in Brisbane in 1952.

And he now believes his evil ancestor, who is buried in Brisbane, was Jack The Ripper - the infamous serial killer who stalked Whitechapel in London.

The savage murders of five prostitutes on the foggy streets of London in 1888 were never solved.

Porriott was the name Mr Wilson's ancestor was using at the end of his life. He is said to have married 20 times, usually to fleece his brides of their family money.

He was born Andrew John Gibson in 1870 but the April 1915 Police Gazette listed many aliases


Vandals smash grave of 'Jack the Ripper'
A HISTORIC Brisbane grave belonging to a bigamist killer and one of the many people suspected of being Jack the Ripper has been destroyed by vandals.


Porriott is buried with his last wife, Bessie, but was so reviled even by his own family that his name does not appear on the gravestone, just the words "Bessie and her husband".

The gravestone, with a thin outline of the Ripper etched in the sandstone, sits high on a hill in Toowong cemetery. It was vandalised in August.

"Porriott had a pathological hatred of prostitutes," says Mr Wilson at his Sydney home, where he has books and reams of archival material he says confirm Porriott as the killer.

"When I was eight my grandmother died and we inherited all her things, including all these medical books that belonged to Porriott," says Mr Wilson, a nurse.

"He was an extraordinary conman and fraudster who posed as a doctor for much of his life so he knew a lot about anatomy like the Ripper.

"Porriott wrote a medical textbook called Health and Vigour while posing as a doctor in Sydney in 1914 and in the book he explains his hate for prostitutes. He says they are the cause of all diseases and that they should all be wiped out with "an axe at the very roots of this deadly evil'. "

Porriott was a teenager in England when all five murders were committed. Mr Wilson has a copy of a bad cheque Porriott once wrote in 1892.

He has meticulously compared the handwriting with the infamous "Dear Boss" letter a man signing himself "Jack The Ripper" wrote to London's Central News Agency on 27 September, 1888, after the second murder, declaring: "I'm down on whores and I shant (sic) quit ripping them until I get buckled."

Mr Wilson says "Porriott wrote with a funny-shaped 'n' exactly the same as the Dear Boss letter. It's obvious they were done by the same hand."

Porriott served 44 years in prison for various crimes in Australia, England, America and South Africa.

He sailed from England to Australia on November 9, 1888, hours after the mutilated body of fifth Ripper victim Mary Kelly was found.

In 1951, aged 81, he married 58-year-old spinster Eliza "Bessie" O'Leary and died the following year.

Mr Wilson says there is as much evidence fingering Porriott as the Ripper as there is for the many other suspects.

--------------------------------

OTHER RIPPER SUSPECTS:

Montague Druitt: Barrister, schoolteacher drowned himself in the Thames in December, 1888.

Francis Tumblety: Irish-born conman - was in Whitechapel at the time of all five murders. Hated prostitutes.

Sir William Gull: Physician to Queen Victoria. Murders to cover up Duke of Clarence's love child.

 

www.CourierMail.com.au

18.11.12

COMMENT: Australian Ripperologist Paul Tully says the theory about Walter Porriott being Jack the Ripper cannot be completely dismissed.  As with most - if not all - of the various Ripper theories, there is a wealth of intrigue and speculation but little hard evidence to back the competing claims.  Walter Porriott was a con-man, thief, bigamist and killer and hurriedly left London within a day of Jack the Ripper's last murder of Mary Kelly on 9 November 1888.  If Porriottt's handwriting matches the "Dear Boss" letter's handwriting of September 1888, that would be proof they were written by the same person, although it would not automatically prove the author was Jack the Ripper.  But the "Dear Boss" letter contained previously unreleased information about the murder which would strongly suggest the author was indeed the "Butcher of Whitechapel".  Steve Wilson should be congratulated for being prepared to put his great grandfather's grisly history on the line and his potential alter ego as Jack the Ripper.

 

Jack the Ripper - The Lure of Horrible History

By Andrew Salmon A friend of mine based in Bukchon, the pretty neighborhood in Seoul noted for its hanok, or traditional cottages, recently told me she was considering instituting a walking tour of the area for foreigners.  It is a decent idea. Bukchon is built on a human scale, so is appropriate for footwork, and preserves ― albeit in an ersatz manner ― much traditional architecture. And she would be an ideal guide. She is smart, outgoing and attractive and as an entrepreneur, has ideas to market it.  So what about content? I was surprised, when I suggested talking about the ghosts reputed to walk the area, that she had not considered this for her spiel. And I was gob-smacked, when I suggested that she benchmark ``London Walks," to find she had never heard of them.  "London Walks" are a series of guided, themed walking tours of various city districts. Rated among London's top tourist attractions, they are world famous. Walks currently advertised tour the West End, the glamorous theater district; take in the sights of Shakespearian and Dickensian London; seek out Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes; and wander the plush precincts of Kensington, the capital's poshest district. Yet the most popular walk does not extol "Cool Britannia," showcase the haunts of England's literary greats or tour the neighborhoods of the rich and famous.  The top tour in the U.K.'s capital takes walkers to dank back alleys and shabby pubs, following in the footsteps of a 19th century serial killer who butchered booze-addled prostitutes in Victorian London's foulest neighborhood. He was never caught, but as the first "serial killer" in popular imagination, became iconic: He is known as Jack the Ripper. The other consistently popular walk is the Ghost Walk. This after-dark promenade takes visitors through unlit passageways and medieval graveyards, past plague pits and execution sites and even into the cellar of a haunted pub which used to be a cell in London's most notorious prison. What is my point?  People are naturally fascinated by the grimmer aspects of folklore and social history. Hollywood has long known that sex and violence sells, but to return to London, walking tours are not the only attraction to market historical blood and guts. In the waxwork museum Madam Tussauds, the most famed exhibit is the Chamber of Horrors. Inhabitants include such figures as Vlad Dracul and the wife murderer Dr Crippen; exhibits include a bloody guillotine and a torture wheel. At the Tower of London, the 11th century fortress on the Thames, visitors find the torture instruments and chopping block as fascinating as the crown jewels, and are regaled by gory and ghostly tales by the Yeomen Warders who guide tourists.  And one of London's most popular (and expensive) attractions is the London Dungeon, which portrays plague epidemics, the Great Fire of London, pre-modern surgery and the Ripper murders. The attraction's concept has been replicated (and localized) in Edinburgh, Hamburg and Amsterdam. Korea's history is a rich pageant through which monarchs strut, rebels plot and villains scuttle. Yet tourism operators and guides here seem reluctant to present the grimmer, gorier aspects of Korean history, bar atrocities carried out by the Japanese.  This is particularly true in the palaces. Their pillared halls were once the settings for inter-clan feuds and poisonings, for sibling rivalries and sexual dalliances. Yet among the reams of publicity material presenting the palaces and their architecture, there is precious little information on this fascinating stuff.  Who killed who? How? What were the harshest aspects of Joseon justice? Who were the eunuchs? What was the surgical procedure? Who chose the concubines? What did their lives consist of? Etc, etc, etc. Beyond Joseon palaces, recent history offers plenty more bloody meat. The horrors of counterinsurgency and war; the brutal activities of state enforcers during the authoritarian years; the sufferings of the laboring class who created the "economic miracle"; and so on. None of this is well presented or packaged. Is sex and violence undignified? Do tales of disease and destruction, of bloodshed and oppression, besmirch the national image? Not necessarily. As the London examples show, displays of gruesome facts and folklore do not denigrate the capital, rather they add another layer to its multi-faceted attractions.  Moreover, a focus on the gruesome is one way to interest children in history, a subject that is poorly taught and presented. Witness the extraordinary success of the "Horrible History" children's books: Over 25 million have sold in 30 languages. Their titles ("Vile Victorians," "Loathsome London," "Rotten Romans," etc.) suggest their approach: Present history using horror and humor.  Of course, the London tourist attractions described above are not for children; they are "adults only." But this is an opportunity, not a complication: Segmentation of historical attractions implies wider potential. Summer is over. When it comes to next year's presentation of Korean historical attractions, I'd respectfully suggest that the nation's tourism czars should examine sex and violence, and consider the promotion thereof. Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. His latest work, "Scorched Earth, Black Snow," was published in London in June. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk www.koreatimes.co.kr 17.9.12

Did Jack the Ripper’s family die in 1943 wartime London air-raid disaster?

The identity of Jack the Ripper has finally been unravelled in a dramatic evening at an East End church on the 124th anniversary of the first victim in the Whitechapel Murders.

The Victorian serial killer who butchered at least five women—some say more—on the streets of Whitechapel was named on Friday evening as the father of three members of the Lechmere family who died in the 1943 Bethnal Green wartime air-raid disaster two generations later.

He was a Pickford’s cart driver, Charles Cross, who was identified at the end of a drama staged by the Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust at St John on Bethnal Green Church.

Cross was found at the scene of the first Whitechapel murder, in Buck’s Row on August 31, 1888, and told police he was on his way to work at 3.45am when he found Mary Nichols’ body.

But Cross gave a false name—he was really Charles Lechmere, according to Ripper experts Christer Holmgren and Edward Stow.

All subsequent murders were on the route between his home at 22 Doveton Street and his work depot at Broad Street in the City.

He escaped suspicion because police were looking for an educated man with possible medical knowledge.

Lechmere was working class—but his mother cut up carcasses for cats’ meat for a living, so may have had anatomical knowledge from her.

Highlight of the evening was a play starring the charity’s patrons, TV’s gardener Tommy Walsh and former Bucks Fizz member Cheryl Baker.

Sue Lechmere, the great-granddaughter of the man who could have been the Ripper, played the part of prostitute Emily Holland, last person to see Polly Nichols alive.

It raised £2,200 towards the memorial being erected in Bethnal Green Gardens honouring the 173 men, women and children crushed to death in a stampede in a public shelter during an air-raid alert on March 3, 1943.

www.EastLondonAdvertiser.co.uk

4.9.12

 

Horror Photographer Joshua Hoffine Reveals His Newest Nightmare: Jack the Ripper

 

By Doctor Gash
August 30th, 2012


Fantastic horror photog Joshua Hoffine has been busy at work and has just revealed his latest project. Hoffine dug deep into the history of true crime and brilliantly selected Jack the Ripper as his newest subject.

Check out part one of Hoffine's Jack the Ripper two-panel photo project. As always, his vision and attention to detail come through as we enjoy his work. The second part of Jack the Ripper will be released on October 1. For more on this excellent photographer, check out JoshuaHoffine.com. Signed archival prints will be available for purchase though his website. And "like" Joshua Hoffine's Facebook Fan Page.

From the Press Release:

Joshua Hoffine, the internationally renowned horror photographer residing in Kansas City, reveals his latest masterpiece: Jack the Ripper.

Joshua Hoffine's work exploded on the internet and in numerous magazines and news outlets around the world in 2008 when he released his collection of photographs exploring the nature of childhood fears. Since that time he has cultivated a massive cult following for his meticulously staged photographic works regarding, as he puts it, "the psychology of fear."

Conceived as a two-panel diptych, Jack the Ripper depicts the moments "just before" and "just after" a grisly alleyway murder. "What makes Jack the Ripper compelling to me," Hoffine says, "is that nothing is known about him. Because he was never caught, we have no actual information about who he was or why he committed his gruesome crimes. What we have is not a historical or biographical portrait, but a communally imagined idea of Jack the Ripper as an aristocratic predator. As a boogeyman, he graphically symbolizes the idea of the wealthy and powerful preying on the poor."

 

 

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www.DreadCentral.com

 

New Ripper Theory: Was Jack the Ripper a cart driver from Bethnal Green?

Two Jack The Ripper experts believe they have found the identity of the Whitechapel serial killer.


 

A new theory suggests Jack The Ripper was the cart
 driver who told police he discovered the first victim.



Police discover the body of Polly Nichols

 

It has been the subject of macabre speculation for more than 100 years but now two Jack The Ripper experts believe they have found the identity of the Whitechapel serial killer.


Authors Christer Holmgren and Edward Stow believe the most likely suspect for Jack The Ripper is Charles Cross, a cartman who claimed to have found the first victim prostitute Polly Nichols on August 31 1888.


Cross was discovered crouching over the body by a witness Robert Paul.


He told police he had been walking through Bucks Row on his way to Pickfords’ depot in Broad Street at around 3am when he found the body of Nichols.


But Holmgren and Stow believe he could have been the killer, disturbed as he was mutilating the body of Nichols.


Related Articles:


Jack the Ripper: the suspects 31 Aug 2012


Jack The Ripper: The Daily Telegraph's report of Polly Nichols's inquest from 1888 31 Aug 2012


Jack the Ripper: Is this six-inch knife used by Victorian serial killer? 03 Nov 2011


Why does Jack the Ripper still fascinate? 31 Aug 2011


Paul claimed he had seen Cross standing by the body of Nichols when he had arrived but Cross later told police he had been standing away from the body in the road.

And all the subsequent murders took place between his home in Doveton Street in Bethnal Green and his work at Broad Street at times when he would have been walking to work.

Mr Stow said: "We think it Charles Cross, the first person who found that first body. He was seen crouching over Polly Nichols and he wast trying to cover up some of the wounds.

"He hasn't been the subject of a lot of investigation and has only crept up very vaguely in census records.

"We have found out that he gave a false name to the police. His real name was Charles Latchmere.

"The police at the time were looking for some sort of special individual. But most crimes turn out to be someone quite ordinary.

"He walked past every single murder scene on his way to work. He is the best suspect so far."

Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was attacked as she walked home from a night walking the Whitechapel Road.

Her throat was slit twice from left to right and her body mutilated.



The body of second Ripper victim, Annie Chapman, was found on September 8 in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Her abdomen was slashed entirely open, and it was later discovered that the uterus had been removed.

Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were killed in the early morning of Sunday 30 September 1888.

Eddowes' body was found in Mitre Square, in the City of London, three-quarters of an hour after Stride's. The throat was severed, and the abdomen was ripped open by a long, deep, jagged wound. The left kidney and the major part of the uterus had been removed.

The final victim, Mary Jane Kelly was discovered lying on the bed in the single room where she lived at 13 Miller's Court off Dorset Street, Spitalfields on November 9 1888. The throat had been severed down to the spine, and the abdomen virtually emptied of its organs. Even her heart was missing.

The removal of the organs led the police to suspect he was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat. Suggestions for the culprit included Prince Albert Victor, the grandson of Queen Victoria, and Sir William Gull, the Queen's doctor.

Holmgren and Stow made the claims on the anniversary of the first murder at a re-enactment in Bethnal Green.

Cross died in 1920 and was survived by his wife who eventually passed away on 12 September 1940 in Stratford.

 

www.Telegraph.co.uk

 

31.8.12

124 years ago tonight Jack the Ripper struck for the first time



Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols murder scene
at Buck's Row (now Durward St)
Whitechapel in London's East End.

In the early hours of 31 July 1888, Jack the Ripper committed the first of his 5 serial killings.

124 years ago tonight, the evil fiend of London's East End despatched Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols from her earthly existence in Buck's Row (now Durward St) Whitechapel.

May she rest in peace.

And may the quest to finally reveal who Jack the Ripper really was continue.

30.8.12

Jack the Ripper's final resting place near Spook Hill, Brisbane?

 

Spook Hill's Satanic Antigravity
As one of Brisbane's oldest cemeteries, Toowong Cemetery has been the subject of too many myths and legends to count. Aside from the usual cookie-cutter haunting ones that you can find in any cemetery in the world (and the occasional tombstone damage, which is more likely the work of teenage Goths than angry ghosts) Toowong Cemetery has its own unique urban legend.

 

Twelfth Avenue, more colloquially called 'Spook Hill', is a sloping road in the cemetery with a special property. Many people have reported that if you park your car in the middle of it, facing uphill, and let it roll, the car will actually roll uphill rather than downhill.

It's very likely - not kidding - that Jack the Ripper
is buried here, as well.

Unfortunately, there haven't been any actual ghost sightings on Spook Hill – which is spooky in itself, given the ubiquity of hauntings in Toowong Cemetery – but that hasn't stopped enterprising ghost-hunters from telling stories of their own.

 

Apparently a tombstone near the top of the hill marks the grave of a child who died in a car accident. His spirit draws all cars towards it, with such a powerful attraction that it overcomes even gravity.

 

The 'scientific' explanation isn't much better: there's a natural magnetic lodestone at the top of the hill, strong enough to drag even large metal objects (like cars). Sorry, scientists, but that's too outlandish even for us – we're going to have to go with the car-pushing ghost kid.

 

http://www.weekendnotes.com/4-spookiest-urban-legends-in-brisbane/
 

 

Multiple killer Frederick Bailey Deeming - a Ripper suspect - among the condemned in The Doomsday Book

The Doomsday Book: FREDERICK Bailey Deeming was a multiple killer who showed no remorse for his innocent victims.

Deeming was hanged in May 1892 after being convicted of the murder of his wife, Emily.

Six months earlier the gasfitter had also killed his wife and their four children half a world away in England. Frederick Deeming's notoriety has earned him a special place in the Doomsday Book, the macabre journal kept by jail authorities of deaths behind bars.

Was Frederick Bailey Deeming mad or just plain evil?
Like many serial killers before and after him, the true scale of Deeming's murderous rampages will never be known, especially during his extensive visits overseas.

What is known about the British-born Deeming - widely called the Windsor Murderer - is that he killed his first wife, Marie, and their four children at Rainhill, England, in late July 1891.

He was a very cruel man. He killed his own children, and you don't get anything crueller than that.



Emily Mather was bludgeoned to death by husband
Frederick Deeming on Christmas Eve, 1891.
He finds himself in the Doomsday book.
 

An illustration of the murder of Emily Mather.
 

Then in Melbourne six months later, he disposed of his new wife, Emily, in their rented house at Andrew St, Windsor.

Emily Mather Deeming's body was found buried under the hearthstone in one of the bedrooms. She'd been battered around the head and had her throat cut before being covered in cement.

After the gruesome discovery, British police were alerted and a search of the Rainhill house revealed the bodies of Marie and children Bertha, Marie, Martha and Sidney.

Deeming, 38, was both a fraudster and a murderer. While living in England, South Africa and Australia he lived his life under different names. He also did time for dishonesty.

In February, 1890 he married Helen Matheson in England and was convicted of fraud, but not bigamy.

By the following September, under the name of Williams, he had married the unfortunate Emily Lydia Mather and the two travelled to Melbourne, where they set up house in Windsor.

The marriage would not last the year. On Christmas Eve, Deeming killed Emily, hiding her remains in the scond bedroom.

Three months later, Deeming's evil double life was beginning to unravel when noxious odours filled the house. The owner of the house spoke to neighbours, who told her of Emily's strange disappearance.

Police were called in and the floorboards immediately lifted.

Soon after, the bodies of Marie and the four children were also located - all with their throats cut.

Within weeks, Deeming was picked up in Perth, in the company of another woman he'd met in Melbourne and planned to marry. He'd changed his identity to Baron Swanston, but detectives nailed him when they found some of Emily Mather's belongings, including her prayer book.

Newspaper stories of the time linked Deeming to Jack the Ripper, suggesting that he could be the notorious East London mass killer. Articles were published detailing how he had bought knives in the area.

Deeming, himself, allegedly told fellow prisoners while sitting it out on death row awaiting his execution. The link between Deeming's gruesome work and the Whitechapel killer was his insanity - he had a brain disorder caused by venerael disease - and the use of knives as a murder weapon.

Deeming was executed at the Old Melbourne Gaol. His death mask is on display there and also at the Black Museum at New Scotland Yard.

Deeming's home still 'haunted'

One hundred and twenty years later, the name of Frederick Deeming still sends shockwaves through law-abiding communities.

Sebastian Gurciullo, who curated the Deeming exhibition at the Public Archive of Victoria, told True Crime of the strange phenomena he uncovered while researching the killer's history.

The Windsor house might be haunted.

Mr Gurciullo said he had spoken to the previous owners who told him of the "strange feelings" coming from the house.

"They told me it was quite strange living there. They felt a strange presence. Once they found out the history of the place they felt quite uncomfortable and moved out," he said.

"It's one of the most bizarre and at the same time, disturbing cases I've come across.

"When I contacted them they were really spooked out that all this has happened in their house.

"They were considering leaving at the time.

Ronald Ryan is another of the
condemned faces in The Doomsday Book.

"He was really the serial killer of the age. He's up there with Jack the Ripper.

"He was an international killer, South Africa and South America (where he is suspected of involvement in a number of murders), England and Australia.

"If he'd been willing to do it in England, and if he'd been willing to do it is Australia...who knows?"

But Mr Gurciullo doubts Deeming and Jack the Ripper were one and the same.

"There are similarities in the killings and psycho pathological condition of the two murderers, such as the focus on women. But the killing of the children was out of the character of Jack the Ripper," he said.

"Also, Deeming was doing time when the Ripper killed one of his victims.

"At the time it was an interesting connection. There was a fair degree of public hysteria back then."

Emily Mather's headstone is also a warning to other young women.
 

Mr Gurciullo said he was struck by the ability of Deeming to carry out his crimes on different continents.

"He was extremely devious, but he was also sloppy in the way he approached his crimes," he said.

"A master of disguises, he seemed to be able to easily slip around and change his appearances and personalities, his back story and whatever. He could create a whole new character seemingly without much effort.

"He was a very cruel man. He killed his own children, and you don't get anything crueller than that."

But even after all this time, the unanswered question remains: "Was it a mental condition or was he just so evil. Was he mad...or just bad?"

 

www.heraldsun.com.au

 
22.8.12

 

Jack the Ripper-linked grave trashed in Australia



The shared gravestone of Bessie and Walter Porriott,
at Toowong cemetery, was recently vandalised.



The grave of one of a handful of people who may be Jack the Ripper - London's Whitechapel serial killer of prostitutes in 1888 - has been vandalised in Brisbane's Toowong Cemetery.

The Sydney-based family of English conman Walter Thomas Porriott - known to London's police as Andrew John Gibson - in 1997 accused Porriott of being Jack the Ripper.

A lot of people around the world believe this is the final resting place of Jack the Ripper.

Porriott was a convicted killer who lived in London when the five murders attributed to Jack the Ripper took place.

The shared gravestone of Bessie and Walter Porriott at
Toowong cemetery. Walter is believed by some to
have been Jack the Ripper.



The five Jack the Ripper murders took place between August and November 1888.

Porroitt sailed to Brisbane on November 9, 1888, the day the fifth prostitute was killed, according to Ipswich councillor Paul Tully, who is an amateur historian and Jack the Ripper blogger.

"There is a lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing has ever been proved and probably I think Jack the Ripper will go down in history and no-one will ever be able to identify who he really was," he said.

Despite the FBI in 1988 preparing a profile of Jack the Ripper, no-one has ever been convicted of the killings.

Porriott had served 10 years in jail for killing a woman when he posed as a gynaecologist.

He was buried in Toowong cemetery, on this day 60 years ago - August 30, 1952.

Cemetery records wrongly show his age when buried as 59 - impossible given he fled London 64 years earlier in 1888 - but the conman is considered to have been in his 80s when he died.

His wife Eliza, "Bessie", was 77 when she died on June 26, 1957.

Jack the Ripper's first victim, Mary Anne Nichols, was murdered on August 31, 1888.

Today, Cr Tully - who for four years has been researching his own book about Jack the Ripper - told journalists he did not really believe Walter Porriott was Jack the Ripper.

"There has been vandalism in the cemetery. That is absolutely appalling," he said.

"This is an historic grave. A lot of people around the world believe this is the final resting place of Jack the Ripper."

But Cr Tully does not.

"It is a theory that I don't really subscribe to, but it has never been disproved," he said.

Cr Tully thinks Porriott was evil, but not Jack the Ripper.

"He was an evil man, an imposter, a conman, a fraudster. He served 10 years in jail for the killing of a woman when he posed as a gynaecologist," Cr Tully said.

"But he really did not have the same modus operandi as Jack the Ripper."

Cr Tully this morning said he was unsure exactly when Porriott's grave was vandalised.

"No; it happened fairly recently. The damage is quite recent. But until yesterday I hadn't been here for about a year."

However, Cr Tully said he still has his own idea of who Jack the Ripper was, which he would reveal in his own book.

"My theory relates to a person in Australia who had connections to the Brisbane area and to the northern rivers district of New South Wales," he said.

"It is a theory that I have been pursuing since 2003."

In 1988, the FBI prepared a profile of Jack the Ripper on the 100th anniversary of the killings.


The FBI's 1988 profile suggested Jack the Ripper:
was a white male, 28-36 years of age;
was of average intelligence, lucky not clever;
was single, never married, and had difficulty in interacting with people in general and women in particular;
was nocturnal and not accountable to anyone;
blended in with his surroundings;
had poor personal hygiene, and appeared dishevelled;
was personally inadequate with a low self image and diminished emotional responses;
was a quiet loner, withdrawn and asocial;
was of lower social class;
lived or worked in Whitechapel, and committed the crimes close to home;
had a menial job with little or no interaction with the public;
was employed Monday to Friday, possibly as a butcher, mortician's helper, medical examiner's assistant, or hospital attendant (the proximity of London Hospital was noted in the profile);
was the product of a broken home, and lacked consistent care and stable adult role models as a child;
was raised by a dominant female figure who drank heavily, consorted with different men, and physically, possibly sexually, abused him;
set fires and abused animals as a child;
hated, feared, and was intimidated by women;
internalised his anger;
was mentally disturbed and sexually inadequate;
desired power, control, and dominance;
drank in local pubs prior to the murders;
was seen walking all over Whitechapel during the early morning hours;
did not have medical knowledge or surgical expertise;
was probably interviewed by police at some point;
did not write any of the “Jack the Ripper” letters;
did not commit suicide after the murders stopped.

www.BrisbaneTimes.com.au

30.8.12
 

Vandals destroy Jack the Ripper's reputed grave in Australia

Desecrated grave of Walter Thomas PORRIOTT
at Toowong Cemetery Brisbane Australia which
 many people believe is that of Jack the Ripper.
  Picture taken 29 August 2012.

 

Vandals have struck at Brisbane's historic Toowong Cemetery destroying a grave believed by many historians across the world to be the burial place of London's serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Sixty years ago today Walter Porriott of New Farm was buried at Toowong by his wife Bessie.

In 1997 his relatives went public across Australia with the sensational claim Porriott was Jack the Ripper who murdered five street prostitutes in London in 1888.

Jack the Ripper's first victim Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols was found murdered in the streets of Whitechapel in London's East End 124 years ago tonight on 31 July 1888.

No one was ever brought trial despite hundreds of suspects being identified by the police and the public.

Porriott was in London at the time of the murders and sailed for Australia on 9 November 1888 on the day of the last murder.

For the past century and a quarter, thousands of so-called Ripperologists around the world have tried to crack the case.

Theories have included suspects such as a member of the royal family, a doctor, a lawyer, an artist, a Polish Jew and another Australian suspect Frederick Deeming who was hanged in Melbourne in 1892 for murdering his wife.

On the eve of today's 60th anniversary of a Porriott's burial, his grave has been desecrated with the tombstone ripped from its base and smashed into the concrete surrounding the gravesite.

In 2008, a mystery image appeared on the cross above Porriott’s grave depicting a side-on view of a capped man with an arm raised above his head and a dagger in his hand.  This was featured on Australia television.  (See first link below.)

President of Australia's Whitechapel Society Paul Tully described the vandalism as a sickening and senseless attack.

Tully described the evidence against Porriott as the Whitechapel killer of London’s East End as "paper thin".

“He was an evil impostor, thief, conman, jailed killer and bigamist who had more than 20 wives during his lifetime.

"He was a loner in his wife Bessie's family with no name ever placed on his tombstone just the pitiful words: Bessie and her Husband.

"Maybe the family didn't really know who he was as he used dozens of aliases over the years."

Tully said Porriott's crimes and modus operandi were not those of a serial killer.

Tully, who is believed to have the largest private collection of Jack the Ripper books and memorabilia in Australia, is writing his own book on the world’s first recognised serial killer.

“I personally do not believe Walter Porriott was Jack the Ripper but this theory has never been completely refuted.”

WHITECHAPEL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA – RipperAustralia@gmail.com

LINKS:

Is Australia's Walter Porriott Jack the Ripper? http://jack-the-ripper-1888.blogspot.com.au/2008/09/is-australias-walter-porriott-jack.html   (This link includes the original TV video on Walter Porriott from 2008.)

Mystery image of Jack the Ripper appears in Australia - http://jack-the-ripper-1888.blogspot.com.au/2008_08_01_archive.html
(This link includes pic of Porriott’s gravesite in 2008 and the original Bulletin article of 30 December 1997 where the family exposed Porriott as Jack the Ripper.)

Who is Walter Porriott? - http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_is_Walter_Thomas_Porriott

120 years of notoriety: Was Jack the Ripper a Londoner with 20 wives who fled to Australia? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1051015/120-years-notoriety-Was-Jack-Ripper-Londoner-20-wives-fled-Australia.html

 

30.8.12

 

New Ripper theory: The Man Who Would Be Jack

CRIME WRITER: PCSO David Bullock
will get the hard copy of
The Man Who Would Be Jack
in his hands after 18 years.

A COMMUNITY support officer has swapped crime fighting for crime writing after completing an 18-year project on Jack the Ripper.

PCSO David Bullock, 36, patrols Windsor town centre during the day, but his love of writing and fascination with the Ripper case led him to research the character of Thomas Hayne Cutbush. He was a man suspected, but never tried, as being the unidentified serial killer who terrorised London prostitutes in 1888.

Mr Bullock began researching Cutbush's background in 1994. Once he finally gained unprecedented access to files from the suspect's time at the high security Broadmoor Hospital, in Crowthorne, in 2008, he knew publishing a book was possible.

Speaking to The Observer, Mr Bullock said: "That moment really was a big thing for me and from there I started to look seriously at putting a story together.

"Examining the notes from Broadmoor was amazing. It gives a lot of new insight into Cutbush's anger and his paranoia that people were after him.

"The process of writing the book was brilliant. It was hard, but anything worth doing you have to put your all into it."

While uncovering the details of Cutbush's life and character, The Man Who Would Be Jack explores the story of Inspector William Race, who first suspected the 25-year-old, and his relationship with two newspaper journalists who helped him to identify crucial eye-witnesses.

Mr Bullock added: "Inspector Race took an incredible risk by going to the press because his superiors refused to look into Cutbush. By going to the press he re-ignited the interest in the case and a lot more information was uncovered."

The Man Who Would Be Jack will be released on Tuesday, August 14, and will be available in Waterstones and at www.amazon.co.uk

www.windsorobserver.co.uk

6.8.12

Was Brisbane's Walter Porriott Jack the Ripper?

Walter Thomas Porriott is a man many believe to be the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. Porriot was a convicted killer, rogue impostor, backwater quack and man of a thousand identities and is believed to be buried with his wife in a grave in Brisbane, Australia that merely reads: "Bessie" died 25th June 1957 and her husband. This was because he was so despised by the family. 

Quote from http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24264777-1248,00.html 

Porriott, whose legally acknowledged name was Andrew John Gibson, was buried amid family shame beneath his ever-faithful last wife Eliza "Bessie" Porriott on a hill with Brisbane city views at the Toowong Cemetery.

His story continues to fascinate new generations of crime sleuths around the world more than a century later - tonight marks the 120th anniversary of the Ripper's first grisly slaying in the dark back streets of industrial-era England.

While Ripper fanatics continue to debate the true identity of Jack the Ripper, some are convinced there is strong evidence implicating Porriott in the string of five prostitute murders.

He was a habitual bigamist who broke as many hearts as he did bank accounts by the time he died in 1952.

His actual birth name and date of birth - he was believed to have been in his 80s when he died, although officially he was recorded to be 59 - are just some of the secrets he took with him to his grave.

But Brisbane City Council records reveal that he now lies beneath "Portion 7A, Section 185, Grave Number 9/10".

In 1997 Porriott's Sydney-based great-grandson, Steve Wilson, publicly claimed he had little doubt his late relative was the infamous serial killer.

Porriott was in England when all five "confirmed" murders were committed and when he sailed to Australia in November 1888 the murders stopped, among other pieces of supporting evidence.

Porriott was also known to be a misogynist - he particularly hated prostitutes - who spent his life marrying women in order to fleece them of their assets before fleeing.

Despite all his family's suspicions, many Ripper enthusiasts, known internationally as "Ripperologists", are divided over Porriott's guilt.

www.wiki.answers.com

Jack The Ripper was born and bred in Tottenham, new book claims

Alan Hicken decided to publish the
manuscript after he discovered it in 2008.

London’s most notorious serial killer, who butchered five women during a reign of terror on the capital’s Victorian streets, was born in Tottenham, a new book claims.

The Autobiography Of Jack The Ripper opens with the words “I was born at Tottenham”, meaning the man whose name struck fear into the hearts of many a 19th century woman of the night could have once walked along the High Road or visited the local parks.

The new book is based on a manuscript handed to Sydney George Hulme Beaman – an author and illustrator who created the “Toytown” radio series for children.

He claimed the yellowed pages were given to him in the 1920s by a one-legged acquaintance named James Carnac, who asked him to publish it after his death.

In fact, it was never published before Beaman himself died in 1932, and it lay untouched for nearly 80 years until being rediscovered in 2008 by Alan Hicken - owner of the Montacute TV Radio and Toy Museum in Somerset. He acquired the Carnac manuscript along with a collection of artwork, photographs and books once owned by Beaman, who died in 1932.

It wasn’t the kind of thing he expected to find.

“I put it to one side for a week or so, but then I started reading it at 10pm one night. I was up until about four in the morning. I couldn’t put the book down. It was about his deeds, and it was about him growing up in Tottenham.”

According to the book, Mr Carnac – or Jack the Ripper – lived in the area until he was about 20, when his parents died a “grizzly” death.

“He mentions certain streets and everything else – even Bruce Castle,” said Mr Hicken.

But whether or not the book is a true account, or a figment of Tottenham-born Beaman’s imagination, is another matter altogether. Beaman’s daughter Betty certainly believed it was, as do a number of experts who say the level of detail in the book indicates he either was the Ripper, or had a very good source.

“Who knows,” said Mr Hicken. “It is up to the reader to decide.’’

"This time, I don’t think anyone is going to know one way or another.”

www.hornseyjournal.co.uk

Norwich production company to perform Jack The Ripper The Panto online

One of the previous performances
of Jack The Ripper The Panto

The grisly deeds of Jack the Ripper are certainly not a likely subject for a light-hearted stage show, but a Norwich-based production company is putting on a pantomime about the serial killer at a city theatre.

And Spooky Kid Productions is hoping to attract an even wider audience by streaming the pantomime live on the internet while it is performed at the Maddermarket Theatre in October.

The team has just released an online trailer to give people a taste of Jack The Ripper The Panto – and the hope is that the show will be a great platform to showcase the work of Norfolk performers.

Jim Blythe, from Hellesdon and who wrote the show with Graham Parry from Wymondham, said: “It is a pantomime in terms of structure and shape but definitely not a pantomime in terms of story.

We quite liked the idea of putting something into a pantomime that people would not expect. We are trying to cater for people who want something a little different.”

The show has previously been put on at the Norwich Puppet Theatre but the October performances at the Maddermarket will be the biggest production of the pantomime to date.

About 40 performers will appear in the show and there will be about 10 people taking part behind the scenes.

Mr Blythe said: “We thought streaming the show online would be the easiest way to give the show a life outside Norfolk. This is our biggest attempt yet to showcase talent outside of Norwich. It is a really exciting opportunity.”

The show’s score is written by Tym Dartnall.

To see the trailer of the show visit www.eveningnews24.co.uk

The Jack The Ripper The Panto is to be performed at the Maddermarket Theatre on Friday, October 5 at 7.30pm and Saturday, October 6 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Tickets cost £8 in advance and £10 on the door. Concessions are £6.

To book visit www.maddermarket.co.uk or call 01603 620917.

www.edp24.co.uk

Numerology Dissects Jack the Ripper

The year was 1888, and in the Whitechapel district of London, England, someone or persons unfamiliar was murdering prostitutes within the most macabre method. What created the crime unusual was the perpetrator of these atrocities appeared to possess knowledge of surgical abilities and really potentially belonged to the English higher courses. The police investigation, flashing led board wholesale by Inspector Frederick Abberline, was earning little, if any, headway.

Theories about the series of murders that took place in that calendar year carry on towards the present day. 1 famed hypothesis indicates the reason for the killings was to cover up the birth of an illegitimate kid to some member from the royal family. The Buy of Freemasons is often purported being the organisation that each facilitated the crime, on behalf with the crown, and conspired to avoid disclosure of the responsible get together.

In spite of all conjectures, Jack The Rippers identity was never ever uncovered.

Five deaths happen to be straight attributed towards the exact same man even though there were other similar murders that occurred around that time. 5 unfortunate girls became gruesome fatalities within a three-month interval for the duration of the autumn of that year.

Regrettably, birth registers had been ill held inside the 19th century, had the finish birth certificates for both equally groups been out there they would have made available substantial evidence for any Numerological evaluation. Since it is, just the numerological designation for that 12 months continues to be among the insufficient info, but this may be ample to produce the two the motive for the slayings and come close to revealing Jack the Rippers identity.

Numerology Analysis of 1888

In Numerology the digits in the year are studied individually. In this situation the profusion of eights would bear larger scrutiny. They’re then additional jointly consequently 1+8+8+8 = 25. The amount 25 is then dissected for hidden meanings before lastly incorporating 2+5 to realize a grand total of 7. The date would henceforth be called a 25/7 year. The following description of that calendar year is in narrative type whilst remaining accurate into the numerological info fitting that number.

1888, a 25/7year, in London

It was a dark time in Whitechapel, affordable with the abundant but desperate with the very poor. The years’ destiny foretold several issues but among the list of most annoying was that events within the early piece of the year would culminate in rampant violence.

It was a interval that needed an enterprise minded approach but one particular had to hold the signifies to do business in the first place. Nevertheless, the pursuit of money and power took precedence more than appreciate and private relationships.

Mysticism and prophecy distracted peoples’ minds through the realities of residing as well as the years’ disposition favoured the holding of strategies.

Escapist overtones pervaded the period and predisposed a lot of to overindulgence in alcohol, sex, drugs like as opium or occult practices.

A time of spiritual progress had arrived but if you want for this expansion to come about, fate had declared that many would be confronted with individual struggles or forbidding trials and tribulations.

The subsequent have to have for isolation and introspection coupled with an impractical perfectionism positioned relationships beneath terrific pressure. The failure of partners to dwell approximately every single other’s higher expectations coupled using the sexual facets of the year fluorescent led boards to very much infidelity, consequently the seven-year itch. Weak and delicate males looked to sturdy adult females to satisfy their impossible ideals but disappointment followed, hence an uncertainty or paranoia connected to girls flourished in that time. An air of loneliness accompanied this set of conditions in spite of the have to withdraw from ones fellows. A streak of cruelty and impatience, related by using a lack of fulfilment, was born from this state of affairs.

The Individual

Unbalanced people have been all of a sudden full of a pronounced missionary zeal and so they carried their concept into the entire world inside the harshest terms. They came from the two extremes in living. Extreme wealth, electrical power and impact or excessive poverty as well as a shedding streak, there was no middle floor. In possibly circumstance they were shrewd realists. Around the surface area they may have appeared self-assured and in management of their feelings but in truth they had been offered to hiding their feelings due to their innate sensitivity. Their depth of ambition and concern of poverty prompted them to either gain prosperity by any means prices or to safeguard the wealth which they all ready possessed. Their exterior traits proposed them to get rather cold and undemonstrative adult males with firm ethical principals despite the fact that it’s probable they ended up misunderstood and beneath the surface area they have been possibly lonely and annoyed. They expert difficulty with expressing their emotions to members of the opposite sex but have been unforgiving when slighted. This would have fluorescent led board suppliers them to endeavor total dominance through the object of their affection and they have been quite able to extreme violence.

Their need to have for sexual gratification was both paramount or they were sexually inhibited; in both situation they ended up possessed of the sexual conceit. A obvious character trait would are their obvious absence of the perception of humour and if any existed it could possibly have been scornful or sarcastic. In their negativity they were ruthless and intolerant of other people failings, hence, they’d have already been guys to either respect or concern but almost never ones to like or believe in. Their emotional problems and sense of loneliness would have alienated them building embittered, envious and hostile souls who felt cheated of affection or wealth or equally. The planet owed them plus they weren’t over the abuse of electricity in order to accomplish their ends.

Once their chosen training course of motion had been made the decision inflexibility set in which LED Writing Board them along harmful and unforeseeable paths however they have been familiar with taking dangers and in all probability had a liking for hazard. They neither sought nor took advice. They might even have already been sportsmen at a person level in their lives. Their pasts and ancestries frequently absorbed their minds. A powerful concern for your preservation on the relatives lineage would have granted this problem the utmost priority.

These ended up truly intricate individualists who stood apart from the crowd and who were established to go their own way..

The phrase ‘A Dark Horse’ signifies, ‘someone who emerges to prominence; being previously little known’. This description would have applied to them due to their secretive nature.

Hasty or impulsive actions have been destined to trigger these guys to undertake sudden travel, a alter of residence or escape.

Conclusion

It is simple to check out how the royal conspiracy grew to become so favorite and no matter how fanciful, it’s got for being acknowledged that stranger items have occurred. The profusion of 8′s inside the yr, factors into the motive for executing away together with the five gals, to get either stemmed from excellent wealth and impact or conversely in the poverty and degradation that was Whitechapel. It’s for being asked whether this was the work of a bitter failure that blamed females and specifically prostitutes for his lack of emotional and content well-being or was it a conspiracy which was completed in order to guard a robust friends and family. You will find somewhere around 20 considerable suspects and it is actually helpful that a great number of of the feasible ones descended within the similar put at the same time. Amongst them ended up characters like Chapman, Cream, and Hyams.

The numerical configuration to the 12 months advised the individual who was driving the Ripper killings was born while using traits of the eight influencing his existence, quite simply, the sum total of his full birth date or segments of his identify additional approximately an 8. In most cases it is actually unattainable to determine what number of suspects this applied to but there’s an individual. His hidden nature burned with ambition for prosperity and electrical power but he neither wished to be tied into a monotonous occupation nor did he spend an excessive amount of awareness for the settling of payments. This often fluorescent led boards into the expertise of wonderful anxiety in his everyday living. He would have loved equally sports and taking pitfalls. His nature was sexual into a large diploma but although he always projected an air of self-confidence he lacked it sufficiently to express his emotions. He was granted to an impulsiveness that resulted in sudden appreciate affairs and also the female of his attentions had to reciprocate entirely otherwise this gentleman possessed a harmful streak. 


On the outdoors entire world he appeared to get an independent soul who went apart from the crowd and might be a tad of a loner. He was overly aggressive and domineering at times which prevented individuals near to him from expressing on their own openly. He was a real mans gentleman and wanted for being in charge. His future showed that he aimed for perfection and that he was unforgiving when his ideals fell limited. The many years 1887 and 1888 have been the darkest in his living both equally economically and emotionally, accompanied by a lot of arguments and bleak moods. His personal chart in ’88 warned him against any attempts to impose his ideas on other folks or to prove that he was the boss but this would have gone towards his very nature. A sense of annoyance caused blood to get spilled. He’s to become pitied, as are his victims. His identify was Joseph Barnett.

For all those of you who choose to read additional about this circumstance make sure you accessibility the Jack the Ripper Casebook on the internet. I would like to thank all those that contributed to it.

www.udlnewhaven.com

13.6.12