Jack the Ripper and Singer and Composer Michael Maybrick (The Unusual Suspects Part 7 / 12)

Singer and composer Michael Maybrick was the Victorian equivalent of a pop star in 1889 when his older brother, James, died under enigmatic circumstances. In 2015, writer and director Bruce Robinson nominated Michael as the Ripper, based on what he believes happened to James as well as Michael’s involvement in the Freemasons, one of the most secretive and talked-about fraternities in Victorian England.

This woman is poisonous he thought to himself singer and composer Michael mayck locked eyes with Florence his sister-in-law and came out with it he had strong suspicions about this case they were standing in the well-appointed morning room of battle cre house the Liverpool residence where Florence and

James mayri made their home Michael had never much cared for the Mistress of the manor this alabaman Bell his cotton broker brother had picked up on a steamer from New York to Liverpool now James was bedridden with an unexplainable ailment and given the rumors Michael had heard she could

Hardly have fallen farther in his estimation Florence flinched evidently stung by her brother-in-law’s statement she had no idea what he was talking about she responded James wasn’t recovering Michael shot back at her and it was her fault had she possessed a less Steely disposition Florence might have broken down at the accusation might

Have collapsed onto a sofa unable to Bear it but she didn’t if it first phased by the confrontation Florence by now had regained her composure she alone had nursed James she avered and who but she his lawfully wetted wife had greater right to nurse him in a matter of days

James would be dead with Foul Play suspected both Michael and Florence would face allegations of killing Mr MRI at one time or another but only one of them stood trial for murder when his older brother died in 1889 Michael mabrick was the Victorian equivalent of a pop star having composed some of the

Period’s most celebrated ballads his Fame only intensified interest in the trial that followed James’s passing a cause celeb that got underneath the Public’s skin like few others had in the 19th century in 2015 writer and director Bruce Rob Robinson nominated Michael as a ripper suspect and he’s also got ideas

About what happened to James maybrick Robinson has laid the blame on Michael partly because he held a prominent position in the Freemasons A brotherhood Bound by solemn oath to safeguarded secrets from the uninitiated in the most gargantuan conspiracy theory we’ve encountered thus far Robinson contends that Mason’s past and present have

Banded together to bury the truth about Jack the Ripper namely that the killer belonged to their ranks this episode we’ll hear about why the Victorian ballader has been accused of Serial murder how the Freemasons have gotten wrapped up in the White Chapel slayings and what it all has to do with

The mysterious death of James maybrick this is the art of crime and I’m your host Gavin Whitehead welcome to episode seven of the unusual suspects Master Mason Michael maybrick [Applause] born in the western sea port of Liverpool on January 31st 1841 Michael mayri had music in his blood his father an engraver by profession dabbled in composition his uncle played Oregon at St Peter’s Church in town wrote Sacred Music and also conducted for Liverpool’s Coral Society by the age of 8 Michael

Had already attained proficiency on the piano and before long he’ done the same on the organ this little boy commanding that Behemoth of an instrument at 14 he’d already had one of his compositions performed at London’s storied Covent Garden opera house and within a year he’d been appointed organist at St

Peters doubtless precocious Michael was destined for a brilliant career in 1865 aged 24 he left home for leig with the intention of mastering keyboard there much to his surprise he realized that he had long underestimated his singing voice a Supple baritone now determined to advance as a vocalist Michael took a

Train from leig to Milan where he studied under an instructor of international Renown Gano Nava by the early to mid 1870s Michael was back from Italy and headed for the stratosphere as a singer and composer something of a Simon in need of his gar funkle Michael Consolidated a creative partnership with

A Bristol born lawyer by the name of Frederick Weatherly in most cases Michael wrote The Melodies under the pseudonym of Steven Adams while Weatherly thought up the lyrics when it came time to drop a new song it was Michael who belted them out on stage soon the duo had won Fame and riches

Several of their most beloved hits involved nautical themes one of them Nancy Lee sold over 100,000 copies in a span of 2 years an unprecedented success it doesn’t take a degree in advanced musicology to understand why their music was popular especially famous for his refrains Michael could have taught a

Master class on the art of writing a hook radios weren’t blasting in the 1870s but you still heard his Melodies wherever you went a report of for the new era magazine captures the ubiquity of Nancy Lee quote everyone was singing it humming it or whistling it in the

Street dinned into every ear morning noon and night Mr May has much to answer for in having given forth this inspiration to the world for it seems to have fallen like a spell on every individual capable of making musical sounds unquote a succession of hits followed including the tars farewell the

Midship might and the they all love Jack as the royalty streamed in Michael and his collaborator made a fortune what you’re hearing now is a quick extract from a 1919 recording of they all love Jack you can hear the whole thing on the art of crime

Website when the ship ISM and ready and the Jolly days are G when the last good FES are wh and Jack aboard is gone the laugh fall are Weeping as they watch his vessel for all the lands are nothing Jack for all the Lands good looks have never heard a pop stars appeal and Michael had them in ample Supply Mustachio muscular and 6 feet tall he cut an athletic figure and maintained his physique into middle age yting cycling and free frequenting the cricket field in short Michael was the kind of celebrity others of his stature

Wanted to have around London’s leading artists enjoyed each other’s company at one of the singer favorite haunts the cafe Royal which Bruce Robinson calls quote about as close to Paris as London got unquote Oscar wild was a habitu and he would rattle off epigrams like a

Gatling gun at one of the caf’s marble toop tables pausing for a sip of Exquisite sh campaign before resuming fire wild was far from the only notable to drop by an accomplished musician in his own right Jimmy Glover reminisced quote one sat there night after night together with every sort of art genius

And talent all came to this at that time the only real on team Cafe in London unquote Glover adds of his evenings at the Royal quote I have played dominoes with Michael maybrick who composed a 100 great songs as Steven Adams Unquote like many men of high social standing Michael also hung out with an incrowd of a slightly more occult character the Freemasons this highly secretive fraternity originated in England though when precisely is difficult to say some histories pinpoint the brotherhood’s Inception to 1717 with the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England more

Grandiose theories Trace its lineage back to the Middle Ages the Roman Republic and even Biblical times some have even maintained that Masons erected the Tower of Babel in the beginning the order is said to have consisted of professional stonemasons Tradesmen who built churches and Cathedrals all across

Europe by around the middle of the 1700s however it had transformed into more of a social organization welcoming members of various professions and many if not most initiates wouldn’t have had a clue as to how to lay a brick from the dawn of its recorded history Freemasonry has

Been a mystical order with high-minded ideals in his book The Path of Freemasonry Mark stavish explains the society’s core tenants the Brotherhood defines itself as quote A peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols unquote its primary objective is quote to make good men better unot to build them into

Superior beings through fraternity philosophy and charity such edified individuals are then expected to better Society the crafts activities are founded on a complex system of symbols customs and rituals most of which derive from scriptural references to the construction of the Temple of Solomon in ancient Jerusalem masonry’s own unique

Mythology and the handed down traditions of of medieval trade guilds if this all sounds a bit abstract that’s largely because the Brotherhood is shrouded in mystery Outsiders have little insight into masonry and initiates are prohibited from letting them in on it in fact they agree to suffer horrendous

Violence should they betray the secrets of the Brotherhood in Michael Mack’s lifetime most people were cognizant that the Masons were out there not least because many of the Victorian establishment’s most prominent representa were known to be members for example the Prince of Wales later to reign as King Edward iith held the fancy

Title of worshipful grandmas still what happened in masonry stayed in masonry you knew who they were but not what they did on January 4th 1862 a writer for the Saturday review of politics literature science and art described the strange State of Affairs this way quote we know everything about

Freemasonry except what Freemasonry is Unquote the Brotherhood might have attracted Michael and others of his vocation at least partly because music had long enlivened its private and occasionally public activities in the organization’s early days members held large meetings in the upper rooms of a Tavern or perhaps in a coffee house these gatherings Incorporated the

Singing of songs usually AC capella in his article English Masonic lodges pipe organs and National Heritage Andrew pink notes that the fraternity made use of marching bands in honor of freshly elected Grand Masters on these occasions Masons proceeded through the streets of Westminster and the city of London to

The annual Grand Feast to the delight and perhaps annoyance of passers by over time the pipe organ became a fixture of the Masonic meeting place toward the end of the 1700s lodges had begun to convene not in taverns or coffee houses but instead in Regional purpose-built Halls

A pipe organ could easily be installed at the time of construction at first this instrument served more of a commercial purpose than it would later like most other people Freemasons had bills to pay a lodge could rent out its Hall to say a musical Society in need of

A space with an organ on site every organ needed an organist not just someone who could play the instrument but someone who could also lead other members in song from the turn of the 1800s freem Masonic organists shaped the content of the order’s musical offerings in many cases they had learned

Their way around a keyboard in religious environments for this reason Christian hymns Psalms and other Sacred Music comprised a fair portion of masonic Melodies Michael was no ordinary Mason precisely because he was no ordinary musician when it came to the organ he was a maestro in 1889 he received the

Title of grand organist thereby becoming the most imminent instrumentalist in London Freemasonry he inherited the mantle from Superstar composer Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan Fame by 1889 then Michael had achieved tremendous recogn not only as a musician but also as a Mason that same year he

Would step into a murder mystery that would tarnish the name maybrick and perhaps even alter the course of his career come quick strange things are going on here one Wednesday morning in May 1889 Michael received this message from Matilda Briggs a Liverpool neighbor of his older brother James James as

Michael was aware James had taken ill in the past week or so whatever was going on Mrs Briggs telegram didn’t bode well and Michael likely assumed that James’s condition had worsened the singer canell whatever plans he may have had and booked it to Liverpool on an Express train Edwin maybrick Michael’s younger

Brother collected him at the station as they drove to battle cre house James’s estate Edwin filled Michael in on the case their sister-in-law Florence had bought fly papers and left them to soak in a chemical solution intended for use as a facial cleanser this ad mixture contained a small amount of arsenic

Perhaps surprisingly victorians used this dangerous substance for a variety of everyday applications including Cosmetics so long as they were careful there was no need to fret at first Florence’s face wash seemed more or less innocuous everything changed a day or two before Michael rushed to his brother’s bedside Alice Yap the May

Brick’s nursemaid went for a stroll with their daughter glattus as they were leaving Florence entrusted Yap with a letter and asked her to mail it the missive was addressed to a young colleague of James’s a 6-foot broad-shouldered cotton broker of 27 years called Alfred brle his name alone would have stirred the nursemaid’s

Curiosity earlier that year James had seen Florence walking with briarly arm in arm that same day James flew into a Fury quarreling with Florence in front of the servants and even striking her across the face Yap would have wondered why Mrs mayri was writing to Mr briely

Especially with her husband laid up in bed while Yap was taking the letter into town it just so happened to fall in a puddle sullying the envelope the nursaid could have Pur purchased a replacement envelope at the post office written Bri Le’s address on it and placed the soiled envelope inside

Unopened there was certainly no need to do what she did she picked up the Fallen stationer broke the seal and pulled out its contents scanning the letter she immediately caught sight of its opening word dearest which was punctuated passionately with an exclamation mark it was as if this communication had come

Straight from the pages of sensation novel it was nothing short of scandalous for a married woman to address any man other than her husband as dearest Yap now had all the materials she needed for her fancy to run a muck the makings of a murder plot suddenly became clear to her

And only she had the power to thwart it Yap was all but certain that James had taken a turn for the worst in the past few days because Florence had been lacing his meals with arsenic derived from her fly papers she wanted him dead so she could shack up with briely it

Made perfect sense thoroughly appalled and no less thrilled by her own deductions Yap presented them along with the letter to Edwin who in turn communicated the theory to Michael no sooner had Michael crossed the threshold of battle cre house than he took control of the situation he alone would confer

With James’s doctors his brother’s condition had grown worse among other symptoms his throat was prickling with an ulcer and he complained of searing pain in his lower abdomen the Physicians diagnosed him with dyspepsia caused by an inflammation of the stomach begging to differ Michael offered his own diagnosis accusing Florence of poisoning

His brother this allegation took the doctors aback and they cautioned Michael against jumping to conclusions when he hinted at Florence’s over familiarity with briely however they they suddenly started whistling a different tune maybe they had better run a few tests in seeing fit to share these suspicions with medical professionals Michael lent

Credence or at least appeared to lend Credence to yap’s hunch things were not looking great for Florence the doctors examined James’s urine and feces and were relieved to report they hadn’t recovered any traces of poison however the afternoon of May 11th brought more unsettling finds ings one of the medical

Men had tested a bottle of meat juice Florence was known to have handled and it did contain poison incandescent Michael banished her from her husband’s sick room whether she was by his bedside or not however it had become clear there was no saving James his pulse had slowed

And he rambled Delirious at around 8:30 p.m. that day James faded away aged 51 grief and shock mingled with horror after the autopsy a small amount of arsenic less than two grains had turned up in his system an inquest was held and a verdict of willful murder reached like

Many others the police eyed the Widow as the likeliest culprit and charged her with the crime the nation looked on as Florence mayri went to trial at St George’s Hall Liverpool the prosecution needed to prove that Florence had murdered James by arsenical poisoning and they would

Not have an easy time of it James’s body had contained less than two grains an amount most considered insufficient to kill but that was only part of it as became evident James was an addict and his drug of choice was none other than arsenic many victorians knew that when

Consumed in tiny quantities this colorless flavorless and odorless substance provided a high James treated it much like a condiment adding it to his food his wine and his tea no wonder he was in and out of the Apothecary All Day quote he used to call continually at my shop a Liverpool druggist recalled

Sometimes four or five times a day for what he called his pickme up but which was Liquid arsenic Calis unquote so James’s autopsy found less than what many deemed the minimal lethal dosage of arsenic in his system moreover he could have stomached more than most because he

Had built up tolerance by feeding his addiction on top of it all experts couldn’t reach a consensus as to whether he had shown symptoms of arsenical poisoning before or after his death that James had taken a vast assortment of other foreign substances only further muddied the waters his dangerous drug

Habit not withstanding he was an inveterate hypoc condriac often purchasing new medications and hope they would cure this or that imagined malady at the time of his death he could have stocked a small Pharmacy with 163 medicine bottles scattered between his office and home had James’s obsessive self-medication contributed to his

Illness or had his doctors offed him without meaning to in the days leading up to his demise after all they had prescribed nearly two dozen poison irritants as part of his treatment as the trial progressed one irrefutable truth Shone through Florence had done more than pin sweet nothings to Alfred

Brle Florence had grown sick unto death of her husband long before he’ battered her not least because he appeared to have been cheating on her she had resolved to file for divorce and also arranged an out of town trist on March 21st a little over a month before Yap

Went snooping around in her mail Florence took a train into London disembarking at Huston station and heading from there to Flat men’s Hotel nestled in an upper middle class neighborhood there she rended with dearest Mr brle the hotel staff knew him as Mr Thomas maybrick however because

That was the name that Florence gave them while booking their rooms as far as they could tell she was staying there with her spouse after a private dinner Florence had fallen asleep in the arms of this younger clier more tender Mr maybrick a much needed respit from her passionless marriage this London diance

Came up again and again throughout the proceedings Michael testified that his brother died without knowledge of his wife’s infidelity in a pre-written statement hotly anticipated by the general public Florence set the record straight she got to her feet in the dock tearful and Wan her gloved hand

Clutching a rail for support in a disclosure that knocked the wind out of the courtroom she declared that on the eve of her husband’s passing before Michael banished her from his sick bed she made a quote full and free confession and received his entire forgiveness for the fearful wrong I had

Done him unquote it took extraordinary audacity to admit to her adultery in public and Florence would have done so unsure whether it would work for or against her judge Fitz James Steven father of James Kenneth Steven whom we discussed in episode five of this season presided over the trial Fitz james’

Summation permanently besched his reputation like some kind of Death March it dragged on for 2 days clocking in at 12 hours on day two of his confusing confused and prejudicial monologue Steven appeared to advise the jury to disregard the overwhelming scientific uncertainty C surrounding James’s death and to focus instead on the

Circumstantial evidence against the defendant later that day Steven’s blood came to an instantaneous boil as he launched into a tiate about what he termed Florence’s quote unquote disgrace her affair with briely would have given her motive to kill he contended and if she could stoop as low as adultery who

Was to say she would stop at murder when his dreary rant had come to an end the jury Rose and exited the chamber despite judge Steven’s out ofline di tribe many observers expected an aquid surely the contradictory medical testimony provided room for Reasonable Doubt 43 minutes after the jurors had departed they filed

Back in and blew these predictions to Smither they found Florence guilty of murder in the eyes of many commentators Florence had stood trial for flouting the Norms of Womanhood and wood more than anything else according to Kate coun author of did she kill him Florence’s story riled up the nation the

Way it did because it had touched multiple nerves at once laying be the disappointment felt by many married women and the Victorian hypocritical Readiness to condemn adulterous wives while they Shrugged off the misdeeds of a wayward husband the trial caused even greater agitation because it had taken place amid a climate of enormous

Political IAL and social change when a new breed of woman was striving for opportunities to lead a more fulfilling life in the modern world I’ve only scratched the surface of this case’s significance and if you want to know more I highly recommend Calhoun’s book after The Verdict Florence prepared to

Hang by the neck men and women on either side of the Atlantic were outraged by this flagrant miscarriage of Justice the morning of Florence’s scheduled execution she re received word that her sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment she was released after 15 years of miserable confinement a too

Little too late acknowledgement that Florence never should have gone to prison in the first place later she moved to the state of Conneticut where she died in poverty at the time of her sentencing Michael expressed a fervent wish for her life to be spared his wish came true but

Who was he kidding he denounced Florence as a scheme murderer even when his brother was still clinging to life thanks to his testimony he helped send his sister-in-law to trial knowing full well that anuse could be waiting if she were convicted he had played his part in her utter Ruination as Bruce Robinson would have it Michael had done more than facilitate Florence’s downfall in a sense Robinson is a Master Mason in his own right right in his 2015 book they all of Jack busting the Ripper he constructs a conspiracy theory more Titanic than any we’ve encountered yet his argument

Unfolds over 800 pages of minuscule print to appendices included so it’s no simple task to scale it down to a size appropriate for a single podcast episode here’s a basic blueprint think of Robinson’s Theory as a bridge connecting James Mack’s death with the White Chapel homicides the structure rests upon three

Large pillars first Michael’s hatred of Florence second his imminence as a Freemason third his alleged association with a controversial document known as The Diary of Jack the Ripper only by isolating each of these pillars and looking at them carefully can we understand how they prop up Robinson’s

Reasoning for the time being we’ve said enough about the first pillar Michael’s flaming loathing for Florence now let’s move on to pillar number two so why would Michael’s involvement in Freemasonry implicate him in the White Chapel nightmare Robinson’s book is not the first to cry foul of the Masons that

Distinction belongs to Jack the Ripper the Final Solution by Steven Knight first published in 1976 which names Walter ceret as an accomplice to the crimes Robinson has red Knight and recycles many of his key points for this reason over the next few minutes I’m going to be talking about both their

Books we begin with blood that was shed in Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago at least according to M Sonic Legend our tale revolves around ham AB the brilliant master builder who oversaw the construction of King Solomon’s Temple light and Shadow danced on walls of pure gold as lamps flickered inside side

Outside stood two pillars known as yahin and Boaz said to have measured 6t thick by 27 ft tall cast from bronze by hirama beef envious of his genius and wrathful when he refused to share his occult knowledge with them three lowly Craftsmen jubila jubilo and jubileum slew the great architect when Solomon

Learned of their transgression he had them hunted down and hauled before him Doling out punishments of well biblical severity each would have his throat cut and suffer his own unique bodily mutilations most Germain are those of jubilo quote vile and impious wretch Solomon declared to him it is my order

That you be taken without the gates of the temple and have your left breast torn open your heart and vitals taken from then and thrown over your left shoulder and carried to the valley of Jehoshaphat there to become prey to the White wild beasts of the field and vultures of the air

Unquote as Robinson would later night sees parallels between the Assassins executions and the White Chapel homicides like Ham’s Killers all five victims had their throats slashed more specifically Annie Chapman and Katherine edos had their int Trails removed and thrown over one shoulder in what both regard as a conscious imitation of

Juilo’s penalty so according to Knight and Robinson Jack was riffing on freemasonic myth when he mutilated his victims these two authors also content that more than one Freemason could tell that the killer was a fellow brother and did everything in their power to prevent the public from discovering the truth as

Knight points out conspiratorial murder had been attributed to Masons before According to some adherence of The Craft did away with a composer of even greater esteem than Michael maybrick he’s been dead for 200 30 odd years but I’m willing to wager you know his name because it was Mozart on December 5th

1791 The Prodigy succumbed to a mysterious monthlong ailment only 35 years old since then commentators have advanced more than 100 theories about what killed him at the time of his death the rumor mill was running at Peak productivity almost as soon as the composer was in the ground it was

Whispered that someone had poisoned him him according to an early biographer France nitek Mozart himself even entertained this notion in his final days morbid paranoia might account for these fears but conspiracy theorists have linked the possibility of Murder by poison to Freemasonry like many Austrian corders in the late 18th century Mozart

Had sworn the brotherhood’s Oaths and his commitment to the fraternity resounds throughout his music just months before dying he completed the free remas in Canada celebrating a temple that Mozart’s Lodge had opened and he also conducted the vienes premiere of The Magic flu an opera replete with freemasonic symbolism the

Conspiracy theorists hold that Mozart ran a foul of the Brotherhood by revealing its secrets in The Magic Flute thus the composer was taken out such a plot is feasible because of certain Oaths that Mason take at least according to Knight after ascending to the lofty rung of Royal Arch Mason he explains

Members make a series of disturbing vows to begin with they pledge quote a companion Royal Arch Mason’s Secrets given me in charge as such and I knowing them to be such shall remain as secure and inviable in my breast as in his own murder and treason not Exempted unquote

In addition they swear quote that I will Aid and assist a Royal Arch Mason when engaged in any difficulty and espouse his cause so far as to extricate him from the same if in my power whether he be right or wrong unquote Knight would have us believe that where Royal Arch Masons are

Concerned it’s against the rules not to participate in a conspiratorial coverup when a brother of that rank is running around town committing serial murder in the context of White Chapel Knight sees evidence of a coverup in one policeman’s handling of quote the most conclusive proof of all that the murders were Masonic

Unquote it was 2:55 in the morning Alfred long was patrolling his beat in goulston Street White Chapel when he spied a scrap of clothing lying on the ground he may not have given it a second thought were it not for 12 words chocked in white on the black brick wall almost

Directly above it near an open doorway leading to the basement of numbers 108 through1 19 the Vandal had written with a school boy labored neatness in the days and years to come there’d be disagreement as to what precisely the message said at present however it’s generally accepted that it read as

Follows quote the Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing unquote with Jews misspelled as J W unbeknownst to Long about 70 minutes before this curious Discovery a policeman had stumbled upon Catherine ‘s corpse in miter Square the authorities would soon learn where the discarded

Tatter beneath the grao had come from it had been torn from the apron that edos was wearing at the time of her death and was smeared with her blood the Ripper had passed through goulston Street the location of Edo’s corpse Vis the graffito resulted in something of a jurisdictional

Snafu on the one hand edos died just inside the limits of the the city of London the capital’s Chief Financial District the city of London had long enjoyed its own separate police force simply called the city police on the other hand the writing on the wall was

Found outside the city of London under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police when the acting commissioner of the city police major Henry Smith caught wind of the gouston street grafo he suspected that the killer might have written it while making his Escape Smith authorized officers to photograph the message meanwhile Chief commissioner of

The Metropolitan Police Sir Charles Warr was speeding to White Chapel roused from bed by word of the double homicide Elizabeth stride had perished the same night according to Robinson Who Has Lifted this idea straight out of night when Warren stepped out of his Carriage onto goulston Street he took one look at

The chalk inscription and immediately discerned the Masonic significance Warren was one of the most learned Freemasons in Britain as Robinson stresses over and over again he had even taken part in an archaeological excavation of the Temple of Solomon it was only natural for a Mason of Warren’s

Knowledge to zero in on the spelling of Jews j u Wes tipped off by the juu at the beginning of this word Warren concluded that it could only refer to the three Craftsmen jubila jubilo and jubilo all of whose names begin with ju they of course cut down hamabe the masterful

Architect of King Solomon’s Temple like night before him Robinson argues that with this inscription the Ripper was announcing his Masonic affiliation to the entire Metropolis Warren recognized as much and considered it his duty to protect his fellow brother by undermining the investigation these I hasten to add are

Knight and Robinson’s interpret ation of Warren’s thought process what happened next is Undisputed fact Warren forbade City policemen to photograph the writing on the wall they were on his Turf so what he said went an officer at the scene copied the message down in his notebook Warren then ordered another

Policeman who was standing at the ready with a sponge to wipe the wall clean in doing so he obliterated what many commentators past and present have regarded as the one and only tangible clue the Ripper ever left before it could be photographed most Ripper authorities have laughed off the notion of a masonic

Plot to conceal the murderer’s identity some have chocked the allegedly free Masonic mutilations up to mere coincidence Philip suden notes in the complete history of Jack the Ripper that Chapman and Edo’s injuries differ slightly from those of jubilo the White Chapel knifeman had deposited their intestines not their hearts and other

Vitals contained in their chest above their right shoulders not their left attaching no particular significance to this act suden supplies a perfectly plausible and purely pragmatic explanation the killer could have knelt to the right of Chapman or Edo’s body with the knife in his right hand in this

Case he may well have lifted out their int Trails using his left which would have been free alternative I would add he could have put away his blade and used his right hand at any rate assuming he had positioned himself to the right of the corpse the shoulder on that side

Would have been closer than the one on the other and the area right above it would have made as suitable a place as any to put what he was holding as for the message on goulston street there’s much disagreement as to what it means but most have dismissed the Masonic

Reading as implausible partly because Jews J Wes was not in in use as shorthand for the Assassins of hirama beef but what was the graffo trying to say about Jews was it laying blame on them if so for what the White Chapel atrocities did it mean to suggest that

The Ripper was Jewish or conversely was it exonerating the Jews of any wrongdoing did the White Chapel slasher even write the message or had some other hand done it in which case the Ripper might have simply stopped to examine it while fleeing whoever defaced the wall police on the scene believed the writing

To have been hostile toward Jews Warren is said to have had it erased because he feared it would spark an anti-semitic Riot a rationale that many have called into question partly because the Metropolitan Police had a checkered history with Jews in the neighborhood to put it Mildly so that about about does it for pillar number two in Robinson’s argument the Rippers alleged affiliation with Freemason now it’s time for the third Michael’s supposed connection with the Diary of Jack the Ripper in 1992 an unemployed scrap metal dealer named Michael Barrett brought a curious document to dorine

Montgomery of rert crew literary agency it was a journal or a scrapbook more precisely 63 Pages written by hand The First 48 of which had been excised with a knife jumbled and rambling it purported to Chronicle the mental breakdown of a man driven mad with jealousy over his Unfaithful wife in his

Crazed State he carries out the White Chapel murders on the final page the author signs off with quote I give my name that all know of me so history do tell what love can do to a gentle man born Yours Truly Jack the Ripper unquote researchers reckoned that if they could

Ascertain who wrote this scrapbook they could work out who committed the White Chapel spree lucky for them the text gave them just enough Clues to arrive at the answer the adulterous wife was key to the solution as were several other details the author of this scrapbook was

None other than James maybrick or at least it seemed that way in the years to come at any rate James would emerge as a serious Ripper suspect at first Barrett claimed to have inherited this century old artifact from a friend at a pub later his estranged wife an contradicted his story saying

That she had given it to him according to an she’d first flipped through it in 1968 as a teenager at that time it belonged to her parents and in the late 80s she took possession of it a version of events confirmed by her father knowing that Michael Barrett aspired to

Become a writer and had passed the diary on hoping it would spur his imagination report a story as if these conflicting accounts weren’t bewildering enough already Barrett added another piece to the puzzle he admitted to having forged the entire document only for his solicitor to make a follow-up statement

Instructing everyone to ignore his confession still the document went to press in 1993 under the title of the Diary of Jack the Ripper edited and introduced by Shirley Harrison ripperologists descended on the volume like sharks on a wounded elephant seal in evaluating the diary’s authenticity ripperology brought the brightest Minds from some of

Academia’s darkest recesses to bear on the issue calling in experts from fields of study I didn’t know existed paper science being the one that most delighted me the tests have resulted in a tangled mess of contradictory views many maybe most regard the Scrapbook as a hoax though its state of origin is

Uncertain some consider consider it a late 20th century forgery While others have speculated that it could have been fabricated much earlier even as early as 1890 others insist on its authenticity Robinson is one of them in making his case for its genuine he places a minute detail underneath a

Microscope this all-important clue deres from a line of dog roll verse in the Scrapbook referring to the murders of stride and edos the nonsense poetry reads as follows quote one no good decided sir Jim strike another I showed no fright and indeed no light damn it the tin box was empty unquote the

Salient line is damn it the tin box is empty which has leapt off the page for Robinson because it appears to contain knowledge only a contemporary of the killer could possess at around the time of Edo’s autopsy officials made a list of her personal effects among them was a

Quote 10 Matchbox empty unquote the public hadn’t been aware of this detail until 1987 when Ripper Guru Donald rumo uncovered the original list in the city of London archives following in the footsteps of Ripper writer Martin Pho Robinson argues quote if whoever wrote the Scrapbook had means of knowing about

The 10 Matchbox empty contemporaneously with the Ripper then it is genuine and has an unimpeachable ass association with the name mayck unquote Robinson does identify what he regards as an unimpeachable association with the name mayck just not with James if you ask him Michael wrote it and with that we’ve established the

Three pillars of Robinson’s argument now at long last we can begin to wrap our heads around his case against Michael mck let’s start with motive over the course of this season Ripper suspects have supposedly murdered their victims for reasons of profound personal professional and even political significance Willie Clarkson killed to

Conceal his part in a blackmail racket one that if exposed could have cost him his appointment as Royal perier and costumier James Kenneth Steven murdered to spite the royal family for standing between him and his beloved former pupil Prince Eddie Sir William go Walter siker and their Coachman John netley kidnapped

A bunch of White Chapel extortionists who were butchered by goal in the name of National Security keeping Prince Eddie’s illicit marriage Under Wraps next to these Michael mri’s alleged motive for murder is so mundane it almost hurts he hated his sister-in-law like a lot as his friends and family knew

Florence was a spin Thrift and by the middle middle of 1888 she had racked up a mountain of debts forcing her to seek loans from Michael among others Robinson claims that Michael even though he needed the money himself spotted Florence 100 a hefty sum in the Victorian period according to Robinson

Making this loan filled Michael with such overwhelming uncontainable rage he sharpened the nearest knife and headed straight for White Chapel the women he prayed upon were surrogates for Florence enabling Michael to act out a fantasy of murdering her Robinson produces a ripper letter seldom cited by other writers as

Proof of this claim it says quote when I was in San Francisco in July 1888 I lent three women from London about 100 Sterling to pay some debts they had got into promising to pay me back in a month’s time and seeing that they had a ladylike look I lent the money unquote

The agreed upon date of reimbursement came and went without the debtors paying their duese I swore that I would have my revenge the Revenge was this that I would go to London and kill as many women as possible unquote in a stunning display of analytical calisthenics Robinson stretches and bends this

Letter’s content to bring it in line with his theory about Michael’s loan to Florence the Ripper is playing a funny little game Robinson explains in which the killer never means exactly what he says Michael’s letter converts his single deor that is Florence into three and furthermore hints at Florence’s

American Origins with a Sly illusion to San Francisco Robinson posits quote I think this text is about as near to a confession of motive as we’re ever going to get unquote unlike the overwhelming majority of researchers Robinson maintains that quote much unquote of the Ripper correspondent is genuine regardless of disparities in handwriting

Spelling ink and paper letters came to London from all over England not because farflung hoaxers had put them in the mail Robinson explains but rather because Michael was a traveling singer covering hundreds upon hundreds of miles on tour in other words the killer matier would have enabled him to post his

Taunting dispatches from all across the country so the Ripper was livid over 100 lb to his in-law that much is clear but why had he made a mockery of masonic myth while carving up his victims Robinson never provides a straightforward answer other than to intimate that Michael secretly hated all

Of Freemasonry like a lot as we’ve seen already the all of Jack rehashes many of the final Solutions arguments about the Rippers Masonic ties yet compared to Knight Robinson enlarges the scale of the coverup it wasn’t just Royal Arch Masons who helped out if I had to make a conservative estimate Robinson names

Between one and two dozen conspirators many of them involved in policing or the justice system these colluders variously destroyed evidence ignored important leads and fabricated red herrings to conceal the Killer’s identity the Confederates include chief police commissioner Sir Charles Warren Chief Inspector Donald Swanson White Chapel coroner wi Edwin back

Police surgeon Dr George Baxter Phillips and medical professional Thomas openshaw to list but a few countless other Bad actors are assumed to have chipped in even when Robinson cannot put a name to them the lying continues to this very day Freemasonry has what Robinson calls quote an ethos of institutionalized

Deceit unquote whereby it denies any link to the Ripper if at the time of the killings the truth had come out Robinson argues the entire fraternity would have come under Fire And since Freemasonry was more or less synonymous with the Victorian establishment all the powers that be would have too they all loved

Jack Robinson quips borrowing his title from a song by Michael the system protected him to protect itself after carrying out the White Chapel murders plus a few others along the way Michael needed someone to pin them on so why not James Robinson never explains why Michael’s brother made the

Most opportune py but here’s what happened according to him at some point Michael authored the Diary of Jack the Ripper framing his brother as the White Chapel murderer aided by Edwin his younger brother the singer poisoned James Robinson bases this claim in part on the testimony of a 20-year-old felon named

Robert Edward Reeves who had been in and out of prison and also deserted her Majesty’s Liverpool regiment under cover of Darkness one night Reeves claimed to have been lurking around Liverpool keeping an eye out for a purse to plunder when he happened to overhear a conversation between Edwin and Michael

As Reeves would have it the two were talking over a dastardly scheme to knock off James with lodam not arsenic assuming that blame would fall on Florence it seems not to strike Robinson as dubious that the mayck brothers were openly discussed saying their machinations in public nor does his star

Witness’s dishonorable past raise questions about his credibility to be fair Michael did look Shady to some of his contemporaries one of them even said so in print on August 15th 1889 the Manchester Courier published a letter from a Mr re muckley in which the author all but accuses the singer songwriter of

Homicide he points out that Michael had access to James in the leadup to his death that he made questionable choices about his brother’s treatment including the administration of an unprescribed pill that he had taken charge of the bulk of james’ assets and that on top of

It all he abhor his sister-in-law who he made sure was charged with the murder Michael threatened a lawsuit and muckley piped down once Michael had framed James as the Ripper and done him to death the singer faced yet another conundrum he needed a fall man for James’s murder or

A fall woman to be more accurate he incriminated Florence watching her tried and then convicted Robinson claims that Florence’s lawyer Charles Russell a card carrying Mason bungled her defense on purpose somehow understanding that one of his Brethren had set her up with his much reviled sister-in-law finally

Behind Bars the Ripper had finished his funny little game so much for Robinson the controversy surrounding Florence’s trial and the resulting notoriety of the name maybrick may have brought about major changes in Michael’s career after Florence’s imprisonment and again under the pseudonym of Steven Adams he came out

With one of his best loved songs the holy city still performed today there’s a link to a video in the show notes curiously Michael followed up his soaring Triumph with a swift Retreat it was at this moment when the singer was at the top of his game that he retired

From public performance he would never cease to compose but he would no longer Grace London the provinces or anywhere else with his honeyed baritone instead he withdrew to the Village of ride on the aisle of white located in the English Channel having tied the knot with his 40-year-old housekeeper Laura

Withers on March 9th 1893 after relocating Michael took an interest in civic affairs and was elected mayor of ride five times in conversation with her fellow inmates Florence cursed Michael as her quote unquote bitter enemy perhaps believing that her brother-in-law was spiting her even as she languished in prison

Consider what happened with her children Michael and Laura would never raise a brood of their own but the singer took at least partial responsibility for the well-being of Florence’s orphan son and daughter James and gladus he arranged for them to live with his London physician Dr Charles Fuller making a

Yearly payment of 100 to help fund their upbringing throughout the early years of Florence’s incarceration another mayb brother Thomas sent annual letters which included photographs of her boy and girl among the most treasured contents in her tiny cell these pictures to some degree enabled Florence to watch her children grow from afar

Then one year without explanation the pictures came to a stop in her 1905 Memoir Mrs May’s Own Story Florence reveals that Michael wrote a letter to the prison Governor quote to inform me that my son did not wish either his own or his sister’s photograph to be sent to

Me unquote James Jr was 12 at the time and it may have struck Florence as strange for the boy not his adoptive father or even his uncle Thomas to have made this decision at any rate this explanation wouldn’t have tallied entirely with Thomas’s reason for why the photographs stopped coming judging

From a letter he sent to her James wasn’t the one who had done the protesting quote Mr Michael mayck refused to permit it unquote it was as if Michael were reaching his hands through the bars of her cell to needle her where it hurt most Michael Mack is the last of our six unusual suspects next episode we’ll look back at the artists we’ve covered this season and consider what we’ve learned about the White Chapel homicides and the theories they’ve inspired will also answer one burning question why have so many artists been suspected of these

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