@Spookdaddy All reasonable observations.
I have to confess to having a foot in both camps.
I love Holmes and have read a large amount on JtR too.
I always thought it was a shame that the two were not destined to cross paths. All the fiction I had read on the possibility was terrible, to say the least.
...Well, the thing is, the mysterious lodger of the title is called...Mr Sleuth.
A great early Hitchcock, and Ivor Novello was gorgeous.For those who may be interested in this particular tangent, a passable, if somewhat 'cosy', adaptation of Mary Belloc Lowndes story can be found on the Internet Archive on this page.
The Hitchcock connection is that his first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, was based on the story.
...or subliminal action on your part?I'm sometimes very unobservant. Today (9th November) is my late wife's birthday. Only today have I noticed that it was the same day in the year that Mary Jane Kelly was killed.
Given I had a maybe unhealthy interest in the JTR murders from quite young - years before I met my wife - one wonders if some sort of cosmic force was operating.
And the markets Vic.Yes.
I think night soil men also worked through the night.
I believe the docks would open for workers early in the morning, around 7AM.
And the markets Vic.
Anyway, the owner George, would get himself down to Spitalfields market at 2am each day, just to ensure he was buying the freshest possible produce, and I’m assuming that other traders were doing the same thing at that time, so that part of the east end, and particularly Spitalfields would have quite busy even in the early hours.
Yup Vic, Smithfield had the same working practice as Spitalfields – they worked through the night. Walk through Smithfield at lunchtime and the place is deserted.`Yes, I have a reminder in the back of my head to avoid driving through Smithfield from 12.30am to 7am.
There are so many lorries and vans about from the meat market that you inevitably get stuck there for ages.
My Uncle Brian was a Bummaree at Smithfield (Senior Porter).
I started off my working life at the tender age of 16 within a five-minute walk of Smithfield market, so knew all the pubs in the area very well – well I should have done as I delivered to all of them as I started off working as a postman lolLong time ago - before the 'relaxed' opening hours concerning drinkers - some chums and I plotted out a way to be able to buy booze over 24 hours.
It involved some 'market pubs' that were licensed to sell food and booze from early morning to noon, situated in Smithfiled and other markets, to cater to the shift workers.
After a couple of years of doing this, I was due a new (postal) uniform. My waist measurement had gone from 27-inch waist to 36-inch waist in just 2 years lol.
Thankfully, I slimmed back down after I left working for the royal mail
Ha Ha, Evening Vic old chap.My mate was the opposite, he got a job as a postman a few years back.
He was about 5 foot 8 and and 14 stone, having spent years in the City living it up on expense accounts.
He got made redundant and became a postman, and is much happier.
He lost about two stone (28lbs for the Americans) in his first year, simply by walking and delivering.
I like most beers, but that just shows you how many calories they have.
But of a grim tangent @Dick Turpin , but did drinking that early ever give you the squits?
I know people who say never to drink beer for breakfast on an empty stomach for that reason.
Ha Ha, Evening Vic old chap.
To answer your question about the tom tits - no that never happened to me thankfully lol.
While Leather Apron - John Pizer, turned out to be innocent of these crimes at least, it does lend some credence to the car man suspect, Charles Cross/Lechemere — someone who would have had cause to be about at the odd times, look like part of the furniture and still have opportunity.There was that nickname Leather Apron. If he wore such an apron, people might simply assume he was a butcher even if he had a lot of blood on him. Hiding in plain sight really.
Even in a potentially stained and soiled state, this attacker was able to steal himself and fade back into the streets to be invisible.
Has anyone read this?
A theory by Rod Beattie that the Ripper was a Metropolitan Policeman called Bowden Endacott.
View attachment 65916
A quick Google reveals that he was the arresting officer in a controversial case in June 1887. TLDR: He arrested a young woman, alleging that she had been soliciting for the purposes of prostitution in Regent Street. The girl - a Miss Cass - hotly denied the allegation. The case caused quite a sensation.
lnteresting.
maximus otter
This sounds highly dubious. In much the same way that the mortuary attendant suspect, Robert Mann, was a picked as a fit for a thesis, it sounds as if there is no actual evidence for involvement at all.
I'm sure there's any number of casual characters form the period and the scene that could be fitted up to a thesis.
Unless there is some direct connection made, it's all pointless speculation.
This sounds highly dubious. In much the same way that the mortuary attendant suspect, Robert Mann, was a picked as a fit for a thesis, it sounds as if there is no actual evidence for involvement at all.
I'm sure there's any number of casual characters form the period and the scene that could be fitted up to a thesis.
Unless there is some direct connection made, it's all pointless speculation.