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Spring-Heeled Jack, East-End Disappearances & Other Mysterious Characters

RaM said:
No wonder they lost their scenes if confronted by a glow in the dark meat n two veg.
:freak:
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To be honest, I'd probably have to go for a nice lie down if confronted by that.
 
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catseye said:
In some of these descriptions, I wonder whether he actually didn't wear any lower garments at all. I agree with the rape/sexual assault conclusion, and wonder whether he did something like paint his lower limbs and...er...member with some kind of metallic paint. Then he could throw off the coat and count on his victim being frozen by his outlandish appearance.

I wonder if this would have been mentioned in reports?
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I think it’s more likely he would have taken his cue from a victorian piano and stained his nethers with a rich mahogany varnish.
 
catseye said:
In some of these descriptions, I wonder whether he actually didn't wear any lower garments at all. I agree with the rape/sexual assault conclusion, and wonder whether he did something like paint his lower limbs and...er...member with some kind of metallic paint. Then he could throw off the coat and count on his victim being frozen by his outlandish appearance.

I wonder if this would have been mentioned in reports?
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This sounds like an invaluable public service.
 
Ali_Strachan said:
East End Disappearances 1881-1890

I am trying to find information regarding unusual disappearances which began in the East End of London in 1881 and continued unsolved until January 1890. Apparently men, women and children from all classes disappeared into a 'Fortean void', never to be seen or heard from again -
except in one or two instances when the bodies of victims turned up leaving
no clue as to the cause of death.

Do you have any information on this, or can you recommend any resources I
may study.


Simon Aldis
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What a shame Simon is no longer on the board.
(Mods, I am not sure if this topic deserves to be in the Spring Heeled Jack folder).

I remember reading about this in the introduction to a very large Jack the Ripper book. I cannot remember the title and it looks like one that was lost in a house move. The introduction, which set the scene for London that year, mentioned that there were quite a few disappearances and that before they vanished they all had a far off look in their eye. I'd like to say that the book mentioned that some of them had said that they were going to a better place, but I am not 100% sure of this.

I remember reading the book when we lived in our house 2007-2018. I think there were two authors and they were renowned names in Ripper research.
Can anyone help? I'd love to know more about this.
 
West Road, where 3 of the missing girls lived, is just round the corner from where I was brought up. Although Amelia Jeffs was the only girl found, I remember from stuff that I have read that the clothes of one of the girls was found on the pitch of East Ham United a couple of miles away. One of the theories that did the rounds was that children were being snatched and smuggled abroad as part of the white slave trade (the docks were not that far away and many of the locals were dockers).
 
Looks as if a Ripper Street episode was loosely based on these disappearances:

'Ex-prostitute Rose answers a personal ad in the newspaper and meets a seemingly charming young man, Victor Silver. However he and his family are white slavers who drug and abduct Rose along with other young girls. Silver is assisted in his work by his sister and brother. Silver was once a suspect in the Ripper case.'
 
Steven said:
Looks as if a Ripper Street episode was loosely based on these disappearances:

'Ex-prostitute Rose answers a personal ad in the newspaper and meets a seemingly charming young man, Victor Silver. However he and his family are white slavers who drug and abduct Rose along with other young girls. Silver is assisted in his work by his sister and brother. Silver was once a suspect in the Ripper case.'
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And Silvertown is in the docks area :omg: (although named after Stephen Silver rather than Victor!)
 
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Now this may be a coincidence, but on another thread I recounted the story of a ghost me mother in law saw in the ladies loos in a pub called the Kings Head in West Ham Lane where I was a regular. Just so happens that the inquest into Amelia Jeff's death took place in the same pub. Weird stuff.........
 
DrPaulLee said:
(Mods, I am not sure if this topic deserves to be in the Spring Heeled Jack folder).
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I agee, but the topics were interwined on the very first page and it would now be extremely difficult to now separate them.

I'll widen the scope of the thread title.
 
DrPaulLee said:
I remember reading about this in the introduction to a very large Jack the Ripper book. I cannot remember the title and it looks like one that was lost in a house move. The introduction, which set the scene for London that year, mentioned that there were quite a few disappearances and that before they vanished they all had a far off look in their eye. I'd like to say that the book mentioned that some of them had said that they were going to a better place, but I am not 100% sure of this.

I remember reading the book when we lived in our house 2007-2018. I think there were two authors and they were renowned names in Ripper research.
Can anyone help? I'd love to know more about this.
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It doesn't quite fit your description - only one author, for a start - but Jan Bondeson's 2016 book Rivals of the Ripper has a 20-page-plus chapter titled 'The Murder of Amelia Jeffs and the Disappearances in West Ham, 1890'.

Yours sounds more like a collaboration between two of the likes of Begg, Evans, Westcott, Fido et al.
 
Yithian said:
I agee, but the topics were interwined on the very first page and it would now be extremely difficult to now separate them.

I'll widen the scope of the thread title.
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Thanks, it seems more all encompassing now. Not wishing to urinate on someone's roll call, but SHJ was a bit more widespread than London.
 
Steven said:
Jan Bondeson's 2016 book Rivals of the Ripper
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how have I missed this one?

And the book budget crumbles 10 days into the New Year. T'was ever thus! :twothumbs:
 
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DrPaulLee said:
I remember reading about this in the introduction to a very large Jack the Ripper book. I cannot remember the title and it looks like one that was lost in a house move. The introduction, which set the scene for London that year, mentioned that there were quite a few disappearances and that before they vanished they all had a far off look in their eye. I'd like to say that the book mentioned that some of them had said that they were going to a better place, but I am not 100% sure of this.

I remember reading the book when we lived in our house 2007-2018. I think there were two authors and they were renowned names in Ripper research.
Can anyone help? I'd love to know more about this.
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I’m pretty sure I’ve read something along those lines, too, but it must have been quite some time ago.

It wouldn’t be this book, would it @DrPaulLee. The Complete and Essential Jack the Ripper by Paul Begg and John Bennett?

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