Jack the Ripper and the Spiritualists April 29, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Beach has recently being looking at the mythology of the Whitechapel killings. He has tried but failed to resist the evidence of spiritualists. Here is an extensive report on the hunt from the table rappers, early October 1888.
An extraordinary statement bearing upon the Whitechapel tragedies was made to the Cardiff police yesterday by a respectable-looking elderly woman, who stated that she was a Spiritualist, and in company with five other people held a séance on, Saturday night. They summoned the spirit of Elizabeth Straide [sic], and after some delay the spirit came, and in answer to questions stated that her murderer was a middle aged man, whose name she mentioned, and who resided at a given number on Commercial Road or Street, in Whitechapel, and who belonged to a gang of twelve.
As so often the unconscious of circles of spiritualists (and their medium) recycle conventional ideas, particularly outdated conventional ideas: here we seem to have an echo of the police’s first working hypothesis that this was a gang killing, probably over a prostitute protection racket. The journalist continues:
The Medium and Daybreak, a weekly journal devoted to Spiritualism, gives a record of a series of seances, which, it is contended, threw some light on the Whitechapel murders. The medium was a Mrs C. Spring, through whom it is stated the spirit of Mary Ann Nicholls, the third of the Whitechapel victims, and the first whose remains were mutilated after death, has revisited this earth. The first seance was held at the house of a Mr Warren, 245 Kentish Town Road, London, N.W. There were several persons present, and the correctness of what transpired is certified by Mr and Mrs Warren and three other witnesses…. The date of the seance was September 6, six days after the murder of Mrs Nicholls, and one day before the discovery of the body of Mrs Chapman. ‘The medium, Mrs C. Spring, was controlled, and appeared in great pain all over her body, as if suffering from severe wounds in the body; also went through the action as if cutting her throat. One of the sitters (being impressed) asked the control if it was the spirit of Mrs Nicholls, the woman who had been murdered at Whitechapel a short time ago, and the spirit answered: ‘Yes,’ adding ‘The fiend! The fiend! I am not the only victim; there will be others yet. More, more, before long, and of a more brutal kind.’
Predicting further victims in a serial killer’s spree seems a particularly safe kind of bet. In any case Mrs S continued.
The police are asleep; in fact it required soldiers to keep watch. There is a gang of them. ‘Tis a secret society.’
Again blame the police and establish the existence of a secret cult. Who would have guessed it. A few days later Mrs C was back, basking in glory from correctly predicting a further murder.
The second seance took place at Chalcot Crescent, Primrose Hill, N.W., on September 10, Mrs Spring again being the medium. During the seance the spirit of Mary Ann Nicholls, who was murdered at Whitechapel, came, and on being asked by one of the sitters whether the police were on the right track, answered ‘No, not yet.’ A gentleman asked if they would succeed in finding the murderer. She answered, ‘Yes, but not yet.’ The gentleman then remarked, ‘It is only too true, friend, what you foretold at Mr Warren’s on Thursday, September 6 for there has been, indeed, another poor victim to the same cruelty, and it is within thirty-six hours after you foretold it.’ The spirit answered, ‘Yes, there has been another victim, and there will be more yet.’
Then we get to the description. Again a stained glass window of ideas about the ripper. He is foreign and well off, he is rough.
While under influence, Miss Spring continued to describe. She said ‘I see a man of medium height, dark beard, dark eyes, and dark hair, thick-set, with muscular arms. He has on dark, soft felt hat, slouched over his eyes; his coat and trousers are of a light colour, dressed after the fashion of a navvy, but his face has the appearance of someone who moves in a higher grade of life. His expression is that of a foreigner. His coat is buttoned round his neck, but he has got arms in the sleeves. He has no waistcoat on, and his shirt sleeves are rolled up, and under his coat I see something bright.
Gasp. What could that be?!
He wears a narrow stripe round the waist of his trousers.
Anon, ‘The Whitechapel Murders’, Dundee Courier (8 Oct 1888), 2. This further gem appeared in the Star (a leading newspaper in the hunt for the Ripper), 9 Oct:
At another spiritualistic seance, held at Bolton yesterday, a medium claims to have had revealed the Whitechapel murderer. She describes him as having the appearance of a farmer, though dressed like a navvy, with a strap round his waist and peculiar pockets. He wears a dark moustache and bears scars behind the ear and in other places. He will, says the medium, be caught in the act of committing another murder.
Can we take away the fact that the killer is dressed as a navvy? There seems, at least here, to be consensus. Finally this is a small note:
Those superstitious humbugs, the spiritualists, have been at it again. They are anxious to aid the police in the elucidation of the Whitechapel mystery, and hence they have had seances, two of them. The result of one is that the criminal stands revealed in the form of woman. The second seance, held in a different part of the country, reveals the fact that the crimes have been committed by a man, and a very circumstantial description is given of his dress, address, and appearance. If the spiritualists could first of all agree upon the sex of the murderer, it would enhance the value of their revelations. As the matter now stands, it is rather puzzling. It is, however, valuable, a confirmation of one’s belief in this system of supernatural juggling. Anon, ‘Those superstitious humbugs’, West Somerset Free Press (13 Oct 1888), 8.
The first reference seems to be an early reference to Jill the Ripper. The second may be a generic reference to one of those mentioned above.
Other spiritualist work on the Ripper? drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com
Chris from Haunted Ohio Books writes, 29 Apr 2018: I’m as fond of the Ripper mystery as the next Fortean, but this is an angle I had not examined.
Judging by this article from the Spiritualist publication “Light,” the general public was sending in dream-accounts of the Ripper to the papers. If you have access to the St. James Gazette, it might prove profitable to this inquiry.
VISIONS OF THE NIGHT
When anything takes hold on the public imagination it almost necessarily results that impressionable people dream dreams and see visions bearing on the subject. The horrors associated with Whitechapel have stirred the public mind, and the St. James Gazette gives a batch of dreams which are more coherent than what is usually published on such occasions. The account must be discounted, but it is distinctly curious:–
Mr. T. Rosa Scott, residing at 26, Queen’s-crescent, which is situated in one of the fashionable suburbs of Edinburgh, has given publicity to a peculiar dream which he had on Tuesday morning of the Whitechapel murderer, and says that is the third occasion on which the same figure baa presented itself to him in his dreams, and it has accordingly made a deep impression upon him. He says:-“While residing at Burntisland during the month of July, two of my remarkable dreams took place. The first occasion on which I saw the vision was during the night of Thursday, July 4th. The figure was standing in what appeared to me to be a small dispensary; but I was unable to note any of the details, because the man, whom I supposed to be the ship’s surgeon, had his eyes fixed on me, and I seemed quite powerless to withdraw mine from his gaze. Just then, however, I awoke, and my dream came to an end. About a fortnight afterwards, on the morning of the eighth murder, the vision again appeared to me.” Mr. Scott afterwards had his attention drawn to the Mirror of July 29th, in which the editor (Mr. Stuart Cumberland) gave an account of a vision in which the face of a man claiming to be the author of the murders presented itself. Upon opening the paper Mr. Scott instantly recognised the portrait as being that of the man he had seen in his dreams. With the exception of the colour of the moustache the description tallied in every respect. Since then it had been reported in the Mirror that the vision of the same face had appeared to a lady, and that that lady had subsequently seen the man of her dreams sitting in a fashionable London church during evening service. Mr. Scott gives the following account of his dream on Tuesday morning:-” Retired to bed at 1.30 this morning, but for a long while lay quite awake. The last thing I remember was looking at my watch, the hands of which pointed to five minutes to three. I then fell asleep. Gradually buildings seemed to rise on every side, and I appeared to be walking along a somewhat broad street, the features of which, however, I was unable to see distinctly, owing to the darkness of the night. While proceeding on my way I became conscious of the presence of someone, and, glancing up, observed a tall, dark figure rapidly approaching me. In his right hand. the stranger held a large carpet bag, which apparently he had considerable difficulty in carrying. As he passed he turned his head towards me, and I immediately recognised him as the ‘surgeon’ of my two previous dreams. In vain I tried to reach him; he again had his eyes fixed on me; I was totally unable to move. Just then I awoke, struggling violently and completely exhausted. The time by my watch was eleven minutes past five.”
Light 28 September 1889: p. 470
Mr Scott’s account was followed up in a letter to the editor of Light telling of a young man who described the Ripper as a doctor with a bag and received supposedly relevant names and addresses, while under “magnetic influence.”
Visions of the Night
SIR, I was greatly interested in the article which recently appeared in “LIGHT,” under the above heading, because the account there given of the experiences of Mr. Scott and others regarding the Whitechapel murder, corresponds very closely with the clairvoyant description given by a young lad here, Alec Urquhart, while under magnetic influence. I had put him to sleep for the purpose of giving some clairvoyant tests to a sceptical friend, but instead of answering my questions he began to tell us about a tall, dark gentleman whom he saw opening a black bag which he carried in his hand. The bag contained some clothing, and what appeared to the lad to be a number of surgical instruments, some of which the man examined, wiped, and replaced in the bag or put in his pocket. He seemed to be waiting for some one, so until they came up I asked if the lad could get his name. He said there were three initials on the bag, which he read, and on being directed to ask the gentleman for his name he repeated it in full without the slightest hesitation; his address and profession (surgeon) were obtained with the same readiness. Presently the man was disturbed by the appearance of four men, from whom be hurriedly concealed himself until they had passed. Having changed part of his attire from the bag, the man made his way into the City to a certain hotel, the name and number of which were given. There he partook of some refreshment, and re-dressed himself again before emerging into the street. Here he met a companion, to whom he began to converse about “Jack the Ripper” and his probable capture. This subject was introduced through overhearing the four men, from whom the man had recently concealed himself, make some remarks about the Whitechapel murderer as they passed them in the street. The man did not discover himself to his companion, but the clairvoyant affirmed that he was the real criminal, and that he had recently murdered a pretty, dark complexioned woman at the back of some stables, near a foundry about Whitechapel-lane. Carrying his mind back he could also trace him to a small, red-tiled house, some distance from Whitechapel, where he saw him with the mutilated body of a woman before him. He gave a pretty clear description of the place and the proceedings of the man, who, when he left the house, washed his hands at a well near by, and made his way to a certain bar near Mitre-square, where he had some drink. He left this place in company with two young men, whose names were unhesitatingly given on being asked for, and all three drove to the man’s home in a cab, their conversation turning on some theatrical play. Referriug to the London Directory, I was able to find some of the names and numbers given, others I could not discover, And no opportunity of following up the clue thus obtained presented itself until a fortnight afterwards, when, being present in a small circle of friends, I put the young man to sleep again, along with an another gentleman, Mr. Paul, who is also a developing medium. Both of them soon manifested very distressing symptoms as they passed away from my immediate control. The lad was disturbed, as he told us, through being compelled to witness the perpetration of one of those horrible tragedies attributed to “Jack the Ripper,” in all its sickening ·details, by the same man he had told us of on a former occasion. The names and general descriptions given were almost a repetition of what he had previously put forward, but it was impossible to question him closely on any particular point, as the influence bad soon to be thrown off to save him from injury. Mr. Paul was evidently being controlled by the spirit of the victim, but so acutely painful did the physical manifestations become, that, in spite of all efforts to soothe him, he had to be wakened up almost immediately, when he said his experience was the worst he had over endured; that, in fact, he could not have withstood it much longer. He had felt exactly what some of “Jack the Ripper’s” unfortunate victims must have experienced as their bodies underwent mutilation. I should much like to know the result of any similar attempt to trace this murderer. I cannot see why a tried subject–a clairvoyant or a good medium–should not be able to do something to assist in his discovery. Aberdeen. J. C.
Light 19 October 1889: p. 507
