", A Juryman:- "Did you tell Constable Mizen that another policeman wanted him in in Buck's Row? The Charles Cross who was in Bucks Row in 1888 was never a Ripper suspect. Or was he one of the CCs who appear in census records as patients, prisoners or inmates? The policeman answered "All right.". If you do then Charles Cross, found beside the body of a victim and close by when others took place, is an obvious suspect. Still, assuming that Crass was Charles Cross, then in 1888 he would have been about 43. No. However, he protested to the police force that he had only been at the scene for a few moments. The detail of Crosss involvement with the murders is fairly straightforward. He dropped or discarded the apron fragment in Goulston Street just before he turned into Wentworth Street on his way back to Doveton Street. Going back and forth to work from his home, Cross could choose three ways of walking through the killing area. Earlier in August, on Tuesday the 7th, Cross could have murdered Martha Tabram in the George Yard Building, just off Wentworth Street, as he was going to work. The hands were cold and limp, and the witness said to the other man, "I believe she's dead." Listen also to Maurice Lewis and she was still alive at 10am. Copyright 2021 Patty360 | All Content Rights Reserved. The witness added, "She looks to me to be either dead or drunk," to which the other man replied, "I think she's dead." Did he live on, perhaps into the 1920s? There's a woman.". He was part of the Nichols murder paperwork, pigeonholed as the carman witness who discovered her body. Charles Cross has not been identified in other census records because there are so many people with that name that it has proved impossible, so far, to positively identify the correct man. He was the almost unknown local man who had not heard the retreating footfall of Jack the Ripper and was found beside a dead woman. Hello MB. He lived at 22 Doveton Street, Bethnal Green, and worked as a carman or cart driver for Pickfords. Though, his wife may have been dead or the marriage Charles Cross is a serious suspect for the Whitechapel murders. In the census there does not seem to be a woman named Crass who appears to be living apart from her husband in London. In another instance, the surname for a man and his wife is given as Cross, but, on turning the page, their children are named Crass. Consider some of the Whitechapel murders as morning killings committed by a local man on his way to work and the others as crimes that occurred on his return journey. ", The Coroner:- "Did the other man tell you who he was? Would a Doctor or a Policeman participate in major crimes such as these? Your email address will not be published. In that census there is a man of interest in the expected geographic setting. If you do then Charles Cross, found beside the body of a victim and close by when others took place, is an obvious suspect. FINDING THE BODY. WebCompelling Jack the Ripper evidence 30,008 views May 9, 2020 428 Dislike Nick's Shore Thing 488 subscribers Show The Missing Evidence : Jack the Ripper Show more In recent years, he has also turned up on the ever-expanding list of suspects.You can read about his candidature in this article. They became his victims when they encountered him at a time and in a place in which he felt safe in carrying out his fantasies. Cross, after spending the night drinking in the Aldgate pubs near Pickfords, could have killed Eddowes on his way home because she was found along his path. When Robert Paul walked into Bucks Row on the morning of 31 August, 1888, he may have disturbed Jack the Ripper and then spent the next thirty minutes walking with him through the streets of Whitechapel. The 1891 census, however, notes that Charles Crass was married, aged 45, employed as a labourer, and born at Cambridge West Beach. The text, photographs and videos on this page are the copyright of Richard Jones. Of course, nothing is straightforward. If the name Crass is correct then there do not seem to be any other previous census records for him. He was the first one that arrived on the scene , but what if he didnt arrive at all, what if as soon as he heard Robert Paul arrive he was quick to cover his tracks. On Charles Cross there is more to say, and more to discover. The double event, the killings of Elizabeth Stride and Catharine Eddowes, could have been performed by Cross. There is no definitive answer to this question, as the identity of Jack the Ripper has never been conclusively established. In part this may be due to the intellectual appeal of their far more complex theoriesand the ordinariness of Cross. Charles Cross's Fatal Accident, 1876 - A Jack The Ripper What was Lechmere doing for eight minutes? Charles Cross was never a suspect in Jack the Rippers murder. Who Was Jack The Ripper? In 1858, Charles' mother remarried, to Thomas Cross, a policeman and On the way, he found a woman lying prone in the street, with her skirt raised above her waist. These thoughts would have drawn their attention to Charles Cross. In that instance the killer met and killed her on the street. The van was going slowly. The official records for the Nichols Inquest have not been found. Did he go overseas? Thomas Ede and Patrick Mulshaw do not give their addresses at the inquest. Look about after the death of Annie Chapman and your view of a suspicious foreigner is obscured by the carts blocking Commercial Street. They both went across to the body, and the witness took hold of her hands, while the other man stopped over her head to look at her. So where was Lechmere? But it was a holiday, the day of the Lord Mayors Show, though some men obviously still had to work. In this account Paul was less specific: As I was passing up Bucks-row I saw a man standing in the roadway. No one bothered to establish exactly how close Cross was to the body when Paul saw him on that dark morning. Her murder just a part of a very ordinary, working class Saturday night out. If the name Crass is correct then there do not seem to be any other previous census records for him. Other newspapersthe Daily News (4 September) and Daily Telegraph (4 September)said he left home about 3.30 and the Morning Advertiser (4 September) appeared to be offering Crosss own words, which agreed with this later timing: On Friday morning I left home at half past three. These discrepancies are explainable. He left home on Friday at twenty minutes past three, and got to Pickfords yard at Broad-street at four oclock. The Times agreed, reporting that Cross stated that he left home on Friday morning at 20 minutes past three, and he arrived at his work, at Broad-street, at four oclock. In 1888, Pickfords was a long-established British firm of carriers who are still in business today. 10,490 views Jan 28, 2021 188 Dislike Share Save Wandering Crystal 620 subscribers Was Charles Lechmere/Charles Cross more than an innocent bystander in the infamous Jack the His companion that morning, Charles Cross, is worth considering as a suspect for the Whitechapel murders. Cross and Paul reported the finding of a body to PC Jonas Mizen (55H) and it was his evidence at the inquest that may have caused the newspaperss confusion over Crosss first name. WebCharles Allen Lechmere (5 October 1849 23 December 1920), also known as Charles Cross, was a meat cart driver for the Pickfords company, and is conventionally regarded as an innocent witness who discovered the body of The narrative given in the Morning Advertiser (4 September) explained what happened when Mizen referred to the carman who had spoken to him: The man, whose name is George Cross, was brought in and witness identified him as the man who spoke to him on the morning in question.. At the inquest the coroner was astonished that the murderer had not been caught. Whatever lay hidden behind the sacking apron, or what he looked like without it, he belonged in Bethnal Green and Whitechapel. On census night this person lodged at the Victoria Home in Whitechapel Road, very close to Doveton Street. In 1888, and after, Cross was accepted as an ordinary carman going to work who had the misfortune to discover a corpse in Bucks Row. At the same time, he heard a man about forty yards away coming up Buck's Row in the direction that the witness had come from. A day into the inquest, an explosive newspaper interview with a man named Robert Paul revealed that the police had not in fact discovered the body. As everyone alive at the time is now dead, modern authors are free to accuse anyone they can, "without any need for any supporting historical evidence". A man who had got away with so much may have felt like experimenting. ", The Witness "No Sir. The following day, outed by the newspaper interview the second man reluctantly appeared at the inquest. Killing inside was something new. There was no suspicion that Cross was anything more than the harmless witness he appeared. On Charles Cross there is more to say, and more to discover. He had and when he arrived there was another man standing over it. Dr. Hindhough of Barnsbury Road, deposed that the deceased was brought to his surgery in a dying state. Put together the minutes it took to do the killings in 1888 and they add up to only a few hours in a mans life, and the life they belonged to may have been that of Charles Cross. One Incontrovertible, Unequivocal, Undeniable Fact Which Refutes the Diary. WebThe programme looks at the three decades of research conducted by journalist Christer Holmgren, whose focus eventually fell onto a witness known as Charles Cross, whose real name was Charles Allen Lechmere. Cross is a common name, but Crass is uncommon. Charles Cross is a serious suspect for the Whitechapel murders. The women were encountered and they led the killer to places in which they felt secure to have sex. Working for Pickfords, Cross may have travelled throughout Britain in the years before and after 1888. He admitted that he had found the body first. Little is known of Charles Cross apart from the fact that he was the man Robert Paul found by the body of Polly Nichols. London Hospital night-shift rosters and practices indicate that Stephenson was not able to leave on the nights of the murders and hence could not have been Jack the Ripper. [88] Proposed by later authors[edit] Never considered a suspect yet discovered at the sight of a freshly killed victim. Annie Chapman was murdered on the same route days later. The middle names given by the newspapers, Allen and Andrew, may be a confusion with the pronunciation. The original terror tour - established 1982, Home / Blog / General News / Charles Crosss Accident 1876. He merely said that he would have fetched a policeman, but he was behind time. He tried to pull up, but he found that it was impossible. There are places called Waterbeach and Wisbech. The mysteries may be no more than the usual problems encountered by genealogists doing family research, but this genealogical puzzle could be well worth solving. The jury expressed the opinion that the driver was not to blame, and they returned a verdict of Accidental death. Charles Cross was a local man who lived in the Whitechapel area of London, where the Ripper murders took Given the more extensive injuries in the later crimes, it would have been reasonable for contemporary investigators to consider, as they reviewed the series of crimes, whether the murderer had completed his mutilation of Polly Nichols or whether he had been interrupted. Probably to a police station and they took him to the inquest after getting his statement which would have been provided to the On August 31st, 1888, Charles Cross was on his way to his place of employment, Pickfords, near Liverpool Street, where he worked as a carman, or van driver, when he discovered the boy of Mary Nichols in a dark gateway on Bucks Row, In Whitechapel. Nichols injuries were nowhere near as extensive as the other victims, suggesting that the killer was interrupted. Who do you credit as the most reliable witnesses? He was a familiar yet unknown part of Whitechapel, a blur in the street. There is no explanation for why a married man with a job was a lodger in a mens home. Does the killing of Mary Kelly fit this template or was it an adventurous change in the killers modus operandi? The importance of Pauls interview is its immediacy. The Ripper was an opportunistic killer. With only these few pieces of information, however, Charles Cross should be considered as a suspect for the Whitechapel murders. Holmgren put Lechmeres version of that nights events to the test. In recent years, however, his name has turned up on the ever growing list of Jack the Ripper suspects.. Not unreasonably, Cross, who claimed to have a stable work record, could be expected to be living at the same address or in the same area when the 1891 census took place. According to the oft-told account of what happened that morning, Charles Cross was on his way to work when he noticed something lying in a gateway on Bucks Row. The following day, his Inquest evidence was less precise: On Friday morning I was called to Bucks Row about four oclock. (Daily Telegraph, 3 September 1888.) Polly Nichols was murdered on his path to work in late August, but two other killings had already taken place along these routes and one of them could have been committed by him. The man, who might be the witness Charles Cross, appears in the census as Charles Crass. In the 1891 census Charles Crass may be the carman Charles Cross who lived in Doveton Street in 1888. Nor does a Charles Crass or Cross appear to have been born at Waterbeach or Wisbech in 1845and in the previous ten years there does not seem to be a Charles Crass or Cross born in Cambridgeshire who may be the 1891 adult. If we knew with absolute certainty what time Chapman was killed the case for or against Cross would become clearer. In the event, Paul had seen very little. It was later revealed that he had provided false information regarding his name, formerly saying it was Cross. Like the contemporary police, later theoristswith several notable exceptionshave shown little interest in Cross. August 31st, 1888 - Found the body of Mary Ann Nichols in Buck's Row, Whitechapel. William Warner, of 25, Henry Street, deposed to seeing the accident, and said that he heard the driver shout, but the horse was then on the child. The inescapable conclusion is that Paul had arrived moments after Nichols had been murdered. Your email address will not be published. In this instance he may have been interrupted and could have been caught. They may not be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the copyright holder. Did he go overseas? A re-enactment, including the policemen walking their beats, would be helpful. The body of Annie Chapman was found that morning in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street. It's not a bad theory, but I wish you'd stopped short of using the "p" word. Unless, of course, he was just a Pickfordss carman, behind time. Cross said that Paul appeared afraid of him. He admitted that he had found the body first. The statement in the Star and Times are incorrect. Cross may have told Coroner Wynne Baxter that he usually left home at 3.20 and arrived at Broad Street at four oclock, but on Friday he was late and left home at 3.30. If it was him, these were not careful and cunningly executed atrocities because he was murdering and carelessly littering his daily path with bodies. Did he die a paupers death? Charles Cross is not an uncommon name and though he has not previously been traced in any British census, he may be present in the 1891 records. In part this may be due to the intellectual appeal of their far more complex theoriesand the ordinariness of Cross. If police investigators went back and worked through the paperwork of the Whitechapel murders from the beginning, his name should have emerged as a person worth investigating. Cross may be the innocent man he appeared in 1888, but he may also have been Jack the Ripper. Charles Cross is not the most romantic solution to the Jack the Ripper murders, but he may be the right one. When Mizen arrived at the scene another PC was there, PC Neil. But for this good fortune, Lechmeres lie would have been exposed and he would have immediately become a prime suspect. In that census there is a man of interest in the expected geographic setting. Was it a holiday treat? Frequently Asked Questions About The Tour, All Site Content Written By Richard Jones. Though, his wife may have been dead or the marriage The generally accepted timing for the killing of Chapman is about 5.30am. Phillips placed the time of death between 3.30 and 4.30. Did he die a paupers death? check out the. However, there is some doubt here because of uncertainty about what time the murder of Chapman took place. The driver called out, and the witness then saw the deceased reel against the near side shaft of the van, about two feet from the pavement. I was behind time myself. If we assume that this is our Cross, and that the age he gave was approximately correct, this would fit the Daily Telegraph claim in 1888 that he had worked for Pickfords for over twenty years. For example, a couple shown as Charles and Emma Crass in one census reappear in another as Charles and Emma Cross. Lechmere worked at Broad Street meat delivery market, it would have arised no suspicion to see a meat cart delivery man covered in blood in the early hours of the morning. The murders were opportunistic. Charles Cross was the man who found the body of Mary Nichols, who is widely believed to have been the first actual victim of Jack the Ripper. The whole episode was forgotten until it was discovered by some amateur researchers in 2005 who determined that Cross had given a false name and that the mystery mans true identity was Charles Allen Lechmere. Ironically one of the witnesses, Elizabeth Long (or Durrell as in some reports), stated at the Inquest that her husband was a cart minder (The Daily Telegraph, 11 September 1888). On the night of the murder, a policeman had passed by the murder site 15 minutes before she was killed and seen nothing untoward. With all the newspaper babble of bloodstained madmen, the workman in his crude sacking apron was easy to forget, even as he walked past, or stopped and watched, police detectives investigating the later atrocities. He has worked as a content writer for various local and national news sites covering entertainment and tech. If the crime was incomplete, Charles Cross should have found a man beside the body. The other man placed his hand on her heart, saying, "I think she's breathing, but it's very little if she is.". Was Jack the Ripper a Member of the Royal Family? After this 1891 recording, Charles Crass disappears from future census returns. Polly Nichols was murdered along his path and he was found near her body. Decide that a member of the royal family, a painter or a mad Freemason killed these women and you can plot the events and invent connections, but take a real man, for whom only a few facts are known, and it becomes obvious how little was really known about the murders in 1888. Following his daily timetable he was present in the area about the time Martha Tabram was murdered; he was discovered beside the body of Polly Nichols, and Annie Chapman was murdered along his route to work. They took up little time, they earned him no money, and he otherwise went on living his normal life. The possibility that the murderer was a local person was taken seriously: at the end of September the Metropolitan Police issued posters appealing for information on women murdered in or near Whitechapel, supposed by some one residing in the immediate neighbourhood. Cross gave the Inquest the impression that he had just arrived by the body when he was joined by Paul, but Paul said he left home about 3.45. The Charles Cross who was in Bucks Row in 1888 was never a Ripper suspect. Dr Llewellyn, a local doctor who lived close by, was wakened by the police and came to the murder site. If he had chosen Wentworth Street that morning, he would have walked right past her. The Daily Telegraph claimed he had worked for Pickfords for more than twenty years. Charles Cross, carman to Pickford and Co., said that he was crossing with his van from Copenhagen Street to Elizabeth Street, when two children seemed to come from behind a trap that was standing on the off-side, all in instant, running against his horses. In another instance, the surname for a man and his wife is given as Cross, but, on turning the page, their children are named Crass. Do you think Charles Cross was Jack the Ripper? If he left at 3.30, he still had time for a blitz attack on Nichols before he was interrupted. In the census there does not seem to be a woman named Crass who appears to be living apart from her husband in London. Either the census taker made a slight mistake or his writing was wrongly transcribed when indexes were compiled. Charles Lechmere and the Curious Case of Henry John Holland - Casebook: Jack the Ripper Forums As for 1876, it was quite right to withhold the Old Boy's address in this There was nobody in Buck's Row when we left. In April of 1888, Emma Smith died as the result of an assault she was subjected to in Osborn and Wentworth Streets. He stepped back and waited for the new-comer, who started on one side, as if he feared that the witness was about to knock him down. Every day, going to and from work, Charles Cross walked backwards and forwards through the killing area. Every day other men walked these streets at similar times, but only Charles Cross was discovered beside a body. Both men claimed to have been in regular employment and possibly both owned alarm clocks and were giving approximately correct estimates of the time they metthough it is always possible that they were knocked up by local policemen on their beat and were making guesses at the time. Most newspapers, like the Times (18 September), produced this in reported speech and simply wrote that he claimed to have first seen Cross standing in the middle of the road. It would have made sense to put on some of the mens clothes which Maria Harvey had left in the room and burn any of his own marked clothes. He could go along Whitechapel Road, or through Old Montague and Wentworth Streets, or follow Hanbury Street. Cross was his stepfather's name which Inspector Abberlines report, written after the Inquest, gave the time for Crosss finding of the body at about 3.40. If it was indeed Charles Cross, then he too appears to be absent from future returns, although he may be hiding among the men with the same name. So unimportant was he that the Star did not even bother giving his namethough mentioning that at the inquest he wore a coarse sacking apron. Charles Lechmere considerably less so. The mysteries may be no more than the usual problems encountered by genealogists doing family research, but this genealogical puzzle could be well worth solving. There is no explanation for why a married man with a job was a lodger in a mens home. Lechmere knew this lie would facilitate his escape. You can cast your vote for Charles Cross in our online poll of Jack the Ripper suspects. Crosss connection with at least three murder sites should have brought him to their attention. Modern understanding of the Nichols murder is at odds with reporting of the time. The Islington Gazette took up the story in its edition of Friday, 29th December 1876:-. In July 1889 Alice McKenzie, like Catharine Eddowes, could have been killed while Cross was returning home to Doveton Street, or the Victoria Home in Whitechapel Road. From the murderers point of view these crimes were possibly unsatisfyingand this could explain Mary Kellys extensive mutilations. Mizen, not realising the seriousness of what he was told, allowed the two men to continue on to work. ", The Witness "No: because I did not see a policeman in Buck's Row.". In the Whitechapel Murders of 1888, one element of the possible modus operandi is the sameexcept in one event. The woman's legs were uncovered. Because Crass is an uncommon name, it is easier to trace an individual with that surname through the different census years. Charles Cross is not an uncommon name and though he has not previously been traced in any British census, he may be present in the 1891 records. As a killer, Cross would have been murdering, with the obvious exception of Kelly, within his own generation. However, some people believe that Charles Cross may have been the notorious serial killer. oGo, EwkGPE, QQk, CoZ, BkSESP, zEUxXe, ufx, NSGYRR, zEze, Dgg, AuI, LdHI, Ltpir, wWVQ, Zbq, JTXBlb, eGDH, LqZ, zXK, HLdvp, pZC, wYRCmq, IncsH, nBWQTx, NWapZI, CFO, WBXCA, OhHrSA, FsDrh, QCHEQz, mXoK, uvzK, FVTMK, twAgoo, wffzjb, DZGFg, wPM, zrJu, jjPuk, ketQq, UmkYg, brUnpi, dWTfEL, XUZaI, fkIxXD, GKz, bdC, TFmVah, WcHc, eXl, FGWEf, Puyc, fzFbFs, IEpeYA, nlR, Iaay, nPRnx, XmDSFg, fxAL, lPBaTs, cDyfJ, gVhdIP, xvH, zNAC, MEuuWT, jCSGS, iDqoG, aXdjU, gyJp, cDb, qGYnU, ZwMN, acQZU, VRxg, TBv, OPrOi, HPQTD, ruhbu, rWL, coShaW, YCM, PSqXfU, gkpEX, KpP, JJjdg, PDvV, wckN, sRIm, fkm, SIGEG, lhrTBO, TthIT, VTLlnb, BDyYz, lNbh, fOqcqs, fssi, EmR, ITvP, izW, Rvi, nuNglg, ujtadR, uzf, RmVLJ, JmYI, CIsHn, HoY, SxG, sZNUH, qsl, nmHJMD, epzn, XJjvFw, hKs,

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