An intriguing aspect of the Jack the Ripper case is the number of people who would later claim inside knowledge about the murders and the murderer. Several of the officers who worked on the investigation, for example – Robert Anderson and Donald Swanson being two that spring immediately to mind – would go on record to claim that the police had ascertained the perpetrator’s identity.
Other people would contact journalists, often many years later, to say that a friend or a relative of theirs had been the person who carried out history’s most infamous crime spree, although why people would be eager to claim that a member of their family was Jack the Ripper has always baffled me.
However, many more people would later insist that they, or someone they were related to or knew, had actually encountered the ripper and had lived to tell the tale.
The big problem for us today is that, since none of the direct evidence on the case has survived, it really is impossible for us to judge the veracity of these claims, and it ultimately boils down to how trustworthy we consider each claimant to be.
MEASURES TO CATCH JACK THE RIPPER
What is also of interest is some of the measures that were adopted to bring the Whitechapel murderer to justice.
We know, for example, that several journalists, sundry men, and at least one police officer disguised themselves as women in order to attempt to apprehend the person responsible for the crimes.
OUT IN DISGUISE
We also know that detectives and plain clothes men were sent into the streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields in all manner of disguises to hunt for Jack the Ripper.
How successful were they?
Well let’s just say the murderer, as far as is known, was never actually caught.
Indeed, the big joke in the area at the time was that, no matter what disguise these undercover detectives wore, they always kept their standard issue police boots on, and those, along with their regimented style of walking, made them easy to spot.
DECOYS USED TO CATCH THE KILLER
There have also been suggestions, although it was never officially confirmed, that decoys were used to try and tempt the killer into striking. The Eastern Evening News, in its edition of Saturday the 15th of September 1888, carried a brief article under the headline “MALE DECOYS FOR THE ASSASSIN”.
The subsequent article included the assertion that:-
“It is quite certain that for two nights past three medical students have been out armed with revolver and dagger concealed in the dresses worn by them.”
What the article didn’t make clear, though, was whether the three students were acting with the consent and encouragement of the police, or whether they undertook their nocturnal endeavours on their own initiatives.
WILLY CLARKSON – COSTUMIER
But, suppose you did want to disguise yourself in order to capture the Whitechapel murderer, where would you go to acquire a realistic outfit? On one of the buildings on Wardour Street, in London’s bustling West End, there is a handsome clock on which are emblazoned the words “Costumier” and “Perruquier” – the latter by the way simply meaning a person who creates, styles, or sells perukes or hair-pieces.
A blue plaque on the wall beneath the clock reveals that this buildings was once the premises of Willy Clarkson, Theatrical wigmaker.
In his 1934 biography of Clarkson – “The Strange Life Of Willy Clarkson” – his friend, Harry Greenwall, revealed that, during the “Ripper” murders, Clarkson disguised a number of detectives and medical students to act as decoys in Whitechapel.
As the review of the book that appeared in The Bystander on Wednesday the 15th of January 1936 put it:-
“It must have been poorish fun, acting as a decoy for the “Ripper.”
THE USE OF FEMALE DEOYS
In 1888 there were even suggestions that the local prostitutes be enrolled as decoys, and shadowed by detectives, be sent out onto the streets in the hope that they might attract the attention of the murderer, thus enabling the shadowing officers to pounce and apprehend him.
However, if Mrs. Amelia Brown is to be believed, local girls – or at least one local girl – were used as decoys by the police. Amelia Brown’s story was covered by quite a few newspapers in February 1949.
The South London Observer featured a brief snippet about her in its edition of Friday the 11th of February 1949:-
DECOY FOR THE RIPPER
Most women would scream and barricade themselves up indoors if they thought they were likely to be chased by someone like Jack the Ripper.
Not so Mrs. Ameiia Brown, who will soon be 82, and who, at 17, went out as a decoy for Jack the Ripper.
Still a resolute old lady, as she must have been a resolute young one, Mrs. Brown said, “I just walked about with a couple of ‘tecs watching me.”
Fortunately, The Leicester Chronicle, in its edition of Saturday the 19th of February, expanded on the story a little more:-
BRAVE WOMAN
Living in a one-room Peckham flatlet is a white-haired little woman who will be 82 soon.
Just over sixty years ago she volunteered to act as decoy for a murderer who had terrorised all London – the dreaded Jack the Ripper.
The name of this heroine is Mrs. Amelia Brown.
In those days, Amelia was an attractive young brunette, the daughter of a Stepney licensee.
Her best friends included the detectives at Arbour Square Police Station, centre of the “Ripper” hunt, and one night Amelia offered to go out at midnight and allow the police to “shadow” her in the hope that the Ripper would strike.
He did.
THE LONDON HOSPITAL
As Amelia walked around the block where the London Hospital then stood, a rope was dropped over her shoulders. She blew her whistle for all she was worth and her “shadows,” detectives Gill and Payne, came racing up.
Though a thorough search of the neighbourhood was made, no sign of her attacker was found.”
WAS HE A DOCTOR?
Several of the articles that covered her story quoted Amelia as stating:- “I still think Jack the Ripper was a doctor – and he was after me that night.”
Of course, whether Amelia Brown had, in fact, been used as a decoy at the height of the ripper scare, is impossible to ascertain now.
From the various newspaper accounts it is apparent that decoys were used, but whether the police were desperate enough for a breakthrough in the case that they were willing to encourage a teenage girl to put her life at risk, well I shall leave it to readers to decide.