Jonathan Tye, whose researches with Jurriaan Masseen have uncovered another possible suspect for the mantle of having been Jack the Ripper, recently consented to give me an interview on our YouTube Channel to lay out his case against a new Jack the Ripper Suspect, Edward Buckley.

THE VIDEO ON EDWARD BUCKLEY

AN EARLY ATTACK

At around 9.00pm on Tuesday, 26 August 1884 Constable Bowen 174M was on his beat when he heard a woman shriek ‘Murder!’.

On hastening to the spot, a secluded place named Sparricks Row, he found a woman lying on the ground and a man standing over her, holding a pocket-knife.

It is a scene that could grace any Ripper movie, documentary or novel.

SPARRICKS ROW

However, this was not in Whitechapel or the East End of London, nor of course was it 1888, but south of the river in Borough, just over London Bridge and to the rear of Guy’s Hospital.

Sparricks Row itself has now long since vanished, a victim of the intense Blitz of this part of London inflicted by the Luftwaffe.

It did have a reputation in the 1880s, and one would suspect it was because of its seclusion and quietness, a haunt of ‘unfortunates’.

In the early hours of Christmas Day 1890, a forty year old woman named Mary Ann Mahoney was found dead here in suspicious circumstances.

AN AUGUST NIGHT IN 1884

Let us return to that August night in 1884.

Upon seeing the constable, the man ran away, whilst the woman complained of being stabbed.

Giving chase through the labyrinth of warehouses and hop houses, the assailant was eventually overtaken and apprehended, then shouting at Constable Bowen, “If you don’t let me go, I will knife you too!”

The suspect was overpowered and restrained with great difficulty, and taken to Stones End Police Station.

STABBED IN THE ABDOMEN

The victim, who had followed along the best she could, was found to be in a very weak condition, and after examination by police surgeon Dr Alexander it was discovered that she had been stabbed in the abdomen with a pocket-knife.

The strike had been strong enough to penetrate her ulster, dress, petticoats and undergarment, to produce a wound an inch into her flesh.

The press describes this story almost as a lover’s disagreement.

FRANCES JONES

The victim, Frances Jones, is said to have lived with her attacker in Tarling Street, Shadwell but had recently returned to her father’s house south of the river. She had agreed to meet the man, Edward Buckley – according to some of the press – after he had written her a letter.

She was then led to the spot by him, where she was attacked, but this does not ring entirely true.

After reporting the crime, Frances disappeared and was not found again by the police officer.

Edward Buckley was bailed, and there, for now, the incident seems to end.