One of the interesting things about contemporary press reports regarding the Whitechapel murders is the insight they give us into the lines of investigation that the police were following at the time.
It soon becomes apparent that the detectives had their work cut out, since Victorian London possessed an array of “characters” who may not have been responsible for the Jack the Ripper crimes, but who were certainly persons of interest – and, in several cases, were more than capable of having carried out the atrocities.
Numerous people cropped up as potential suspects, were looked into by the police, reported on by the newspapers, and then disappeared into the obscurity from which they had emerged.
SIMEON ROBERT OLIPHANT
A JACK THE RIPPER SUSPECT 1888
The story of one such suspect appeared The Echo on Wednesday the 17th of October 1888:-
DANGEROUS LUNATIC ARRESTED
Much importance is attached by the police to the arrest made at King-street Police-station yesterday morning.
A man entered the station about nine o’clock, and complained of having lost a black bag.
While the officials were taking note of the case he commenced to talk about the women murdered in Whitechapel, and offered to cut off the sergeant’s head, and spoke in a rambling nonsensical manner.
In answer to what his business was, he said that he had studied some years for the medical profession, but gave it up for engineering, and that he had been staying for some nights in coffee-houses.
His talk became of such a rambling character that Dr. Bond, the Divisional Surgeon, was sent for, who examined him, and pronounced him to be a very dangerous lunatic of a homicidal nature.
A DESCRIPTION OF THE MAN
The man is described as favouring the description of the party seen with women at the East-end on different occasions.
He was dressed in a serge suit, with a hard felt hat, and is of very strong build.
Although he gave his age as 67, he looks much younger.
Before his removal to Bow-street, photographs of his person were taken.
He was also asked to write his name, and it is stated the writing is somewhat similar to that of letters received by the police and others.
The detectives have the matter in hand, and they are tracing the man’s antecedents and his recent movements.
A VISIT TO A SHOP
In its next day’s edition The Echo published a follow up report on the man’s activity shortly before he had gone to King Street Police Station:-
MYSTERIOUS BLACK BAG
A DAGGER FOUND
A very mysterious incident, in connection with the arrest of the mam at King-street Police-station, Westminster, whose apprehension was yesterday announced in The Echo, has transpired this morning.
It appears that on Monday the man went into the shop of Messrs. Bellamy Bros., Railway-approach, Charing Cross, and after a brief but somewhat incoherent chat with Mr. Batchelor, the manager, he suddenly placed a black bag on the counter, and left the shop.
The incident has come to the knowledge of the police authorities, but up to the present they thought it prudent to regard the affair as a secret.
The bag contained a razor, a dagger (which bore more or less recent marks of blood stains), several miscellaneous but almost valueless odds and ends, together with a broken piece of looking-glass and a small piece of soap.
It is regarded as somewhat suspicious that these latter articles are similar to those found on one of the Whitechapel victims.
MR. BATCHELOR’S STATEMENT
The shiny black bag and its contents were inspected this morning by an Echo reporter, who called at Messrs. Bellamy’s in order to verify certain reports respecting their strange visitor.
Mr. R. Batchelor, the manager, made the following statement:-
“He was such a mysterious-looking person that I could not make him out at all, but it was not until after he left the shop that it somehow occurred to me that his mind was unhinged from some cause or other, and then the Whitechapel murders came across my mind.
It was from reading the special edition of last night’s Echo that I felt convinced that the black bag was an incident worth mentioning.
SAID HE WAS JACK THE RIPPER
Well, as soon as the man came into the shop he took out a pencil and commenced to write some words which no one could read.
Then he straightened himself up, remarked, “You must not be surprised to hear I’m Jack the Ripper. I’m a most mysterious man and,” darted out of the shop.
He made use of the expression, “I’m used to cutting people up, and can put them together again. The police are all disguised, and wherever I go I meet them.”
He looked to me like a doctor or doctor’s assistant, but he was rather shabby.”
The razor and dagger found in the bag have been examined by Dr. Bond.”
KEEPING THE STORY ALIVE
Interestingly, it is evident that several newspapers were either trying to keep the story of a potential suspect having been captured going for as long as possible, or they weren’t that well-informed about the case, as the man had appeared in court on the 16th of October, the day after his detention at King Street Police Station.
The Globe was one of the few newspapers to report on this fact:-
DANGEROUS LUNATIC
Simeon Robert Oliphant, aged 67, and described as an engineer, was charged at the Bow-street Police-court, yesterday, with being a lunatic not under proper control.
Early on Monday morning the defendant went to the King-street Police-station, and complained of the loss of a bag.
He made a rambling statement to a police-sergeant, and finally offered to cut off the officer’s head and replace it upon his shoulders in such a manner that he would be able to talk in the same manner as if it had never been removed.
Dr. Bond examined the defendant, and pronounced him be a dangerous lunatic.
HIS COURT RAMBLINGS
Replying to Mr. Vaughan, the defendant said that he was suffering from a severe cold through lying on the grass in the parks, where he had been at nights, studying human nature.
He had bet Baron Rothschild £100,000 as to the wretched condition of our soldiers, and, turning to the public in the body of the court, he said that he was prepared to prove by mathematical calculations that every man and woman was equal to God.
SENT TO THE WORKHOUSE
Mr. Vaughan at once made an order for his removal to the workhouse.
And with that, all mention of him disappears from the newspapers.
BETTER OFF THE STREETS
Simeon Robert Oliphant may not have been Jack the Ripper, but he was certainly someone whose presence on the streets of London was cause for concern, and it was probably better that he was off them than on them
It would be interesting to know if the police ever established where the bloodstains on the knife came from, or what their inquiries into his antecedents turned up, but, sadly, it would appear that this information was never made public by the police.
ONE OF SEVERAL
Oliphant was simply one of several such lunatics and ne’er do wells who were drawn to the case by the widespread coverage it was receiving, and who, having inserted themselves into the police investigation, were ruled out of any involvement in the murders, and were allowed to return to the obscurity from which they had emerged.