Bury now changed his original story, which he had recounted to the police, and now told Abberline that he had awoken from a drunken stupor to find his wife had been strangled. On an inexplicable mad impulse he took a large knife and plunged it into her abdomen several times. He couldn’t explain to Abberline why he had done it, but he said that he thought he might be suspected of being Jack the Ripper, so he put the body in a large box and kept it there for several days before going to the police with his invented story.
Bury’s trial was short and, after listening to Abberline’s evidence, the jury found Bury guilty of the murder of his wife, and on 24 April 1889 he was sentenced to death and hanged a few days later. Bury showed no contrition for his crimes. In perhaps the most feeble gallows speech on record, he eschewed the traditional plea for forgiveness or rant of defiant innocence, merely sneering at the hangman and saying, ‘I suppose you think you are clever to hang me’.
In 1889 the New York Times cited William Henry Bury as the Whitechapel murderer, Jack the Ripper. Although two messages referring to Jack the Ripper were chalked on a door to Bury’s house, it was presumed by both Abberline and Scotland Yard in general that Bury had put them there himself. The Metropolitan Police did not see Bury as a serious suspect, and the British press appeared to agree with them, and took little notice of the New York Times’ opinion
In summing up the case for William Henry Bury being Jack the Ripper, there are certainly a great deal of similarities between his modus operandi and that of the Ripper. There was also the fact that he had lived briefly in the East End of London. The Ripper murders had started shortly after he arrived, possibly with the death of Martha Tabram, and they ended with the death of Mary Kelly shortly before Bury left for Scotland. Those are the main facts which link Bury’s name to Jack the Ripper.
The facts against him being the Ripper are, firstly, that Inspector Abberline certainly didn’t think he was, and neither did Scotland Yard. On the whole it seems rather unlikely that the killer who had so confounded the Metropolitan Police during the autumn of 1888 would have then committed such a ham-fisted crime as the Dundee murder only a few short months later.
As a postscript to the many and varied Ripper suspects that have been mentioned in this book, I did say that I was a little surprised that no one had, as yet, come up with the rather absurd theory that Inspector Abberline himself could be the Ripper.
Today, as I write this (November 2011), that absurdity has actually happened. An 84-year-old Spanish writer, Jose Luis Abad, has claimed in his book Jack the Ripper: The Most Intelligent Murderer in History, which has been published in Spain, that Inspector Abberline was the killer.
It seems that Jose Luis Abad is a handwriting expert and has compared Abberline’s writing with that in the Ripper’s diary, which surfaced in Liverpool in 1992. The diary was attributed to a Liverpool cotton dealer called James Maybrick, who many still believe to be the murderer, while other experts say the diary is a hoax. Jose Abad, however, is adamant that the diary is real, but he claims that the author was Abberline, and not Maybrick. Jose Abad says: ‘I have no doubt Abberline was the Ripper. Handwriting does not lie.’
One can only wonder what the future will unearth regarding this latest accusation!
20
Retirement Beckons
W ith the Ripper case coming to an unsuccessful ending, and the investigation into a homosexual brothel in Cleveland Street, which became known as the Cleveland Street scandal, becoming politically sensitive, Abberline was starting to feel very low in regard to his career. It had been discovered that Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, the second in line to the throne, was a frequent client at the Cleveland Street brothel, and in order to prevent a scandal the investigation was hushed up and the proprietor of the brothel allowed to leave the country.
There were suggestions that Abberline publicly voiced his misgivings about the way the cover-up was handled and that this may have upset his superiors. Whatever the truth, the Cleveland Street scandal was the last significant case Abberline investigated for the Metropolitan Police. Although still only 46 years old, Abberline began to feel the strain of police work that was seemingly going nowhere. His wife Emma, fearing for his health, began badgering him either to apply for a steady desk job or, failing that, to consider a change of career altogether, as he continued to work sometimes into the early hours of the morning. A significant part of Emma’s wish came true, for Abberline was promoted to chief inspector at the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard, and given a desk job there.
Desk work, however, might have been what Emma wanted for her husband, but it certainly wasn’t what he wished for. He was a man of the streets, and always had been. Maybe it was in deference to his wife’s wishes that he stayed and endured the course for another two years, before announcing his retirement from the force in January 1892.
Abberline actually retired from the Metropolitan Police on 8 February 1892. He retired on a full pension, after twenty-nine years’ service. During the course of his police career he had received eighty-four commendations and awards. He was 49 years old.
On Saturday 8 May 1892, the following article was published in Cassell’s Saturday Journal:
There had lately retired from New Scotland Yard on a liberal pension, and much to the regret of his Chief, Dr. Anderson and his colleagues, a Chief Inspector of the Criminal Investigations Department, Mr. F.G. Abberline. No man in the Police Service now alive – except, perhaps Mr. Shore has a greater claim to speak of the changes, which have come about in the force of all departments. During the past thirty years Mr. Abberline has in his career had much experience in uniform and out of it, and his name has been prominently before the public with cases of more than ordinary interest. His all round success is certainly an instance of experience on the beat and at the station desk as a preliminary training to the detective who discharges his duties in civilian, or as the police call them ‘plain clothes’. A man of such intimate acquaintance with the East End as Mr. Abberline naturally found himself recalled to the scene of his former labours when the series of Whitechapel Murders horrified all the world. His knowledge of crime and the people who commit it, is extensive and peculiar. There is no exaggeration in the statement that whenever a robbery or offence against the law has been committed in the district the detective knew where to find his man and, the missing property too. His friendly relations with the shady folk who crowd into the common lodging houses enable him to pursue his investigations connected with the murders with the greatest of certainty, and the facilities afforded him make it clear to his mind that the miscreant was not to be found lurking in a ‘dossers’ kitchen.
On 8 June 1892 Abberline was once again recalled by Scotland Yard. This time it was not to undertake more excruciating detective work, but to invite him to a retirement dinner and presentation on his behalf. The dinner was held at the Three Nuns Hotel on Aldgate High Street. This ceremony was so popular that a large public crowd stood outside the hotel during the ceremony, hoping, perhaps, to get a glimpse of the great detective. The Three Nuns Hotel is also significant because it featured in several incidents related to the Whitechapel murders. The ceremony created so much interest that the East London Observer carried an article entitled, ‘Presentation To A Well-Known Detective’. The subheading read: ‘Chief Inspector Abberline Retires from the Service and is the Recipient of a Presentation.’
Sitting at home and pruning the roses in his garden didn’t exactly appeal to Abberline’s temperament, and within a few months he was eagerly looking for fresh employment. He didn’t have to wait too long, for none other than John George Littlechild, who Abberline knew from the Ripper case and now represented the Pinkerton Detective Agency in London, offered Abberline a job in Monte Carlo on behalf of Pinkerton’s/Littlechild.
The casinos in Monte Carlo were experiencing something of a bad patch, with cheating and stealing on a huge scale. There was pressure from outside interests to close the ca
sinos down, but Monte Carlo had some very rich and powerful friends, including Pope Leo XIII, who called for outside help in cleaning up the casinos’ images.
The Pinkerton Agency was brought in with Abberline at the helm, who in turn hired a group of plain-clothed men to infiltrate the customers at the casinos. These men were experts in their field, and could spot card cheats and frauds a mile off. They also watched the staff and made arrests where necessary. Within the first year of Abberline arriving there, the casinos saved enormous amounts of money, which in today’s terms would probably equal between £10 and £20 million a year.
The casinos’ image was also suffering from over 2,000 suicides and murders during a three-year period. Abberline couldn’t personally come up with a remedy to prevent this, but he did suggest an idea which the casinos took up. This was for them to hire a team of men who would be paid to help dispose of the bodies of the dead losers. The casinos took to this idea and corpses were taken to a secret morgue, where they were stored until a sufficient number were in place, and then a steamer would slip into a small harbour nearby and spirit them away to a secret location, where they would be weighted down and dumped at sea. It was estimated that more than 50 per cent of the deaths in Monte Carlo were never heard about by the general public, and that only the staff at the casinos knew the truth.
Although neither Abberline or Littlechild were personally involved in this operation, they did very well for themselves from cleaning up the casinos in general during their three seasons in Monte Carlo; and probably enjoyed vastly enhanced and comfortable retirements from their efforts there.
Abberline only enjoyed three terms in Monte Carlo, but he continued to work for Pinkerton’s for twelve years, taking on various tasks, mostly in England, which earned him an even more considerable reputation than he already had from his years in the police force.
Frederick George Abberline retired again for the final time in 1904 at the age of 61, and bought a house with his wife at 195 Holdenhurst Road in the seaside town of Bournemouth, where he actually did tend the roses and the lawn. Retirement had finally caught up with the ex-chief inspector.
Frederick George Abberline died in his Bournemouth house on 10 December 1929, at the age of 86. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Wimbourne cemetery, which was the same cemetery where the Ripper suspect Montague Druitt was buried. Abberline’s wife survived him by one year.
Abberline is today commemorated by a blue plaque, which was unveiled on Saturday 29 September 2001, by John Grieve, the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. The plaque is on the house in Bournemouth where Abberline spent his final years. The plaque was unveiled in the presence of His Worship, the Mayor of Bournemouth.
Plate Section
Inspector Frederick George Abberline, taken from a group photograph of H Division at Leman Street police station in London c. 1886. (Wikimedia Commons)
Caricature of Lord Arthur Somerset, taken from Vanity Fair, 19 November 1887. (Wikimedia Commons)
Prince Albert Victor. (Wikimedia Commons)
A sketch of Charles Hammond. (Author’s collection)
A sketch of the boy witnesses appearing in court to testify against Hammond. (Author’s collection)
Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, the man in charge of the Whitechapel murders investigation, c. 1920. (The Swanson family)
A mortuary photograph of Annie Chapman. (Wikimedia Commons)
A painting of the mortuary photograph of Catherine Eddowes. (Peter Thurgood)
Miller’s Court, the location of the murder of Mary Kelly. (Wikimedia Commons)
A cartoon criticising the police for their inability to find the Whitechapel murderer appeared in Punch on 22 September 1888. (Wikimedia Commons)
The infamous ‘Dear Boss’ letter. (Wikimedia Commons)
The ‘From Hell’ letter, addressed to George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. (Wikimedia Commons)
A drawing that appeared in The Illustrated Police News depicting the discovery of Catherine Eddowes’ body in Mitre Square. (Author’s collection)
The front page of The Illustrated Police News on 22 September 1888. (Author’s collection)
A map of the seven murder sites. (Wikimedia Commons)
A newspaper broadsheet of 1888, published immediately after the murder of Annie Chapman, referring to the Whitechapel murderer as ‘Leather Apron’. (Wikimedia Commons)
A police copy of the writing found in Goulston Street. (Wikimedia Commons)
Copyright
First published in 2013
The History Press
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This ebook edition first published in 2013
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© Peter Thurgood, 2013
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Foreword
1 The Cleveland Street Scandal
2 Early life – Undercover Work and Marriage
3 The Whitechapel Murders
4 In Charge?
5 Leather Apron
6 Searching for the Real Annie Chapman
7 Arrests
8 When Evidence is not to be had – Theories Abound
9 The Double Event
10 The Final Ripper Victim
11 Hell
12 The Suspects
13 Abberline’s Number One Suspect
14 The Argument For and Against Klosowski
15 Highly Implausible?
16 Another Ripper Suspect?
17 Did Abberline Know the Identity of the Ripper?
18 Victims
19 An Inspector Calls
20 Retirement Beckons
Plate Section
Copyright
Abberline: The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper Page 24
