Templestowe academic Dr. Geoff Crawford has made an interesting claim regarding the identify the man commonly known as “Jack the Ripper” who was responsible for what are arguably the most famous unsolved murders of all time.
Dr. Crawford has offered the theory that the Ripper was actually a man by the name of Frederick Bailey Deeming, who was hanged a for the murder of his third wife at the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1892. Her body was found buried beneath the home that they shared.
It was later proved that this was not his first killing, the remains of his first wife were found in cement beneath Dinham Villa, the home that he kept in the village of Rainhill, about ten miles from Liverpool. Prior to the killings he was already married to his second wife, Helen Matheson, whom he abandoned when he left for Australia.
Deeming spent much of his time between Australia, South Africa and some time in England but was almost certainly in England for the time of the Jack the Ripper murders.
Dr. Crawford points to similarities in the horrific murders, Deeming’s itinerary and the similarity between a witness description of Jack the Ripper and photographs of Deeming as being clues that he could have been the famous killer. He is now hoping to compare a DNA sample from Deeming’s skull with DNA traces found on letters left by Jack the Ripper.
Images: Top: cinematic portrayal of Jack the Ripper; Middle: Frederick Bailey Deeming; Bottom: Dr. Geoff Crawford.
[Wikipedia, Manningham Leader via News.au]
The suggestion that Frederick Bailey Deeming might have been Jack the Ripper is hardly a “new theory” and should not be promoted as such. Pick up just about any book that has been published on Jack the Ripper in the past forty years, and Deeming will be listed as one of the suspects. Deeming’s crimes, and his to the identity of Jack the Ripper, have already been the subject for a book published as far back as 1968. I refer of course to J S O’Sullivan’s “A Most Unique Ruffian” The Trial of F B Deeming”. For Dr Gavin Crawford to suddenly claim authorship of the theory, as has been implied in this article, is very strange indeed.
Thank you for your comment Lionel. I think that the conclusion that Dr. Crawford claimed authorship of the theory is the wrong one to jump to. It is more than likely that this was just an accidental distortion of members of the print media who, like me, were unaware of the Deeming theory.
At any rate it is an interesting theory and, as I commented to someone in some recent correspondence, the idea that the killer known as Jack the Ripper left England is an interesting one. Historically, it has been extremely rare for serial killers to stop killing, and the abrupt cessation of Ripper style murders would indicate either that he changed his methods, died or was incapacitated, or that he went somewhere else.
After all of these years it will likely be impossible to prove his identity conclusively and so we will likely hear new theories for many years to come. I have to admit, the idea that he got away, only to get caught somewhere else is an interesting one.
Again, thanks for the comment, it’s good to hear from someone who clearly knows a lot more on the topic than myself.