Jack the Ripper UNMASKED? Expert claims celebrated poet WAS infamous killer
April 5 2019
UK Express.
315,142 Daily Readers.
UK Express.
315,142 Daily Readers.
By Anna Kretschimer
JACK THE RIPPER’S true identity has baffled investigators for 130 years – but one author posits the name of a celebrated Catholic poet as the culprit and turns to his poetry for clues.
Jack the Ripper murdered five women in Whitechapel, London, between 1888 and 1890, with horrifying brutality and surgical precision. After police shortlisted 300 suspects at the time of the murders, many more researchers around the world have put forward a variety of names hoping to pin the killer down. BBC documentary, “Jack the Ripper – The Case Reopened”, aired last night and featured Silent Witness star Emilia Fox and Professor of Criminology David Wilson as they looked at the unsolved mystery which has riveted the public for 130 years.
However, one suspect could be one of the greatest Catholic poets of modern times. Francis Thompson is most well-known for his poem "The Hound of Heaven", which at one time was one of the most widely printed poems in the English language.
He was an inspiration to such varied and influential figures as JRR Tolkien, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.
However, author Richard Patterson, in his 2017 book "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson" posited his name as a Ripper suspect.
Some of the circumstantial details of Mr Thompson’s life point towards the theory.
After training at a seminary in County Durham, Mr Thompson failed to become a priest and went on to medical college. Here, he learned the techniques of dissection that would be a key feature of the Ripper murders, and he was later known to keep a scalpel on his person at the time of the killings.
A fellow student described Thompson as having “a vacant stare, weak lips, and a usually half-open mouth, the saliva trickling over his chin”.
Thompson refused to complete his medical training and instead ran away to London in 1885.
By 1888, he had suffered a series of setbacks including mental ill-health and opium addiction that led to his becoming homeless on the streets of the capital.
However, he began a relationship with a prostitute who took him off the streets – it was the breakdown of this relationship, Patterson argues, that was the motivation for the brutal killings that targeted London sex workers.
Added to this, when the Ripper’s last victim Mary Kelly was murdered in 1890, Thompson was staying in Whitechapel lodgings just yards from the scene.
Some of Thompson’s poetry may also provide a clue to his murderous tendencies. His poem "The End Crowns the Work" describes a satanic pact in which the narrator murders a drugged girl, and in another of his works he describes slitting a girl’s stomach open. Author Richard Patterson said: ”I got to maybe the second last poem [of Thompson's anthology] and I thought 'this is a really evil poem, who's this guy?' "People said if he was famous he wouldn't go around killing people... but at the time of the murders most people thought he was dead; he'd been homeless for about three years and wasn't famous until about 50 years after he'd died.”
Furthermore, the letters sent to police signed with the name "Jack" at the time of the murders became key to the investigation. Some have suggested the letters mean the culprit was a well-educated man who appreciated literature, which could also strengthen the claim that Mr Thompson was the Ripper.
Although Mr Thompson is taken seriously as a candidate by Ripperologists, his name is one of many that have been offered as the true identity of Jack the Ripper over the years.
JACK THE RIPPER’S true identity has baffled investigators for 130 years – but one author posits the name of a celebrated Catholic poet as the culprit and turns to his poetry for clues.
Jack the Ripper murdered five women in Whitechapel, London, between 1888 and 1890, with horrifying brutality and surgical precision. After police shortlisted 300 suspects at the time of the murders, many more researchers around the world have put forward a variety of names hoping to pin the killer down. BBC documentary, “Jack the Ripper – The Case Reopened”, aired last night and featured Silent Witness star Emilia Fox and Professor of Criminology David Wilson as they looked at the unsolved mystery which has riveted the public for 130 years.
However, one suspect could be one of the greatest Catholic poets of modern times. Francis Thompson is most well-known for his poem "The Hound of Heaven", which at one time was one of the most widely printed poems in the English language.
He was an inspiration to such varied and influential figures as JRR Tolkien, Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr.
However, author Richard Patterson, in his 2017 book "Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson" posited his name as a Ripper suspect.
Some of the circumstantial details of Mr Thompson’s life point towards the theory.
After training at a seminary in County Durham, Mr Thompson failed to become a priest and went on to medical college. Here, he learned the techniques of dissection that would be a key feature of the Ripper murders, and he was later known to keep a scalpel on his person at the time of the killings.
A fellow student described Thompson as having “a vacant stare, weak lips, and a usually half-open mouth, the saliva trickling over his chin”.
Thompson refused to complete his medical training and instead ran away to London in 1885.
By 1888, he had suffered a series of setbacks including mental ill-health and opium addiction that led to his becoming homeless on the streets of the capital.
However, he began a relationship with a prostitute who took him off the streets – it was the breakdown of this relationship, Patterson argues, that was the motivation for the brutal killings that targeted London sex workers.
Added to this, when the Ripper’s last victim Mary Kelly was murdered in 1890, Thompson was staying in Whitechapel lodgings just yards from the scene.
Some of Thompson’s poetry may also provide a clue to his murderous tendencies. His poem "The End Crowns the Work" describes a satanic pact in which the narrator murders a drugged girl, and in another of his works he describes slitting a girl’s stomach open. Author Richard Patterson said: ”I got to maybe the second last poem [of Thompson's anthology] and I thought 'this is a really evil poem, who's this guy?' "People said if he was famous he wouldn't go around killing people... but at the time of the murders most people thought he was dead; he'd been homeless for about three years and wasn't famous until about 50 years after he'd died.”
Furthermore, the letters sent to police signed with the name "Jack" at the time of the murders became key to the investigation. Some have suggested the letters mean the culprit was a well-educated man who appreciated literature, which could also strengthen the claim that Mr Thompson was the Ripper.
Although Mr Thompson is taken seriously as a candidate by Ripperologists, his name is one of many that have been offered as the true identity of Jack the Ripper over the years.
April 26 3017
Sunderland Echo
81,687 Monthly Readers.
Sunderland Echo
81,687 Monthly Readers.
A new book makes the explosive claim that Jack the Ripper was the poet Francis Thompson, who studied as a priest in County Durham. Richard Patterson’s book, ‘Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson’, brings to light the early life of the poet in the North East.
Between August 31 and November 9, 1888, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly were all knifed to death in Whitechapel, East London. The enduring mystery to the Ripper’s identity has meant that today there is a virtual industry built around the history of the crimes with those interested in it dubbed ‘Ripperologists’. Thompson, who was born in Preston in 1859 and died in London in 1907, spent several years as a student at Ushaw College in County Durham. The Roman Catholic seminary was the principle place of training for Catholic priests for northern England.
Ushaw opened in 1808 and closed in 2011. Now the abandoned college lies derelict and attracts photographers keen to capture images of its decaying buildings. Though when Thompson attended from 1870 to 1877, the college was in its heyday with 300 student priests. Its extensive religious library had amassed hundreds of rare manuscripts and with 45,000 volumes was the largest in Britain.
Thompson proved to be secretive and withdrawn and had found it difficult to make friends. In the library, he was often found at a desk with spare books set up as a barrier to shield him from paper bullets, catapulted from other pupils. Thompson’s description of his schoolfellows, when he arrived at the age of 10, introduces his world view in which outsiders were treated with hatred and paranoia. This is how he related his memory of them, “… a veritable demoniac revelation. Fresh from my tender home, and my circle of just-judging friends, these malignant school-mates who danced around me with mocking evil distortion of laughter ... devilish apparitions of a hate now first known; hate for hate’s sake, cruelty for cruelty’s sake. And so such they live in my memory, testimonies to the murky aboriginal demon in man”.
Thompson's most famous poem was The Hound of Heaven. J.R.R Tolkien once mentioned being influenced by this work. Thompson failed in his studies. The reason given by his masters were due to a “natural indolence, which has always been an obstacle with him”, and who concluded that “not the holy will of God” that he should be a priest. This is despite Thompson early exhibiting signs of genius. He won 16 of the school’s 21 competitive exams in essay writing, and the head of the school said that Thompson’s essays were “the best production from a lad his age I have ever seen in this seminary”. This ending of his hopes to become a priest meant his life took a very different path and, upon returning to his family home in Manchester, his mother had him apply to study surgery at Owen’s medical college. Although Thompson showed a fascination in dissection, that brought one of his sisters to remark, “many a time he asked my father for £3 or £4 for dissecting fees; so often that my father remarked what a number of corpses he was cutting up”.
Thompson skipped the college exams three times, forcing him to repeat his studies of surgery and human anatomy. A fellow student remembered Thompson at this time, “a vacant stare, weak lips, and a usually half-open mouth, the saliva trickling over his chin”. Thompson’s refusal to complete his years of studies or find full-time work, led to conflict with his family and in 1885 he ran away from home and headed to London. A series of misfortunes quickly saw him become a homeless vagrant, before being rescued from the streets within days of the final Ripper murder. Patterson’s book, which has been published by Austin and Macauley, is the result of 20 years of research, in which he travelled around the world gathering information to show Thompson was a serial killer. His research took him to Burns Library in Boston, which holds the world’s largest collection of Thompson’s letters and papers, and on to Thompson’s birthplace in Preston and London’s East End, the location of the infamous murders.
Patterson (pictured) also spoke at length to Texan forensic pathologist Dr Joseph C Rupp, who first posted the theory that Thompson could be Jack the Ripper. In 1988, Dr Rupp, wrote an article in a magazine devoted to criminology, which asked if Thompson was the Ripper, but it was largely ignored. Patterson strengthened the theory through his research and, in return, Dr Rupp wrote the introduction to Patterson’s book. More recently, Patterson presented his findings when he spoke at the 2016 London Jack the Ripper Conference. Patterson first received widespread media attention, in 2015, when his findings were made public.
Patterson’s book tells how Francis Thompson, in 1888, an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, had a history of mental illness and also of trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women’s stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a woman was knifed. Her name was Mary Kelly, and she is considered, by most, to be the last victim of Jack the Ripper. Her slaying was part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said were by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. As Patterson’s book shows, Francis Thompson was once a medical student and learned the very techniques of dissection and organ removal that were made to the Ripper’s victims.
Patterson sets out a compelling case for Thompson as the prime suspect for Jack the Ripper. “I do not claim to have solved the murders,” Patterson said. “Read my book and judge for yourself.”
In the 1940s and 1950s, Thompson’s poetry was highly regarded, even though he had died in 1907. Tolkein’s interest A great fan of his works was JRR Tolkien, who is known for his Middle Earth Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit novels. Tolkien said that the ‘profound expressions’ in Thompson’s poems were an important influence. Tolkien lectured on Thompson and praised him, saying he was, “in perfect harmony with the poet”. Tolkien even took words that Thompson coined and littered them throughout his Middle Earth books. Tolkien’s elf-maiden, Lúthien, came from Thompson’s Luthany, from his poem The Mistress of Vision. Tolkien’s use of the word ‘Southron’ for ‘southerner people’ in his Lord of the Rings comes from Thompson’s poem At Lords. Thompson’s poem, The Hound of Heaven, which describes a man being pursued by God, in the form of a hound, is his most famous. At one time it became one of the most widely printed poems in the English language.
Placed under the light of the theory that Thompson was the Ripper, however, this poem, with the line, “I pleaded, outlaw-wise” takes on a far deeper meaning and the symbolisim of the hound may be more real than we think, when we consider that, during the Ripper investigation, the Chief Police Commissioner trailed the use of bloodhounds to try to track down the murderer. This poem’s influence has been far reaching. In February 1943, Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian civil rights leader, while in detention and behind barbed wire in Poona, India, began a 21-day fast, protesting British occupation. To console himself he read his copy of Francis Thompson’s most famous poem, The Hound of Heaven written, in 1888, the year of the Ripper murders, and asked a visiting relative their interpretations of it. Ghandi found its words to be so comforting that two years later, on March 9 1945, he wrote to a friend, prescribing it as a remedy to nervousness. “Try and see if you can steady your mind. Read The Hound of Heaven, think over it and understand its meaning. You will not be happy anywhere if you turn your back upon the Hound.” Another well-known civil rights leader, who took this poem to heart, was the American Martin Luther King Jr. In his sermons, 1945 to 1950, King reminded himself of “God’s Search For Man” in which he preached that God seeks man as much as man seeks God, to quote Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven.
There is one area in which Thompson’s Hound of Heaven poem may have had the greatest impact and that is in American legal history. In 1955, the US Supreme Court made Brown v Board of Education decision, a landmark ruling that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Many legal experts see it as the most important legal decision made in US history. The ruling turned on a phrase taken from The Hound of Heaven. The judges, used the term “with all deliberate speed” when they gave the period of time in which the Southern States had to allow racially mixed classrooms. This vague description hindered de-segregation. Significant reforms were never achieved. It took another decade of protests, before the Supreme Court made a new ruling. Today, civil rights historians say that this delay brought needless suffering and a lasting distrust between African Americans and white people. One can only imagine the consequences if the American people come to realise that their highest court in the land, when they made their ruling, relied on the words of the multiple murderer, Jack the Ripper? •“Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson” by Richard Patterson is available priced £9.99 from Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
Between August 31 and November 9, 1888, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly were all knifed to death in Whitechapel, East London. The enduring mystery to the Ripper’s identity has meant that today there is a virtual industry built around the history of the crimes with those interested in it dubbed ‘Ripperologists’. Thompson, who was born in Preston in 1859 and died in London in 1907, spent several years as a student at Ushaw College in County Durham. The Roman Catholic seminary was the principle place of training for Catholic priests for northern England.
Ushaw opened in 1808 and closed in 2011. Now the abandoned college lies derelict and attracts photographers keen to capture images of its decaying buildings. Though when Thompson attended from 1870 to 1877, the college was in its heyday with 300 student priests. Its extensive religious library had amassed hundreds of rare manuscripts and with 45,000 volumes was the largest in Britain.
Thompson proved to be secretive and withdrawn and had found it difficult to make friends. In the library, he was often found at a desk with spare books set up as a barrier to shield him from paper bullets, catapulted from other pupils. Thompson’s description of his schoolfellows, when he arrived at the age of 10, introduces his world view in which outsiders were treated with hatred and paranoia. This is how he related his memory of them, “… a veritable demoniac revelation. Fresh from my tender home, and my circle of just-judging friends, these malignant school-mates who danced around me with mocking evil distortion of laughter ... devilish apparitions of a hate now first known; hate for hate’s sake, cruelty for cruelty’s sake. And so such they live in my memory, testimonies to the murky aboriginal demon in man”.
Thompson's most famous poem was The Hound of Heaven. J.R.R Tolkien once mentioned being influenced by this work. Thompson failed in his studies. The reason given by his masters were due to a “natural indolence, which has always been an obstacle with him”, and who concluded that “not the holy will of God” that he should be a priest. This is despite Thompson early exhibiting signs of genius. He won 16 of the school’s 21 competitive exams in essay writing, and the head of the school said that Thompson’s essays were “the best production from a lad his age I have ever seen in this seminary”. This ending of his hopes to become a priest meant his life took a very different path and, upon returning to his family home in Manchester, his mother had him apply to study surgery at Owen’s medical college. Although Thompson showed a fascination in dissection, that brought one of his sisters to remark, “many a time he asked my father for £3 or £4 for dissecting fees; so often that my father remarked what a number of corpses he was cutting up”.
Thompson skipped the college exams three times, forcing him to repeat his studies of surgery and human anatomy. A fellow student remembered Thompson at this time, “a vacant stare, weak lips, and a usually half-open mouth, the saliva trickling over his chin”. Thompson’s refusal to complete his years of studies or find full-time work, led to conflict with his family and in 1885 he ran away from home and headed to London. A series of misfortunes quickly saw him become a homeless vagrant, before being rescued from the streets within days of the final Ripper murder. Patterson’s book, which has been published by Austin and Macauley, is the result of 20 years of research, in which he travelled around the world gathering information to show Thompson was a serial killer. His research took him to Burns Library in Boston, which holds the world’s largest collection of Thompson’s letters and papers, and on to Thompson’s birthplace in Preston and London’s East End, the location of the infamous murders.
Patterson (pictured) also spoke at length to Texan forensic pathologist Dr Joseph C Rupp, who first posted the theory that Thompson could be Jack the Ripper. In 1988, Dr Rupp, wrote an article in a magazine devoted to criminology, which asked if Thompson was the Ripper, but it was largely ignored. Patterson strengthened the theory through his research and, in return, Dr Rupp wrote the introduction to Patterson’s book. More recently, Patterson presented his findings when he spoke at the 2016 London Jack the Ripper Conference. Patterson first received widespread media attention, in 2015, when his findings were made public.
Patterson’s book tells how Francis Thompson, in 1888, an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, had a history of mental illness and also of trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women’s stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a woman was knifed. Her name was Mary Kelly, and she is considered, by most, to be the last victim of Jack the Ripper. Her slaying was part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said were by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. As Patterson’s book shows, Francis Thompson was once a medical student and learned the very techniques of dissection and organ removal that were made to the Ripper’s victims.
Patterson sets out a compelling case for Thompson as the prime suspect for Jack the Ripper. “I do not claim to have solved the murders,” Patterson said. “Read my book and judge for yourself.”
In the 1940s and 1950s, Thompson’s poetry was highly regarded, even though he had died in 1907. Tolkein’s interest A great fan of his works was JRR Tolkien, who is known for his Middle Earth Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit novels. Tolkien said that the ‘profound expressions’ in Thompson’s poems were an important influence. Tolkien lectured on Thompson and praised him, saying he was, “in perfect harmony with the poet”. Tolkien even took words that Thompson coined and littered them throughout his Middle Earth books. Tolkien’s elf-maiden, Lúthien, came from Thompson’s Luthany, from his poem The Mistress of Vision. Tolkien’s use of the word ‘Southron’ for ‘southerner people’ in his Lord of the Rings comes from Thompson’s poem At Lords. Thompson’s poem, The Hound of Heaven, which describes a man being pursued by God, in the form of a hound, is his most famous. At one time it became one of the most widely printed poems in the English language.
Placed under the light of the theory that Thompson was the Ripper, however, this poem, with the line, “I pleaded, outlaw-wise” takes on a far deeper meaning and the symbolisim of the hound may be more real than we think, when we consider that, during the Ripper investigation, the Chief Police Commissioner trailed the use of bloodhounds to try to track down the murderer. This poem’s influence has been far reaching. In February 1943, Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian civil rights leader, while in detention and behind barbed wire in Poona, India, began a 21-day fast, protesting British occupation. To console himself he read his copy of Francis Thompson’s most famous poem, The Hound of Heaven written, in 1888, the year of the Ripper murders, and asked a visiting relative their interpretations of it. Ghandi found its words to be so comforting that two years later, on March 9 1945, he wrote to a friend, prescribing it as a remedy to nervousness. “Try and see if you can steady your mind. Read The Hound of Heaven, think over it and understand its meaning. You will not be happy anywhere if you turn your back upon the Hound.” Another well-known civil rights leader, who took this poem to heart, was the American Martin Luther King Jr. In his sermons, 1945 to 1950, King reminded himself of “God’s Search For Man” in which he preached that God seeks man as much as man seeks God, to quote Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven.
There is one area in which Thompson’s Hound of Heaven poem may have had the greatest impact and that is in American legal history. In 1955, the US Supreme Court made Brown v Board of Education decision, a landmark ruling that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Many legal experts see it as the most important legal decision made in US history. The ruling turned on a phrase taken from The Hound of Heaven. The judges, used the term “with all deliberate speed” when they gave the period of time in which the Southern States had to allow racially mixed classrooms. This vague description hindered de-segregation. Significant reforms were never achieved. It took another decade of protests, before the Supreme Court made a new ruling. Today, civil rights historians say that this delay brought needless suffering and a lasting distrust between African Americans and white people. One can only imagine the consequences if the American people come to realise that their highest court in the land, when they made their ruling, relied on the words of the multiple murderer, Jack the Ripper? •“Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson” by Richard Patterson is available priced £9.99 from Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
Was Jack the Ripper a poet born in Preston?
March 24 2017
Lancashire Post. By Mike Hill.
86,744 Monthly Readers
Lancashire Post. By Mike Hill.
86,744 Monthly Readers
A new book makes the sensational claim that Jack the Ripper was a poet from Preston. On December 16, 1959 the poet Francis Thompson was born in circumstances which could not have been more ordinary.
His birthplace was a plain brick, three-storey home in Winckley Street, Preston, and he was baptised at nearby at St Ignatious’ Church. His father, Charles Thompson, was a humble doctor who at one time had a dispensary in Bristol before meeting his future wife in Manchester and later settling in Preston. Thompson’s mother, Mary, was an ex-governess, who had come from a successful business family in Manchester. The first years of Thompson’s life consisted of walks with his sisters and the children’s governess to see the shops around the corner at Fishergate and watch the trains emerge from railway tunnel by the railway station. Other outings for young Thompson were to see the Ribble and the open countryside beyond it. Thompson’s parents were newly converted Roman Catholics, who were protected by the strong Catholic community.
His birthplace was a plain brick, three-storey home in Winckley Street, Preston, and he was baptised at nearby at St Ignatious’ Church. His father, Charles Thompson, was a humble doctor who at one time had a dispensary in Bristol before meeting his future wife in Manchester and later settling in Preston. Thompson’s mother, Mary, was an ex-governess, who had come from a successful business family in Manchester. The first years of Thompson’s life consisted of walks with his sisters and the children’s governess to see the shops around the corner at Fishergate and watch the trains emerge from railway tunnel by the railway station. Other outings for young Thompson were to see the Ribble and the open countryside beyond it. Thompson’s parents were newly converted Roman Catholics, who were protected by the strong Catholic community.
Although Francis Thompson would, at the age of eight, be witness to the worst of anti-Catholic sentiment, when he moved to Manchester, and saw riots. His first years, before his family moved to Ashton-under-Lyne, when he was aged five, were unremarkable in every way. From such humble beginnings, who could have known that, after his death, in 1907, he would be recognised as the greatest Catholic poet of the modern age. Now a new book asks was he also the nation’s most notorious multiple murderer? The incredible claim, by Australian author Richard Patterson (pictured inset), in his ‘Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson,’ suggests Thompson was the man behind the mysterious slaying of at least five women in London’s East End in 1888.
Between August 31 and November 9, 1888 Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly were all knifed to death in Whitechapel, East London. Their killer was never found and the case has gone down in British folklore.
Patterson’s book, which has been published by Austin and Macauley, is the result of 20 years of research, in which he travelled around the world gathering information to show Thompson was a serial killer. His research took him to Burns Library in Boston, which holds the world’s largest collection of Thompson’s letters and papers, and on to Thompson’s birthplace in Preston and London’s East End, the location of the infamous murders.
Patterson also spoke at length to forensic pathologist Dr Joseph C Rupp, who first posted the theory that Thompson could be Jack the Ripper. More recently, Patterson presented his findings when he spoke at the 2016 London Jack the Ripper Conference. Patterson first received widespread media attention, in 2015, when his findings were made public. Patterson was not the first to cast suspicion on the poet. In 1988, a Texan pathologist, Dr Rupp, wrote an article in a magazine devoted to criminology, which asked if Thompson was the Ripper, but it was largely ignored. Patterson, strengthened the theory through his research, and in return Dr Rupp wrote the introduction to Patterson’s book. Though little known outside of literary circles now, in the 1940s and 1950s Thompson was a very popular poet, even though he had died in 1907. A great fan of Thompson’s works was JRR Tolkien, who is known for his Middle Earth novels. Tolkien admitted that the ‘profound expressions’ in Thompson’s poems were an important influence. Tolkien lectured on Thompson and praised him, saying he was, “in perfect harmony with the poet”. Tolkien even took words that Thompson coined and littered them throughout his Middle Earth Books. Tolkien’s elf-maiden, Lúthien, came from Thompson’s Luthany, from his poem The Mistress of Vision.
Tolkien’s use of the word ‘Southron’ for ‘southerner people’ in his Lord of the Rings comes from Thompson’s poem At Lords. Thompson’s poem, The Hound of Heaven, which describes a man being pursued by God, in the form of a hound, is his most famous. At one time it became one of the most widely printed poems in the English language. Placed under the light of the theory that Thompson was the Ripper, however, this poem, with the line, “I pleaded, outlaw-wise” takes on a far deeper meaning and the symbolisim of the hound may be more real than we think, when we consider that, during the Ripper investigation, the Chief Police Commissioner trailed the use of bloodhounds to try track down the murderer. This poem’s influence has been far reaching. In February 1943, Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian civil rights leader, while in detention and behind barbed wire in Poona, India, began a 21-day fast, protesting British occupation. To console himself he read his copy of Francis Thompson’s most famous poem, The Hound of Heaven written, in 1888, the year of the Ripper murders, and asked a visiting relative their interpretations of it. Ghandi found its words to be so comforting that two years later, on March 9 1945, he wrote to a friend, prescribing it as a tonic to nervousness. “Try and see if you can steady your mind. Read The Hound of Heaven, think over it and understand its meaning. You will not be happy anywhere if you turn your back upon the Hound.” Another well-known civil rights leader who took this poem to heart, was the American Martin Luther King Jr. In his sermon notes and outlines of 1945 to 1950 King reminded himself, for his sermon “God’s Search For Man” in which he preached that God seeks man as much as mean seeks god, to quote Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven. There is one area in which Thompson’s Hound of Heaven poem may have had the greatest impact and that is in American legal history. In 1955, the US Supreme Court made Brown v Board of Education decision, a landmark ruling that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Many legal experts see it as the most important legal decision made in US history. The ruling turned on a phrase taken from The Hound of Heaven. The judges, used the term “with all deliberate speed” when they gave the period of time in which the Southern States had to allow racially mixed classrooms. This vague description hindered de-segregation. Significant reforms were never achieved. It took another decade of protests, before the Supreme Court made a new ruling. Today, civil rights historians say that this delay brought needless suffering and a lasting distrust between African Americans and white people. One can only imagine the consequences if the American people come to realise that their highest court in the land, when they made their ruling, relied on the words of the multiple murderer, Jack the Ripper? Patterson’s book tells how Francis Thompson, in 1888, was an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, had a history of mental illness and also of trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women’s stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a woman was knifed. Her name was Mary Kelly, and she is considered, by most, to be the last victim of Jack the Ripper. Her slaying was part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said were by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. As Patterson’s book shows, Francis Thompson was once a medical student and learned the very techniques of dissection and organ removal that were made to the Ripper’s victims. Patterson sets out a compelling case for Thompson as the prime suspect for Jack the Ripper in this must-read the world over. “I do not claim to have solved the murders.” Patterson said, “Read my book and judge for yourself.” * Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson by Richard Patterson is available priced £9.99 from Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
Between August 31 and November 9, 1888 Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly were all knifed to death in Whitechapel, East London. Their killer was never found and the case has gone down in British folklore.
Patterson’s book, which has been published by Austin and Macauley, is the result of 20 years of research, in which he travelled around the world gathering information to show Thompson was a serial killer. His research took him to Burns Library in Boston, which holds the world’s largest collection of Thompson’s letters and papers, and on to Thompson’s birthplace in Preston and London’s East End, the location of the infamous murders.
Patterson also spoke at length to forensic pathologist Dr Joseph C Rupp, who first posted the theory that Thompson could be Jack the Ripper. More recently, Patterson presented his findings when he spoke at the 2016 London Jack the Ripper Conference. Patterson first received widespread media attention, in 2015, when his findings were made public. Patterson was not the first to cast suspicion on the poet. In 1988, a Texan pathologist, Dr Rupp, wrote an article in a magazine devoted to criminology, which asked if Thompson was the Ripper, but it was largely ignored. Patterson, strengthened the theory through his research, and in return Dr Rupp wrote the introduction to Patterson’s book. Though little known outside of literary circles now, in the 1940s and 1950s Thompson was a very popular poet, even though he had died in 1907. A great fan of Thompson’s works was JRR Tolkien, who is known for his Middle Earth novels. Tolkien admitted that the ‘profound expressions’ in Thompson’s poems were an important influence. Tolkien lectured on Thompson and praised him, saying he was, “in perfect harmony with the poet”. Tolkien even took words that Thompson coined and littered them throughout his Middle Earth Books. Tolkien’s elf-maiden, Lúthien, came from Thompson’s Luthany, from his poem The Mistress of Vision.
Tolkien’s use of the word ‘Southron’ for ‘southerner people’ in his Lord of the Rings comes from Thompson’s poem At Lords. Thompson’s poem, The Hound of Heaven, which describes a man being pursued by God, in the form of a hound, is his most famous. At one time it became one of the most widely printed poems in the English language. Placed under the light of the theory that Thompson was the Ripper, however, this poem, with the line, “I pleaded, outlaw-wise” takes on a far deeper meaning and the symbolisim of the hound may be more real than we think, when we consider that, during the Ripper investigation, the Chief Police Commissioner trailed the use of bloodhounds to try track down the murderer. This poem’s influence has been far reaching. In February 1943, Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian civil rights leader, while in detention and behind barbed wire in Poona, India, began a 21-day fast, protesting British occupation. To console himself he read his copy of Francis Thompson’s most famous poem, The Hound of Heaven written, in 1888, the year of the Ripper murders, and asked a visiting relative their interpretations of it. Ghandi found its words to be so comforting that two years later, on March 9 1945, he wrote to a friend, prescribing it as a tonic to nervousness. “Try and see if you can steady your mind. Read The Hound of Heaven, think over it and understand its meaning. You will not be happy anywhere if you turn your back upon the Hound.” Another well-known civil rights leader who took this poem to heart, was the American Martin Luther King Jr. In his sermon notes and outlines of 1945 to 1950 King reminded himself, for his sermon “God’s Search For Man” in which he preached that God seeks man as much as mean seeks god, to quote Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven. There is one area in which Thompson’s Hound of Heaven poem may have had the greatest impact and that is in American legal history. In 1955, the US Supreme Court made Brown v Board of Education decision, a landmark ruling that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Many legal experts see it as the most important legal decision made in US history. The ruling turned on a phrase taken from The Hound of Heaven. The judges, used the term “with all deliberate speed” when they gave the period of time in which the Southern States had to allow racially mixed classrooms. This vague description hindered de-segregation. Significant reforms were never achieved. It took another decade of protests, before the Supreme Court made a new ruling. Today, civil rights historians say that this delay brought needless suffering and a lasting distrust between African Americans and white people. One can only imagine the consequences if the American people come to realise that their highest court in the land, when they made their ruling, relied on the words of the multiple murderer, Jack the Ripper? Patterson’s book tells how Francis Thompson, in 1888, was an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, had a history of mental illness and also of trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women’s stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a woman was knifed. Her name was Mary Kelly, and she is considered, by most, to be the last victim of Jack the Ripper. Her slaying was part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said were by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. As Patterson’s book shows, Francis Thompson was once a medical student and learned the very techniques of dissection and organ removal that were made to the Ripper’s victims. Patterson sets out a compelling case for Thompson as the prime suspect for Jack the Ripper in this must-read the world over. “I do not claim to have solved the murders.” Patterson said, “Read my book and judge for yourself.” * Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson by Richard Patterson is available priced £9.99 from Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.
Jack the Ripper and muttering poet – were they one and the same?
March 23 2017
West Sussex County Times. By Richard Patterson.
Monthly Readership. 44,919
West Sussex County Times. By Richard Patterson.
Monthly Readership. 44,919
A new book asks whether the most famous serial killer in the world – Jack the Ripper – was actually Francis Thompson, an eccentric poet who came to Storrington the year after the Whitechapel killings came to an end.
To a curious Storrington local in 1889, the sight of an odd Londoner venturing from the Catholic Priory on the edge of town, to explore their streets and then disappearing for many hours to walk the downs, would have caused only slight interest. Storrington folk, at first suspicious of the arrival of the mainly French speaking Norbertine monks, a few years earlier, had grown used outsiders and had even welcomed the monks into their homes as the Catholic order set about building the large brick priory.
The new Londoner, who had arrived in January 1889 and would stay until March 1890, was clearly different.
First, unlike the monks, who wore white habits, this man dressed in worn boots, a wide brimmed felt hat and long stained overcoat.
His peculiarly gait, the way he hunched his shoulders, how he would be observed muttering to himself, as if in his own world, set him apart from the locals and all others.
Nobody in Storrington could have guessed that here, in the oldest settlement in Sussex, now lived a man who would become what many came to regard as the greatest Catholic poet of modern times.
It was in Storrington that the English poet Francis Thompson would begin work on some of his most profound religious poetry.
It was also at the priory, and from his room on its top floor, that Thompson could look down at the idyllic old-world village as he worked on his only ever story. Its name was The End Crowns the Work and was about a poet who, in his lust for fame and immortality, makes a deal with the Devil. The poet, in his satanic pact, drugs a girl he lusts and then stabs her to death.
A dark story certainly, and only a story, but is it? Thompson’s story has such lines as:
“I swear I struck not the first blow, Some violence seized my hand, and I drove the poniard down. “Whereat she cried; and I, frenzied, dreading detection, dreading, above all, her wakening, struck again.”
It seems to be more akin to the dreadful 1888 murders of the mysterious Jack the Ripper in London only a year before, than the idyllic and peaceful Sussex countryside. The casual reader might even think that the Ripper murders were what inspired Thompson.
Now, a new book, written by Australian Richard Patterson – Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson – published by Austin Macauley, claims that The Ripper and Thompson were one in the same.
Patterson’s book reveals that in 1888 Francis Thompson was an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, and a history of mental illness and trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women’s stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a Ripper victim was knifed, as part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said was by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. If Patterson, who has travelled the world and spent 20 years in research for his book, is right then Storrington will be forever connected to arguably the most famous murders the world has ever seen.
First, unlike the monks, who wore white habits, this man dressed in worn boots, a wide brimmed felt hat and long stained overcoat.
His peculiarly gait, the way he hunched his shoulders, how he would be observed muttering to himself, as if in his own world, set him apart from the locals and all others.
Nobody in Storrington could have guessed that here, in the oldest settlement in Sussex, now lived a man who would become what many came to regard as the greatest Catholic poet of modern times.
It was in Storrington that the English poet Francis Thompson would begin work on some of his most profound religious poetry.
It was also at the priory, and from his room on its top floor, that Thompson could look down at the idyllic old-world village as he worked on his only ever story. Its name was The End Crowns the Work and was about a poet who, in his lust for fame and immortality, makes a deal with the Devil. The poet, in his satanic pact, drugs a girl he lusts and then stabs her to death.
A dark story certainly, and only a story, but is it? Thompson’s story has such lines as:
“I swear I struck not the first blow, Some violence seized my hand, and I drove the poniard down. “Whereat she cried; and I, frenzied, dreading detection, dreading, above all, her wakening, struck again.”
It seems to be more akin to the dreadful 1888 murders of the mysterious Jack the Ripper in London only a year before, than the idyllic and peaceful Sussex countryside. The casual reader might even think that the Ripper murders were what inspired Thompson.
Now, a new book, written by Australian Richard Patterson – Jack the Ripper, The Works of Francis Thompson – published by Austin Macauley, claims that The Ripper and Thompson were one in the same.
Patterson’s book reveals that in 1888 Francis Thompson was an ex-medical student with a dissecting scalpel, and a history of mental illness and trouble with the police. He had just broken up with a prostitute and had written about cutting women’s stomachs open. At the same time, a few yards from his refuge, a Ripper victim was knifed, as part of a spate of prostitute murders, which one coroner said was by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. If Patterson, who has travelled the world and spent 20 years in research for his book, is right then Storrington will be forever connected to arguably the most famous murders the world has ever seen.
Local Author Sheds Light on Ripper Murders.
March 04 2017
NBN News. By Leah White.
Audience. 2 million.
NBN News. By Leah White.
Audience. 2 million.
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It’s the world’s most notorious murder mystery, and now, a local school teacher believes he’s cracked the case. Richard Patterson’s new book details two decades of research, which he claims points to a famous English poet behind the gruesome Jack the Ripper murders.
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The Byron Bay Healer Investigating Jack the Ripper.
October 24th 2016
The Northern Star. By Mia Armitage.
The Northern Star. By Mia Armitage.
MASSAGE and murder mysteries have made an unconventional match in the form of an alternative healer from Byron Bay about to publish his twenty-year investigation of Jack the Ripper.
In the heart of Byron Bay's industrial arts estate, dressed in natural fibres with clear skin and bright eyes - no sign of crime investigator fatigue - Richard Patterson spoke excitedly about his upcoming trip to the United Kingdom where he will present cold, hard facts on his 'who dunnit' theory to Jack the Ripper historians from all over the world.
"Corruption and decay is part of life.... it's an affirmation of life" he said when asked to explain his interest in the morbid case.
Mr Patterson has gathered a wealth of evidence suggesting one of the world's most infamous serial killers was actually "the most famous catholic poet of the twentieth century", Francis Thompson.
His theory was met with scepticism at first and some accused him of "cherry-picking" facts from Thompson's records but Mr Patterson said he "knew nothing about" the poet before coincidentally picking up an anthology of his work around the same time he'd begun to research Jack the Ripper for a contribution to a book on philosophy.
"I wanted to see how the police and how the press were looking at the case back then and whether there is any change in how we look at cases now.
"My theory was that... they were assuming that the killer was someone very foreign to them, not necessarily foreign in mind.
"I got to maybe the second last poem [of Thompson's anthology] and I thought 'this is a really evil poem, who's this guy?'
"People said if he was famous he wouldn't go around killing people... but at the time of the murders most people thought he was dead; he'd been homeless for about three years and wasn't famous until about 50 years after he'd died.
"I had no idea he'd had such an influence on the twentieth century.
"Gandhi kept a copy of his book, Martin Luther King quoted him, the US Supreme Court... quoted him in their de-segregation laws, Tolkien used the words that my suspect coined in the names of the cities in The Lord of the Rings.
"People were baptised with [Thompson's] poetry and christened and married.
"I decided not to look at the mask of the person because everyone, inside, is equal."
Mr Patterson travelled to the UK where he uncovered some of Thompson's unpublished work.
"He wrote essays on 'why I should kill'. He wrote essays on prostitutes and why he hated prostitutes. He wrote... pretty gory poems, horrible revelations about himself."
As his epic research continued, Mr Patterson discovered he was not the first to suspect Thompson as "the world's first terrorist who made five million people scared".
In 1967 a biographer of the famous poet included a footnote suggesting Thompson could be questioned as Jack the Ripper and in 1988 a Texan pathologist published an article called 'Was Francis Thompson Jack The Ripper', said Mr Patterson.
He and the pathologist, Dr Joseph Rupp, were now speaking daily and the original article would be included in Mr Patterson's book, he said, which he hoped to share with readers in the Northern Rivers at next year's Byron Bay Writers Festival.
In the heart of Byron Bay's industrial arts estate, dressed in natural fibres with clear skin and bright eyes - no sign of crime investigator fatigue - Richard Patterson spoke excitedly about his upcoming trip to the United Kingdom where he will present cold, hard facts on his 'who dunnit' theory to Jack the Ripper historians from all over the world.
"Corruption and decay is part of life.... it's an affirmation of life" he said when asked to explain his interest in the morbid case.
Mr Patterson has gathered a wealth of evidence suggesting one of the world's most infamous serial killers was actually "the most famous catholic poet of the twentieth century", Francis Thompson.
His theory was met with scepticism at first and some accused him of "cherry-picking" facts from Thompson's records but Mr Patterson said he "knew nothing about" the poet before coincidentally picking up an anthology of his work around the same time he'd begun to research Jack the Ripper for a contribution to a book on philosophy.
"I wanted to see how the police and how the press were looking at the case back then and whether there is any change in how we look at cases now.
"My theory was that... they were assuming that the killer was someone very foreign to them, not necessarily foreign in mind.
"I got to maybe the second last poem [of Thompson's anthology] and I thought 'this is a really evil poem, who's this guy?'
"People said if he was famous he wouldn't go around killing people... but at the time of the murders most people thought he was dead; he'd been homeless for about three years and wasn't famous until about 50 years after he'd died.
"I had no idea he'd had such an influence on the twentieth century.
"Gandhi kept a copy of his book, Martin Luther King quoted him, the US Supreme Court... quoted him in their de-segregation laws, Tolkien used the words that my suspect coined in the names of the cities in The Lord of the Rings.
"People were baptised with [Thompson's] poetry and christened and married.
"I decided not to look at the mask of the person because everyone, inside, is equal."
Mr Patterson travelled to the UK where he uncovered some of Thompson's unpublished work.
"He wrote essays on 'why I should kill'. He wrote essays on prostitutes and why he hated prostitutes. He wrote... pretty gory poems, horrible revelations about himself."
As his epic research continued, Mr Patterson discovered he was not the first to suspect Thompson as "the world's first terrorist who made five million people scared".
In 1967 a biographer of the famous poet included a footnote suggesting Thompson could be questioned as Jack the Ripper and in 1988 a Texan pathologist published an article called 'Was Francis Thompson Jack The Ripper', said Mr Patterson.
He and the pathologist, Dr Joseph Rupp, were now speaking daily and the original article would be included in Mr Patterson's book, he said, which he hoped to share with readers in the Northern Rivers at next year's Byron Bay Writers Festival.
Was Jack the Ripper a failed priest from Durham?
April 13 2016.
The Northern Echo. By Tony Kearney
The Northern Echo. By Tony Kearney
Poet, priest and serial killer? A new book claims Jack the Ripper was a failed clergyman from Durham. Kate Dean sifts the evidence.
IN August 1888, the body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered in Whitechapel, the first in a string of brutal murders which shook London.
In what appeared to be the work of a single killer, five prostitutes were killed and their bodies dismembered. After a series of letters to the police claimed to be from the perpetrator, the mysterious murderer became known as ‘Jack the Ripper’ and remains infamous today.
The Ripper eluded capture and many theorists and scholars are still trying to find his or her identity. Now an Australian teacher has become the latest to believe they have discovered the true identity of the killer, a failed Durham priest.
Richard Patterson, an English teacher from Australia has identified English poet Francis Thompson as the prime suspect for the killings in his new book Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect.
Thompson was a well-known poet, who studied at Ushaw College, in Durham for a period until moving to Owen’s College, Manchester in 1877 where he studied medicine. The poet subsequently moved to London, the location of the murders, where he became a homeless opium addict, while writing poetry and short stories.
The streets of Whitechapel are a far cry from Ushaw, a Catholic seminary founded by Douai priests, boasting building designs from Neo-Gothic architects such as Pugin. The buildings also contained a library filled with manuscripts which Thompson was a frequent visitor to. The college opened its doors to students and staff in 1808 with the aim to prepare novice priests to take holy orders.
Thompson attended St Cuthbert’s (the junior seminary in Durham) where he learnt numerous languages including Sanskrit and Latin. He then attended Ushaw itself and often worshipped in Durham Cathedral. However, he failed to take holy orders and was declared unfit to become a member of the church. Instead, he discovered a talent for poetry; the high quality of which was recognised by journal editor William Meynell. Subsequent to his failing to become a priest, Thompson was medically trained in Manchester. The surgical skills he learned there, plus the possession of a scalpel during his time in London, constitutes the cornerstone of Patterson’s accusation of the poet as many skilled surgical procedures, including disembowelling, were discovered on the victims’ bodies.
After twenty years of researching Thompson’s connections to the murders, Patterson has published a book he claims proves that the poet is Jack the Ripper. Shortly after moving to London, the poet started a romantic relationship with a prostitute who offered him a place to stay after a period of homelessness. The eventual failure of their relationship, Patterson argues, was Thompson’s motivation for the brutal killings which targeted sex-workers across London. Heartbroken, he wrote extensively on the subjected of killing women with knives shortly before and after the murders took place.
According to his website, the book also contains proof that Thompson was within metres of the location of the final murder and information on how he eluded capture by authorities. Patterson also examines Thompson’s literary work for evidence with particular interest his short story Finis Coronat Opus which contains a detailed description of the murder of a woman. The book was reviewed by Paul Begg in ‘Ripperologist Magazine’, who said: “Richard Patterson has made a very good case for Francis Thompson to be taken o? the shelf of neglected Ripper candidates and to be looked at more closely.”
However, Thompson is by no means the first suspect to be identified as being the notorious Ripper. In 2014, Russell Edwards published a book accusing Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski of committing the murders. Kosminiski, Edwards claimed, arrived with his family in London in 1881 and worked in the city as a barber. In this case DNA evidence was allegedly discovered on a bloodstained shawl the author acquired which belonged to one of the victims. The shawl was found to contain traces of the killer’s semen, the only forensic evidence on the case known to exist. Other suspects include the author and poet Lewis Carroll, the wife of a surgeon and the painter Walter Sickert.
Patterson accused Thompson in his book Francis Thompson and the Ripper Paradox which his website describes as an ‘experimental horror novel written as a biography’ and has now strengthened the claims in this non-fiction book. Patterson has also been invited to speak at the annual Jack the Ripper Conference in London.
IN August 1888, the body of Mary Ann Nichols was discovered in Whitechapel, the first in a string of brutal murders which shook London.
In what appeared to be the work of a single killer, five prostitutes were killed and their bodies dismembered. After a series of letters to the police claimed to be from the perpetrator, the mysterious murderer became known as ‘Jack the Ripper’ and remains infamous today.
The Ripper eluded capture and many theorists and scholars are still trying to find his or her identity. Now an Australian teacher has become the latest to believe they have discovered the true identity of the killer, a failed Durham priest.
Richard Patterson, an English teacher from Australia has identified English poet Francis Thompson as the prime suspect for the killings in his new book Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect.
Thompson was a well-known poet, who studied at Ushaw College, in Durham for a period until moving to Owen’s College, Manchester in 1877 where he studied medicine. The poet subsequently moved to London, the location of the murders, where he became a homeless opium addict, while writing poetry and short stories.
The streets of Whitechapel are a far cry from Ushaw, a Catholic seminary founded by Douai priests, boasting building designs from Neo-Gothic architects such as Pugin. The buildings also contained a library filled with manuscripts which Thompson was a frequent visitor to. The college opened its doors to students and staff in 1808 with the aim to prepare novice priests to take holy orders.
Thompson attended St Cuthbert’s (the junior seminary in Durham) where he learnt numerous languages including Sanskrit and Latin. He then attended Ushaw itself and often worshipped in Durham Cathedral. However, he failed to take holy orders and was declared unfit to become a member of the church. Instead, he discovered a talent for poetry; the high quality of which was recognised by journal editor William Meynell. Subsequent to his failing to become a priest, Thompson was medically trained in Manchester. The surgical skills he learned there, plus the possession of a scalpel during his time in London, constitutes the cornerstone of Patterson’s accusation of the poet as many skilled surgical procedures, including disembowelling, were discovered on the victims’ bodies.
After twenty years of researching Thompson’s connections to the murders, Patterson has published a book he claims proves that the poet is Jack the Ripper. Shortly after moving to London, the poet started a romantic relationship with a prostitute who offered him a place to stay after a period of homelessness. The eventual failure of their relationship, Patterson argues, was Thompson’s motivation for the brutal killings which targeted sex-workers across London. Heartbroken, he wrote extensively on the subjected of killing women with knives shortly before and after the murders took place.
According to his website, the book also contains proof that Thompson was within metres of the location of the final murder and information on how he eluded capture by authorities. Patterson also examines Thompson’s literary work for evidence with particular interest his short story Finis Coronat Opus which contains a detailed description of the murder of a woman. The book was reviewed by Paul Begg in ‘Ripperologist Magazine’, who said: “Richard Patterson has made a very good case for Francis Thompson to be taken o? the shelf of neglected Ripper candidates and to be looked at more closely.”
However, Thompson is by no means the first suspect to be identified as being the notorious Ripper. In 2014, Russell Edwards published a book accusing Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski of committing the murders. Kosminiski, Edwards claimed, arrived with his family in London in 1881 and worked in the city as a barber. In this case DNA evidence was allegedly discovered on a bloodstained shawl the author acquired which belonged to one of the victims. The shawl was found to contain traces of the killer’s semen, the only forensic evidence on the case known to exist. Other suspects include the author and poet Lewis Carroll, the wife of a surgeon and the painter Walter Sickert.
Patterson accused Thompson in his book Francis Thompson and the Ripper Paradox which his website describes as an ‘experimental horror novel written as a biography’ and has now strengthened the claims in this non-fiction book. Patterson has also been invited to speak at the annual Jack the Ripper Conference in London.
Author: Jack the Ripper grew up in Ashton then attended University of Manchester.
March 30 2016.
Mancunian Matters. By Liam Soutar.
Mancunian Matters. By Liam Soutar.
The true identity of Jack the Ripper may have been uncovered by an author who claims the killer was a renowned poet who grew up in Manchester.
The author claims that Victorian poet Francis Thompson was responsible for the brutal murders of five women in East London.
In ‘Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect’ Richard Patterson claims that Thompson’s childhood in Ashton-Under-Lyne contributed to the mental state of the man whose crimes would grip the nation.
Richard has spent nearly two decades investigating the case in an attempt to prove that the poet was the killer. Born in 1859 into a deeply religious Catholic family in Preston, Thompson moved to Ashton in 1864 when his father opened a surgery on Stamford Street. “In contrast to Preston, the catholic community was much smaller,” Richard told MM. “This was during a time when the majority of Anglicans distrusted Catholics,” said the 46-year-old author from Melbourne.
In 1868, when Thompson was nine years old, a full-scale anti-Catholic riot broke out. Organised by William Murphy, a staunch anti-Catholic, the riot saw houses broken into, people killed and the Catholic church of St Anne on Cavendish Street was destroyed. “Thompson witnessed these riots, and they left a lasting impression,” said Richard.
“Much of his distrust of non-Catholics, his secretiveness and his paranoia stemmed from this riot,” he added. Thompson left Manchester for London in 1885, with the aim of becoming a writer. His first years in London brought little more than misery, however, and he spent a long time living on the streets.
Good fortune found him in 1888, when he first had work published by an editor who rescued him from homelessness. From here, Thompson went on to gain a reputation as one of the most esteemed poets of his generation. He died in London in 1907 from a combination of tuberculosis and long-term opium abuse.
At least that’s history’s version of events. The reality, the book says, is that Thompson had a dark side that some people went to great lengths to keep quiet. The idea for the book was born in 1997 when Richard decided to study the Jack the Ripper murders for a dissertation on criminology. At the same time as researching the murders, he happened to buy a book of Francis Thompson’s poems.
“After reading one of his poems I said to myself that he might be Jack the Ripper,” said Richard. “I started researching his life, and once I saw that in the same year as the Ripper murders, that he was in London, living as a vagrant, my interest grew. “As I continued to research Thompson, I decided that there were enough correlations between him and the crimes, to put into a book.”
While many names have been touted as the true identity of Jack the Ripper over the years, Richard believes the evidence for these suspects is mostly based on assumptions. “Although interesting stories in themselves, they lack what I feel professional investigators would look for in the murderer, these being motive, opportunity, ability, and weapon. Out of the other suspects and there are more than a thousand named so far, Francis Thompson is the one who fits these the most closely. His motive is simple - a prostitute dumped him, soon before the murders began and all the victims were prostitutes.”
The book claims that in 1887, whilst struggling for work, Thompson was taken in by an unnamed prostitute in Chelsea, and that the two briefly became lovers before separating for reasons that aren’t fully known. One thing that isn’t a mystery, however, is that Thompson was left very jilted by the situation. “He lived closer to the victims than any other suspect and he lived less than 100 yards from Mary Kelly, the final victim, on the night she was killed,” Richard told MM. “He lived in or near the areas of the all the murders.”
Again, it appears that Thompson’s experiences in Manchester contributed to the Whitechapel murders, as the book also reveals he trained as a surgeon at Owens Medical College (now the University of Manchester). “He even paid extra fees just so he could practice dissecting a hundred cadavers,” said Richard, describing how Thompson was taught the most cutting-edge dissection techniques. This supports the idea that Jack The Ripper was said to great knowledge of anatomy, owing to the precise, almost-surgical way that his victims had been stabbed.
Richard described this discovery, as well as realizing that he lived incredibly close to one of the murder scenes, as ‘eureka’ moments. “When I found out that he lived at Providence Row night refuge during the murders, it also excited me,” he said. “This refuge is located in Crispin Street, Spitalfields, it sits at the end of Dorset Street, which is the street that Mary Kelly, the last Ripper victim was killed in. Francis Thompson could have actually looked down from the window of the room, and seen the archway of the passage that led to Mary Kelly’s bedroom. Just these basic points, without considering that he also wrote about killing prostitutes before and after the murders, is enough to propel him to the top of the list of suspects.”
Indeed, a look at Francis Thompson’s poetry reveals an unhinged mind, a result of battles with homelessness, destitution and drug addiction. Nightmare of the Witch Babies, written prior to the murders, in 1886, describes in gory detail a man hunting down prostitutes and ripping their stomachs open with a knife:
Swiftly he followed her
Ha! Ha!
Eagerly he followed her.
Ho! Ho!
Lo, she corrupted!
Ho! Ho!
And its paunch [stomach] was rent [ripped]
Like a brasten [bursting] drum;
And the blubbered fat
From its belly doth come
It was a stream ran bloodily under the wall.
O Stream, you cannot run too red!
Under the wall.
With a sickening ooze - Hell made it so!
Two witch-babies, ho! ho! ho!'
It would also be hard to consider it a coincidence that in 1889, one year after the Jack The Ripper murders, Thompson completed a story called Finit Coronat Opus (The End Crowning Work). It is a story about a poet who kills a woman with a knife in order to become famous. The revelry with which Thompson writes about gruesome deaths could be put down to his drug use, as with many poets and artists of the time. But Richard argues that his prose is also based on an amalgamation of mental scarring, built up after years of issues such as the early deaths of family members including his infant sister when he was just five, his years of solitude and the public shunning he and his family faced during his time as a Catholic in Manchester.
Despite apparent evidence, the question remains, why was Francis Thompson never considered a suspect before? Richard’s answer is simple: there has been a cover-up. The author claims that Thompson’s antics were painstakingly removed from the public domain in order to promote the image of a well-mannered, respectable writer. “The editor who took Thompson off the streets just after the final Ripper murder, saw Thompson’s potential as a writer and a poet,” said Richard. “That he studied as a doctor and that he was a drug addict and that he had a sexual relationship with a prostitute, were carefully removed from his public profile. “Certain alterations, like the fact that he stayed at Providence Row so close to the murders, were removed from later editions of his work and his official biographies, point to a conspiracy involving very few people.”
In truth, the anonymity of Jack The Ripper is arguably the largest asset to his infamy, as well as the rose-tinted glasses many people look at the era through. “Much of the captivation lies in our romantic notions of the Victorians,” said Richard. “The London smog, gas lamps, horse-led carriages, and the pageantry and splendor of the British Empire are associated with Jack the Ripper. The sexual underpinnings of prostitutes being murdered must also play a part in our attraction to these crimes. London, in 1888, was effectively the centre of the world. England at that time was the largest empire the Earth had ever seen, and has yet to have seen again. That one man could essentially hold this city to ransom through a reign of terror, the Ripper may have been the first terrorist, is something we are still not fully cognizant of. We have never seen anything quite like it before and I pray we never see anything like it again,” he added.
‘Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect’ is available to buy now.
The author claims that Victorian poet Francis Thompson was responsible for the brutal murders of five women in East London.
In ‘Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect’ Richard Patterson claims that Thompson’s childhood in Ashton-Under-Lyne contributed to the mental state of the man whose crimes would grip the nation.
Richard has spent nearly two decades investigating the case in an attempt to prove that the poet was the killer. Born in 1859 into a deeply religious Catholic family in Preston, Thompson moved to Ashton in 1864 when his father opened a surgery on Stamford Street. “In contrast to Preston, the catholic community was much smaller,” Richard told MM. “This was during a time when the majority of Anglicans distrusted Catholics,” said the 46-year-old author from Melbourne.
In 1868, when Thompson was nine years old, a full-scale anti-Catholic riot broke out. Organised by William Murphy, a staunch anti-Catholic, the riot saw houses broken into, people killed and the Catholic church of St Anne on Cavendish Street was destroyed. “Thompson witnessed these riots, and they left a lasting impression,” said Richard.
“Much of his distrust of non-Catholics, his secretiveness and his paranoia stemmed from this riot,” he added. Thompson left Manchester for London in 1885, with the aim of becoming a writer. His first years in London brought little more than misery, however, and he spent a long time living on the streets.
Good fortune found him in 1888, when he first had work published by an editor who rescued him from homelessness. From here, Thompson went on to gain a reputation as one of the most esteemed poets of his generation. He died in London in 1907 from a combination of tuberculosis and long-term opium abuse.
At least that’s history’s version of events. The reality, the book says, is that Thompson had a dark side that some people went to great lengths to keep quiet. The idea for the book was born in 1997 when Richard decided to study the Jack the Ripper murders for a dissertation on criminology. At the same time as researching the murders, he happened to buy a book of Francis Thompson’s poems.
“After reading one of his poems I said to myself that he might be Jack the Ripper,” said Richard. “I started researching his life, and once I saw that in the same year as the Ripper murders, that he was in London, living as a vagrant, my interest grew. “As I continued to research Thompson, I decided that there were enough correlations between him and the crimes, to put into a book.”
While many names have been touted as the true identity of Jack the Ripper over the years, Richard believes the evidence for these suspects is mostly based on assumptions. “Although interesting stories in themselves, they lack what I feel professional investigators would look for in the murderer, these being motive, opportunity, ability, and weapon. Out of the other suspects and there are more than a thousand named so far, Francis Thompson is the one who fits these the most closely. His motive is simple - a prostitute dumped him, soon before the murders began and all the victims were prostitutes.”
The book claims that in 1887, whilst struggling for work, Thompson was taken in by an unnamed prostitute in Chelsea, and that the two briefly became lovers before separating for reasons that aren’t fully known. One thing that isn’t a mystery, however, is that Thompson was left very jilted by the situation. “He lived closer to the victims than any other suspect and he lived less than 100 yards from Mary Kelly, the final victim, on the night she was killed,” Richard told MM. “He lived in or near the areas of the all the murders.”
Again, it appears that Thompson’s experiences in Manchester contributed to the Whitechapel murders, as the book also reveals he trained as a surgeon at Owens Medical College (now the University of Manchester). “He even paid extra fees just so he could practice dissecting a hundred cadavers,” said Richard, describing how Thompson was taught the most cutting-edge dissection techniques. This supports the idea that Jack The Ripper was said to great knowledge of anatomy, owing to the precise, almost-surgical way that his victims had been stabbed.
Richard described this discovery, as well as realizing that he lived incredibly close to one of the murder scenes, as ‘eureka’ moments. “When I found out that he lived at Providence Row night refuge during the murders, it also excited me,” he said. “This refuge is located in Crispin Street, Spitalfields, it sits at the end of Dorset Street, which is the street that Mary Kelly, the last Ripper victim was killed in. Francis Thompson could have actually looked down from the window of the room, and seen the archway of the passage that led to Mary Kelly’s bedroom. Just these basic points, without considering that he also wrote about killing prostitutes before and after the murders, is enough to propel him to the top of the list of suspects.”
Indeed, a look at Francis Thompson’s poetry reveals an unhinged mind, a result of battles with homelessness, destitution and drug addiction. Nightmare of the Witch Babies, written prior to the murders, in 1886, describes in gory detail a man hunting down prostitutes and ripping their stomachs open with a knife:
Swiftly he followed her
Ha! Ha!
Eagerly he followed her.
Ho! Ho!
Lo, she corrupted!
Ho! Ho!
And its paunch [stomach] was rent [ripped]
Like a brasten [bursting] drum;
And the blubbered fat
From its belly doth come
It was a stream ran bloodily under the wall.
O Stream, you cannot run too red!
Under the wall.
With a sickening ooze - Hell made it so!
Two witch-babies, ho! ho! ho!'
It would also be hard to consider it a coincidence that in 1889, one year after the Jack The Ripper murders, Thompson completed a story called Finit Coronat Opus (The End Crowning Work). It is a story about a poet who kills a woman with a knife in order to become famous. The revelry with which Thompson writes about gruesome deaths could be put down to his drug use, as with many poets and artists of the time. But Richard argues that his prose is also based on an amalgamation of mental scarring, built up after years of issues such as the early deaths of family members including his infant sister when he was just five, his years of solitude and the public shunning he and his family faced during his time as a Catholic in Manchester.
Despite apparent evidence, the question remains, why was Francis Thompson never considered a suspect before? Richard’s answer is simple: there has been a cover-up. The author claims that Thompson’s antics were painstakingly removed from the public domain in order to promote the image of a well-mannered, respectable writer. “The editor who took Thompson off the streets just after the final Ripper murder, saw Thompson’s potential as a writer and a poet,” said Richard. “That he studied as a doctor and that he was a drug addict and that he had a sexual relationship with a prostitute, were carefully removed from his public profile. “Certain alterations, like the fact that he stayed at Providence Row so close to the murders, were removed from later editions of his work and his official biographies, point to a conspiracy involving very few people.”
In truth, the anonymity of Jack The Ripper is arguably the largest asset to his infamy, as well as the rose-tinted glasses many people look at the era through. “Much of the captivation lies in our romantic notions of the Victorians,” said Richard. “The London smog, gas lamps, horse-led carriages, and the pageantry and splendor of the British Empire are associated with Jack the Ripper. The sexual underpinnings of prostitutes being murdered must also play a part in our attraction to these crimes. London, in 1888, was effectively the centre of the world. England at that time was the largest empire the Earth had ever seen, and has yet to have seen again. That one man could essentially hold this city to ransom through a reign of terror, the Ripper may have been the first terrorist, is something we are still not fully cognizant of. We have never seen anything quite like it before and I pray we never see anything like it again,” he added.
‘Francis Thompson – A Ripper Suspect’ is available to buy now.
Jack the Ripper Identity Revealed As English Poet Francis Thompson.
February 12 2016.
Crime Traveller. By Fiona Guy.
Crime Traveller. By Fiona Guy.
Jack The Ripper’s Identity Finally Revealed
November 10 2015.
Inform Overload.
Audience: 45,047 (As of 20 Jan_2016)
Inform Overload.
Audience: 45,047 (As of 20 Jan_2016)
Jack the Ripper's real identity was poet Francis Thompson, teacher claims
November 6 2015.
The New York Daily News. By Melissa Chan
Circulation: 516,165
The New York Daily News. By Melissa Chan
Circulation: 516,165
England's most notorious serial killer may have been renowned poet Francis Thompson, according to one teacher who claims to have cracked the century-old murder mystery. Thompson penned poetry by day and butchered prostitutes by night under the guise of legendary murderer Jack the Ripper, Australian teacher Richard Patterson claims.
The 45-year-old educator says research from an exhaustive 20-year study shows the artist is the legendary culprit behind the grisly 1888 slays of five London prostitutes during a 10-week killing spree. Thompson, from Preston, Lancashire, had surgical experience and hinted at his double life in some of his poems in which he talked about killing people, Patterson told the Mirror.
He "kept a dissecting knife under his coat, and he was taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of more than one of the Ripper victims," the researcher said. "He helped with surgery and is known to have cut up heaps and heaps of cadavers while a student," Patterson added.
Thompson was also addicted to opium and had "close links" to at least one East London prostitute. Patterson believes "The Hound of Heaven" writer snapped after a relationship with a local prostitute went sour.
"Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives," the author said. Thompson details the bloody murder of a woman stabbed at a pagan temple by a young poet in his short story, “Finis Coronat Opus.”
“I swear I struck not the first blow. Some violence seized my hand, and drove the poniard down. Whereat she cried ; and I, frenzied, dreading detection, dreading, above all, her wakening, I struck again, and again she cried ; and yet again, and yet again she cried,” reads an excerpt from the 1889 piece.
The man in the poem hears the “sound of dripping blood” as the dying woman’s eyes glare at him in her last moments of life. “Motionless with horror they were fixed on mine, motionless with horror mine were fixed on them, as she wakened into death,” the poem says.
Many along the years have been suspected of being the real Ripper, including a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski, artist Walter Sickert and even Lizzie Williams, the wife of royal physician Sir John Williams.
The 45-year-old educator says research from an exhaustive 20-year study shows the artist is the legendary culprit behind the grisly 1888 slays of five London prostitutes during a 10-week killing spree. Thompson, from Preston, Lancashire, had surgical experience and hinted at his double life in some of his poems in which he talked about killing people, Patterson told the Mirror.
He "kept a dissecting knife under his coat, and he was taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of more than one of the Ripper victims," the researcher said. "He helped with surgery and is known to have cut up heaps and heaps of cadavers while a student," Patterson added.
Thompson was also addicted to opium and had "close links" to at least one East London prostitute. Patterson believes "The Hound of Heaven" writer snapped after a relationship with a local prostitute went sour.
"Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives," the author said. Thompson details the bloody murder of a woman stabbed at a pagan temple by a young poet in his short story, “Finis Coronat Opus.”
“I swear I struck not the first blow. Some violence seized my hand, and drove the poniard down. Whereat she cried ; and I, frenzied, dreading detection, dreading, above all, her wakening, I struck again, and again she cried ; and yet again, and yet again she cried,” reads an excerpt from the 1889 piece.
The man in the poem hears the “sound of dripping blood” as the dying woman’s eyes glare at him in her last moments of life. “Motionless with horror they were fixed on mine, motionless with horror mine were fixed on them, as she wakened into death,” the poem says.
Many along the years have been suspected of being the real Ripper, including a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski, artist Walter Sickert and even Lizzie Williams, the wife of royal physician Sir John Williams.
Jack the Ripper mystery SOLVED: Shock new claims uncover identity of most notorious killer.
November 5 2015.
The UK Express newspaper.
Circulation: 6.8 million
The UK Express newspaper.
Circulation: 6.8 million
Jack the Ripper mystery SOLVED: Shock new claims uncover identity of most notorious killer.
THE true identity of Jack The Ripper may finally have been revealed after shock new claims suggest the world's most notorious killer was actually a poet.
By Charlie Buckle
Richard Patterson, 45, has spent nearly 20 years investigating the case of the Ripper and the life of respected poet Francis Thompson to prove he was responsible for butchering countless women across London. Now he claims he has ultimate proof that Thompson was blood-thirsty London serial killer.
Mr Patterson claims Thompson, from Preston, Lancashire, not only wrote about killing people, but also had surgical experience and close links to at least one prostitute in the area. He said: "I'm grateful to have played some part in helping people understand Thompson, and why he might have been the Ripper.
"I'm excited that people are beginning to take the theory seriously, seeing Thompson and the crimes in a different light creates interesting possibilities."
Mr Patterson, from Australia, became convinced that Thompson was the killer when he read a book of his poetry as a student in 1997 and then discovered he had trained as a doctor too. The true identity of Jack the Ripper may have finally been uncovered. Their friendship is thought to have quickly turned into what was Thompson's only romantic relationship.
He believes that the mentally unstable poet snapped after she left him. He argues that the heartbroken writer started to take out his anger on other sex-workers in the area.
He said: "The moment he told her he was finally published, she said she was leaving him because the public would not understand their relationship." This was after Thompson's year long romance with the woman.
"Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives." Richard now hopes his research may help uncover and prevent crimes of a similar nature.
The author's investigation has seen him visit Thompson's home town of Preston, and travel to the United States to view a collection of hand-written letters in Boston. His findings will be published in his new book, Francis Thompson - a Ripper Suspect.
THE true identity of Jack The Ripper may finally have been revealed after shock new claims suggest the world's most notorious killer was actually a poet.
By Charlie Buckle
Richard Patterson, 45, has spent nearly 20 years investigating the case of the Ripper and the life of respected poet Francis Thompson to prove he was responsible for butchering countless women across London. Now he claims he has ultimate proof that Thompson was blood-thirsty London serial killer.
Mr Patterson claims Thompson, from Preston, Lancashire, not only wrote about killing people, but also had surgical experience and close links to at least one prostitute in the area. He said: "I'm grateful to have played some part in helping people understand Thompson, and why he might have been the Ripper.
"I'm excited that people are beginning to take the theory seriously, seeing Thompson and the crimes in a different light creates interesting possibilities."
Mr Patterson, from Australia, became convinced that Thompson was the killer when he read a book of his poetry as a student in 1997 and then discovered he had trained as a doctor too. The true identity of Jack the Ripper may have finally been uncovered. Their friendship is thought to have quickly turned into what was Thompson's only romantic relationship.
He believes that the mentally unstable poet snapped after she left him. He argues that the heartbroken writer started to take out his anger on other sex-workers in the area.
He said: "The moment he told her he was finally published, she said she was leaving him because the public would not understand their relationship." This was after Thompson's year long romance with the woman.
"Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives." Richard now hopes his research may help uncover and prevent crimes of a similar nature.
The author's investigation has seen him visit Thompson's home town of Preston, and travel to the United States to view a collection of hand-written letters in Boston. His findings will be published in his new book, Francis Thompson - a Ripper Suspect.
Was poet Francis Thompson the real Jack the Ripper? Teacher develops new theory that 19th Century writer with surgical experience and opium addiction butchered prostitutes.
November 4 2015.
The UK Daily Mail newspaper is the largest selling paper in the UK.
Circulation: 7.5 million.
The UK Daily Mail newspaper is the largest selling paper in the UK.
Circulation: 7.5 million.
Poet Francis Thompson - an influence on Tolkien - accused of being killer.
Teacher says secret to identity hidden in poems and surgical experience.
Thompson was addicted to opium and also had links to East End prostitute.
By Martin Robinson for MailOnline
Jack the Ripper's true identity has baffled police and amateur detectives for more than a century. But an English teacher has now claimed the gruesome murders of at least five women in London in the 1880s was the work of a well-known poet who revealed his blood lust in his writing.
Richard Patterson, 45, has spent nearly 20 years investigating his case to prove that respected writer Francis Thompson was responsible for butchering countless women across London. Mr Patterson claims that Thompson, from Preston, Lancashire, was a drug addict with links to prostitutes who wrote about killing people.
Crucially he also had surgical experience that would allow him to disembowel victims and an obsession with dead bodies. Thompson's poems are often about man's relationship with death and God, and Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien said he was a major influence on his work.
But Mr Patterson claims that Thompson's writing hints to a much more sinister influence, a thirst for blood played out on the streets of London 130 years ago. Richard, from Australia, became convinced that Thompson was the killer when he read a book of his poetry as a student in 1997 and then discovered he had trained as a doctor too.
Now, after travelling the world searching for clues as to who the killer really was, Richard claims that evidence against Thompson is stronger than that of any previous suspects. He said: 'I'm grateful to have played some part in helping people understand Thompson, and why he might have been the Ripper.
'I'm excited that people are beginning to take the theory seriously, seeing Thompson and the crimes in a different light creates interesting possibilities.' Richard, who is an English teacher at various schools in Byron Bay, New South Wales, said: 'Thompson kept a dissecting knife under his coat, and he was taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of more than one of the Ripper victims. 'He helped with surgery and is known to have cut up heaps and heaps of cadavers while a student.'
Thompson, originally from Lancashire, moved to London in 1885 with the hope of becoming a successful writer. Already addicted to opium, the young poet lived rough in the city until a local prostitute is believed to have offered him a place to stay.
Their friendship is thought to have quickly turned into what was Thompson's only romantic relationship. Richard believes that the mentally unstable poet snapped after she left him.
Richard is going to be publishing his findings in a book, Francis Thompson - a Ripper Suspect. In it, he argues that the heartbroken writer started to take out his anger on other sex-workers in the area. Richard said: 'The moment he told her he was finally published, she said she was leaving him because the public would not understand their relationship. This was after Thompson's year long romance with the woman. 'Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives.'
Richard now hopes his research may help uncover and prevent crimes of a similar nature. The author's investigation has seen him visit Thompson's home town of Preston, and travel to the United States to view a collection of hand-written letters in Boston.
Teacher says secret to identity hidden in poems and surgical experience.
Thompson was addicted to opium and also had links to East End prostitute.
By Martin Robinson for MailOnline
Jack the Ripper's true identity has baffled police and amateur detectives for more than a century. But an English teacher has now claimed the gruesome murders of at least five women in London in the 1880s was the work of a well-known poet who revealed his blood lust in his writing.
Richard Patterson, 45, has spent nearly 20 years investigating his case to prove that respected writer Francis Thompson was responsible for butchering countless women across London. Mr Patterson claims that Thompson, from Preston, Lancashire, was a drug addict with links to prostitutes who wrote about killing people.
Crucially he also had surgical experience that would allow him to disembowel victims and an obsession with dead bodies. Thompson's poems are often about man's relationship with death and God, and Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien said he was a major influence on his work.
But Mr Patterson claims that Thompson's writing hints to a much more sinister influence, a thirst for blood played out on the streets of London 130 years ago. Richard, from Australia, became convinced that Thompson was the killer when he read a book of his poetry as a student in 1997 and then discovered he had trained as a doctor too.
Now, after travelling the world searching for clues as to who the killer really was, Richard claims that evidence against Thompson is stronger than that of any previous suspects. He said: 'I'm grateful to have played some part in helping people understand Thompson, and why he might have been the Ripper.
'I'm excited that people are beginning to take the theory seriously, seeing Thompson and the crimes in a different light creates interesting possibilities.' Richard, who is an English teacher at various schools in Byron Bay, New South Wales, said: 'Thompson kept a dissecting knife under his coat, and he was taught a rare surgical procedure that was found in the mutilations of more than one of the Ripper victims. 'He helped with surgery and is known to have cut up heaps and heaps of cadavers while a student.'
Thompson, originally from Lancashire, moved to London in 1885 with the hope of becoming a successful writer. Already addicted to opium, the young poet lived rough in the city until a local prostitute is believed to have offered him a place to stay.
Their friendship is thought to have quickly turned into what was Thompson's only romantic relationship. Richard believes that the mentally unstable poet snapped after she left him.
Richard is going to be publishing his findings in a book, Francis Thompson - a Ripper Suspect. In it, he argues that the heartbroken writer started to take out his anger on other sex-workers in the area. Richard said: 'The moment he told her he was finally published, she said she was leaving him because the public would not understand their relationship. This was after Thompson's year long romance with the woman. 'Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives.'
Richard now hopes his research may help uncover and prevent crimes of a similar nature. The author's investigation has seen him visit Thompson's home town of Preston, and travel to the United States to view a collection of hand-written letters in Boston.
North West Tonight feature story.
November 3 2015.
BBC North News. (19 minutes into this 30-minute show.)
Audience: 600,000
BBC North News. (19 minutes into this 30-minute show.)
Audience: 600,000
Monday 02 November 2015.
News Feature from the Lancashire Evening Post.
Circulation: 14,047
News Feature from the Lancashire Evening Post.
Circulation: 14,047
Preston born poet Francis Thompson at age 15.
FRANCIS Thompson, Preston’s most famous poet, has been fingered as Jack the Ripper in a new book by Australian teacher Richard Patterson.
The literary heavyweight who was born at 7 Winckley Street on 18 December 1859, aroused ‘Ripperologist’ interest 20 years ago, but now Richard believes his new research firms up the case.
The 45-year-old has travelled the world collecting information to prove the suspicion, potentially unravelling the mystery of who the serial killer was who butchered prostitutes in London’s East End from 1888 to 1891.
Richard said: “In my youth, I had read a couple of books on Jack the Ripper because I have a general interest in history.
“Near the end of 1997, I was studying for my Bachelor of Arts course at La Trobe University. I was asked, by one of my tutors of philosophy, if I would like to help on a book that was to be on the cause of criminal deviant behaviour of murderers.
“During the summer break I purchased a small book of poems on Francis Thompson, and upon reading one of his poems I concluded that he might be the Ripper.
“My interest in the Ripper grew as I studied and researched the crimes.”
He added: “It was Francis Thompson’s seemingly sweet and romantic poem, ‘An Arab Love Song’ with these seductive lines that first set me on the trail of determining that he might be the elusive Ripper:
‘Leave thy father, leave thy mother
And thy brother;
Leave the black tents of thy tribe apart!
Am I not thy father and thy brother,
And thy mother?
And thou what needest with thy tribe’s black tents
Who hast the red pavilion of my heart?’
“When I thought of the central argument and logic of this poem I decided that the listener was required to sacrifice everything for love, while the speaker gives nothing. Essentially the poet asks the listener to ‘Love no one but me!’ I wondered if a poor streetwalker, who wandered the streets of Whitechapel would fall these words. When I read that Thompson had medical training and many people believe the Ripper had medical knowledge, I began researching Thompson’s life and works. “Dr Joseph Rupp, a Texan pathologist, back in 1988 had named Thompson a suspect, but nobody had paid him any attention. This was partly because he had not placed Thompson near the murders. My research since then can now show Thompson living close to all the murders, he carried a knife and amongst much more, he had been taught a rare and specialised technique of surgery that was similar to some of the Ripper’s mutilations."
Richard has travelled the world researching his suspect, including visiting the Burns Library in Boston, which holds the worlds largest collection of Thompson’s letters and papers.
He has also spoken at length to Dr Rupp, travelled to Thompson’s birthplace in Winckley Square as well as the scenes of the murders.
Richard added: “Like Dr Rupp before me, my theory was seen as an oddity. It has been hard for other ‘Ripperologists’ to accept that someone who achieved fame could have hidden these crimes.
“Now many experts have become very interested the facts I have gathered. This new information showing he lived yards from the victims, and wrote about, both before and after the murders, of killing women in the same way that the Ripper did, has made Thompson much more credible as a suspect.”
Richard points to one of Thompson’s unpublished poems, written two years before the murders, called The Nightmare of the Witch Babies.
It concerns the narrator wandering about the streets of London after dark. The narrator tells how, once he finds a woman he believes to be corrupt, he takes pleasure in ripping her stomach open with a knife to look for any unborn foetuses so he can kill them.
Richard points out that the use of ‘Ha! Ha!’ as mirroring the infamous ‘Dear Boss’ letter the Ripper is said to have sent to the press during the murders. It contains the lines ‘I have laughed when they look so clever… They say I’m a doctor now. Ha ha.’
Richard said: “The evidence now shows that Thompson lived in Whitechapel, where and when the prostitute murders happened. He lived down the street, a few meters away from the murder of the last victim, Mary Kelly.
“We can show he lived within 15 minutes walk to all the murders.
“We can say on the night that Kelly was killed, Thompson was able to look down from the room where he had his bed, to the covered passage. The one that led to Kelly’s bed, where she would be stabbed to death. Kelly and Thompson are now believed to have once lived at the same address and further evidence points to them being friends. Another important discovery is that, until 1889, he kept a dissecting knife under his coat.”
Richard believes mystery is the key to the enduring interest in the Ripper case, aided by stereotypes and romantic notions held for late Victorian London, with its fog bound streets, yellow gas lamps, and the aristocracy with their top hats and walking canes.
The literary heavyweight who was born at 7 Winckley Street on 18 December 1859, aroused ‘Ripperologist’ interest 20 years ago, but now Richard believes his new research firms up the case.
The 45-year-old has travelled the world collecting information to prove the suspicion, potentially unravelling the mystery of who the serial killer was who butchered prostitutes in London’s East End from 1888 to 1891.
Richard said: “In my youth, I had read a couple of books on Jack the Ripper because I have a general interest in history.
“Near the end of 1997, I was studying for my Bachelor of Arts course at La Trobe University. I was asked, by one of my tutors of philosophy, if I would like to help on a book that was to be on the cause of criminal deviant behaviour of murderers.
“During the summer break I purchased a small book of poems on Francis Thompson, and upon reading one of his poems I concluded that he might be the Ripper.
“My interest in the Ripper grew as I studied and researched the crimes.”
He added: “It was Francis Thompson’s seemingly sweet and romantic poem, ‘An Arab Love Song’ with these seductive lines that first set me on the trail of determining that he might be the elusive Ripper:
‘Leave thy father, leave thy mother
And thy brother;
Leave the black tents of thy tribe apart!
Am I not thy father and thy brother,
And thy mother?
And thou what needest with thy tribe’s black tents
Who hast the red pavilion of my heart?’
“When I thought of the central argument and logic of this poem I decided that the listener was required to sacrifice everything for love, while the speaker gives nothing. Essentially the poet asks the listener to ‘Love no one but me!’ I wondered if a poor streetwalker, who wandered the streets of Whitechapel would fall these words. When I read that Thompson had medical training and many people believe the Ripper had medical knowledge, I began researching Thompson’s life and works. “Dr Joseph Rupp, a Texan pathologist, back in 1988 had named Thompson a suspect, but nobody had paid him any attention. This was partly because he had not placed Thompson near the murders. My research since then can now show Thompson living close to all the murders, he carried a knife and amongst much more, he had been taught a rare and specialised technique of surgery that was similar to some of the Ripper’s mutilations."
Richard has travelled the world researching his suspect, including visiting the Burns Library in Boston, which holds the worlds largest collection of Thompson’s letters and papers.
He has also spoken at length to Dr Rupp, travelled to Thompson’s birthplace in Winckley Square as well as the scenes of the murders.
Richard added: “Like Dr Rupp before me, my theory was seen as an oddity. It has been hard for other ‘Ripperologists’ to accept that someone who achieved fame could have hidden these crimes.
“Now many experts have become very interested the facts I have gathered. This new information showing he lived yards from the victims, and wrote about, both before and after the murders, of killing women in the same way that the Ripper did, has made Thompson much more credible as a suspect.”
Richard points to one of Thompson’s unpublished poems, written two years before the murders, called The Nightmare of the Witch Babies.
It concerns the narrator wandering about the streets of London after dark. The narrator tells how, once he finds a woman he believes to be corrupt, he takes pleasure in ripping her stomach open with a knife to look for any unborn foetuses so he can kill them.
Richard points out that the use of ‘Ha! Ha!’ as mirroring the infamous ‘Dear Boss’ letter the Ripper is said to have sent to the press during the murders. It contains the lines ‘I have laughed when they look so clever… They say I’m a doctor now. Ha ha.’
Richard said: “The evidence now shows that Thompson lived in Whitechapel, where and when the prostitute murders happened. He lived down the street, a few meters away from the murder of the last victim, Mary Kelly.
“We can show he lived within 15 minutes walk to all the murders.
“We can say on the night that Kelly was killed, Thompson was able to look down from the room where he had his bed, to the covered passage. The one that led to Kelly’s bed, where she would be stabbed to death. Kelly and Thompson are now believed to have once lived at the same address and further evidence points to them being friends. Another important discovery is that, until 1889, he kept a dissecting knife under his coat.”
Richard believes mystery is the key to the enduring interest in the Ripper case, aided by stereotypes and romantic notions held for late Victorian London, with its fog bound streets, yellow gas lamps, and the aristocracy with their top hats and walking canes.
Annual Ripper Conference. Patterson 2005 Presentation in Brighton.
Review, of Patterson’s presentation, from “Death in London's East End” Ripper Notes, #24 2005, by Wolf Vanderlinden:
Provocative and Eye Opening
‘we returned to the lecture room for the last time to hear perhaps one of the most surprising talks of the conference. The speaker was Australian author researcher Richard Patterson, and his talk was about his suspect, the poet Francis 'Thompson. Patterson had self-published a pamphlet titled Paradox in 1998 which, quite frankly, didn't leave much of an impression on me at the time. He has since, however, done more work on the subject and has published a second pamphlet on the topic titled simply Jack the Ripper. A poet as Jack the Ripper Patterson pointed out that Thompson was a failed medical student with several years of surgical training hut who was never able to pass his exams. In 1888, he was twenty-nine years old, poverty stricken and living rough in the East End. He was also a slightly disturbed character. A drug addict and pyromaniac, Thompson was starting fires from a young age, and he had in his possession a surgical scalpel (which he used to shave with) at the time of the murders. He had also fallen in love with a prostitute who had spurned him and his dark poetry was filled with blood and death imagery. The most surprising feature of the talk came when Patterson compared Francis Thompson’s handwriting with that of the Dear Boss letter to prove the closest match I have ever seen…It was a provocative and eye opening presentation about a suspect who seems better than most I have come across in the last little while.
‘we returned to the lecture room for the last time to hear perhaps one of the most surprising talks of the conference. The speaker was Australian author researcher Richard Patterson, and his talk was about his suspect, the poet Francis 'Thompson. Patterson had self-published a pamphlet titled Paradox in 1998 which, quite frankly, didn't leave much of an impression on me at the time. He has since, however, done more work on the subject and has published a second pamphlet on the topic titled simply Jack the Ripper. A poet as Jack the Ripper Patterson pointed out that Thompson was a failed medical student with several years of surgical training hut who was never able to pass his exams. In 1888, he was twenty-nine years old, poverty stricken and living rough in the East End. He was also a slightly disturbed character. A drug addict and pyromaniac, Thompson was starting fires from a young age, and he had in his possession a surgical scalpel (which he used to shave with) at the time of the murders. He had also fallen in love with a prostitute who had spurned him and his dark poetry was filled with blood and death imagery. The most surprising feature of the talk came when Patterson compared Francis Thompson’s handwriting with that of the Dear Boss letter to prove the closest match I have ever seen…It was a provocative and eye opening presentation about a suspect who seems better than most I have come across in the last little while.
Headline and Article from Benalla Ensign, Newspaper. July 4, 2001:
Former Local Writes a Ripper
A former Benalla Secondary College student, now living and working in Melbourne, has written a book on what is arguably the world's greatest murder mystery. Richard Patterson, 31, works by day as a consultant in the ANZ Bank's credit card department. By night, he paws over research into the life and times of Jack the Ripper and is convinced he knows who was responsible for the serial killings of London prostitutes more than 100 years ago. Mr Patterson named poet Francis Joseph Thompson as the elusive 'Jack' and has written a book to prove it. .... His interest in writing has resulted in short stories and poems, but his book is his first published work and it sells for $11. The book had its beginnings at La Trobe University in Melbourne, when Mr Patterson studied philosophy. As part of his ethics course, he began researching the mystery London killer and from there, formed his theories on Francis Thompson.
Former Local Writes a Ripper
A former Benalla Secondary College student, now living and working in Melbourne, has written a book on what is arguably the world's greatest murder mystery. Richard Patterson, 31, works by day as a consultant in the ANZ Bank's credit card department. By night, he paws over research into the life and times of Jack the Ripper and is convinced he knows who was responsible for the serial killings of London prostitutes more than 100 years ago. Mr Patterson named poet Francis Joseph Thompson as the elusive 'Jack' and has written a book to prove it. .... His interest in writing has resulted in short stories and poems, but his book is his first published work and it sells for $11. The book had its beginnings at La Trobe University in Melbourne, when Mr Patterson studied philosophy. As part of his ethics course, he began researching the mystery London killer and from there, formed his theories on Francis Thompson.
Headline and Article from Melbourne's Stonnington Leader. April 2, 2001:
Author has a Ripper of a Theory
He has finally put a face to the notorious name and laid blame for the brutal murders. It is just a pity it has been more than 100 years since Jack the Ripper went on his killing spree. But then that is part of the reason South Yarra resident Richard Patterson decided to study the case. Mr Patterson has written a book about his theory that poet Francis Thompson was Jack the Ripper. "When something is about to be forgotten I like to pick it up," Mr Patterson, 31, said. "I was studying 19th century poetry and I came across Thompson's Arab Love Song. I thought it was very abusive. When I looked at his biography it said he had studied as a surgeon for six years. Police had been looking for a surgeon. It went from there." Mr Patterson spent a year researching for and writing his book. Jack the Ripper will be launched at the Toorack-South Yarra Library on April 11. Mr Patterson said he repeatedly found links between Thompson and Jack the Ripper. He said some records showed police interviewed a man of Thompson's description regarding the murders. Mr Patterson also researched newspapers, books and groups that Thompson and his acquaintances were associated with to help put the story together. Mr Patterson said historical figures and events fascinated him. He hoped to one day make a living out of writing about historical cases. "I like to get a complex problem and say it as simple as possible. To do that full-time would be ideal."
Author has a Ripper of a Theory
He has finally put a face to the notorious name and laid blame for the brutal murders. It is just a pity it has been more than 100 years since Jack the Ripper went on his killing spree. But then that is part of the reason South Yarra resident Richard Patterson decided to study the case. Mr Patterson has written a book about his theory that poet Francis Thompson was Jack the Ripper. "When something is about to be forgotten I like to pick it up," Mr Patterson, 31, said. "I was studying 19th century poetry and I came across Thompson's Arab Love Song. I thought it was very abusive. When I looked at his biography it said he had studied as a surgeon for six years. Police had been looking for a surgeon. It went from there." Mr Patterson spent a year researching for and writing his book. Jack the Ripper will be launched at the Toorack-South Yarra Library on April 11. Mr Patterson said he repeatedly found links between Thompson and Jack the Ripper. He said some records showed police interviewed a man of Thompson's description regarding the murders. Mr Patterson also researched newspapers, books and groups that Thompson and his acquaintances were associated with to help put the story together. Mr Patterson said historical figures and events fascinated him. He hoped to one day make a living out of writing about historical cases. "I like to get a complex problem and say it as simple as possible. To do that full-time would be ideal."
Headline and Article from Melbourne's Whittlesea Post newspaper July 5, 2000:
The Ripper Exposed
A Lalor resident believes he has uncovered the identity of Britain's most notorious serial killer. Tim King reports. Unsolved murder cases never lie down and die easily. Many years after the foul deeds are done, forensic science specialists and enthusiastic lay-people continue to sift through case notes, theories and physical evidence. Lalor resident Richard Patterson is equally enthusiastic about one of Britain's darkest murder mysteries. The part-time writer and student has published two books about the identity of Jack the Ripper, whom police believe killed five London women in 1888.
At the time, London police believed the Ripper killed the women from August 31 to November 9 in the city's East End. Some theorists blamed the Ripper for committing another 10 similar murders. Mr Patterson was studying philosophy at La Trobe University in 1997 when he came across one of Thompson's poems. Upon further reading, Thompson's "disturbed" life and writings, many of which mentioned violence, convinced Mr Patterson that the Ripper and the poet were one and the same. Mr Patterson said Thompson was bitter and confused after failing to become a surgeon and a priest after 13 years' study. The poet was addicted to opium and was homeless near London's West India docks for three years.
"He (Thompson) carried a dissecting scalpel," said Mr Patterson. "He told people he used to shave with it. And Jack the Ripper was thought to be a surgeon. The murders occurred within [old] religious sanctuaries- Francis Thompson studied with the Roman Catholic Church for seven years to be a priest." Mr Patterson said the killings occurred on religious festival dates- dates that Thompson would have known.
...
Mr Patterson has collected 11 books written by or about Thompson has interviewed literary professors and has searched the Internet for information on the Ripper's killings and their subsequent investigations. In 1998, Mr Patterson published his first 20-page book, "Paradox',* in which he proposed Thompson was the Ripper. About 100 copies of the books were sold worldwide.
1998 Paradox.
The first 24,000 word book on the theory.
Headline and Article from Melbourne's Preston Post newspaper. April 1, 1998:
Richard's Book is a Ripper.
Preston resident Richard Patterson admits he is either extremely perceptive or completely bonkers. Mr Patterson has spent the past five months researching the Jack the Ripper crimes and said he had discovered the killer's identity. In a recently completed book* Mr Patterson names Jack the Ripper as a long dead poet by the name of Francis Joseph Thompson. "I was reading a poem by Francis Thompson in November and thought it was really good," he said. Mr Patterson said he did some research on the poet and 100 different things incriminated him. "I thought if anything doesn't point to him being the murderer I'll stop," he said. "I haven't stopped." The 28-year-old philosophy student said things had not been the same since he began researching the matter. "I'm getting a strange sense from my friends," he said. "But when people tell me I've gone over the deep end I tell them to read the book." Mr Patterson said his experience in role-playing games helped him get inside the killer's head. "I can understand how he could justify it," he said.
The first 24,000 word book on the theory.
Headline and Article from Melbourne's Preston Post newspaper. April 1, 1998:
Richard's Book is a Ripper.
Preston resident Richard Patterson admits he is either extremely perceptive or completely bonkers. Mr Patterson has spent the past five months researching the Jack the Ripper crimes and said he had discovered the killer's identity. In a recently completed book* Mr Patterson names Jack the Ripper as a long dead poet by the name of Francis Joseph Thompson. "I was reading a poem by Francis Thompson in November and thought it was really good," he said. Mr Patterson said he did some research on the poet and 100 different things incriminated him. "I thought if anything doesn't point to him being the murderer I'll stop," he said. "I haven't stopped." The 28-year-old philosophy student said things had not been the same since he began researching the matter. "I'm getting a strange sense from my friends," he said. "But when people tell me I've gone over the deep end I tell them to read the book." Mr Patterson said his experience in role-playing games helped him get inside the killer's head. "I can understand how he could justify it," he said.