1.
Date: Mon, March 25th 1996
From: Shamrock
I've recently become aware of a series of mutilation/disembowlment murders of prostitutes in the N.Y.C. and Jersey City dock areas.[1889-90]
Supposedly a prominent American actor, who had recently returned from England was living in N.Y.C., and appearing nightly on the stage of a Jersey City theater.
2.
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 19:13:36 +0000
From: Mark Dooling
Shamrock does not give us much detail about either the cases he refers to in his mail nor about the actual actor in question. This would be nice.
The timing he suggests coincides with the timing of the murder of a prostitute in Jersey City by the name of "Old Shakespeare".
She was murdered in the late 1880s (after the Jack the Ripper murders in London) and the man eventually arrested for the murder had been staying in the room opposite to her at the time of the murder but of course protested his innocence.
There is also a coincidence in timings with the time spent in the area by Severin Klosowsky (aka George Chapman) - he was living in the Jersey City vicinity with his wife around that time (though I understand it is still actually unproved as to whether his time there could be EXACTLY in line with the time "Old Shakespeare" was killed) and indeed, his wife later testified that during that time he threatened to kill her and had secreted a knife for that sole purpose.
Klosowsky is one of the strongest candidates for the Ripper murders since he was based in the Whitechapel area throughout the times of the murders (at sometimes uncannily close/central) and because the "Old Shakespeare" murder took place (it is supposed) around the time he was living in the States and in very close to the murder vicinity.
He is known to have the capacity to murder as he was eventually arrested (coincidentally by Godley, one of the detectives on the Ripper case) much later and hanged for multiple-wife-murder. His method in those later murders was poison which has raised massive conjecture among critics of the Klosowsky theory as it is so different to the methods adopted by "Jack the Ripper".
A very good reference for study here is Sugden's Complete History of Jack the Ripper.
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