'Jack the Ripper'
Apr 17 2006
By Sam Lister, Daily Post
HIS blood-curdling crimes and mystery identity have made him one of Britain's most notorious killers.
But some experts believe Jack the Ripper was a Liverpool cotton merchant at the centre of a Victorian scandal that changed the future of British law.
James Maybrick died from alleged arsenic poisoning and his wife Florence was convicted of his murder. Since then, however, her guilt has been in doubt, while he has become a prime suspect in the Ripper murders.
A guided tour around Liverpool, stopping off at the couple's old haunts, has been launched for those interested in finding out more about the mystery.
Appropriately it began on Grand National weekend - a key date in the Maybrick scandal.
It is believed it was at Aintree the couple had a row that may have sparked murderous intent in both.
Lesley Delves, tourism project manager at Liverpool Culture Company, said: "It is a fascinating case, particularly in light of the Jack the Ripper connections and there is a lot of local interest.
"Maybrick had the motive and the opportunity to be Jack the Ripper.
"We wanted to launch it to coincide with the Grand National because the couple had a huge row there that may have led them both to murder."
Diaries claimed to belong to James Maybrick were discovered in 1992 filled with supposed confessions to the string of horrific prostitute murders.
The authenticity of the diaries is still being debated by "ripperologists" and forensic experts and opinions vary.
But Maybrick was also the apparent victim of a murder himself which resulted in the country's most sensational court trial of the time, held at St George's Hall.
His wife, a young American, was accused of poisoning him with arsenic extracted from fly papers.
Mysteriously, although a well-known arsenic addict, exhumation of Maybrick's body showed no traces of the drug.
In 1889, she was sentenced to be hanged to public outcry, but the sentence was dramatically changed to life imprisonment four days before her date of execution.
Despite numerous appeals, Florence remained in prison and was released after 15 years, dying in obscurity in Connecticut, in 1941, at the age of 79.
div>
The outcome of the case caused a public outcry. Justice James Fitzjames Stephen who presided over the trial of Florence was a well-respected official until his handling of this trial, but was, only a few years after the verdict, confined to an asylum as a result of his mental incapacity.
In 1907, Britain's Court of Criminal Appeal was introduced, primarily as a result of the case and she was widely regarded to have been not only a victim of a miscarriage of justice but also of Jack the Ripper.
Ms Delves added: "It is the only Ripper-related tour outside London and has lots of interesting stop-offs."
The Maybrick trail will be led by a Blue or Green Badge Guide through the Victorian streets of Liverpool at the centre of the scandal.
It begins at the 08 Place in Whitechapel on Thursdays and Fridays with extended weekend tours venturing into Aigburth taking in Battlecrease House, the Maybricks' home, and the chemist's where Florence purchased the flypapers.
For more information, call 0151 233 2008 or call into the 08 Place in Whitechapel. Tickets are £4.50.
Source:
icLiverpool
Bookmarks