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The New York Affair
- part 2
by Wolf Vanderlinden
(from the January
2004 issue of Ripper Notes)
About the author: Wolf
Vanderlinden is frequent contributor to Ripper Notes. Some
of his previous articles include "The Art of Murder"
and "Screams of Murder"
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"Capt. Ryan: Do you think that 'Jack the Ripper' is in England?
He is not. I am right here and expect to kill somebody by Thursday
next, so get ready for me with your pistols, but I have a knife
that has done more than your pistols. The next thing you will
hear of some woman dead. Jack the Ripper. "
- Letter received by Captain
Ryan of New York's Twenty-first Precinct on 19 January, 1889
INTRODUCTION
IN THE NEW YORK Affair, Part
I we looked at the life of Carrie Brown as well as her actions
and the actions of others on the day of her murder. Important
new medical evidence was also presented and examined. In this,
Part Two, we will continue to look at the events surrounding
the murder by studying the history of the New York City Police
Force and the methods of Chief Inspector Byrnes. We will also
take a brief look at statements made by Byrnes and other New
York police officials regarding the London police and the "Jack
the Ripper" murders and what effect these statements had
on the Carrie Brown murder investigation. This will be followed
by a detailed look at the investigation itself.
THE POLICE
ON MAY 23, 1845, the city council
of New York passed an ordinance which duly adopted an earlier
New York State law abolishing the old system of a part-time,
paid citizens "night watch" and replacing it with a
uniformed, full time, paid police force. The New York City Police
Department came into reality ten days later.
In a very real sense the birth
of the NYPD was a result of the formation of the Metropolitan
Police in London in 1829. Certainly the success of the new London
police force was used as an argument and model by those who wished
to modernize New York's antiquated policing system. As early
as 1830 Alexis de Tocqueville was calling for the creation of
a police force that closely followed the London style; a suggestion
that was officially made by Mayor Cornelius W. Lawrence in 1836.
Thus even before it was born the New York Police Department suffered
comparison with its London counterpart. The comparisons were,
rarely favourable, a fact that rankled with the police of New
York.
The Police Department of New
York City, like all police departments, was set up along military
lines with the men divided into units under a hierarchy of command,
this being thought the best way of controlling and directing
large groups of men.
The head of the city's force
was the Superintendent of Police, a title later changed to Chief
of Police, although he was supposedly under the supervision of
the Commissioners of Police who were political appointees.
The city itself was divided into
four sub commands known as Divisions with a Divisional Inspector
at the head of each. Each Division was made up of eight sub divisions
made from the city's municipal political areas known as Wards,
In charge of each Ward was one Station House, later to be known
as a Precinct House when the Ward system was abandoned, and in
charge of each Station House was a Precinct Captain.
The Station Houses were home
to roughly fifty uniformed beat cops plus the ward detectives
in civilian clothes. The uniformed men were organized into two
platoons each commanded by a sergeant, a lofty rank in 1891 since
the rank of lieutenant had been abandoned in 1857 thus leaving
the sergeant only one step below that of captain. The platoons
were further divided into two Sections each overseen by a "roundsman,"
so called because they made the rounds checking the patrolmen
on their beats. Under the two platoon system one platoon would
be on active beat duty while the other was held in reserve at
the Station House in case of an emergency such as a riot.
Historically jobs on the old
night watch were obtained from the Ward Alderman who was expected
to know the men of his ward and was thus in the best position
to decide who was sufficiently honest and reliable to police
the neighbourhood. The Aldermen retained this power after the
passing of the new Police Act, ostensibly to. guarantee that
the immigrant population of the city would not be shut out from
the new police force, something the "Nativist," or
"Know Nothing" Party had fought for.
Unfortunately this concern for
the rights of the city's immigrants had more to do with politics
and political control than it had to do with the spirit of inclusion.
In New York City the hiring of the police might be in the control
of the local Aldermen but the local Aldermen were controlled
by the infamously corrupt Democratic Party Club, known as Tammany
Hall. Thus only those who had the right political connections
and who were willing to pay a bribe to the local Alderman could
ever consider going into the job of policing. Surprisingly this
system did not guarantee that the best men were chosen for the
job.
By the early 1880's it had become
embarrassingly evident that the old system of the Aldermen having
the power to select police candidates was seriously flawed. This
system was finally abandoned in 1884, with the enactment of the
first civil service rules, and replaced with a board consisting
of the Inspector of Detectives, the Chief of the Fire Department,
and the Secretary of the Board of Police Commissioners who were
to examine each candidate. If a candidate was successful he was
then forced to pay the city a fee of $250, a quarter of a years'
salary, for the privilege. This system, designed to control corruption
and diminish the power of Tammany, was, in the end, an abject
failure and by 1894 the President of the Board of Police Commissioners
was forced to admit to a legislative committee that about 85%
of all appointments were still made on Tammany's recommendation.
(Not surprisingly as the Inspector of Detectives, the Chief of
the Fire Department, and the Secretary of the Board of Police
Commissioners all owed their position to Tammany in the first
place).
Once the rigorous selection process
was over and the new recruit was on the job he would find that
advancement could come only to those who could pay for it. There
was even a fee schedule laid down by Tammany: for promotion from
beat cop to roundsman, $300; roundsman to sergeant, $1600; sergeant
to captain, $12,000 to $15,0001. For those who could pay each
rung up the ladder meant greater and greater rewards through
bribes, graft and extortion. So much so that advancement to a
precinct captaincy was described as a "bonanza" which,
given the right precinct, could mean the equivalent of millions
of dollars, in today's money. Luc Sante in his book Low Life
described the New York police force in the late nineteenth century
as "...an amalgam of fiefdoms, each precinct at the mercy
of its captain, who, more often than not, ran it as an extortion
ring for his personal benefit. Individual policemen were cut
off from profits and ceased to care. " 2
Businesses within the precinct
might have to pay protection money to the captain either for
protection from criminals, the return of stolen goods, or merely
to look the other way when city ordinances were flouted or necessary
permits were not obtained from city hall. If the business was
run by criminals protection from police interference was mandatory.
Thus the captains demanded and received a cut from every saloon,
gambling den, pool hall, whore house, policy shop, pimp, thief,
pickpocket, grifter, con man and street walker in his ward.
Beyond this the captain also
had godlike power over his men, police prisoners, and the general
public. It was up to the captain, for example, to decide whether
a prisoner was allowed to see a lawyer or not and there were
no rules regarding the interrogation of suspects other than those
laid down by the individual captain. The captain might also decide
to arrest anyone, witnesses and suspects alike, and hold them
without charge until the police had found enough evidence to
make a case. This could result, as in the Carrie Brown case,
in the incarceration of the innocent with the guilty for several
weeks. The captains were, however, beholding to their Divisional
Inspector, to whom they paid a hefty cut of their earnings, while
the Divisional Inspectors in turn paid a cut to the Superintendent.
THIS WAS, THEREFORE, the policing
environment in which we find ourselves on the early morning of
April 24, 1891 when Carrie Brown was murdered in the East River
Hotel. The murder, having taken place in the Fourth Ward, fell
under the jurisdiction of the Oak Street Station House commanded
by Captain Richard O'Connor. O'Connor's immediate superior was
Alexander S. "Clubber" Williams, the Divisional Inspector.
Williams, a tough Canadian, had left a life at sea as a ships'
carpenter to join the New York police force. He rose through
the ranks and was famous for the quick use of his fists and his
club. It was Captain "Clubber" Williams who nick-named
the New York district now known as the "Tenderloin"
when he was transferred to the 29th Precinct after years of serving
in less corrupt, and thus less lucrative, wards. He is said to
have commented to a friend that "I've had nothing but chuck
steak for a long time, and now I'm going to get a little of the
tenderloin. "3
As Williams' immediate superior,
Superintendent William Murray, was out of the city at the time
of the Brown murder Chief Inspector Byrnes was temporarily promoted
to Acting Superintendent while Captain McLaughlin of the Eleventh
Precinct was promoted to the position of Acting Inspector of
the Detective Bureau until Murray's return.
INSPECTOR THOMAS BYRNES &
THE DETECTIVE BUREAU
AN ADDITION TO, but separate
from, the chain of police command was the Detective Bureau which
was stationed at Police Headquarters at 300 Mulberry Street.
Originally thought of in no higher regard than beat patrolmen,
and susceptible to override by the precinct captains, the Detective
Bureau was forever changed by the force of will and strength
of character of Inspector Thomas Byrnes.
Byrnes, an Irish immigrant who
arrived in America with his parents at the age of six, joined
the police force, after stints as a volunteer fireman and a Union
soldier in the Civil War, in 1863. In 1868 he was made a roundsman
and rose to sergeant by 1869 and then quickly to captain in 1870.
By 1880 Byrnes was made Inspector of the Detective Bureau and
then, after he had reorganized the Bureau in 1882, was made the
first Chief of Detectives.
By 1888 Byrnes was made Chief
Inspector of the Detective Bureau and thus, in theory, the second
highest ranking policeman in the city of New York but the position
carried no real power outside of the DB. By servicing and catering
to the top echelon of New York society, however, Byrnes was able
to gain wealthy and influential political support which allowed
him to wield great power within the police force and to become
autonomous from the control of both the Superintendent and the
Commissioners.
Byrnes felt that intelligence
gathering was a vital part in the Detective Bureau's work. He
enforced the rule that ordered detectives to keep and submit
detailed notes of all their activities. He initiated the practise
of photographing criminals upon arrest and kept albums of photographs,
along with criminal histories of each felon, copies of which
were sent to each precinct. Up to date records were kept and
information of all kinds was stored in the files at Mulberry
Street. Byrnes also saw the usefulness of statistics which he
used, not only to prove the efficiency of his Bureau, but to
silence his critics as well.
He made sure that his detectives,
nicknamed "the immortals " by one reporter, were made
equivalent to sergeants in both rank and pay and his men loved
him for it. Bymes himself was called the "personification
of the police department, " while the journalist Jacob Riis
said of him "...he made the detective service great. "
James Lardner and Thomas Reppetto wrote that Byrnes "shaped
not just New York's Detective Bureau but the template for detective
work as it would come to be organized and practised in every
modern American metropolis. "4
Julian Hawthorne, son of Nathaniel
Hawthorne, wrote books about Byrnes and his Bureau using stories
dramatically taken `from the casebook of Inspector Byrnes."
Hawthorne depicted Byrnes and his men as all knowing, all seeing
public avengers who lurked behind every corner. Byrnes was depicted
as a master psychologist who knew just the right approach with
each criminal brought before him for interrogation. Backed by
his uncanny policing abilities, his all encompassing files and
his shadowy detective force Byrnes always got his man.
The truth fell far short of this
fiction. That Byrnes modernized the detective bureau is beyond
doubt but it is important to understand that the aura of an omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent detective service was a carefully crafted
illusion.
George Walling, who, unlike Sir
Henry Smith, actually did rise from Constable to Commissioner,
knew Byrnes and his methods well and he had a distrust of both.
Walling felt that Byrnes' real gift was his genius for self promotion
and public relations rather than any aptitude for honest old
fashioned police work which Walling felt revolved around crime
prevention through the cop on the beat.
It appears that Walling was right
about Byrnes' flair for self promotion and there were several
tricks that Byrnes would employ in order to give his bureau the
air of omnipotence that delighted gullible members of the press
and public. One was the so called "throw-off" suspect.
Byrnes and his men would arrest a suspect but keep the fact a
secret
from the press. A confession
would be extracted and Byrnes would then announce that he knew
who the perpetrator of the particular crime was and that it was
only a matter of time before his men would have him under lock
and key. Hours later the suspect would be hauled up from the
Mulberry Street cells and displayed to the press as proof that
the Chief Inspector and his men could, and would, capture anyone
they set their sights on. It is less taxing on the "long
arm of the law", it seems, if the criminal is standing only
a few feet away.
Byrnes might also release an
arrested felon rather than charge him but he would have his men
keep an eye on the man. If the felon's associates turned out
to interest Byrnes the man would be rearrested and told that
he faced the original charge unless he informed on his friends.
More often than not the man would decide to save his own skin
and peach on his comrades and Byrnes would then explain to the
press how his detectives had patiently and stealthily gathered
information by shadowing and observing the now arrested suspects.
Of course detectives might, from
time to time, shadow a suspect but it was easier to use informants,
who could be bribed or strongarmed into offering information,
or easier still to just beat information out of criminals. Jacob
Riis wrote that "He would beat a thief into telling him
what he wanted to know. Thieves have no rights a policeman thinks
himself bound to respect. " 5 As the news paperman Lincoln
Steffens has famously reported of Byrnes he was "a man who
would buy you or beat you, as you might choose, but get you he
would. "6 This was no exaggeration.
George B. McClellan, who would
later become mayor of New York, reported that he personally had
witnessed the "master psychologist" Byrnes as he questioned
prisoners. A suspect would be brought into Byrnes' office, which
was thickly carpeted to muffle the noise, and told to stand in
front of the Inspector, a detective on either side of the manacled
man. Byrnes would start asking questions and if the answers did
not suit the burly Chief of Detectives his fist would shoot out
to connect with the prisoner's face. The detectives would then
haul the man to his feet so that another question could be asked
and another punch thrown. Eventually information would be beaten
out of the man or, if he was stubborn, other methods would have
to be used, namely the form of interrogation called "the
third degree."
Riis wrote that Byrnes' "...famous
`third degree ' was chiefly what he no doubt considered a little
wholesome "slugging, " 7 but it could be more than
that. W. B. Lawson, in his work of fiction Jack the Ripper in
New York, 8 which was published less than a month after the murder
of Carrie Brown, describes Byrnes questioning Ameer Ben All and
states "...the inspector drags him out by telling him that
unless he answers questions plainly, he will have to put the
thumbscrews on him, " adding "...I imagine [they are]
only used to frighten obdurate witnesses. " In truth Byrnes
and his men did indeed use `paraphernalia, " as one detective
put it, when administering the third degree. Other means, such
as the use of a "sweat box" or of totally isolating
a prisoner for days in a darkened room, constitute a form of
interrogation that we today would describe as torture.
These crude methods might force
a suspect to confess or to inform on his friends but they had
little value to a murder investigation such as, the Carrie Brown
case. Thieves might brag about pulling a certain job or suddenly
turn up flush with cash after a robbery. Gang members had to
rely on the discretion of their mates or would have to deal with
a fence in order to dispose of stolen goods. All this human interactivity
could potentially lead to information being passed to Chief Inspector
Byrnes but what to do when the crime is a sexually motivated
mutilation murder and the murderer confides in, and is known
by, no one? As has recently been written about Byrnes and his
men "the Detective Bureau was less adept in complex murder
investigations. "9
George Walling provides us with
another telling insight into Inspector Byrnes and his methods:
he and his men liked to work in secret without explaining what
they were doing to the press or public. Thus if someone other
than the Detective Bureau was responsible for the capture of
a criminal or the breaking of a case Byrnes could take credit
for it. If, however, a case stumped Byrnes and his men, or simply
seemed too daunting to even attempt to investigate, then it could
quickly and quietly be forgotten and their reputation would remain
untarnished. The public, Walling explained, would remain "in
blissful ignorance " of any of Byrnes' failures and Byrnes,
a very ambitious man who had his eye on the Superintendent's
job, could not stand failure. Unfortunately for Inspector Byrnes
the murder of Carrie Brown was a neon elephant of a case, one
that, with the city's press looking over his shoulder and the
eyes of the world turned on him, would betray a more than sizable
bulge under the carpet.
THE NEW YORK POLICE, JACK THE
RIPPER & THE PRESS
IT IS PERHAPS important here
to look at some of the background story regarding Chief Inspector
Byrnes and statements he is supposed to have made to the press
regarding Scotland Yard and the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
It has been written that Chief
Inspector Byrnes had made statements of a disparaging nature
to the press about Scotland Yard and its handling of the Whitechapel
murder investigation. Byrnes was even supposed to have dared
the killer to try his luck in New York and claimed that if he
did he would be under lock and key in under two days. It has
been supposed that these statements forced Byrnes to solve the
murder of Carrie Brown, by hook or by crook, in order to save
face and extract his size fifteen police boot from his mouth.
Is this true? And if so, what effect did this have on the actual
investigation into Brown's death and what part did it have to
play in the arrest and conviction of an innocent man?
New York police opinions regarding
the Whitechapel murder investigation perhaps first appeared in
the press with Superintendent William Murray. Murray was interviewed
at least twice on the subject, the first time in the New York
Tribune. On October 2, 1888 he told the Tribune that "It
is plain to me that the murderer is a crazy man, because no sane
man would go about such bloody work. " The Tribune added
that `Mr. Murray did not care to criticise the London police
for their failure to capture the murderer. " A rather diplomatic
attitude towards his London brethren. Two days later it was Inspector
Byrnes' turn to be interviewed and he would famously offer his
own opinions about the Whitechapel murder investigation to the
London paper The Sun.
Under the headline: "An
American Detective's Opinion," Byrnes was asked how he would
handle the Whitechapel murders. He replied "I should have
gone right to work in a commonsense way, and not believed in
mere theories. With the great power of the London police I should
have manufactured victims for the murderer. I would have taken
50 female habitues of Whitechapel and covered the ground with
them. Even if one fell a victim, I should get the murderer. Men
un-uniformed should be scattered over the district so nothing
could escape them. The crimes are all of the same class, and
I would have determined the class to which the murderer belonged.
But - pshaw! What's the good of talking? The murderer would have
been caught long ago. "10
This one simple paragraph seemed
to take on a life of its own.
The first thing that is made
clear is that the claims of later writers who stated that Chief
Inspector Byrnes actually dared the Ripper to try his luck in
America are not supported in this article. Neither is the claim
made by Edwin M. Borchard that the NYPD had "boastfully
let it be known that if the [Ripper] appeared in New York with
his evil doings, he would be in the jug' within thirty-six hours.
"11
It is also clear that, other
than the last sentence, it is hard to see how this article might
have caused so much supposed animus. Even a cursory reading of
the paragraph shows that Byrnes is merely stating what he would
do if he was in charge of the investigation and in no way "attacks"
Scotland Yard other than to suggest that they perhaps relied
too much on theories rather than actual on the ground police
work. He even compliments the London police for their "great
power. " It is Byrnes' ignorance on the steps already taken
that might rankle and his slightly boastful attitude but surely
Scotland Yard would simply dismiss the article, especially since
Byrnes' claim that he would "cover the ground" with
prostitutes was too astounding to be taken seriously.
If Scotland Yard was angered
by this statement they must have been incredibly thin skinned
and touchy or was something else going on here? What was the
relationship between the two forces?
The day after the Mary Kelly
murder the New York Sun asked Superintendent Murray for his opinion
on the Ripper murders. As in the first interview with the Tribune
Murray was rather gentle on the subject of the abilities of the
London police but he none the less gloats over what he sees as
the comparative triumph of New York City and its police system
over the city of London and Scotland Yard stating `I presume
that the London police are doing the very best they can and will
ultimately unravel the mystery. It would not be fair to draw
any comparison between our policemen and those of London in the
case, because I have been informed that New York has no locality
that corresponds in misery and crime with the Whitechapel district.
I am confident, though, that no such crimes could continue under
the system of the New York police. The entire force would if
necessary, be sent out in citizen's dress to run down the assassin.
"12
This would seem to be a potentially
more offensive statement than that offered by Inspector Byrnes.
Murrey claims that the police "system" of the NYPD
would not allow the Ripper to continue implying the "system"
employed by Scotland Yard was a failure. Heaven and earth would
be moved in order to bring the killer to justice where, perhaps,
London was not willing to do everything it took to stop the murders.
More astounding was Murrey's
dig at the city of London itself and his claim that "New
York has no locality that corresponds in misery and crime with
the Whitechapel district. " It is impossible to accept that
Murrey actually believed this. With vicious slum districts like
the Five Points, the Fourth Ward, Hell's Kitchen and the Tenderloin,
(formerly known as Satan's Circus), London had nothing that could
compare in misery, disease, crime and vice. Murrey himself had
been captain of the Oak Street Station House in the horrendous
slum that was the Fourth Ward and at a time when it was known
as the "Bloody Fourth." One study conducted by the
New York Board of Health estimated that over a nine month period
there were, on average, 4 deaths per house or tenement, a death
rate of 84 in 1000, or almost ten per cent. The vast majority
of these deaths were caused by either the effects of extreme
poverty, crime or disease. The densely populated ward was a hothouse
for typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera. It has been stated that
tuberculosis alone had visited every home and tenement in the
Fourth and the death rate was the highest in the city. Rats the
size of small dogs lived off of the mounds of garbage and excrement
that literally clogged some streets making passage impossible
and when the insufficient sewer system backed up it sent a foul
greenish brown river of human waste flooding into the streets
and cellars of the area. If the Superintendent thought that the
Fourth was a better place to live than Whitechapel then he must
have thought that Whitechapel was hell on earth!
What Superintendent Murrey's
statement does offer us is a little glimpse into the relationship
between the New York and London police forces. The fact that
Scotland Yard was widely seen as being the more professional
and competent of the two angered the New Yorkers and so a competitive
rivalry started to emerge between the two. It was New York versus
London, the U.S. versus Great Britain, and, to some degree, Irish
Americans versus the English. As well, any animus felt at Scotland
Yard towards their American brothers was compounded by articles
and statements that had come out of New York from the American
press.
During the Ripper murders New
York papers were quick to point out the perceived shortcomings
of the London police as this quote from the New York Times shows:
"The four murders have been committed within a gunshot of
each other, but the detectives have no clue. The London police
and detective force is possibly the stupidest in the world. "13
This opinion was parroted by
other members of the New York press. The New York Tribune was
even more cutting stating, with an enthusiastic gusto, "...another
hacked and mangled body has to be added to the already considerable
score which the as yet unknown epicure in laceration has contrived
to pile up without fear of any interference on the part of the
London police.. ..Eight days' breathing space, eight days of
excitement and turbulent clamors from the public, eight days
of blind stumbling, stupid blundering and impregnable apathy
on the part of the police... " 14 (One wonders why the slightly
overwrought epithet `the unknown epicure in laceration' did not
catch on with the general public.)
The murder of Alice McKenzie
in July, 1889, allowed the New York press to resume its low opinion
of Scotland Yard in print: "Many hundreds of extra police,
seemingly more stolid, heavy-footed, and thick-witted than ever,
pushed their pompous way through the throngs... " wrote
the New York Times. Adding a shot at the British press it continued:
"It takes an event like this to show the London press and
London police at their very worst, and it would be hard to say
in the present instance which is the least adorable. There seems
to be no more prospect now than there was a year ago that the
remarkable criminal who is committing these murders will be detected,
unless it be by chance. "15
It was in this environment that
Chief Inspector Byrnes was forced to conduct the investigation
into the Carrie Brown murder. A growing rivalry, fuelled in part
by statements made in New York about the Whitechapel murder investigation,
between the United States and Great Britain. This rivalry caused
a greater than normal scrutiny from London and, more importantly
and closer to home, from the American press, some of whom were
not overly enamoured of Inspector Byrnes and who seemed to delight
in playing devil in the middle. It was the American papers, for
instance, who gleefully told their readers how Scotland Yard
was "exulting" over Byrnes' problems.
The American press also seem
to have added to Chief Inspector Byrnes' problems by throwing
down the gauntlet to him and asserting that he now had an opportunity
to get his man as he had boasted. As one editorial stated: "...there
has been a general expression of confidence in our superior detective
skill, and this has led to the belief that the perpetrator of
the London horrors could not escape detection on this side of
the ocean. Here, then, is a superb opportunity for the vindication
of that sentiment. Inspector Byrnes and his men cannot claim
that the task which has fallen to their lot is any more difficult
than that which puzzled the Scotland yard detectives, for, as
a matter of fact, they have several things in their favor which
the English policeman was denied. " 16
The inference was clear. It was
time for Byrnes to put his money where his mouth was.
THE INVESTIGATION
Friday 24 April, 1891
THE INVESTIGATION INTO the murder
of Carrie Brown, already the forty-fifth person to die in New
York by violence so far in the year 1891, began when James Jennings,
the owner of the East River Hotel, rushed into the Fourth Precinct
Station House on Oak Street to inform Captain Richard O'Connor
of the crime.
It is not now clear who first
uttered the name "Jack the Ripper" but it must have
been fairly early on in the investigative process. Perhaps it
was the young night door clerk, Eddie Fitzgerald, who had discovered
the mutilated body of Came Brown or perhaps it was Jennings himself
who uttered it to Captain O'Connor. Either way, when O'Connor
informed both the Coroner's Office and the Detective Bureau at
Headquarters of the murder the city's police reporters, who camped
out at Mulberry Street, converged on the Fourth Ward like sharks
to the scent of blood.
O'Connor, with detectives Doran
and Griffin, hurried back to Water Street, which was only seven
short blocks away, and made a closer examination of the room
and its contents. They entered room No. 31 on the fifth floor
of the hotel and found Carrie Brown's body lying on her right
side with her right arm forced beneath her. Her left arm was
lying across her breast and her legs were drawn up slightly in
a fetal position. Her chemise was pulled up almost to her armpits
leaving the lower half of her body naked. What appeared to be
clothing was wrapped around her head and tightly knotted around
her throat. The body showed several cuts to the lower torso and
she had been disembowelled.
Along with her clothing, a "dark"
coloured dress and a brown cape, and a tin can of beer, O'Connor
and his men found Brown's meagre possessions still in the room.
They consisted of two pairs of old eyeglasses, one of the pair
in a case, and a small bag made of a bright and gaudy cotton
cloth. They also found the blood covered murder weapon lying
on the floor next to the bed, an ordinary wooden handled table
knife. The handle was painted black and three notches had been
cut horizontally on either side. The knife was dull and the end
had been broken off leaving only a four inch long blade which
was ground down to a point.
The police also found a cross
or "X" scratched into the body of the murdered woman
as well as a three inch high version on the wall next to the
door. It was never explained what this might mean but reporters,
with Jack the Ripper on their minds, would wonder if it was a
boast to the world that this was the killer's tenth victim.
Soon to arrive on the murder
scene were Coroner Schultze and the detectives from headquarters.
As Superintendent Murrey was out of town Captain McLaughlin,
Precinct Captain from the Eleventh Ward, was temporarily in charge
of the Detective Bureau while Chief Inspector Thomas Byrnes was
Acting Superintendent. It was McLaughlin who arrived from headquarters
with Detectives Crowley, Grady and McClusky in order to assist
O'Connor and his men. Also to arrive and gain immediate access
to the crime scene were the reporters.
With the newspapermen dogging
their every move the police detectives combed the fifth floor
looking for anything that might aid in the investigation. In
room No. 32 a bowl of bloody water was discovered. This was never
explained nor linked to the murder. It is hard to see how the
killer could have washed his hands in room 32; there was no washbowl
in the murder room, since blood was found on the small trap door,
or scuttle, leading to the roof of the building. As no one had
seen "C. Kniclo", the man who had rented the room with
the victim, exit from the hotel it was supposed by the police
that he had escaped to the roof and from there either climbed
down or entered the adjoining building from which he exited.
If he had washed his hands in room 32, though, how did he get
blood on the scuttle?
While the detectives were combing
the building the Coroner, observed by the reporters, made his
preliminary examination of the body. It was his belief that she
had been strangled first and then mutilated when dead. He also,
apparently, believed that she had been murdered by London's Whitechapel
murderer. When interviewed by a reporter the next day Schultze
was asked the question that was on everyone's mind: whether Carrie
Brown had been murdered by Jack the Ripper. Schultze answered
by saying `I believe this case is the same as those of London
" and went on by adding `I do not see any reason to suppose
that the crime may not have been committed by the fiend of London.
"17
The Coroner would have made his
opinions known to Captain McLaughlin and Captain O'Connor and
this is the likely reason why McLaughlin decided that every available
man was needed from headquarters and why detectives flooded into
the Fourth Ward. Although they denied any belief that Jack the
Ripper had arrived in America, the actions of the police tell
a different story. The amount of effort and man power alone that
swirled about the investigation, called the greatest man hunt
in the history of the city, proves the importance with which
they viewed the case. Certainly the amount of detective energy
expended wasn't because they thought it important to solve the
murder of a sixty year old slum dwelling alcoholic prostitute!
Notice of the murder and a description
of the murderer supplied by Mary Miniter, the Assistant Housekeeper
of the East River Hotel, was sent to all precincts and neighbouring
jurisdictions. About a dozen detectives from headquarters, all
the Fourth Ward precinct detectives and a number of uniformed
police ordered into civilian clothes began a dragnet. Some went
out to canvass every lodging house in the ward looking for the
man who matched Miniter's description of the killer. It was observed
that they even entered places that hadn't seen a policeman's
shadow in years. They were also instructed to arrest any "suspicious
persons" they might find. Others went looking for anyone
who knew the victim or knew of her movements on Thursday night
while still others started in the East River Hotel itself looking
for any witnesses to the night's events.
Mary Miniter and Mary Corcoran
(or Cochrane), the hotel's housekeeper, were taken to the Oak
Street Police Station to give the same statements that they had
been giving to reporters all morning.
Miniter once more went over how
she had given a room to the victim and a younger man whose name
was entered in the registration book as "C. Kniclo."
The two had rung the bell of the hotel door at close to l 1 o'clock
on Thursday night. She described the man as being "about
thirty-two to thirty-five years of age. He was about 5 feet 8
'/2 inches tall and slim in build. He had a long sharp nose and
a heavy blond mustache. He wore a dark-brown cutaway coat, dark
trousers and a battered derby hat.... " 18 She also thought
that the man was German. After they had made their statements
Miniter and Corcoran/Cochrane were rewarded by being committed
to the House of Detention.
While searching the hotel the
detectives came upon Mary Healey who had been seen drinking with
Carrie Brown shortly before she was killed. Healey was found
in room No. 12 and was so drunk that she wasn't able to dress
herself let alone make any kind of a statement. The police bundled
her into a sheet and took her to Oak Street so she could sleep
it off.
Owner Jennings and door clerk
Fitzgerald were also summoned to the Precinct House to make statements.
Unlike the women, however, they were allowed to leave Oak Street
and go about their business. It was soon made clear that Mary
Miniter was the only person to have seen Carrie Brown, nicknamed
"Shakespeare" by her friends, and "C. Kniclo"
at the hotel. An important fact when analysing later events.
In the city of Brooklyn the police
had received the notice of the murder that morning and Mounted
Patrolman Frank of the 10th Precinct was the first officer from
that force to make an arrest in connection with the case. In
the afternoon Frank arrested two tramps for "lounging"
but the real reason for the arrest was that one of the men, John
Foley, bore a striking resemblance to the description put out
by the New York police. Foley and his friend, Frank McGovern,
were brought to the Sixth Avenue Station House and placed in
a cell until someone from New York could come and take a look
at them.
The canvassing of the Fourth
Ward started to bear fruit. The police soon were able to partially
corroborate the identity of the murdered woman as one Came Brown,
the wife of a Salem sea captain, and to trace some of her movements.
Detectives had learned that she lived most of the time at 49
Oliver Street, a basement lodging house operated by Mamie Harrington.
When interviewed by police Harrington was able to offer some
valuable information about Brown and to fill in some of the blanks
surrounding the night before.
According to Harrington, Brown
had been at her lodging house when, at about 7 o'clock, two men
entered her premises. One was a man known as "Frenchy,"
the other was unknown to Harrington. They arrived looking for
another occupant of the premises, one Mary Ann Lopez, a local
prostitute. When told that Lopez was not there at the time the
two decided to wait to see if she would return. While waiting
"Frenchy" and his friend started up a conversation
with Carrie Brown, whom "Frenchy" may, or may not,
have known. Some witnesses would later claim that"Shakespeare"
and "Frenchy" had spent the night together only the
night before but "Frenchy" denied this, (later he supposedly
admitted it, then later still denied it again). At some point
the three left the lodging house and made their way to John Speekmann's
saloon at the comer of Oliver and Oak Streets. It was later learned
that the three eventually did meet up with Lopez as the four
of them were seen drinking together at Speekmann's dive.
When asked about "Frenchy"
Harrington knew very little but what she did have to say was
of great interest to the police. What his real name was she didn't
know but he was called "Frenchy" because he talked
like a Frenchman, or, at least, with a foreign accent. Harrington
later told reporters that although she had never seen him with
a knife "everybody seemed to fear him and he was said to
be a fellow who would use a knife. "19 It is likely that
it was Harrington who first provided a description of this new
suspect to the police. It also seems probable that this information
was taken back to the East River Hotel and questions were asked
there about "Frenchy." It was discovered that not only
did the staff know of him but they were able to report that he
had spent the night at the hotel. The police now had a known
suspect who had been seen in the company of the murdered woman
only hours before her death and who, amazingly, could be placed
in the same building when the murder took place. This intriguing
information explains the change in direction that the investigation
took at this point.
Although police officials would
not answer any questions put to them by the press and denied
any knowledge of a new suspect, someone from the police department
was hinting broadly that they knew who the killer was and that
he was a tall, thin, olive skinned, dark haired, mate who spoke
with an accent and was known in the Ward as "Frenchy".
The detectives now narrowed their search to focus solely on this
man.
At 6:00 pm the body of Came Brown
was finally removed from the blood-soaked room at the East River
Hotel and taken to the morgue to await autopsy the next day.
After sundown Chief Inspector
Byrnes, accompanied by one of his detectives (probably Detective
Sergeant McManus), left his Mulberry Street office and proceeded
to Water Street where he had a quick look around. While McManus
continued on to the East River Hotel, Chief Inspector Byrnes
went directly to the Oak Street Precinct House to be appraised
of the current situation and to confer with the impressive police
brain trust that now left the field and converged on Captain
O'Connor's private office. Along with Byrnes and O'Connor there
were present Inspector "Clubber Williams, the Divisional
Inspector, Captain McLaughlin and Detective Sergeant Parazzo.
This is another indication that the Brown murder was seen as
much more than just the grisly homicide of an aged, down and
out barfly. As the New York Times would point out "There
has not been a case in years that has called forth so much detective
talent. "20 It was also at this meeting that Chief Inspector
Byrnes decided that he would personally take charge of the investigation.
After a meeting of some twenty
minutes Detective Sergeant McManus arrived at Oak Street to report
on his findings at the murder scene. He would then leave the
precinct house and journey back to Water Street where he would
manage the detectives on the ground from the bar of Mr. Jennings'
hotel. As the evening wore on detectives arrested three more
women, friends and acquaintances of the murdered woman, and brought
them into the Fourth Ward Precinct House. Also arrested were
three men described as being Italian. They were taken to Oak
Street and interrogated by Byrnes and the other police officials.
These men were subsequently released.
Sometime between 9 o'clock and
9:30 pm a man described by reporters as being either an Italian
or a Greek was arrested only blocks away from the East River
Hotel between James Slip and Roosevelt Street on Water Street.
The "Greek" was taken first to the murder hotel where
he was shown to Eddie Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, who was once more
tending bar for night barman Sam Shine, identified him as "Frenchy,"
the man that they were looking for. The "Greek," however,
denied this and said that he had not been anywhere near the East
River Hotel on the previous night. The detectives conferred with
Detective Sergeant McManus who decided to arrest the man anyway
and he was taken to Oak Street.
According to The New York World
this man "answers, fairly well the description of the man
who went to the East River Hotel with the murdered woman. "21
This is patently untrue as the New York Times pointed out: "the
man might pass for a Greek or an Italian. He is rather tall,
thin, and dark. He does not tally very well in this later regard
with the man described by Mary Miniter. 22
This is an excellent illustration
of one of the problems in attempting to research the Brown murder.
As the official police reports are now long gone we are left
trying to interpret information provided solely from newspaper
accounts. Anyone who has studied the Whitechapel Murders to any
degree understands how frustrating this can be especially when
faced with conflicting reports. Exacerbating the situation is
the closed mouth nature of Byrnes's investigative techniques:
"Why don't you discharge
Frenchy No 1, whom you are holding? "
"How do you know that I
have not. "
"But have you? "
" I refuse to answer. "
"Well, what do you think
of the murderer now? "
"I have no theory for publication.
"
With this type of reticence the
press was forced to attempt to interpret the meaning behind police
actions aided by what information low level police informants
would dare to divulge. It was like trying to report on the police
investigation by peering at it through a frosted window. They
could see vague shapes, and every once and a while someone would
get close enough to the glass that they could recognise a face,
but who they were and why they were there was ofttimes a mystery.
The likely answer to the conflicting
opinions offered above is that the World was relying on a description
of the olive skinned, dark haired "Frenchy" who they
had heard the police were looking for; this explains why the
three Italians were arrested, and who was being described by
some unofficial source as the likely murderer. In the mind of
the World reporter, therefore, this suspect must have been the
man who entered the hotel with the victim at 11 o'clock the night
before. The New York Times, however, was sticking with Mary Miniter's
description of "C. Kniclo," the man who had actually
entered the hotel with the murdered Carrie Brown. Either way,
later reports that the murderer was described as having brown
hair or being either "a Greek or Italian" seem to stem
from this press confusion between the description of "Frenchy"
and "C. Kniclo," not from any change in description
made by Mary Miniter. Miniter had said that the man was blond
and this fact was supported by the majority of the newspaper
reports and statements by the police, including police bulletins
which described the murderer, as well as the course that the
investigation actually took.
The "Greek's" arrival
at Oak Street created a flurry of activity and a parade of witnesses
tramped in and out of Captain O'Connor's office. The prisoner
was taken in for interrogation and it was quickly learned that
he was indeed the man that they were looking for, Ameer Ben All,
an Algerian immigrant, known in the Fourth Ward as "Frenchy."
He denied that he had been anywhere near the East River Hotel
the night before or that he knew anyone named either "Shakespeare"
or Brown. He was taken to the cells while some of the women who
had been detained as witnesses, including Mary Miniter, were
brought in and questioned by Byrnes about the new prisoner. Whatever
the answers to his questions were is unknown but it is apparent
that when Ben All was brought back into the Captain's office
to be confronted by Miniter she was able to state that he was
not the man who had rented room number 31 on the night of the
murder. It is also unknown what Inspector Byrnes' reaction was
to this information but he was to mollify any disappointment
he might have felt by detaining the Algerian as a material witness.
Ben All would come in handy a little later on, the Chief Inspector
would find.
At 11:30 pm an unnamed woman
was arrested by detectives and brought to the Oak Street Station
House. The police wouldn't comment on who she was.
At midnight the temporary detectives'
headquarters was shut down for the night and Inspector Byrnes
and his men were able to go home and catch whatever sleep they
could before starting fresh in the morning. The investigation
had so far led to the detention of Mary Miniter, Mary Healey,
Lizzie Mestrom, Annie Lynch, Mary Ann Lopez, Alice Sullivan,
Annie Corcoran (or Cochrane), and Ameer Ben Ali. Midnight was
also time for the shift change at the precinct house. Patrolmen
and detectives on night duty were given a briefing on the day's
events and handed a description of the murderer. The "Frenchy"
hunt now over, they had returned to Mary Miniter's earlier statement
and were told to be on the lookout for: `a man about 5 feet 8
inches high, rather thin, with a light moustache, light hair,
and hooked nose, and dressed in a dark cutaway coat and derby
hat. "23
As the day came to a close two
large detectives were stationed at the door of the East River
Hotel to keep the sidewalks clear from the throngs of morbid
sightseers. Crowds of people came to stand and gawk till well
after midnight just to get a glimpse of the outside of the murder
hotel. An atmosphere of horror spread through the district and
women either stayed indoors, or those that had to leave the safety
of their tenement hovels travelled in pairs or in small groups.
Men gathered uneasily at street corners and discussed the murder
while passing on the latest gossip or wild theory that were now
quickly spreading throughout the ward. It was said that even
the normally boisterous children who overran street and sidewalk
were awed into silence. Sitting in doorways they talked in whispers
about the murder.
The people of the Fourth Ward,
a largely uneducated and illiterate Irish immigrant population,
too busy attempting to survive in their slum world to care about
crimes taking place an ocean away had still, amazingly, heard
the name "Jack the Ripper." The fear that this name
engendered to these poverty stricken New Yorkers was almost palpable.
As the World reported "There were probably manypersons,
young and old, in the Fourth Ward who last night suffered from
nightmare and fantastic dreams about 'Jack the Ripper.' "24
It was almost as if the Mayor or the Superintendent of Police
had officially announced that some demon had come to their city
or that Satan himself now walked amongst them.
SATURDAY 25 APRIL, 1891
THE NIGHT SHIFT was busy. At
1:00 am police patrolling the Bowery arrested one Adolph Kallenberg,
a German, who was found `hanging around. " He seemed to
match the description of the murderer, so he was brought first
to the Elizabeth Street Station House before being transferred
later that same morning to Oak Street. When shown to Mary Miniter
she was able to say that he was not the murderer and so he was
discharged. Others weren't as lucky as Mr. Kallenberg.
Newspapers reported that at least
a dozen prisoners were taken to Oak Street before daylight. Some
were discharged but at least seven prisoners were held. Reports
state that at least five women and two men were confined. Captain
O'Connor stated that none of them were suspects in the murder
but were being held as witnesses only. One of the men was a William
Bekker, or Behken, who was described as an "important witness,
" but "what he knows the police will not tell. "25
Why he was considered important was never revealed.
It is likely that at least one
more "important witness" was interviewed before the
night shift went off duty at 6:00 am. There is evidence that
the police took a statement from a man named Kelly, the night
clerk at the Glenmore Hotel (a cheap lodging house on Chatham
Square) sometime in the small hours of the morning. Kelly was
interviewed about a blood stained man who had entered his hotel
shortly after the murder. Chatham Square lies just off Catherine
Street only six blocks or so from the East River Hotel which
itself was situated at the corner of Catherine Slip, which ran
into Catherine Street, and Water Street. At sometime between
1:00 and 2:00 am Friday, the 24th of April, a man walked into
the Glenmore Hotel and asked Kelly for a room. The night clerk
noticed that the man's hands, face and clothing were smeared
with blood. Kelly stated that the man was very nervous and agitated
with "his hat pulled down over his eyes and he acted queer.
He asked me in broken English ifI could give him a room for the
night. At the time his right hand rested on my desk and I noticed
that it was all bloody. I noticed it looked as though he had
tried to wipe the blood of but it was smeared all over. There
were also two blotches of blood on his right cheek, as though
he had put the bloody hand to his face. There was also blood
on his right coat sleeve and it was spattered on his collar.
Altogether the fellow looked very bad. "26
Kelly asked the man what price
room he wanted but the man answered that he wanted the night
clerk to just give him a room for free because he didn't have
any money. Unable to comply Kelly turned the man away. When the
man attempted to enter the washroom in the lobby the clerk was
forced to come out from the office and prevent the man from doing
so. As he left Kelly turned to the night watchman, a man named
Tiernan, and said "That man looks as though he had murdered
somebody. "27
In and of itself the tale of
the bloodstained man might be seen as merely an interesting anecdote
with, perhaps, no real connection to the murder of Carrie Brown.
What lifts it in importance and interest, however, is Kelly's
description of the man. "The fellow spoke with a pronounced
German accent ...about five feet nine inches in height, light
complexion, long nose, and light mustache. He says that he wore
a shabby cutaway coat and a shabby old derby hat. "28 This
mirrors Mary Miniter's description of "C. Kniclo",
the murderer, right down to the long nose and the German accent.
Was this man "C. Kniclo"? It is impossible now to say
but it is tempting to theorize that it was, based on the close
similarities in description, the blood stains, and the proximity
of the Glenmore to the East River Hotel. Added weight can be
attached to Kelly's testimony if it can be shown that he had
given his statement to the police before the papers, filled with
Mary Miniter's description of the murderer and other details,
came out on Saturday morning. There is some evidence that points
to this being the case.
When the night shift went on
duty they were supplied with a description of the wanted man.
This description had been supplied by Mary Miniter and it represented
the up to date findings of the investigation. When the night
shift went off duty, rather than reiterate the earlier bulletin,
they supplied a new description of the wanted man for the in
coming morning shift. This then represented the up to date findings
of the investigation at that time as uncovered by the midnight
to 6:00 am shift. The morning shift was told: "General Alarm!
-Arrest a man S feet 9 inches high, about thirty-one years old,
light hair and mustache; speaks broken English. Wanted for murder.
"29
It is unlikely that the description
in this new bulletin came from Miniter; she was asleep in the
House of Detention between midnight and 6:00 am, but it might
have come from Kelly, the only other witness found who might
have actually seen the murderer. Notice that it closely follows
Kelly's description of the man who entered the Glenmore Hotel
and even includes the information that the man spoke "broken
English, " the exact phrase Kelly had used to describe the
blood stained man to the newspapers. Miniter never commented
on how the suspect spoke; only that, from what few words that
he said to her, she believed that he was German. It should be
understood that we know that the police set great store in Kelly's
story and they thought he was an important witness. For our purposes
night clerk Kelly's importance lies in the fact that he corroborates
exactly Mary Miniter's description of "C. Kniclo,"
the murderer. This corroboration increases in importance later
on in the investigation.
On Saturday morning Chief Inspector
Byrnes travelled to the City of Brooklyn in order to confer with
Superintendent Campbell and Commissioner Hayden, who offered
the New York Police every assistance. Byrnes apparently thanked
the two police officials but added that he thought that the murderer
was not in their city. Why he thought this is unknown but it
may have had something to do with Kelly's blood-stained and penniless
man. The Brooklyn police sent a description to all station houses
nonetheless and were on the lookout for the wanted man. As for
John Foley, who had been arrested by Mounted Patrolman Frank
the day before, Byrnes thought that the description of the man
did not match that of the murderer. Exonerated of being Jack
the Ripper, Foley and his friend McGovern, were sent to jail
as vagrants.
It didn't take long before another
man was arrested in Brooklyn for matching the description of
the killer. At 7:00 am, Detective Sergeant Camey, on his way
to breakfast, arrested a man who he found lounging at the comer
of Fulton and Hicks Streets and took him to the 2nd Precinct
House. There the man identified himself as Frederick Strube,
a blond 26 year old butcher originally from Germany. Delighted
in the interest shown him Strube was happily confident that he
could prove that he wasn't anywhere near the East River Hotel
the night before. New York was informed and Detective Sergeant
McNaughton and Mary Miniter arrived at 9:00 am to take a look
at the suspect. Miniter was positive that Strube was not "C.
Kniclo" and he was released.
Miniter had already started her
day by being brought back to Oak Street in order to once more
have a look at Ameer Ben All. Why is not clear, but it may have
been an attempt to make absolutely sure that "Frenchy",
a most convenient suspect, was not the murderer.
At around 10:00 am Deputy Coroner
Jenkins began the post mortem process. The body was first photographed
(two pictures were taken, one front and one back) 30, and then
with Colonel Vollum, the President of the United States Board
of Army Medical Examiners observing, amongst others, the actual
autopsy was performed 31. It was said to have taken four hours
to complete and when it was over Jenkins was asked whether he
thought that the mutilations had been carried out by a surgeon
as Jack the Ripper was said to be. "If it was done by a
surgeon he was a butcher. It was horrible hacking, " was
his reply. "Would you suppose that this murder was committed
by the London 'Jack the Ripper'?" he was next asked. "I
am not advancing theories. I cannot say, " Jenkins noted.32
Steve Brody, the man who had
created a media sensation in 1886 by claiming that he could jump
off of the Brooklyn Bridge and survive - and then did just that
- hitched his publicity wagon to the "Shakespeare"
murder sensation star. Hungry for any kind of attention or exposure,
Brody claimed that he knew the victim well and then proceeded
to have a statement published which he maintained told the details
of "Shakespeare's" life. The details were quickly proved
to be false but Brody was undeterred. He next told reporters
that his wife, had found pieces of the victim's intestines lying
in the street near to the East River Hotel. These, he stated,
had been sent to the Oak Street Precinct House, which denied
that it had received any such evidence from Brody. Deputy Coroner
Jenkins did admit, however, that the police had forwarded on
to him a package that seemed to contain pieces of some sort of
viscera. Upon examination Jenkins declared that they were parts
of the organ of a cat.
At the East River Hotel some
excitement was garnered that morning when a mysterious fire broke
out. A kerosene lamp in housekeeper Mary Corcoran's room on the
second floor, (she was still being held in the House of Detention),
accidentally fell or was tipped over and set the carpet alight.
It was suspected that someone had climbed on top of a shed alongside
the building and had reached through the open window and knocked
over the lamp with a cane or stick. The fire was quickly put
out and only minimal damage was done.
As the day wore on the police
on the ground, which included Chief Inspector Byrnes, were described
as "working like beavers" as they attempted to solve
the murder. Characteristically of Byrnes and his methods, he
and his men refused to tell reporters what leads they were following
or what conclusions they had so far reached. As an example, although
reporters had witnessed a policeman arriving at the Oak Street
Station with a pair of blood stained pants which the officer
claimed had come from a Bowery lodging house, those in charge
of the investigation refused any information as to where exactly
they came from or who had owned them. Byrnes also refused to
offer his opinion on whether Carrie Brown had been murdered by
the Ripper or not but it was reported that the general opinion
among the detectives was that this was not the work of London's
Jack but rather that of some "weak-minded ruffian who has
read of the deeds of the Whitechapel's terror and attempted to
do as he did. "33
Police did acknowledge that they
were looking for a man named Isaac Perringer who was described
as being a sailor with a very bad character. Perringer had rented
a room at a Ridge Street lodging house run by the Seventh Presbyterian
Church at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of Thursday the 23rd. He
had left the lodging house at 9:30 pm in order to meet a woman
and it was claimed that he had been seen drinking with the murder
victim sometime after that. From what we know of Carrie Brown's
movements that night, however, it is unlikely that this was true.
At around 4:00 pm Captain Reilly
and Detective Britt of the Nineteenth Precinct, accompanied by
Detective Sergeant Hanley of the Detective Bureau, arrived at
police headquarters on Mulberry Street. In their custody was
a handcuffed man who fit the description of the murderer exactly
with the exception of his trousers. The reporters remembered
the blood stained pair of pants brought in earlier and wondered
if there was any connection. This man, who was first hurried
into Chief Inspector Byrnes' office, was later taken under close
guard to Oak Street. Who he was or what connection he had with
the murder was a mystery. Byrnes categorically denied that this
man had anything to do with the East River Hotel murder. "0,
he is a small thief we have wanted for a long time. I assure
you he is a bum, "34 was his reply to reporters.
What this "bum's" name
was or what he had been arrested for was not explained. Neither
was the reason that he was taken from Headquarters to Oak Street,
the centre of the Brown murder investigation. Nor could it be
ascertained why a small time thief, his hands cuffed behind him,
needed to be escorted by a police captain and two detectives.
The arrest of this man seems to have triggered a series of events
which would culminate in an announcement of the murderer's identity.
We know that the police had been
able to track Carrie Brown's activities on the night of the murder.
From Mamie Harrington, who was arrested and held in the House
of Detention with the other witnesses, they had learned that
Brown had been in the company of Ameer Ben All and another man.
The detectives had been looking for this man as a "person
of interest' or "one who could aid in their inquiries, "as
police might say today, but the police were having trouble finding
him as he seemed to have disappeared from his usual haunts. The
name of this man, who witnesses said spoke French, English and
an Arabic dialect, was unknown but because he spoke French he
was also nicknamed "Frenchy."
In the early evening the witnesses,
including Mary Miniter and Ameer Ben All, were brought to Oak
Street where they were again interrogated by Byrnes and his men
apparently in regards to Ben Ali's friend. The police reporters
were told to stand by for an important statement which would
be read after the police had re-interviewed Ben All. The Algerian
was questioned for over half an hour but refused to offer any
information about his associate or to divulge his whereabouts.
It was late in the evening when
he was finally taken away and Chief inspector Byrnes, with great
formality, ushered in over 30 waiting police reporters, in what
we would now recognize as a press conference, in order to make
the statement. Byrnes stood in the background while Acting Inspector
McLaughlin read from a prepared typewritten document.
Part of the statement merely
repeated facts about the case and the investigation that the
assembled reporters already knew. Another part disclosed all
the information that Detective Crowley had been able to uncover
about the victim and her life from interviewing her friends in
the Ward.
Her maiden name had been Caroline
Montgomery and she had married a Captain James Brown of Salem
Massachusetts. After his death Carrie Brown had moved to New
York and supposedly drank away the fortune he had left her eventually
ending up in the gutter that was the Fourth Ward. 35
Acting Inspector McLaughlin also
stated that Mary Miniter had admitted under questioning that
she had actually known Carrie Brown for a number of years and
that she was known to her both as "Shakespeare" and
as "Jeff Davis," the name of the President of the Confederacy
during the Civil War. This is the only time that this nickname
is mentioned; certainly none of Brown's close friends called
her by it, and it is unknown why she was given it. One theory
offered by the newspapers of the day is that Brown "argued
for the lost cause " of southern states' rights, a strange
point of view coming from the wife of a Union Navy Captain. It
is interesting to note, however, that the picture of Carrie Brown
discovered by Michael Conlon 36 shows a certain facial similarity
between Brown and Davis so she might have been called "Jeff
Davis" simply because she looked like him. The real reason
will probably never be known.
McLaughlin also stated that Ben
All had admitted that on the night previous to the murder he
occupied a room with Brown in the East River Hotel and that he
was in the hotel the night she was murdered but that he swore
that he was not the murderer.
The assembled reporters listened
listlessly but when the Acting Inspector finally got to the heart
of the document they sat up and paid closer notice.
George Francis, (Ameer Ben All),
known as "Frenchy," had a cousin, also known as "Frenchy."
The two men were believed to be cousins "because several
women held as witnesses say the two men spoke of each other as
cousins. "37 Both men were thought to be Algerian and the
two had a reputation as being "ruffians of the worst character"
and were known to hang out with known prostitutes in the dives
along Water Street. On the night of the murder the two men were
seen drinking with Mary Ann Lopez and Carrie Brown with the cousin
drinking with Brown. Now the cousin had disappeared and Ben All
refused to say where he had gone but the Chief Inspector stated
"that he will have no difficulty in tracing him and he believes
that when he gets this man he will have the murderer. "38
With that the Acting Superintendent
and the Acting Inspector ended the conference and told the reporters
to leave the office. Unsatisfied by the complete lack of details
about the supposed murderer the assembled reporters barraged
the two police officials with questions, only to face a tightlipped
refusal to say anything more about the case.
Shortly before midnight Captain
O'Connor announced to the still assembled reporters that they
might as well go home. He assured them that "no information
will be given out before to-morrow afternoon. "39 How he
knew that no breaking news on the case would occur before then
was not explained, but he did cryptically add that "even
if we got the man we are looking for there would be so many things
to clear up that nothing could be given_ for publication before
to-morrow afternoon. "40
Things seemed to be going very
well for the New York police detectives and Chief Inspector Byrnes
was described as being "more at ease " and that he
had "returned to his normal condition of self confidence."
SUNDAY 26 APRIL, 1891
ONLY HOURS LATER the police were
described as seeming to be "absolutely at sea. They will
say nothing, perhaps because they have nothing to say. They display
an irritability that is in itself strong evidence that they are
completely baffled. "41
Rather than quickly and easily
arresting the man now known as "Frenchy No. 2, " as
Byrnes had boasted, the detectives were once more using the tactics
of the drag-net. Byrnes, McLaughlin, O'Connor and a host of headquarters
and ward detectives were back re-scouring the lodging houses,
tenements and dives of the Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Wards. Reporters
were left to compare the desperation that they now witnessed
with the confidence displayed by the police only hours earlier.
"Byrnes as much as said that he would be able to put his
hands on `Frenchy' as soon as he wanted him. He has not got him
yet. If he believes 'Frenchy' to be the murderer, and he can
find him, why has he not done so? "42
Something appears to have gone
radically wrong for Chief Inspector Byrnes in the night, but
what? The seasoned police reporters thought they knew at least
part of the story.
When Byrnes announced - or had
Captain McLaughlin announce for him - the fact that they were
looking for Ameer Ben All's cousin and that they thought that
he was the murderer, several of the reporters became suspicious.
Why announce to the suspect that he was wanted by the police
and thus give him a chance to disappear? Why name a man as the
prime suspect and thus expose yourself to possible ridicule if
you can't find him? The Chief Inspector never gave out information
about his suspects unless he had some ulterior motive for doing
so. As the police reporter for the Times wrote `He says that
he has not arrested [Frenchy No.2] yet, but the fact that he
has made public the facts here stated contradicts that, for Byrnes
is not in the habit of talking about a man whom he desires to
catch for committing a crime. "43
The police reporters were well
versed in Chief Inspector Byrnes' methods and their opinions
on the police and those methods must carry great weight. They
came to the conclusion that the Chief Inspector had already arrested
his suspect before the press conference, as the quote in the
Times shows, and that "Frenchy No.2 " "is generally
believed to have been what in police circles is called a 'throwoff
...Byrnes said, when he made the official statement, that he
had not got `Frenchy, 'the suspect, in custody. Many were inclined
to believe that he did. .. have the man, for in the arrest of
the suspect was found Byrnes's only warrant for publishing him
as a suspect. "44 Other reporters thought that they knew
who the man was; the handcuffed "small time thief ' brought
in by Captain Reilly and Detectives Britt and Hanley: "A
mysterious prisoner was brought in to headquarters yesterday
afternoon. There are reasons to suppose that this man is the
one who killed the old woman. It was after this man was brought
to police headquarters that Inspector Byrnes made the statement.
... Inspector Byrnes seemed more at ease after Captain Reilly's
prisoner had been brought in... The general opinion of those
about police headquarters were that he had his man, but wanted
to fasten the crime upon him without a doubt before he would
speak of his catch. ' 45
Even Captain O'Connor's assurance
to the assembled reporters that nothing would happen before the
next afternoon was seen to "strengthen the belief that the
murderer, or at least the man suspected, had been arrested...
"46
That something did go wrong with
the investigation is apparent from the attitudes and actions
of the police the day after the press conference, but what exactly
it was is unknown at this date. If the reporters were correct
in their assumptions, then someone whom the police considered
a strong suspect was apparently arrested and brought in to Oak
Street for questioning. Information garnered from this suspect,
or some piece of evidence such as the pair of blood stained pants
found in the Bowery lodging house then seems to have led to further
interrogations of the detained witnesses. The information supplied
to the police was of a character that led Byrnes and his men
to believe that they had arrested Ameer Ben Ali's cousin, the
`person of interest" and the man who had been drinking with
Carrie Brown on the night of the murder.
After the press conference there
must have been some problem with the evidence of the arrested
suspect's guilt. The only possible clue that we are left with
is a statement made by Byrnes the very next day after the press
conference. This was, in fact, the only statement that Byrnes
would agree to make. According to the Chief of Detectives "the
descriptions of the murderer were conflicting, thus rendering
identification extremely difficult, "47 and "The people
dependent upon to give it were a drunken lot without enough intelligence
to remember how the man looked. "48
We are left with the answer that
there was something wrong with the description given of "Frenchy
No.2 " by the witnesses and that the man arrested was not
"Frenchy No.2. " Did this happen? We know that when
he was arrested "Frenchy No.2 " turned out to be a
slaughterman named Arbie La Bruckman who plied his trade on cattle
boats and that he did not match the description given of "C.
Kniclo," the murderer, by Mary Miniter. Is this where the
conflict lies?
La Bruckman was described by
a reporter from the World as having "black hair and a dark
brown mustache "49 and those witnesses who knew him on sight
would have told Byrnes and his men this. Mary Miniter, however,
apparently stuck to her description of "C. Kniclo"
and told Byrnes that the man she had seen had blond hair. In
a later interview Byrnes stated "He, [C. Kniclo], was supposed
to be Frenchy No.2, who was described by Mary Miniter as being
blond. " 50 The actions of the police during this phase
of the investigation supports this as well. As was later reported
"he [Byrnes] did not withdraw his general alarm to the police
of neighbouring cities to arrest Frenchy No.2 and there have
been dozens of light complexioned men with long noses and blond
moustaches placed under arrest in this and other cities. "51
There is also another possible
answer to the police confusion. It is interesting to note that
Mamie Harrington who knew "French; " and therefore
supposedly "Frenchy No.2, " told the police that she
didn't know the identity of the man who left her lodging house
with Ameer Ben All and Brown on the night of the murder. If this
man was another of Ben All's friends and not La Bruckman then
there remains the possibility that the witnesses were offering
confusing descriptions of three different men: "C. Kniclo,"
"Frenchy No.2" and the man who went out drinking with
Brown and Ben Ali.
For whatever the reason it is
apparent that Chief Inspector Byrnes had suffered a setback in
his investigation caused by the announcement that "Frenchy
No.2 " was the murderer. This was a mistake that Byrnes
would quickly try to distance himself from.
As the police once more swarmed
through the Fourth Ward interviewing and reinterviewing witnesses
their actions only cemented the belief among police reporters
that they were literally clueless.
"The manner in which the
police are working is almost conclusive evidence that they are
just where they started, so far as the actual capture of the
murderer is concerned. They are simply pursuing a drag-net policy.
"52
Some arrests were made but it
was reported that most of them were released after interrogation
with at least two exceptions.
The first was a man arrested
by a City Hall Park policeman for merely resembling the description
of the wanted man. This man was taken initially to Oak Street
where he was questioned by Captain O'Connor but was later transferred
to Police Headquarters on Mulberry Street. Typically, the police
refused any comment on this man and denied that his arrest had
anything to do with the East River Hotel murder.
The second man was more interesting.
It was reported that at 3 o'clock in the afternoon Chief Inspector
Byrnes himself boarded the Red D Line steamship Philadelphia
as it lay at its pier in the East River and arrested the second
engineer. This man was taken to headquarters along with another
crewman who was taken as a material witness. It was learned that
the Philadelphia had arrived in New York from Caracas, Venezuela,
at 2 o'clock on Thursday the 23 April, the day of the murder
and that the second engineer closely matched the description
of the murderer.
When asked about this arrest
the Chief of Detectives said that he didn't know anything about
it and denied that any such arrest had been made. Reporters,
however, were able to interview the pier watchmen, who corroborated
the details, and Captain O'Connor who, embarrassingly, did so
as well.
This man was questioned and eventually
released later that same night but interest in him lies in the
fact that he was described as a blond haired German. If the police
were now actually looking for "Frenchy No.2, " described
as a black haired Algerian, then what was Chief Inspector Byrnes
doing personally arresting a blond haired German?
MONDAY 27 APRIL, 1891
THE NEWSPAPERS PROVIDED Chief
Inspector Thomas Byrnes with one more reason to hate Mondays
if, over his morning latte and low fat muffin, he had bothered
to read the editorial section of the Brooklyn Eagle:
"For a man who professes
to have so much confidence in his own ability Inspector Byrnes
betrays singular evidence of weakness. It is very certain that
he talks too much. He has seen fit to name the perpetrator of
the horrible murder in New York and has not been slow to ventilate
his theories in the public prints, but it does not appear that
he has done anything to warrant his estimate of his work. Less
promise and more performance would be a good motto for the inspector
to heed. "
This editorial opprobrium was
followed up with the headline: "STILL WORKING IN THE DARK"
which seems to have pretty much covered the state of the investigation
at this point: "Jack the Ripper, " or whoever murdered
Carrie Brown in the East River hotel, New York, last Thursday
night is still at large and the New York police seem to be baffled
in their efforts to run him down. All their old clews seem to
be exhausted and they now appear to be busy looking for new ones.
"53 or, as the Times put it, "The same tremendous air
of mystery and the same depressing lack of information. "54
The detectives were still swarming
through the district and arrests were still being made but to
little avail. It was reported that the detectives were following
some clue but what it was they refused to say. Several women
and even some young boys were brought down to Oak Street but
all were released after interrogation and the police admitted
that nothing of value was discovered.
The police reporters, it seem,
were becoming bored and listless with the lack of news. It was
observed that they spent their time attempting to guess when
the Street-Cleaning Department had actually appeared in the streets
of the district last. This was a not so subtle jab at Captain
O'Connor since the job of street cleaning fell under his jurisdiction.
The reporters wondered sarcastically how the Captain could allow
"such dives as the one that have been brought into notice
by this case to exist in his immaculate precinct. "
Things were happening, of course,
but just not the arrest of the murderer.
"Frenchy No.2's " sister
was discovered living with her mother on Water Street. She was
questioned and detectives were dispatched apparently to run down
whatever lead that she might have provided. The fact that the
police were still looking for "Frenchy No. 2 " proves
that he was still of some interest to Byrnes.
Reporters attempting to gain
more information about the "small time thief 'brought in
by Captain Reilly and Detectives Britt and Hanley were perplexed
to find that the man had mysteriously disappeared. The police
denied all knowledge of the man or his whereabouts and the newspaper
men knew that he had not been arraigned in any police court as
yet. They suspected that he was still being held, most probably
in the cells at Mulberry Street where no one could get at him.
The biggest news of the day was
Chief Inspector Byrnes' clarification of the statements made
at the press conference less than 48 hours earlier. The head
of the Detective Bureau denied that he believed, or had evidence
to prove, that "Frenchy No.2 " was the murderer of
"Shakespeare." He not only denied this but he even
went so far as to deny that he had authorized any such statement
to be made.
`Inspector Byrnes denied to-day
that he had said the man known as 'Frenchy' is the man who committed
the deed. The type written statement which Acting Inspector McLaughlin
read to a number of reporters Saturday night and which was prepared
by Inspector Byrnes referred to 'Frenchy' several times as the
suspected man. Inspector Byrnes said to-day that he did not want
the impression to go abroad that he had positively stated that
he knew who the murderer was. `I did not say I knew who the man
was nor that Frenchy was the man,' said the inspector. `I said
he was suspected of being the man. As soon as the newspapers
get through discovering the murderer I can do better work on
this case." 55
"Frenchy No 2" was
a suspect, yes, but the Inspector was now claiming that he had
no proof that he was the actual murderer and never said anything
to suggest this. The assembled reporters had misquoted him, he
said. It is clear, however, that Byrnes had indeed broadly hinted
that "Frenchy No.2" was the murderer and that he believed
this on Saturday evening but was now not as assured in this belief.
The police reporters, and even some of Byrnes's own men, were
left scratching their heads and comparing their notes to find
out if they had somehow misheard or misunderstood the original
statement, perhaps because of a sudden onset of brain fever or
an inappropriately timed attack of some fugue state.
If Byrnes did not have any positive
proof that "Frenchy No.2" was the murderer then what
were his thoughts on the case at this point, he was asked. `I
have no theory for publication, " he told reporters. `I
don't know anything more about the murder than you do. ',56
To make matters worse, or at
least embarrassing for the NYPD, was the almost maniacal thoroughness
with which the Brooklyn Police were arresting suspects in that
sister city of New York. "The Brooklyn police got very excited
over the case ... and arrested every man who had ever been known
as `Frenchy' or who might be known by that name, and several
who never claimed it. "57
First a drunken man was arrested
early in the morning on Meserole Street simply because he answered
the description of the murderer. Later that same morning another
man was arrested in a Furman Street boarding house because he
too answered the description of the blond German. He turned out
to be a Swede named Nils Hansen instead. Hansen and the drunken
man were held until Detective McCauly and Mary Miniter arrived
to take a look at them. Miniter was able to state that neither
was the man wanted and they were both released.
One unfortunate Brooklynite found
that his illness brought him under suspicion and arrest. A Frenchman
named Christian Rey, who operated a fruit stand at the corner
of Atlantic and Alabama Avenues, had taken ill and was thus away
from his usual comer for some days. Because some people called
him "Frenchy" and because he had disappeared at around
the time of the murder he was tracked down by the Brooklyn PD
and arrested. He was held until Detective McCauley could interview
him after which he was released.
A much more interesting suspect
was a man known as John Williams, whose alias was "Frenchy,"
but whose real name was Eli Commanis. Williams was arrested at
a lodging house at 125 Furman Street by Captain Eason and Detectives
Conway and Noonan. He was a dock labourer of about forty-five
years of age and was described as being short and with dark hair.
He did not fit the description of the wanted man, reporters pointed
out, but it was learned that he had lived in a lodging house
next door to the East River Hotel and that he knew "Shakespeare"
and he had moved to Furman Street in Brooklyn shortly after the
murder. If this wasn't interesting enough, it was discovered
that two years earlier Williams had lodged in a house at 114
Roosevelt Street, only blocks from the East River Hotel, when
a woman had been murdered there. Detective McCauley looked him
over and said he was not the man wanted and he was released.
City officials stated that unless
Carrie Brown's relatives claimed her body from the morgue by
the end of the day she would be buried in a paupers grave in
Potter's Field.
When Inspector Byrnes closed
up his Mulberry Street office, at the end of a disappointing
day, he said that there was nothing new in the case.
TUESDAY 28 APRIL, 1891
AT MIDNIGHT THE detectives arrested
Mary Cody and Kitty Lynch in a sailor's dive on Cherry Street.
Taken back to Oak Street they were subjected to a long interview.
After this interview the police seemed to have sprung into action.
Detectives were called out of the ward and told to appear at
Oak Street for further instructions. Whatever they had been searching
for earlier was dropped and the detectives poured back into the
Fourth with some purpose in mind.
In the early morning this purpose
manifested itself in the arrest of a suspect. This man was brought
back to Oak Street and locked in a cell while the police, as
usual, denied any knowledge of him.
Acting Inspector McLaughlin arrived
and immediately set to question the non existent prisoner.
At 10:00 am Captain O'Connor
left the precinct house and walked to the East River Hotel where
he had a long talk with the owner, James Jennings. When O'Connor
returned to Oak Street he was accompanied by two headquarters
detectives and a rough looking, and drunken, prisoner with a
bloated face and blood under his fingernails. This man was also
placed in a cell where he and the nonexistent prisoner were both
interrogated by McLaughlin.
Whatever was going on was to
happen in private and to accomplish this Captain O'Connor asked
all the reporters to leave the station house. It is known, however,
that Kitty Lynch and Mary Cody, along with James Jennings, were
brought to the precinct house and interviewed by Acting Inspector
McLaughlin and several detectives.
After this conference was held
a message was sent to ex-superintendent of the barge office,
Michael Whelan, who shortly arrived at Oak Street. Why the ex-superintendent
of the barge office was called in is a mystery but it can be
assumed that it was because of his expertise surrounding the
East River in some way. After his arrival two headquarters Detective
Sergeants, Mulholland and McClusky, left Oak Street separately,
to throw reporters off the track, but soon met up and travelled
together to the Battery and from there out on the bay to the
Italian ship Assyria. Why was never explained.
Yet another search was carried
out in the Fourth Ward and this produced the arrest, by Detective
Griffin, of an old woman who was said to have been another friend
of "Shakespeare's." Like many of the witnesses and
suspects brought into the Station she was said to be drunk. In
fact so drunk that she couldn't speak.
Even more Detectives were summoned
into the Fourth Ward from Headquarters and each was given instruction
by McLaughlin and sent to carry them out.
Chief Inspector Byrnes was not
involved in any of this activity and it appears that he had decided
to step back from the investigation. He had already got his fingers
burned by the "Frenchy No.2" fiasco and he was still
having to answer questions about it. Asked by a reporter Byrnes
stated that "his statement of Saturday night had been so
distorted that he would say nothing more for publication at pre
sent. He had endeavoured to satisfy the public clamour for information
relative to the murder of old "Shakespeare, " he said,
but found that he was misrepresented in all the newspapers throughout
the world, and therefore, he would say nothing more of what he
was doing. " 58
One thing that Byrnes did do
was to request to the Coroner, Schultze, that one Mary Briscoe,
of 12 Roosevelt Street, arrested by Detective Sergeant McClusky,
be detained in the House of Detention as an important material
witness. This was done. It is possible that this was the "Dublin
Mary," who was also taken to the House of Detention and,
it was reported by newspapermen who knew little of what was actually
going on, questioned about "Frenchy No.2." It was stated
that "Dublin Mary" knew "Frenchy No.2 better than
anyone else.
Something else that Byrnes did
which is of great interest, especially in regards to later events,
was the communication that he sent to Major Moore, the Superintendent
of the Washington Police, asking that Washington keep on the
lookout for the murderer. If, as they would soon claim, the New
York police had found blood evidence on Friday which proved Ameer
Ben Ali's guilt in the murder of Carrie Brown then why were they
asking Washington to look for the murderer four days later on
Tuesday? At the end of the day, regardless of all the police
activity, there was really nothing to show for it. There was,
as they admitted, "no news. "
WEDNESDAY 29 APRIL, 1891
THIS SITUATION CHANGED on Wednesday
afternoon with a notable arrest. Reporters claimed that the activity
of the last day had led police to the whereabouts of "Frenchy
No.2," although this seems doubtful. The New York World
claimed that the information had instead come from one of their
New Jersey readers, which is a possibility. All that we really
know for sure is that Chief Murphy of the New Jersey Police stated
that the arrest had been made at the request of the New York
police authorities whom the Chief stated had impressed upon him
and his men that "it is the most important arrest that could
be made in the Jack the Ripper butchery of Carrie Brown. "59
It would be surprising if this statement had recently been made
to Chief Murphy, rather than when the New York police had first
announced "Frenchy No.2" as a suspect, and even more
surprising if it had come from Chief Inspector Byrnes himself.
By Tuesday "Frenchy No 2" had become a dead issue with
Bymes and he had turned the investigation in a new direction.
At noon New Jersey Police detective
Close went to the Central Stock Yards in Jersey City and arrested
a man named Arbie La Bruckman, alias John Francis, alias John
Frenchy, alias `Frenchy' and, more famously, alias 'Frenchy No.2'.
La Bruckman was described as
being a "villainous-looking man of about twenty-nine years
and of remarkably strong physique. He is about 5 feet 7 inches
in height and weighs about 180 pounds ... has black hair and
a dark brown mustache. "60 He also said that he had been
born in Morocco. He did not, however, answer the description
of the killer offered by Mary Miniter or of the blood stained
man offered by Kelly the night clerk at the Glenmore Hotel.
Taken into custody, La Bruckman
was questioned by the New Jersey police while New York was informed
of the arrest. La Bruckman stated that he had been employed for
the last fourteen years on cattle boats which ran between New
York and Liverpool and that he had returned to New York from
his last crossing on 10 April. He said that he had then found
lodgings at 81 James Street, only blocks from the East River
Hotel. He freely admitted that he was "Frenchy No.2"
or at least that he thought that "he must be the man that
Inspector Byrnes has been looking for, " but he expressed
surprise that he had achieved notoriety in the newspapers. He
hadn't been in hiding, he said, didn't know that he was wanted
by the police and even offered to go back to New York for questioning
without the need of a requisition. He also stated that he had
been arrested and held in London for being suspected of being
Jack the Ripper. Hopefully the New Jersey detectives weren't
drinking any liquids when this little tit-bit of information
was casually offered!
Telling a tale that seemed to
change almost hourly La Bruckman told the Jersey police that
he had been arrested by Scotland Yard and charged with being
Jack the Ripper after one of his trips across to London. He was
closely questioned for two weeks, he claimed, but as sufficient
evidence could not be found to hold him he was released.
Did the New York Police already
know this information? If it was the New Jersey reader of the
World who had informed the NYPD about La Bruckman, then this
was indeed likely. The World reported "There is a man named
`Frenchy' who answers the description of Frenchy No.2 and who
was arrested in London about a year and a half ago in connection
with the Whitechapel murders ... When he was arrested on suspicion
that he was 'Jack the Ripper' he knocked down the officer who
tackled him and made things very lively for half a dozen men
before they got him under control. '61 This would explain the
report that `In the new clew Inspector Byrnes has been working
upon for the past two days many dispatches have crossed the Atlantic
cables. "62
If this was true, whatever Byrnes
might have learned from Scotland Yard was apparently insufficient
to warrant further interest, especially when La Bruckman was
able to add one more crucial bit of information to the police:
he had an alibi for the night of the murder.
When asked, probably first by
the New Jersey detectives, where he was on the late night, early
morning of the 23/24 of April he replied that he was in his lodging
house in New Jersey. People there could vouch for this, and in
fact it seems that more than one person did. It is likely that
this information was also passed to New York and this might explain
why only one New York officer arrived later that afternoon in
order to interview the suspect.
New York detectives were supposedly
unable to travel to New Jersey earlier as they had taken Ameer
Ben Ali to the Queens County jail that morning because, as one
paper claimed, "Frenchy Not" had been a prisoner there
recently. This makes little sense and in fact this information
seems to have been given in a deliberate attempt to throw off
the press. We know that Queens County Sheriff Goldner had contacted
Inspector Byrnes and told him that he believed that Ameer Ben
All had recently been imprisoned in the Queens County jail charged
with vagrancy under the name George Frank. Frank had been released
on the 11th of April.
On the surface it looks as if
Ben All, supposedly only a material witness, was being taken
to Queens County in order to see if he really was Frank. Why
this might be important is unclear but we do know that two prisoners,
David Galloway and Edward Smith, incarcerated in the Queens County
jail soon stepped foreword to state that Ben All had with him
in prison a knife like the one that was used to murder "Shakespeare."
At this point in the investigation into the murder of Carrie
Brown we know that police focus had turned to the framing of
Ben All and so it is probable that this knife evidence was the
real reason that he was taken out to Queens. This theory is strengthened
by the fact that after the detectives had been to the Queens
jail they travelled next to Newtown, Long Island where they had
a long discussion with Justice Scheper. It had been in Newtown
that Ben Ali/Frank had been arrested on the vagrancy charge.
It is interesting to note that
in an interview with Chief Inspector Byrnes two days later that
Byrnes claimed that his men had not been able, so far, to link
Ben All with the knife. The knife was one of "two important
links missing in the chain of evidence "63 The trip to Queens
only makes sense of if it was in regards to the knife and Ben
All's possible connection to it so Byrnes was apparently keeping
the truth from the reporters while playing up the importance
of the ownership of the knife. He would then be able to show
how his diligent detectives had been able to run down this important
missing link.64
It wasn't until 3:00 pm that
Detective Sergeant George McClusky finally arrived in New Jersey
to interview La Bruckman.
McClusky, nicknamed by other
officers "Chesty George" because they claimed that
he was always puffing out his chest due to the inflated opinion
he had of himself, was a Byrnes protege and a man who would go
far in the New York police. When the Titanic survivors arrived
in New York it was "Chesty George," now an Inspector,
who was put in charge at the pier to handle the huge crush of
spectators, mourners and well wishers.
McClusky had a short talk with
the Jersey detectives then a short interview with the prisoner.
Perhaps because of the fact that he had an alibi, which apparently
had been checked and corroborated, or perhaps because he didn't
match the description of the wanted man, or perhaps because McClusky
told the Jersey police that Inspector Bymes was not interested
in "Frenchy No.2" anymore, the New York Detective Sergeant
told New Jersey PD to release La Bruckman, something that the
stunned New Jersey cops at first refused to do. After further
consultation with New York they finally did so. It is as surprising
to researchers as it was to the New Jersey police that Arbie
La Bruckman was simply turned loose without being brought back
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