Jack the Ripper fled London to continue his reign of terror says historian
JACK the Ripper fled to Yorkshire after the Whitechapel murders and continued his killing spree until he was finally hanged in Australia, a historian has claimed.
According to a new book Jack The Ripper – Or Something Worse? the killer was Fred Deeming who laid low in Hull following the East End killings, posing as a wealthy rancher.
The story has been pieced together by local historian Mike Covell.
He spent years trawling archives in the UK and Australia, including long-lost files at the Home Office and Scotland Yard.
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Derbyshire-born Deeming had emigrated to Australia with his wife Marie James but was constantly in trouble with the law for fraud.
Deeming was thought to be in prison at the time of the Whitechapel murders. But I have found out this was not the case
They returned to England estranged and in 1888 he was living a alone in Whitechapel when the Ripper murders began.
According to research by Mr Covell, Deeming’s name appeared in a number of Scotland Yard reports on the Whitechapel murders.
A London dressmaker Deeming had been courting in 1888 came forward at the trial to claim he was The Ripper.
Scotland Yard dismissed Deeming as a suspect in 1888 and he left London.
In 1889, he showed up in Beverley, East Yorkshire, calling himself Frederick Lawson, a millionaire Australian rancher.
After months courting women around Hull, the still wed Deeming married Nellie Matheson in 1890.
But he was then jailed for nine months for fraud.
Shortly after his release in July 1891, 18-year-old Mary Jane Langley was found dead in a ditch near the jail with her throat cut.
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Deeming returned to his first wife, who had been trying to blackmail him while in jail.
He murdered her and their four children and buried them in cement under the kitchen floor.
He had already met wife number three Emily Mather, 25, and the couple emigrated to Melbourne.
But Deeming strangled Emily during a row on Christmas Day 1891.
Deeming was arrested and police found a collection of knives, swords and axes.
Scotland Yard had taken a belated interest when the bodies of his family were found and they rushed to the trial in Melbourne.
Deeming was hanged for the murder.
Mr Covell, 37, said: “Previously Deeming was thought to be in prison at the time of the Whitechapel murders. But I have found out this was not the case. A newspaper stand vendor described how Deeming always bought loads of newspapers after the murders and seemed very excited to read about them.”
