Postscript: The man described by Lusk's son reportedly spoke with an Irish accent; in a letter published in the
Daily Telegraph Sept. 10, 1888 (two days after Chapman's murder) announcing the formation of the Vigilance Committee and addressed to the Home Secretary, the Committee asks that a reward be offered for the murderer which would "convince the poor and humble residents of our East-end that the government authorities are as much anxious to avenge the blood of these unfortunate women as they were the assassination of Lord Cavendish and Mr Burke."
Burke and Cavendish were victims of the 1882
Phoenix Park Murders in which the murderers slashed the throats and chests of their victims with
surgical knives. The whole thing was tied to the issue of Irish home rule. Although both politicians generally supported home rule, the murders were pinned on a little-known Irish Republican group called the Irish National Invincibles.
The Phoenix Park Murders occurred just days after the signing of the
Kilmainham Treaty made between the government of William Gladstone and Irish Nationalist Leader Charles Stewart Parnell. The Treaty was widely viewed as a repudiation of the Coercion Acts authored by William Forster, then Chief Secretary for Ireland. The Coercion Acts allowed the brutal repression of poor Irish tenant farmers, earning Forster the nickname "Buckshot". Forster had Parnell arrested in October 1881, but when Gladstone announced the Kilmainham Treaty May 2, 1882, Forster resigned; Lord Frederick Cavendish was named to replace him and was killed in Phoenix Park just four days later. The murders finally doomed the cause of Irish home rule; Gladstone's minister Lord Hartington was the older brother of Cavendish and turned against the cause, eventually splitting with Gladstone and forming the Liberal Unionist Party which joined with the Conservatives to defeat Gladstone in 1886. It set back the cause of Irish Home Rule 28 years and the ensuing Plan of Campaign led to further escalation of the land war including the Mitchelstown massacre in 1887.
Although Charles Parnell had denounced the Phoenix Park murders, in March, 1887 The
Times began a series of articles accusing Home Rule League leaders of supporting murder and outrage in Ireland. In particular, they printed a letter from Parnell to a fenian leader that included "Though I regret the accident of Lord F Cavendish's death I cannot refuse to admit that Burke got no more than his deserts". Parnell denounced the letter as a "villainous and barefaced forgery". On that very same day the Perpetual Crimes Act, a reinstitution of the Coercion Acts, was debated and passed in the House of Commons.
After much argument the Government finally set up the Parnell Commission to investigate the letters sent to the Times. They were to begin their proceedings September 14, 1888, four days after the Vigilance Committee sent it's letter to the Daily Telegraph and exactly one week after the death of Annie Chapman.
It was only a few weeks later (Sept 27) that the Central News Agency received the
"Dear Boss" letter that referenced statements made by Lusk and from which the name "Jack the Ripper" comes. On Oct. 16, Lusk himself reported that he'd received a small box with a kidney inside and the "From Hell" letter. That was three days after the "Vigilance Committee" picture was published.
The following February, 1889, an Irish journalist, Richard Piggott, admitted to the Parnell Commission that he'd forged the Parnell letters. He then fled to Madrid and shot himself in the head.
Despite the fact that the only witness descriptions of the potential murderer describe a man speaking with an Irish accent, and despite the exaggerated "theater Irish" in the 'From Hell' letter, the public seized on statements that suggested that the murderer was Jewish, and violent anti-semitic riots ensued.
To the best of my knowledge, no connection between the Phoenix Park Murders, Lusk, and the Parnell forgeries has ever been made.....
If no one guesses I'll give the answer in a couple of days. Any suggestions for a Steampunk Christmas?
