The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Whitechapel Horrors (59 page)

117. As a matter of interest, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was also of this opinion.

118. The medical examiners who were personally involved in the postmortems of the Ripper’s victims were very much at odds over this question. Dr. Rees Ralph Llewellyn was of the opinion that the mutilations of Polly Nicholls were “deftly and fairly skillfully performed.” Dr. George Bagster-Phillips stated that whoever removed Annie Chapman’s uterus “showed some anatomical knowledge.” Dr. Frederick Gordon Brown believed that the murderer of Catherine Eddowes displayed “a good deal of knowledge as to the positions of the organs in the body cavity and the way of removing them.” Drs. George William Sequeira and William Sedgewick Saunders disagreed with Brown, expressing the opinion that no anatomical knowledge, other than that which could be expected of a professional butcher, was displayed. Dr. Thomas Bond, an authority in forensic medicine who had conducted the postmortem of Mary Kelly and had made a study of the others, tended to agree with Sequeira and Saunders: “In each case the mutilation was implicated by a person who had no scientific or anatomical knowledge. In my opinion he does not even possess the technical knowledge. In my opinion he does not even possess the technical knowledge of a butcher or horse slaughterman...”

119. Smith’s version was one of those which turned out to be inaccurate. The correct one, a copy of which, according to Whittington-Egan, is preserved in the police files, is as follows:

The Juwes are The men That will not be blamed for nothing

120. Who could this mysterious “certain doctor” have been? Many have theorized (and some have even flatly claimed to have “proof”) that Sir William Gull, the royal family’s physician, and one of the foremost medical practitioners of his day, was in some way involved — either in the crimes themselves or in the cover-up of them.

“H
as anything escaped me? I trust there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked.”

— John H. Watson, M.D.,

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The hand of every writer, as a knowing writer once observed, is guided by those who came before. This book draws heavily on the scholarship of others: First, on the exhaustive studies of a large (and, it would seem, ever-growing) body of indefatigable “Ripperologists” who in the course of their investigations down through the years have left not a stone unturned, a clue unexamined, or a possibility (no matter how remote, implausible, or outrageous) unscrutinized, undissected, and unregurgitated; and, second, on the loving ruminations and commentaries of that dedicated band of brothers known as Sherlockians, slightly dotty all, who, as a result of their scholarly peregrinations and endless debates, have helped to create a myth more real than reality itself.

To all of them, my thanks. It is not too much to say that had not their books happened first, this book quite simply would not have
happened at all. They have my respect, my appreciation, and my deepest gratitude.

William S. Baring-Gould

—
The Annotated Sherlock Holmes

—
Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street

Vincent Starrett

—
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Jack Tracy

—
The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana

Michael and Mollie Hardwick

—
The Sherlock Holmes Companion

Orlando Park

—
The Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia

Michael Harrison

—
The World of Sherlock Holmes

—
The London of Sherlock Holmes

—
In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes

—
Clarence: The Life of HRH the Duke of Clarence and Avondale

—
London by Gaslight

Walter Shepherd

—
On the Scent with Sherlock Holmes

Alexander Kelly

—
Jack the Ripper: A Bibliography

Tom Cullen

—
Autumn of Terror

Donald Rumbelow

—
The Complete Jack the Ripper

Peter Underwood

—
Jack the Ripper: One Hundred Years of Mystery

Elwyn Jones and John Lloyd

—
The Ripper File

Richard Whittington-Egan

—
A Casebook on Jack the Ripper

Stephen Knight

—
Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution

Terence Sharkey

—
Jack the Ripper: One Hundred Years of Investigation

Paul Begg

—
Jack the Ripper: The Uncensored Facts

Louis Auchincloss

—
Persons of Consequence

William Manchester

—
The Last Lion

Stanley Weintraub

—
Victoria: An Intimate Biography

Phillippe Jullian

—
Edward and the Edwardians

Elizabeth Longford

—
Victoria R.I.

James Pope-Hennessy

—
Queen Mary

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, M.D.

—
The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Of inestimable help also was scholarship gleaned from the pages of
The Baker Street Journal
, Philip A. Shreffler, editor, and its many contributors; and from the archives of
The Times
(of London) and
The Daily Telegraph
, whose coverage of the Ripper murders remains, quite simply, among the best crime reporting in the annals of journalism.

It would be an act of ingratitude not to mention the services rendered by the librarians of the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and, most especially, the staff of the New York Public Library’s main reading room. Special words of thanks go to Marcia Hanna, Leigh Hanna, and Ted Koppel.

One final observation: In a story based on both fiction and fact, as this one is, it is only natural there be occasional difficulties in separating one from the other. Rest assured that those portions dealing with the Ripper murders and the police investigation of them are as accurate as my reading of the available, often differing, literature has been able to make them.

While it need hardly be said that this is primarily a work of fiction, custom, prudence, and legal counsel require me to do so. Of course, that part of the account relating to the affairs of Dr. John H. Watson and Mr. Sherlock Holmes is wholly factual.

Depend on it.

EBH

The Berkshires, Massachusetts

May 1992

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES

OF
S
HERLOCK
H
OLMES

Sam Siciliano

Paris 1890: Sherlock Holmes is called across the English Channel to the famous Opera House, where he is challenged to discover the true motivations and secrets of the notorious Phantom who rules its depths with passion and defiance.

ISBN: 9781848568617

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES

OF
S
HERLOCK
H
OLMES

Richard L. boyer

For many years, Dr. Watson kept the tale of The Giant Rat of Sumatra a secret. However, before he died, he arranged that the strange story of the giant rat should be held in the vaults of a London bank until all the protagonists were dead...

ISBN: 9781848568600

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES

OF
S
HERLOCK
H
OLMES

Daniel D. Victor

Sherlock Holmes’s desire for a peaceful life in the Sussex countryside is dashed when true-life muckraker and author David Graham Phillips is assassinated. The pleas of his sister draw Holmes and Watson to the far side of the Atlantic as they embark on one of their most challenging cases.

ISBN: 9781848566767

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES

OF
S
HERLOCK
H
OLMES

Fred Saberhagen

When two psychics offer Ambrose Altamont the opportunity to contact his deceased daughter, Holmes is hired to expose their hoax. The result leaves one of the fraudulent spiritualists dead and Holmes missing. Watson has no choice but to summon the only one who might be able to help — Holmes’s vampire cousin, Prince Dracula.

ISBN: 9781848566774