Abberline: The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper (5 page)

2

Early Life – Undercover Work
and Marriage

T 
wenty years is not exactly a long time in the career of a policeman; some would argue that it is incredibly short for someone such as Abberline, who became a prominent name in two of England’s most famous criminal cases. Those who study British criminal history will undoubtedly know of the Cleveland Street scandal, but one doesn’t need to be a historian to know of his other famous case; in fact, there cannot be hardly a person alive in the world who hasn’t heard of the Jack the Ripper murders. There have been hundreds of books and articles written about this case over the past 123 years (at the time of writing). There have also been films, television plays and documentaries, nearly all of which feature the character of Inspector Abberline.

So where and how did it all start? Frederick George Abberline was born on 8 January 1843 in Blandford, a pretty little village on the River Stour, in Dorset. His father, Edward Abberline, was a saddlemaker and minor local government official, who unfortunately died in 1859, leaving Frederick’s mother, Hannah, to raise Frederick and his three slightly older siblings, Emily, Harriet and Edward.

Frederick George Abberline was just 16 when he took up work as an apprentice clockmaker, in order to help support his mother. He had to get up at 5 a.m. every day and walk nearly 3 miles to the clockmaker’s shop. Walking home by the same route every evening meant that he sometimes didn’t get home until almost 10 p.m. He worked at the shop for four years, with the intention of opening a clock shop of his own one day. However, the apprenticeship wage was so poor that by the time he had payed his mother for food, he hardly had anything left for personal items, let alone saving to open his own shop.

Having little or no money left, Abberline didn’t get to attend dances or meet girls, like other boys of his age did. Instead he spent most evenings, when he wasn’t too tired, reading ‘Penny Dreadfuls’, which a neighbour would supply him with. It was probably these magazines that gave Abberline his first insight into the world of police work and detection, which he obviously took to with great relish. By 1863, aged 20, he decided to leave home, move to London, and join the Metropolitan Police. With a meagre £2 in his pocket, he found himself at the Metropolitan Police Recruiting Office at Scotland Yard, where after a short test he was accepted immediately, as constable number 43519. He was appointed to N Division, Islington, and given a uniform and living accommodation above the station.

Investigating crime, however, did not seem to be a part of Abberline’s duties. ‘Just make yourself visible on the streets,’ he was told by his sergeant. Crime figures at that time were shown to be falling in the Metropolitan area, but, as Abberline soon discovered, this was due to statistics being manipulated to show favourable figures for the police force.

During his second week on the force, Abberline was sent out with another officer to investigate an alleged theft of several items of jewellery from a house near Upper Street, Islington. There was no doubt in Abberline’s mind that this was a straight forward case of burglary, as a back door had been forced open from the outside and the thieves had left two sets of muddy footprints coming into the house from the backyard. Abberline couldn’t believe his eyes, however, when he later saw his fellow officer’s report on the case, which made no mention of a burglary, but instead noted that they had been called to a disturbance at the house. The stolen jewellery was listed as lost property. In other words, no crime had been reported.

Abberline soon discovered that this wasn’t just an isolated incident: the more reports he saw, the more cover-ups of crimes he discovered. He also found that local residents had such little faith in or respect for the police that a large percentage of them did not bother to report offences such as theft or pickpocketing anyway.

How could he, as an aspiring police officer, account for and deal with crimes that were either swept under the carpet or never reported? His superiors turned a blind eye to his observations and requests; as far as they were concerned, crime statistics were looking very positive. Abberline didn’t want just to patrol the streets at the regulation 2½mph, which he was assured by his superiors would deter offenders; he wanted to be a part of it by mixing with the locals and becoming accepted by them.

At this time, detective policing, especially bythose working in plain clothes, was seen as symptomatic of an intrusive system. Continental police forces might have worked like that, especially the French with their undercover spies and surveillance, but not us, not the British! For the time being then, Abberline’s plans and ambitions had to be put on hold.

About this period in time, a relatively new crime became prevalent on the streets of London. Today we know it as ‘mugging’, but during the mid–1800s it became known as ‘garrotting’, for the simple reason that the would be muggers/thieves would sneak up on their victim from behind and throttle them, either with a scarf or piece of rope, or with just their hands and arms, and then rob them of their valuables. So prevalent did this form of robbery become that shops started selling anti-garrotting collars which were advertised as ‘Patent Antigarotte Collar, which enables Gentlemen to walk the streets of London in perfect safety at all hours of the day or night’. The collar consisted of a leather strap worn around the neck, with metal spikes sticking out of it to deter would be garrotters.

While the police insisted that the crime rate was in decline, the general public were being whipped up by the press into a state of panic regarding this relatively new phenomenon. Members of the public were even expressing their views and experiences by writing to the newspapers, as this letter, which was published in
The Times
, shows:

Sir, I trust you will kindly afford me your valuable assistance towards placing that portion of the public residing in the suburban districts of London on their guard, and also enable me to call the attention of the Commissioners of Police to the fact, that highway robbery, with violence to the person, is in this year 1851, likely to be as common, and, in consequence of the mode of effecting it more easy and free from detection that it ever has been within the present century.

On Saturday, the 1st inst., when returning home at night, and as usual walking quick, I was, without any warning, suddenly seized from behind by some one, who, placing the bend of his arm to my throat, and then clasping his right wrist with his left-hand, thereby forming a powerful lever, succeeded in effectually strangling me for a time, and rendering me incapable of moving or even calling for assistance, although there was plenty at hand, whilst a second man easily rifled me of all he could find. I was then violently thrown on the ground, or rather I found myself lying there when I came to my senses. Two passengers, one a neighbour, raised me up, when we were immediately joined by a policeman, and by two more in less than a minute; but as I could not express myself coherently at first, the men had plenty of time to escape, and pursuit was impossible.

I believe the approach of these persons disturbed the men, for they did not get all I had about me, and I escaped the finishing rap on the head usual in these cases. I could give no description of the thieves, as I saw neither distinctly. Now, this robbery was committed on one of the most frequented highways out of London, viz., Hampstead-road, within a few yards of Haverstock turnpike, and within three miles of Temple-bar, in sight of two other passengers, the gatekeepers, and within hearing and almost within sight of three policemen. But the worst is that I have been obliged to call in medical assistance, and am still under medical treatment, for this violence brought on a return of an old complaint with tendency to an effusion of blood on the brain, besides giving a great shock to the entire nervous system; and I am convinced that an application of this human garrotte to an elderly person, or any one in a bad state of health, might very easily occasion death.

There are many men in this very district, and others who occasionally visit their friends here, who are in the habit of walking home after dark, hitherto without a thought of danger. In a case like this carrying firearms or a life-preserver, &c., is useless, for the attack and strangulation are too sudden.

Therefore, I think, Sir, it is not too much to ask whether the police authorities ought not to render us more security for life and property in what may now be fairly termed part of London itself; for since this most cowardly and atrocious system of Thuggee has prevailed, we have no more protection, if so much, than our forefathers had on Hounslow-heath a hundred years ago

In conclusion, I wish to say that the present police force apparently keep as good watch as they can over this neighbourhood.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Middle Temple, Feb. 11. JAMES BROOKSBANK

It wasn’t until an MP was robbed by garrotters, on his way home from a late-night sitting of parliament, that the police were forced to take action. Parliament had responded with such indignation that one of their members had been attacked in the street, in full view of the public at large, that they quickly brought in legislation providing that such offenders were to be flogged, as well as imprisoned. The press picked up on the story, and needless to say, the police were ordered, in no uncertain terms, to crack down on all street crime.

This new initiative was exactly what Abberline had been waiting for: no more plodding the streets at 2½ mph just to make himself seen; this was his chance to get out there, mix with the locals and become accepted by them. His biggest problem, however, was his uniform; no ordinary PC was allowed to carry out his police duties unless he was wearing a uniform or had special dispensation to work in plain clothes. Abberline had tried this route on a number of occasions, but had been turned down every time; he had also tried befriending the locals while still wearing his uniform, but apart from the odd old lady here and there, he had no luck whatsoever in gaining their confidence.

Most offenders, however, were young males not too dissimilar in age to Abberline himself, and most offences committed were petty thefts; but there also lurked another type of criminal, known in police parlance as ‘the dangerous classes’, and they were said to lurk in the slums waiting for the opportunity for disorder and plunder.

Like all police officers, Abberline did have the occasional day’s leave from his duties. It was during these periods that he would go out onto the streets and into the pubs, in his ordinary clothes, and make ‘friends’ with the locals. He was breaking no police rules in doing this, as the streets and pubs were not off limits to police officers, and the way he saw it, if he could gain a little useful information at the same time, then so be it. It is often said that drink loosens a man’s tongue, and this metaphor certainly worked for Abberline. With the inside knowledge he was starting to gain, he soon started solving more crimes and making more arrests than any other officer in his station.

His superiors, however, were not too happy with his lack of record in arresting women, in comparison with the number of males he arrested. There were plenty of women committing crimes in his area, so why, they asked, was Abberline seemingly ignoring them? As far as Abberline was concerned, the most common offences committed by women during this time were linked to prostitution, with the occasional petty theft or being drunk and disorderly – not exactly crimes of the first magnitude!

Abberline also seemed to find women in general not as easy to get on with as men. There was no hint of homosexuality in his behaviour, but probably more of an inbred feeling of shyness with women. Bear in mind, he was in his early twenties at this time, and as far as we know, had never had any sort of close relationship with a woman, other than in his family.

There seemed to be a general perception at this time that women should be seen as the upholders of true womanhood, and that if a woman was seen to transgress such a viewpoint by committing a crime, not only should she be treated harshly, but she should be treated more harshly than men. This, of course, did not seem to fit in with Abberline’s point of view, hence his almost complete abstention in the arrest of females.

By the time Abberline had been at N Division, Islington, for just two years, his superiors had no option other than to offer him promotion to sergeant. He had, after all, made more arrests and solved more crimes than any other PC at his station. It was also possible that his superiors thought a change in environment might be beneficial, not just to Abberline, but to them too. Abberline took up his new post as sergeant in November 1865 and moved to Y Division, Highgate.

The distance between his old beat in Islington and his new beat in Highgate was approximately 3 miles, which meant that many of his old contacts were still relatively close to hand. This, of course, was good news for Abberline, and also for his new superiors, who were more than pleased with the way in which he was fitting in and working closely with his new colleagues.

Highgate at this time had a considerable number of Irish immigrants living within its boundaries, as did Islington to a somewhat lesser extent, so Abberline was quite au fait with the Irish accent and customs. It was just before he moved to Highgate that British agents had uncovered a Fenian plot to increase their activities in Great Britain, and especially London. The Fenians were nineteenth-century Irish Nationalists, organised in 1858 as the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The name ‘Fenian’ derives from the Old Irish word ‘
Fianna
’, who were legendary Irish warriors. Over the years ‘Fenian’ became an Irish derivative for soldier.