A Look Back: Alien Abduction and Murder

NOTE: I was short on time today, so I decided to post the following information again. This case, for the most part, has been suppressed from general knowledge. I have posted the NUFORC report and summary as well as a few local media reports. There is a very strong possibility of conspiracy.

Occurred : 8/4/2002 17:30 (Entered as : 8/2/2002 5:30 Pm)
Reported: 8/29/2002 2:56:17 PM 14:56
Posted: 2/14/2006
Location: Northumberland, PA
Shape: Disk
Duration:20 min.
((NUFORC Note: We have contacted a local newspaper in Northumberland County, and to the police officer who served as investigator of the case. The newspaper confirms that the incident occurred, although the police officer stated that the decendant's remains had been returned to the family, contrary to the claims made by some regarding this case. The official report will be released in late September, according to the police officer, and we will attempt to obtain a copy of it. PD))

I will be as brief as possible, A man named Todd Sees, was abducted and murdered by aliens on Montour Ridge ,in Northumberland County, near the town of Northumberland, Pa. This is a big sloppy coverup if there ever was one.

Todd Sees the victim, lived at the foot of Montour Ridge,a mountain stretching over 20 miles east. Todd Sees went up the mountain to look for preseason deer. He told his wife that he would be home by noon. He rode his 4 wheeler up the powerline behind his home at a little after 5:00 in the morning.

Noon came and no Todd, his wife and children became concerned,at 2:00 a search party was organized ,local police, state police , paramedics ,and 200 volunteers helped search for Todd Sees. The 4 wheeler was found on the top of the mountain near a powerline,tracking dogs could find nothing to go on around the 4 wheeler. The search went on for 2 days over 6 miles of mountain were covered ,from top to bottom. Todd vanished with out a trace,the 4 wheeler was keep in mind ,2 miles from his home at the foot of the mountain. A pond a few hundred yards from the house was even searched by skin divers just so they overlooked nothing . Dogs were over the whole area constantly no results, no trace, then in the evening of the 2nd day something white was spotted in a large brushy area 25 feet from the pond,police and rescue workers spent 20 minutes cutting and hacking, brush and small trees so they could reach what looked like a body. It was Todd Sees, he was wearing his underwear, he was emaciated, not, bloated, he was white, he had an expression of horror on his face. When he went up the mountain he was fully dressed, boots, camo vest, hat, socks and pants.

The F.B.I. showed up with in 30 minutes, they took charge, they would not let the wife look at her dead husband, no matter how much she tried. The F.B.I. asked questions around the area, neighbors, mostly farmers, 3 farmers on one farm said they saw a large round bright object, just above the powerlines, at the time of the disappearance, it was silent, it did not move fora! bout 10 to 15 minutes. It suddenly went up and suddenly stopped,a light shined down and something was pulled up into the light. It then went straight up,hesitated again then went west over the Susquehanna River and out of sight.

A police friend of mine said after 2 autopsies nothing was found a toxicology test revealed nothing,no visible cuts or bruises any where except from the brush.

Now the body is at Allentown, from there it is going to Fort Indiantown Gap,Pa.

The wife was told she can not have the body for 6 to 8 weeks. A boot was found a mile from the 4 wheeler a few days ago at the top of a tree, it was his. I notice military copters have been scouring the mountain ever since at least once a day.
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PRELIMINARY STATEMENT REGARDING THE DEATH OF MR. TODD SEES, OF NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY , PENNSYLVANIA , ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2002.

I. PREFACE

Because this report addresses the tragic and untimely death on August 4th, 2002 , of a young man, Mr. Todd Sees, of Northumberland County , Pennsylvania , we preface by extending our sincere condolences to the family members who survive him. It has never been our intention to cause family members of the late Mr. Sees' any distress over this matter, although we understand that the information originating from our website, because of its nature, may have been upsetting to them.

Because of the pain that information may have caused them, we apologize. It was never our intention to cause pain to the family, anymore that it is the intention of a newspaper to cause pain in the course of reporting on such a tragic, and unusual, event. From the beginning of our investigation into Mr. Sees' death, our only objective has been to reveal the truth, and to attempt to provide answers to the many still unanswered questions that it has given rise to.

II. BACKGROUND/CHRONOLOGY

On Wednesday, August 28, 2002 , the National UFO Reporting Center ("NUFORC") received a brief, one-paragraph, report, criticizing our Center for not having covered an alleged "alien abduction," which, the source asserted, had occurred in Lewisburg , Pennsylvania . Even though the report did not appear to be either serious, or carefully prepared, we responded, nevertheless, requesting more information from the person who had submitted it.

The individual, who provided no telephone number, responded via e-mail, describing the death of Mr. Todd Sees, and further asserting that circumstances surrounding the death had been very unusual. The source asserted that the death itself was mysterious and unexplained; that certain facts surrounding the follow-up investigation were unusual; that federal authorities had been called into the investigation; that the family members of the decedent were not allowed to witness the victim's remains; and several other facts that seemed noteworthy to us. The individual went on to assert that the death had been related to UFO, and/or alien, activity. Despite repeated attempts by NUFORC to obtain more information about the individual, we have not succeeded in talking directly with the person.

NUFORC decided to follow up on the unsubstantiated report, and, on August 30th, we telephoned The Daily Item newspaper in Northumberland County , PA , in attempt to establish whether the initial report had any basis in fact. The staff member we spoke with there confirmed that such an incident had, in fact, occurred, and that the newspaper had published several articles about the death, and about the subsequent investigation. (Please see two of the articles at the end of this report.)) The staff member apprised NUFORC that the investigation had been conducted by the Point Township police department, and she directed us to those offices for more detailed information about the continuing investigation.

On that same date, we telephoned the Point Township police department and spoke with an officer, who identified himself as "Sgt. Cottner" (sp?), and who stated that he had been the investigating officer on the case. He added that the incident had been categorized by the police as an "unexplained death," but he made it clear that he could not, and would not, discuss the case. He stated that the police report would be available in "late September," and he suggested that we should wait for the official report to be released.

That same day, NUFORC telephoned the office of Mr. James Kelley, County Coroner for Northumberland County , hoping to obtain more information about the cause of the victim's death. In a conversation several days later, Mr. Kelley apprised us that the death had occurred, that he had performed the autopsy on the victim, that no cause of death had been established, and that photographs had been taken of the victim's remains during autopsy. He added that autopsy photographs are "never released." Mr. Kelley, like Sgt. Cottner, made it clear that he could not discuss the case in any detail.

Based on the information we had obtained by September 5th from these official sources, NUFORC decided to release the report originally submitted to our Center, even though we had not yet succeeded in obtaining the newspaper articles, or any other detailed information, about the death and subsequent investigation. At that the time of the posting on September 8th, we had not anticipated the effect that the release would have in the public forum.

The case was commented on during a radio appearance on September 10th by Peter Davenport, NUFORC Director, on the Jeff Rense Radio Program, and the report that NUFORC had released was posted to the website.

The next day, a relative of Mr. Sees telephoned NUFORC, apprising our offices that the family had been quite upset by some of the information contained in the original report, and that they had had no inkling that there might be such grossly unusual circumstances, as asserted in those reports, surrounding his death. At that time, we extended our apology to the family for any distress our actions might have caused them. In addition, we explained to the family member that we had spoken with the local authorities and with the newspaper, and that our information was based on our findings of fact. The family member, after she had heard our explanation of the actions we had taken in attempt to gain access to more, factual information from the authorities, stated that she understood our position in the matter.

During the last two weeks of September, NUFORC has made numerous attempts to obtain more information, but unsuccessfully, to date. During a brief conversation with Chief Gary Steffen, Chief of Police for the Point Township police department, he apprised NUFORC that an investigation into the "unexplained death" was underway, and that he could not comment further. However, he did aver that he was familiar with the information on the NUFORC website, and that he was "following developments" there. Also, he confirmed that no family member had been summoned to identify Mr. Sees' remains, but added that it was not necessary to do so, since he, the Chief, had been personally acquainted with the victim, and he was able to identify the remains at the site where the body was found by volunteer searchers.

Chief Steffen has failed to return our last four messages to his office, requesting a return telephone call. In a brief follow-up conversation with Sgt. Cottner, the latter stated that he could not reveal any more facts about the case, and that the Chief probably would not return our calls. He refused to respond to our question as to whether federal law enforcement officers had been involved in the follow-up investigation of the case.

Finally, we have encouraged a number of members of the press, both local and national, to investigate the incident, hoping that they might be more successful in obtaining from authorities information that NUFORC was not able to obtain.

In addition, as part of our investigation, we continue in our attempt to locate and interview members of the approximately 200-member search party that was involved in the 2-day search for Mr. Sees' body. Some of the questions we are attempting to resolve appear in the next section of this preliminary report.

III. UNRESOLVED ISSUES

We list below a few of the questions surrounding the death of Mr. Sees that we have attempted to answer, but which we feel remain unresolved, as of the date of this summary:

1. If the death of Mr. Sees is being investigated as an "unexplained death," and not a homicide, why are the local authorities involved in the investigation refusing to comment on the case? If the death, in fact, was the result of a snake bite, a bee sting, a diabetic coma, or exposure, all of which have been proposed as the cause of death, why are the police, the coroner, and the district attorney all refusing to comment on the case?

2. If the victim's remains were so badly decayed or disfigured that the family could not have an open casket funeral ceremony, why was no family member, or representative of the family, e.g. a family physician, summoned to establish positive identification of the body? Also, under what authority did officials act in their apparently informing the family of the decedent that the casket containing his remains should not be opened before its burial? In addition, how could a body become so badly decayed in 39 hours, or less, of exposure that it was unfit for viewing by the family, or at a funeral?

3. If, indeed, unconfirmed reports that special agents from the FBI, or from another federal law-enforcement agency, were summoned to the site where the victim's remains were found, why were they summoned, and by whom? What interest would federal authorities have in an allegedly accidental, or "unexplained," death, if there were not extenuating circumstances? Moreover, why would members of the Point Township police department refuse to comment on whether federal authorities had been involved in the investigation?

4. If tracking dogs were used during the search for Mr. Sees, it seems unusual to us that they would not be able to immediately track the path that the victim presumably took, as he walked, perhaps barefoot, from his vehicle to the location where his remains ultimately were found by searchers. Tracking dogs are very adept at following a scent, and it seems unusual that they could not locate remains that reportedly were badly decayed at the time the body was discovered.

In addition to those questions outlined above, we feel there are many specific questions surrounding the death of Mr. Sees, which have yet to be resolved by any follow-up investigation. For example, the apparent absence of any apparent cause of death seems unusual, given that the decedent was a seemingly quite healthy and fit young man. In addition, it is unclear to us why an experienced outdoorsman, as Mr. Sees apparently was, would abandon his vehicle, shed his outer garments, doff his boots, and walk an estimated two miles toward his home, leaving his vehicle, still in good working condition, on top of the nearby mountain. There apparently are many other aspects surrounding the death, which seem unusual, and which we do not address here.

IV. SUMMARY

As of the date of this writing (September 30, 2002), we have no idea what caused the death of Mr. Sees, and we certainly have no evidence, aside from unsubstantiated assertions, several of them from anonymous sources, that there was anything "unworldly" associated with his tragic demise. However, in light of the many recent reports from South America that have come to our attention over recent months of allegedly strange deaths, and possible human mutilations, we feel that further investigation into this case is justified.

We will pursue the case, to the best of our ability, and will attempt to bring some satisfactory resolution to this apparent mystery. Most of all, we hope to be able to obtain copies of the official reports pertaining to the death, if and when they are released, and we will report them here in a final report.

We close by again expressing our condolences to the family of Mr. Sees over his death, and by apologizing if our paricipation in this matter has caused them over the tragic loss of their loved one.

Report prepared by: Peter B. Davenport, Director, NUFORC (September 30, 2002)
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NORTHUMBERLAND -- A Northumberland man whose body was found in the woods here in August died because of cocaine, police said in a release Friday.

While Northumberland County Coroner James Kelley would not qualify the death as an overdose, the press release listed Todd Sees' cause of death as "cocaine toxicity."

Police said the manner of death is accidental.

Kelley said he could not release the amount of cocaine in Sees' blood because his death was still under investigation.

Point Township police could not be contacted Friday for further comment about what they were investigating.

The family of Sees, 39, reported him missing on Aug. 4. Searchers found his body in the evening of the next day.

In the past month, while police were waiting for the results of toxicology tests, a group of UFO Web sites published anonymous reports that a UFO may have been involved in the death. Officials called the reports "ridiculous."

Kelley, along with Point Township Police Chief Gary Steffen and Sgt. Seth Cotner, met with the Sees family Thursday night to inform them of the toxicology results, police said.
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NORTHUMBERLAND, Pa. -- The unexplained death of a man near here has become fodder for UFO enthusiasts, who have made it into a tale of alien attack and spread it around the world via the Internet.

The bizarre interest in the death of Todd Sees has aggravated investigators trying to determine the cause of his death, who also worry the tales will deepen the anguish the Sees family is feeling.

Sees, 39, a Little League coach and father of two, was found dead in the woods near here in August.

The anonymous Internet postings blame his death on a UFO.

Officials dismiss the stories as ridiculous. But they don't yet know how or why he died, and they have no way of preventing story-tellers from filling that vacuum with speculation.

Searchers found the body of Sees about 150 yards from his Northumberland home along Route 147 in a heavily wooded area Aug. 5.

He had taken out his all-terrain vehicle the day before, planning to track deer. After a 30-hour search by more than 250 people, his family found his body.

An autopsy the next day failed to establish a cause of death, said Northumberland County Coroner James Kelley.

A toxicology report, which could detect the presence of drugs, poisons or other substances at the microscopic level, is expected by mid-October, he said.

But even before August was over, some Web sites began featuring anonymous tales that Sees had died in an encounter with extraterrestrials.

Here's what they say:

A farmer who did not give his name said he saw a round disk over Montour Ridge. It moved quickly, stopped and shot a light to the ground. The farmer then saw a man being pulled up the light head first into the bottom of the craft.

Seconds later, the disk flew away.

When searchers found the man's body, some of these anonymous reports say, it was partially clothed and had a look of horror on its face.

Some claim federal agents soon showed up to take over the investigation and didn't let the family see Sees' emaciated body.

'Ridiculous'

"They're so ridiculous and far-fetched," said the investigating officer, Sgt. Seth Cotner of the Point Township Police.

Cotner said he's seen a number of the Internet stories, and his department has taken "several" calls from UFO organizations.

None of the reports he has read was accurate, Cotner said. No police report on Sees' death has yet been issued.

Cotner said police "all certainly hope" the toxicology report will clear up the mystery of Sees' death.

There are no federal agencies involved in the investigation, he added.

Linda Vizi, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said she had not heard of the case. "But I know that Congress does not mandate us to investigate UFOs," Vizi said.

'Very traumatic'

Kelley, the coroner, said he saw the body, and the Internet reports he had read were inaccurate.

He said he couldn't go into the details, since the case is still under investigation.

The family had been asked not to open the casket when they received Sees' remains, he said.

"Letting them see it would have been very traumatic for them," Kelley said.

Todd Sees' family declined comment through relative Traci Sees.

The naked eye examination of the body during the autopsy turned up no evidence of trauma, heart attack or any other obvious cause of death, Kelley said.

"We're still following every possible avenue," he said, including the possibility of a snakebite or bee sting. But there was no visible sign of either of those, he said.

UFO groups have contacted Kelley looking for information. But since the investigation is still under way, he said he cannot get into details.

"Everyone's entitled to their own beliefs, I guess," Kelley said about the groups. "I just hope that nothing the family sees adds to what they're already going through."

'I want the facts out'

To Peter Davenport, it's not about belief, it's about facts. Davenport is director of the National UFO Reporting Center, the Web site on which the first Sees reports appeared.

"I want the facts out," Davenport said.

He was not comfortable saying there was UFO involvement in Todd Sees' death. More facts must be gathered, he said.

Davenport said he became interested in the case when he received the first report of a UFO sighting Aug. 18, before he knew Sees had died.

He said in that anonymous report someone stated that a farmer and three fishermen had seen a flying disk.

It wasn't until the end of the month, when another person said they had seen a person drawn up into the disk, that Davenport said he got interested.

He said he spoke briefly with Kelley and Point Township police, but they stopped returning his calls.

Davenport's site, at www.nuforc.org/index.html, posts five to 25 reports of UFO sightings per day, he said.

Those that make it to the site are only those that "warrant attention," he said.

Davenport said he screens out those that are obvious hoaxes.

Sources:
www.nuforc.org/
www.rense.com/
www.pressenterpriseonline.com/
www.unknowncountry.com/

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HARVESTING THE HUMAN COMMODITY

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES AND VIDEO

Click for video


Click for video
Presented by Butch Witkowski who is a MUFON volunteer investigator and 27 year veteran police detective at the annual Pennsylvania Local MUFON conference.


For many years, there have been cases where the 'human mutilation' phenomenon has been suspected as a cause or effect to human deaths though, most cases have been officially ruled accidental.

A 1994 abduction case represented one of the most disturbing deaths of a human being ever reported. The victim was subjected to brutal mutilation, though the reality is that what happened to him is far more disturbing than brutality. This was systematic mutilation. There was specific surgical skill and human anatomy knowledge used as the perpetrators removed the left eye, the left ear, the lips, the tongue, and the jaw bone. As well, two perfectly round holes were incised into the chest and the entire rectal trait was removed.

The body was found near the Guarapiranga reservoir, located south of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A actual copy of the autopsy report can be found here.



From the autopsy report: "We observed the removal of the right and left orbital areas, emptying of the mouth cavity, pharynx, oropharynx, neck, right and left armpit area, abdomen, pelvic cavity, right and left groin area."

"The axillary regions on both sides showed soft spots where organs had been removed. Incisions were made on the face, internal thorax, abdomen, legs, arms, and chest. Shoulders and arms have perforations of 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter where tissue and muscles were extracted. The edges of the perforations were uniform and so was their size. The chest had shrunk due to the removal of internal organs."

"Cause of death...acute haemorhage in multiple traumatisms. There is a component of causa mortis by vagus stimulation" (implying cardio-respiratory arrest caused by extreme pain). "The victim shows injuries with vital reaction characteristics, i.e., there is the component "torture". The suggested modus operandi is: incisions in soft parts and natural orifices using sucking devices".

We are to assume that the victim was alive during these procedures and most likely succumbed to blood loss and extreme pain. Some may ask if humans could have performed this horror...and I would have to say 'yes'. But the circumstances make that theory less than likely since it appears no restraints or weapons were involved and the residents of this area would not have the expertise to accomplish this feat.

Another incident was that of Sgt. Jonathan Lovette, who worked at the White Sands Missile Range. While on a two-man mission to collect debris from outside of the base perimeter, something unusual occurred. Lovette’s companion returned in terror to the base and claimed he had seen Lovette whisked into a flying disk by some kind of tentacle-like appendage which descended from the vehicle. Days later, Lovette’s body was found, mutilated almost beyond recognition. As in many cattle mutilations, the genitals, rectum and eyes had been cored out and the body was drained of blood. Lovette’s companion was initially charged with murder but the charges were later dropped.

In Great Britain there was the case of Zygmunt Adamski. An immigrant from Poland who had come to Great Britain during the war and settled there afterwards. The 57 year-old Mr. Adamski disappeared one night while walking to a local shop to buy some potatoes. His body was found four days later at the top of coal pit, approximately 30 miles away. There were strange burn marks on his body, and it looked as if some kind of ointment had been used to treat them.

Discussions with local health experts were unable to identify this unknown ointment. Local officials had seen strange lights in the sky on the night Adamski’s body was found. The coroner pronounced the death as baffling and said that it's mysterious nature lent credence to the "UFO theory."

These incidents are just a small sample of this phenomenon. If these mutilations were carried out by an intelligent alien species then the question must be asked...what are their real intentions? People go missing daily. Hundreds of thousands have never been found...without a trace. Are we considered a commodity to alien species?

Engineer and geologist Phil Schneider, who died in the 1990's due to a suspicious death claimed that world military and political powers have been in, "constant conflict with the outer space alien" both underground and on the surface. These aliens he stated, included the Small Greys, the Large Greys, and the Reptilians.

Read for another reference go to UFO Media Matters: UFOs And Human Mutilations

Sources:
www.alienvideo.net
www.abovetopsecret.com
www.theparacast.com
www.ufoencounters.co.uk
www.crowdedskies.com
www.thenephilimfiles.com

London's Phantom Rippers and Snippers

Let go beyond 'Jack the Ripper'. During the 1680s, a supernatural predator stalked London. They called him 'Whipping Tom', and he preyed upon women around Chancery Lane, Fetter Lane, Strand, Holborn and Fleet Street. Although Whipping Tom was an obscure lunatic, his crimes inspired a booklet that emerged in 1681, entitled Whipping Tom Brought to Light and Exposed to View.

Whipping Tom was said to prowl the streets after dusk and accost women, hitch their dresses up and spank them furiously, at times with a metal rod, shouting “Spanko!”.

Those who believed in him felt he was not of this Earth, who seemed to bound away at great speed and height after slashing, exposing and mocking his hapless female victims.

Between 1788 and 1790, a phantom aggressor prowled the capital. His repertoire of sadism included: stabbing the faces of women through a fake nosegay, slashing at clothing and bounding away into the shadows, and stalking females and hurling obscenities. Even more strangely he had attached blades to his knees and stabbed at women’s buttocks, leaving more than fifty victims with shredded clothing and sliced flesh.

Local panic hit the streets, while some men wore badges in order to let terrified women know that they were not the dreaded spectre, and were approachable. Despite the effort descriptions of the maniac were all too inconsistent, despite the many victims.

A 23-year old Rhynwick Williams was accused of following an Anne Porter. Despite having an alibi for other attacks, Williams was charged by the magistrates for the defacement of clothing, which, during the time, was given a harsher penalty than attempted murder. Though there was shoddy evidence and a questionable trial it still could not prevent a six-year jail term.

The infamous Spring Heeled Jack was another tormentor and slasher of females. Fast-forward almost thirty-years and gasp at the horror of the Phantom Skirt-Slasher Of Piccadilly, who for a terrifying reign of six-months prowled the London underground like some blade-wielding, elusive ghoul. Like some teasing menace, the phantom frequently haunted the escalators, cutting loose the fabric from women’s skirts to expose, unknown to the poor victims, their under garments, revealing their buttocks. The phantom-cutter, who would in 1977 become known as 'Jack The Snipper', would then flee into the depths of the underground, awaiting his next victim.

Although the skirt-ripper never wounded any of his victims, his perverted attacks bizarrely echoed those of Spring-Heeled Jack, as he reveled in exposing his victims underwear and genital area, and even the more vicious London Monster before him. In the summer of 1977 the spectre was finally caught, unlike many of his sadistic relatives, and turned out to be a twenty-three year old school career officer Graham Carter, who’d even kept a diary of his weird exploits.

On Halloween 1998, a pet cat with a severed head was found in a garden in Wimbledon. The horrifying discovery led some to believe that a satanic cult were on the prowl at night, whilst others claimed that the ‘M25 Monster’, a local big cat, possibly a lynx, had devoured the domestic feline.

At Stepney and New Barnet around the same time, other cats were found, but their heads remained absent, and on November 11th a psychologist was called in by police to create a profile of what the press had dubbed ‘the cat-ripper’. The Independent reported that the “… cat ripper may attack humans next”, causing a reasonable stir in the press and the local community. Ten rabbits were next on the hit list, but further south at Twickenham, an Eileen Tattershall lost her cat in grisly fashion.

The London cat-rippings of 1998 continued into 1999. An inspector analyzing the decapitations claimed that foxes, badgers and dogs had also been the cause, although there is no evidence of any animal native to England that kills in such a fashion.

The satanic connection came to the fore on several occasions, despite such rumored activity often being nothing more than local urban myth. Forensic psychologist Susan Hope-Burland commented, “...this scale of ritualized cruelty is rare. It’s very reminiscent of the way serial killers behave.”

After a lull in activity, the summer of 2001 brought more rippings, with half a Muntjac deer being discovered in Wycombe, it's wounds having all the traits of a 'big cat'.

Similar attacks would would occur for the next five years later, proof that the ‘cat-ripper’ was a sum of many parts...but definitely real nonetheless.

Sources:
londonist.com
www.georgianlondon.com
www.springheeled-jack.com
www.independent.co.uk
Bondeson, Jan - 'The London Monster: A Sanguinary Tale' - 2001
www.telegraph.co.uk

OK....Who Was 'Jack the Ripper' Really?

...this has been the big question on the minds of criminal investigators since 1888. 'Jack the Ripper' was the name the killer preferred after he signed his name to a letter to police...but he was also referred to a 'The Whitechapel Murderer' and 'Leather Apron'. At present count, there are 31 potential suspects...but who was he, really? The following articles will give you an idea of how confusing the 'Jack the Ripper' case actually is:

thelocal - Jack the Ripper was probably a German merchant seaman named Carl Feigenbaum. That’s the theory proposed by English former murder squad detective Trevor Marriott.

They are history’s most notorious serial murders and among the world's most famous unsolved crimes.

Between August and November 1888, five prostitutes were killed and horribly mutilated in and around London’s crowded, impoverished Whitechapel area.

Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly had their throats slashed and – with the exception of Stride – their abdomens mutilated. Then the killings stopped abruptly. The murderer was never identified. And the Jack the Ripper phenomenon began.

In the 123 years since, countless suspects have been proposed – and rejected – from various poor Polish immigrants to Queen Victoria’s physician William Withey Gull and even Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale.

But according to English former homicide detective Trevor Marriott, Jack the Ripper was most likely a German merchant sailor from Karlsruhe named Carl Feigenbaum.

Marriott, author of "Jack the Ripper: The 21st Century Investigation" and "The Evil Within: The World’s Worst Serial Killers," aired his theory in Germany this week in a ZDF documentary co-produced by National Geographic.

Marriott says he has used modern policing methods to overturn many of the old assumptions about the Ripper murders and gathered evidence that points to Feigenbaum, who was eventually convicted and executed for murdering Juliana Hoffmann in New York in 1894.

“There is a case for suggesting he might have been the first trans-continental serial killer,” Marriott says.

In 2002, the retired Bedfordshire policeman – who’d had a long-running interest in the Ripper case – decided to sift through the evidence, see what could be discounted, and determine what facts remained.

"When I looked through it, I thought, 'There are lots of things here that are not right, that are not factually correct'," he says. "The Ripper mystery is based on many wild, speculative, uncorroborated theories.'"

The police at the time believed the Ripper was a local man – and subsequent theories have generally assumed that he was at least a Londoner. But Marriot takes a novel approach, alleging that the murderer might have been a sailor.

“There were two merchant docks close to Whitechapel, and Whitechapel had hundreds of prostitutes and we all know that where seamen are, there are prostitutes as well,” he says. “It’s an area that hadn’t been explored by the police at the time back in Victorian times, so it was a totally new lead really.”

Hundreds of vessels came in and out of London every day. It was a “mammoth task,” he says, but he went through thousands of shipping records and found that there was a vessel, the Reiher, that was docked on all the dates of the murders save one. On that date, another vessel from the same line was docked.

The plot thickens

Around the same time, Marriott learned that what he calls a “Ripper-like murder” – of a woman named Juliana Hoffmann – had taken place in New York in 1894, six years after the five women in Whitechapel. The man convicted for that murder was German Carl Feigenbaum, who was also using aliases including Anton Zahn and Carl Zahn.

“He was bang to rights on that murder. He was arrested leaving the scene of the crime and the police found a long-bladed knife outside which was obviously attributed to him. When they searched his property, they found a kind of sheath and sharpening stone which indicates he’d been carrying it around for some time.”

Marriott’s research revealed Feigenbaum had been a merchant seaman and had worked for the Norddeutsche Line, which owned the Reiher.

“There was a strong connection there ... Once I started to widen the net, I found there was a number of unsolved, Ripper-like murders in Germany between 1889 and 1894 in addition to others in and around Whitechapel - outside of the original five women who everybody believed were the only victims, and other Ripper-like murders in and around the New York area,” he says.

He went to the Bremen archives to check crew lists for the Norddeutsche vessels – and was frustrated to discover that the key records had gone missing.

“All the other records were there, but the crew lists for this vessel that relate to the three months of the Ripper murders in the UK were all missing.”

However, he did find records showing that Feigenbaum had been working for the Norddeutsche Line for “many, many years,” he says.

William Sanford Lawton, the New York lawyer who defended Feigenbaum in the Hoffmann murder, later said that while on death row, Feigenbaum admitted being a pathological killer and mutilator of women. Lawton made the connection with the Ripper, conducted some inquiries and was quoted in newspapers in 1896 saying he could put Feigenbaum in Whitechapel at the times of the five murders.

The unasked question

“Sadly, the press never asked the $64,000 question, ‘What were those inquiries?’” Marriott says.

One possibility is that Lawton found the Bremen maritime records for the Reiher and removed them, he says.

Marriott had an advantage over other Ripper sleuths in that he started with a genuinely open mind and approached the case like any modern murder inquiry. He eliminated suspects considered “prime” and broadened the inquiry to consider others who fit the facts, he says.

This even included eliminating at least one of the five murders assumed to be the Ripper, based on the characteristics of the crimes.

“One, the murder of Elizabeth Stride, was definitely not the work of the Ripper and there are major question marks surrounding the murder of Mary Kelly as well,” he said.

Of course the debate will go on. Marriott admits that no theory is watertight, but had the police considered the merchant seaman theory, they would have come to the same conclusion as Marriott and would have been in a better position to solve the crime. Modern police would, for instance, have established a similarity with the New York murders and sent somebody over to interview Feigenbaum before he was executed.

He also says he has found new documentary evidence that he is still examining, and hopes that publicity in Germany may encourage descendants of Feigenbaum’s to come forward with information.

“This has always had a worldwide following and it will continue to do so,” he says.

“There’s quite a lot to suggest Feigenbaum was involved in these murders. We can’t say 100 percent. But Feigenbaum is the prime suspect for these murders because there is more evidence that points to him than to any other suspect.”

NOTE: here's a good source on this suspect - Casebook: Jack the Ripper...Lon

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The Ripper Casebook: Open to the Public - 3/10/2008

'PC.97J. NEIL reports at 3.45.a[m] 31st inst, he found the dead body of a woman lying on her back with her clothes a little above her knees...' So begins a vivid account on lined notepaper, by a Superintendent J Keating, under the heading 'Metropolitan Police'. The ink seems as fresh as a morning newspaper. Yet it is dated 31 August, 1888.

This is one of the police reports filed just hours after Jack the Ripper claimed another victim in London's East End. It is one of numerous documents relating to the Victorian killer which, after more than a century in the archives, are to go on public display for the first time.

Handwritten accounts from the scenes of the crimes, detectives' case reports, coroners' inquiry records, witness statements, photographs and letters will form the centrepiece of a major exhibition, 'Jack the Ripper and the East End', at the Museum in Docklands, London. Visitors will not be spared graphic descriptions, such as 'her throat cut from ear to ear', in the retelling of the bloody and gruesome crimes.

'They are absolutely amazing,' said Julia Hoffbrand, curator of the exhibition. 'They were written on the day each woman was found, so as a step by step account you get a real sense of what happened. The documents bring home the fact that these are real people and real events. They are very moving.'

The files were first kept at Scotland Yard, then transferred to the National Archives in Kew, west London. But due to their fragile condition they could only be viewed on microfiche. 'It's a rare opportunity to see the actual documents in the original ink,' Hoffbrand said.

The police report of 31 August 1888 continues: Dr. Llewellyn, No.152 Whitechapel Ro[ad]... arrived quickly and pronounced life to be extinct, apparently but [a] few minutes, he directed her removed to the mortuary, stating he would make a further examination there, which was done on the ambulance. It has since been ascertained that the dress bears the marks of Lambeth Workhouse and deceased is supposed to have been an inmate of that house.'

Jack the Ripper is believed to have killed five prostitutes in or near Whitechapel in 10 weeks between August and November 1888. More than 170 names have been put forward as suspects including the Duke of Clarence, the artist Walter Sickert, who had a morbid obsession with the killings, Montague John Druitt, a barrister who took his own life just after the last murder, and Michael Ostrog, a Russian thief. Books, plays, films and musicals have mythologised the killer and every night tourists walk the same streets on a guided Jack the Ripper walk.

A letter purportedly from the Ripper to the police will also be on display. Dated 7 November 1888, the handwritten scrawl states: 'Dear Boss, I am writing you this while I am in bed with a sore throat but as soon as it is better I will set to work again on the 13th of this month and I think that my next Job will be to polish you off and as I am a member of the force I can soon settle accounts with you I will tear your liver out before you are dead and show it to you.' The letter, signed Jack the Ripper, has a crude drawing of a man, but remains one of many tantalising clues.

Among the documents are witness statements to coroners as well as contemporary press reports. At the inquest into the death of Catherine Eddowes, whose mutilated body was found in Mitre Square in Aldgate, her daughter Annie Phillips tells of her father's separation from her mother: 'He had no ill will to my knowledge against Deceased [Catherine Eddowes]. He left Deceased between 7 & 8 years ago entirely on account of her Drinking Habits.'

Like Eddowes, Mary Ann Nichols was found with her throat cut, in Buck's Row, Whitechapel. On her last evening alive, she is reported as having said: 'I'll soon get my "doss" money; see what a jolly bonnet I've got now.'

The exhibition, which opens on 15 May, will also feature maps and recordings from people who grew up in the slums of Whitechapel. Donald Rumbelow, a leading expert on the Ripper and co-author of Jack the Ripper: Scotland Yard Investigates, welcomed the exhibition. 'To see the documents out of the mounts will be quite something.' - Guardian

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Jack the Ripper May Have Killed Earlier - 8/7/2008

Jack the Ripper may have killed his first victim 25 years earlier than previously thought, a retired murder detective has claimed in a new book.

It is thought that Jack the Ripper killed and mutilated at least five prostitutes in the East End between August and November 1888.

But Trevor Marriott says he may have struck in 1863 and 1872.

Mr Marriott will be presenting his findings at the Docklands Museum which is hosting an exhibition on the killer.

Bodies unattended

The body of 28-year-old prostitute Emma Jackson was found in a brothel in St Giles, central London, in April 1863.

Mr Marriott also uncovered a second case he believes may have been committed by the Ripper.

Nine years after the Jackson murder, on Christmas Day 1872, Harriet Buswell was found with her throat slit at her lodgings in nearby Great Coram Street, after returning home the previous evening with a male guest.

Both cases remain unsolved.

In his book, The Evil Within, Mr Marriott claims that Jack the Ripper did not remove internal organs from two of his victims.

Traditionally, the serial killer is alleged to have removed organs from the bodies of his victims, including his second "official" victim Annie Chapman and Catherine Eddowes, his fourth, with a degree of medical precision.

But Mr Marriott said: "The organs were not removed by the killer at the crime scenes but by person or persons unknown for medical research at some point between the bodies being removed from the crime scenes and the post mortems taking place some 12 hours later.

"In both these cases the bodies had been left alone and unattended outside makeshift mortuaries." - BBC

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'Jack the Ripper' Indentified by Relative of Police Chief in Charge - 9/9/2008



The Jack the Ripper ‘industry’ got a boost on the 120th anniversary of his first acknowledged murder.

The great-grandson of the police chief in charge of the 1888 Whitechapel Murders arrived at the Ripper exhibition at the Museum in Docklands in East London—just before the 120th anniversary of the murder Mary Ann Nichols, a prostitute known as ‘Polly,’ believed by many to be his first victim.

He arrived with evidence from his Victorian ancestor revealing the Ripper’s true identity.

Jack the Ripper was never caught and his identity has remained a mystery for 120 years, feeding a whole ‘industry’ that has evolved worldwide with ‘Ripperologists’ keen to tell us who he really was.

One of the strong theories re-emerged this week was when Nevill Swanson, great-grandson of Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, turned up at the museum in Canary Wharf to see the exhibition before it closes in November.

“My great-grandfather knew who Jack the Ripper was,” Nevill told the East London Advertiser.

“He solved the case—but police couldn’t prosecute because the only witness who could identify the killer in a court of law wouldn’t testify.”

Donald Swanson scribbled who he knew to be Jack the Ripper in the margin of a copy of the memoirs of Sir Robert Anderson, Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner at the time of the Whitechapel Murders, in a chapter that just referred to the main suspect, but not by name.

“The suspect was Kosminsky,” Swanson pencilled in.

Aaron Kosminsky was a Polish immigrant living in Whitechapel who had been ‘identified’ by another Polish emigre, who then refused to take the witness stand.

“The police knew the case would collapse in court,” Swanson’s great-grandson added.

“He knew Kosminsky would get away with it—so he had him committed to an asylum instead.

“There were no more murders after that.”

It was Nevill’s father who uncovered the margin notes from the family possessions when Nevill’s great aunt—daughter of Chief Inspector Swanson—died in 1978. The book with the margin notes was left to Nevill’s father.

But the story got buried for several years after he sold the rights to the News of the World in a deal worth £1,000, Nevill remembers. For some reason, the notes were never published.

It wasn’t until 2001—some 113 years after the Whitechapel Murders—that the Kosminsky theory finally emerged.

“My father died in 2001 and the book with the margin notes came down to me,” Nevill added. “I knew the significance of the notes and have since loaned the book to Scotland Yard’s Black Museum.”

It is a strong and compelling theory—but would spoil the ‘Ripper Industry’ if even this was not challenged by rival theories over the Ripper’s identity.

The marginalia was probably added some time after 1910, and Anderson wouldn’t have known anything that Swanson hadn’t told him, a reader has informed us.

Martin Fido was the person who identified Kosminsky by going through asylum records.

This week, the Australians bowled their own theory to stump the Ripperology world with a claim that it wasn’t Kosminsky at all—but an immigrant named Walter Thomas Porriott who is now buried in a cemetery in Brisbane.

The Brisbane Times claims that Porriott, another suspect on Scotland Yard’s list, was the real Jack the Ripper.

Porriott was living at Limehouse in East London at the time, just two miles from Whitechapel. He was a convicted killer, a conman, bigamist and quack doctor known to hate prostitutes, the paper insists.

The murders ended as soon as Porriott emigrated in 1888. He died in Brisbane in 1952, some 62 years later.

But there’s more... Members of the renowned Whitechapel Society—dedicated to research into East London’s Victorian and Edwardian society and the 1888 Whitechapel Murders—hold a ‘21st century public investigation’ at the Museum in Docklands this Saturday (September 6), where the most comprehensive Ripper exhibition ever has been staged all summer.

They are promising “fresh photographic evidence” when the ‘investigation’ begins at 3pm.

Three authors are putting their theories to the public, Trevor Marriott, Bill Beadle (the society’s chairman) and Frogg Moody.

Ripperologists, of course, are a determined breed, determined to keep the fires of the ‘industry’ burning with different theories—and doubtless will continue to keep them burning for the next 120 years. - eastlondonadvertisor

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 Jack the Ripper: Hoax Invented to 'Win Newspaper War'? - 5/1/2009

Jack the Ripper was a forgery invented by journalists to link a series of unrelated murders and sell newspapers, according to a new book.

The unsolved murders of five prostitutes in London's East End in 1888 have spawned innumerable theories over the identity of the 'real' Jack the Ripper - with candidates including artist Walter Sickert, Alice In Wonderland author Lewis Carroll and even Queen Victoria's grandson the Duke of Clarence.

But now historian Dr Andrew Cook claims to have blown all these theories out of the water by dismissing the notion of a brutal, murderous spree by one 'serial killer' altogether.

In his book Jack The Ripper: Case Closed, he argues that the famous letter bragging about the killings - signed 'Jack the Ripper' in the first-ever use of that name - was actually forged by journalists desperate to sell their newspaper.

Dr Cook says streetwalkers Mary Nichols, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Kelly, Elizabeth Stride and Annie Chapman were killed by different men, as were the six other Whitechapel victims often added to the Ripper's toll.

He takes his evidence from police and medical experts at the time who expressed doubts about the single killer theory even as it began to take hold on the public imagination.

The senior Whitechapel policeman at the time of the killings admitted in his retirement speech that he did not believe Mary Kelly was killed by 'Jack the Ripper', Dr Cook points out.

The assistant police surgeon who examined all five victims, Percy Clark, told the East London Observer in 1910: 'I think perhaps one man was responsible for three of them. I would not like to say he did the others.'

However, comments like this were a drop in an ocean as the myth of the lone rogue killer took hold of the Victorian imagination.

Dr Cook shows that the newly-launched Star newspaper was the first to claim that one man was behind three of the 1888 killings.

Even though most experts today agree that two of these - Emma Smith and Martha Tabram - were not carried out by the same man, the Star's prurient accounts of the on-going murders massively boosted its circulation.

The Star only unveiled the notorious letter from 'Jack the Ripper' in the midst of a drastic fall in sales after the exoneration of a bootmaker it had identified as a key suspect.

Handwriting expert Elaine Quigley, recruited by Dr Cook to examine the letter, has identified it as the work of Star journalist Frederick Best.

But the public was convinced, Dr Cook says - and the concept of a lone rogue killer on the loose in the East End backstreets may have helped the real culprits literally get away with murder. - dailymail

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Has 'Jack the Ripper' Finally Been Identified? - 10/7/2009

telegraph.co.uk - Mei Trow used modern police forensic techniques, including psychological and geographical profiling, to identify Robert Mann, a morgue attendant, as the killer.

His theory, the result of two years intensive research, is explored in a Discovery Channel documentary, Jack the Ripper: Killer Revealed.

Trow's research is rooted in information from a 1988 FBI examination of the Ripper case, which had worked up a comprehensive criminal personality profile.

The portrait drawn up of Jack was as a white male from the lower social classes, most likely the product of a broken home.

It was also thought he would have had a menial job but with some anatomical knowledge, something like a butcher, mortuary or medical examiner's assistant or hospital attendant.

Because of prolonged periods without human interaction, Jack would also have been socially inept

It is known that Mann was from an extremely deprived background. His father was absent for much of his upbringing and he had spent some time as a child in a workhouse.

Trow said: "I wanted to go beyond the myth of a caped man with a top hat and knife, and get to the reality, and the reality is simply that Jack was an ordinary man."

Trow makes another startling conjecture, that the Ripper killed another two women.

He believes Martha Tabram, found with 39 stab wounds to her body in Gunthorpe Street, was the first of Jack's victims, and Alice Mackenzie, brutally murdered eight months after the confirmed five killings, was his last.

The two women, along with Polly Nichols and Annie Chapman, would have been delivered to the Whitechapel mortuary in which Robert Mann worked.

After the killing of Polly Nichols, Jack's first recognised victim, Mann unlocked the mortuary for the police so they could examine the body and as such, was called as a witness in her inquest to help establish the cause of death.

Most damningly, he undressed Polly's body with his assistant, despite being under strict instructions from Inspector Spratling to not touch the body, and Trow suspects that this was an opportunity to admire his handiwork.

The Coroner, in his summation of Robert Mann's testimony, concluded that, "It appears the mortuary-keeper is subject to fits, and neither his memory nor statements are reliable."

Professor Laurence Alison, Forensic Psychologist at Liverpool University, who features in the documentary, said: "In terms of psychological profiling, Robert Mann is the one of the most credible suspects from recent years and the closest we may ever get to a plausible psychological explanation for these most infamous of Victorian murders."

Trow's is the latest in a long line of theories about who Jack the Ripper was. More than 100 suspects have been proposed over the years, including a member of the royal family, a doctor and even the artist Walter Sickert.