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Post by jason on Nov 9, 2021 13:22:40 GMT -5
Today's Thought for the Day is a quote from "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and Dorian sees Basil Hallward hurrying along the street with his coat collar turned up and he's carrying a bag. November the 9th was the day Mary Kelly was killed and some people say that Oscar Wilde revealed the identity of Jack the Ripper in the book. Is this quote one of the clues? The character Basil Hallward is supposedly based on Frank Miles, an artist of independent means. He and Wilde were friends and even shared living quarters for a while, although no one is sure if Miles was queer like Wilde. Miles was interested in women and at one time was engaged to be married. There are also reports that he was a lily-waver, exposing himself to young girls below the age of consent. He had mental health issues and his lily-waving was probably part of the reason he was admitted to a private asylum for the insane in 1887. So far as is known, he wasn't there during the Jack the Ripper murders and he also was much taller than the man witnesses saw with some of the victims. |
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Post by pat on Nov 10, 2021 9:08:07 GMT -5
The character Basil Hallward is supposedly based on Frank Miles, an artist of independent means. He and Wilde were friends and even shared living quarters for a while, although no one is sure if Miles was queer like Wilde. Miles was interested in women and at one time was engaged to be married. There are also reports that he was a lily-waver, exposing himself to young girls below the age of consent. He had mental health issues and his lily-waving was probably part of the reason he was admitted to a private asylum for the insane in 1887. So far as is known, he wasn't there during the Jack the Ripper murders and he also was much taller than the man witnesses saw with some of the victims. |
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Post by jason on Nov 10, 2021 17:58:02 GMT -5
He probably wasn't Jack the Ripper, but if he had been in the asylum at the time of the murders, would Oscar Wilde have suggested he was the Ripper? There are a lot of mistakes in old documents, and in new ones, so there's a possibility he wasn't in the asylum at that time. I agree there are a lot of errors in old records, he could have been released for a period of time after being admitted to the asylum and then readmitted, and we all know people suck at estimating a suspect's height. But I still doubt he was Jack the Ripper. For one thing, he was a lily-waver and lily-wavers are usually harmless. |
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Post by Sam on Nov 10, 2021 18:12:02 GMT -5
I agree there are a lot of errors in old records, he could have been released for a period of time after being admitted to the asylum and then readmitted, and we all know people suck at estimating a suspect's height. But I still doubt he was Jack the Ripper. For one thing, he was a lily-waver and lily-wavers are usually harmless. You almost never hear anyone use "lily-waver" anymore for a man who exposes himself, but it used to be very common in law enforcement. I suppose someone decided it wasn't politically correct. |
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Post by catherine on Nov 9, 2022 19:52:41 GMT -5
This is today's (Nov. 9, 2022) Thought for the Day: It was on the ninth of November, the eve of his own thirty-eighth birthday, as he often remembered afterwards. He was walking home about eleven o’clock from Lord Henry’s, where he had been dining, and was wrapped in heavy furs, as the night was cold and foggy. At the corner of Grosvenor Square and South Audley Street, a man passed him in the mist, walking very fast and with the collar of his grey ulster turned up. He had a bag in his hand. Dorian recognized him. It was Basil Hallward. A strange sense of fear, for which he could not account, came over him. He made no sign of recognition and went on quickly in the direction of his own house. – The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It was in the early morning hours of November 9 that Mary Kelly was murdered by Jack the Ripper, and some in London thought Oscar Wilde revealed the identity of the Ripper in The Picture of Dorian Gray. A few hours after Mary Kelly's murder, Basil Hallward suddenly plans to leave London for Paris, then finds out Dorian's "secret," i.e., the portrait, and Dorian kills him. Dorian then blackmails his former friend, Alan Campbell, into getting rid of the body and it has been suggested he was able to blackmail him because a relative of Campbell's was Jack the Ripper. |
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Post by madeline on Nov 9, 2022 20:55:10 GMT -5
It was in the early morning hours of November 9 that Mary Kelly was murdered by Jack the Ripper, and some in London thought Oscar Wilde revealed the identity of the Ripper in The Picture of Dorian Gray. A few hours after Mary Kelly's murder, Basil Hallward suddenly plans to leave London for Paris, then finds out Dorian's "secret," i.e., the portrait, and Dorian kills him. Dorian then blackmails his former friend, Alan Campbell, into getting rid of the body and it has been suggested he was able to blackmail him because a relative of Campbell's was Jack the Ripper. |
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Post by Sam on Nov 10, 2024 0:39:52 GMT -5
When I read the Thought for the Day, I just realized that yesterday was the anniversary of the last Jack the Ripper murder. There didn't seem to be much in the news this year about the Ripper murders. I did see something about a book but it turned out to be Naming Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Reveal by Russell Edwards, which is from several years ago, about DNA on the shawl belonging to Catherine Eddowes being that of Aaron Kosminski. Even if his DNA was on the shawl, it doesn't mean he killed her, and some people think that Catherine Eddowes was killed by some other man on the same night that the Ripper killed Annie Chapman.
But getting back to the Thought for the Day, there was something in the old group, and maybe in this one too, about Oscar Wilde revealing the identity of Jack the Ripper in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Does anyone know who he pointed the finger at?
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