{"id":8313,"date":"2024-02-17T12:35:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T17:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/?p=8313"},"modified":"2024-02-20T10:25:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T15:25:31","slug":"miss-cremers-and-the-ripper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/","title":{"rendered":"Miss Cremers And The Ripper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a skilled writer since childhood. In 1871 Mabel married Keningale Robert Cook, a stockbroker, writer, and former editor of The Dublin University Magazine<\/em>. Both Mabel and Keningale contributed numerous articles to magazines, mostly on topics concerning education, fashion, and women in the arts. (Mabel was a fashion columnist for\u00a0Edmund Yates\u2019 periodical,\u00a0The World<\/em>.) The couple lived for some time in a house in the\u00a0Adelphi\u00a0the looked upon the Thames. Mabel found married life tedious, and feared that \u201cher brain was atrophying,\u201d from boredom.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cleopatra\u2019s Needle.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 1878 an obelisk brought from Egypt known as Cleopatra\u2019s Needle was installed on the bank of the Thames just outside her window. From the very first moment she saw the Needle, she was \u201caware of a face in it,\u201d that \u201cwas not visible to anyone else.\u201d It was the face of an Egyptian, \u201cfull of power and will, and intensely alive.\u201d The face was the same width as the Needle, which impressed upon her mind that it was an \u201cimprisoned being\u201d of some kind, that was \u201ctoo large for the space in which it was confined.\u201d Mabel soon noticed that \u201cstrange-looking men\u201d began visiting the obelisk\u2014men who were \u201cdressed in a peculiar garb.\u201d One day a group of such men, a procession of white-robed priests entered her house through the front door and walked up the stairs into her room and encircled her. This event would be repeated regularly, and each time they visited, Mabel would enter a trance state of psychography, or automatic-writing, whereby a different consciousness took control of her hands to produce \u201csheet after sheet\u201d of composition that would later be published under the title The Idyll of the White Lotus<\/em>. Blavatsky writes of this time:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
I came to London, via<\/em> Paris, about August 1884; went to Elberfeld, returning in October; and finally left for India on November 11th <\/sup>of the same year. It was only shortly before my departure that I met [Mabel Collins.] I saw her barely half a dozen times, and never alone [\u2026] When I met her, she had just completed the Idyll of the White Lotus<\/em>, which, as she stated to Colonel Olcott, had been dictated to her by some \u201cmysterious person.\u201d Guided by her description, we both recognized an old friend of ours, a Greek, and no Mahatma, though an Adept; further developments proving we were right [\u2026] When I left for India in November 1884 [Light on the Path<\/em><\/a>,] was not in existence.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The work which brought her attention from the Theosophists was another psychographical production that would be called Light On The Path<\/em>. While writing it, Mabel described being in a \u201cwide-awake state,\u201d and was transported to \u201csome large library,\u201d which she called the \u201cHall of Learning.\u201d\u00a0It was originally published in the New England Spiritualist journal,\u00a0The Banner of Light<\/em>. G.B. Finch, President of the\u00a0London Lodge, re-published\u00a0Light on the Path<\/em>\u00a0in 1885 as a brochure, and distributed it among the members, \u201cto their great pleasure and satisfaction.\u201d It was \u201cused by faithful Theosophists much as orthodox sinners use their prayer-book.\u201d[2]<\/a> Mabel then became a \u201cdevoted disciple\u201d of Blavatsky.\u00a0It was Blavatsky who told Mabel that the author whom she \u201cchanneled\u201d was none other than\u00a0Hilarion, a Cyprian Adept who was affiliated with the\u00a0White Lodge.[3]<\/a> The work was volleyed back to America where it was also praised.<\/p>\n
~<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
One American who felt a connection with Light on the Path<\/em> was a stern, square-faced, woman with short black hair and piercing hazel eyes named Vittoria Cremers (1860-1837.)[4]<\/a> Born Vittoria Cassini to a British nobleman and Italian mother in 1860, \u00a0she immigrated to America in 1875. Settling in New York, she would eventually establish, and edit, the theatre magazine, The Stage Gazette<\/em>.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n
In 1886 Vittoria met Baron Louis Cremers at Felix\u2019s boardinghouse.[6]<\/a> Cremers was a young lieutenant from St. Petersburg, Russia, who served in that country\u2019s aristocratic cavalry regiment, the 15th Hussars.[7]<\/a> He was the son of a wealthy Russian banker with whom he shared his name, and nephew of Karl Von Struve, the Russian Minister to Washington, D.C. Cremers was fascinated by Vittoria and took pity on her \u201cfinancial embarrassments.\u201d Vittoria proposed marriage within a few weeks of meeting, and Cremers agreed. They were married in in New York in November 1886. Cremers says the officiant of the wedding was Pastor Goebel, so the wedding likely occurred at the Prospect Hill Reformed Church (Eighty-fifth Street between Second and Third Avenues) where Rev. G.A.T. Goebel was installed as Pastor in 1884.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n
They were only a married a few weeks when Vittoria revealed to him that she \u201ccould not possibly love any man.\u201d Baron Cremers \u201cassured her that if she was a true and loyal wife,\u201d he \u201cwould condone the past and trust [his] future in her hands.\u201d He provided her a good income, and they lived for some time at The Belvidere and other costly hotels on 48th Street.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n
Cremers very quickly became \u201cexceedingly friendly\u201d with James Jewell, and English immigrant in his mid-fifties who worked as a shoemaker at 21 East Fifteenth Street, Manhattan.[10]<\/a> Jewell, \u201ca Socialist, a Theosophist, and swelled up with all sorts of theories,\u201d lived on South Fifth Avenue with his wife, Harriett, and their two daughter (a sixteen-year-old named Minnie, and a twelve-year named Elizabeth.)[11]<\/a> Vittoria frequently called on Jewell and remained in his company for 7 hours a day on some days, as well as taking him to the theatres where they socialized with notable performers, like Sarah Bernhardt.<\/p>\n
Jewell exercised a very potent, and \u201canything but beneficial influence on the conduct of [Vittoria,] to such an extent that she adopted in their entirety his fierce and bloodthirsty \u2018Anarchistic\u2019 and \u2018Socialistic\u2019 theories,\u201d all of which were repugnant to Baron Cremers, and which he objected to with a good deal of emphasis. Vittoria disobeyed his wishes, \u201cdeclaring that Jewell was a man who might well be taken for a model of humanity\u2014in fact, her ideal of the modern civilized man.\u201d Through her new exposure to Theosophy, Vittoria was introduced to Mabel\u2019s Light on the Path<\/em>, and was captivated by the book and the author.[12]<\/a> It was at this time that Baron Cremers learned that prior to their marriage Vittoria \u201cdisplayed extraordinary infatuation for actresses,\u201d and \u201chad the habit of going out in boy\u2019s clothing to see the town.\u201d Vittoria then disclosed other previously unknown biographical information. \u201cShe was a bastard,\u201d and that \u201cshe had had many love affairs with women.\u201d The only reason she married Baron Cremers, claimed Vittoria, was to win a bet regarding whether or not she could have sexual relations with a man.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n
Finding it impossible to induce Vittoria to give up the acquaintance with Jewell and seeking to put an end to the source of never-ending irritation, Cremers consented to meet Jewell in December 1886 at the shop in which he and his family worked. Cremers found the shoemaker \u201cmalodorous individual,\u201d in a state of abject poverty. Nevertheless, Cremers hoped to mitigate \u201can evil [he] could not wholly get rid of,\u201d by cultivating Jewell\u2019s acquaintance. He did this by giving him orders for shoes and recommending his service to his friends.<\/p>\n
Jewell separated from his wife shortly after meeting Vittoria, and Harriett and their daughters moved to 141 East Thirteenth Street.[14]<\/a> The marriage between Vittoria and Cremers would not survive the year.<\/p>\n
~<\/p>\n
In 1887 Blavatsky moved to London from Ostend, Belgium, with the assistance of Dr. Archibald \u201cArch\u201d Keightley and his uncle (though junior in age) Bertram \u201cBert\u201d Keightley.[15]<\/a> For the first few months of her stay, Blavatsky lived with Mabel in her home in\u00a0Upper Norwood in a small villa called Maycot. Keningdale Cook died in 1886, and left Mabel enough money to live comfortably for some time. In 1887 Mabel published Through the Gates of Gold<\/em> and The Blossom and the Fruit<\/em>. Once installed in London, Blavatsky tasked Mabel and the Keightleys with editing\u00a0The Secret Doctrine<\/em>.[16]<\/a>\u00a0The living arrangement was less than ideal. Alice Cleather, a member who joined the Society in 1885, gives us a glimpse into the living arrangement.[17]<\/a> While en route<\/em> to Maycot to pay a first visit to Blavatsky with Bert Keightley (whom Cleather met shortly after joining,) she was made aware of the volatile domicile:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
I well remember [Bert] telling me on our way out to Norwood\u00a0 that, in their frequent \u201carguments,\u201d [Mabel] and H. P. B. could be \u201cheard halfway down the road\u201d\u2014when the windows were open! We walked from West Norwood station and, sure enough, when we got within about a hundred yards of Maycot, I heard loud and apparently angry voices floating\u2014or rather ricocheting\u2014towards us down the road. I was rather aghast, and [Bert\u2019s] murmured remark that he was afraid \u201cthe old Lady\u201d was in \u201cone of her tempers.\u201d[18]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
By September 1887 newly living arrangements were made; Mabel moved to Clarendon Road, and Blavatsky, the Countess Wachtmeister, and coterie of Theosophists established themselves at 17 Lansdowne Road, sharing a space for some time with the Theosophist, Platon Drakoules.[19]<\/a> Drakoules, who shared close ties with the Fabians, was the founder-editor Greece\u2019s first Socialist magazine,\u00a0Arden<\/em>.[20]<\/a> Perhaps he lent his assistance to Blavatsky who began her publication, Lucifer<\/em>, in September 1887 with Mabel as co-editor.[21]<\/a><\/p>\n
At this time an American Theosophist named Dr. Elliott Coues entered the picture. He joined the Society in 1884, and a few months later he was made President of the Board of Control for the American Section of the Theosophical Society.[22]<\/sup><\/a> He soon established the Gnostic Branch T.S. in his home city, Washington, D.C. (which was something of a rival to W.Q. Judge\u2019s Aryan Branch in New York.)[23]<\/sup><\/a> In the summer of 1886 the American Board of Control was dissolved and replaced with the American Section of the Theosophical Society.[24]<\/a> The administrative influence which Coues once possessed was now greatly reduced, which wounded his pride.[25]<\/a> In September 1887, Blavatsky sent a letter to W.Q. Judge urging him to make peace with Coues for the sake of the Society:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
[Coues] is vindictive because he is proud, & if you make of him an enemy now\u2014you will have murdered theosophy in the U.S. with your own hands. Vindictive he is, lying & tricky no. You do not know him. He is a sensitive & a terrible one. He is more than a medium, for he deceives not only his \u201csitters\u201d & public but himself\u2014which other mediums do not. He is a self-hypnotic to the last degree. He is that so much so, that while some of his \u201ctricks\u201d are apparent to you, they are truth & fact for him. He is what Mahomet was, yet Mahomet founded a religion which with all its faults is a 1000 times better than any except Buddhism<\/a>. What matters it to you his Karma if he obtains or creates good results for theosophy? Coues is our last trump-card. If you lose him, you & the Cause will have lost their battle. I tell you so. It is our Waterloo. Olcott is too weak though firm in appearance.[26]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Coues wrote a letter to Mabel at this time in which he praised her work and asked her \u201cabout its real source.\u201d[27]<\/a> Mabel quickly wrote back:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
"\n*
** 72 Clarendon Road,<\/p>\n
** *Notting Hill, W., London.<\/p>\nThe writer of The Gates of Gold<\/em> is Mabel Collins, who had it as well as Light on the Path<\/em> and the Idyll of the White Lotus<\/em> dictated to her by one of the adepts of the group which through Madame Blavatsky first communicated with the Western world. The name of this inspirer cannot be given, as the personal names of the Masters have already been sufficiently desecrated.[28]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
~<\/strong><\/p>\n
On December 2, 1887, James Jewell was arrested and taken before the Essex Market Court and held without bail. His youngest daughter, Elizabeth Jewell, was placed in Ward 30 at Bellevue Hospital the following morning. On the blotter at the hospital the diagnosis was given as \u201cabortion.\u201d She told the press that her own father had forced her \u201cto submit to him.\u201d[29]<\/a> Jewell wrote a lengthy note to Vittoria from prison claiming that it was Baron Cremers who actually \u201cbetrayed his daughter.\u201d Vittoria and Jewell, conspiring together, convinced Elizabeth to prefer charges against Baron Cremers over her father.[30]<\/a> Elizabeth retracted her accusation against Cremers the following day and admitted to Eldridge Gerry\u2019s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, that her father was to blame.[31]<\/a> The humiliation of such a dishonor was too much for Cremers to accept. On December 10, 1887, Cremers filed a libel suit against the papers which defamed him, and fully ventilated the story of his relationship with Vittoria.<\/p>\n
In an effort to flee from spotlight, Vittoria joined the Theosophical Society on Christmas Eve, 1887, and fled to England in early 1888, where she lived 17 Lansdowne, and quietly worked on editing Lucifer<\/em>.[32]<\/a> The day after she joined (Christmas Day 1887,) The Sun<\/em> (New York) published a three-column spread on the recently-published Hodgson SPR Report titled \u201cBogus Miracles Exposed.\u201d[33]<\/a> Vittoria quickly became a promising addition to the Lansdowne Road. When fellow Theosophists questioned her about her opinion of the Hodgson Report, Vittoria stated that she read it, and thought that it was a \u201cwell-written and interesting production.\u201d[34]<\/sup><\/a> Cremers would withdraw his divorce suit against Vittoria by April 1888.[35]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
APRIL 1888 CONVENTION<\/h2>\n*****
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** *****<\/p>\n
Facsimile of \u201cMahatma Letter\u201d published in The Chicago Tribune<\/em>.[36]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the Convention The Chicago Tribune<\/em> printed a facsimile of an alleged rare letter from Koot Hoomi in which he gives his approval for the Convention to be held at The Sherman House. The article stated:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
The Tribune<\/em> is sorry that is unable to reproduce the rice-paper envelope on which the letter came in. The paper on which the letter was written was also rice paper [\u2026] The above is really a genuine reproduction of Koot Hoomi\u2019s letter, which did not come by mail, but suddenly materialized one day on the desk of the person to whom it was addressed. [37]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The letter aroused considerable curiosity in the general public, and a decided interest among American Theosophists. No public notice was taken of the matter by either Blavatsky of Judge, but the latter wrote privately to Coues. On May 21, 1888, Coues wrote to Judge:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
I think that on reflection you will find yourself a little hasty in pitching into me about that Tribune<\/em> matter [\u2026] Now I saw that letter of which you complain fall down from the air over a person\u2019s head, precisely in the same manner as you have seen a like letter fall\u2014one, of which we have since heard a good deal. The writing on one side was in that peculiar hand which I have learned to recognize in several expressions of the will of the Blessed Masters which you have been good enough to send me [\u2026] The writing on the other side must have been subsequently precipitated and the seal affixed [\u2026] If [Koot Hoomi] had not wished about 75,000 persons to be advised of the mode in which he brought about the Convention in Chicago he could easily have dematerialized the document [\u2026] It was clearly the will of the Brotherhood that the T.S. should be thus broadly advertised\u2014and no doubt it would also be by the will of the same august personages, if the [Religo-Philosophical Journal<\/em>] for example should contain some day a column or two explaining the delicate and mysterious manner in which rice-paper communications are \u201cprecipitated\u201d out of the Akasa<\/em>.[38]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This was a tacit admission by Coues that he had furnished the \u201cmessage\u201d to The Tribune<\/em>, and that he \u201csaw\u201d it precipitated, and an insinuation that he had received from Judge similar messages. Judge wrote back that the Coues\u2019s whole tale was a work of fiction originating in Coues\u2019s own brain. Coues wrote to Judge on June 11, 1888:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
But now comes another trouble. It appears, and not from \u201cCoues\u2019 brain,\u201d but from a much more material and very likely much stupider source, that you have been opposing my long standing candidacy for the esoteric presidency, in order to keep the ostensible control of T.S. in your own hand and make yourself the real or actual head of the concern in America, leaving me only as a figure-head; and I am referred to all and any newspaper reports which emanate from the Aryans or yourself, as carefully suppressing or at least not putting forward my name, etc.[39]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was well-known among members of the American T.S. that Coues had broadly hinted at his own Occult relations with the Mahatmas. Neither Blavatsky nor Judge confirmed his claims but were suspicious to his ulterior motive. It was Coues\u2019s ambition to be the public head of the America T.S. and endeavored to gain the powerful support of Blavatsky. A part of his campaign to discredit Judge with his own pretended \u201cmessages.\u201d[40]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
THE PALL MALL GAZETTE<\/h2>\n*******
** *******\u00a0<\/p>\nIn December 1888 Vittoria entered a room at Lansdowne where she found Blavatsky seated at her card-table with a newspaper spread out before her. Arch and Bert hovered above her raining a torrent of inquiry.[41]<\/sup><\/a> The article in question was titled: \u201cThe Whitechapel Demon\u2019s Nationality: And Why He Committed The Murders,\u201d in the December 1, 1888, issue of The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em>. The article, attributed only \u201cTo One Who Thinks He Knows,\u201d stated:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
Now, in one of the books by the great modern occultist who wrote under the nom de plume<\/em> of \u201cEliphaz Levy,\u201d \u201cLe Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie,\u201d we find the most elaborate directions for working magical spells of all kinds. The second volume has a chapter on Necromancy or black magic, which the author justly denounces as a profanation. Black magic employs the agencies of evil spirits and demons, instead of beneficent spirits directed by the adepts of la haute magie<\/em>. At the same time he gives the clearest and fullest details of the necessary steps for evocation by this means, and it is in the list of substances prescribed as absolutely necessary to success that we find the link which joins modern French necromancy with the quest of the East-end murderer. These substances are in themselves horrible, and difficult to procure. They can only be obtained by means of the most appealing crimes, of which murder and mutilation of the dead are the least heinous. Among them are strips of the skin of a suicide, nails from a murderer\u2019s gallows, candles made from human fat, the head of a black cat which has been fed forty days on human flesh, the horns of a goat which has been made the instrument of an infamous\u00a0 and capital crime, and a preparation made from a certain portion of the body of a harlot<\/em>. This last point is insisted upon as essential; and it was this extraordinary fact that first drew my attention to the possible connection of the murderer with the black art.[42]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Two days later, W.T. Stead would write in The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em>: \u201cThe contributor in question, is an occultist of some experience. When he was a lad of eighteen, he studied necromancy under the late Lord Lytton at Alexandria. It would be odd if the mystical lore of the author of \u2018Zanoni\u2019 were to help to unearth Jack the Ripper.\u201d[43]<\/sup><\/a> Stead would later confess: \u201cFor more than a year I was under the impression that he was the veritable Jack the Ripper; an impression which I believe was shared by the police, who, at least once, had him under arrest.\u201d[44]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cThe Whitechapel Demon\u2019s Nationality<\/a>\u201d was read before the members of the Blavatsky Lodge because of interest in the murders and the occult subject expressed in the article. The Indian Theosophist, Bhaskaranand Saraswati, who was studying in London at the time, states: \u201cI noticed that the English women were afraid to walk abroad, and it made me think of the origin of the habit of our women of wear\u00ading veils and being secluded because of the Mohammedans, who, in their eyes, were so many friends like \u2018Jack the Ripper.\u2019\u201d[45]<\/a> The question of Black Magic appears have been on the mind of Mabel, as a conversation<\/a> on the subject between her and Blavatsky appeared in the December 1888 issue of Lucifer<\/em>:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
No one should go into occultism or even touch it before he is perfectly acquainted with his own powers, and that he knows how to commensurate it with his actions. And this he can do only by deeply studying the philosophy of Occultism before entering upon the practical training. Otherwise, as sure as fate\u2014he will fall into Black Magic.[46]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The article intrigued Mabel, so she wrote a letter to the mysterious author care of W.T. Stead. After some weeks she received a reply. Mabel states:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
It was only a few lines saying that the writer was ill in hospital, but as soon as he was better, he would write and make an appointment. Again some weeks passed by before I heard anything and then a letter arrived from a Dr. Dr. D\u2019Onston making an appointment\u2014a marvelous man [\u2026] a great magician who had wonderful magical secrets.[47]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
On January 3, 1889, another article appeared in The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em> from the author of \u201cThe Whitechapel Demon,\u201d called \u201cThe Real Origin of \u2018She.\u2019\u201d The article stated:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
The psychological and psychical portions of Rider Haggard\u2019s She<\/em> strike me as being not so much the creation of a vivid imagination as the simple recital\u2014or, perhaps one should say, the skillful adaptation\u2014of facts well-known to those who penetrated the recesses of the West Coast of Africa a generation ago. Astounding, terrifying, and incredible as the powers of Ayesha appear to the casual reader, yet to the men who laboriously threaded the jungles and swamps of the riverain portion of West Africa, long before Stanley was thought of, they only seem like a well-known and familiar tale. The awful mysteries of Obeeyah (vulgo Obi) and the powers possessed by the Obeeyah women of those days, were sufficiently known to all the slave-traders of the West Coast to make the wonders worked by \u201cShe\u201d seem tame by comparison. And, always excepting the idea of the revivifying and rejuvenating flame in the bowels of the earth in which \u201cShe\u201d bathed, there is nothing but what any Obeeyah woman was in the habit of doing every day.[48]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Evidently Mabel was not the only person who was interested in the article. In the February 15, 1889, issue of The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em> another article by D\u2019Onston appeared titled \u201cWhat I Know Of Obeeyahism.\u201d In it he writes:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
The unexpected and extraordinary amount of interest excited by my article in The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em> [\u2026] and the numberless letters of inquiry which I have received, have decided me to give a few particulars with regard to Obeeyahism which will, I think, give all the information my correspondents desire. First, then, the very root and essence of Obeeyahism is \u201cdevil worship\u201d\u2014i.e.<\/em>, the use of rites, ceremonies, adjurations, and hymns to some powerful and personal spirit of evil, whose favor is obtained by means of orgies which for horror, blasphemy, and obscenity cannot have been exceeded\u2014if, indeed, they have ever been equaled\u2014in the history of the world. These things are too utterly horrible even to be hinted at. It is the fashion at present to deny the existence of Satan, Shaitan, Ahrimanes (or whatever you please to call the incarnation of all evil.) But all occultists, of whatever school, know that everything in Nature has its counter. part, that you cannot have light without shadow, heat without cold, good without evil, nor yet a personal Deity without an equally personal evil principle.[49]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/h2>\nTANTRIC<\/h2>\n***********
** ***********\u00a0<\/p>\n****In the winter of 1889, a rumor circulated that Vittoria was expelled from Lansdowne Road when Blavatsky learned that she found the Hodgson Report a \u201cwell-written and interesting production.\u201d Blavatsky apparently sent word to Vittoria in \u201cvigorous and mutilated English,\u201d to depart the house, and Cremer, subsequently, went to Mabel and \u201cas from a fortalice, shot criticisms and assertions and all kinds of harsh words.\u201d[50]<\/sup><\/a> According to Vittoria, however, her departure from the house owed to entirely different circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mabel Collins.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mabel pleaded with Blavatsky to accept her in the Esoteric Section, but Blavatsky was reluctant to do so. She was eventually placed on probation, but within four days, according to Blavatsky:\u00a0 \u201c[Mabel] broke her vows, becoming guilty of the blackest treachery and disloyalty to her Higher Self.\u201d[51]<\/a> Vittoria states that Blavatsky learned that Mabel was at one time engaged to Arch Keightley, and that they had taken part in a Tantric ritual performing certain sexual Black Magic Rites. This in itself was quite scandalous, but it seems that Mabel performed said Tantric rituals with Bert Keightley as well, and \u201cas a result of which they had got into some serious trouble.\u201d (Perhaps they were influenced by Butler\u2019s Solar Biology<\/a>.) Blavatsky told Vittoria: \u201cI had the greatest difficulty in extricating them from the mess into which they had gotten themselves.\u201d[52]<\/a> W.B. Yeats, who was witness to the drama, writes:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
When I first began to frequent [Blavatsky\u2019s] house, as I soon did very constantly, I noticed a handsome clever woman of the world there, who seemed certainly very much out of place, penitent though she thought herself. Presently there was much scandal and gossip, for the penitent was plainly entangled with two young men, who were expected to grow into ascetic sages. The scandal was so great that Madame Blavatsky had to call the penitent before her and to speak after this fashion, \u201cWe think that it is necessary to crush the animal nature; you should live in chastity in act and thought. Initiation is granted only to those who are entirely chaste,\u201d and so to run on for some time. However, after some minutes in that vehement style, the penitent standing crushed and shamed before her, she had wound up, \u201cI cannot permit you more than one.\u201d[53]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The name of Mabel Collins disappeared from Lucifer<\/em> beginning with the February 15, 1889. \u201cNo explanation was offered for this change, either in Lucifer, <\/em>or by Miss Collins, who retired into privacy.\u201d[54]<\/a> Blavatsky told Vittoria that she asked Mabel to leave the Society because of her conduct with the Keightleys, going into detail about the nature of the liaison. According to Vittoria:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
One day [Blavatsky] sent for me. \u201cMy dear,\u201d she began, \u201cI must ask you to give up your association with Mabel Collins.\u201d I told her that I would do nothing of the kind [\u2026] I promptly told her that I would on no account give up my friendship with Mabel Collins until I myself found her an unfit association. [Blavatsky] shrugged her shoulders. \u201cThen I am afraid I must ask you also to leave the Society.\u201d \u201cI shall certainly do so,\u201d I answered, though not without regret, for I was a staunch believer in the faith; but I was furious. At once I sought out Mabel Collins, who, the moment she saw me laughed aloud. \u201cThe old lady\u2019s been after you,\u201d she said; and then, \u201cI knew you\u2019d get it.\u201d[55]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Vittoria told Mabel everything Blavatsky had said, she became enraged and threatened legal action for defamation of character. Years later Vittoria would give an account of this event to none other than Aleister Crowley, who writes: \u201cAt the critical moment of her mission, Madame Blavatsky had been most foully betrayed by Mabel Collins with the help, according to the stratagems and at the instigation of Vittoria, who not only justified, but boasted of her conduct.\u201d[56]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
COUES 1889<\/h2>\n*************
** *************\u00a0<\/p>\nOn April 16, 1889, just before the Convention of the American Section, Coues wrote a long letter to Blavatsky detailing his own prestige, the strength of his Gnostic Branch, and half-veiled threats. His purpose was to try to induce her to ask the American Theosophists to place him at their head.[57]<\/a> He wrote another letter the following day (April 17, 1889) on the same subject, stating:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
Do you know you are getting great discredit in this country and for what do you suppose? For being jealous of me!<\/em> Can you imagine such flapdoodle? You are not moved by abuse, but you want to know how people think and what they say, and a great many are talking loudly and wildly, that your silence respecting my books in The Secret Doctrine<\/em>, and the absence of my name from Lucifer<\/em> (as well as from The Path<\/em>) means that you are afraid of my growing power and will brook no rival so dangerously near the papal throne of Theosophy [\u2026] There is another queer thing. You have somehow got it stuck in your mind, that I put in The Chicago Tribune<\/em> last year a caricature of the Master K. H. I had nothing whatever to do with the article, which was merely a newspaper skit, and the lithographed effusion was no more a Mahatmic document than this letter. It was simply a piece of newspaper wit. Judge is a good fellow and means well, and I like him for many things, especially his devotion to you and the masters and their Cause; but dabbling in occultism, especially on a Mahatmic altitude is dangerous except to an Adept!!! I am the humble servant of my<\/em> Mahatma.[58]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is probably not a coincidence that on April 18, Mabel wrote the following letter to Coues:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
I feel I have a duty to write to you on a difficult and (to me) painful subject, and that I must not delay it any longer. You will remember writing to me to ask me who was the inspirer of Light on the Path<\/em>. If you had not yourself been acquainted with Madame Blavatsky, I should despair of making you even understand my conduct. Of course I ought to have answered the letter without showing it to anyone else; but at that time I was both studying Madame Blavatsky and studying under her. I knew nothing then of the mysteries of the Theosophical Society, and I was puzzled why you should write to me in such a way. I took the letter to her; the result was that I wrote the answer at her dictation. I did not do this by her orders; I have never been under her orders. But I have done one or two things because she begged and implored me to; and this I did for that reason. So far as I can remember I wrote you that I had received Light on the Path<\/em> from one of the Masters who guide Madame Blavatsky. I wish to ease my conscience now by saying that I wrote this from no knowledge of my own, and merely to please her; and that I now see I was very wrong in doing so. I ought further to state that Light on the Path<\/em> was not to my knowledge inspired by anyone; but that I saw it written on the walls of a place I visit spiritually, (which is described in The Blossom and the Fruit<\/em>)\u2014there I read it and I wrote it down. I have myself never received proof of the existence of any Master; though I believe (as always) that the mahatmic force must exist.[59]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The American Convention met at the end of the same month. Professor Coues was not present. He was not elected President, or any other officer of the American Blavatsky did not cable the Convention as requested.[60]<\/a> On April 30, 1889, Blavatsky wrote Coues from London,\u00a0 and listed, point by point, the various matters Coues mentioned in his letters, \u201cin friendly, considerate, but severely plain language.\u201d[61]<\/a> Coues cabled Mabel on May 2, 1889, for permission to use her letter at his discretion. Mabel cabled him from London the following day saying: \u201cUse my letter as you please.\u201d[62]<\/a> Coues subsequently had the letter published in the Religo-Philosophical Journal<\/em> in May 1889.[63]<\/a> The proprietor of said journal, John C. Bundy, was a member of Coues\u2019s Gnostic T.S. [64]<\/a> In his preface to Mabel\u2019s letter in the journal, Coues writes:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n
In 1885 appeared a strange little book entitled: \u201cLight on the Path<\/em>: A treatise written for the personal use of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and who desire to enter within its influence. Written down by M. C. Fellow of the Theosophical Society.\u201d The author is Mabel Collins, until lately one of the editors of\u00a0Lucifer<\/em>. The book is a gem of pure spirituality, and appears to me, as to many others, to symbolize much mystic truth. It has gone through numberless editions and is used by faithful Theosophists much as orthodox sinners use their prayer-book. This happened mainly because Light on the Path<\/em> was supposed to have been dictated to Mrs. Collins by \u201cKoot Hoomi,\u201d or some other Hindu adept who held the Theosophical Society in the hollow of his masterly hand. I liked the little book so much that I wrote Mrs. Collins a letter, praising it and asking her about its real source. She promptly replied, in her own handwriting, to the effect that \u201cLight on the Path\u201d was inspired or dictated from the source above indicated. This was about four years ago; since which time nothing passed between Mrs. Collins and myself until yesterday, when I unexpectedly received the following letter. I was not surprised at the new light it threw on the pathway of the Theosophical Society, for late developments respecting that singular result of Madame Blavatsky\u2019s now famous hoax left me nothing to wonder at.[65]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Coues then allied himself with a disenfranchised Theosophist from St. Louis named Michael Angelo Lane, and launched a similar campaign against Blavatsky in Britain by having Mabel\u2019s letter published in the Spiritualist journal, Light<\/em>.[66]<\/a> Coues \u201cproof\u201d that Blavatsky was a fraud was predicated on Mabel\u2019s unsigned and undated note which he claimed to have received in 1885. In actuality, Coues only succeeded in convicted himself of slander. In stating that he had received Mabel\u2019s note in 1885, Coues inadvertently revealed that he was \u201cbuilding a case\u201d against Blavatsky. The Gates Of Gold <\/em>was not written until 1886 (and published early in 1887.) It was also well-known that The<\/em> Idyll Of The White Lotus <\/em>was written before Mabel ever met Blavatsky. Blavatsky stated:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
"\n*************
** The little book was published in the beginning of 1885, at a time when I was at Adyar and dangerously ill. In March I was hurried away from Madras by the doctors, brought to Naples, thence to Germany, and finally to Ostend. I came to London only on May 1st, 1887. Thus I had not set eyes on [Mabel Collins] from November 1884 to May 1887, nor did I have any correspondence with her. I heard of the existence and saw Light on the Path<\/em> for the first time in the summer of 1886 when Mr. Arthur Gebhard gave a copy to me after his return from America.<\/p>\n
** *************\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAMERICA AND ENGLAND AGAIN<\/h2>\n***************
** ***************\u00a0<\/p>\nVittoria states: \u201cIn 1889 I had occasion to sail for America in connection with certain business, and it was in February 1890 before I returned to England.\u201d[67]<\/sup><\/a> It would seem that Louis Cremers re-married in February 1890 to a woman named Linda Vanzandt.[68]<\/a> Perhaps Vittoria needed to sign some documents for divorce.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Southsea, 1890.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vittoria arrived in England in early March. She made straight for her usual lodging-place at 21 Montague Street, off London\u2019s Russell Square. Although worn out and tired, she was unable to sleep, her thoughts were in a turmoil over Mabel. She was so preoccupied that she went to Mabel\u2019s new address in York Terrace, just behind Madame Tussaud\u2019s Wax Museum on Marylebone Road. When she arrived, the maid told her that Mabel was away in Soutshea, writing a new novel. [In 1890 Mabel published The Idyll of the White Lotus<\/em> (the psychographical work that she began after the first visitation of the beings \u201cdressed in peculiar garb.\u201d)] Mabel\u2019s maid gave Vittoria the address there, and the next day she took a train to visit her.<\/p>\n
Vittoria was appalled at the contrast of splendor of York Terrace and the shabby building where Mabel resided in Southsea. An unkempt woman answered the door and took Vittoria to a poorly-furnished bedroom on the first floor. The embers in the fireplace suggested someone was recently there, but otherwise the room was empty.<\/p>\n
Vittoria paced up and down to keep herself warm. She wished she had not come. Then she heard the front door open, the murmur of voices, one unmistakably belonging to Mabel\u2019s, the other to a man. Then came the quite shutting of the door followed by footsteps hurriedly coming up the stairs. A moment later Mabel burst into the room in a flurry of embarrassment; or so it seemed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, Vittoria\u2014so you\u2019ve caught me at last. How are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the first greeting. They neither kissed nor shook hands.<\/p>\n
Mabel flung herself onto the unmade bed and settled herself in Eastern fashion, and lit a cigarette. It was over a year seen they last saw each other, and there was much on both sides to talk about. But Mabel rattled on about nothing in particular until she suddenly paused and regarded her closely.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you remember an article in the Pall Mall<\/em> about Rider Haggard\u2019s \u2018She?\u2019<\/em>\u201d Mabel asked. \u201cIt was signed \u2018D.O.,\u2019 if you remember?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vittoria said that she remembered her mentioning the article to her in 1889, but she had never read it, and could not recall the signature of the writer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you remember that I told you I had written to the author care of the Gazette<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I can\u2019t say that I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell\u2014I did write to him, and after some weeks received a reply. It was only a few lines saying that the writer was ill in hospital, but as soon as he was better, he would write and make an appointment, Again some weeks passed by before I heard anything and then a letter arrived from a Dr. D\u2019Onston making an appointment\u2014a marvelous man, Vittoria, a great magician who had wonderful magical secrets.\u201d She paused to light another cigarette, for she was smoking furiously throughout the talk. Then she went on. \u201cHe\u2019s here with me now\u2014still very ill. I\u2019m taking care of him\u2014as soon as he is better, we are coming back to London, and we will all go into business together. The three of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vittoria offered no comment.<\/p>\n
It required no powers of deduction to realize that D\u2019Onston had been sent out while Mabel told Vittoria of theory association. In any case, the suggestion of tea was welcome and Vittoria gladly followed Mabel down the stairs. A fire and tea went right home, but her mention of the \u201cmarvelous man\u201d and \u201cgreat magician\u201d meant nothing to Vittoria.<\/p>\n
Having thawed over their tea, Vittoria tongue was loosened and she rattled on about her Paris trip, the nature of their business there, and her meeting with Sarah Bernhardt. She did full justice to the meal provided, and they were halfway through tea when there was the sound of a key grating in the lock of the front door.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere he is!\u201d exclaimed Mabel.<\/p>\n
Vittoria rose and pushed her chair nearer the wall to make room for the \u201cmarvelous man\u201d whom she assumed would be glad of a hot cup of tea.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u2014you needn\u2019t bother, Vittoria,\u201d said Mabel casually, \u201che never eats.\u201d<\/p>\n
This statement struck Vittoria as very peculiar, but she had no time make any reply however, for by this time he had entered the room so quickly that Vittoria was surprised to find him there. Vittoria found herself looking up into the face of a tall, fair-haired man if unassuming appearance. A man at whom one would not look twice. He held a cap in one hand while under his arm was tucked\u2014in true military fashion\u2014a short cane. Vittoria was not duly impressed. To her there was nothing \u201cmarvelous\u201d at all about this man, and yet there was an indefinable something<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo this is Vittoria?\u201d he remarked as he took Vittoria\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
Vittoria nodded, noticing the pleasant and cultured tonality of the man\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have told her all about you,\u201d said Mabel, \u201cso there is no need for an introduction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0D\u2019Onston moved noiselessly over to an armchair in which he seated himself.<\/p>\n
Vittoria busily sized up the man sitting opposite her, it was a habit of hers. Gentle; silent; someone who would remain calm during any crisis; tall; not an ounce of superfluous flesh upon him; military bearing unmistakable and a suggestion of strength and power; pale; a face with a queer pallor\u2014not a particle of color anywhere; pink underlip; upper lip hidden by a fair moustache; fair hair\u2014thinning on the sides but well-groomed about the head; teeth slightly discolored\u2014probably from pipe-smoke; super-cleanliness; his clothes, though old and torn, appeared to suffer from assiduous brushing rather than wear and tear. The sum total of her estimate of the man was nil\u2014absolutely nothing. \u201cPerhaps it is because he ill,<\/em>\u201d thought Vittoria. \u201cI wonder what is the matter with him\u2026<\/em>\u201d The only thing remarkable about Dr. D\u2019Onston was his pale blue eyes which. \u201cThey are the eyes which one might expect to find set in the face of a patient in the anemic ward of any hospital,\u201d Vittoria thought. \u201cThere is not a vestige of life or sparkle in them.\u201d<\/em>[69]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n
D\u2019Onston. [70]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
POMPADOUR<\/h2>\nLate March, 1890<\/h2>\n*******************
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** \u201cGood God, D\u2019Onston,\u201d Vittoria exclaimed. \u201cWhere on earth did you get those filthy-looking candles?\u201d<\/p>\n
** \u201cI made them,\u201d he answered quietly.<\/p>\n
** \u201cMade them?\u201d Vittoria took another look at the candles. \u201cI should think you did, I have never seen such grubby looking things in all my life. What are they made of?\u201d<\/p>\n
** \u201cIt,\u201d said D\u2019Onston, breaking an extended silence, \u201cis an experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n
** \u201cWhat,\u201d said Vittoria, trying to lighten the mood, \u201cgoing into the candle business now?\u201d<\/p>\n
** \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
** Vittoria knocked her shin into the black-enameled deed-box in D\u2019Onston\u2019s room, as she had done on several occasions.<\/p>\n
** *******************\u201cWhat on earth have you got in that box?\u201d<\/p>\n****\u201cA few first editions, Vittoria,\u201d he replied. \u201cBooks are very heavy, you know. I also keep some of my private papers\u00a0 in it.\u201d[71]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
<\/h2>\nBAKER STREET<\/h2>\n
Mid-April, 1890<\/h2>\n*******************
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** One morning Mabel entered the office in Baker Street, and after a nervous glance around the place whispered, \u201cWhere is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
** \u201cOut,\u201d Vittoria replied. \u201cWhy\u2014do you want him?\u201d<\/p>\n
** She shuddered. In her eyes was the shadow of a haunting fear.<\/p>\n
** \u201cVittoria,\u201d said Mabel, \u201cI believe D\u2019Onston is Jack the Ripper.\u201d<\/p>\n
** Vittoria looked at her in astonishment. \u201cYou must be joking,\u201d said Vittoria, but she could tell that Mabel was serious. \u201cWhat on earth makes you say that?\u201d<\/p>\n
** *******************\u201cSomething he said to me, Vittoria. Something he showed me. I cannot even tell you\u2014but i know Vittoria\u2014and I am afraid.\u201d<\/p>\nThere was no doubt about that. Fear reflected in every expression of her eyes and in every shrinking gesture. But Mabel did not elaborate, nor confide in Cremers, as she typically did. Cremers thought no more of the topic\u2014reasoning that the lovers probably had some misunderstanding, and that the ordeal would sort itself out.[72]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
<\/h2>\nALONE WITH D\u2019ONSTON<\/h2>\n
Late-April, 1890<\/h2>\n*******************
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** Vittoria\u2019s eyes lingered on the black-enameled deed-box in D\u2019Onston\u2019s room as he finished telling his story.<\/p>\n
** \u201cWhat happened to your wife D\u2019Onston?\u201d Vittoria asked.<\/p>\n
** They were chatting together about nothing in particular when, in a chance remark, D\u2019Onston mentioned he had a wife. This was the first time Vittoria ever heard if the existence if such person. She had assumed he was a hard-and-fast bachelor, impervious to any romantic or emotional feeling. Cremer picked up her ears, but as D\u2019Onston made no further reference to the lady, she felt compelled to ask.<\/p>\n
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
** Baker Street, 1890.<\/p>\n
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** The question produced a change in the man. D\u2019Onston, who was lounging in his chair, quickly rose to his feet, and began pacing the room. By some ocular necromancy, D\u2019Onston\u2019s eyes showed signs of life, a hint of restless unease. He stalked the room, back and forth, until passed the desk where Vittoria was seated, and, suddenly pausing in his stride, faced her. Staring at Vittoria, D\u2019Onston pantomimed a dramatic gesture across his throat with a single finger, while simultaneously emitting an otherworldly, guttural groan. He then resumed his restless pacing. Cremers watched as D\u2019Onston slowly regained control of himself, and remembered the fear which Mabel had unburdened. \u201cMy God!\u201d thought Vittoria. \u201cD\u2019Onston is Jack the Ripper!\u201d<\/p>\n
** One could not murder with impunity without arousing some suspicion, Vittoria thought\u2014and yet Jack the Ripper had. He murdered woman after woman, in fact, and gotten away with it.<\/p>\n
** At the very first opportunity Vittoria told Mabel of the incident in the office, and she nodded her head.<\/p>\n
** \u201cYes, Vittoria,\u201d she said, \u201cI know he has been married, but he will never talk about his wife. I did not know that he had killed her. He simply said that he had disappeared suddenly\u2014vanished completely, and he had not heard of her for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
** *******************It struck Vittoria how readily and without surprise that Mabel accepted the idea that her lover had murdered his wife.<\/p>\n\u201cVittoria,\u201d said Mabel, \u201cI am terrified of him. I know he is Jack the Ripper and I want to get away from him, but I am afraid. He has such powers\u2014I wish he would leave me alone\u2014go away\u2014do anything\u2014only leave me alone. I would give him money\u2014anything\u2014if only I could be free of him!\u201d[73]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
THE SPECTER OF THE RIPPER<\/h2>\n*******************
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** In July 1890, the Westminster Gazette raised the specter of the Ripper once more; reporting that the police had gained advance information about the killer\u2019s intentions. A new cycle of horror was about to begin. Vittoria read this and decided to mention it to D\u2019Onston to gauge his reaction. But he was one step ahead of her while ridiculing the report. Then his mood changed abruptly.<\/p>\n
** \u201cThere will be no more murders.\u201d He walked across to<\/p>\n
** Vittoria\u2019s desk and leaning over it, stared down and said. \u201cDid I ever tell you that I knew Jack the Ripper?\u201d<\/p>\n
** Vittoria felt a cold shudder run through her. Anxious to gain time to recover herself, she bent down and opened a drawer. \u201cWhere the deuce did I put the ruler?\u201d she muttered to herself, and continued to fumble in the drawer. But D\u2019Onston would not be denied, for still leaning over the desk he repeated: :Did I ever tell you that I knew Jack the ripper?\u201d<\/p>\n
** Cremers was now disturbed and uneasy but she struggled to stay calm and gave a non-committal reply. At that, D\u2019Onston began to pace up and down the room. Vittoria remembered when he\u2019d mimed the throat-cutting of his wife. And then, in a quiet voice D\u2019Onston said:<\/p>\n
** \u201cYou know that when Mabel first wrote me, I was in the hospital? That was just after the last of the murders, Vittoria,\u201d he went on, \u201cand you can take it from me that there were no more murders after thar one in Miller\u2019s Court on November 9.\u201d<\/p>\n
** He paused for a moment, came close to Vittoria, and then remarked that he was living in the Whitechapel neighborhood at the time. He went on to say that he was taken seriously ill and had to enter the hospital. Something to do with the \u201cChinese slug,\u201d was what he told Vittoria.<\/p>\n
** \u201cIt was there that I met him, Vittoria. He was one of the surgeons who operated, and of course when he learned that I had also been a doctor he became more interested in my case, and we became very chummy.<\/p>\n
** \u201cNaturally we talked about the murders because they were the one topic of conversation. One night he opened up and confessed that he was Jack the Ripper. At first, I did not believe him, but when he began to describe just how he had carried out the crimes I realized that he was speaking from actual knowledge, and was speaking the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
** D\u2019Onston rose from his chair and recommenced his restless pacing up and down the room. Then once more he paused and stood before Vittoria.<\/p>\n
** \u201cAt the inquest, Vittoria, it was suggested that the women had been murdered by a left-handed<\/em> man, or at any rate with the left hand.\u201d He smiled in derision. \u201cIt just shows that they could not see an inch before their noses, Vittoria. My surgeon friend explained exactly how the medical witnesses fell into this error. He also told me that he always selected the place where he intended to murder the women. It was for a very special reason, Vittoria, which you would not understand. He took the Whitechapel Road as a sort of base for his operations, and made several journeys before deciding on the spots best suited to fit in with his scheme of things. Then, having got his victims to these particular places, he maneuvered to get behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n
** At this point D\u2019Onston paused for some seconds which seemed like hours to Vittoria. He seemed as though he were reliving something that had happened some time before. Then he spoke again.<\/p>\n
** \u201cAll those doctor fellows took it for granted that Jack the Ripper was standing in front of the women when he drew the knife across their throats,\u201d he said, and paused before continuing, \u201cbut he wasn\u2019t, Vittoria\u2014he wasn\u2019t. He was standing behind them like this.<\/em>\u201d As he spoke D\u2019Onston crossed over and stood behind Vittoria\u2019s chair. She felt an uncanny expectant feeling as she sensed him standing there; she could almost feel a knife at her throat.<\/p>\n
** *******************But when he was talking again, quite calmly, yet with deadly earnestness. \u201cIt was quite simple really,\u201d came his voice from behind as he reached round and placed his left hand over her mouth and nose, pulling back her head back. Vittoria could scarcely breathe so firm was his grip. Then his other arm reached around her neck from the right, and again he spoke.<\/p>\n\u201cYou see, Vittoria,\u201d he said, \u201cthis arm (waving his right arm before her eyes) would be quite free, and all my friend had to do was make one quick slash with his knife and it was all over before they could utter a sound.\u201d[74]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
As he said this, D\u2019Onston\u2019s arm relaxed and he withdrew if from Vittoria\u2019s neck\/ At the same time he lifted his left hand from her nose and mouth, and she drew a deep and grateful breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the inquests, Vittoria, these same doctors made a point of mentioning that the women did not fall but appeared to have lain down<\/em>. This is about the only thing right about the evidence. They did not<\/em> fall. My friend did lay them down, and then\u2014when they were on the ground, he carried out the mutilations\u2014so.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he spoke, he came round to the front of Vittoria and a made a gesture with his thumb in the motion of a downward triangle, such as she had often seen him making upon the door of his room on more than one occasion. Meanwhile D\u2019Onston was continuing his narrative of what, he said, happened at the scene of the crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody, Vittoria, including the police were on the look-out for a man with bloodstained clothing,\u201d he said, \u201cbut of course, killing the women from behind, my doctor friend avoided this, as their bodies offered some sort of protection. Had<\/em> he been in front of them his clothes must<\/em> have been drenched with blood. Once or twice, he told me, he found a spot or two, but soon removed them.\u201d<\/p>\n
D\u2019Onston\u2019s revelations were made in a detached fashion; a mood which persisted, even when he reveled in the details of the gory knife-work.<\/p>\n
For the first time, Vittoria learned how, in two instances, the murderer, after mutilating the bodies, took away the uterus; the mere mention of this fact horrified her, but she could see the lifeless grin D\u2019Onston gave when relating this part of the story. She was still more horrified when D\u2019Onston continued to say:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe tucked these organs in the space between his shirt and tie, Vittoria,\u201d going through the motions as he did so.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood God!\u201d Vittoria shuddered, remembering the black tin-box in D\u2019Onston\u2019s room containing ties with their stained underparts. \u201cWho but the murderer himself,\u201d thought Vittoria, \u201ccould possibly know the things D\u2019Onston had told me?\u201d It was borne in her mind that this alleged \u201cdoctor friend\u201d was nothing more than a figment in D\u2019Onston\u2019s imagination, invented to conceal his own identity with Jack the Ripper. She was now convinced, beyond all doubt, that the man standing before her was in fact the Whitechapel murderer.<\/p>\n
During the latter part of D\u2019Onston\u2019s narrative Vittoria was careful to intently watch him. At the end he looked intently at her to see how she was taking it. Cremers endeavored to assume a calm demeanor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what did your friend want, D\u2019Onston?\u201d said Vittoria, trying to break the spell, as it were. \u201cWhat was he after?\u201d By this time, Vittoria was more than ever anxious to get right into the mind of the man she now regarded as a self-confessed murderer. She was puzzled at the idea of this apparently serene-minded cultured person, as she D\u2019Onston to be, being guilty of the horrors he had just described to her without the quiver of an eyelid. She had not read about the crimes at the time, and it was not until this moment, and from D\u2019Onston himself, that she learned the nature of the atrocities. Hence her desire to discover the motive which impelled him to such gruesome crimes. Why had he murdered so many women, and what was the object of the ghastly mutilations inflicted upon his victims after death?<\/p>\n
There was no thought in her mind of any magical background to the murders. She knew little of magic beyond Mabel\u2019s description of D\u2019Onston as a \u201cgreat magician.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what did he want?\u201d It was the recollection of the ties, and his explanation of how they came to be stained with blood, which prompted Vittoria to ask. \u201cWhat was he after?\u201d<\/p>\n
D\u2019Onston was not to be drawn, however. He simply shrugged his shoulders. \u201cHe did<\/em> tell me, Vittoria, but you would not understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vittoria knew that it would be fruitless to pursue the question. \u201cBut didn\u2019t you ever tell the police?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d said D\u2019Onston. \u201cI told them alright, but by the time they went to arrest him he had gone. You know, Vittoria, the police were awful duffers. Why, they had me in for questioning on two occasions, but of course I was easily able to satisfy them and they had to let me go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vittoria proceeded to ask him a question here and there, giving no inkling of her suspicions. Yet, all the time she was paving the way towards a scheme, whereby she hoped to persuade him to set down in fuller detail (with the object of newspaper publication) the story of the mysterious \u201cdoctor friend.\u201d Vittoria knew that D\u2019Onston was invariably hard up, and not that Mabel had broken with him, and there was little income coming from the Cosmetique Company, Vittoria felt sure he must be worse off than ever.<\/p>\n
Suddenly she put her scheme to him directly, pretending enthusiasm for the idea as though it had just struck her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know D\u2019Onston,\u201d said Vittoria, \u201cthat\u2019s one of the most amazing stories I have ever heard. There\u2019s money in it. Why don\u2019t you write it up for the Pall Mall Gazette<\/em>? You are well in with Stead, and he would jump at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh I don\u2019t know\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would create a sensation,\u201d Vittoria said. \u201cIt would pave the way for stories in other newspapers.\u201d<\/p>\n
D\u2019Onston appeared reluctant, but Vittoria was determined to make him set down in black and white the terrible stories he had told her. She got out pen and paper and placed them before him. D\u2019Onston\u00a0 sat down and began to scribble off three or four pages of preamble, handing them to her to read as she did so. The sweat simply poured from him as he wrote, and he was obviously labouring under some great emotional strain as he scribbled away. Vittoria had never before seen him so much affected. Suddenly he rose to his feet, roughly pushed back his chair and then, without a trace of turmoil which had been so pronounced a few seconds before he turned to Cremers and said: \u201cI\u2019ll finish it tommorow, Vittoria, and take it straight round to W.T. Stead in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vittoria knew full well that he would do no such thing. The moment had passed. His excuse was simply subterfuge to escape writing the story, Vittoria realized he never intended to write it, but had been forced to fall in with her suggestion in order to lull any possible suspicions.[75]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
SO MABEL\u2019S GONE?<\/h2>\n*******************
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** \u201cSo Mabel\u2019s gone?\u201d was all D\u2019Onston said.<\/p>\n
** He did not mention her name again for several days.<\/p>\n
** One afternoon D\u2019Onston drifted into the office in his usual soundless way, and approached Vittoria, who was sorting through some papers. He perched himself on her table and gazed at her. The Pompadour Cosmetique Company, at this time, was not in flourishing condition. Naturally, both D\u2019Onston and Mabel were very interested had lost interest in it. Vittoria decided to wind things up and leave town for a bit, which she explained to D\u2019Onston.<\/p>\n
** \u201cI quite understand, Vittoria,\u201d said D\u2019Onston. In a dispassionate tone, he then disclosed his knowledge of intimate details relating to Vittoria and Mabel. Vittoria was very angry at this, for D\u2019Onston could only have derived the particulars mentioned from Mabel herself.<\/p>\n
** That night Vittoria wrote to Mabel in Scarborough, repeating what D\u2019Onston had told her. She asked Mabel for any reasonable explanation for her conduct, and informed her that if none was forthcoming then their friendship must cease.<\/p>\n
** Vittoria was hopeful that she would be able to justify her breach of confidence in some way, and awaited her reply with some little anxiety. A day or so later, she received a reply from Mabel. In the letter she simply said that she \u201cquite understood.\u201d There was not a word of apology or explanation, no denial no excuse; nothing but the acknowledgment that she \u201cquite understood.\u201d<\/p>\n
** It was a sad moment for Vittoria and she felt a blaze of anger against D\u2019Onston. She called him into the office and told him that he was a swine to have betrayed a woman who had been so kind to him. But he simply gave his irritatingly expressionless smile. It was this attitude that filled Vittoria with such disgust, that, in her determination to discover who and what he was, she resorted to a course which, otherwise she would never have entertained. She fully realized that in other circumstances it would have been a \u201clow-down\u201d thing to do; but, his treatment of Mabel seemed at the time, to justify her next course of action.<\/p>\n
** She recalled D\u2019Onston\u2019s black box, and the private papers inside. Perhaps they contained clues to D\u2019Onston\u2019s true identity. From time to time when he went out, Vittoria entered his room by means of an old key which she found on an old bunch she always kept. She tried all the smaller keys on this same bunch on the two locks which the box secured. They did not fit. She went ti another neighborhood and scoured second-hand shops for old keys, and at length discovered one that fit.<\/p>\n
** Armed with this, Vittoria seized the opportunity when D\u2019Onston was out, and entered his room. In a few minutes she was on her knees beside the open box, carefully lifting from it the books which he mentioned so that she could replace them exactly as she found them. She noticed they were all to do with Magic, one of them being written in French, but, having no particular interest in the books, did not take note of any of the authors. It was the private papers that intrigued her. But there was not a single paper to be found. Nothing that is, but a few ready-made black ties, the kind which D\u2019Onston always wore.<\/p>\n
** Vittoria was disappointed with the result of her burglary. She had hoped for something more informative than those somber articles of men\u2019s wear.<\/p>\n
** *******************\u201cWhy you are a grubby-looking specimen,\u201d she said, lifting one out of the box.<\/p>\nShe was just about to replace it when something caught her eye. On the underside of the flowing end of the tie, and also at the back of the knot, she saw a dull sort of stain. She examined it more closely and discovered that where the stain was, thew tie was quite hard as though something had congealed upon it, She picked up another one, and found similar stains in similar places. She repeated this examination several times with several ties, and in each case found similar stains. Vittoria was baffled by the discovery. She could not imagine what the stains could be; nor how they came to be in such a peculiar position; above all\u2014why did D\u2019Onston keep the filthy, dirty things which he could not wear again anyway?[76]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
<\/h2>\n
TAU-TRIADELTA<\/h2>\n*********************
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** *********************Mabel and Vittoria were certain that D\u2019Onston was not his real name.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u00a0 have tried all manner of ways to find out who he is,\u201d said Mabel. \u201cI have tried to trap him into betraying himself. But he is too damned clever, Vittoria\u2014too cunning.\u201d[77]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cAll reports about me emanating from Assad Farras, a dismissed interpreter, false. If made public, stop them. Sending necessary paper.\u201d[78]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James Jameson.[80]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
D\u2019Onston brought Vittoria his article for the November 1890, issue of Lucifer<\/em>. It was called \u201cAfrican Magic,\u201d and signed Tau-Triadelta.[81]<\/sup><\/a> Perhaps D\u2019Onston was just capitalizing on the sensational news of the day. In early November 1890, the headlines stated that James Jameson<\/a> had paid a slaver to witness a cannibalistic act while on the Stanley Expedition in Africa.[82]<\/a> A refutation was quickly published by the Jameson family, but the tantalizing details were fodder for the press.[83]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cWhy, D\u2019Onston,\u201d said Vittoria, \u201cwhat a funny way of signing yourself. Why don\u2019t you sign your name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tautriadelta.[84]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is my own name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTautriadelta?\u201d Vittoria repeated. \u201cBut what does it all mean? It seems so strange to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Vittoria,\u201d said D\u2019Onston. \u201cA strange signature indeed, but one that means a devil of a lot if you only knew.\u201d He smiled a slow inscrutable smile without a trace of mirth. \u201cA devil<\/em> of a lot!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what does it stand for?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the Captivity, the Hebrew Tau<\/em> was always shown in the form of a Cross,\u201d D\u2019Onston explained. \u201cIt was the last letter of the sacred alphabet. Tria<\/em> is the Greek for three, while Delta<\/em> is the greek letter D which is written in the form of a triangle. So the completed word signifies \u2018Cross-Three-Triangles.\u2019<\/em>\u201d He paused for a minute as though reflecting. \u201cAnd Vittoria,\u201d he went on, \u201cthere are lots of people who would be interested to know why I use that signature. In fact, the knowledge would create quite a sensation.\u201d And then, as though in defiance, \u201cBut they will never find out, Vittoria. Never.\u201d[85]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
Mabel and Cremers met for the last time in the summer of 1891.[86]<\/a> Mabel tired of D\u2019Onston, but feared getting rid of him because he had a bundle of compromising letters written by her. To put Mabel\u2019s mind at ease, Vittoria offered to steal them from D\u2019Onston. They suspected the letters to be in his bedroom, in a tin uniform case which he kept under the bed attached with cords. Neither Vittoria nor Mabel had ever seen this case open. Vittoria tricked D\u2019Onston to leave his lodging with a forged telegram. She then entered the room, where she retrieved the box from under the bed. The box was light, to her surprise, as if it were empty. She picked the lock to open it, but found no letters. Instead, \u00a0there were seven white evening dress ties. They were all stiff, and black, and with clotted blood.[87]<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n*********************
** \u00a0<\/p>\n
** *********************SOURCES:<\/p>\n[1]<\/a> Blavatsky, H.P. \u201cTo The Editor Of \u2018Light.\u2019\u201d Light<\/em>. Vol. IX, No. 440. (June 8, 1889): 277-278.<\/p>\n
[2]<\/a> Coues, Elliott. \u201cAttention, Theosophists!\u201d Religio-Philosophical Journal Vol. XLVI., No. 12 (May 11, 1889): 5.<\/p>\n
[3]<\/a> M.C. \u201cSome Psychic Experiences.\u201d\u00a0Broad Views<\/em>. Vol. I, No. 5 (May 1904): 432-440; De Steiger. Isabelle.\u00a0Memorabilia: Reminiscences Of A Woman Artist And Writer<\/em>. Rider & Co. London, England. (1927): 241-251; Khandalavala, N. D. \u201cMadame H.P. Blavatsky as I Knew Her.\u201d\u00a0The Theosophist<\/em>. Vol. L, No. 9. (June 1929): 213-222; Lane, A.T.\u00a0Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders, Volume I<\/em>. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport, Connecticut. (1995): 277.<\/p>\n
[4]<\/a> England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007<\/em>. General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume:\u00a03a<\/em>; Page:\u00a01312<\/em>. General Register Office.\u00a0England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes<\/em>. London, England: General Register Office.<\/p>\n
[5]<\/a> Ryan, Hugh. When Brooklyn Was Queer<\/em>. St. Martin\u2019s Publishing Group. New York, New York. (2019): 65-66.<\/p>\n
[6]<\/a> \u201cA Hundred Thousand.\u201d The Buffalo Commercial<\/em>. (Buffalo, New York) February 1, 1888.<\/p>\n
[7]<\/a> Ancestry.com.\u00a0Russia, Select Births and Baptisms, 1755-1917<\/em>\u00a0[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.<\/p>\n
[8]<\/a> \u201cOrdained To A Pastor\u2019s Work.\u201d The New York Times<\/em>. (New York, New York) June 11, 1884.<\/p>\n
[9]<\/a> \u201cA Russian Nobleman\u2019s Trouble.\u201d The Memphis Avalanche<\/em>. (Memphis, Tennessee) February 2, 1888.<\/p>\n
[10]<\/a> \u201cA Russian Nobleman\u2019s Trouble.\u201d The Memphis Avalanche<\/em>. (Memphis, Tennessee) February 2, 1888.<\/p>\n
[11]<\/a> Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Year:\u00a01880<\/em>; Census Place:\u00a0New York City, New York, New York<\/em>; Roll:\u00a0874<\/em>; Page:\u00a0528C<\/em>; Enumeration District:\u00a0162<\/em>. [The eldest daughter was also named Harriett but seems to have gone by the name \u201cMinnie.\u201d] New York, State Census, 1905. Population Schedules . Various County Clerk Offices, New York. New York State Archives; Albany, New York;\u00a0State Population Census Schedules, 1905<\/em>; Election District:\u00a0A.D. 19 E.D. 06<\/em>; City:\u00a0Manhattan<\/em>; County:\u00a0New York<\/em>; Page:\u00a021<\/em>.<\/p>\n
[12]<\/a> Harris, Melvin. The True Face Of Jack The Ripper<\/em>. Michael O\u2019Mara Books Limited. London, England. (1994): 46-47.<\/p>\n
[13]<\/a> Casal, Mary. Stone Wall: An Autobiography<\/em>. Eyncourt Press. Chicago, Illinois. (1930): 178-180; Crowley, Aleister. [Edited by Kenneth Grant & John Symonds.] The Confessions of Aleister Crowley<\/em>. Arkana\/Penguin. London, England. (1988): 690-692; Ryan, Hugh. When Brooklyn Was Queer<\/em>. St. Martin\u2019s Publishing Group. New York, New York. (2019): 65-66.<\/p>\n
[14]<\/a> \u201cA Terrible Charge.\u201d The Standard Union<\/em>. (Brooklyn, New York) December 3, 1887.<\/p>\n
[15]<\/a> Keightley, Archibald. \u201cReminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky.\u201d\u00a0The Theosophical Quarterly<\/em>. Vol. VIII, No. 2 (October 1910): 109-122.<\/p>\n
[16]<\/a> Cleather, Alice Leighton. H. P. Blavatsky As I Knew Her<\/em>. Thacker, Spink & Co. Calcutta, India. (1923): 2; Farnell, Kim.\u00a0Mystical Vampire: The Life and Works of Mabel Collins<\/em>. Mandrake. Oxford, England. (2005): 60-80.<\/p>\n
[17]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 3482. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Alice Leighton Cleather. [11\/3\/1885]\n<\/p>
[18]<\/a> Cleather, Alice Leighton. H. P. Blavatsky As I Knew Her<\/em>. Thacker, Spink & Co. Calcutta, India. (1923): 2.<\/p>\n
[19]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 2994. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Plato E. Draculi. Corfu. (8\/31\/1884); Draculi, Plato E. \u201cInter-Planetary Soul-Communion.\u201d\u00a0Light<\/em>. Vol. VII, No. 361. (December 3, 1887): 569.<\/p>\n
[20]<\/a> \u201cThe Cause In Greece.\u201d\u00a0Justice<\/em>.\u00a0 (London, England) November 16, 1889.<\/p>\n
[21]<\/a> The Theosophical Movement 1875-1950<\/em>. The Cunningham Press.\u00a0 Los Angeles, California. (1951): 91.<\/p>\n
[22]<\/sup><\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 2923. (Website file: 1B:1885-1890) Elliot Coues.<\/p>\n
[23]<\/sup><\/a> Allen, J.A. Biographical Memoir of Elliott Coues 1842-1899.<\/em> National Academy of Sciences. Washington, D.C. (1909): 399; 423; [Letter: William Quan Judge to Henry S. Olcott, April 27, 1886] Judge, William Quan, and A. L. Conger. Practical Occultism<\/em>. Theosophical University Press. Pasadena, California. (1951.)<\/p>\n
[24]<\/a> \u201cTheosophical Activities.\u201d The Path<\/em>. Vol. I, No. 6 (September 1886): 191-192.<\/p>\n
[25]<\/a> Gomes, Michael. \u201cThe Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to W.Q. Judge: Part III: Letter Dated 19 March 1887\u201d Theosophical History<\/em>. Vol. V, No. 4 (October 1994): 125-127.<\/p>\n
[26]<\/a> Gomes, Michael. \u201cThe Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to W.Q. Judge: Part V: Letter Dated Sept. 15, 1887, and Part VI: Letter Dated Sept. 27, 1887\u201d Theosophical History.<\/em> Vol. V, No. 6 (April 1995): 204-207.<\/p>\n
[27]<\/a> Coues, Elliott. \u201cAttention, Theosophists!\u201d Religio-Philosophical Journal<\/em>. Vol. XLVI., No. 12 (May 11, 1889): 5.<\/p>\n
[28]<\/a> Coues, Elliott. \u201cThrough The \u2018Gates Of Gold.\u2019\u201d Religio-Philosophical Journal<\/em>. Vol. XLVI., No. 15 (June 1, 1889): 5.<\/p>\n
[29]<\/a> \u201cA Terrible Charge.\u201d The Standard Union<\/em>. (Brooklyn, New York) December 3, 1887.<\/p>\n
[30]<\/a> \u201cA Hundred Thousand.\u201d The Buffalo Commercial<\/em>. (Buffalo, New York) February 1, 1888.<\/p>\n
[31]<\/a> Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n
[32]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 4297. (website file: 1B:1885-1890) Vittoria Cremers. (12\/24\/1887.)<\/p>\n
[33]<\/a> \u201cBogus Miracles Exposed.\u201d The Sun<\/em>. (New York, New York.) December 25, 1887.<\/p>\n
[34]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cBlavatsky\u2019s Miracles.\u201d The Indianapolis Journal<\/em>. (Indianapolis, Indiana) May 4, 1896.<\/p>\n
[35]<\/a> \u201cNews Summary.\u201d The Evening World<\/em>. (New York, New York) April 9, 1888.<\/p>\n
[36]<\/a> \u201cA Line From Koot Hoomi.\u201d The Chicago Tribune<\/em>. (Chicago, Illinois) May 5, 1888.<\/p>\n
[37]<\/a> Ibid<\/em>.<\/p>\n
[38]<\/a> The Theosophical Movement 1875-1925<\/em>. E.P. Dutton & Company. New York, New York. (1925): 187-188.<\/p>\n
[39]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid<\/i>: 187-188.<\/p>\n
[40]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid<\/i>: 188-189.<\/p>\n
[41]<\/sup><\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper:<\/em>\u00a0\u00a046-47.<\/p>\n
[42]<\/sup><\/a> One Who Thinks He Knows. \u201cThe Whitechapel Demon\u2019s Nationality: And Why He Committed The Murders.\u201d The Pall Mall Gazette <\/em>(London, England) December 1, 1888.<\/p>\n
[43]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cTittle Tattle for The Tea Table.\u201d The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em>. (London, England) December 3, 1888.<\/p>\n
[44]<\/a> Stead, W.T. \u201cOur Gallery Of Borderlanders: A Modern Magician: An Autobiography.\u201d Borderland<\/em>. Vol. III, No. 2. (April 1896): 139-156.<\/p>\n
[45]<\/a> Saraswati, Bhaskara Nand. \u201cSome Customs Of Aryavarta.\u201d Oriental Department Papers<\/em>. No. I. (January 1891): 1-9.<\/p>\n
[46]<\/a> Blavatsky, H.P. \u201cDialogues Between Two Editors\u201d Lucifer.<\/em> Vol. III, No. 16. (December 15, 1888): 328-333.<\/p>\n
[47]<\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper:<\/em>\u00a0\u00a049.<\/p>\n
[48]<\/sup><\/a> D\u2019Onston, Roslyn. \u201cThe Real Origins Of She.\u201d The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em>. (London, England) January 3, 1889.<\/p>\n
[49]<\/sup><\/a> D\u2019Onston, Roslyn. \u201cWhat I Know Of Obeeyahism.\u201d The Pall Mall Gazette<\/em>. (London, England) February 15, 1889.<\/p>\n
[50]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cBlavatsky\u2019s Miracles.\u201d The Indianapolis Journal<\/em>. (Indianapolis, Indiana) May 4, 1896.<\/p>\n
[51]<\/a> The Theosophical Movement 1875-1950<\/em>. The Cunningham Press.\u00a0 Los Angeles, California. (1951): 91.<\/p>\n
[52]<\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper:<\/em>\u00a0\u00a068-69.<\/p>\n
[53]<\/sup><\/a> Yeats, William Butler. Four Years<\/em>. The Cuala Press. Dublin, Ireland. (1921): 74-75.<\/p>\n
[54]<\/a> The Theosophical Movement 1875-1950<\/em>. The Cunningham Press.\u00a0 Los Angeles, California. (1951): 91.<\/p>\n
[55]<\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper:<\/em> 68-69.<\/p>\n
[56]<\/a> Crowley, Aleister. (eds) Grant, Kenneth; Symonds, John. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley<\/em>. Arkana\/Penguin. London, England. (1988): 690-692.<\/p>\n
[57]<\/a> Coues writes: \u201cYou appear to have been misinformed or uninformed respecting the Gnostic and its Branches, as well as my own work in your behalf. Both in numbers and in quality of its membership, the Gnostic is unquestionably the leading Branch of the T.S. in the country. Its members are for the most part of a high, refined, educated, and influential class in society, in science and before the world, and most of them are indefatigable in working for the cause to which your own great and noble life is devoted. I am satisfied that if you would do your part to give my Gnostics their just dues and recognition, they and I can lift Theosophy clear of the mud which has been thrown upon it and set your own self in a proper light before the world. We all feel keenly the abuse and persecution to which you have been subjected, and anxious to do you full justice and honor. But they are unanimously dissatisfied with the way the society is run at present, and they wonder where your intuition<\/u> can be, that you fail to see where your obvious advantage lies, in not strengthening and holding up the hands of their representative man [\u2026] Be wise now and be warned in time; you are a very great \u00a0woman, who should be quick to see that this is no ordinary occasion . I tell you frankly, it is possible that all this prestige, social and personal and professional influence, scientific attainment, and public interest, can be thrown on the side of the T.S., as at present constituted, or can be switched off on a new track aside from the old lines. If you cannot see<\/u> this, and understand it, and act accordingly, there is nothing more for me to say, and I must presume that you do not care for my people. Judge and I came to a fair understanding once, and I was carrying out our agreement in good faith, and all was smooth, when something or other, affecting the question of the Presidency<\/em>, interfered, and since then there has been nothing but friction and misunderstanding in the \u2018Esoteric\u2019 T.S.\u2014which you know consisted of yourself, myself, and Judge and your issue of a new and different \u2018esoteric\u2019 manifesto did not mend matters. Now be wise<\/em> and politic. The T.S. in America is at present a headless monstrosity: it must have a visible, official head to represent its real, invisible source. You know whom the majority of the F.T.S. have desired to put forward as their representative theosophist in America. It is only necessary for you to cable the Chicago Convention, to elect him president. Weigh these words well; pause, consider, reflect, and act<\/u>. \u2018If \u2018twere well done, \u2018twere well done quickly.\u2019\u201d[The Theosophical Movement 1875-1925<\/em>. E.P. Dutton & Company. New York, New York. (1925): 190-191.]\n<\/p>
[58]<\/a> The Theosophical Movement 1875-1925<\/em>. E.P. Dutton & Company. New York, New York. (1925): 192.<\/p>\n
[59]<\/a> Coues, Elliott. \u201cAttention, Theosophists!\u201d Religio-Philosophical Journal Vol. XLVI., No. 12 (May 11, 1889): 5.<\/p>\n
[60]<\/a> Coues, Elliott. \u201cAttention, Theosophists!\u201d Religio-Philosophical Journal Vol. XLVI., No. 12 (May 11, 1889): 5.<\/p>\n
[61]<\/a> Blavatsky writes: \u201cDear Doctor Coues: I have received your two letters and read them as they stand and also between the lines and therefore, I mean to be as frank with you as you are frank with me. I will take your two letters point by point [\u2026] If you had nothing to do with The Chicago Tribune<\/em> article ([though] you must have influence with your own nephew) then why did you not contradict it, then and there? [\u2026] I know nothing about the number of messages you may have received from Masters through Judge, whom I would never believe capable of it, or anyone else [\u2026] You speak of my seals on those letters [\u2026] Where did they get this? From Judge, from me or from you? It could hardly have been any except one of us three [\u2026] Your wise advice that such Mahatma messages should be confined to one channel, \u2018the only genuine and original H.P.B. your friend,\u2019 was anticipated by Mahatma K. H. in so many words. Then why do you kick against that? You speak of your<\/em> Mahatma; then why don\u2019t you send letters in his name instead of those of my Master and Mahatma K. H. That would settle all the difficulties and there would be no quarrel [\u2026] What you have learned through me, I know, and do not want to know beyond. You may obey or disobey your Master as much as you like, if you know him to exist outside of your psychic visions. As to mine, every man devoid of all psychic powers can see him, since he is a living man. I wish he could be yours, for then, my dearest Dr., you would be spiritually a better man and less a skeptical one than you are. You speak of your eagerness \u2018to defend and help a woman who has been sadly persecuted, because misunderstood.\u2019 Permit me to say to you for the last time that no bitterest enemy of mine has ever misunderstood me as you do.\u201d [The Theosophical Movement 1875-1925<\/em>. E.P. Dutton & Company. New York, New York. (1925): 192-194.]\n<\/p>
[62]<\/a> Coues, Elliott. \u201cAttention, Theosophists!\u201d Religio-Philosophical Journal<\/em>. Vol. XLVI., No. 12 (May 11, 1889): 5.<\/p>\n
[63]<\/a> The Theosophical Movement 1875-1950<\/em>. The Cunningham Press.\u00a0 Los Angeles, California. (1951): 89.<\/p>\n
[64]<\/a> Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http:\/\/tsmembers.org\/. See book 1, entry 3368. (Website file: 1B:1885-1890) John C. Bundy.<\/p>\n
[65]<\/a> Coues, Elliott. \u201cAttention, Theosophists!\u201d Religio-Philosophical Journal<\/em>. Vol. XLVI., No. 12 (May 11, 1889): 5.<\/p>\n
[66]<\/a> \u201c\u2019Light On The Path.\u201d Light<\/em>. Vol. IX, No. 439. (June 1, 1889): 264.<\/p>\n
[67]<\/sup><\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper:<\/em> 47.<\/p>\n
[68]<\/a> Ancestry.com.\u00a0New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967<\/em>\u00a0[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017. [New York State Department of Health; Albany, NY, USA;\u00a0New York State Marriage Index<\/em>.]\n<\/p>
[69]<\/sup><\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper:<\/em>\u00a047-50.<\/p>\n
[70]<\/a> Stead, W.T. \u201cOur Gallery Of Borderlanders: A Modern Magician: An Autobiography.\u201d Borderland<\/em>. Vol. III, No. 2. (April 1896): 139-156.<\/p>\n
[71]<\/sup><\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper:<\/em>\u00a067, 77.<\/p>\n
[72]<\/sup><\/a> Ibid<\/em>: 71-72.<\/p>\n
[73]<\/sup><\/a> Ibid<\/em>: 72-73, 77.<\/p>\n
[74]<\/sup><\/a> Ibid<\/em>: 79-84..<\/p>\n
[75]<\/sup><\/a> Ibid<\/em>: 79-84.<\/p>\n
[76]<\/sup><\/a> Ibid<\/em>: 76-78.<\/p>\n
[77]<\/sup><\/a> Ibid<\/em>: 77.<\/p>\n
[78]<\/a> \u201cThe Cannibal Story.\u201d The Bolton Evening News<\/em>. (Lancashire, England) November 12, 1890.<\/p>\n
[79]<\/sup><\/a> Tau-Triadelta. \u201cAfrican Magic.\u201d Lucifer<\/em>. Vol.VII No. 39. (November 15,1890): 231-235.<\/p>\n
[80]<\/a> Jameson, James S. The Story Of The Rear Column Of The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition<\/em>. R.H. Porter. London, England. (1890): Frontispiece, 309.<\/p>\n
[81]<\/sup><\/a> Tau-Triadelta. \u201cAfrican Magic.\u201d Lucifer<\/em>. Vol. VII No. 39. (November 15,1890): 231-235.<\/p>\n
[82]<\/a> \u201cThe Cannibal Story.\u201d The Bolton Evening News<\/em>. (Lancashire, England) November 12, 1890.<\/p>\n
[83]<\/a> Jameson, James S. The Story Of The Rear Column Of The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition<\/em>. R.H. Porter. London, England. (1890): xv-xxvi.<\/p>\n
[84]<\/sup><\/a> \u201cAfrican Wizards Make Snakes Appear In Fire.\u201d The<\/em> World<\/em>. (New York, New York) May 24, 1896.<\/p>\n
[85]<\/sup><\/a> Harris, True Face Of<\/em> Jack The Ripper<\/em>: 65-66.<\/p>\n
[86]<\/a> Farnell, Kim. Mystical Vampire: The Life And Work Of Mabel Collins<\/em>. Mandrake. Oxford, England. (2005): 114.<\/p>\n
[87]<\/a> Crowley, Aleister. [Edited by Kenneth Grant & John Symonds.] The Confessions of Aleister Crowley<\/em>. Arkana\/Penguin. London, England. (1988): 690-692.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a skilled writer since childhood. In 1871 Mabel married Keningale Robert Cook, a stockbroker, writer, and former editor of The Dublin University Magazine. Both Mabel and Keningale contributed numerous articles to magazines, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4831,"featured_media":8340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,2003,1797,15,82,2364],"class_list":["post-8313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blavatsky","tag-jack-the-ripper","tag-mabel-collins","tag-occult","tag-theosophical-society","tag-vittoria-cremers"],"yoast_head":"\nMiss Cremers And The Ripper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a It was borne in her mind that this alleged \u201cdoctor friend\u201d was nothing more than a figment in D\u2019Onston\u2019s imagination, invented to conceal his own identity with Jack the Ripper. She was now convinced, beyond all doubt, that the man standing before her was in fact the Whitechapel murderer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miss Cremers And The Ripper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a It was borne in her mind that this alleged \u201cdoctor friend\u201d was nothing more than a figment in D\u2019Onston\u2019s imagination, invented to conceal his own identity with Jack the Ripper. She was now convinced, beyond all doubt, that the man standing before her was in fact the Whitechapel murderer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marginalia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-17T17:35:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-20T15:25:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1624\/2024\/02\/Screen-Shot-2024-02-17-at-12.29.12-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"636\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"634\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shawn F. Higgins\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ColdCocinar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shawn F. Higgins\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"47 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/\",\"name\":\"Miss Cremers And The Ripper\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-17T17:35:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-20T15:25:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#\/schema\/person\/5308a2321a9e06dd70eca8e42aef2641\"},\"description\":\" Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a It was borne in her mind that this alleged \u201cdoctor friend\u201d was nothing more than a figment in D\u2019Onston\u2019s imagination, invented to conceal his own identity with Jack the Ripper. She was now convinced, beyond all doubt, that the man standing before her was in fact the Whitechapel murderer.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Miss Cremers And The Ripper\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/\",\"name\":\"Marginalia\",\"description\":\"Shawn's column Marginalia explores the varied expressions of religiosity over the past century, as transcribed from the "marginalia" of aspiration and anxiety written by believers on the pages of history.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#\/schema\/person\/5308a2321a9e06dd70eca8e42aef2641\",\"name\":\"Shawn F. Higgins\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67fbb05a812133232bf6da4ddef01944?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67fbb05a812133232bf6da4ddef01944?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Shawn F. Higgins\"},\"description\":\"Shawn F. Higgins is an independent scholar and historian specializing in nineteenth-century esoteric and religious movements, and a leading expert in the history of the Theosophical Society and its American development. With an undergraduate degree in History of Religion from the New School University and an MTs degree in Religion, Literature, and Culture from Harvard Divinity School, his published academic work includes contributions to Theosophical History and Dewey Studies, alongside critical editions, archival recoveries, and studies of key figures and regional histories within early Theosophy. As a longtime contributor to Patheos, he has developed a substantial archive examining the intersections of mysticism, philosophy, literature, reform, and occult currents in the Gilded Age and surrounding decades.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thegothamtheosophist\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/shawn-higgins-193840253\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@ColdCocinar\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/author\/shiggins\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Miss Cremers And The Ripper","description":" Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a It was borne in her mind that this alleged \u201cdoctor friend\u201d was nothing more than a figment in D\u2019Onston\u2019s imagination, invented to conceal his own identity with Jack the Ripper. She was now convinced, beyond all doubt, that the man standing before her was in fact the Whitechapel murderer.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Miss Cremers And The Ripper","og_description":" Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a It was borne in her mind that this alleged \u201cdoctor friend\u201d was nothing more than a figment in D\u2019Onston\u2019s imagination, invented to conceal his own identity with Jack the Ripper. She was now convinced, beyond all doubt, that the man standing before her was in fact the Whitechapel murderer.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/","og_site_name":"Marginalia","article_published_time":"2024-02-17T17:35:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-20T15:25:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":636,"height":634,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1624\/2024\/02\/Screen-Shot-2024-02-17-at-12.29.12-PM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Shawn F. Higgins","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ColdCocinar","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shawn F. Higgins","Est. reading time":"47 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/","name":"Miss Cremers And The Ripper","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-02-17T17:35:25+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-20T15:25:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#\/schema\/person\/5308a2321a9e06dd70eca8e42aef2641"},"description":" Mabel Collins (1851-1927) was born Minna Mabel Collins in 1851 at St Peters Port, Guernsey, and though never formally educated, she proved a It was borne in her mind that this alleged \u201cdoctor friend\u201d was nothing more than a figment in D\u2019Onston\u2019s imagination, invented to conceal his own identity with Jack the Ripper. She was now convinced, beyond all doubt, that the man standing before her was in fact the Whitechapel murderer.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/2024\/02\/miss-cremers-and-the-ripper\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Miss Cremers And The Ripper"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/","name":"Marginalia","description":"Shawn's column Marginalia explores the varied expressions of religiosity over the past century, as transcribed from the "marginalia" of aspiration and anxiety written by believers on the pages of history.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#\/schema\/person\/5308a2321a9e06dd70eca8e42aef2641","name":"Shawn F. Higgins","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67fbb05a812133232bf6da4ddef01944?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/67fbb05a812133232bf6da4ddef01944?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Shawn F. Higgins"},"description":"Shawn F. Higgins is an independent scholar and historian specializing in nineteenth-century esoteric and religious movements, and a leading expert in the history of the Theosophical Society and its American development. With an undergraduate degree in History of Religion from the New School University and an MTs degree in Religion, Literature, and Culture from Harvard Divinity School, his published academic work includes contributions to Theosophical History and Dewey Studies, alongside critical editions, archival recoveries, and studies of key figures and regional histories within early Theosophy. As a longtime contributor to Patheos, he has developed a substantial archive examining the intersections of mysticism, philosophy, literature, reform, and occult currents in the Gilded Age and surrounding decades.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thegothamtheosophist\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/shawn-higgins-193840253\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@ColdCocinar"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/author\/shiggins\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/marginalia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
" " " "
" "" " " " "
" " "
" " "