Francis Thompson Again

Attached is a picture of the front cover of a book which I read recently. You will recognise the face on the front from a previous post. In it, the author, Richard Patterson, explains why he thinks that Francis Thompson was Jack the Ripper. I had not accessed the full force of his arguments when I wrote Black Hearts And Blue Devils but now that I have, I am pleased that I chose this particular character to be one of the Black Hearts of my title!
If any of you are "ripperologists" and have not read Patterson's book I can recommend it for its research and conclusions (although it could have done with a better proof-reader). After finishing the book, I personally am just about 100 per cent convinced that Thompson was the ripper. Patterson's reasoning is persuasive enough in and of itself, but I also read a ripper book by Thomas Toughill ('The Ripper Code', 2008) which persuades me further: Toughill's book points the finger not at Thompson but at an artist friend of Oscar Wilde - but it is the Wilde connection that I think is important. Toughill's thesis is that Wilde knew/suspected the identity of Jack the Ripper and left hints in his works; and what intrigues me is that Wilde almost certainly knew Thompson - both moved in the same literary and artistic circles; Thompson was an obsessive Roman Catholic, a religion with which Wilde is said to have had a long-standing 'flirtation'; and Wilde certainly knew Thompson's publisher, Wilfrid Meynell, with whom he also corresponded (it is Patterson's contention that Meynell, also a Roman Catholic, suspected Thompson of being the Ripper, but covered it up).
So, just think. Perhaps Abe Lively could have prevented the Whitechapel murders!

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