JACK THE Ripper fled the UK on a Dundee ship and signed a deathbed confession, witnessed by a priest and a crewmate.
The confession stated his motive for the Whitechapel killings, detailed his methods and added that he was aided by another man during the later murders.
Jack the Ripper, who signed on to the Annie Speer as John Anderson, is buried in Iquique, northern Chile. The confession claim surfaced in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1897 when James Brame, who had sailed on the Annie Speer with the “Ripper” unburdened himself of his dreadful knowledge.
Brame gave an interview to a reporter in the city and the story was picked up by this newspaper a few days later. To give the story some context, there were a lot of Ripper confessions and Ripper pretenders around the time but Brame does seem to give an honest account of what he experienced.
Brame was a cook on the steel and iron barque. Just before they left Shields for Chile a man called John Anderson signed on as a crewman under Captain Carruthers.
Not long into the journey, Anderson took ill and was taken to his bunk. He seemed like a man in torment and his condition deteriorated but he rallied when the Annie Speer rounded Cape Horn.
The remission did not last. Anderson began to lash out and was taken to hospital in Iquique. By chance, Brame also took ill and ended up in the hospital bunk next to Anderson.
The cook said Anderson was trying to escape mental torment and one night began to open up about the Whitechapel killings.
Brame said the story came out by degree.
Before the murders, Anderson had been a sailor but had been robbed many times by women in the east end of London.
He plotted revenge. Anderson’s first killing took place in a dark alley and not a house. He mutilated the body and escaped with such ease that he determined to murder again. He gained a confederate and the pair wore blood-spattered butchers smocks to hide their deeds in plain sight.
Anderson boasted he had stood before detectives with the blood of his victims on his clothes but they could not see the “Ripper was within their grasp”.
A priest also heard Anderson’s confession. Anderson died in hospital but Brame recovered and left with the “Ripper’s” signed confession.
Unfortunately, the papers were lost when Brame was later shipwrecked.
The 1540-tonne Annie Speer was built in 1891 in Alexander Stephen’s Dundee yard for Brownelles of Liverpool. It had an identical sister ship called Kirkhill.
It was sold to a Bergen firm in 1907 then an Oslo firm in 1923 but was damaged off Australia and scrapped in Rotterdam in 1924. In his interview with the Charleston reporter, Brame stated he had never told his story before and would never repeat it.
If you go to www.thecourier.co.uk and search for my blog From The Archives, there is an article called Ripper Mania Touched Every Part of Britain containing plenty more Ripper tales.