Jose Rizal and Jack the Ripper
This being Rizal Day in the Philippines, I thought I’d share some nugget I found interesting while bouncing about and researching on one of my stories. No, I’m not about to suggest something as inane as Jose Rizal fathering Adolf Hitler. Kahit JR yung initials nila pareho, I doubt there would be enough evidence to even remotely pin anything on Rizal.
It turns out that Dr. Rizal was in London at the same time the Ripper murders were happening. The first murder attributed to Jack the Ripper was in August 31, 1888 and the last was in November 9, 1888. Rizal reached London at the end of April 1888 and left the following year to Paris. Rizal was copying Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas by Antonio de Morga (1st Ed: 1609) by hand at the British Library. He just published the Noli Me Tangere in Berlin. The Ripper murders was sensational as it was gruesome and certainly attracted a fair amount of media in Victorian London. It was the newspapers in fact which coined the name Jack the Ripper for the anonymous killer. I was curious how Rizal reacted to such horrid stories.
I was wondering if Rizal mentioned any of these in his correspondence to his friends and family. I took a chance and emailed author Mr. Ambeth Ocampo about it. Mr. Ocampo was gracious enough to answer and to his knowledge, there weren’t any mention of it.
It got me thinking how focused Rizal was during that time. To be in the middle of the city which had nothing to talk about (kinda like Manila and FPJ’s death in the past few days I guess) and still be hunched over work and studies was no mean feat. At least for me it is given all the distractions today. Then again he did just get back from the Philippines and the reception by the Spaniards for Noli was to say the least, not good. On top of that, his family was being harassed by the Spaniards and the subsequent toady indios. So yes, there were a lot of things in Rizal’s mind at that time to pay any attention to prostitutes being murdered around him.
But I also find that uneasy. I find it hard to believe that a man such as Rizal who had many a talent would turn a blind eye to such a sensational event, especially when a doctor was one of the suspects for the Ripper murders. From my readings of the biographies of great men, they were interested to any and all events of their time. Maybe he did but there’s no record of it. Maybe he thought it wasn’t polite to mention it to Ferdinand Blumentritt. And definitely he wouldn’t have mentioned it to his family; not while they were having problems of their own. (And to be cheeky about it, sino ang best friend ni Rizal at hindi nya ito kinuwentuhan?)
So anyway, that’s my bit of chismis. Sometimes we forget the bigger context in which figures from our history lived. Rizal was a globe-trotter and from his travels he saw not how the Philippines was but what it could be, murders be damned. Happy Rizal Day.
14 Comments, Comment or Ping
jobert
I am formally nominating this as the best conspiracy theory of 2004…
Dec 30th, 2004
Gelay
Uuuy, ok ‘to ah.
Feeling ko kaya deadma siya kasi alam naman niyang di siya papatayin saka pag-uwi niya ng Pilipinas anytime soon matitigbak din naman siya. Nyehehe.
Dec 30th, 2004
emer
wow. this *is* interesting.can i have dibs on the screenplay? :)
Dec 30th, 2004
markmomukhamo
Thanks. Gotta make it into a comic book first. :)
I shall attempt to try and weave a story where Joseph Bell, the doctor which inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes to meet Dr. Rizal. Maybe perhaps over a cadaver of a dead Whitechapel woman.
(cue music)Who are you? who who who…
Dec 31st, 2004
BatJay
um, perhaps mr. moore can insert the rizal bit it in one of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen episodes.
Dec 31st, 2004
markmomukhamo
batjay, ayaw na raw ni moore gumawa ng LEoG. sana magbago isip niya.
Jan 2nd, 2005
cristin
wow, thats one heck of a gray area in our heroes life. but i am still a rizal loyalist. poor hero, even at his death, he still has a lot of debts to answer.
Feb 26th, 2005
Fact check
“especially when a doctor was one of the suspects for the Ripper murders.”
That doctor was not a “suspect” until several years later… and he was in prison at the time of the murders.
So, no….
Jan 19th, 2006
haedrian
what is the name of the aya(maid) of Jose P. Rizal?
Oct 9th, 2006
dek01
uu nga ano? ba’t di kaya yun nasabi sa mga libro??? d kaya c rizal at c jack the ripper ay iisa??? suggestion lang naman…
Jan 11th, 2007
markmomukhamo
Folks, just to clarify:
a) I don’t think Rizal was Jack the Ripper.
b) This is just me saying he was in Europe during the Ripper murders.
c) I just found it strange Rizal didn’t mention it in his correspondence. It shows how focused he was in his work.
d) I don’t hate Rizal. In fact we couldn’t ask for a better National Hero.
Feb 3rd, 2007
pinkyen
i do agree that Rizal could never be jack the ripper! the heck, even a great hero nowadays is being pointed out as a murderer..what a shame!
Aug 20th, 2007
Pee jay
In 1888, he was staying with the Beckett family at 37 Chalcot Crescent in Camden
- He was a doctor(opthalmologist)
- He was good with weapons(was called “the swordsman”)
- He was a Malay
- He was proficient in the martial arts
- He would have been 27 at the time of the Ripper killings
- He also took up fencing and was quite good
- He was short, had dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes
- He came from a well to do family, was well dressed and looked respectable
- He came to London on May 24, 1888 on the ship City Of Rome
- He left London in January of 1889, and the Ripper killings stopped
- He was multi-talented(could speak many languages, was a writer, poet, author, sculptor, artist)
- He was executed in the Philippines on December 30, 1896 at the age of 35
- Had a romantic relationship with Gertrude Beckett - the daughter of Charles Beckett
- He wrote letters to his friend Blumentritt from London, however there were no letters written to his family or friends from July 1888 - November 14, 1888
- He was working at the British Library at the time
- After he died, his mother tried to procure his assets which consisted of some pretty nice jewelery including gold cuff links and other baubles of diamonds and amethysts(gold chain with a red stone seal?)
I think this man warrants further investigation, which I intend to do
Name Relation Marital Status Gender Age Birthplace Occupation Disability
Charles BECKETT Head M Male 36 Blackfriars, Surrey, England Civil Service
Georgina BECKETT Wife M Female 38 Ely, Cambridge, England
Gertrude A. BECKETT Daur Female 11 Ely, Cambridge, England Scholar
Blanche A. BECKETT Daur Female 10 Ely, Cambridge, England Scholar
Charles F. BECKETT Son Male 9 St Pancras, Middlesex, England Scholar
Florence G. BECKETT Daur Female 7 St Pancras, Middlesex, England Scholar
Francis H. BECKETT Son Male 5 St Pancras, Middlesex, England Scholar
Grace A. BECKETT Daur Female 1 St Pancras, Middlesex, England
Emily J. BLOXAM Serv Female 16 Essex, England Gen Serv
Source Information:
Dwelling 37 Chalcot Cres
Census Place London, Middlesex, England
Family History Library Film 1341040
Public Records Office Reference RG11
Piece / Folio 0183 / 15
Page Number 23
January 1986, St. Pancras, London
While up in the attic putting away boxes of Christmas ornaments,
THE PRESENT_DAY OWNERS of #37 Chalcot Crescent stumble across
a dusty old trunk, which (once the lock is pried open) reveals
some /very interesting/ items once belonging to Dr. Jose Rizal.
In particular, a diary wherein he confesses to the Whitechapel
murders; and a glass jar with half a human kidney preserved in
alcohol.
Unlike the embarassing “Hitler Diaries” hoax a few years before,
/this/ seems to be genuine. The ink, paper, etc. are from 1888.
The handwriting matches Dr. Rizal’s. And (thanks to a surviving
great-granddaughter) a new DNA test makes it almost certain that
the kidney was taken from Catherine Eddowes.
Feb 5th, 2008
DON_DY
Grabe kong totoo man itong theory na ito, IDOL ko pa naman siya. Ang kwento nga ng lolo ng lola ko kamag-anak daw namin siya kasi Rizal ang apelyido ng nanay ko…Actually may hawig ako sa kanya….
Feb 20th, 2008
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