The Russian Army had now fully mobilised, a lot earlier than Germany had expected. Now half their army was trapped in trenches in France whilst the other half dealt with the Russians. The Russian troops made an advance into Prussia but were swiftly crushed at Tannenberg, where 90,000 Russian troops were taken prisoner and an entire army was wiped out. Another victory at Masurian Lakes forces the Russians out of the region.
Further south, the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was going bad for Austria-Hungary due to a humiliating loss at the Battle of Cer. An offensive against Russia also fails and the Austro-Hungarians are pushed back, with a siege on Przemysl beginning not long after. The Germans, in an effort to distract the Russian forces, engaged in a series of battles at Lodz in modern day Poland.
German troops at the battle
Eventually, the Ottoman Empire, a large Middle Eastern Empire spanning Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and parts of Saudi Arabia, join the fighting on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, by sending some ships into the Black Sea, launching naval bombardments on the naval bases of Odessa and Sevastopol, while engaging with ground units on the Georgian border. Due to the vast length and low density of the line, trench warfare never set in like it did on the western front.
Tsar Nicholas ordered the mobilisation of troops on July 29th and Kaiser Wilhelm mobilised theirs on the 30th. Because Russia had such a large army to mobilise on such a large border, Germany believed they had to take out France first. Luckily, they had planned for this.
In 1906, Alfred Von Schliefen had devised a plan in case they needed to invade France. He proposed a plan of going through the Lowlands, of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, before attacking France from it’s northern border, encircling Paris, assuring a swift victory. The front could then be moved to Russia and their large army to focus on that front.
A photo of Schlieffen, 1906
The invasion of Belgium began. Having reassured it’s safety, Britain joins the war against Germany, sending troops down to France. However, the advance slows at the heavily fortified city of Liege. Once the city was captured, the German’s committed brutal war crimes against the civilian population. The Triple Alliance spread propaganda, denouncing the German’s actions in the Belgian cities, making many neutral countries opinions of Germany turn sour.
France began to make a push into the German territory but were pushed back at a heavy cost in the Battle of the Frontiers
A French army at the battle
The British troops eventually make an advance and fight with German troops at Mons. However, they were vastly outnumbered and had to retreat to the French frontline at the Marne River. It seemed as though the Schlieffen Plan would be a swift success.
However, the German’s needed to secure a naval port. The Allied Armies and the Germans quickly ran to the coast trying to flank one another, forming a full frontline, colliding at the First Battle of Ypres. However, due to some light tinkering from Helmuth von Moltke, the German line was under supplied so could not advance past this point for the meantime. The two lines began to dig in, building a network of trenches across the frontline.
Many believed that the plan itself was flawed and was destined to never work. Others claim that due to Moltke’s meddling, the plan failed. But no matter what you think was the cause for the Schlieffen Plan’s failure, the era of Trench Warfare had begun.
On 28th of July 1914, Gavrilo Princip, member of the Serbian organisation “The Black Hand” shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife in Bosnia, killing them both. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination, so declared war. Russia had an alliance with Serbia, so declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany had an alliance with Austria-Hungary, so declared war on Russia, thus bringing both Germany and Hitler into World War 1.
He was attached to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 and was a runner on the Western Front in East Belgium. He was awarded an Iron Cross (2nd class) for his bravery, one of the highest awards given to soldiers in the German Army, similar to the Victoria Cross or Medal of Honour.
Hitler in a dugout in the war. He is furthest left.
During the Battle of the Somme in 1916, he suffered an injury from an artillery shell which wounded his left thigh. He was sent to hospital and returned in March 1917.
In September 1918, Hitler claimed that in a battle was unarmed and a rifle was pointed at him by Private Henry Tandey, one of the most highly decorated privates of the war, having gained a Victoria cross for his bravery at the fifth Battle of Ypres. He held his gun on Hitler but then told him to go. Hitler told this tale to Former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain when he visited his house in Bavaria, saying “That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again,”. When first hearing this Tandey denied all claims but later on he says he remembers doing something like this and if it was Hitler he should’ve pulled the trigger, saying, “If only I had known what he would turn out to be […] When I saw all the people and women and children he had killed and wounded I was sorry to God I let him go.” when an interviewer went to his house in Coventry. The paper wrote “Nothing Henry did that night could ease his sickening sense of guilt. […] It was a stigma that Tandey lived with until his death […] He could have stopped this. He could have changed the course of history.” Tandey passed away in 1977 at his home in Coventry.
This is a painting at Hitler’s home in Bavaria which he showed to Prime Minister Chamberlain. Hitler claimed that the injured man being carried at the front of the line is him and the man carrying him is Tandey.
A month after he was nearly killed, Hitler was partially blinded by a mustard gas attack and was sent to hospital. It was during this time when he learnt of Germany’s defeat. Hitler said that when he learnt this he had a second wave of blindness. Hitler and many others believed that Germany had been stabbed in the back from the home front and Hitler blamed it on the Jews and Marxists. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles didn’t help matters, making the German people hate the countries that made them sign the Treaty even more than they already did.
In the early 20th Century, Europe began to split into two factions. France, The United Kingdom and Russia formed the Triple Entente. France wanted the region of Alsace Lorraine back, a wooded area that had been taken by Germany. Britain feared the size of Germany’s navy and were worried it could possibly rival the famous Royal Navy, which had ruled the waves for centuries. But all 3 countries feared the possible expansion of the German Empire, lead by Kaiser Wilhelm
Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. Germany was fearing an all on attack, so made an alliance with Austria-Hungary, a vast yet fragile empire in the Balkan Sates that was nearing the brink of collapse. Italy wanted to reassert it’s old Roman claims, even if it meant at France’s expense. Tension began to rise and all Europe needed was one little push.
A map of Europe in 1914
June 28th, 1914. Heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was coming to visit Sarajevo in Bosnia with his pregnant wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. A Bosnian terrorist organisation backed by the Serbian Government called the Black Hand decided to act. There were 6 people assigned to assassinate the Archduke as he drove on his motorcade to Sarajevo City Hall.
Muhamed Mehmedbašić
Vaso Čubrilović
Nedeljko Čabrinović
Cvjetko Popović
Trifko Grabež
Gavrilo Princip
These six men were coordinated by Danilo Ilić. Every assassin would be armed with a pistol, a bomb and a cyanide pill. Before the Archduke even got into town, things began to go awry. They were worried the weapons would not get there in time, as they were being smuggled in a sugar shipment to the city. However, the problem was they thought they sent the sugar to the wrong place. Eventually, the weapons did arrive in time.
A modern day map of the river in Sarajevo (Google Maps)
Eventually, the Archduke arrived in the town in an open top car. As he drove down Obala Kulina bana, the street leading up to the City Hall in the third car of a six car motorcade, two of the assassins, Muhamed and Vaso, were stationed next to each other on the side of the street furthest from the Milijacka River and Nedeljko was on the river side of the street. The Archduke passes Muhamed and Vaso. For some unkown reason, Muhamed, who the Archduke is first to pass, does nothing. Many historians suspect it was due to nerves. Vaso, possibly because Muhamed didn’t act, also does nothing.
Eventually, Nedeljko, steps out into the street, throwing a bomb at the Archduke’s car. However, the bomb bounced off the car, rolled into the street and exploded the car behind the Archduke, injuring the guards inside. Realising the plan had failed, Nedeljko takes the cyanide pill and leaps into the river in an effort to drown himself. However, not only was the cyanide pill out of date, the river was also in a dry season. So Nedeljko was now vomiting in knee deep water having just broken his legs from jumping off the bridge. The crowd, mad at the attempt on the Archduke’s life, swarmed him and nearly beat this vomiting crippled man to death, before the police stepped in.
The other 3 assassins, whose whereabouts were unknown during all this, scrammed. Gavrilo decided to make a stop at a local sandwich shop on the corner of Obala Kulina bana and Zelenih berekti. Meanwhile, the motorcade races down to the City Hall, where the Archduke was supposed to make a speech. He burst in, halfway through the mayor’s speech, interrupting him saying:
Mr Mayor, I came here to visit and I am greeted with bombs. It is outrageous.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand upon walking into City Hall
When he wanted to give his speech, he discovered that the speech had been left in the car that had just blown up, so someone was sent back to retrieve the speech, now covered in blood, and hand it to the Archduke. After the speech, the Archduke and a security team decided what to do next, who eventually decided to go back the way they came towards the hospital to see if the guards were doing alright. They all agreed upon this plan, got in their cars and drove away.
The Archduke was now sat in the back right seat of his car, with Sophie on the back left seat and a guard hanging onto the left side. However, for some unholy reason, everyone neglected to tell the drivers, so they continued on the scheduled route up to the museum, which would involve a right turn onto Zelenih berekti. Just outside the sandwich shop, the guard noticed that they had made a wrong turn. Back in these days, there was no reverse on cars so the driver had to get out of the car and push. Around this time, Gavrilo left the shop and noticed his target stopped right in front of him, with his only guard on the other side of the car. Gavrilo took his chance and, with his pistol, shot the Archduke dead. The guard prepped to return fire and Gavrilo shot at him. However, Sophie, who was tending to her husband, got in the way and was shot instead.
A painting of the Archduke’s assassination
Gavrilo Princip, who was only 19 at the time, was arrested and put on trial. He was too young to be executed so was sentenced to solitary confinement in the Small Fortress, a prison complex in Terezin. He spoke to a psychiatrist, to whom he said that World War 1 would’ve started with or without the assassination. He did not feel responsible for the starting of the war but he did feel awful for killing Sophie. Princip died of tuberculosis on April 28th, 1918, weighing only 40kg (88lb) due to malnutrition inside the prison.
This one event set off a chain reaction. Austria-Hungary, believing Serbia to be behind the attack, declared war on them. Serbia was allies with Russia, so they declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany joined in on the fighting against the two nations, with France joining the fight not long after that, beginning World War 1. The UK decided to stay out of it for the meantime. However, that was to change very soon.
Back in St Petersburg, one of the Tsars advisors, Sergei Witte, began industrialising the nation, despite the Tsar thinking it was a waste of time. He borrowed some money from France and used it to build factories. Despite these attempts to modernise, the conditions in these factories were awful. Rats were frequent sights to be seen, workers would sleep in smelly cramped dormitories and arms could be torn off in the heavy machinery. And they all went on strike. The liberals asked for reform, the farmers were all starving and the workers now wanted better working conditions. In order to distract them from the crisis, Nicholas decided to go to war with Japan to bring in some Russian pride, a plan that backfired as Japan won the war relatively quickly, taking a part of Russia’s land. Revolution was right around the corner and all it needed was one little push.
An Orthodox Priest by the name of Father Gapon lead a peaceful march to the palace on January 22nd, 1905, wanting to deliver a petition to Nicholas, asking for freedom and better working conditions. Nicholas, however, had left the palace a few days before, sending in troops to stop Gapon’s protest from getting to the palace. In response to this non-violent protest, the Russian army fired upon the protestors
A drawing of Father Gapon’s march facing down the Russian military
Around 200 people died on the day that would later become known as Bloody Sunday. Despite not having issued the order, all the blame was placed on Nicholas. The nation erupted into political unrest, as rumours of soldiers defecting to the revolutionaries, all while Russia was still losing to Japan. During all this, Marxists established local elected councils called Soviets who coordinated strikes and supplied workers, created by Leon Trotsky. Eventually, Sergei allowed the Liberals to form a government called the Duma, who would help the Tsar decide important issues. He ended the war with Japan and brought the military forces back to violently quell the remaining uprisings. Meanwhile, Nicholas also wrote new laws, allowing him to dissolve the Duma whenever he pleased, something that tended to happen a lot. Still in exile, Lenin believed that Russia had missed its chance at a true revolution and the only way to get that was through a violent armed uprising from the working class.
After the revolution, the Tsar replaced Sergei with Pyotr Stolypin, who thought that to stop more uprisings, the people must be beaten into submission, more than they already were. Some who disagreed with the Tsar were even hanged. Despite the repression, positive reforms were managing to get passed and the economy was on the rise. Lenin soon found that, without the suffering of the people, a Communist uprising would never occur and they would never get enough funding. Around this time was when he met a handsome Georgian by the name of Joseph Dzhugashvili or, as many people know him today, Stalin. Stalin would hold up banks, rob people and commit other such crimes in order to get more party funding. Stalin’s loud antics, while gaining party funding, also got him exiled to Siberia.
A photo of the young Stalin
While Russia’s economy was on the up, Nicholas acquired a new ally, Grigori Rasputin.
A picture of Grigori Rasputin
Rasputin was a man of mystery. He was, ultimately a peasant who was practically homeless but claimed to have magic powers that were healing Nicholas’ sickly son, Alexei. Surprisingly, this allegedly worked, perhaps because he took him off his doctor prescribed meds but that’s besides the point. The point is that Nicholas had found this random homeless man off the street who claimed to be magic and brought him into the Russian Royal Family like one of their own, an action that began to turn heads.
But ultimately, if this crazy wizard’s powers did “work” in healing Alexei, and the economy was on the up, as long as Nicholas didn’t do anything too stupid, there would be no more revolutions. Unfortunately, a Serbian terrorist had to shoot an Austrian Archduke in Bosnia, thrusting Russia into World War 1.
In the 19th century, Russia was, compared to the rest of the world, highly underdeveloped. Whilst many other European powers enjoyed the Industrial Revolution, Russia was still stuck in their feudalist roots. Many offers came across their desk to free the serfs and modernise, the Russians, like many an autocrat before them were too busy partying. And, if you know your history, a suffering, impoverished majority and a careless, party animal elite tend not to mix well.
However, unlike many other European Autocracies, it almost seemed as though the nobility wanted the poor to suffer instead of just neglecting them. They prohibited the people from getting educations, out of fear they may rebel against them, whilst also exporting mass amounts of grain, despite having a shortage themselves, causing a famine in 1891 that killed almost half a million people. With tensions rising between many European superpowers, Russia needed to act now before they were left in the dust. Meet Tsar Alexander II.
A photograph of Tsar Alexander II
Tsar Alexander, unlike many Tsars before him, actually understood the serf’s troubles and wanted to do something to fix it by deciding to free the serfs. However, the land owners weren’t happy about losing their free labour so the serfs had to pay exorbitant amount of money to their former bosses over the next 49 years. However, many people were not a fan of one man ruling the country, so blew him up in his carriage while on the way to a military roll call in 1881. He died shortly afterwards and was replaced by his son, Alexander III
A photograph of Tsar Alexander III
Alexander III was the complete opposite of his father. Due to Russia’s vast size, many ethnic groups resided within its borders, groups that Alexander believed should be more Russian and more loyal to him. He achieved this by repressing this ethnic and religious groups with the help of his new secret police, who also helped crush any anti-Tsar rhetoric. In order to become Tsar, Nicholas, who Alexander called a “girlie girl” in front of his peers, needed to man up in his father’s eyes. So he went to Japan, got a dragon tattoo and got part of his head cut open by a police officer before returning to St Petersburg. But, before his father could teach him anything about ruling this vast empire, Alexander died of kidney inflammation in 1894, making the highly inept Nicholas II the new Tsar.
A photograph of Tsar Nicholas II
Even Nicholas knew he was inexperienced but believed it was his duty to his family and his people to be a good Tsar. On the 27th of May, 1896, 100,000 citizens of Moscow gathered in a field in Khodynka in the outskirts of Moscow, in celebration of the recent coronation of the new Tsar, where free pretzels and beer were offered by Nicholas to his people. Rumours circulated around the field that there would not be enough food and beer for all the attendees. In a rush to get the food and drink first, over 1,000 people were crushed and trampled to death. That night, a gala with the French Ambassador was planned. While Nicholas wanted to stay in his chambers, praying for the lives lost, his uncles believed that if he did not attend this gala, relationships would be strained between France and Russia. Nicholas attended the party. The Russian people, from then on, saw the Tsar as heartless and uncaring of his people. Many also began questioning if there needed to be a Tsardom at all.
Some looked west, at all the republics, constitutional monarchies and democracies, thinking they could emulate them. However, a group of left leaning radicals thought otherwise. They believed what Russia needed now was this new idea called Communism. The idea was initially proposed by Karl Marx in 1848, in his book called the Communist Manifesto.
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms: Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and [the working class]. The immediate aim of the Communist [is for the working class to] overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the [working class]
Karl Marx writing in The Communist Manifesto
One of the main leaders of the Communists in Russia was a man by the name of Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was known for his short temper, and aggressive outbursts whenever you disagreed with him. He was not unfamiliar with political unrest either, as his brother had been hanged from plotting to kill the Tsar whilst Lenin himself was expelled from university after engaging in multiple anti-Tsar student protests.
A photo of Vladimir Lenin
Lenin was very open about his passion towards Marx. However, due to his pro-Marx and anti-Tsar ideals, Lenin and his family were exiled to Siberia, the snowy tundra in the east of Russia. Eventually, he was freed from his exile in Siberia and moved to Europe, where he could freely talk with other Russian Communists about Communist ideals and write Socialist pamphlets, in an attempt to overthrow the Tsar. However, a split began to form in the Russian Socialist party, the more moderate Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, the latter of which was run by Lenin and his more radical ideas for reform.
In Fall River, Massachusetts, on August 4th, 1892, around 11:10 am. Lizzie Borden heard a strange noise from her house and rushed inside. She ran into the living room to find a horrible sight. She saw her father, Andrew Borden, dead on the sofa with a disfigured face with blood pouring out the side of his head. His eye was split cleanly in two, suggesting he was asleep while he was attacked, and his nose wasn’t there. He was still bleeding, which meant the attack was recent. He had 10-11 whacks in him from a hatchet like weapon.
A censored photo of Andrew’s body found in the living room
The maid heard from her quarters in the attic from Lizzie “Come down quick! Father’s dead! Somebody’s come in and killed him!” Despite this call for help, Lizzie refused the maid, Bridget Sullivan, access to the room, thinking it too painful for her to see her father dead. Bridgette soon came back with a neighbour.
They didn’t know where the stepmother was, Abby Durfee Gray. The last they heard of her was the maid saying that she went out with friends. Lizzie said “Oh Maggie (a nickname for Bridget)! I am almost sure I heard her come in. Check upstairs and see if she is there!” The neighbour and Bridgette soon moved upstairs and saw Lizzie’s stepmother, dead. Abby Durfee Gray had 18-19 strokes with the hatchet and was face down in the bedroom.
A photo of Grey’s body in the bedroom
It is believed to be the hatchet that killed them was the same one that killed Lizzie’s pigeons a few months prior. There was nothing stolen, nor was there any sign of a break in. The timing of the murders is very peculiar. According to forensics teams, Abby was murdered at around at around 9:00 and Andrew was murdered around 11:00, since Abby’s blood was dry and, Andrew’s was fresh and wet. The maid stated that Lizzie was wearing “an unstained blue dress.” Lizzie was tried for the murder but acquitted of all charges. The strange thing is is that in such a small 3 storey house, nothing was heard by anyone until by Lizzie at 11:10
Suspect #1: Lizzie Borden – Daughter of Andrew Borden and Step-Daughter of Abby Durfee Grey
Lizzie Borden
The primary suspect is Lizzie Borden. She claimed she was in the barn looking for lead sinkers. After the murder, there was a large sum of money given to her, approximately $10 million in modern times. Her answers at the trial contradicted each other such as the fact that she said she put on her father’s slippers before his nap but according to crime scene photos he was wearing boots. A friend of Lizzie’s, Alice, saw her burning a red dress saying that “there was paint on it.” This was not the same dress Bridget described. A local pharmacist claimed she was trying to buy potassium cyanide the day before the murders. This was dismissed in the trial due to the fact that there was just some bad food in the victims on the autopsy report and nothing more. During the trial, the victim’s skulls were admitted as evidence and Lizzie fainted when she saw them. After a year of planning and prepping for the trial, the police only had circumstantial evidence so couldn’t convict her. 90 minutes and she was off scot free. This theory is so popular that there is a rhyme to go with the murders.
Lizzie Borden took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done, She gave her father forty-one.
Rhyme sung about the murders
After her mother died, Lizzie apparently latched onto her father as the centre of her life, becoming a bit of a daddy’s girl before he remarried, an event she felt betrayed by. She often took to petulantly calling Abby “Mrs Borden” and would often leave early at meal times. Mending the relationship with his daughter was clearly irrelevant to Andrew, as he was incredibly strict with Lizzie. Some writers have interpreted the relationship in various ways, extending to him being abusive, and perhaps even sexually abusive, with Elizabeth Engstrom taking a very Freudian approach, with Lizzie filling the sexual desire in Andrew after the death of her mother.
Some have viewed the Borden murders as a feminist liberation from an oppressive patriarchy. Some others have interpereted her as cold, calculating and even insufferable, far from a feminist icon she is sometimes portrayed to be. However, Rafia Zakaria of The Guardian drew comparisons between the relationship with Lizzie and Andrew Borden to the relationship between Ivanka and Donald Trump, who has often been very open about sexualising his eldest daughter, calling her “voluptuous”, a “great piece of ass” and saying that if she wasn’t his daughter, he’d marry her.
The real Lizzie would likely not have recognised herself in many of the books about her, and she certainly never admitted to having committed the murders. It is too bad that recent takes on her story have veered towards the lurid, for there is plenty of contemporary relevance to be found in the feminist appraisals of the story. The same Americans who may choose to pick up a book about her, or even venture to the house on Second Street for a tour, might perceive similar paradigms being played out in the White House, where, with her own office in the West Wing, a daughter plays a similar part to the hilt, with only minor variants from the Victorian script of gentle cajoling and subordination. All while glibly sidelining a stepmother.
Rafia Zakaria “The Lizzie Borden murder industry won’t die – but its feminism has”
Suspect #2: Bridget Sullivan – Maid to the Borden Family
Bridget Sullivan
Abby was very strict and sometimes described as mean to Sullivan. She was cleaning the outside of the house and the went to bed when she was awoken by Lizzie’s screams. Where she was sleeping was above where Abby was murdered. Experiments conducted on the house prove that you would be able to hear a thud from a floor below, a sound even more likely to be heard due to the fact that she said she was only half asleep.
Suspect #3 – John Vinnicum Morse – Uncle of Lizzie Borden, Brother of Lizzie Borden’s mother
John V. Morse
The theory of Morse being behind the murders was thought of by maths teacher Richard Little who wrote a book on the case called “Cold Case to Case Closed. Lizbeth Borden. ~My Story~” John was not seen from 9:00 until noon. His alibi is that he was down the road visiting a sick relative with the town doctor. However, that very same doctor was looking at the bodies at the time. Morse was sleeping in the room that Abby was found in. Also, Morse may have known about the will. We can tell from the following transcript from Lizzie:
Q: Did you know of your father making a will?
A: No sir, except I heard somebody say once there was one several years ago. That is all I ever heard.
Q: Who did you hear say so?
A: I think it was Mr Morse.
Q: What Morse?
A: Uncle John V Morse
Transcript from the trial
Little also states there was a failing livestock business run by Mr Morse. He also said that he killed the Borden’s with a meat clever, since he was a butcher.
Suspect #4 – Were Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan Lesbian Lovers?
A still from “Lizzie”. Kristen Stewart is depicting Sullivan (left) and Chloe Sevigny is depicting Borden (right)
The fourth theory is 2 people at once. That is Lizzie and Bridget. Many a fan fiction claim that they had a romantic relationship and Abby discovered it. The back up for this theory is that Lizzie confessed she had a crush on a female actor later in life. However, this theory was adapted into the 2018 film “Lizzie” starring Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny as Sullivan and Borden respectively, pushing the theory into the mainstream.
Ultimately, we will never know what happened that fateful day in Fall River. The Borden Murders remain unsolved to this day, but have become a defining staple of the Pre-War America.
Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch painter, born in 1853. Whilst many of his paintings today are celebrated as some of the greatest paintings of all time, his art did not sell during his time alive. His greatest artistic endeavours unfortunately came at a time of great decline in his mental health, culminating in 1888 when he famously cut off his own ear as a gift for a sex worker. Not long after this incident, he admitted himself to an insane asylum, where he painted some of his most iconic work, including A Starry Night. Many describe Vincent today as a great artist with a tortured soul.
A self portrait of Vincent Van GoghSunflowers (1888)A Starry Night (1889)Bedroom in Arles (1888)
By May 1890, he was released from the institution, he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small commune just outside of Paris, where he would keep in regular contact with his brother, Theo, who lived in the city. On a visit, Theo told Vincent that he was considering starting up a new business. Vincent was apparently deeply troubled by this, believing that he had become a burden after living off his brother’s money during his years of unemployment and this gamble with his personal finances would only financially cripple Theo more.
On July 27th, 1890, Vincent had lunch and went out with his art supplies and came back around sundown. Due to the nice weather, many people were still eating, drinking and socialising outside of the inn he was staying at by the time he got back. He shuffled past, made no attempt at eye contact and, most notably, came back with none of the art supplies he had left with. His jacket was buttoned all the way up, which was particularly peculiar for such a warm night. The owner of the inn, Gustave Ravoux, went to go check on Vincent after he had been spotted clutching his abdomen limping upstairs. He found him lying on his bed curled up. When Ravoux asked what was wrong, Vincent stated that he had “wounded himself”, before opening his shirt and revealing a gunshot wound in his chest. At around midnight, he passed away, being cradled by his brother, saying “I want to die like this”
The main theory to this day is that Vincent committed suicide, considering his dire mental health and him feeling like a financial burden to his brother. The possible circumstances surrounding this theory come from Adeline Ravoux, daughter of Gustave Ravoux, who claims that Vincent went to a wheat field that he often painted in, shot himself in the chest and, as the night got colder, was woken up. Upon struggling to find the gun in the field to finish the job, he returned to the inn and the story goes as previously said. This story is incredibly strange, as the gun not being able to be found, unless he tossed it for some reason, is very odd. Not only that but the chest is an incredibly odd place to kill yourself and is very uncommon in suicides. And, finally, if this story is to be believed and he passed out after shooting himself, only to wake up later, then the wound would be much bloodier than it was when he arrived back at the inn. Upon a search of the field, no-one else could find a gun or the art supplies in the field. In addition, Vincent was quite religious, and openly condemned suicide in all forms. Despite this, he was adamant at the inn that he had shot himself.
Van Gogh’s painting of the field that it is alleged he shot himself in
With the suicide theory having many holes, it’s time to turn to the theory of biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, who theorise that Vincent was shot by a group of local boys and protected their identities. Often, Vincent was the subject of public bullying. When he asked people to sit for paintings, they’d often refuse. His appearance didn’t help, with his straggly hair, unkempt clothes and missing ear. Some of his worst bullies were the boys, who’d pretend to be nice to Vincent, only to play practical jokes on him, like spiking his coffee with salt, putting snakes in his painting supplies and rubbing chilli pepper on a brush he was known to suck.
One of his most notrious pranksters was a young boy called René Secrétan who said “Our favourite game was making him angry, which was easy.” Gaston, René’s older brother, was an aspiring artist himself and often spoke with Vincent about the Parisian Art World. Vincent thought that René was something he’d just have to put up with in order to have an actual friendship with Gaston. René, on the other hand, often enjoyed fishing and hunting and, after seeing a Wild West show in Paris, became obsessed with cowboys. It got to the point where René would often wear Western Attire, to which Vincent would often call him “Puffalo Pill” a mispronunciation of Buffalo Bill due to his accent, which often angered René.
An illustration of René in his cowboy get-up
One part of the boy’s Western Ensemble outfit was a .380 calibre revolver, which Naifeh and Smith allege was accidentally discharged on the day of Vincent’s death, and struck him in the abdomen, whereupon he stumbled back to the inn and testified that he had committed suicide. It is alleged that the boys took the supplies for themselves or perhaps destroyed them. Not only that but eye witnesses claim that he was headed to a small hamlet, where René liked to fish. In addition, it is more believable that Vincent was killed here rather than at the field, as the mile long trek down from the field would be much harder to do with a hole in his chest, than the much shorter, more flat walk from the hamlet.
Not long after Van Gogh’s death, René left town, notably without his pistol, which hardly left his side. He claimed Vincent had stolen it. Whilst Vincent died in his 30s, not seeing much financial success from his work, his art is admired today as some of the greatest in the world.
Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time. The most beloved, his command of colour most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.
Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, a northern area in modern day Austria, which was formerly a part of the vast but fragile Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1889. His father, Alois Hitler, was abusive to the young boy, often exacting punishments via physical abuse, whilst his mother, Klara Polz, who was also his Father’s cousin, was very doting and the young Hitler grew very fond of his mother.
Hitler as a baby
Whilst he was often described as a confident young man in his early youth, his personality changed when his younger brother, Edmund, passed away from the measles when Hitler was 11, turning him into a more detached and depressed young teen, who’d often argue with his father and teachers. Only three years later, his father would pass away from a lung hemorrhage. Not long afterwards, his grades started to decline, with him barely passing his final exams.
At the age of 18, he had a sad goodbye to his mother, before moving to Vienna to take an entrance exam to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. After being rejected not once but twice, he had to return home to Linz, after learning that his mother was dying of breast cancer. She passed away at the age of 47, when Hitler was 18. The family doctor, Eduard Bloch, said that he had never seen someone so distraught as Hitler was at his mother’s death.
One of Hitler’s paintings
Aimless, Hitler slept on the streets of Vienna, selling paintings of Vienna’s sights in order to pay for food and alike. Whilst his former roommate in Vienna, August Kubisek, often described Hitler as rather outgoing, despite a general disinterest in pursuing women romantically, passionate in politics and the arts, a fan of the opera and somewhat Catholic in his beliefs, Hitler abruptly left the apartment they lived in shortly after his mother died and left no note indicating where he was going to. Likely because he was going nowhere.
Whilst he was often friendly towards Jewish individuals who expressed their religion in a more subtle way, that attitude began to slowly change over his time on the streets. Whilst the soup kitchen he spent most of his time in was largely a Jewish community, the middle class of the city found antisemitism to be fashionable. Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna from 1897 till his death in 1910, ran on a populist platform and largely campaigned in favour of antisemitism, a politician who Hitler openly admired. It is also around this time that Hitler noticed a different attitude he had towards Jewish people.
Once, when passing through the inner City, I suddenly encountered a phenomenon in a long caftan and wearing black side-locks. My first thought was: Is this a Jew? They certainly did not have this appearance in Linz. I watched the man stealthily and cautiously; but the longer I gazed at the strange countenance and examined it feature by feature, the more the question shaped itself in my brain: Is this a German?
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Antisemitic pamphlets were also commonplace around Vienna. Having developed these racist sentiments, he came to despise the multicultural Austro-Hungarian Empire, so moved to Germany by late 1913. Accused of draft dodging, Hitler wrote a letter to the Austro-Hungarian police, fearing arrest if he didn’t. Admiring his tone, the police let him go and the matter was largely dropped altogether. Only a few months later, war broke out.
In 1888, London was the largest city on the planet. At the height of the industrial revolution, this was the peak of capitalism, with many factory owners making lots of money very quickly.
A photo of London in the late 19th Century
However, just down the road from where all these rich men lived in Kensington were their workers, who lived in the infamous Victorian London Slums, which were rife with cholera outbreaks, rats and typhoid. Many of the men laboured in the highly dangerous factories to make a living for their family whilst the children were hired as chimney sweeps, where some would get trapped and die. The women sometimes turned to prostitution in order to make a living. One of the most famous of these slums was the expansive district of Whitechapel.
An East End Slum in Whitechapel
On the 31st August 1888 at around 3:40 am, Charles Cross was walking down Buck’s Row in Whitechapel when he saw a woman lying on her back on the ground. He rushed over, to find her hands cold to the touch. Robert Paul came to his side and the two analysed the body. However, not wanting to be late for work, the two men left the scene, hoping to find a police officer on their way. This effort was, thankfully, for naught as 5 minutes later PC John Neil happened upon the same body himself.
Neil, who had a lantern so could see much better, found a large cut across the woman’s throat. It was deemed to be relatively fresh, as the wound was still bleeding and different parts of the body were still warm. Another constable arrived who grabbed a doctor who determined that she had been dead for half an hour, which meant that Cross and Paul found the body only 10 minutes after the murder.
She was quickly rushed to the morgue not long after, where she was identified as Mary Ann Nichols, a 43 year old woman with 6 children who had turned to prostitution in order to get into a lodging house she had been denied from earlier that night. She was last seen, by a close friend, walking down Whitechapel Road, around 800 metres from her murder site, whilst visibly drunk. This was around 2:30, only one hour before her death.
A drawing of Nichols
The doctors determined that there were two slits to the throat as well as a slice across the abdomen and that she had been disembowelled. Whilst no organs had been removed, the doctors still determined that the killer had a decent anatomical knowledge. Many police officers compared it to another murder earlier that month, that being Martha Tabram. Both women were prostitutes, killed incredibly violently and ferociously, had no discernible motive for their respective murders and were around the same age. However, the difference was in the wounds. Whilst Tabram had been repeatedly stabbed, Nichols wounds were more consistent with slashes and slices. Despite this, the police still suspected the two murders of being linked.
On September 8th, a little over a week after the first murder, at 4:45 am, John Richardson was walking along Hanbury Street before making a stop at No. 29. He walked through the house to check the security of the basement door in the back yard before sitting on the back doorstep, where he trimmed a piece of leather from his boot. He then left the premises back through the front door and closed it behind himself, continuing on his walk to work. An hour later, a tenant on the third floor by the name of John Davis walked down stairs. The front door was now wide open but the back door was closed. Davis walked outside only to find the body of a woman lying on her back by the fence in the yard.
A photo of the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street
A doctor and a police officer soon arrived on the scene. The doctor said that she had been “terribly mutilated”. The specifics include a deep cut in her throat and her intestines had been lifted from her body and wrapped around her neck. By the woman’s feet they found a cloth and two combs, which were suspected to be belonging to the victim but had been arranged by the murderer.
At the mortuary she was identified as Annie Chapman, a 47 year old woman, who occupied herself with crochet work, flower selling and casual prostitution on the side. The last official sighting of Chapman was when she was denied lodging at 35 Dorset Street due to insufficient funds. However, at 5:30, a woman named Elizabeth Long saw Chapman conversing with a man just metres away from 29 Hanbury Street. Many suspect that this man, who Long could not see as his back was facing her, was the killer.
A photo of Chapman
However, this creates a conflict, as the doctor determined the time of death was at 4:30. Richardson claimed that when he entered the backyard at 4:45 there was no body, and that it was impossible for him to not have seen it if it was there. The doctor did concede saying that he mainly judged the time of death based off the temperature of the body, which could’ve been effected by the cold night. This would place Chapman’s death between 5:30 and 5:45 in the morning. However, this creates a chilling reality, where, with the dim light of dawn slowly creeping through the streets, the residents of 29 Hanbury Street would have had an unobstructed view of the murder. However, no-one was reported as having observed the murder.
At the mortuary, marks were discovered on her fingers, consistent with someone aggressively taking off a ring. Other parts of the abdomen were removed and not found, including Chapman’s womb. Doctor’s determined that, because of this, the killer must have some kind of anatomical knowledge, whether that be a surgeon, a medical student or a butcher.
Many in Whitechapel began to question the competence of the police, despite the overwhelming odds stacked against them. In an attempt to stop the attacks, a man named George Lusk established the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, a vigilante task force set on hunting down the killer. Due to a leather apron being found at the scene of Chapman’s murder, newspapers began to suspect that a Jewish man was behind the attacks, due to a Polish Jewish boot maker in Whitechapel named John Pizer often being characterised by his leather apron. The Vigilance Committee began to severely harass Jewish Businesses.
A cartoon depicting a police man playing Blind Man’s Bluff, attempting to demonstrate their incompetance
The newspapers whipped the people up into a frenzy, which encouraged many people to write into the police offices and newspapers claiming to be the murderer. Many of these were dismissed as pranks or false allegations. However, one sent to the Central News Agency in London caught their eye. The letter, which arrived on the 27th of September, read as follows in bright red ink.
Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the Police have caught me, but they won’t fix me just yet. I have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track. That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I shan’t quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now? I love my work and want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to write with, but it went thick like glue and I can’t use it. Red ink is fit enough I hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the lady’s ears off and send to the police officers just for jolly wouldn’t you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more work, then give it out straight. My knife’s so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck. Yours truly Jack the Ripper
Don’t mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasn’t good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands curse it. No luck yet. They say I’m a doctor now. ha ha
The letter sent to the Central News Agency
The name at the bottom of the letter would ring throughout history as one of if not the most famous serial killer of all time. The Agency forwarded this to the police, who were more skeptical. However, their opinion would soon change.
On September 29th, just two days after the “Dear Boss” Letter, 40 Berner Street was holding a meeting for the Socialist Club. The meeting came to a close and some chose to stay and drink. At half past midnight, Joseph Lave used the side entrance, which led into Dutfields Yard, to grab some fresh air. He lingered for 10 minutes, facing into Berner Street before retreating into the building. Moments later a man named Morris Eagle, who was a member of the club and had come back after escorting a woman home, turned right off Berner Street into Dutfields Yard and used the same entrance into No. 40.
A map of the street
Barely 20 minutes went by before a horse and carriage, driven by Louis Diemschutz, made the same turn that Eagle did, turning right into Dutfields Yard off Burner Street. However, once he entered the yard, the horse veered to the left. He looked down and saw the body of a woman lying by the wall. He went inside to check on his wife before a small crowd gathered outside. They determined that the woman was dead and then dispersed to find a police officer.
The name of the victim was Elizabeth Stride, a 44 year old cleaner and prostitute. She had been spotted 3 times through out the night with a man described as having a “respectable appearance” the last one of these being at around 12:35, about 25 minutes before the body was found.
A photo of Stride
The most notable sighting was by Israel Schwartz, who spotted a man violently shoving a woman at the entrance of Dutfields Yard. Schwartz crossed the street, deciding to not intervene, before the man yelled “Lipski”, a Jewish slur, which encouraged another man to follow Schwartz for quite some distance. Whether this was a co-conspirator or the man was simply frightened too and happened to walk down the same way as Schwartz is up to interpretation. This occurred only 5 minutes before the body was discovered and it is believed that the woman was Stride and the man shoving her was the killer.
She did not have as many brutal wounds as the other victims, with just a slit of her throat, which lead many to believe that she was not actually a victim of the Ripper. However, what many believe is that when Diemschutz rolled his cart down Dutfields Yard, he had inadvertently interrupted the murder, and the murderer had hidden at the end of the alleyway. Once Diemschutz went inside to check on his wife, it is believed that the murder slipped out of the yard and went on the hunt for another victim.
Later that night, at around 1:45, PC Edward Watkins discovered another body on his patrol route around the area of Mitre Square, only 15 minutes away from Dutfields Yard. She was taken to the mortuary and identified as Catherine Eddowes, a 46 year old street vendor and prostitute. Eddowes had been jailed earlier that night, for being so drunk she collapsed on the pavement, and was not released until 1 in the morning. 35 minutes later, she was spotted in the company of a man near an entrance to Mitre Square.
A drawing of Eddowes
The post mortem found that she too had been disembowelled, with some of her organs being removed, most notably her womb and her left kidney, reinforcing their theory that the killer had decent anatomical knowledge. What was also notable was that there had been a small incision made on her left earlobe. This indicated that the murderer was attempting to cut Eddowes’ ear off, as detailed in the letter, before he was, once again, interrupted. This was somewhat confirmed by a postcard sent 2 days later. Whilst it was much shorter than the letter sent on the 27th, many detectives still believed this to be from the actual killer, as it was written before any information about the two murders had been released to the public or the press.
I was not codding dear old boss when I gave you the tip, you’ll hear about Saucy Jacky’s work tomorrow double event this time number one squealed a bit couldn’t finish straight off. Had not got time to get ears off for police thanks for keeping last letter back till I got to work again.
The postcard sent to the Central News Agency
In addition, two blocks away from Mitre Square, a piece of blood stained cloth was found on the pavement, which was found to be a part of Eddowes’ apron that she was wearing. Above it, in large sprawling text on the wall, was written:
The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing
The graffito found on Goulston Street.
A cartoon depicting the discovery of the writing
The meaning of this is heavily debated. Was it written by the killer in an attempt to divert attention away or towards the Jewish Community of London? Was it just discarded there by chance under to some anti-semitic graffito by someone who wasn’t the killer? To this day, no-one knows the answer to any of these questions. No matter what the case was, Commissioner Charles Warren ordered it to be removed for fear of civil unrest.
A final confirmed letter was sent to George Lusk on the 16th of October and was redirected to the police force after its arrival. It appeared as though the handwriting was much worse than the previous two, as well as the spelling. However, some suspect that this was done on purpose to throw the police off to make the killer seem uneducated.
From hell.
Mr Lusk, Sir I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nice. I may send you the bloody knife that took it out if you only wate a while longer signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk
A photo of the “From Hell” letter
With the letter there was a parcel which, as the letter described, contained half a human kidney. There was no way of confirming, however, if this was actually Eddowes’ kidney or something that a medical student had done as a prank. Whatever the case may be, this is what many believe to be the final letter from Jack the Ripper, and there was relative peace in London for quite some time. For over a month, not a single murder was reported and many believed that the Ripper had simply stopped.
[I]t daily becomes evident that the Whitechapel murderer has gone out of business [and i]t is pretty certain that, despite […] the bravado exhibited by Jack the Ripper in his recent letter, the monster has become frightened at the magnitude of the police arrangements for his detection and has suspended his horrible work for the present, if not for good.
The Dunkirk Observer Journal, October 29th, 1888
In the property of Millers Court on November 9th, 1888, landlord John McCarthy had noticed that the tenant of number 13, one Mary Jane Kelly, had fallen behind on her rent. At around 10:45 am, he instructed his assistant, Thomas Bowyer, to collect the money. Bowyer knocked on the door twice and, after receiving no response, decided to peer through the window to see if Kelly was home. After seeing what was inside he quickly ran to his boss and summoned him to look upon the horror in 13 Miller’s Court.
The sight we saw I cannot drive away from my mind. It looked more like the work of a devil than of a man. [Kelly]’s body was lying on the bed undressed. She had been completely disembowelled, and her entrails had been taken out and placed on the table. It was those that I had seen when I looked through the window, and took to be lumps of flesh. The woman’s nose had been cut off, and her face gashed and mutilated so that she was quite beyond recognition. Both her breasts, too, had been cut clean away, and placed by the side of her liver, and other entrails on the table. I had heard a great deal about the Whitechapel murders, but I declare to God I had never expected to see such a sight as this. The body was, of course, covered with blood, and so was the bed. The whole scene is more than I can describe, I hope I may never see such a sight again.
John McCarthy’s testimony he gave to the press
Kelly was the youngest victim. She was somewhere in her mid twenties and was, up until the start of the month, cohabitating with a man named Joseph Barnett, who had split with Kelly on the 30th of October, due his disapproval of her life as a prostitute as well as the circles she hung around with.
A drawing of Mary Jane Kelly
Kelly was seen by Barnett in 13 Millers Court on the evening of November 8th, the former of which was in the company of a woman who was on her way out the door. Whilst many accounts conflict on this, Barnett claims he arrived anywhere between 7:00 and 7:45 and left before 9:00. At 11:45, Kelly’s neighbour spotted her entering her home with a man, whilst she was in a drunken state. She was heard singing by this same neighbour and was still singing by the time the neighbour left Miller’s Court at 1am.
It is then alleged that she left Miller’s Court and met up with George Hutchinson, asking for some spare coins as the two were well acquainted. When Hutchinson told Kelly he had no spare money, she walked down the street and was spotted in the company of a well dressed man by Hutchinson. Believing the presence of a well dressed man in the accompaniment of a woman like Kelly to be strange, he scrutinised the appearance of the man.
The central figure aligns with Hutchinson’s description of the man
Hutchinson then shadowed the couple up to Miller’s Court, whereupon the man gave Kelly a red handkerchief before being invited inside. The detail about the red handkerchief matches up with the testimony of the last person to see Eddowes alive, who described the man he sighted as having a “reddish handkerchief” tied around his neck. Hutchinson then stuck around for around an hour before leaving.
Once Kelly’s neighbour returned, at around 3:00, there was now no sound or light coming from Kelly’s room. At 4:00, the residents above and across from Kelly heard “cries of murder” from nearby, whilst other residents heard absolutely nothing at all. Doctors were unsure where to place the time of death as, despite Hutchinson’s testimony, some believe that he embellished the truth or simply lied in order to gain more public attention. The certainty was not helped by the fact that some witnesses described seeing and even speaking to her as late as 8 or 10 o’clock on the morning of November 9th.
These 5 murders described above are the suspected “Canonical Five” Victims. Whilst there were some murders in the area before and some since, these are usually the ones collectively agreed upon as the murders that were committed by Jack the Ripper. To this day, the case still remains unsolved. With hundreds upon hundreds of suspects, ranging from Charles Cross, who discovered the body of Nichols, to Lewis Carroll, the writer of Alice in Wonderland, the case will likely never be solved. Even with all these advances in modern science, with some DNA tests being conducted on cloth samples, this one simple question can not be answered nearly 200 years later.
Who was Jack the Ripper?
A cartoon depicting the nearly impossible manhunt for Jack the Ripper
