Abberline: The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper by Peter Thurgood Read Free Book Online Page A

anti-British activities within his area.
    Abberline’s natural accent was a soft, south country one, but after working in North London for a couple of years, he had quickly picked up quite a reasonable Cockney accent, which was enough to fool most people and one of the reasons he had managed to gain the confidence of the criminal element in his area. The Irish accent, however, was something new to him; it didn’t come naturally as the London Cockney accent had done, but to give him his due, he did try.
    There were a number of Irish pubs along the Holloway Road, so dressed in what he thought was suitable attire, Abberline chose a Saturday night to visit as many as he could, in the hope of picking up some hints on the Irish accent, and maybe a word here and there regarding the Fenians.
    Most pubs at this time were what is known as ‘spit and sawdust’ pubs, a term relating to the sawdust which was liberally scattered over the floor to accommodate the habit of spitting; it also helped, as Abberline soon found out, soak up the blood from the fights which broke out at regular intervals in such establishments. Guinness was the natural drink in these pubs, sometimes used as a chaser after a dram or two of good Irish whiskey. As Abberline wasn’t exactly a strong drinker, a pint of ale with his colleagues now and then being his usual limit, he soon found himself the worse for wear, and this was in his first pub!
    By the end of that first evening, he had learned what to drink, if not how to actually drink it. He had also picked up a few Irish phrases, which were mostly obscenities or profanities, but he had heard no mention of any anti-British or Fenian activity. Not one to give up easily, Abberline continued his quest the following Saturday, and the Saturday after that; this was due mainly to the fact that he had leave on those particular days. He did have permission to carry out this type of undercover work during his normal working week, but he had decided to work alone for the first few weeks, bringing in the rest of his team only when he felt confident enough to show them that he knew the ropes where the Irish contingent were concerned.
    After three weeks, the only contact he had managed to make was with a man named Martin, who seemed to like the idea of having an English drinking partner, whom he could brag to about how many people he knew. Not exactly what Abberline had been hoping for, but maybe someone who could be cultivated in the future? He had not heard a mention of the word Fenian, or any other anti-British activity, and as for his hopes of being accepted as an Irishman, that seemed to be completely out of the question, as even his new-found ‘friend’ Martin referred to him as ‘the Brit’.
    Abberline decided to change tack. He put several of his team onto surveillance of the Irish pubs, while he decided to disguise himself as a cabdriver. He left his face unshaven for a week or two, wore a cap, polka-dot scarf and an old jacket. Scotland Yard provided the horse-drawn cab, which completed his disguise and allowed him carte blanche to go almost anywhere in London without anyone taking a second glance at him.
    It was while waiting at a cab shelter in Kilburn one evening, which was, and still is, a particularly large Irish area of London, that Abberline noticed two young men as they emerged from a house nearby. The men waited on the corner of the street for some time before a third man met them and spoke to them for several minutes. Abberline had thought the men looked suspicious, as it was raining hard yet they did not seek shelter, and the third man wore no hat. After a few minutes, the third man handed one of the men a piece of paper and then left. The two men hurried across the street and asked Abberline to take them to the Horse and Groom pub in Holloway, which was one of the pubs that he had earlier tried to infiltrate.
    It was almost impossible to hear what the occupants of the cab were saying, as the noise