Theos-Talk Archives (June 2005 Message tt00424)

Hi Gregory,

While this is not the place to discuss the antics of Jack the Ripper
during the Autumn of 1888, I do thank you for those sources which I
have read and fully agree with your assessment. They are not very
convincing works in a historical sense but they have, as you probably
are aware, sourced unreliable material in support of the theories. So
I would concur with you that the conclusions reached by the authors
are misleading to say the least.

My concern here is mainly with the assumed authorship of the Lucifer
article of Nov 1890 "African Magic" in an attempt to either verify or
dismiss the claim made by Farnell, Harris, Cremers and Edwards that it
was not written by HPB but by Robert Donston Stephenson (the name on
his birth certificate).

Unless HPB did venture to Western Africa a possibilty that Stephenson
penned the article is high. Yet Vittoria Cremers, in her unpublished
memoirs, states that Mabel Collins and herself commissioned the
article from him, a mistake of course as they were expelled by that date.

So is this particular article the work of Blavatsky or not??? Does
anyone know? It appears to me that this instance is one that has not
been rebutted and in the event a great deal of misinformation and
storytelling has since emerged.

In the greater scheme of things of course this has no significance but
I am sincerely interested in this fragment of historical research
regarding the Theosophical Society of the late 19th Centuary.

Regards
Spiro

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, gregory@z... wrote:
> There are two significant, if eccentric, published studies of Robert
D'Onston 
> Stephenson, both purporting (unconvincingly) to demonstrate that he
was "Jack 
> the Ripper" but including much interesting material on his occult
associations 
> (including Mabel Collins). They are:
> 
> Melvin Harris "The True Face of Jack the Ripper" (London, Michael
O'Mara 
> Books, 1994)- this is the more scholarly of the two, and includes a 
> bibliography of D'Onston' writings, including "The Patristic
Gospels", written 
> at the end of his life and published in London in 1904.
> 
> Ivor Edwards "Jack the Ripper's Black Magic Rituals" (London, John
Blake, 
> 2002)- which is entertaining but lacking in substance.
> 
> Dr Gregory Tillett