30
August 2008
Tully Tubby Strikes Again
source: Is Jack the Ripper buried in Brisbane?
Penny Brand
A Brisbane cemetery
may be the resting place of one of the most notorious
homicide suspects of all time, Jack the Ripper.
On the eve of the 120th anniversary of the first
of the murders of five prostitutes in London's
Whitechapel area, keen Ripperologists have made
the chilling claim he could be buried at Toowong
Cemetery, in Brisbane's west. They claim the man
they think was Jack the Ripper was Walter Thomas
Porriott, known to police as Andrew John Gibson.
The headstone where he was buried in 1952 does not
even mention his name. Instead it reads: "Bessie" died
25th June 1957 and her husband.
A grainy image
on the headstone, depicting a caped-man raising
a dagger, adds to the mystery. Porriott was a convicted
killer and fraudster who had 20 wives and was buried
at Toowong Cemetery beside his last wife Eliza,
known as "Bessie". He lived
in London when all five murders were committed and
sailed to Australia after the murders stopped. The
latest Brisbane theory is one of hundreds about the
identity of the never caught killer, who went on
a brutal rampage through London for five months in
1888.
Brisbane historian
and Ipswich
City Councillor Paul Tully said the
latest claim was "sketchy in detail.
All of the theories are based on circumstantial evidence
and a lot of supposition," he said. "That's
why being another theory, I don't think this is...
Jack the Ripper. But it can't be ruled out." Cr
Tully said exhuming the grave for DNA testing would
be "inappropriate". "I don't know that digging
up people on a speculative basis would be appropriate." Mr
Tully has previously claimed Ned Kelly's younger brother
Dan and fellow gang member Steve Hart survived the
famous Kelly gang shoot-out at Glenrowan 125 years
ago and came to live in Ipswich. He has now become
a self-professed Ripperologist who is writing a book
which details the notorious killer's connection to
Australia. "It is possible we might still find
out one day who Jack the Ripper was. It is equally
possible that no one will ever know." Porriott
joins Frederick Deeming, who was hanged in Melbourne
in 1892 for killing his wife, as the other Australian
link to the Jack the Ripper mystery. Deeming went
to the gallows claiming he was Jack the Ripper.
What
is in the water up at Ipswich? And why is this Tully
bloke still a city councillor? Why hasn't he
retired after all the millions he made starring in
the movie Kenny?
After all, Tully looks more like that turd-flushing
hero than the actor Shane Jacobson does! Yes, Paul
Tully (or Kenny Smyth), is that self-same
moron who claims to have Dan
Kelly buried in the local cemetery after his amazing
escape from the Glenrowan siege. Now Tully claims some
plot in the Toowong Cemetery holds the remains of Jack
The Ripper. He's so keen to convince the world this
is Mr Ripper
(God, it must have been a slow news
day when the papers picked this gem up) that he hasn't
even had time to convince himself. Especially if you
go by this quote from the above report, ' I
don't think this is... Jack the Ripper. But it can't
be ruled out'. Really? Next thing you know he'll
be teeming up with dear old Bill
Denheld* and going on
a two man crusade to remove all those 'pesky facts'
from our history pages. Actually, I
can picture their road show, much like Puppetry
of the Penis only these
guys won't have to drop their strides for you to see
their private parts. Because Tully and Denheld are
two 'knobs' that you can spot a mile off!
*In a recent article titled,
Kelly
boots 'burial clue' Bill Denheld claims that Ned
Kelly was adopted, because, now-wait-for-it, some
half demented distant relative of the Kelly clan told
him so. Must be true then! |