Frederick Bailey Deeming (1842-1892)

Suggested in: "East End Murderer: I Knew Him" by Dr. Lionel Druitt (pamphlet)

Frederick Deeming, born in 1842, was said to have had an unnaturally strong relationship with his mother. Upon her death in 1873, Deeming became emotionally distraught, and remained in such a state for quite some time afterward.

A seafaring man, Deeming one day fell prey to a severe attack of "brain fever" while on a voyage, and many contend that he never quite recovered from the trauma. On several occasions he is noted to have acted like a madman and afterward claiming that his mother had told him to do so from beyond the grave.

Despite his emotional instability, Deeming met a woman during one voyage, eventually marrying and having four children by her. He moved from Australia (1887) to South Africa (1888), and in both countries gained a criminal record for fraud.

He moved to Liverpool with his family in 1888 but after a short while he was living alone and complained to his neighbours that his wife and children had “gone away”. He returned to Australia, remarried and once again his wife disappeared. This time he claimed she had gone abroad on business.

He moved home in 1891. The new tenants complained of a smell in the dining room. When the landlord lifted the floorboards he found Deeming’s wife rotting under the floorboards. The throat had been cut. The police immediately alerted the authorities in Liverpool, who similarly found Deeming’s first wife and four children – again, all four throats had been cut.

Deeming was caught and arrested in March of 1892 in Perth, Western Australia.

Newspapers began publishing stories commenting that Deeming had been sighted in Whitechapel in 1888, and that he was furthermore seen to have purchased knives in the area. While in prison, Deeming told his fellow inmates that he was indeed Jack the Ripper, but never confessed to authorities.

When brought to trial, he looked at the jury and described them as "the ugliest race of people I've ever seen."

The jury took little more than an hour to find him guilty, and Deeming was hanged on Monday May 23rd, 1892. After his death, a mask was made of his face as part of scientific studies into whether violent criminals could be spotted by the shape of the head. For many years this death mask was shown to visitors of New Scotland Yard as that of Jack the Ripper. Today, it is held in the famous Black Museum.