James Maybrick James Maybrick James Maybrick (1838-1889) was born into a wealthy Liverpool cotton trading family.
By 1871, James Maybrick was unmarried and back in London living with his mother. By 1874 he had set up his own cotton business and went to the USA to set up a branch office. Whilst in America, he became addicted to arsenic after being treated for a bout of malaria. On his way back to England in 1880 he began an affair with 18 year old Florence Chandler.
Although Maybrick was 24 years her senior, a whirlwind romance ensued and they married in 1881. They had a son together in 1882 and a daughter was to follow in 1886. Despite this, Maybrick's drug habit worsened as his business got into difficulties.
By 1888 Maybrick's bad temper and violent outbursts meant that the marriage
was on the rocks and both husband and wife took lovers. Maybrick's lover, Sarah,
lived near Whitechapel.
Violence erupted on the night of March 29, 1889, which resulted in a black eye
for Florie. About a month later on April 24th Maybrock started to feel ill. The
more arsenic he took for his "illness", the worse he became. He died of an
overdose in May 1889.
When the autopsy uncovered massive amounts of arsenic in Maybrick's body, Florie was hastily charged and convicted of murder and imprisoned for life. The judge in this case was Lord Justice Stephen, who was the father of another "Ripper" suspect! Flories was finally pardoned and released in 1904 when it was finally revealed that he had taken the arsenic himself. She died a recluse in 1941.
The story of James Maybrick was not associated with the Ripper case until the
emergence of a diary supposedly written by him in 1992 and in which he admits
being "Jack". The diary has yet to be proven a forgery.