Dramatis Personae

 

Aaron Abulafia

A cabalist based in Whitechapel. Edwards consulted him with questions about golems in Jewish tradition (after hearing of the ``Limehouse Golem'' on the streets). This lead to the investigation of Mina Bergson, who had stolen the skull of the murderer John Williams from a tavern in an effort to build a homonculus. However, this was apparently unrelated to the Limehouse Golem. Months later, the Golden Dawn confessed to the theft and attempted creation -- but the ritual failed and they burned the remains. Soon after, we consulted Abulafia in finding a kosher butcher who would be suitable for ritual killing -- this for sacrificing a bull in the basement of Milverton's lair to sanctify the place as a figure of the Sun/Mithra.

 

 

The Afterlife Club

A set of patients of Dr. Konrad Lorenz, who were altered and presumably made immortal by his experiments. They all are officially died, but their burials were apparently falsified. Their purpose remains unknown. They had an underground home under a hotel owned by Philip Ashcroft -- which was apparently destroyed in January 1889. Several members apparently survived, including Dr. Victor Gotham -- who now haunts the East End.
Lorenz's notes give the names: Sir Philip Ashcroft; Catherine Boyle; Dr. Peter Carver; Prunella Dodds; Co. Donald Eaning, Esq.; Dr. Victor Gotham; Right Honorable Henry Iverton; Mr. Everett Jaffery, Esq.; General Sir David Knightly; Dr. John Oldman; Alice Pembroke; Beatrice Quisp; Lord George Caernarvon Rutherford; Dame Susannah Twizzleton-Wickham-Fiennes. At the club itself, the company were introduced to a ``Susannah'' and a ``Maker'', and a ``Caroline'' was mentioned by Susannah.

 

 

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535)

Court Secretary to Charles V, physician to Louise of Savoy, exasperating theologian within the Catholic Church, military entrepreneur in Spain and Italy, acknowledged expert on occultism, and philosopher. His tempestuous career also included teaching at Dle and Pavia universities, appointment as orator and public advocate at Metz (until denounced for defending an accused witch), banishment from Germany in 1535 (after battling with the inquisitor of Cologne), and imprisonment in France (for criticizing the Queen Mother).
Agrippa's De occulta philosophia added impetus to Renaissance study of magic and injected his name into early Faust legends. In this book he explained the world in terms of cabalistic analyses of Hebrew letters and Pythagorean numerology and acclaimed magic as the best means to know God and nature.
About 1530 Agrippa outraged Charles V by publishing a scathing attack on occultism and all other sciences (Of the Vanitie and uncertaintie of artes and sciences, trans. 1569) and thus served the Renaissance revival of Skepticism. Agrippa was jailed and branded as a heretic. After scuttling every type of scientific knowledge, he found peaceful refuge in a simple biblical piety.

 

 

The Ancients

An artist's club founded in 1824. Members include John Varley, Samuel Palmer, Edward Calvert, George Richmond, Francis Oliver Finch, and Frederick Tatham. With William Blake, they engaged in astrology and crystal-gazing until his death in 1827. Varley worked with Francis Hockley of the Diogenes Council and the third Earl Stanhope (who was a close friend of the young Varley).

 

 

Robert A. Anderson

An official in the Home Office. In 1876 he was brought into an intelligence branch to combat Fenianism. Although the branch officially closed, he remained an advisor to the Home Office in matters related to political crime. He was also the controller for the spy Thomas Miller Beach who had penetrated the Fenian movement. In 1886, he was relieved of all duties except controlling Beach after getting into trouble with Home Secretary Hugh Childers -- and for two years, he became Secretary of the Prison Commissioners.
In August 1888 he was promoted to head of the London Metropolitan Criminal Investigations Division (CID), taking over from James Monro. He is currently being kept in the dark by Monro about the secrets regarding Grimmond's death. See also the Ripper Casebook Timeline on him.

 

 

Madam Arcana

A professional medium, who roomed on the Orient Express with Doreen O'Bannon. She was not at all pretentious (despite her name), but was more salt-of-the-earth. She was a short and plump widow (of a Captain), whose real name was Blanche Goular. With Miss Sussex-Ipwich next to her, she gave a powerful seance reading the fortunes of those on board, and soon retired to her room.

 

 

Sir Philip Ashcroft

One of Lorenz's recent patients, and thus believed to be a member of the Afterlife Club. He was a hotel owner (i.e. brothels) who died of intestinal cancer. His relatives generally did not like him: including his daughter Elizabeth and his aunt Jane Heatherton. The structure of the Afterlife Club itself was located beneath one of his hotels in City of London, near St. Mary-Wolnoth.

 

 

William Ashworth

``Billy'' was apparently the first victim of Konrad Lorenz's experiments at Malbray Asylum, which he later tried on Polly Bayldon. Lorenz's notes indicate that Billy ``went too far'' and degenerated in some way. He was not found when the company first broke into the Asylum. Later, when he did not turn up among the patients, the company returned to the Asylum.
It appeared that he had been tied to a chair in the attic, but from there only a slime lead down through the wall into the basement. A giant amorphous creature was discovered in the drainage below the basement lab, which was presumed to be Billy. The asylum then burned down, and it was presumed destroyed.

 

 

Sir Hilary Atwood

Director of archeological excavations at Monument Station and Ludgate, previously working at the British Museum cataloging Roman and Celtic material. Dr. Lorenz was originally worried about the Monument excavation in his notes from the Asylum, but was relieved when Sir Hillary took charge. In fact, Sir Hilary was blackmailed by Sir Philip Ashcroft (after his death) to delay the excavation by many weeks.
As the dig continued (March 1889), Sir Hilary attempted to transfer to a dig in Turkey -- but he is having trouble because he doesn't know much about Turkish materials. He's also sent many letters to Sir Flinders Petrie in Cairo -- presumably attempting to join that team. In short, Sir Hilary wants to leave the country ASAP, and is willing to give up a perfectly good job here to do it.
There's very little in the way of gossip about the man. He is in his mid-thirties. His parents are dead, and he acts as gaurdian for his only sister, who lives with him in Bayswater (northwest of Kensington Gardens, a good area for the moderately well-to-do). The sister is popular in the large social scene.
Violet finds there was a rumor about a year ago that Jane Atwood had either contracted a social disease or, more likely, become pregnant, despite not being married. Whatever her problem, she got over it without anything major being done, so it seems clear now that the rumors must not have been true.

 

 

Reverend W.A. Ayton

A member of the Golden Dawn. He has a strong interest in alchemy, corresponding with others on the subject. His G.D. motto is Virtute Orta Occident Rarius (Those Who Rise By Virtue Rarely Fall).
In history, he introduces Federick Gardner to the order, and also marries Mina and Mathers.

 

 

Dr. Godfrey Baines

A nerve specialist and friend of Dr. Stringham's, who was introduced to care for the Keating children Simon and Catherine. Later, he was entrusted with care of Hayward's student Tillie and with Hawksquill herself.

 

 

Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820)

British explorer and naturalist, and long-time president of the Royal Society, known for his promotion of science. Banks was schooled at Harrow and Eton and attended Christ Church, Oxford, from 1760 to 1763; he inherited a considerable fortune from his father in 1761. Banks then traveled extensively, collecting plant and natural history specimens (1766-1772). Banks was interested in economic plants and their introduction into countries; and accomplished many breakthroughs in natural science. In his capacity as honorary director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (near London), he sent many botanical collectors to various countries. His house became a meeting place for the exchange of ideas. After he became president of the Royal Society (1778-1820) he improved the position of science in Britain and cultivated interchange with scientists of other nations; he was, however, accused by many fellow scientists of exercising excessive authority as president and even of being "despotic." In 1781 he was made a baronet. The order of Knight Commander of the Bath was bestowed upon him in 1795, and two years later he was admitted to the Privy Council.
According to Grimmond, he was also a founding member of the Diogenes Council.

 

 

Francis Barrett

Author of Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer and founding member of the Diogenes Council (according to Grimmond).

 

 

Sir Robert Bayden-Powell

A military man whom the company encountered on the Orient Express (he had a private room). He was fresh with stories of scouting in India. In later history, he would found the Boy Scouts.

 

 

Mary (Polly) Bayldon

Long-time fan of Violet Woodhull's work, later a close friend. In November of 88' she and Jack Sotheran (her fiance) were on a picnic to Greenwich. Polly slipped and nearly fell in front of a speeding train- Jack saved her and died a bloody, violent death under its wheels.
She was committed by her parents to the care of Dr. Conrad Vandorff (an alias of Dr. Lorenz) who performed hideous experiments on her. For reasons not entirely clear, she escaped and went on a killing spree, earning the sobriquet ``Jill the Ripper''. On the chests of her victims she carved crude images which progressed towards seeming to be the Eye of Horus. Finally, she went to St. Mary Wolnoth and was killed there by ``The Beast''.

 

 

Henri(-Louis) Bergson

A French philosopher, the first to elaborate what came to be called a process philosophy, which rejected static values in favour of values of motion, change, and evolution.
Born in Paris, 1859, he has gone to a career in philosophy -- teaching at Angers (1881-83), then Clermont-Ferrand (83-88). He is just now publishing his doctorate and book, Essai sur les donn es imm diates de la conscience (1889; Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness).
This work was primarily an attempt to establish the notion of duration, or lived time, as opposed to what he viewed as the spatialized conception of time, measured by a clock, that is employed by science. He proceeded by analyzing the awareness that man has of his inner self to show that psychological facts are qualitatively different from any other, charging psychologists in particular with falsifying the facts by trying to quantify and number them. Fechner's Law, claiming to establish a calculable relation between the intensity of the stimulus and that of the corresponding sensation, was especially criticized. This refuted objections to human liberty (or free will) based on scientific determinism.

 

 

Mina Bergson

A founding member of the Golden Dawn, currently being courted by its leader, S.L. Mathers. She was born in Paris 1865, sister to the French philosopher Henri Bergson. She moved to England in 1882 to attend the Slade School of fine art. She introduced Annie Horniman to Mathers. Her G.D. motto is Vestiga Nulla Restrorsum (No Traces Behind).
In 1888, she appears to have spent time aiding in the creation of a homonculus, whose creation would require the bone matter (preferably a skull) of a murderer or suicide. She was briefly suspected of having stolen the skull of John Williams (the Ratcliffe highway murderer) from the Three Bells Pub, but no evidence was found. Later, she admitted to the theft.

 

 

William Blake (1757-1827)

Influential English poet and artist of a Romantic and mystical bent. His first book, Poetical Sketches (1783) was the only one published conventionally during his life. With the help of his wife (Catherine Boucher), he illustrated and published all his other major poetry himself. He created his own mythology expressed in a series of ``Prophetic Books'' -- including The Book of Thel(1789), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), Milton(1804-1808), and Jerusalem(1804-20). His poetic works include the collections Songs of Innocence (1789) and its companion Songs of Experience(1794) -- after which he primarily began to work as an illustrator.
He lived in London most of his life, save for a brief time at Felpham in Sussex. In 1813 he formed (through the introduction of George Cumberland of Bristol), a valuable friendship with John Linnell and other rising water-colour painters. Amongst the group Blake seems to have found special sympathy in John Varley, who, himself addicted to astrology, encouraged Blake to cultivate his gift of inspired vision. This influence may be responsible for several curious drawings: including the celebrated ``ghost of a flea'' and the humorous portrait of the builder of the Pyramids. In 1821 Blake moved to Fountain Court in the Strand, where he created his engraved designs of the book of Job until his death in 1827.
Sometime during this period he also created an alchemically-themed tarot deck at Varley's request. This was to be used by Varley and Hockley as a ``key'' for the Diogenes' occult operations, but the elderly Blake, realizing that the Diogenes represented the ``chartered'' forces of the establishment, got Samuel Palmer to disperse the cards.
See also Charles Beauvais' Blake Timeline.

 

 

Hilary Blount

The artist who did an unusual Egyptology plate in a Champalliom book owned by Rupert Merriweather. He was an old Oxford friend of Merriweather's 10 years ago; they were classmates in Sir Arthur Holmgood's class. He also did a decadent portrait of Kali dancing on skulls with a large ruby around her neck. This may be the ruby brought from India by John Keating which was the ``heart'' of the Goddess .
He was murdered by strangulation, the garrote leaving traces of an Indian herb associated with a sub-cult of the Thuggees.

 

 

Catherine Boyle

Probable Afterlife Club member. Apparently died of breast cancer.

 

 

Lady Margaret Bramwell

A matronly British nationalist, whom the company encountered on the Orient Express (she had a private room). She had two siamese cats (Charlotte and Emily), and was quite insufferable in conversation -- although quick to uphold social graces (such as keeping Miss Rankenberg from being harrassed by Petrov).

 

 

Thomas Britton (16??-1714)

Person whom Grimmond noted as a ``magician friend of Blake's'' -- but who died before Blake was born. Books sold at his estate sale (at his death) supposedly lead Hockley to begin searching for the Blake Tarot. In 1830, Christie's received records of the sale, but sometime after that the list of manuscripts sold were stolen (although the list of printed books remains).

 

 

``Mr. Brown''

An alias for Charles Davidson, which he was given to by the company when he anonymously met with them following Hawksquill's accident. Through Grimmond's notes, the company identified him as Charles Davidson of the Diogenes Council.

 

 

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)

Italian Renaissance philosopher and poet. Born at Nola, near Naples. Originally named Filippo, he took the name Giordano when he joined the Dominicans, who trained him in Aristotelian philosophy and Thomistic theology. Independent in thinking and tempestuous in personality, he fled the order in 1576 to avoid a trial on doctrinal charges and began the wandering that characterized his life.
Bruno visited Geneva, Toulouse, Paris, and London, where he spent two years (1583-85) under the protection of the French ambassador and in the circle of the English poet Sir Philip Sidney. It was a most productive period, during which he composed Ash Wednesday Supper(1584) and On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584), as well as the dialogue On the Cause, Principle, and Unity (1584). In another poetic dialogue, Gli eroici furori (1585), he praised a kind of Platonic love that joins the soul to God through wisdom.
In 1585 Bruno returned to Paris, then went on to Marburg, Wittenberg, Prague, Helmstedt, and Frankfurt, where he arranged for the printing of his many writings. At the invitation of a Venetian nobleman, Giovanni Moncenigo, Bruno returned to Italy as his private tutor. In 1592 Moncenigo denounced Bruno to the Inquisition, which tried him for heresy. Turned over to the Roman authorities, he was imprisoned for some eight years while questioning proceeded on charges of blasphemy, immoral conduct, and heresy. Refusing to recant, Bruno was burned at the stake in Campo dei Fiori on February 17, 1600.
Bruno advocated philosophical theories that blended mystical Neoplatonism and pantheism. He believed that the universe is infinite, that God is the universal world-soul, and that all particular material things are manifestations of the one infinite principle.

 

 

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1889)

Sir Richard Francis Burton, an intrepid English explorer and writer. Born on Mar. 19, 1821, he was brought up in France and Italy. He studied for a time at Oxford University (expelled in 1842) and then purchased a commission in the Bombay Native Infantry. From 1843-1848 he soldiered in Sind in northwestern India. Between 1853 and 1855, Burton visited the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in disguise and made a dangerous foray to the forbidden city of Harar in eastern Ethiopia.
In 1858, he became the first white in modern times to view Lake Tanganyika. Ill with malaria, he did not travel north with John Speke to Lake Victoria and thus failed to discover the source of the Nile. In 1860 Burton crossed the United States to Salt Lake City to meet with Brigham Young (reported in City of Saints) and went on to Panama before returning to England in 1861. Around this time, he secretly married the aristocrat Isabel Arundell, the daughter of an aristocratic (and Catholic) family.
For the next three years he served as British consul at Fernando Po, off the coast of Nigeria, went up the Congo River, and journeyed to Dahomey (now Benin). He was later consul in Santos, Brazil (1865-69), Damascus, and Trieste (1872-89). He was made Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George in 1886 for his service to England.
He produced 21 books describing his travels, in addition to innumerable translations and books on swordsmanship and falconry. In Trieste he wrote extensively, including his own poetry as well as shocking translations of erotica of the East.
From around 1850 he has been a member to the Diogenes Council, although the nature of his contributions remains unknown. He had a split with Hockley around 1865 involving the Blake tarot and left the Council.

 

 

Mrs. Lorna Campbell-Barnes

An extremely wealthy American widow of 39, friend of the Woodhulls and chaperone of Miss Woodhull on the Orient Express. Her husband, the industrialist John Barnes, died 3 years ago of a shooting accident. Like Violet's mother, she is an advocate of free love.

 

 

Sir James Cargill

Rising young archeologist who has taken over Holmgood's job as head of Egyptology at the British Museum in early February. There he discovered the disappearance of Merriweather's trunk. Previously, he worked for the foreign office, and in Egypt had been in the a superior of Major Rook.

 

 

David and Joan Carter

Extremely reticent ex-servants of Sir Philip Ashcroft. They were evidently his close confidants.

 

 

Dr. Peter Carver

Probable Afterlife Club member. Apparently died of TB, although it would have to be exceptionally rapid, as he seemed quite healthy shortly before his death. The doctors in the A.C. generally seem to have died more oddly than the others.

 

 

Annie Chapman

Believed the second victim of Jack the Ripper. She was slain on September 8 at Hanbury St. yard in Spitalfields.

 

 

George Chapman

Evidently a fan of Edwards, who stopped by his house several times in late November. He claimed to be a barber working in Whitechapel, but he had ideas for a novel that Edwards might get involved in. In person, he was a tall, Slavic-looking man, with rather bushy hair and a large bushy mustache.

 

 

Dr. Chatterjee

A learned Indian physician, part of the entourage of the Prince of Gwalior and an important figure in the ``servants'' of the Goddess who were trying to recover the ruby which controlled her. He visited Edwards at home, where he used strange vapors to get his host to talk. He also negotiated for the servants to recover the ruby.

 

 

Dr. Stephen Davidson

London Hospital physician, specializing in diseases and problems of women.

 

 

Charles Davidson

A member of the current Diogenes Council handling financial and underworld matters. Hawksquill had left instructions with him or the council for him to contact the company in the event of her disappearance. He remained anonymous to them as ``Mr. Brown'', and simply explained that he represented the government. He is contacted through the Diogenes Club (preferably via Hawksquille's butler Jarvis, who works there on Saturdays).
The company have secretly identified ``Mr. Brown'' as Davidson via Grimmond's notes left to Edwards.

 

 

Dr. John Dee (1525-1608)

Master magus, alchemist, mathematician, and staunch English royalist. He seems to be the figure in the Boat of a Million Years by which the company left Aegypt-London. The company later contacted him in a dream, where he was at an English cottage and commented on their plan to trap the Black King. The burned man on the boat with him seems to be the Italian magus Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake in Rome and may have met Dee briefly sometime around 1590.
See also a more complete history.

 

 

Frederick Bailey Deeming

A lunatic murderer who aimed to be Jack the Ripper. He was a rough, tanned fellow -- nevertheless well-dressed in a shabby genteel. A bit foreign-looking, with dark hair and a mustache. He was encountered by the company in Nether-London, where he demanded Hamilton's notes of the party. When they resisted, he all but slaughtered the company after using the magic word: ``Ta-ra-ra-boom-di-ay''.

 

 

The Diogenes Council

A committee of unofficial advisors to the government on secret matters, founded around 1800 and re-formed in the 1860's. Current members include: Mycroft Holmes (Whitehall, nominal chief), Ariel Hawksquill (Occult, Lords), Charles Davidson (Financial, Underworld?), General Sir James Fosgood (Military, Colonial), Prof. Vladimir Borisovitch Karinov (Russia and Asia), George Forrestal, Esq. (Legal, Continental).
Original member (circa 1800) included Sir Joseph Banks (president, Royal Society, d.1820) and Francis Barrett (author of Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer). Around 1850, membership included Sir Robert Peel, Francis Hockley, Sir Richard Francis Burton.
Hockley collaborated with the 4th Earl Stanhope and the astrologer John Varley. He had a plan to use Blake's alchemical tarot asa ``key'' for the Diogenes' occult operations, which was foiled when Blake dispersed the cards. Hockley seems to have devoted 1855-65 to trying to re-collect these cards for the Diogenes -- fighting with Burton over this which ultimately lead to the collapse of the occult end of the Diogenes in the early '60s.
After all this confusion, it fell to Disraeli to put the Diogenes back together, which he did with the assistance of Mycroft Holmes. There is now no overlap between the 1860s Diogenes and the modern, although Holmes certainly knows more about it all than he's admitting.

 

 

Prunella Dodds

Probably Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of kidney and heart failure.

 

 

Montague Druitt

Tutor at a boarding school in Blackheath. He was apparently a suspect in the Ripper murders due to rumors from his family.
He accompanied the party to Alternate London on the mad carriage ride of Dec. 4th, when he tried to steal Sir Simon Hamilton's notes. His body was later found floating in the Thames and he was generally assumed to have committed suicide.

 

 

The Dynamiters

In 1882 the campaign of agrarian outrages in Ireland was reinforced by one of dynamite in Great Britain. Associated with the Fenians, the Dynamiters starting with a railway bombing plot. On March 16th, the Dynamiters struck near the Local Government Office at Whitehall, causing great damage. In February 1884 there was a plot to blow up four London railway stations by means of clockwork infernal machines containing dynamite, brought from America. This plot was foiled, and three Irish-Americans were convicted. In June 1884, the Dynamiters strike Scotland Yard itself, devastating not only the structure but more importantly the papers that were filed there which were thrown into hopeless disarray.
According to Grimmond's notes, the clockwork devices in the 1884 attempted bombings were certainly designed by Fu Manchu, but it is unclear how he had them passed to the Fenian end-users.

 

 

Co. Donald Eaning, Esq.

Probable Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of gout.

 

 

Catherine Eddowes

Believed the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper. She was slain on September 30 in Mitre Square, Aldgate -- the same night as Elizabeth Stride. The killer dropped a piece of blood-soaked cloth on Goulston street, by which a message was written in white chalk on a doorway:

The Juwes are
The men That
         Will not
be Blamed
      for nothing.

This date was marked in the Merriweather journal.

 

 

Fenians

A brotherhood of Irish radicals founded in America in 1858 by John Doheny, James Stephens, and John Mahoney. The name was derived from an anglicized version of fiann, the legendary band of warriors lead by Find Mac Cumaill. Stephens then returned to Ireland to found what turned into the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The Fenians understood the power of propaganda, too, founding a newspaper, The Irish People, which began to publicize the struggle for independence and to recruit members and money both in Ireland and the USA. Infiltration and violent suppression of the IRB by the Irish Constabulary and opposition by the Catholic Church forced the Fenians underground, making them largely ineffectual, but the philosophy of republicanism and Irish nationalism fell onto fertile ground.
The Fenians were defeated in a brief military effort (``The Rebellion of 1867'') spurred by the suppression of the newspaper -- largely through the informer John Joseph Corydon. By 1870, Fenianism had merged with the parliamentary expression of the Agrarian and Home Rule movements. These were lead by the Irish Protestant landlord Charles Stewart Parnell (see Parnell).

 

Past 1870, the term ``Fenian'' has been used as a generic term for violent Irish nationalists -- although the connection with the actual Fenian brotherhood is unclear. Of particular note are the Invincibles, responsible for the Phoenix Park murders, and the Dynamiters who struck numerous times in England.

 

 

George Forrestal, Esq.

The current member of the Diogenes Council on matters legal and of the Continent.

 

 

General Sir James Fosgood

Member of the Traveller's club (known to Edwards) who knows the identity of Hawksquill. He is the current member of the Diogenes Council on military and colonial matters.

 

 

Prof. James Frazer

A professor at Trinity College in Cambridge, specializing in mythology. He is currently working on a great work entitled ``The Golden Bough''. He gave advice to the company on the nature of the Goddess, speculating on the phrase ``Isis of the teeth'' written on the ring left with Marrish's notes.

 

 

Fu Manchu

``The Napolean of Crime'' who controls a network of criminal activities from the East End. ``Fu Manchu'' is the name he gave himself to the company when he had captured Grimmond and Stringham, although on the streets he has many aliases (such as Wang Si Fan).
He is responsible for clockwork devices used by the Dynamiters, the deaths of Luxor Brethren in 1888, the kidnapping of Grimmond and Stringham days later, and Grimmond's death the following year. His purpose in this remains unknown -- although it is speculated that the poetic nature of the killings is intended as a warning to others.

 

 

Dr. Vinchenzo Gasparry

Dean of Medicine at Bologne, whom roomed on the Orient Express with Ronald Lakeby. He is 40-something and apparently rather shy in person due to his slight accent.

 

 

William Ewart Gladstone

British statesman, the dominant personality of the Liberal Party since 1868. He was prime minister three times: 1868-1874, 1880-1885, and 1886. In April 1886 Gladstone introduced the Irish Home Rule Bill in Parliament. The bill was viciously attacked by the Conservatives and many of his own liberals, some of whom rebel and leave the party. The bill is defeated in July, and Gladstone was forced to resign.

 

 

The Golden Dawn

An Hermetic Society whose members are taught the principles of Occult Science and the Magic of Hermes. It was founded by S.L. Mathers, Dr. Wynn Westcott, and Robert Woodman. Its current members include Mina Bergson (fiancee of Mathers), Annie Horniman (Mather's benefactor), Reverand W.A. Ayton, and William Butler Yeats. By early 1889 it had some thirty-odd members, mostly in the London area.
It was opened for membership in 1888 with the founding of the Isis-Urania temple on March 20. New members are started in a system of grades, advancing with tests of their knowledge of the magical principles:

               NAME        ELEMENT    PLANET        SEPHIRA

     0=0   Neophyte          ---       ---            ---
     1=10  Zelator          Earth      ---      Malkuth, Kingdom
     2=9   Theoricus        Air      Moon       Yesod, Foundation
     3=8   Practicus        Water    Mercury    Hod, Splendour
     4=7   Philosophus      Fire     Venus      Netzach, Victory
     5=6   Adeptus Minor    Spirit   Sun        Tiphareth, Beauty
     6=5   Adeptus Major     ---     Mars       Gevurah, Might
     7=4   Adeptus Exemptus  ---     Jupiter    Chesed, Mercy
     8=3   Magister Templi   ---     Saturn     Binah, Understanding
     9=2   Magus             ---       ---      Chokmah, Wisdom
     10=1  Ipsissimus        ---       ---      Kether, Crown
    

The grades of Neophyte through Philosophus comprise the First, or Outer Order. A grade called the ``Portal'' comes between 4=7 and 5=6, and this contains some very powerful symbolism on the transition between the Outer and Inner ``Mysteries.'' The three Adept grades comprise the Second, or Inner Order (Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis), and are normally only open to those who pass rigorous examinations and are chosen on other qualifications.

 

 

Dr. Victor Gotham

Probable Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of gout and high blood pressure - although he had no history of those illnesses. Subsequent to this, he was observed watching London Hospital after clues that Dr. Lorenz was still around. He was followed back to Limehouse, where he apparently has a pattern of waiting at a boarding house before going to a Chinese opium den.

 

 

Jules Grandin

A French diplomat who died in January 1889 at the Paris Opera House. Grimmond believed that he was killed by poison as a result of the mole within the Diogenes Council.

 

 

Prince of Gwalior

An Indian royalty with an interest in things British. He arrived in London in May of 1888 with a large entourage. He is well-educated and skilled as cricket, although considered not too bright. He funded a art display of art on Indian themes. A large contingent of his entourage were involved in a plot to recover the ruby which John Keating took which controls the Goddess.

 

 

Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736)

Baroque English architect involved in the reconstruction of London from around 1680 to 1730. Born circa 1661, probably at East Drayton, Nottinghamshire. Little is known about his early life. First employed by Christopher Wren about 1679, Hawksmoor owed his professional advancement in part to the political influence of the elder architect. He aided Wren in building St. Paul's Cathedral, London (completed 1711), and Vanbrugh in constructing Castle Howard, Yorkshire(1699-1726), and Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire(1705-16). Upon the death of Wren (1723), Hawksmoor became surveyor general (chief architect) of Westminster Abbey, the west towers of which were built (1734-45) to his design. Earlier (from 1692), he was responsible for various University buildings at Oxford.
In October 1711 Hawksmoor was appointed one of two surveyors (architects) to the Commission for Fifty New Churches (to be built in the cities of London and Westminster and their immediate environs). In this capacity he designed, among other churches, the four on which his reputation as a Baroque genius mainly rests: St. Anne, Limehouse(1714-30), St. George-in-the-East (1714-29), Christ Church, Spitalfields(1714-29), and St. Mary Woolnoth (1716-24). Other works include St. Georges Bloomsbury and St. Alfege's (near Greenwich).
These five churches form a mystic sign: the Eye of Horus, which serves as a gateway to alternate worlds. Hawkmore's purpose in designing this apparatus remains unknown, as does his relation to other mystically-involved figures of the period. See the page on The Hawksmoor Churches.

 

 

Ariel Hawksquill

An elderly woman of around 65, daughter of John and Annette Duchenes Hawksquill. Her sex is unknown among government circles, where she is respected as simply `Hawksquill' and has the ear of many Lords. She also dabbles in magic, invoking images of (St. George - Snake - Chinese Dragon) to transport others to the area of Fu Manchu. She possessed the man on the Wheel in the Afterlife Club, causing the Club to be catastrophically destroyed.

 

 

Sarah Catherine Hamilton

Daughter of Sir Simon Hamilton (of the late Luxor Brethren), former fiancee of Stephen Edwards, friend of Violet Woodhull from the Society for the Education of Women, and the fifth name in Jack the Ripper's letter to Edwards.

 

 

Sir Simon Hamilton

Extremely senior ex-civil servant and leader of the Luxor Brethren (with Sir Arthur Holmgood and Lord Melbury). He is father of Sarah Catherine with his first wife, Sophie Wiggins. His second wife was Amelia Twizzleton-Wickham-Fiennes , a somewhat bohemian woman in her forties.
He was killed by falling out of his window, with a strange set of scratches on his face and a swollen point on his lip (possibly pulled by a blue-ringed octopus on a fishing rod). He had an extensive set of notes on Luxor Brethren, headed by ``T.I.'' (himself), ``B.I.'' (for Arthur Holmgood), and ``N.'' (for Lord Melbury).
His notes chronicles their discovery of the Eye of Horus. However, not much could be deciphered. This may in part be because Grimmond held back senstive parts of the notes. He kept secret a copy of John Dee's De Automatis and Agrippa's Fourth Book -- in which two of the Blake tarot cards were put (0 and XXII).

 

 

Florence and Prunella Herbert

Landladies of Rupert Merriweather, who apparently killed him and mummified his body in an underground complex. They conducted seances to contact the pharoah Sefer-en-Ra, in which they apparently had a third confederate (since one of the company was hit over the head the instant the light went out).
They were killed by Grimmond and company within their complex, but their house was burned the next day which covered the entrance to the complex.

 

 

Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor

An occult society recently made public in 1884 but originally founded in 1875. According to Grimmond's notes, F.-Ch. Barlet and Stanislaus de Guaita were involved in the founding. Both were involved with expanding Roman domination by magic -- and hence the Irish questions.
It may be their connection to the Luxor Brethren which brought the latter to the attention of the mole in the Diogenes Council. This was followed by Fu Manchu's murders of the Luxor Brethren.

 

 

Francis Hockley (1805-1885)

Member of the Diogenes Council from before 1850 to around 1865, controlling occult affairs. He collaborated with the fourth Earl Stanhope and the astrologer John Varley. Varley wanted to use Blake's alchemical tarot to be a 'key' for the Diogenes' occult operations, but the elderly Blake got Samuel Palmer to disperse the cards.
Hockley seems to have devoted 1855-65 to trying to re-collect these cards for the Diogenes, having learned of them from (1) Varley and Stanhope, and (2) certain books purchased at the estate sale of Thomas Britton, a magician friend of Blake's. Hockley evidently fought with Burton about this, ultimately leading to the collapse of the occult end of the Diogenes in the early '60s. Hockley seems to have devoted himself thereafter to Masonry, and probably became Chief of the Luxor Brethren until his death, thus explaining the presence of the two books in Hamilton's collection.
He was a member of the SRIA and published numerous magical texts.

 

 

Miss Amelia Hodges

Governess of the Keating children, now catatonic.

 

 

Mycroft Holmes

The nominal chief of the Diogenes Council dealing in matters political. He aided Disraeli in re-establishing the Diogenes Club sometime after 1870. He has an obscure office in Whitehall, while spending much of his time at the Diogenes Club building itself.
He was contacted by the company (through Major Rook) when they learned from Grimmond's notes that the Diogenes Council might have a mole. Grimmond ruled out Holmes as the mole, since he was out of the country during 1884 when a critical telegram was sent.

 

 

Sherlock Holmes

A consulting detective, living and working out of 221B Baker Street. Brother of Mycroft Holmes, the head of the Diogenes Council. He is not very well known, but has a reputation for sharp scientific reasoning in solving crimes. A brief novella about him was recently published by a medical doctor (Arthur Doyle), entitled A Study in Scarlet (1887).
He has considerable resources in tracking crime within London, although he is not strongly affiliated with the police. Upon consultation with the company and at his brother's urging, he has agreed to look in on the matter of Fu Manchu's criminal connections and the mysterious reference to ``Apron Street''.
See also a Sherlockian Home Page and Chronology.

 

 

Sir Arthur Holmgood

Former Oxford professor, then Director of Egyptology at the British Museum. He was the one who found Merriweather's journal and noted the dates, and also was a member of the Luxor Brethren (the Masonic trio who found the Eye of Horus). He was murdered by chlorine gas injected into a mummy casket (presumably done by Fu Manchu).

 

 

Annie Horniman

A founding member of the Golden Dawn, and benefactor of S.L. Mathers. She is the rebellious daughter of magnate Frederick Horniman, importer of tea and Liberal member of Parliament. She was introduced to the G.D. by Mina Bergson, whom she befriended at the Slade School of Fine Art. She is a strong-minded woman, set on making a fair and equitable group. Her G.D. motto is Fortiter et Recte (Bravely and Justly).

 

 

The Invincibles

A gang of Irish radicals responsible for the Phoenix Park murders in 1882. Following the release of Parnell from jail, Lord Cowper and Forster in Ireland at once resigned, and were succeeded by Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish, who entered Dublin on the 6th of May. That same evening Lord Frederick and the permanent undersecretary Henry Burke were murdered in the Phoenix Park in broad daylight. The weapons were amputating knives imported for the purpose. The assassins drove rapidly away; no one, not even those who saw the deed from a distance, knew what had been done. A Dublin tradesman named Field, who had been a juror in a murder trial, was attacked by the same gang and stabbed in many places. He escaped with life, though with shattered health, and it was the identification of the man who drove his assailants' care that afterwards led to the discovery of the whole conspiracy -- the gang known as the ``Invincibles''. The clue was obtained by a private examination of suspected persons under the powers given by the Crimes Act.
In 1887 Parnell was accused of being connected with the Invincibles in the London Times, but no proof was brought and he was eventually exonerated.

 

 

Right Hon. Henry Iverton

Probable Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of psoriatic arthritis.

 

 

Mr. Everett Jaffery, Esq.

Probable Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of malaria.

 

 

Frederick Johnston

Formerly assistant to Sir Arthur Holmgood at the British Museum. He was the last to see Sir Arthur alive. Subsequently he went to work as assistant to Sir Reginald Smythe-Hamilton in Hebrew Antiquities.

 

 

Prof. Vladimir Borisovitch Karinov

The current member of the Diogenes Council on matters relating to Russia and Asia.

 

 

John Keating

Sole survivor of an archeological expedition into the Hindu Kush which he organized with another Indian Army officer, Captain Marrish. They were looking for greek sites along the route that Alexander the Great took into India. Keating returned from India 10 years ago with a large ruby, a strange amulet and a bad case of malaria. He secretly sold the gem and retired to the shires. There he married and had two children: Simon and Katherine. His wife died young and he seems to have withdrawn into researches of an occult nature.

 

In spring of 1888, his manor burned to the ground, destroying his library and researches. He suffered a nervous collapse. His brother Paul, who had in large part managed his estate all along, placed him under supervision in a house in London nr Russell Square, Bloomsbury. He began taking an interest in the children and participating in their games. He also took late night walks - on which he was never successfully followed. He used the British Library and went to the British Museum.

 

On occasion, he seemed to be under the impression that he was being watched. Once he spoke of Marrish as though he were alive. He always wore his amulet, even to bed. On October 28, John Keating, his children, and their governess Miss Hodges disappeared. After a brief interval, Grimmond and his friends were called in.

 

Subsequntly, Keating and the governess remain comatose in a nursing home near London.

 

 

Paul Keating

A solicitor living in St John's Wood, West London, and brother of John Keating. He had always looked after his brothers affairs, but particularly since his nervous collapse in spring of 88' and his coma that fall. He is currently caring for his nephew and niece, Simon and Katherine, while continuing his practice.

 

 

Simon and Katherine Keating

Children of John Keating, ages ?? and ??. Since the incident, they have barely spoken - but they have taken up chess, which they play with a disturbing vigor and acuity. The boy, Simon, always taking black, and the girl Katherine, white. They are in their uncles care at his house in St John's Wood, West London. Note: since the casting of the Theurgic Net, when

 

 

Mary Kelley

Believed the fifth victim of Jack the Ripper. She was slain on November 9 at her room in Miller's Court, Spitalfields. The date was marked in the Merriweather journal.

 

 

General Sir David Knightly

Another of the 14 members of the Afterlife Club according to Lorenz's notes in London Hospital. He is notable for having distinctive wounds from his time in India, which would make his body identifiable after decomposition.

 

 

Ronald Lakeby

To appearances, a 30-something handsome and wealthy dilletante who roomed with Dr. Gasparry on the Orient Express. After saving Edwards' life from the assassin Stefani, he admitted to being a notorious cat-burglar, who recognized the assassin from a job he did in Paris.

 

 

Francois LaVerge

A depressed intellectual whom the company encountered on board the Orient Express, rooming with Franklin Meyers. He had evidently been jilted in love recently, which tragedy occupied all of his time on board.

 

 

Sir Joseph Lister

The most distinguished physician in England, and the inventor of both antisepsis and asepsis. Currently at Kings College, London, where he holds the Chair in Surgery.

 

 

Dr. Lo

A chinese herbal doctor in the East End. He was mentioned by Dr. Lorenz as a friend, and Nov 17 was named as the sender of message to Edwards at the Explorer's Club -- the messenger boy then blew up releasing giant African bloodworms. His shop apparently served as a maildrop for Fu Manchu. He was beaten to death by Grimmond at his shop.

 

 

Dr. Konrad Lorenz

A former mentor of Stringham's in Germany, who of late worked at London Hospital. There he had a basement laboratory, which connected to a secret sub-basement for his occult work. There he implanted bottled (live?) fetuses into living patients, and also developed a machine which seemed to push objects into another space. His notes there (damaged in the conflict) contained a list of 14 patients -- believed to be the ``Afterlife Club''.
Subsequent to his escape from London Hospital, he apparently took up work at Malbray Asylum. According to his notes there, he worked on several patients using hypnosis and drugs (related to arctic hysteria) to send them into alternate London. The earlier attempts are not named, but later efforts include a ``B.A.'' (Billy Ashworth) who had little direction and subsequently became useless and a ``P.B.'' (Polly Bayldon) who escaped.
He also mentions several others: the White Lady (associated with the #2 and ``H.S.''), the Black King (associated with #13 and ``C.M.'' from 7 to 3 years ago), the Red Man, Dr. Lo, The Beast, and the Group (associated with the #20, Judgement, and St. Mary Wolnoth -- in short, the Afterlife Club). Within his notes were the Blake Tarot cards for the White Lady and Black King.

 

 

The Luxor Brethren

A masonic sub-group, whose history dates back several centuries. At some point, it is said that they lost track of the original purpose. In recent times, the Luxor Brethren consisted of Sir Simon Hamilton, Sir Arthur Holmgood, and Lord Melbury. The three of them discovered the existance of Hawksmoor's Eye of Horus, but were all killed by Fu Manchu in October of 88'.
The Golden Dawn had recently proposed to become the new Luxor Brethren, although they have even less idea what the society was really about.

 

Lord Edward (Bulwer-) Lytton (1803-1873)

British politician, poet, and critic, and (most notably) prolific novelist. After schooling at Cambridge, he visited Paris and Versailles. He returned to marry an Irish woman (Rosina Doyle Wheeler) in 1827 - but the strain of maintaining their extravagent life-style caused them to separate by 1836.
Bulwer-Lytton's political career began in 1831, when he entered Parliament as Liberal member -- but he retired in 1841 protest of the repeal of the Corn Laws. In 1852 he returned as a Tory (perhaps owing to his friendship with Benjamin Disraeli).
His literary activity had, meanwhile, been immense: both in novels and plays. His first novel, Pelham(1828) was unsuccessful: but he followed with a series of historical novels weighted with meticulous detail. The most notable of these were The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), and Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings (1848). In Eugene Aram(1832), he made use of current fascination with criminals and the underworld. He turned to realism and the portrayal of English society in The Caxtons (1849), and My Novel (1853). Bulwer-Lytton also published several volumes of poetry, a satirical novel in verse (containing an attack on Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the poet laureate), and an unsuccessful long epic, King Arthur (1848). He was created a peer in 1866.
He was evidently close friend to Hockley and a member of the SRIA.

 

First Earl of Lytton, Robert Bulwer-Lytton

British diplomat, viceroy of India (1876-80), and poet. Son of the first Lord Lytton (the author), Edward began his diplomatic career as unpaid attache to his uncle Sir Henry Bulwer, then minister at Washington, D.C. His first paid appointment was at Vienna (1858), and in 1874 he was appointed minister at Lisbon. He inherited his father's barony in 1873.
In November 1875 Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli appointed Lytton governor-general of India. During his service there, Lytton was concerned primarily with India's relations with Afghanistan. Seeking to counteract Russian influence in Afghanistan, Lytton precipitated the Second Afghan War of 1878-80 after negotiations broke down.
Lytton resigned his post in 1880 and was created Earl of Lytton and Viscount Knebworth that same year. Though Afghanistan received the most attention during Lytton's viceroyalty, he also did much for Indian administration. He supervised effective measures for famine relief, abolished internal customs barriers, decentralized the financial system, proclaimed Queen Victoria empress of India, and reserved one-sixth of the civil-service posts for Indians. Lytton ended his career as British minister to France (1887-91).
To his contemporaries, Lytton was better known as a poet than as a diplomat or administrator. His first collections -- Clytemnestra ... and Other Poems(1855), verse narratives imitative of Browning, and The Wanderer (1858), autobiographical lyrics--were well received, as was Lucile (1860), a witty and romantic novel in verse. In 1883 he also published two volumes of the Life, Letters and Literary Remains of his father, Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton.

 

 

Martha MacNeill

A friend of Violet Woodhull's from the Society for the Education for woman, and the fourth on the Ripper's letter to Edwards. She left for Scotland 7 months ago - haven't heard from her.

 

 

Kerim Mahtuk

A Turkish financier, whom the company encountered on the Orient Express. He was short, wiry, good-looking, and classy. He was quite intelligent and multi-lingual, and evidently made a great deal of money.

 

 

Captain Marrish

An officier in the Indian army and an aspiring archeologist. In 1878 he lead an expedition into the Hindu Kush with John Keating. They were looking for Greek sites along route that Alexander the Great took into India -- apparently believing that there were pocket kingdoms of Greek heritage which survived there. He was believed killed on that expedition after John Keating returned along claiming to be the sole survivor.
On the evening of Febuary 28, 1889, however, he attacked the company as they left a fortune teller's barge on the Limehouse Cut. He claims to have been converted to being a servant of the goddess -- and that he cannot remember exactly what happened to him on the expedition.

 

 

Samuel Liddell Mathers

Founding member of the Golden Dawn and reknowned expert on occult knowledge within the Masons (for such works as translating the Key of Solomon). Within the G.D., he is known by his mottoes `` 'S Rioghail Mo Dhream,'' or ``Royal is my tribe'' in Gaelic, and ``Deo Duce Comite Ferro,'' or ``With God as my leader and the sword as my companion.''
He works part-time as a curator for a small private museum in St. John's Wood (obtained for him by his co-founders). He is apparently courting Mina Bergson. In 1887, following Westcott's discovery of the Cipher manuscripts, he quickly worked the summaries there into a full-fledged ceremonial magic system.

 

 

Lord David Melbury

An avid entomologist, murdered with strange kiss-shaped mark upon his neck, perhaps the bite of a very large insect. His last words sounded like ``Red Hand'' and ``Ziot'', according to his butler. This was clearly the work of Fu Manchu, given that at the time of his death his house was surrounded by clockwork Chinamen. However, the immediate agent of his murder is still unknown.

 

 

Rupert Merriweather

An Egyptology student who wrote the dates of the Ripper killings in his log prior to the events. He had been working on a dig in Egypt under Sir Arthur Holmgood, but was kicked off early in 1888. While there, he apparently found a miniature sarcophagus / puzzle-box of the upstart pharoah Sefer-en-Ra. He returned to Longon and took up residence near the Hawksmoor church at St. Anne's, Limehouse. He either initiated or was dragged into experiments with Egyptian magic with Florence and Prunella Herbert. They apparently killed and mummified him in an elaborate pseudo-tomb under their house.

 

 

Franklin Meyers

An American antiquarian whom the company encountered on the Orient Express, rooming with Francois LaVerge. He dealt in rare books (primarily medieval), and was travelling to Belgrad. In person, he was quite dry and boring -- but from his manner paranoid about someone stealing his briefcase.

 

 

Annie Millwood

Possible early victim of Jack the Ripper. She was attacked Feb 25, 1888 and stabbed multiple times in the legs and lower regions, dying ten days later. The date was not marked in Merriweather's journal.

 

 

Charles Milverton

A notorious blackmailer, who held an enormous number of people with threats of exposure. Officially, he was not very rich, owning only his manor in St. John's Wood. His other holdings are secured by his pricey lawyers in the Temple, but they included a Salvation Army center in Rautherhive.
His initials (C.M.) were identified as the Black King in Dr. Lorenz's lab notes, from around 7 to 3 years ago. In a vision, John Dee confirmed this, noting him as a force for decay and breaking down of barriers.
His downfall began when the Golden Dawn asked the company to help them deal with him (he was blackmailing them). The company identified him as the Black King and began plotting his downfall. His ``Damnation Army'' headquarters in Rotherhithe were burned down (destroying the diabolic concoctions they were feeding the poor). Then in the complex ritual, Hawksquill and Milverton were both struck comatose.

 

 

James Monro

The current Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, which is everything outside of the old City of London, including the East End. He had been Assistant Commissioner of CID (Criminal Investigations Division) from 1884 to August 1888, then resigned after a struggle with Commissioner Charles Warren. When Warren resigned in November 1888 amidst the furor of the Ripper murders, Monro was appointed to replace him.
He is around 50 years old, having worked in his youth in the Indian Civil Service and apparently the ``Great Game''. He is the one who secretly assigned Grimmond to the investigation of occult links with the Ripper murders, and later arranged Grimmond's stage death and undercover work.
He was contacted by Hawksquill in January '89 and given a copy of the ``Ripper'' letter received by Edwards. Later, he met with Hawksquill and Rook when Violet was under suspicion for Bayldon's death, and agreed to remove her as a suspect. When Grimmond died, he met with Rook who explained to him the nature of the company's work.

 

 

Mary Ann ``Polly'' Nichols

Believed to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper. She was killed August 31, 1888 in Buck's Row alley, Whitechapel. Her throat was cut, her stomach cut open, and her private parts stabbed twice. This date was marked in Merriweather journal.

 

 

Doreen O'Bannon

A retiring sort on the Orient Express, who evidently was suffering from some sort of skin disease. She was travelling to hot springs in Germany in the hopes of a cure, or perhaps simply easing her suffering. She roomed with Madam Arcana.

 

 

Dr. John Oldman

Probable Afterlife Club member, whose manner of death was unclear.

 

 

Samuel Palmer (1805-1881)

English landscape painter and etcher, born in London. In 1819 he exhibited at both the Royal Academy and the British Institution. Shortly afterwards he became intimate with John Linnell, who introduced him to Varley, Mulready, and above all to William Blake, whose strange and mystic genius had the most powerful effect on Palmer's art. It was to him that Blake entrusted the job of dispersing the alchemical tarot cards which Hockley wished to use for the Diogenes Club.
Later he fell ill, and spent seven years recovering at Shoreham in Kent. There he produced many landscapes of the scenery there, whose characteristics are recurrent in his later works. In 1839 he married a daughter of Linnell and moved to Italy. Returning to London, he increasingly became involved in water-colours for his painting. Among the best and most important paintings of his later years was a noble series of illustrations to Milton's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. In 1861 Palmer removed to Reigate, where he died on the 24th of May, 1881.

 

 

Charles Stewart Parnell

Irish politician, born in Avondale, Co Wicklow, Ireland. He studied at Cambridge, and in 1875 became an MP, supporting Home Rule, and gained great popularity in Ireland by his audacity in the use of obstructive parliamentary tactics. In 1879 he was elected president of the Irish National Land League. In 1880 founded the practice of ``boycotting'' (after its first victim, Captain Boycott). In 1881, he and his followers walked out of the House in response to the Land Act. On October 13th he was led to his imprisonment in Kilmainham Gaol by Gladstone in October 1881. Parnell in prison however was an even greater scourge to the British Parliament than Parnell free and the campaign throughout the country was taken up by the Ladies Land League, which event marked the entry of Irish women into the national struggle for the first time in modern history. From Kilmainham Parnell continued to direct the affairs of the League and on 18 October 1881 a ``No Rent Manifesto'' was issued which, in essence, was a call for a general strike against the payment of rents. An enraged Government suppressed the Land League and this in turn led to a new wave of agrarian violence.

Eventually both sides agreed to what came to be known as the Kilmainham Treaty whereunder Parnell and his supporters were released from prison in April 1882, on their undertaking to use their influence to put down lawlessness whilst the Govemment agreed that coercion would be relaxed. Lord Cowper and Forster in Ireland at once resigned, and were succeeded by Lord Spencer and Lord Frederick Cavendish, who entered Dublin on the 6th of May. This lead to the unfortunate Phoenix Park murders (see Invincibles) which Parnell condemned but hurt his image nonetheless.

His semi-obscurity however was soon reversed by the London Times which in 1887 accused him of being connected with Irish terrorism and with the ``Invincibles'' in particular and printed facsimiles of letters allegedly in Parnell's own handwriting. These accusations were investigated by a special commission in 1888/9 and the letters were shown to have been forged. Pamell was found innocent the charges made against him, became the idol of London society and in Ireland was hailed as ``the uncrowned king''.
Sine 1886 he has been living with Katherine O'Shea -- the wife of Capt. William O'Shea, a former member of the Irish Party (although this is not publicly known).

See also a more complete Parnell family history.  

Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850)

British statesman and prime minister (1834-35; 1841-46). As home secretary in 1829, he secured passage of a bill for Catholic Emancipation (which he had formerly opposed) and established the London police force , whose members were called Bobbies after him. Important in the emerging Conservative Party, he hoped it would favor general reforms. The abandonment of custom duties and repeal(1846) of the Corn Laws during his second prime ministry split the party and forced his resignation.
He was a member of the Diogenes Council during this period as well, although his duties are unknown.

 

 

Sir Arthur Pellew

The late judge (Died Febuary 6, 1888 of a heart attack). Father of daughters Georgina, Terise, and Perdida. His household was the site of two unusual deaths. First the death of Mrs. Angelica Whitby, daughter of Sir Arthur's wife's brother, in April. Second the double death of Simon Pellew and Mrs. Prunella Agar Pellew on their wedding night, October 22.

 

 

Simon Pellew

Started drinking around March or April 1888, and wandering about the East End. Around Sept 23 he announced his engagement to Prunella Agar.

 

 

Alice Pembroke

Probable Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of old age.

 

 

Dr. Geoffrey Fotheringhay-Phipps

A doctor at London Hospital, investigator of freaks, who formerly treated the hermaphrodite which (under Lorenz) was transformed into a two-headed monster. He forwarded mail to Lorenz subsequent to the doctor's disappearance.

 

 

Roman Petrov

An incognito rail company agent whom the company met on the Orient Express. He was clearly keeping a close watch on Miss Rankenberg, but for what reason is unknown.

 

 

Police (London Metropolitan and City of London)

The London police are split by district between the City of London (the square mile at the center), and the larger Metropolitan police force created by Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Improvement Bill of 1829.

 

The Metropolitan Police answer directly to the Home Secretary, and are headquartered at 4 Whitehall Place -- aka. Scotland Yard. It is headed by the Commissioner: Edmund Henderson from 1868, Charles Warren from 1886, and James Monro upon Warren's resignation on November 8, 1888.
The Criminal Investigations Division (CID) was formed in 1878, replacing the earlier Detective Force after a conspiracy scandal involving three senior detectives. The head of the CID was Howard Vincent. He was replaced by James Monro in 1884 and in August 1888 Robert Anderson took charge after Monro's resignation.
The Special Irish Branch was formed in 1883 in the wake of a number of dynamitings of public buildings by Fenian terrorists. It later became known as just Special Branch.

 

See also New Scotland Yard's History page.

 

 

Beatrice Quisp

Probable Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of a brain tumor.

 

 

Anne Raeburn

A friend of Violet Woodhull's from the Society for the Education for woman, and the second on the Ripper's letter to Edwards. She was to marry a nice young solicitor in June.

 

 

Seregena Andrakovan Rankenberg

A young Russian noble whom the company encountered on the Orient Express. Her manner suggests hard times -- reinforced by her being hounded by the agent Roman Petrov. However, Rook suspected her of being an adventuress giving a sob story to fellow aristocrats.

 

 

Yves Rostande

An elite French restaurateur, well-respected and somewhat portly, whom the company met on the Orient Express. He is also secretly a skilled agent. Masked he shot Stefani with a rifle from the engine car -- while given an alibi from Leopold II. His employer is unknown.

 

 

Lord George Caenarvon Rutherford

Probable Afterlife Club member, who allegedly died of colon cancer. He was not a very social man, whose wife died several years ago. He had some sort of split with his son John which was never resolved.

 

 

Lord John Caenarvon Rutherford

The son of the late Lord Rutherford is currently a director of the East India Company, and thus immensely wealthy as well as a prime player in the Great Game. He is in his 40's and has a rugged look to him. He acquired a native-cut ruby which was brought by John Keating from India. As of February, he was discussing giving the gem to the Queen. In March, he met with the company and the Goddess, and eventually sold the gem to the Indians trying to recover it.

 

 

Jack Rutherford

A thug, known to Eck and Randall. He was working as an orderly at Malbray Asylum.

 

 

Sefer-en-Ra

A minor pharoah whom Merriwether was obsessed with. He was a high priest who murdered his pharoah and became regent, in turn he was murdered years later by young prince, who S. had just unsuccessfully tried to have assassinated. ``The one true pharoah, the great and glowing!''

 

 

Sigerson

A consummately skilled actor and spy, investigating various criminal activities. He posed as a blind violinist, playing at Ashcroft's hotel and at the Afterlife Club beneath it. Rook's men attempted to follow him to the hotel, but he disappeared. Later, when the company were attacked by ``Maker'' he helped them escape. He is tall and thin, with an aquiline nose and deep-set eyes. As the blind violinist, he had close-cropped, nearly black hair and spoke with an Oxbridge accent.
He has played as a temporary replacement for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, sporting long light-brown hair (wig, presumably) and a Scandanavian accent. James Thursgood, the concertmaster, described hiring him. Sigerson was reputed to be playing solo on the continent, but he is not listed in any directories or such. Thursgood always stumbled on Sigerson `accidentally' without knowing his address, and they would generally return to Thursgood's to discuss music. Sigerson was an excellent violinist, if somewhat eccentric, and was also a gifted if somewhat avant-garde composer, making up weird melodies and harmonics impromptu.
He dressed well, but not so well that one would think him really wealthy. He once mentioned that his mother was French, but never spoke of his father. He was energetic, occasionally leaping about or gesturing wildly, but could also sink into lengthy silences during which he barely moved. He usually did his odd composing during these moments of lethargy.
The real Sigerson is currently involved in investigating a network of criminal activity linking back to the East End. He denies any mystical element to the Afterlife club, describing it as an ``insurance scam''. He has traced the activity of Fu Manchu rather accurately without knowing that a single man was behind it.

 

 

Emma Elizabeth Smith

Possible early victim of Jack the Ripper. She was brutally attacked April 3 and died the following day. The date is not marked in Merriweather's journal.

 

 

Frederick Smithson

A soldier working largely in India known to Stephen Edwards. Around 15 years ago he began working as a batman (assistant) for Captain Marrish. The Captain apparently died 10 years ago on an expedition to the Hindy Kush with John Keating. Smithson continued working for the family to care for the daughter, Janet (who was 7 at the time).
In January of 1889, Smithson ended his employment with the Marrish family over disagreements with the new husband of Sarah Marrish. He arrived in England around Febuary 24, planning to sell Captain Marrish's archeological notes to John Keating, and perhaps sell a story idea to Stephen Edwards. He was strangled to death on Febuary 20, with the same oil on his neck as was found on Hillary Blount (which Hayward suggested was connected with the Thugee).

 

 

Sir Reginald Smythe-Hamilton

Curator of Hebrew Antiquities at the British Museum. He is the discoverer of putative Urim and Thummim currently on display. His new assistant is Frederick Johnston.

 

 

Societas Rosicruciae In Anglia (SRIA)

A masonic sub-group in England dedicated to various rituals.

 

 

Andrea Stefania

The alias of a female impersonator and Cosa Nostra assassin, evidently hired to kill Edwards while on the Orient Express. Her disguise was flawless and enchanting. Having been lured to her/his room, Edwards would have been dead had it not been for the convenient intervention of Ronald Lakeby. His/her belongings in the baggage car gave no hint as to who paid to have Edwards killed.

 

 

The Society for the Education of Women

An upper-class liberal society, patronized by Violet Woodhull. Six members of this society were threatened by a letter ostensibly from Jack the Ripper, posted to Stephen Edwards. In order: Mary (Polly) Bayldon, Anne Raeburn, Elizabeth Willete, Martha MacNeill, Sarah Catherine Hamilton, and Violet `Mary' Woodhull. Miss Woodhull's actual middle name is Tennessee, but it is given as `Mary' in the letter.

 

 

Madam Sossostrich

An alias of the Goddess (Miss Sussex-Ipwich), which the people of Limehouse knew of as a fortune teller.

 

 

Fourth Earl Stanhope, Philip Henry (1781-1855)

Statesman and scientist, best known for his association with Kaspar Hauser (a mysterious tabula rasa who appeared in Nuremberg 1828). Kaspar was associated with theories of ``animal magnetism'' and ``somnabulism'' -- such that in 1832 Stanhope sent him to Ansbach to be educated under a certain Dr. Meyer. On the 14th of December, 1833, Kaspar received a wound to the left breast which he died of four days later. Later Stanhope became skeptical of Kaspar's stories.
According to Grimmond's notes, Stanhope collaborated with Francis Hockley on the occult branch of the Diogenes Council.

 

 

Hilda Stein

A nurse at London Hospital, working particularly on chronic and terminal wards, and with occasional experience with nervous disorders and the odd physical abnormality. She died in late August, 1888. Susannah of the Afterlife Club spoke of her in the present tense in January 89', calling her the White Lady.

 

 

James Kenneth Steven

Tutor to Prince Albert at Cambridge, and author of a book on the list that was found in Montague John Druitt's list. The company were preparing to leave for Cambridge when they leapt at the chance to catch Druitt and became overwhelmed by ongoing events.

 

 

Elizabeth Stride

Believed the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper. Her throat was cut on September 30 in Dutfield's Yard, St. George-in-the-East. Later that same night, Catherine Eddowes was also slain. The date was marked in the Merriweather journal.

 

 

Miss Sussex-Ipwich

The former unnamed Goddess, known as ``Isis of the teeth'' or ``Aphrodite devouring'' -- associated with the imagery of the traditional Moon tarot card. She was pursued by Indian ``servants'' in the Prince of Gwalior's party -- who claimed that she was bloodthirsty demon that they had kept in check by sacrificing strangled victims.
After touching the ruby ``heart'' she apparently lost her position as Goddess, which fell to a small girl who escaped into the East End. She is currently staying as a guest in the estate of Miss Woodhull.

 

 

Martha Tabram

A possible early victim of Jack the Ripper. She was killed August 7 on a stairwell of George Yard Buildings, Spitalfields -- stabbed twenty-two times (possibly by different instruments). The date was not marked in the Merriweather journal.

 

Thuggees

See ``Gwalior, Prince of''

 

 

James Thursgood

Concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who hired a violinist, Sigerson, who is the blind violinist seen at the Afterlife Club.

 

 

Sir Frederick Treves

Distinguished London Hospital physician-internist. Discoverer of Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man) in the ward of Dr. Geoffrey Fotheringhay Phipps.

 

 

Amelia Twizzleton-Wickham-Fiennes

The second wife of Sir Simon Hamilton, a somewhat bohemian woman in her forties. Stepmother and current guardian of Sarah Hamilton. She is Susannah's sister (see above).

 

 

Dame Susannah Twizzleton-Wickham-Fiennes

Probable Afterlife Club member who allegedly died of breast cancer. Most likely the same ``Susannah'' encountered in the Afterlife Club house. She intimated that she had become or was trying to become the White Lady, and showed a vision of a hospital (mentioning Hilda Stein). As she was trapped in the collapsing house, when asked ``Where is the heart of the Black King?'' she answered ``Paradise Lost''.

 

 

John Varley (1778-1842)

An English water-colour painter born at Hackney, London. His father, a man of scientific attainments and tutor in the family of Lord Stanhope, discouraged his leanings towards art and placed him under a silversmith. But on his parents' death Varley escaped from this uncongenial employment and, after working as a portrait painter, engaged himself at the age of sixteen to an architectural draughtsman, who took him on a provincial tour to sketch the principal buildings in the towns they visited. His spare hours were employed in sketching from nature, and in the evenings he was permitted (like Turner and Girtin) to study in the house of Dr. Munro. In 1799 he visted North Wales, whose wild mountain scenery became a powerful influence on the whole of his art. In 1804 he became a foundation member of the Water-Colour Society, and contributed over forty works at its first exhibition. He married in 1803 and produced many more commercial pieces as well as tutoring to provide for his family. He was a firm believer in astrology, skillful in casting horoscopes; and some curious instances were related of the truth of his predictions.
In 1824 he was a founding member of the Ancients. It was at his house that his friend William Blake sketched his celebrated ``Visionary Heads.'' It was apparently at his request that Blake assembled the alchemical tarot deck. It seems that Varley wanted the Tarot to be a ``key'' for the Diogenes' occult operations, but the elderly Blake, realizing that the Diogenes represented the ``chartered'' forces of the establishment, got Samuel Palmer to disperse the cards.

 

 

Wang Si Fan

Possible alias of Fu Manchu. Ostensibly an expert Chinese botanist, who writes in perfect calligraphic English. He had corresponded with a botanist at Kew Gardens, and was referred to as the one who would know the most about the herbal oil found on Hillary Blount's strangled neck.

 

 

Sir Charles Warren

Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from March 1886 to November 1888, when he resigned amidst the furor of the Ripper murders. Warren was already unpopular for ``Bloody Sunday (November 13, 1887) when he militarily repressed a mass riot of the unemployed in Trafalgar Square, which Sir Charles Warren suppresses through military force. He was succeeded by James Monro.
Formerly, Sir Charles had fought in Africa: in the Kaffir War (1877-1878) and the second expedition to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum (1884). He was knighted in 1882 after he tracked down the murderers of Professor Edward Palmer's Expedition in Egypt.

 

 

Dr. Wynn Westcott

Coroner for NE London, and co-founder of the Golden Dawn (with S.L. Mathers and Woodman). To the Golden Dawn, he is known by his motto: ``Sapere Aude,'' or ``Dare to be wise.''
Westcott was a founding member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (along with many other Masonic and semi-Masonic groups). In 1881 he brought the young Mathers into the SRIA. In 1887 he ``discovered'' the Cipher manuscripts, which summarized the first five G.D. initiation rituals -- written in a simple, well-known alphabetic code based on the Polygraphiae of Johann Trithemius. Mathers took to them with a passion, and fleshed them out into full-blown rituals of ceremonial magic. Written on the manuscripts was the address of a certain Fraulein Anna Sprengel (``Sapiens Dominabitur Astris,'' or ``The wise one will be ruled by the stars'') in Germany. Whether Westcott found or simply fabricated the manuscripts is unknown.
See also a brief bio.

 

 

James N. Wilcox

Professor of Ancient History at Oxford, and expert on Hebrew Antiquities. He wrote and extremely nasty letter to the Times denouncing Sir Reginald Smythe-Hamilton's discovery of the Urim and Thummin as nothing of the sort.

 

 

Elizabeth Willette

A friend of Violet Woodhull's from the Society for the Education of Women, and the third name on the Ripper's letter to Edwards. In Violet's mind, a dear girl, but somewhat fast. Smokes and drinks in public. Likes men.

 

 

John Williams

The Ratcliffe Highway murderer, died 1810, who committed two mass murders in late 1809. He was eventually captured and convicted, but managed to commit suicide in his cell rather than face the noose. His body was paraded in the streets of the East End, and was buried under Cannon Street and Commercial Road. The body was found in 1866 during street repairs, and a skull claimed to be his was placed on display at the Three Bells Pub on Ratcliffe Highway in the parish of St. George's. The skull was stolen some time around late August or early September 1888, and it reappeared (or another was put in its place) in late October.
The company briefly suspected Mina Bergson as the thief, as a man and a woman were interested in the skull shortly before its disappearence. Mina Bergson's had read up on homonculi, which process required the skull of a murderer or suicide.

 

 

Ada Wilson

Possible early victim of Jack the Ripper. She was stabbed in the throat by a man demanding money - Mar 28, 1888.

 

 

Robert Woodman

An elderly co-founder of the Golden Dawn (with S.L. Mathers and Dr. Westcott). He is currently extremely ill (January), and not expected to live more than a month or two. It seems his name among Masonic circles was more important than his leadership role within the organization. His G.D. motto was ``Magna Est Veritas Et Praevalehit,'' or ``Great is the truth and it shall prevail.''

 

 

William Butler Yeats

Poet, spiritualist, Irish nationalist, and adherent of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. In 1884 he enrolled at the School of Art in Dublin, where he developed an interest in mystic religion and the supernatural. In 1887 his family moved to London and his mother suffered two strokes. There he flirted with the Theosophists through meetings with Blavatsky, but soon joined the Golden Dawn. As of 1889, his family is now installed at #3 Blenheim Rd., Bedford Park (having sold their land in Ireland) -- and William is working in Bodleian, Oxford.
(NOTE: In real history, Yeats did not become involved in the Golden Dawn until 1890. See Jack Wesdorp's Yeats chronology.)