The picture above shows the remains of one of the columns that once formed part of the home of Daniel and Sarah Chandler. Daniel Chandler was Florence Maybrick's paternal grandfather. He married Sarah Campbell, whose brother, John, was only one of four Alabamians to serve on the US Supreme Court. The Chandlers lived in a magnificent mansion on Government Street, Mobile, built in 1850. After the death of Sarah Chandler in 1887 the house was sold and then given to the Bishop of Mobile. He established the McGill Institute, a Catholic boys' school on the site. In 1949 the school relocated to another site leaving the building empty. In 1955 the building was demolished and the Admiral Semmes Motor Hotel was built on the site. In the 1990s the hotel was demolished. The site today is a car park and it is in this car park that one of the original columns of the house can be seen. In the archive section this month, I have added a newspaper story that suggests that Florence scratched her name on to a glass window of the building. I have to say that I am not totally convinced by the story.

Most of the books that refer to Florence Maybrick's early life, state that she was born in the Chandler mansion and lived there for the early part of her life. However, these accounts are not accurate. The 1860 American Census clearly show that Florence's parents, William and Caroline (Holbrook) Chandler, lived not on Government Street but in a house on nearby North Joachim Street. It was in this house that Florence was born in September 1862. Florence's father had died in July 1862 two months before Florence was born. Florence's mother moved sometime in 1863 to Macon, Georgia, to be near Captain Du Barry. As a result, it is unlikely that Florence ever lived in the Chandler mansion on Government Street. 

I took the picture of column on a recent visit to Mobile, Alabama. While there I gave a talk on the Maybricks in the excellent Ben May Library in Mobile. I also spent a couple of days carrying out research in the Local History and Genealogy section of the library. I would like to pay a special tribute and thanks to Amy Beach and all the staff at the library who made me so welcome and who helped me immensely with my work. Everything about the library is first rate, from the excellent building, to the facilities to the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff. Mobile can be truly proud of its library.

I would also like to thank Bob Peck at Mobile Historic Preservation for his help and kindness. Bob is in charge of the archive section at the Oakleigh Historic Complex. Oakleigh (shown in the picture below) is a beautiful mansion house, circa 1833. The house is furnished with fine period antiques and furnishings reflecting the wealth and opulence of Mobile at a time when 'Cotton was King' in the city. The mansion is open to visitors and it is a must to visit if you are in Mobile. The archive section is a real treasure trove, full of interesting items many of them relating to Florence Maybrick. Bob helped me dig through the Maybrick archives and I managed to unearth several fascinating documents.  

The picture below was taken by me during my visit to Mobile. It is the gravestone of William Gaines Chandler, Florence Maybrick's father. The inscription reads: 'To our Beloved Son: William G. Chandler. Gifted and Good, the Joy, the Pride, the Hope and Light of our Life.' The grave is in the Chandler section of the famous Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile. The cemetery was a municipal cemetery established in 1832. More than 50,000 people are buried there including: two Alabama governors, seven congressmen, 20 mayors and six generals and a large number of Confederate soldiers from the Civil War.

On Saturday 5th June 2010, I have the honour of being the guest speaker at the meeting of the Whitechapel Society 1888. The Society promotes the study of the Whitechapel murders and the social impact that this event had on the East End of London. The Society also promotes the study of Victorian/Edwardian life and culture in the East End of London. The Society has its own website (www.whitechapelsociety.com) and it holds six meetings every year. The Society publishes an excellent journal (free to its members) to coincide with its meeting. Its annual membership is only £9, which is amazing value, and I would thoroughly recommend joining the Society.

Most of the items placed in the archives this month are related to Mobile. I have included William Chandler’s obituary that was published in a local Mobile paper. He was the father of Florence Maybrick. He belonged to a wealthy family who lived in Mobile, Alabama. William, a graduate of Yale, became a wealthy merchant in the cotton trade. Florence’s mother, Caroline Holbrook, met William when she came to Mobile in the mid-1850s to visit her uncle, the Rev. Joseph H. Ingraham, the rector of a local Episcopal Church. They fell in love and married in 1858. They had two children, Holbrook St. John Chandler and Florence. However, Florence never knew her father as he died suddenly in 1862 aged only 32. His death at a relatively young age caused some in Mobile to suspect foul play. There is no evidence to support such a view and the suspicions probably just reflected the jealous prejudices of a Southern community to a Yankee interloper some three years into the American Civil War. Nevertheless, the rumours caused Florence’s mother to move the family to Macon, Georgia. Just over a year later, Caroline married again, this time to a Confederate Army officer named Captain Du Barry.

I have also placed in the archives items relating to Daniel Chandler, William’s father and Florence’s grandfather; and the Rev. Ingraham. Further items from Mobile will appear in the next edition of Latest News. These will include a copy of William Chandler’s will and Daniel Chandler’s dealings in slaves. Both items are of great interest and both help to paint a picture of what life was like for the Chandler family in Mobile in the 1860s.   

Two other new items in the archives concern Captain Franklin Bache Du Barry, the Confederate Officer who became the second husband of Florence’s mother. Both items refer to his military service in the Civil War prior to his death in 1864. One shows a complete summary of his service record. The other refers to particular times in his army career, for example, he served in Dent’s Battery of Artillery at the start of the war. A letter from the Governor of Alabama to the Confederate President refers to Du Barry by name and states that apart from Du Barry, the commanding officer at Fort Morgan has ‘scarcely another officer upon whom he can fully rely.’ Du Barry was later appointed the District Ordnance Officer in Charleston. General Ripley’s report (April, 1863) states that Du Barry was ‘active and energetic in the supply of ammunition and material for the batteries.’ Further items on Du Barry will appear in future Latest News sections. We are still busy carrying out research into this colourful character. At this point I would like to say a special thanks to Dan Dolgin of Pensacola, Florida. Some of you may already know him as he has written a couple of articles on Maybrick-related issues. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Mobile and he has very kindly agreed to help me in carrying out research. It was Dan who unearthed the Du Barry material. We will put his Maybrick articles in the archive section of this website in the near future.   
Two other new interesting archive items are the affidavits provided by Alfred Brierley and George Bancroft. Alfred Brierley was the man who with whom Florence Maybrick had an adulterous affair. The affidavit was part of the evidence provided after Florence's trial and before the commutation of her sentence. Bancroft was a close friend of James Maybrick. He provided an affidavit after Florence Maybrick’s trial that confirmed that James regularly used drugs. In the affidavit, Bancroft stated that between the years of 1874 and 1876, when James had lived in Norfolk, Virginia, he had frequently been in his company and that he had seen him add a white powder to his drinks. James Maybrick had informed him that the white powder contained arsenic.

I have still kept the link provided for us by Professor David Canter as it is still attracting a lot attention and positive comment. Click on the following link to view the video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/QCdskRH-B6s

I would again like to thank all those people who have ordered my book, ‘The Maybrick A to Z.’ As the title suggests, the book provides a comprehensive encyclopaedia-style guide to James and Florence Maybrick. There are also three introductory chapters that cover their life, Florence’s trial and the alleged connection between James and the Jack the Ripper murders. In total, the book has more than 300 pages, more than 100 pictures and photographs and in excess of 600 references. Most of the pictures in the book have never appeared in previous books on the Maybrick. I obviously rather like the book (bit biased, possibly); however, I have included a recent review of the book so that you can have an unbiased opinion of its merit. The book has a retail price in the shops of £14-95. However, books ordered through this website are available for sale at the reduced price of £12 (plus packing and postage). Please e-mail us at our contact address if you would like to order a signed copy of the book.

Maybrick A to Z - Book Review
By Chris George and published in Ripperologist 98, December 2008

No doubt a number of you are tired of hearing about the Maybricks because you don’t believe the alleged Diary of James Maybrick, in which the Liverpool cottonbroker ‘confesses’ to being the Whitechapel murderer, is the real McCoy. However even those of you who don’t think Maybrick was ‘Jack’ may be interested in this book by Liverpool history teacher Chris Jones. It is packed full of new information about the 1889 Maybrick case that will fascinate you, whether or not the Liverpool businessman was the Ripper. Here is everything you might want to know, or should that be more that you might ever wish to know, about James and Florence Maybrick. The author has been exhaustive in researching the lives of the Maybricks including the events and locales connected to the sordid demise of Mr Maybrick in May 1889 at Battlecrease House in Aigburth, Liverpool, and the subsequent trial and traumas of his widow, Alabama-born Florence Maybrick, accused of murdering her husband by arsenic poisoning.

Mr Jones is of course the man who arranged the controversial ‘Trial of James Maybrick’ at the Liverpool Cricket Club in May 2007. However, in this book, as on the Maybrick website (www.jamesmaybrick.org) that he recently began, Mr Jones takes a non-partisan view of Maybrick’s candidacy for the bloody mantle of the Ripper.

In his research, Mr Jones has discovered many nuggets of information about the Maybrick case, including information on lesser known individuals in the case, such as Fletcher Rodgers (1823–1891), foreman of the coroner’s jury that ruled against Mrs Maybrick, some think because of her evident adultery with cotton merchant Albert Brierley. Under Samuel Brighouse, coroner for Southwest Lancashire, Rogers and his fellow jurymen returned ‘a verdict of wilful murder’ against Mrs Maybrick. Mr Rogers, who, Jones notes, ‘played a relatively active role’ in the proceedings, was himself a cotton merchant and must have known the dead man well. Thus he was hardly an unbiased observer. Surely today such a far from disinterested person could not be appointed to a jury. Perhaps even more intriguing is the fact that after Florence Maybrick’s trial and conviction, he and his family moved into Battlecrease House, Rogers having taken up the remainder of the lease to the property. He died in December 1891 at the age of sixty-eight, having been married twice and fathering seventeen children. Some might think it suspicious that he went to live in the same house where the Maybricks lived, although as a local man and given the size of his family, the need for spacious quarters probably factored into his decision to take the lease.

The book begins with a rundown of the Maybrick and Ripper cases, with three chapters, respectively, on ‘James and Florence Maybrick’, ‘Trial of Florence Maybrick’, and ‘The Ripper Connection’. These are followed by chapter 4, the largest section, pages 55 to 300, which comprises the actual ‘Maybrick A to Z’ of the book’s title, followed by a useful chronology and bibliography. The book is full of rare illustrations, over 150 of them, a number of them contemporary newspaper illustrations and other graphics previously unpublished in any modern book. Also included are new photographs by Mr Jones, including a sad colour shot of Florence Maybrick’s lichen-festooned gravestone in Connecticut. It was in a shack on the grounds of South Kent School that Florie lived her final days after her release from prison in 1904. She died in 1941 in that house, accompanied by pet cats, an old soul by now unkempt and forgotten by a world which once considered her case a cause célèbre.

Finally, if you have any items that you would like to send me about James and Florence Maybrick or anything related to the alleged Ripper connection, I would be happy to receive it.

Chris Jones (Co-ordinator of jamesmaybrick.org)

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