Does a pocket watch expose the true identity of Jack the Ripper, the infamous Whitechapel murderer of the late 1880’s?
The pocket watch, which recently underwent tests for authenticity and date timing, was bought in 1992 in Liverpool by a merchant who believes it bears the signature of James Maybrick, one of the numerous suspects in the notorious Jack the Ripper case. The watch is also supposedly inscribed with the initials of the victims in the Whitechapel murders. Also in 1992, a “diary” was allegedly uncovered that purported to be in Maybrick’s own hand and admitted committing the Ripper crimes.
The jury is out as to the authenticity of the “diary” and the pocket watch. Regardless, James Maybrick himself went down in the annals of English crime … and not for being the Ripper.
So who is James Maybrick, and how does his pocket watch fit into the story?
Maybrick’s chart analysis
James Maybrick, a well-known cotton merchant whose finances went up and down throughout the course of his life, had several mistresses in addition to his American-born wife, Florence. He was a long-time user of arsenic and strychnine, prescribed in small doses for various aliments back in the nineteenth century. Immediately after his death in 1889, his wife, one Florie Maybrick, was tried and convicted of allegedly poisoning him with arsenic. She spent 15 years in the English prison system, after which she was released and proclaimed her innocence in a book titled My Fifteen Lost Years.
James Maybrick was born on October 24, 1838, in Liverpool, England. Looking at his chart with a noon birth time, (since I do not have his actual birth time, a noon chart gives the most accurate placement of planets for the day in question) one can see that Maybrick has a Scorpio Sun and a Capricorn Moon. Since the Moon is at 7 degrees at noon, it is a fair assumption that it was in Capricorn all day long.
As it is impossible to determine the true ascendant and house placements, one must begin by looking at the signs involved most heavily and the aspects made by the major and personal planets.
In Maybrick’s natal chart, Mercury and Venus are conjunct in Libra and opposite Pluto in Aries. These aspects are indicators of a mind given over to the deeper issues of life and an emotional life governed by the darker impulses - jealousy, envy, lust, etc. Pluto also trines Mars in Leo, which in turn squares Saturn in Scorpio. The Sun is square Neptune. Sun square Neptune does show a predilection for drug addition, for trying to escape one’s ego limitations in the fog of pleasant haziness.
Although we can’t say for sure without an accurate birth-time, Maybrick’s Moon may square Venus, Jupiter, Pluto and the North and South Nodes. The Moon’s position indicates how one’s emotional life plays out. It also reflects one’s early relationship and experience of one’s mother or mother figures. Maybrick’s Moon position indicates that he may have experienced a lot of confusion in these areas of his life.
At 8:40 p.m. on May 11, 1889, James Maybrick died. Now we have an ascendant! It is 29 degrees of Scorpio. Mars, Neptune, Pluto, and Mercury are all in Gemini and all conjunct the descendant and opposite the ascendant of the death chart for Maybrick. Certainly it would appear that someone killed him - his wife or someone else. The Moon in the death chart is exactly conjunct the Jupiter in his natal chart. This means that death was a release for him, and something that would prove beneficial to him in the long run. Interestingly, the Jupiter placement in the death chart is exactly conjunct the Moon in the natal chart set for noon. Synchronicity? Surely a release was coming for Maybrick, but by whom and from what?
The 8th house ruler is the Moon, and it is placed in the 10th house conjunct the Midheaven in Maybrick’s chart. The Moon squares Chiron, which is also opposite the noon chart Moon in the natal chart. Neptune - the planet of fog and deception and confusion - is the ruler of the 4th house of endings, and it is placed exactly conjunct the descendant of the death chart. The 7th house concerns partnerships, both business and professional. It concerns known enemies also, as opposed to the secret ones, which are located in the 12th house.
Pluto, chart ruler and as such placed in the stellium conjunct the 7th house, lends his signature to the chart deconstruction process. Could Maybrick’s wife have poisoned him? Yes, it is possible according to the death chart. Is he the Ripper? Well that I can’t say, not really.
Event chart analysis
The first Whitechapel murder was discovered at just before 4:00 a.m. August 31, 1888.
In the chart for this event, Leo is Rising with the Sun in Virgo in the 1st house, showing all the prominence that would be focused on the case. The 10th house is ruled by Venus in the sign of Taurus and the victims were all engaged in a Venusian profession, i.e. prostitution. The ruler of the chart, the Sun, is conjunct Mercury, showing all the intense media activity concerning the case; the newspapers, the books, etc. The Jack the Ripper case has continued to occupy people's minds, even after all these years.
The Sun is also square Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto in the chart for this event. That could explain the confusion surrounding the identity of the murderer, the nature of his crimes, and his own deep-seated confusion about himself, his own identity, and his dark nature.
Neptune and Pluto are the rulers of the 8th and 4th houses respectively, and are conjunct in the 10th house, along with being the most elevated planets in the chart. So the murderer was in the dark about who he was in a metaphorical sense - along with the rest of the world, in a literal sense. The Moon was in Gemini and the only aspect it makes is a square to Venus. Again, the theme of uncertainty about one’s identity arises, since Gemini is a dualistic sign. This also shows the intense media interest in the case.
The square to Venus suggests difficulty in dealing with women, including one’s mother. Mars and Jupiter are conjunct in the 4th house and in the sign of Scorpio. That would tell me there was violence and perhaps sexual abuse in the murderer’s childhood, and that it was from a parental figure. This abuse came from someone who was also dualistic - meaning sometimes kind and beneficial to the child, and sometimes violent and abusive. Jack the Ripper, whoever he really was, then repeated this pattern of violence - as many adult victims of child abuse do.
Uranus is in the 3rd house, so it may have been someone who paid erratic visits to the neighborhood of Whitechapel. Uranus is sextile Saturn in the 12th house, which would explain the deep -seated unconscious issues the murderer had. All the planets are on the left side of the chart, from the 10th to the 4th house, and the ruler of the 8th house is Neptune. The ruler of the 4th house (early childhood) is Pluto. Pluto and Uranus are conjunct at the top of the chart. So I think the murderer was someone who visited the neighborhood a lot, but who didn’t live there. This person was sexually abused as a child and had a lot of confusion about his own sexual identity. He had a hatred of and fear of sex, and a hatred of women (including his mother). And I don’t think we will ever know who he really was.
As for the pocket watch, well, the jury is still out on that one. Time (no pun intended) will tell.
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