How did the British mass murderer, Frederick Deeming, continue murdering in Melbourne?

Read a newsworthy Age article by Carolyn Webb called “Was he Jack the Ripper", reviewing a book on British serial killer Freder­ick Deeming (1853–92). Then I will pose my own questions and comments.

In 1892 while Deeming was awaiting sen­tence for kil­l­ing his second wife, he claimed that his dead mother was taunting him nightly in his Melbourne Gaol. It was she who’d urged him to kill people! Garry Linnell’s new book The Devil’s Work told how, in that era, even perfectly respectable members of society believed they comm­un­ic­ated with the dead. Deeming’s lawyer, future Aus­­tralian Prime Minister Al­fred Deakin, and Sidney Dickinson, an Am­erican journ­alist covering Deeming’s trial, both followed C19th spirit­ualism.

Deeming and his first wife, Marie James

photographed in Sydney mid 1880s. 

State Library Victoria

In Mar 1892 the discovery of the mutilated body of Deeming’s 2nd wife Emily Math­er, buried under a hearth in a Windsor house in Melbourne, escal­ated into an international tragedy. A journal­ist’s inquiries into Deeming’s British past then led to the discovery of the bod­ies of his 1st wife Marie James and 4 young child­ren (Bertha 10, Mary 7, Sidney 5, Leala 1). They were under a floor that had been conc­reted by Deeming 8 months before, in a Rainhill house he’d rented near Liverpool.

Deeming’s arrest came after detectives were drinking at Melbourne’s famous Young & Jackson Pub. They overheard a wine merchant talking about a strange man the merchant met on a steamer trip to Perth. The stranger’s name was Baron Swanston, a known alias of Deeming. Deeming was located in the rural WA town of Southern Cross, 370km east of Perth where he was waiting for his new fiancee, Kate Rounsefell, to arrive from Sydney.

Author Garry Linnell, a former Nine director of news and Fairfax editorial director, said there’s a strong chance Deeming was Jack the Ripper. Deeming was a globetrotter who could charm women, was known to visit brothels and to hate sex workers.

 Deeming's second wife, Emily Math­er

After Deeming’s arrest, a dressmaker told London news­pap­er The Globe she recognised Deeming from a photo as the man who she courted in Lon­don’s East End in 1888, before and after two of Ripper murders. She said the agitated man showed an intimate knowledge of the Ripper. He spoke of his travels abroad, and like Deeming, wore ostentatious rings.

Deeming was extradited to Victoria from Western Australia. In the Mel­b­ourne Gaol, Deeming revelled in his notoriety and boasted that no-one knew what he’d got away with. Linnell said Deeming clear­ly had a dist­ur­bed mind and was a very strange individual. But it was curious that Deeming ran into the spectre of his dead mother, just as he was seeking to be spared execution on the grounds of insan­ity.

He wasn’t spared! Deeming was tried at Melbourne Supreme Court in Apr 1892, convicted of Emily’s murder and hanged at Melbourne Gaol, 23rd May 1892.

**

AFTER publicity surrounding the discovery of Mather's body in Mel­b­our­ne, investigations back in Rainhill revealed his first family’s decomp­os­ing bodies; Marie Deeming and the four children were buried beneath his re-concreted kitchen floor. Their throats had been cut or stran­g­l­ed! The murder and burials had apparently occurred while Deeming aka Albert Williams was courting Mather, in July 1891. But why were the 5 bodies murdered near Liverpool not promptly found? I know Deeming com­­­­pl­ain­ed that his house’s drains were defective, and that his kitchen floor needed to be concreted over, but surely that would have rung al­arm bells in police headquarters looking for the family. And how did an Aus­t­ralian journal­ist’s inquiries into Deeming’s past lead to the dis­c­ov­ery of the bod­ies of his first wife Marie and child­ren back in the UK?

While still in Rainhill, Deeming began to court Emily Mather, and they married as Mr and Mrs Albert Williams in Sept 1891. Did the cleric or magistrate not ask him if he was still married to his first wife?? Af­t­er all, the first family went missing only two months before the second wedding.

Even if the British police didn’t know about the murders, they knew Deeming had more gaol and asylum sentences than any criminal. So how could he leave the UK? In Nov 1891, the Williams sailed to Australia in the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, arriving in Melbourne in Dec 1891 and renting a home. Only in Mar 1892 was the smell of a rotting corpse in the house so strong that the police were called and Mather's body found.

At a Melbourne inquest on 8th Mar, they were told that a man of Mr Wil­liams' description had auctioned household goods in Jan 1892. He was staying at a city hotel, reg­is­tered in a another name. And Deeming had already sign­ed up to a Matrimonial Agency, wishing to meet another young lady for marriage!

Deeming's lovely Windsor house in Melbourne 

where his second wife Emily was killed in 1892.

Note Frederick Deeming’s rapid decision-making and actions:
1.He married Marie James near Liverpool in Feb 1881.

2. He hid in South Africa, Australia & UK throughout 1887-89.
3.He killed Marie and their 4 children in July 1891.
4.He married his second wife Emily Mather in UK, Sept 1891.
5.He brought Emily to Melbourne and killed her in Dec 1891.
6.He got engaged in Perth to Kate Rounsefell, Jan 1892.
7.He registered with a marriage agency in Jan 1892.
8.He was hanged in Melbourne March 1892.

As for Deeming being the real Jack the Ripper, he was just one of the many men who have been identified as the brutal East End killer of London women  And as Linnell noted, Deeming viciously stabbed his victims, but unlike the Ripper, he buried them.

Read The Life and Crimes of Frederick Bailey Deeming by John Godl for additional information.