A
PARADOX
Timeline by Richard Patterson
...As an Arab journeyth
Through the sand of Ayaman,
Lean Thirst, lolling its cracked tongue,
Lagging by his side along;
And a rusty-winged Death
Grating its low flight before,
Casting ribbed, shadows o'er
The blank desert, blank and tan;...
From Francis Thompson's, 'SisterSongs'.
A PARADOX TIMELINE FOR FRANCIS THOMPSON AND THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.
On Sunday, December, the 18th, Francis Joseph Thompson is born, in Preston, Lancashire. He is the second, and only surviving, son to the recent Catholic converts, Doctor Thompson and his wife. Their first son lived only one day. In 1864 Francis Thompson's youngest sister, dies of consumption and the family moves to Manchester.
In 1868 an anti-Catholic agitator arrives in Manchester and begins a series of public meetings and fiery speeches which cause the crowd to riot. A mob then descends upon the churches of St. Mary's and St. Anne's. The interior of St. Anne's is destroyed and an attempt is made to storm St. Mary's is halted only when the parishioners, who include the Thompson family, mount a guard inside. The rioters attack with bottles and stones. Shots are fired, and finally the Riot Act is read. The fighting continues, for three days, before the army is called in. By the riot's end a church, school, and presbytery, are broken into. The altars, paintings, and statues, contained inside, are incinerated. A further 111 houses of the Catholic congregation are gutted. The entire clergy is obliged to leave town for a month. It is in this year that Francis, a seven year old child, first reads the 'Apocalypse.'
In 1870 Thompson is sent to study for the priesthood. Upon his arrival, at the seminary college, in the Northern County of Durham, Thompson's new-found, school friends, to initiate him, hold him down, and have him whipped. While Francis is at the seminary he is disciplined for attempted arson. During preparations for church services Francis Thompson refusing to wear the proscribed robes, which were black, instead demands that he be allowed to wear one of purple. The priest's refusals to comply with his request causes Francis to steal the candle lighters job, and threaten to set the church aflame. He is punished and his protests are ignored. Subsequently, in 1871, Francis Thompson again makes another demonstration of public arson. Francis who is now twelve, acting as an alter boy, in St. Mary's Church, unexpectedly seized another boy's thurible which is the device, on a chain, used to hold burning frankincense. Francis spun the thurible around, over his head, and caused the charcoal embers to be scattered. He had previously unhinged the lid.
In 1877 Francis Thompson fails seminary college and returns home to Ahston. His father urges him to become a surgeon. In the summer, he enrols into a Manchester medical college. In 1879, after falling ill with a lung infection, Francis is medicated with laudanum, which is a mixture of wine and opium. To occupy his time, while he recuperates, his mother gives him, the book, 'Confessions of an Opium Eater,' by Thomas De'Quincey. In 1879 Thompson sits for the Local Examinations, in London, and fails. In 1880, after suffering a complaint of the liver, Francis's mother dies. Her death came the day after her son's twenty-first birthday. In 1882 Francis Thompson suffers a mental breakdown. In 1883 the first edition of the 'Merry England,' a monthly periodical, is released. Francis Thompson is an early subscriber to the London Art's magazine. In 1884 Francis Thompson, aged twenty-five years, for the third time, fails his medical finals, and becomes an encyclopaedia salesperson. He holds the position for only two months, before applying for work at a Manchester factory. He works for the factory, which produces medical instruments, for just two weeks, before leaving to enlist in the army as a soldier. Two months later Thompson is dismissed for failing to attend. In 1885 Doctor Thompson, who plans to remarry, accuses his son of drinking. His son Francis, knowing that the cause of his flushed appearance is due to his opium addiction, denies his father's accusations. That same night, November 9, while his family sleeps, Francis Thompson, leaving only a note, says farewell to the family home, bound for London. In August, of 1886, Francis Thompson had become homeless, and was walking the streets for a fortnight, when he met and began work, for a shoemaker, and Protestant churchwarden, in Haymarket London.
In Mid- January of 1887, Francis Thompson loses his job. In February he personally drops a submission, of some of his written works, into the letterbox of the 'Merry England office. In April Thompson's father remarries. Francis, who is again homeless, does not attend. In the same Spring, possibly the same April, Francis Thompson attempts suicide.
In around January, of 1888, the editor of the 'Merry England,' reads Thompson's submission, and sends a reply to Thompson's Charing Cross, post box. In March, after receiving no response from Thompson, the editor issues the April edition of the 'Merry England,' a month early. It contains one of Thompson's submitted poems. In April Francis Thompson writes to the editor, thanking him for the publication of his poem. This time Thompson gives his postal address as that of a city chemist's. The editor approaches the chemist, pays Thompson's debts, and asks that Thompson be contacted and sent to the 'Merry England officer. In May, the editor, hearing no further word from Thompson, publishes another of Thompson's poems. A priest, living in Manchester, who is a friend of the Thompson family, spied Thompson's verse in the periodical. He is sent, by the family, to find their son. In June the magazine publishes an essay of Thompson's.
Meanwhile; Thompson's place of shelter now consists of the vacant storage houses, and deserted sailors cottages, of the West India Docks. At the end of August, a huge warehouse, in the nearby Docklands, was the site of an arson attack. The night of the warehouse blaze, the 31st, also signalled the beginning of the Jack the Ripper murders. In September the editor places Francis Thompson in a private hospital. November 9, the murder of Mary Kelly, the Ripper's fifth victim, brings a lull to the Ripper killing spree. In December Francis Thompson is released from the private hospital.
In January, of 1889, Thompson's editor sends him to a Priory in Sussex. In 1890 Francis Thompson returns to London. In 1891 a woman named Francis Coles, is murdered. Fuelling fears that the Ripper is still at large. In 1892, the Whitechapel murder case is closed, and pronounced as unsolved. In December, of 1892, his editor, admits Thompson, who has been living in Paddington, London, to convalesce, at a Priory in Wales. In 1895, The 'Merry England,' periodical folds. In 1907 Francis Thompson again boards at the Sussex monastic priory. Upon his return to London, he falls ill and dies, in November, aged forty-eight.
'Dear Boss' letter received by the Central News Agency. Dated September 25, 1888.