Is One of Jack the Ripper's Victims Buried in Illinois?-- Part 2: Thomas Neill Cream

I also read that Daniel Stott had come from Canada after a previous wife had run off with her lover.

Find-A Grave for Thomas Neill Cream (the man suspected to have been Jack the Ripper)

Cream was buried at Newgate Prison Cemetery in Newgate, Greater London.  he was executed by hanging, and event that attracted a huge crowd.

Daniel Stott's wife , Julia Stott, moved to New Milford, Illinois, and stayed with a sister until she vanished.  New Milford is a small town on the outskirts of Rockford, Illinois.

--Cooter

Is One of Jack the Ripper's Victims Buried in Illinois?-- Part 1: Daniel Stott

There is a likelihood that there is a body buried in Garden Prairie Cemetery off US-20 between Marengo and Belvidere, Illinois.  It is west of Burma Road and east of garden Prairie Road.  The cemetery is well-maintained and has many older burials, the more recent ones on the west side.

Daniel Stott, born 1820, died 12 June 1881.  Row 11, section 23A

Find-A-Grave says that Mr. Stott is the only male victim of Dr. Thomas Nell Cream, suspected as being the Jack the Ripper.

--Cooter

Jack the Ripper...in Illinois?-- Part 2

The November 1945 Chicago Tribune revisited the case of the death of Daniel Stott and reported that he was living alone, over the age of 60 and subject of attack from his malady (epilepsy). He decided to acquire the services of a housekeeper and hired one who had worked at the Belvidere (Ill.) honme of Myron Avery. Mr. Stott and the housekeeper (much younger than him) ended up getting married around 1880.

The Oct. 28, 2008 RR Star mentioned that Daniel Stott was a depot agent (good pension and/or salary).

And the Plot Thickens. More to Come. --Cooter

Jack the Ripper...In Illinois?-- Part 1

Back on December 31, 2013, I wrote about a possible victim of England's famed Jack the Ripper being buried out in a cemetery in Boone County, Illinois. I always thought Jack the Ripper to be strictly an English thing, so had to do more research. I found that this could be a great murder mystery plot with all sorts of twists and turns that I came across as I delved deeper into it.

Many people think Jack the Ripper to be this Dr. Cream.

Before reading the rest, refer back to the Dec. 31, 2013, blog entries on the subject.

The Boone County Historical Society has a website and has a complete file on the murder of Mason (I'm presuming this name refers to the group he belonged to) Daniel Stott.

A person wrote Ancestry.com looking for information on Daniel Stott saying he was Mr. Stott's GGG Grandson.

Geneaology.com said Mrs. Stott left jail in 1882.

The Nov. 16, 1882, Daily Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa reported that Daniel Stott was 73 (born 1808) and his wife was 33 (born 1848). That is an interesting difference in age.

And It Gets Better. --DaCoot

Jack the Ripper? Out Here in Northern Illinois? An Earlier Murder here.

From Wikipedia.

The last entry about cemeteries mentioned a Boone County man being poisoned by a Dr. Cream, suspected of being the notorious Jack the Ripper. This is something I knew nothing at all about. I always figured it was strictly an English/London thing.

But, there are those who thinks Jack the Ripper ended up in London by way of Canada and Illinois and went by the real name of Thomas Neil Cream.

You can look it up for an interesting story.

However, I'm interested in the death of the Boone County man whose gravestone accused Dr. Cream and his wife for his murder.

On 14 July 1881, Daniel Stott died of strychaine poisoning at his home in Boone County, Illinois, after Dr. Cream supplied him with an alleged remedy for epilepsy. Cream was arrested along with Mrs. Julia A. Stott who had become Cream's mistress and procured the poison from Cream to kill her husband.

She turned state's evidence to avoid jail. Cream was sentenced to life imprisonment at Joliet Prison, but was released in July 1891 and went to London where Jack the Ripper soon began his dirty work.

At some point after Mr. Stott's death, unknown persons erected a gravestone oin his plot reading: "Daniel Stott Died June 12, 1881 Aged 61 Years, poisoned by his wife and Dr. Cream."

Wonder what happened to Mrs. Stott?

Now, That Is An Interesting Story. --Cooter

Lots of History in Those Cemeteries: Jack the Ripper in Illinois?

From the Dec. 10, 2008, Chicago Tribune "Cemeteries yield family history" by Jeff Long.

Genealogist Craig Pfannkuche likes exploring cemeteries "and digging up arcane facts about the dead."

He feels nostalgic, he said, for the time when cemeteries were like parks, with people bringing a picnic lunch and having family get-togethers-- even if some of the relatives were 6 feet under. Those days lasted from the late 1800s until about 1950."

Victorians loved mourning but that all changed with all the death during World War II.

A favorite of his to visit is McHenry County's Ridgefield Cemetery which opened in 1836, the second-oldest one in the county. There is one gravestone reading "David Hartman, Company B, 36th Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. Killed at Franklin, Tenn. Nov. 30, 1864. Aged 25 years." That provides the groundwork for a lot of interesting further research.

Then there is a real interesting one in the Garden Prairie, Illinois, cemetery reading, "Killed by his wife and Dr. Cream." There are some who believe that Neil Cream, born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1850 and who lived for awhile in Chicago, was Jack the Ripper.

All Sorts of Interesting Stuff in Those Cemeteries. --DaCoot