Police Superintendent Thomas Arnold (7 April 1835 – 1907) was a British

policeman A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

best known for his involvement in the hunt for

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer w ...

in 1888. It was his opinion that

Mary Jane Kelly Mary Jane Kelly ( – 9 November 1888), also known as Marie Jeanette Kelly, Fair Emma, Ginger, Dark Mary and Black Mary, is widely believed to have been the final victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who murdered ...

was not a victim of the Ripper.Jack the Ripper 'was several different killers' ''Daily Telegraph'' 1 May 2009
/ref> The son of Thomas and Elizabeth Arnold, Arnold was born at

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

and joined the Metropolitan Police's B Division (

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

) on 19 March 1855 and resigned on 20 September 1855 to fight in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

. At the end of hostilities he rejoined the Police on 29 September 1856, being attached to K Division (

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

) with the warrant number 35059.MEPO 4/340—Records of the Metropolitan Police Office—Registers of Leavers, p. 14
''The Catalogue'',

The National Archives National archives are central archives maintained by countries. This article contains a list of national archives. Among its more important tasks are to ensure the accessibility and preservation of the information produced by governments, both ...

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He served most of his career in London's East End of London">East End.Arnold on Casebook: Jack the Ripper website
/ref> He was promoted to Police Inspector">Inspector on 14 March 1866, and was transferred to B Division.Arnold's Pension Application 3 February 1893 In 1887 Arnold was involved in the Israel Lipski">Lipski Case, and by 1888 he was Police Superintendent#Metropolitan Police">Police Superintendent Superintendent (Supt) is a rank in the British police and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries, the full version is superintendent of police (SP). The rank is also used in most British Overseas Territories ...

of H Division (

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

) at the time of the Whitechapel murders in that district. After the "double event" of the early morning of 30 September 1888, police searched the areas near

Mitre Square Mitre Square is a small square in the City of London. It measures about by and is connected via three passages with Mitre Street to the south west, to Creechurch Place to the north west and, via St James's Passage (formerly Church Passage), t ...

and Berner Street in an effort to locate a suspect, witnesses or evidence to the murders of

Elizabeth Stride Elizabeth "Long Liz" Stride ( Gustafsdotter; 27 November 1843 – 30 September 1888) is believed to have been the third victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilated at least five women in the Whitecha ...

and Catherine Eddowes. At about 3:00 a.m., Constable Alfred Long discovered a bloodstained piece of cloth near a tenement building on Goulston Street. The cloth was later confirmed as having been cut from Eddowes' apron. On the wall above where the apron was found was discovered

Graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

written in chalk. P.C. Long reported the message as "The Juwes are the men That Will not be Blamed for nothing." Other police officers recalled the message slightly differently, as "The Juwes are not The men That Will be Blamed for nothing." Police Superintendent Thomas Arnold visited the scene and saw the graffiti. Believing that with daylight the message would be seen and increase the anti-Semitic feelings of the populace, Arnold ordered the graffito to be wiped off the wall. Ever since the murder of

Mary Ann Nichols Mary Ann Nichols, known as Polly Nichols (née Walker; 26 August 184531 August 1888), was the first canonical victim of the unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, who is believed to have murdered and mutilated at least five women i ...

rumours had been current in the East End that the murders were the work of a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

d "Leather Apron". Although the

Goulston Street graffito The Goulston Street graffito was a sentence written on a wall beside a clue in the 1888 Whitechapel murders investigation. It has been transcribed as variations on the sentence "The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing". The mean ...

was found in Metropolitan Police territory, the apron was from a victim killed in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, which had its own police force, the City of London Police. Some officers disagreed with Arnold's order, especially those from the City of London Police, who regarded the message as part of a crime scene which should at least be photographed before being erased. However, Arnold's order was upheld by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir

Charles Warren General Sir Charles Warren, (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his mi ...

, and the graffito was wiped from the wall at about 5:30 a.m. Later, in his report of 6 November to the Home Office, Arnold claimed, that with the strong feeling against the Jews that already existed, the message might have become the means of causing a riot: In an interview with the Eastern Post in February 1893, Arnold said that "...not more than four of these murders were committed by the same hand. They were the murders of

Annie Chapman Annie Chapman (born Eliza Ann Smith; 25 September 1840 – 8 September 1888) was the second Jack the Ripper#Canonical five, canonical victim of the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper, who killed and mutilation, mutilated a min ...

Hanbury Street Hanbury Street is a street running from Spitalfields to Whitechapel, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. It runs east from Commercial Street to the junction of Old Montague Street and Vallance Road at the east end. The e ...

, Mrs Nichols in Buck's Row,

in Berner Street and

." His confusion between Catherine Eddowes and Kelly means that it is not certain who Arnold is discounting but in reducing the number of

victims to four he is contradicting

Melville Macnaghten Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten (16 June 1853, Woodford, London −12 May 1921) was Assistant Commissioner (Crime) of the London Metropolitan Police from 1903 to 1913. A highly regarded and famously affable figure of the late Victorian and Edw ...

. However, it must be remembered that Arnold was serving with

's H Division during the Ripper murders, while Macnaghten did not join the Metropolitan Police until June 1889. Historian Andrew Cook wrote in his book ''Jack the Ripper: Case Closed'' that at his retirement dinner address in 1893 Arnold said that he never believed that Mary Jane Kelly was a Ripper victim."Jack the Ripper ‘was invented by journalists’ " ''The Times'' 1 May 2009
/ref> On 1 February 1893 Arnold retired from the Police. He died in

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, ...

in January 1907.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold (policeman), Thomas 1835 births 1907 deaths Jack the Ripper Metropolitan Police officers British military personnel of the Crimean War