One of the articles from Philippine Urban Legends is devoted to discussing two other Philippine legends that are of more general interest.
The first one is that Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, “was the father of Adolf Hitler, the result of an indiscretion with a prostitute in Vienna.”
The second one is that Jose Rizal was also Jack the Ripper. Everything is a speculation at this point. But here are some arguments pointing to what made others think if it was true, or not:
Rizal was in London from May 1888 to January 1889, in the British Library copying “Sucesos de las islas Filipinas” by hand because there were no photocopying machines at the time. Jack the Ripper was active around this time, and since we do not know what Rizal did at night or on the days he was not
in the library, some people would like to believe Rizal is suspect. They argue that when Rizal left London, the Ripper murders stopped. They say that Jack the Ripper must have had some medical training, based on the way his victims were mutilated. Rizal, of course, was a doctor. Jack the Ripper liked women, and so did our own Rizal. And — this is so obvious that many overlooked it — Jose Rizal’s initials match those of Jack the Ripper!
- In 1888, he was staying with the Beckett family at 37 Chalcot Crescent in Camden
- He was a doctor(opthalmologist)
- He was good with weapons(was called “the swordsman”)
- He was a Malay
- He was proficient in the martial arts
- He would have been 27 at the time of the Ripper killings
- He also took up fencing and was quite good
- He was short, had dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes
- He came from a well to do family, was well dressed and looked respectable
- He came to London on May 24, 1888 on the ship City Of Rome
- He left London in January of 1889, and the Ripper killings stopped
- He was multi-talented(could speak many languages, was a writer, poet, author, sculptor, artist)
- He was executed in the Philippines on December 30, 1896 at the age of 35
- Had a romantic relationship with Gertrude Beckett – the daughter of Charles Beckett
- He wrote letters to his friend Blumentritt from London, however there were no letters written to his family or friends from July 1888 – November 14, 1888
- He was working at the British Library at the time
- After he died, his mother tried to procure his assets which consisted of some pretty nice jewelery including gold cuff links and other baubles of diamonds and amethysts(gold chain with a red stone seal?)upon further investigation…this information was found:
and
she also found this…
Rizal and his diary:
January 1986, St. Pancras, London
While up in the attic putting away boxes of Christmas ornaments,
the present-day owners of #37 Chalcot Crescent stumble across
a dusty old trunk, which (once the lock is pried open) reveals
some /very interesting/ items once belonging to Dr. Jose Rizal.
In particular, a diary wherein he confesses to the Whitechapel
murders; and a glass jar with half a human kidney preserved in
alcohol.Unlike the embarassing “Hitler Diaries” hoax a few years before,
seems to be genuine. The ink, paper, etc. are from 1888.
The handwriting matches Dr. Rizal’s. And (thanks to a surviving
great-granddaughter) a new DNA test makes it almost certain that
the kidney was taken from Catherine Eddowes.We all know this can never be cleared but one thing is for sure, Filipino generations after generations will always know Jose Rizal is one of the million reasons we have had that true nationalism and embraced our freedom which are part who we are now.
nice post, this one made me think..yeah, this could be true...Jose Rizal is a rockstar!
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