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Frederick George Abberline (8 January 1843 – 10 December 1929) was a British chief inspector for the London Metropolitan Police. He is best known for being a prominent police figure in the investigation into the Jack the Ripper serial killer of 1888.
Among the many suspects in the case, Abberline's primary suspect was George Chapman (Severin Antoniovich Klosowski). That theory was reiterated decades later by Robert Milne, who had recently retired from the Metropolitan Police Directorate of Forensic Services. He presented a paper about the case to the International Association for Identification Conference in 2011 and to the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences in 2014, suggesting Chapman as the most likely the Ripper. Based on his expertise, review of investigation documents, and the use of geographical profiling software, he was convinced that the killer lived in the area of the murders. Chapman fit that bill accurately. Milne also pointed out that Chapman "a now known serial poisoner of women" ... "would go out carrying a small bag, not coming home until 4:30 a.m.", according to his estranged wife. In his 2014 paper, Milne also discussed a 1902 murder victim (1901 according to some sources), Mary Ann Austin, who had described a client before her death. According to Milne, "a Russian 5ft 7 inches tall with a black moustache who visited Mary and in the course of having sex stabbed her and tried to cut out her uterus". (Austin died of ten wounds to her abdomen, inflicted at Annie Chapman's former home, Crossingham's Lodging House, at 35, Dorset Street.)
Among Abberline's theories about the murders, one suggested that the crimes could have been perpetrated by a female killer.
Abberline was subsequently involved in the investigation of the Cleveland Street scandal in 1889. This case left him disenchanted with police work, convinced that there had been cover-ups by his superiors; if so, this was because, during the investigation, some sources claimed that the Duke of Clarence, Queen Victoria's grandson, had been a frequent visitor to the homosexual brothel on Cleveland Street. That was Abberline's last major case.
Chief Inspector Abberline retired from the police on 8 February 1892, having received 84 commendations and awards.Begg, Fido and Skinner, pg5
On his retirement from the Metropolitan Police, he returned to Bournemouth and was hired by the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1904. Initially, he worked in casinos in Monte Carlo to find customers who were cheating. He then returned to England and continued working for the agency, until another retirement in 1904. He then bought a home, "Estcourt", 195 Holdenhurst Road, Springbourne, Bournemouth.
Bournemouth - 195, Holdenhurst Road
Abberline died on 10 December 1929, aged 86, just under three months before his wife Emma,
and was buried in Bournemouth at Wimborne Road Cemetery. A blue plaque commemorating Abberline was unveiled at 195 Holdenhurst Road (now divided into flats) on 29 September 2001. In 2007, following a campaign for Abberline's unmarked grave to be recognised, and with the approval of his surviving relatives, a black granite headstone, inscribed and donated by a local stonemason, was erected on the grave where Abberline and Emma are buried.
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