Murder by Decree

Murder by Decree is a 1978 Anglo-Canadian film that presents a largely different version of Sherlock Holmes from the Rathbone days, with the aesthete still prevailing yet tinged with a humanity and emotional apathy. Sherlock Holmes investigates London's most infamous case, Jack the Ripper. As he investigates, he finds that the Ripper has friends in high places. James Mason's Dr. Watson is also a departure, as what appears in the beginning as a take on cinema's famous bumbling Nigel Bruce soon shows his level head and scientific and medical training to be valuable assets.

Related Topics:
1978 - Sherlock Holmes - Rathbone - London - Jack the Ripper - James Mason - Dr. Watson - Nigel Bruce

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With the central theory of Masonic ritual and murderous blackmail no longer credible, the plot seems sensationalistic but Stephen Knight's Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution and The Ripper Files on which this film is based suggest that questions remain unanswered. The problem facing all Ripperologists is that every other account has conflicting facts. Critics have said:

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:?Donald Rumbelow's "Complete Jack the Ripper" demonstrates with documented proof that much of what Stephen Knight alleges could not have happened and that buildings Knight refers to as addresses for his "key" players didn't exist at the time. Sickert (Knight's informant) has since recanted everything he told Knight as a "lie". Donald gives Ripper Walks in Whitechapel.

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The Duke of Clarence theory has some basis in factual evidence and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, despite his Jill the Ripper theory, hinted at his nutty math tutor Bart Stevens actually being a notorious killer. Bart is an alias for James Kenneth Stephen. In brief, Knight alleges that the Ripper killings were performed by one William Gull, ordinary physician to Queen Victoria, and supposedly a Freemason. Victoria's dissolute son, Prince Edward Albert (or "Eddy") supposedly fell in love with a prostitute from London's Whitechapel, secretly married her and sired a daughter. In order to avoid royal scandal and political turmoil, Gull was dispatched to silence the mother and eliminate any leaks. The Ripper killings were supposedly directed at a small circle of prostitutes who knew of the Prince's doings and engaged in petty blackmail over the fact. The idea that an illegitimate heir to the Prince would affect the succession fails to take into account the Act of Settlement 1701.

Related Topics:
Duke of Clarence - Arthur Conan Doyle - William Gull - Queen Victoria - Act of Settlement 1701

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More plausible is James Kenneth Stephen (February 25, 1859 - February 3, 1892), poet and tutor to Prince Albert Victor ("Eddy"), Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Perceived as a misogynist he suffered from serious physical and mental problems after an accident occurring during the winter of 1886/1887 and his poems are seen as morbid but there is nothing to indicate that this came from personal experience as a murderer. He was brought to the attention of "Ripperologists" mainly through his connection to Prince Eddy.

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• See Jack the Ripper for more detail.
 
Murder by Decree: The Film ►