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Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/William Henry Bury

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William Henry Bury

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This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page.

The result was: scheduled for Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 18, 2017 by Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:42, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sketch of Bury from The Dundee Courier

William Henry Bury (25 May 1859 – 24 April 1889) was suspected of being the notorious serial killer "Jack the Ripper". He was hanged for the murder of his wife Ellen in 1889, and was the last person executed in Dundee, Scotland. Bury was orphaned at an early age and was educated at a charitable school; after a few years as a clerk, he fell into financial difficulty, was dismissed for theft, and became a street peddler. In 1887, he moved to London, where he married probable prostitute Ellen Elliot. During their brief marriage, they faced mounting financial pressure. In January 1889, they moved to Dundee. The following month, Bury strangled his wife with a rope, stabbed her dead body, and hid the corpse. A few days later, he turned himself in. Tried and convicted, he was sentenced to death by hanging. Bury killed his wife shortly after the height of the London Whitechapel murders. Bury's previous abode near Whitechapel, and similarities between the two men's crimes led the press to suggest that Bury was the Ripper. Bury protested his innocence in the Ripper crimes, and the police discounted him as a suspect. Later authors have built on the earlier accusations, but the idea that Bury was the Ripper is not widely accepted. (Full article...)