WBro. Mike Neville is a Masonic author and lecturer. He offers walks and talks primarily around London, based on his vast knowledge of the area and his specialist subjects, which cover all aspects of Masonic history.
As a retired Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector, Mike has a unique insight into the more shady side of ‘Crime and the Craft’.
Mike’s walks and talks encompass the East and West Ends, the City of London, the British Museum. Other tours have included Rome, and Mike is happy to arrange bespoke walks/tours for private individuals, lodges or groups.
IMAGE CREDIT: author’s collection
Mike’s walks and talks encompass the East and West Ends, the City of London, the British Museum. Other tours have included Rome, and Mike is happy to arrange bespoke walks/tours for private individuals, lodges or groups.
Each month we will look at a different walk, and focus on one special aspect.
Jack the Ripper – Jack the Mason?
A night time wander around Whitechapel to hear about the thirty or more Masons involved in the 1888 ‘Autumn of Terror’ – police officers, detectives, coroners, doctors, witnesses…and suspects.
IMAGE LINKED: via: https://www.mike-neville-walks-and-talks.co.uk/masonic-walks
Freemason and retired Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector, Worshipful Brother Mike Neville will guide you authoritatively through London’s East End streets once stalked by the most infamous serial killer in history – “Jack the Ripper”.
This tour includes…
• Was there a Masonic conspiracy?
• Were any suspects Members of the Craft?
• What were the Masonic links to Scotland Yard?
• The Letters from “Jack” received by Members of the Craft
• Masonic links to doctors & pathologists
Sites of the first seven Murders
IMAGE LINKED: wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Sites of the first seven: Whitechapel murders – Osborn Street (centre right), George Yard (centre left), Hanbury Street (top), Buck’s Row (far right), Berner Street (bottom right), Mitre Square (bottom left), and Dorset Street (middle left)
From Mike’s book Crime and the Craft (Chapter 35 – Jack the Ripper – Jack the Mason?):
While other murders have far more tangible Masonic connections…no other case has been associated with Freemasonry more than the infamous “Whitechapel Murders’ committed in London in 1888 by the serial killer known as ‘Jack the Ripper.
Some sixty lodges from Britain to Australia can claim some form of link to the investigation (for good or bad).
Importantly, there are several individual Masons who are possible suspects, but it is the idea of a Masonic conspiracy to shield the killer that has captured the public imagination and that aspect will be covered first.
If Stephen Knight’s book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution (1976) is to be believed, then Freemasons and the British Royal Family were at the heart of a conspiracy to murder several prostitutes.
The conspiracy theory has been further publicised by Hollywood in the film ‘From Hell’ and various television programmes about the serial killer.
In a Canadian film, ‘Murder by Decree’, even the greatest (but unfortunately, fictional) detective, Sherlock Holmes, finds himself embroiled in this Victorian scandal, where ‘Jack’ is protected by friends in high places.
It is unclear what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – creator of Holmes, and a Freemason – would have made of this.
He was a member of Phoenix No. 257 in Southsea, Hampshire.
However, there is still doubt whether any suspect or those connected to the murders be linked to the Craft.
This fascinating tour takes you around the area that Jack once stalked, whilst Mike regales the evermore outlandish conspiracy theories that have grown over the years, hoping to link the Freemasons to Jack’s grisly deeds.
Find out who the ‘Masonic suspects’ were – among them a Prince, Queen Victoria’s physician, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, a composer, a Coroner – and what the conspiracy theorists bizarre reasons were for accusing them.
The main ‘Masonic’ suspects according to the anti-Masonic authors and conspiracy theorists?
Left: Sir Charles Warren – Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and prominent Freemason, founding Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge.
Centre: Sir William Gull, physician to Queen Victoria – however, there is no evidence that Gull was a Freemason.
Right: Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale – grandson of Queen Victoria – although a Freemason, Albert Victor was not in London at the time of the murders.
(image credit: Sir William Withey Gull. Coloured lithograph. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark)
(image credit: Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8eb00bf0-4115-0132-d1aa-58d385a7b928 )
James (left) and Michael Maybrick (right) – two brothers both suspected of being Jack the Ripper, only Michael had proven Masonic connections.
Forthcoming walk dates:
Cost: £10 per person
City of London – 8 July
West End – 16 July
East End – 30 July
About Mike Neville:
Mike Neville is a Freemason who belongs to many Masonic Orders, and a retired Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector.
He is an expert on the history of the Craft and crime. Neville is also world renowned for his ability to catch criminals with CCTV using ‘Super Recogniser’ officers.
Consequently, he travels the world assisting police forces and giving lectures in lodges.
He is the author of Sacred Secrets: Freemasonry, the Bible and Christian Faith, holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army Cadet Force and is the national training officer for music.
Charity lectures at your Lodge or Chapter
Mike is a very popular Masonic lecturer, who delivers up to one hundred talks per year in lodges, chapters and other Masonic Orders. He has delivered his lectures across the globe - from New York to Budapest.
The "cost" of a talk is a donation to a charity of his choice. Further details can be provided. During the Covid 19 pandemic, lectures can be delivered via Zoom.
He can deliver bespoke lectures for lodges and can conduct historical research - especially for anniversaries.
Be prepared to find out the scandalous and criminal members of your lodge - as well as the decorated soldiers, inventors, actors, sportsmen, politicians and other Masons of note!
Check out some of Mike's lecture topics here https://www.mike-neville-walks-and-talks.co.uk/charity-lectures
Crime and the Craft:
By: Mike Neville
Crime and the Craft reveals that the Freemasons have been involved in treason, murder, conspiracy, fraud, and scandal from the time of the English Civil War to the 1980s.
Nearly every famous case investigated by Scotland Yard-including Jack the Ripper, Oscar Wilde, Dr. Crippen, the Great Train Robbery, and the Kray Twins-is shown to have Masonic involvement.
For the first time, it is shown that some fifty lodges have a link to the Jack the Ripper case-with a known suspect identified as a Mason for the first time.
The book uncovers Masonic involvement in police corruption, from the Trial of the Detectives in 1877 to Operation Countryman. The true involvement of notorious gangster, Kenneth Noye, in freemasonry is also revealed, as are the full details of the case of the Mason who made secret signs at the judge during a murder trial at the Old Bailey.
This book also describes how members of the Craft have been pioneers in the development of forensic pathology, fingerprint evidence, and the use of images to catch criminals. Crime and the Craft answers the question:
'Is there a relationship between Freemasonry and crime?'
Sacred Secrets: Freemasonry, the Bible and Christian Faith
By: Mike Neville
Who were Tubalcain, Jabal and Jubal and what is their significance for the Freemason?
There is a general interest in the rituals of Freemasonry, generated in part by the apparently obscure references they contain.
This is the only book that offers a guide to the stories used in Masonic ritual and their links to the Bible and Christianity.
The new Mason is directed to a ‘serious contemplation of the Volume of the Sacred Law’ ― but that is easier said than done without a grounding in the Scriptures, something that fewer and fewer people have.
The historical and geographical setting of the Bible is explained here, making such contemplation easier for Mason and non-Mason alike.
Mike Neville has systematically cross-referenced the most influential Chapters of the Bible to the ceremonies. It is his intention to get Freemasons to understand the ritual ― not just to memorise and regurgitate ― as well as to elucidate for the non-Mason.
Sacred Secrets will aid the clergy, theologians and any other person interested in Freemasonry to see the links between ritual and scripture.
Recent Articles: Mike Neville
 Mike's Masonic Walks And Talks WBro. Mike Neville is a Masonic author and lecturer. He offers walks and talks primarily around London, based on his vast knowledge of the area and his specialist subjects, which cover all aspects of Masonic history. |
 Mike's Masonic Walks and Talks Mike Neville offers walks and talks primarily around London, based on his vast knowledge of the area and his specialist subjects, which cover all aspects of Masonic history, and some unique insight into the more shady side of 'Crime and the Craft'. |
 Book Review - Crime and the Craft Crime and the Craft reveals that the Freemasons have been involved in treason, murder, conspiracy, fraud, and scandal from the time of the English Civil War to the 1980s. |
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