Jack the Ripper Suspect – Fogelma

In an article published in the Empire News of 23 October 1923, Fogelma was named as being Jack the Ripper. The article tells a story about a Norweigan sailor, originally from Arendal, who was committed to a lunatic asylum in Morris Plains, New Jersey, in 1899.

Apparently he was subject to fits of insanity. According to a source at the asylum Fogelma “muttered of scenes and incidents that connected him clearly with the atrocious crimes of 1888.”

The patient’s sister, Helen Fogelma, had also found press clippings in her brother’s trunk, all describing the Whitechapel murders. Both Scotland Yard and the local New York City police were alerted, but according to the article the issue was allowed to lapse. Fogelma died at the asylum in 1902 after giving a death-bed confession to Reverend J. Miosen

Morris Plains Lunatic Asylum still exists. Now it is called Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. No record can be found of any patient named Fogelma. No trace can be found of his sister, nor the Reverend J. Miosen

Conclusion: Fogelma was not Jack the Ripper.