 In the 1920s, Norman Hastings built on Berry's hypothesis proposing Bury as the Ripper, and 100 years after the Ripper murders William Beadle and Dundee librarian Euan Macpherson published books and articles popularising Bury as a Ripper suspect. They highlighted that the canonical five Whitechapel murders ended in November 1888, which roughly coincided with Bury's departure from Whitechapel. There was graffiti at Bury's Dundee flat that implied that Jack the Ripper lived there, and Macpherson supposed this was written by Bury as a form of confession. William took Ellen's rings, and the Ripper is believed to have taken rings from victim Annie Chapman. Bury was persistently violent to his wife, threatened her with a knife, and cut open her abdomen after death in a manner not dissimilar to the Whitechapel murderer. In a conversation with her neighbours, Marjory Smith, who ran the shop above the Burys'Prince's Street flat in Dundee, asked them "What sort of work was this you Whitechapel folk have been about, letting Jack the Ripper kill so many people?" Bury did not answer her, but Ellen replied "Jack the Ripper is quiet now." She reportedly told another neighbour, "Jack the Ripper is taking a rest." Beadle and Macpherson argued that Ellen's comments might indicate that she had knowledge of the Ripper's whereabouts.
