Frederick Abberline

"This is how it will work. I will give you the names of criminal gang members, you will bring them back to me. Quietly."

―Frederick Abberline to Jacob and Evie Frye, 1868.

Frederick George Abberline (1843 – 1929) was the Chief Inspector for the London Metropolitan Police Service during the late 19th century. He was also an ally of the British Brotherhood of Assassins, being an associate of the Assassin Henry Green and later of the twins Jacob and Evie Frye.

Biography

Early career

Formerly a clockmaker from Dorset, Abberline joined the Metropolitan Police in 1862. Starting as a Police Constable, Abberline was called when the photographer Robert Waugh's body was found in the construction site of the world's first underground railway. Finding that the death was caused by a clean stab wound, he sent the body to Belle Isle for further inspection. Passing through the slums, he tried to avoid the curious street children who were trying to peek in the body.

Eventually reaching the mortuary yard, he discovered that the corpse had been replaced by a body of a dead pony. With his embarrassing failure, his fellow officers started to call him nicknames and puns. Eventually, Abberline decided to return to Belle Isle and bribe the children to discover the thief's identity: a robed man wearing a cowl, undoubtedly an Assassin.

Continuing his investigation, Abberline met in a bar with fellow constable Aubrey Shaw, who had been assigned to investigate the double murder of a thief named Boot and a little girl. As Aubrey's case also involved a hooded man, the two returned to the slums to search for clues and found a witness who informed them that a man matching Robert Waugh's description was the murderer.

Abberline subsequently went to the Waughs' house to deliver the news to Robert's wife. However, when he arrived, he was assaulted by a group of Templars and incapacitated by a hooded figure while the others made off with Mrs. Waugh. Suspecting the kidnappers to be working for Cavanagh, the supervisor of the railway site and a prime suspect in his investigation, Abberline accosted the Templar and his band, to no avail.

Later, after a meeting with Aubrey in a bar, Abberline noticed that he was being tailed and accosted his pursuer, learning that he was a private investigator hired by a viscount who had recently been attacked by "an Indian acrobat". Meeting with the viscount's bodyguard, who had encountered this supposed acrobat, Abberline failed to extract any useful information from him. Sometime afterwards, Abberline found Aubrey severely beaten and decided to shelter his colleague, suspecting that both of their lives were in danger for meddling with affairs beyond their understanding.

While attending the inauguration of the railway, Abberline spotted Cavanagh's men manhandling Jayadeep Mir, and also took notice of the presence of the Assassin Ethan Frye, who unbeknownst to him, was the robed man he had been pursuing. When Ethan came under attack by Cavanagh's thugs, Abberline rushed to his aid and helped the Assassin defeat his assailants, allowing Ethan to follow Jayadeep and Cavanagh into the railway tunnel, where the latter had fled with an Apple of Eden taken from the murdered solicitor Charles Pearson.

Working with the Assassins

After stroving for hard work, Abberline's efforts paid off with a promotion to Sergeant by 1865. Around this time, Abberline officially became acquainted with Jayadeep Mir, by now known as Henry Green, and aided the Assassin in his efforts to liberate London from the Templars' control. Due to the secretive nature of his work, he opted to wear disguises whenever he met with the Assassin or his associates in public.

In 1868, Abberline married his first wife, Martha Mackness, but she died of tuberculosis later that year. He also maintained contact with Aubrey Shaw, who had since retired from the police force to open a butcher shop. While meeting for tea one day, the two old friends caught up with each other and Abberline informed Aubrey of his wife's passing.

Abberline meeting the Frye twins for the first time

In February 1868, Abberline became acquainted with Henry's fellow Assassins, the twins Jacob and Evie Frye, who had recently arrived in London. Seeking to make a name for himself, he enlisted their services to apprehend various criminals who were part of the Templar-affiliated Blighters. Doing so also benefited the Assassins' interests, as the capture of high-ranking Blighters left the territories they controlled open for the taking, allowing the Fryes' gang, the Rooks, to occupy them.

Sometime later, Abberline disguised himself as a banker named Dredge to gain information in the inner sanctum of the Templar Grand Master Crawford Starrick's financial sector. While undercover, he learned of a plot to rob the Bank of England, but his cover was soon blown by Jacob after the Assassin accidentally kidnapped him. Abberline revealed his disguise and reluctantly provided Jacob with confidential information of the supplier – Cockham Merchants – so that the Assassin could investigate the plot.

After Jacob informed Abberline that the mastermind behind the plot was none other than the Bank of England's Governor Philip Twopenny, the Sergeant reluctantly allowed the Assassin to act and provided information regarding the bank's possible access points. However, Jacob's assassination of Twopenny caused major turmoil among London's citizens and Abberline had to calm the rioters down. He met with Evie, who had once again come to fix her brother's problems, and tasked her to recover missing currency printing plates, as well as to destroy the counterfeit notes created with them, in order to avoid a financial crisis.

The Fryes and Abberline talking

Later, the Frye twins uncovered a plot by Starrick to eliminate Britain's heads of church and state during a ball at Buckingham Palace. Jacob met with Abberline to request that he smuggle their weapons into the palace, to which the Sergeant asked him to acquire a royal guard uniform, as only the royal guards were allowed to carry weapons on site. After Jacob delivered him a uniform, clearly stolen from a guard as it was still warm, Abberline told the Assassin to meet him on the roof of the palace during the ball.

As promised, Abberline waited on the roof of the palace to give Jacob his and Evie's equipment. However, having learned that Starrick's men had replaced the rooftop guards, the Sergeant informed Jacob, who assured him that he had the means to tell the impostors apart from the real guards. After Jacob eliminated the impostors and he, Evie and Henry killed Starrick and foiled his plan, Abberline informed Queen Victoria of the Assassins' deeds. He later took the trio to meet the Queen, who promptly knighted them into the Order of the Sacred Garter.

By 1872, Abberline had attained the rank of Inspector, and was transferred to Whitechapel. Around this time, he became acquainted with American author Mark Twain and Pinkerton agent Tommy Greyling, who were in London pursuing an American Templar, Alice, who had stolen several pages of the Voynich manuscript from the British Museum. Along with Evie and Henry, Abberline assisted the two with recovering the pages from Alice but ultimately failed when the Templar was able to flee the city and board a ship headed to the United States.

Solving the Whitechapel murders

In 1888, a British Assassin who would soon become known as "Jack the Ripper" usurped control of Jacob's Rooks and committed a series of gruesome murders. These murders, coupled with the publishing of a number of letters, supposedly authored by Jack, in the local newspaper helped foster an atmosphere of fear within the city.

With the aid of Jacob, Abberline remained the public face of the investigation whilst the Assassins followed their own path in stopping the Ripper. Soon, however, Jacob disappeared, and Abberline was forced to enlist the aid of Evie Frye, whom Jacob had already summoned from India, in both stopping Jack and potentially locating Jacob.

Abberline informing Evie of her brother's disappearance

Upon Evie's arrival, Abberline informed her of Jacob's disappearance, and that he had lodgings in Whitechapel near a brothel, sending her there to find clues. Unfortunately, when Evie returned after having located and assassinated Olwyn Owers, an associate of Jack, Abberline confronted her, showing a newspaper article of a massacre at Owers' Manor, implied to be Jack's handiwork, though evidence pointed to Evie. Stating that he was doing all he could to keep his men from outright arresting Evie, he told her she could find Arthur Weaversbrook, the publisher of the newspaper article, near St. Paul's.

Tensions between Abberline and Evie hit their breaking point, however, when Mary Kelly's body turned up. Abberline had to forcibly prevent his men from arresting Evie, but then confronted her. He stated that he could no longer keep the Brotherhood's existence in London secret, and that either Evie bring him the Ripper's head, or she risked being accused of his crimes. Evie swore to bring him the Ripper, or die trying.

Abberline agreeing to Evie's request

Much later, Abberline entered Lambeth Asylum, just after Evie had managed to locate both Jack and Jacob, killing the former while rescuing the latter from the asylum's undercroft. Evie begged Abberline to keep the secret of Jack's Assassin ties, and even his death, from the public. Abberline conceded to her request, however uneasy he felt, and went to drive away journalists who had also arrived at hte asylum.

Behind the scenes

Frederick Abberline is a historical character introduced in the 2015 video game Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, where he is voiced by British actor Samuel Crane. Crane later returned to reprise his role in the downloadable expansion Jack the Ripper, which features the Whitechapel murder investigations for which the real-life Abberline is best known.

Gallery

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  Concept art of Abberline
• 
  Concept art of Abberline's appearance in Jack the Ripper
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  Promotional art of Abberline in Jack the Ripper
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  Abberline in 1888

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (first appearance)
  • Jack the Ripper
• Assassin's Creed: Underworld
• Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants – Locus

References

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