The Best Fit For The Jewish Suspect

[R. J. Palmer]

These institutions generated many different records about patients. The one transcribed in the A-Z (2010 edition, p. 97) appears from its format to be one of the Colney Hatch "Case book for male patients" (presumably the one with reference H12/CH/B/13/037). The A-Z transcript includes the words "Nearest relative Unknown". Unless someone has a photo of that particular record in front of them, I don't think the authors should be accused of inaccuracy.

Hi Chris,

Do you happen to know where Martin Fido found the address 84 Leman Street, which he associated with Cohen?

The Colney Hatch Asylum Casebook entry (as reprinted in the A-Z) does not mention it.

Sometimes Fido was a little cryptic about his sources. In his book it sounds like this address was listed on Cohen's Whitechapel Infirmary record, but it isn't. He also gives the date of admission as December 12, when it was actually on December 7th, so I'm assuming he must have found a different record for the workhouse admission, with a wrong date, presumably in some record at Colney Hatch (?)

Fido also writes "they 'found him wandering at large and unable to take care of himself.' This was official Lunacy Act wording, meaning only that he seemed mad and that they had not taken him from friends or a known address."

I find this puzzling. Wouldn't No. 86 Leman Street be a 'known address'? (Even if it was the Temporary Shelter for Poor Homeless Jews, next door at No. 84?)

I suppose in theory Cohen could have entered No. 86 and the police were called, but he was not actually associated with that address. But I've never chased down exactly where this address is coming from...

Kaminsky was admitted from 15 Black Lion Yard, so it isn't that...

[Scott Nelson]

Hi Roger, I pulled this from my Cohen piece some years ago:

The Stepney Register of Whitechapel Lunatics in Asylums recorded that Cohen lived at 86 Leman Street. But the Kelly’s London Business Directory for 1888 indicates that this address was the East London Blue Riband Shoeblack Refuge and the Whittington Boys Club & Chambers, a Protestant establishment with William Tourell as the manager. Unfortunately, neither the Whitechapel Workhouse Infirmary nor the Colney Hatch Asylum records give another address, unless the address number was a misreading for the Leman Street Police Station, so we are left with this perplexing location for a pauper Jewish immigrant.

Now, it seems entirely possible this was a misnumbering for the Leman Street Police Station, because that's where PC Patrick may have taken Cohen from to the Thames Police Court House.

[R. J. Palmer]

Thanks, Scott. So the 86 Leman Street citation comes from The Stepney Register of Whitechapel Lunatics. I didn't know that.

It looks like the building may have been unoccupied at night, or at least that seems to be the case on the day of the 1891 Census, if I am reading it correctly.

The transformation of Whittington's from a concert venue to an out-and-out club evidently occurred at the beginning of Nov 1889. But, as you say, 86 may have been an error. It's a puzzling detail.

I doubt if this is relevant, but I noticed there was a surgery at 68 Leman Street (dyslexia, anyone?) that was run by Dr. Thomas Jones, who was a colleague of Dr. Sequiera, of Mitre Square fame. They shared the same assistant, who is described as an 'unqualified medical assistant.'

[R. J. Palmer]

The Whittington Club.

Whittington Club.JPG

[Karsten Giese]

Hi Scott, Roger!

Just as a quick reminder:

Here you can find some Shoeblack who were admitted to the Whitechapel Union Infirmary from 86 Leman Street (from 20 Feb 1888 to end of Jan 1889)

https://forum.casebook.org/forum/rip...-doc#post44703

,"Walter","Smith",12,"86 Leman Street","Single","Shoeblack","Sores on feet",,
,"Frederick","Morris",17,"86 Leman Street","Single","Shoeblack","Diseased hip","04/08/1888",
,"William","Townsend",31,"86 Leman Street","Single","Shoeblack","Abscess in groin","10/11/1888",
,"Thomas","Lacey",18,"86 Leman Street","Single","Shoeblack","Inflammation in thigh","04/08/1888",
"Frederick","Morris",18,"86 Leman Street","Single","Shoeblack","Pains in hip","11/12/1888"

,"Nathan","Kalpomitzki",40,"84 Leman Street","Married","Cabinet maker","Ulcerated leg and skin eruption","22/06/1888",
,"Nathan","Harris",54,"84 Leman Street","Married","Slipper hawker","Rheumatism","26/01/1889",

,"John","Maloney",39,"PC 60H found in Leman Street","Single","Engineer","Delirium tremens","07/01/1889",
,"Hyam","Hyams",33,"217 Jubilee Street - PC 75H found wandering in Leman Street","Married","Hawker","Delirium tremens","11/01/1889",
,"David","Cohen",23,"PC 91H Thames Police Court","Single","Tailor","Insane","21/12/1888","To Colney Hatch asylum" (86 Leman Street)
,"David","Jacobs",22,"86 Leman Street","Single","Cigar maker","Bubo","21/12/1888",

Karsten

[R. J. Palmer]

Thanks, Karsten.

[Anna Morris]

My deep prejudice against Aaron Kosminski, hairdresser, is because I do not think he was JtR. That is probably a flaw in my thinking because he could have been the suspect while not being JtR. (However, the Polish Jewish suspect was said to have died soon after entering the asylum. Aaron lived for many years.)

Police were looking for a 'lunatic' and most likely one whose lunacy had sexual overtones. The suspect was insane because of years of 'solitary vices'. We all know what that means. So, with the mindset of the day, I suppose Aaron Kosminski COULD have been the suspect but I still feel the evidence against him is thin. Surely there were other Polish Jewish men who had more severe criminal proclivities.

In another comment, mention was made of searching for 'foreign born' Polish Jews. While Aaron K. was foreign born, I would think the term 'low class Polish Jew' could be applied to men of that description, born in England but growing up in families where Polish or Yiddish were first languages?

Finally, concerning names, Israel Lipski was born in Russia and his original surname was Lobulsk. He adopted the name Lipski, apparently from his Polish friends of that name. This is kind of a for-what-it's-worth but the suspect could have called himself Kosminski for a variety of reasons while his name was something very different. With Lipski we see how easy it was to acquire/assume a new name.

[Chris Phillips]

Yes, I think it's important to draw a distinction between "Who was the suspect?" and "Who was the Ripper?", which are very different questions. I don't believe Aaron Kozminski was the Ripper. I also doubt whether the Ripper was a suspect, but who knows?

[Karsten Giese]

Hi Anna!

Finally, concerning names, Israel Lipski was born in Russia and his original surname was Lobulsk. He adopted the name Lipski, apparently from his Polish friends of that name. This is kind of a for-what-it's-worth but the suspect could have called himself Kosminski for a variety of reasons while his name was something very different. With Lipski we see how easy it was to acquire/assume a new name.

Sometime ago I noticed the family of a butcher, Ezra Jacobs. If I remember correctly there were some butchers in this family. Addresses were Bell Lane, Duke Street, Wentworth Street and Middlesex Street. Some members of the family lived or moved to Australia. Many of them were English born Jews. I think the first wife of Ezra was nee Cohen. I remembered Sergeant Benjamin Leeson:

"... a story circulated that the Ripper was a butcher, who wore blue overalls and a leather apron, and an English Jew named Jacobs, a perfectly harmless man, somehow attracted suspicion to himself. Possibly because, working in a slaughter house, he always wore a leather apron.
People would point Jacobs out in the street as a suspected man, and more than once he had to run for it. I myself was often obliged to take him to the police station for protection. The thing so preyed on the poor fellow's mind that it finally caused him to lose his reason."

And we know what Sagar (City Police) said:

"The theory of the city police is that "Jack the Ripper" was a butcher who worked in "Butchers' Row," Aldgate, and was partly insane. It is believed that he made his way to Australia and there died. "The police are satisfied as to the identity of the man," remarked the inspector, "but what became of him we don't know."

A new article (found by Chris Phillips) about Sagar says: "The suspect worked in a slaughterhouse".

I seem to remember that Ezra and one of his brother were in prison during their lives.

Is it possible that the man Sagar watched was the butcher Jacobs mentioned by Leeson? Possibly a man who came from the family of Ezra Jacobs?

But Sagar also stated:

"A police officer met a well-known man of Jewish appearance coming out of the court near the square..." (The "PC" near Mitre Square in the case of "Kosminski")

Itīs interesting that Wentworth Street, Bell Lane and Middlesex Street were not far from Goulston Street (Duke Street/Mitre Square). Itīs possible the family also ran a shop in Leman Street (see Cox, City Police). Now I donīt know whether all of these addresses were occupied by this family during the Ripper murders ("occupied several shops" (Cox)/ "certain premises after nightfall" (Macnaghten).

Certainly there were more than one butcher who were suspected but is it possible that "Kosminski", a man who was born in Poland, had something to do with a Jacobs family (rather English Jews)? Is it possible that "Kosminski" adopted the name Jacobs?

Karsten.