Jacob Levy

[Digalittledeeperwatson]

Hullo Lynn

Thanks for the clarity. Agreed. I always thought the idea that the "real Leather Apron" being the killer a good bet. The man with a big knife who threatens prostitutes and has gone off the map so to speak not the last place to start for sure. That requires there to have been a "real LA" of course.

[DVV]

Levy may well be the least bad of the "solo" suspects.
LC

Better than Ostrog and badder than Druitt.

Cheers

[Errata]

One of the downsides of Levy as a suspect is that it is entirely possible that the only motive ever attributed to him is based on flawed thinking. It is true that he is listed as having died from the neurological effects of syphilis. General paresis of the insane I think? The problem is that he was hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder earlier. Much earlier than can be explained by syphilis. He also never infected his wife. Without infecting his wife he could not have infected his children. And we know they had sex because children were born during the time period in question. So the facial deformity aspect of the motive clearly isn't true. Nor does it make sense for him to kill prostitutes for giving him syphilis if he never had syphilis. And all things being even, if he did not infect his wife whom he continued to have sexual relations with, odds are he didn't have it. Odds are he had psychological and neurological issues completely unconnected with syphilis, but there was no other diagnosis available to him. So if that's true... why would he be killing prostitutes?

[lynn cates]

rumour

Hello DLDW. Thanks.

"That requires there to have been a "real LA" of course."

Or a rumour pieced together of various individuals.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

mental disturbance

Hello Errata.

"So if that's true... why would he be killing prostitutes?"

The mental disturbance.

Cheers.
LC

[Jimi]

Gsg

Hi DLDW
I apologise for the delay in answering your query about jacob and Goulston Street.
TJ actually discovered that Jacobs brother, Isaac, lived in Wentworth buildings, the actual wall on which the GSG was written. Isaac died there in 1891.
Hope this helps.
Keep Well
JImi

[Jimi]

Sawing Sawdust?

Errata
Why do I get the feeling we have discussed this before?
Probably because we have!
As has been told to you before, the infectious period for syphilis is about 6 weeks. After that there is little chance of syphilis being transmitted by sexual relations.
Not my thread so i will stop now.
Jimi

[Digalittledeeperwatson]

Thanks Jimi.

Got anything that connects him to Berner Street? Maybe a member of a certain club?

[Digalittledeeperwatson]

Also

Where did his other brother live? And anything on their Mum?

[Errata]

Errata
Why do I get the feeling we have discussed this before?
Probably because we have!
As has been told to you before, the infectious period for syphilis is about 6 weeks. After that there is little chance of syphilis being transmitted by sexual relations.
Not my thread so i will stop now.
Jimi

That's not even a little true. Syphilis is contagious into the latent phase, so a person is infectious during primary and secondary stages of the infection. And then during the latent period the person will intermittently flare up again and become infectious again. So thats at least two years of being contagious.

[Errata]

Hello Errata.

"So if that's true... why would he be killing prostitutes?"

The mental disturbance.

Cheers.
LC

Which is then a completely different motive than the syphilis revenge story. So he had enough "issues" to land him in an asylum twice. But was he violent? Mental issues manifest differently for everyone. "Invincibility" mania is not the same as "Hair-trigger temper" mania. So if he killed because of mental illness, there would be signs. So were there signs?

I don't inherently object to Levy being a murderer, I just object to him being a murderer for a reason that doesn't make a lot of sense.

[lynn cates]

further research

Hello Errata. Thanks.

"So if he killed because of mental illness, there would be signs. So were there signs?"

Don't know. I'm not a good Levy source. But his symptoms are not unlike my lad. And we KNOW there was a wandering lunatic who frightened ladies at night.

I suppose we must await further research.

Cheers.
LC

[Michael W Richards]

Hi DLDW
I apologise for the delay in answering your query about jacob and Goulston Street.
TJ actually discovered that Jacobs brother, Isaac, lived in Wentworth buildings, the actual wall on which the GSG was written. Isaac died there in 1891.
Hope this helps.
Keep Well
JImi

I believe its likely that this Isaac ties the Berner Street affair to the GSG Lynn. I suspect he was a club member.

Cheers

[Errata]

Hello Errata. Thanks.

"So if he killed because of mental illness, there would be signs. So were there signs?"

Don't know. I'm not a good Levy source. But his symptoms are not unlike my lad. And we KNOW there was a wandering lunatic who frightened ladies at night.

I suppose we must await further research.

Cheers.
LC

I know his initial padded vacation involved straight mania... grandiosity, expansiveness, no sleeping... I don't remember any mention of violence or even of violence thoughts, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. At the time I was looking to see if it was a problem related to syphilis, and it wasn't so I didn't pay much attention after that.

This goes back to the difference between crazy and crazy. There's colloquial crazy, and then there's mental illness which follows certain laws of biology. Mania more so than others because a person can only function so long without sleep. Anyone can kill, but certain illnesses make it vanishingly unlikely. Any number of mental illnesses can cripple a potential killer as badly as a spinal injury or missing limb. So in my mind, having psychiatric problems tends to rule someone out as a killer, not rule them in.

[Digalittledeeperwatson]

Syphilis

Upon my recent, very much so, delve into the subject, it would depend on which stage he was in at the possible varying times. His wife could have, how you say, continually dodged the bullet until he was no longer infectious. If so I should say she was a lucky duck at least in one way. Although I think Syphilis had no bearing on the murders. People make choices. Compulsion of that nature is a rarity. Like most people who murder, I think the killer(s) we are searching for made that decision. Morality is like so much makeup, applied.