Who believed the murderer was a Jew?

[Wickerman]

One of the three marginal notes on Swanson's October 19th, 1888, report to the Home Office records:
"The use of 'Lipski' increases my belief that the murderer was a Jew".

The report is provided by Evans & Skinner in their 'Sourcebook', pp 121-126.

Stewart may be able to answer this, if he has not already done so elsewhere, or anyone else who knows, but this marginal note appears not to be initialled, is there an opinion on who may have wrote it, or who's writing it might look like?
There are three marginal notes on this report. If they are all in the same hand then I might assume the writing is not Anderson's because the second note ask's a question that I would have thought Anderson should have known.

Thanks..

[Stewart P Evans]

Marginal Note

One of the three marginal notes on Swanson's October 19th, 1888, report to the Home Office records:
"The use of 'Lipski' increases my belief that the murderer was a Jew".
The report is provided by Evans & Skinner in their 'Sourcebook', pp 121-126.
Stewart may be able to answer this, if he has not already done so elsewhere, or anyone else who knows, but this marginal note appears not to be initialled, is there an opinion on who may have wrote it, or who's writing it might look like?
There are three marginal notes on this report. If they are all in the same hand then I might assume the writing is not Anderson's because the second note ask's a question that I would have thought Anderson should have known.
Thanks..

This marginal note appears on HO 144/221/A49301C f150. It is not initialled (had it have been the initials would have been included in the Sourcebook text).

I have not looked at this lately but I seem to recall that I tentatively identified the note as being written by Godfrey Lushington at the Home Office. The writing used in these marginal notes is rather small and appears it could be all in the same hand, they are certainly Home Office annotations.

[Chris]

On p. 349 of the Ultimate JTR Sourcebook there is a transcript of a note initialled GL, dated 13 October 1888, which includes the comment "It seems to me on the contrary that the last murder was done by a Jew who boasted of it", presumably referring to the Goulston Street graffito.

[DVV]

Great sentence, that shows that even when entertaining a Jewish theory, the police did interpret the GSG as antisemitic.
Indeed, whithout the "boasting" element, why "Lipski!" should "increase one's belief that the murderer was a Jew"? Especially since neither BSM nor Sailorman had been described as such.

Amitiés,
D

[Cap'n Jack]

Was not Lushington a Jew himself?

[Chris]

Was not Lushington a Jew himself?

No, he wasn't.

[Chris]

Regarding Lushington's comments on the possibility of the murderer being Jewish, it's interesting to bear in mind this comment by Martin L. Friedland, The Trials of Israel Lipski (1984), pp. 187, 188:

Godfrey Lushington, the Permanent Under-Secretary, continued in that position until 1895. No subsequent comments he may have made on the Lipski case have been discovered. It seems unlikely that his strong feelings on the case were motivated by anti-Semitism, because he later played a key role in promoting Alfred Dreyfus's cause in England in the late 1890s by writing a series of very lengthy letters to The Times. Similarly, I have seen no evidence of anti-Semitism on Matthews' part or on Stephen's.

Friedland also (p. 202) quotes the marginal comment on Schwartz's statement that Wickerman asks about above - "The use of 'Lipski' increases my belief that the murderer was a Jew" - and attributes it to Lushington.