The Name Game

[Ryan_Miller]

I just purchased "On the Trail of Jack the Ripper" on itunes, which I believe we all know is a Martin Fido narrated overview of the case and his research and conclusions. I truly enjoyed it, but now I'm confused as to what he is saying. He said David Cohen, and Nathan Kaminsky are one and the same, but I can't tell if he's also saying that Aaron Kosminski is the same person as well.

The way I'm understanding things: one person goes by the names Nathan Kaminsky, David Cohen, Aaron David Cohen, and Aaron Kominski.

He stated that with his thick accent and the lack of concern with transcribing the correct name could have lead to a misunderstanding of the appropriate name. I also heard something about, David Cohen being like our version of "John Doe" for a Jewish man.

Please help clarify this for me, I think my brain is going to explode! I've posted this question on JTR Forums and in the Suspect section on casebook, and can't get an answer!

[Limehouse]

Ryan, I can confirm that 'David Cohen' is believed to be the name used to describe a Jewish name whose identity was unknown.

[Ryan_Miller]

So does that mean that David Cohen, Aaron David Cohen, Nathan Kaminsky and Aaron Kosminski are the same person?

[RJM]

Ryan,

I presume you don't own a copy of Mr. Fido's book. Cohen and Kosminski are definitely different people.

http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-cohen.html

You should also check out the episode of Rippercast that featured Martin Fido: The Police, The Jews and Jack the Ripper.

http://www.rippernet.com/Rippercast/Podcast/Podcast.html

Robert

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Martin Fido states in his theory that David Cohen and Nathan Kaminsky was one and the same, while Aaron Kosminski was another inmate.

[Howard Brown]

Dear Ryan:

I saw your question yesterday on the Forums and apologize for not responding earlier, but fortunately Glenners and Robert have replied with the correct answer.

As to the surname "Cohen" it means lawyer and in the USA is the most popular of all Jewish surnames. I am not certain about Britain, but it probably ranks up there. It might also be used in certain situations as a "John Doe", like "Smith" is in the USA, where Smith is the most popular surname.

[Ryan_Miller]

Awesome guys, thats what I had originally thought. Someone asked me if Aaron Kosminski & David Cohen might have been the same people since all the names are similar, and all of a sudden my mind froze completely. Thank you guys so much for the clarification.

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Hi Ryan,

It's a complicated theory but try this link from these Boards regarding the David Cohen suspect:

http://www.casebook.org/suspects/davidcohen.html

[Chava]

'Cohen' actually means that the person has ancestors that were the original Cohanim or priests of Israel during the time of the First and Second Temple. Anyone called Cohen, Kahn etc has roots back to this group, just as anyone called Levi, or Levine, or Levin etc has roots back to the Leviim, who were the Cohens' acolytes and assistants. A ton of dna research has been done on this. And in fact men with the name Cohen or variants thereof have all been shown to be linked via their 'y' chromosomes.

There are a number of articles about this. Here's one:

http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Cohanim-DNA-Connection.htm

'Cohen' meaning 'lawyer'...I don't think so! But it's a lovely idea!

[Bailey]

Aside from the ongoing conversation, thanks for drawing my attention to this audiobook being on iTunes! Downloading now...

B.