Leather apron aka John Pizer

[ditlew]

Hi All,

I've just finished watching the JtR Conference 2009 on DVD and among other things one question keeps popping up. Paul Begg did a fine presentation on the Leather Apron subject but a few of the details given don't add up for me, perhaps some of you can enlighten me.

In short:

1.) The press started a man hunt for 'Leather apron'.
2.) Paul Begg mentions that John Pizer had left London for a few days and when he returned he went to his brother how told him that people was blaming him (John Pizer) for the murder so he hid there.
3.) When Pizer was arrested he was supposedly shocked to learn that he was known by the nickname Leather Apron. He and his family claimed that Pizer had never been called Leather Apron to their knowledge.
4.) If number 3 is correct then why number 2? The press was talking about 'Leather Apron' not 'John Pizer', so why should Pizer feel hunted if he only learned that he was known by that name after his arrest?

Best Regards,
Ditlew

[Chris]

I've just finished watching the JtR Conference 2009 on DVD and among other things one question keeps popping up. Paul Begg did a fine presentation on the Leather Apron subject but a few of the details given don't add up for me, perhaps some of you can enlighten me.

I've only seen the published version of Paul Begg's lecture in Ripperologist, but I thought the most interesting point he made was that the incident that took place on Sunday 2 September (http://www.casebook.org/press_report.../18880909.html) - in which Pizer was accused by a woman in Spitalfields of being "'Leather Apron,' the Whitechapel murderer" - predated all the known press reports about Leather Apron.

That seems to argue quite strongly against the notion that 'Leather Apron' was an invention of the press and that Pizer was an innocent victim of mistaken identity.

[DaveMc]

That seems to argue quite strongly against the notion that 'Leather Apron' was an invention of the press and that Pizer was an innocent victim of mistaken identity.

Hi Chris,

Twice?
Wasn't Pizer also identified in a police station by another witness?

[Chris]

Twice?
Wasn't Pizer also identified in a police station by another witness?

Yes, but that witness does seem to have been disbelieved by the police, and in any case Pizer was able to prove an alibi for the murder of Nichols.

What I was getting at was the suggestion that Pizer was wrongly identified either as another man known as Leather Apron, or as a fictitious character invented by a journalist.