Dear Boss

[Rob Clack]

P.S. Who's Rob Clack?

The person who was first on Maria's e-mail list

Rob

[mariab]

Tom,
I had to email Lynn Cates about something else, and I reminded him to contribute to this thread with information about the William Morris article/editorial in The Commonweal.
I'm sure you're joking about Rob Clack. You are the one who was praising his photographs and contribution in Examiner 3.

[Tom_Wescott]

Maria,

I'm not sure why you have to e-mail Lynn regarding my question. I believe he's visiting and contributing to this thread.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

P.S. Who's Rob Clack?

[mariab]

Ouch! I actually KNEW that Philip Kranz was the editor of Der Arbeter Fraint in 1888, but for a minute I thought you were talking about some Ripperologist! I'm having a severe case of “tunnel vision“ right now, concentrating on my French research, plus I'm quite a bit tired. (A certain amount of hardship has been accumulating since weeks.)
I saw in your post that Der Arbeter Fraint didn't mention the murder, but to me it totally makes sense this way. Why would the IWMC want to advertise a murder which occurred in their back yard, in their own newspaper? The other story/editorial concocted by William Morris in The Commonweal was obviously an attempt to “politicize“ this event and to “bounce it away“.
I'm more interested in the ads in Der Arbeter Fraint, especially if they mention anything about manual workers seeking jobs (so that we might establish something about Israel Schwartz's connection to the IWMC). What was it that you found interesting in the advertisements specifically?
I'll email Lynn in a minute, I just have to email back Rob Clack first. Even my boss will have to wait, I'll email Lynn before him.

[Tom_Wescott]

Kranz was the editor of Der Arbeter Fraint in 1888, so yes, he spoke and wrote in Yiddish, among other dialects and languages. And did you read my post about there being no mention of the murder?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Does Philip Kranz read Yiddish? If you need any Arbeter Fraint issues translated, you can stand in line, IF we manage to find a translator from Chicago. (As apparently we have, but no one's budging.) I'll email Lynn in a little while, I just need to make a long phone call and vacuum-clean this place before it gets too dark.

[Tom_Wescott]

I have the issue of Arbeter Fraint that Philip Kranz was working on the night of the murder, as well as the issue following. Neither mention the murders, but the advertisements are interesting.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Tom,
according to Lynn, William Morris apparently published an article/editorial in The Commonweal making accusations that Stride's murder was allegedly an act committed by an agent provocateur JUST to harm the IWMC! I'm sorry, I don't know on which exact date (in early October 1888) this article is supposed to have appeared, as I have a bit of “tunnel vision“ right now, concentrating on some research I'm doing under very chaotic conditions here in Paris. But I'll ask Lynn about this in a little while. I have to email him anyway, to give him the email address of a Jewish friend of mine in Chicago who (we hope) might help translate Der Arbeter Fraint.
If Fishman's books are a bit superficial, then all the better, because there's NO way I can afford to buy them. Does the Butterworth book go more in depth? (I've perused Butterworth online, and it felt a bit superficial too, concentrating too much on little scandals and stuff, about Karl Marx's ailments and whatnot.)
The funny thing is, when I first heard of Fishman, in my innocent newbie status I mistook him for our Swede friend, Fisherman!)

[Tom_Wescott]

Lynn's approach is precisely the same as yours, but he added William Wess' and his brother's visits to William Morris' Farringdon Street Socialist club, and William Morris article in The Commonweal.

I'm afraid I don't see how William Morris fits into the Schwartz scenario. It's no secret he was a supporter of the club, sometimes more because he had to be than because he wanted to be. He even paid them money at one time for space rental, so it's no secret he was intimately acquainted with the men of the IWEC. But what does this have to do with Schwartz or the Ripper? And which particular article in Commonweal? I'm sure Lynn is onto something interesting here, but I seem to be in the dark.

As for Fishman, his books are interesting, but are rather superficial and don't delve too deep into the underbelly of London anarchism.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[mariab]

Stewart Evans wrote:
The simple fact is, and it was stated by the police at the time, it would have been a simple matter for a medical student to obtain a kidney.
As a newbie I apologize profoundly for not having read Jack the Ripper – Letters from Hell yet (I will absolutely read it in the coming months), so I'm most probably asking a question which is answered extensively in the book, but I was wondering how often medical students obtained fresh bodies in Victorian hospitals. The Lusk letter kidney would have needed to be relatively fresh (as in, less than a week old, or one week old tops). It could not have been left in alcohol for several weeks/months, otherwise even Victorian doctors would have immediately noticed the difference. I would even consider grave robbing as a possibility here (in my uninformed opinion).

[Stewart P Evans]

Thrashed

Might you briefly enlighten me? Or shall I just read about it?

This subject has been thrashed to near death so many times in the past that I assumed you had read the standard texts on it.

For a start it is a fallacy that the age and sex could, at that time, be determined from a piece of kidney. In those days just about any kidney disease was regarded as 'Bright's disease' and it was quite common anyway. There is no 1888 source stating she had Bright's disease anyway and alcohol did not have the adverse effect on the kidneys that was assumed. And it was not as simple as asking 'any and all hospitals in the area if any of their 40-something year old female cadavers with Bright's disease are missing any kidneys.'

The simple fact is, and it was stated by the police at the time, it would have been a simple matter for a medical student to obtain a kidney.

[Mishter Lusk]

I'm afraid that you obviously do not understand the situation regarding not only the 'Lusk kidney' but also the position regarding bodies and the obtaining of body parts. It is explored in Jack the Ripper Letters From Hell.

Might you briefly enlighten me? Or shall I just read about it?

[Stewart P Evans]

Understand

Forgive me if this point has already been brought up, as I haven't read this entire thread through.
But it seems to me like it would have been a (fairly) simple task trying to identify Jack through this letter. All the police would have had to do is ask any and all hospitals in the area if any of their 40-something year old female cadavers with Bright's are missing any kidneys. If not, then that pins the sent kidney to Eddowes and the police have a handwriting sample.
Then it's just a matter of demanding a handwriting sample from everyone in town, and if someone doesn't comply, they're taken in to spend some time in prison and fined, and still have to submit a sample. If the Ripper's in town, they would find him this way.
I don't know though...perhaps there's an aspect I overlooked. I'm betting there is.
-Aaron

I'm afraid that you obviously do not understand the situation regarding not only the 'Lusk kidney' but also the position regarding bodies and the obtaining of body parts. It is explored in Jack the Ripper Letters From Hell.

[Mishter Lusk]

Hello Mike,

Good points, I was just always under the impression that forensics determined the kidney was from a middle-aged woman with Bright's. Perhaps I am wrong. Also, if Jack really did send it, he most likely wouldn't have had the means to travel too far out of the Whitechapel vicinity to different universitys or hospitals, wouldn't he?

-Aaron

[The Good Michael]

Aaron,

Probably a plethora of university kidneys as well, not to mention trying to tell the person's gender and age from a kidney let alone species.

Mike