Who else could have written it?

[K-453]

If the killer did not write it - who else in the neighbourhood could have a reason to (not) blame the “Juwes” for whatever?

The description “round schoolboy’s hand” gives me the idea the strange sentence might be some writing exercise for pupils. Or a punishment, like, “Write 100 times, ‘I will not throw my litter on the floor.’” And the kid wrote it, or a parody of it, on the wall after school.

[Adam Went]

I like your suggestion about the likeness of a writing exercise, K.

However,take a walk around any city in the world, and you'll see graffiti - plenty of it. There doesn't necessarily have to be rhyme or reason for it, some people just like to vandalise. And in the days before the likes of spray paint were invented, chalk was the preferred option.

The only real hint we have from the message is, in my view and that of several others as discussed on the other Chalk thread, that the writer was a local and/or home grown Englishman.

Cheers,
Adam.

[drstrange169]

The amount of Jewish traders in the street might occasion a disgruntled customer to opine it. Equally the close proximity of socialist meeting places
might cause a rival faction to vent it. Or it could just be happenstance, all are as likely reasons as cryptic killers message.

[Phil H]

Antisemitism was nothing new in 1888 and there must have been many non-Jewish inhabitants of Spitalfields/Whitechapel who resented new immigrants either because of their success or their poverty, or even because of their difference.

In my view the writer of the graffito - almost certainly NOT "Jack" in my view - had a grudge against someone in the dwellings (on that specific staircase), or against a nearby street trader.

Phil

[Scott Nelson]

Well we seem to be getting somewhere at last. Except that K-453's suggestion that the writing meant that someone had a reason (not) to blame the Jews is not what it means at all.

[Stephen Thomas]

Well we seem to be getting somewhere at last.

That'll be the day.

[ChrisGeorge]

Well we seem to be getting somewhere at last.

Wake me up when we get there.

[jason_c]

What about a non English speaker struggling with written English and syntax?

[Hunter]

Would such people be inclined to use a double negative?

[Monty]

In an age of Anarchists.....

.....Who indeed?

Monty

[Adam Went]

As to the content of the message itself, IMO it was intended to read like: "The Jews never get blamed for anything, when they should" - perhaps, as has been suggested, a disgruntled customer or perhaps even a local who had been driven out of business by Jewish immigrants. It's hard to say but anti-Semitism, as we well know, was very high at the time and it's always been throughout history that people will pick on the weakest targets, regardless of the circumstances.

Cheers,
Adam.

[Wickerman]

Quite so Adam, the most direct, the most logical, and simplest solution devoid of all those hoops & hurdles that alternate interpretations require.

Thankyou, Jon S.

[mariab]

Would such people be inclined to use a double negative?

Like I've mentioned in another thread, the GSG is a verse. This might explain the length of the phrase and the double negative as necessary for the verse construction, whether this occurred naturally or intentionally. (By “naturally“ I mean that the Victorians often spoke in rhymes, particularly in Cockney.)

In an age of Anarchists..........Who indeed?

I wonder what Monty is implying here...

As to the content of the message itself, IMO it was intended to read like: "The Jews never get blamed for anything, when they should" - perhaps, as has been suggested, a disgruntled customer or perhaps even a local who had been driven out of business by Jewish immigrants. It's hard to say but anti-Semitism, as we well know, was very high at the time and it's always been throughout history that people will pick on the weakest targets, regardless of the circumstances.

I fully agree with your interpretation of the content, Adam, but I have a problem with the GSG having existed before the night of September 30. Don't you think that the police, who took the time to copy the GSG (multiple times and with variable accuracy) would have questioned the neighbours about its possible previous existence? Unless there was indeed evidence of its previous existence, and it got lost to us, after so many years.

[Lechmere]

The double negative is common in the East End.
‘I don’t know nothing’.
Means I don’t know anything about whatever the thing is.
The wording implies a local East End person – which is backed up by the bad spelling of ‘Jews’.
This suggests the message writer was almost certainly not Jewish, not least because most Jewish people in the area were recent non-integrated arrivals.
The accusatory nature of the message seems to tie in to the case – as does the fact that the message is directed at Jews. Jews being high in the suspect list from the outset.
Then there was the disturbance factor in the Stride killing by a Jew adjacent to a Jewish club.

Wentworth Model Dwellings were about a year and a half old when this happened. They were brand spanking new buildings. I would suggest that they would not have been covered in graffiti and that new graffiti would have been cleaned off relatively quickly. It would have taken a few years before the buildings went downhill. That is how it happens then and now.

The illogicality of a gentile killer putting up a message blaming the Jews, on the basis that it was effectively a confession by a Jew, was overwhelmed by the hysteria that the message and its scrubbing off created. It is not likely that his mind was working in a strictly logical manner at that moment to the extent that he would construct a grammatically correct sentence, or even one that would in the cold light of day rationally deflect blame from himself (I am assuming the culprit was not Jewish).

This is an instance where the progression of the case and the evidence at hand – the graffiti and bloody apron – synthesised with the popular mythology of what to expect. It is illustrative that this mythology worked upon the mind of the killer as much as on the police, the press and the public. They were all acting out pre-ordained parts.

It is rather like youngsters in London aping the idioms used in ‘Minder’. They were employed by Arthur Daley to give authenticity to the role, yet in turn were reinforced through popular usage borrowed from the show. The same happened with ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and 'The Sweeney’. There is even evidence that villains copied behaviours seen on programs such as ‘The Sweeney’, just as there is evidence that gangsters in America (and in Britain) copy behaviours from 'The Godfather' series, 'The Sopranos', 'Goodfellas' etc.

[Robert]

I don't see the message as a typical east end offering. Ok there's a double negative, but what about "are not" Wouldn't "aren't" or "ain't" be more natural? If we use an alternative version, we have to swallow "will not" instead of "won't". In other words, our east end writer will have had to chalk a sentence containing a double negative, but no contractions!