The GSG. What Does It Mean??

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Monty,
I havent yet seen a specific reference to the Wentworth Dwellings as such but that area as you rightly say was cleared and the money for rebuilding the dwellings/tenements blocks. provided by Rothschild for poor but respectable Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.
Clearly there were Irish and local East Enders nearby,as evidenced by the Victoria Home lodging house at corner of Wentworth/Commercial Streets -such as Hutchinson and Fleming stayed in .
Had he slipped into Mitre Street and gone left after the murder,he could have passed PC Watkins as he came up it towards Mitre Square.But had he slipped into Mitre street and turned right, he might have just avoided PC Watkins and made his way round Bevis Marks Houndsditch etc until he reached Goulston Street.
He seems to have paused in Goulston Street -maybe he only wiped his hands on that apron piece and threw it down.But my view is that he paused,threw down the cloth after wiping his hands and then wrote the graffiti.I still think he meant to include the Berner street Jewish club -------he could have been trying to throw blame on the this part of the Jewish community but he could also have been saying it was him [or his higher power -the voice giving him commands] was responsible for these killings----not a Jewish person....

[The Good Michael]

Natalie,

The problem I have with your scenario of him writing the graffiti then, was that there is an impression, debatable of course, of JTR having been in a hurry to get away. This may not have been true, and he could have had the time to nonchalantly jot down a few words, especially if he was home and feeling safer. The idea of a possible adrenaline junkie writing small, precise, and neatly so soon after committing butchery, indicates a mind that is capable of a startlingly quick cooldown. This is beyond the ken of many of us.

Mike

[Natalie Severn]

Well Mike,it really does depend on the nature of the killer.I think JtR was a pretty cold fish , very cool and quite mad.So it could fit.

[Fisherman]

A minimalistic pointer to Jack NOT being the one who wrote the graffito:

He takes the piece of apron with him, and when it has served itīs purpose, he throws it away.
Wouldnīt that piece of chalk had served itīs purpose too? But it was not found on the ground as the premises were searched, suggesting that whoever did the writing, it was somebody who had not finished with the chalk.

Of course, Jack may have intended to write more, or he may just have put the piece of chalk back in his pocket reflex-wise. Or somebody may have picked it up without realizing itīs importance.

But still ...

The best,
Fisherman

[Natalie Severn]

Well I suppose he would have wanted to get rid of the murdered woman"s piece of apron as it was such an incriminating piece of evidence ,whereas a piece of chalk wouldnt have been as incriminating?

[Fisherman]

Natalie writes:
"I suppose he would have wanted to get rid of the murdered woman"s piece of apron as it was such an incriminating piece of evidence ,whereas a piece of chalk wouldnt have been as incriminating?"

And a fair supposition it is. This is nothing but a small pointer. But it of course applies that if he had thrown away the apron and if he had rid himself of the inner organs and if he had no blood on him ( a lot of if:s here...) - then that piece of chalk would have carried at least some incrimination. And if he did not need it further, he could just as well had thrown it away together with the apron.

All the best, Natalie!
Fisherman

[Dobet]

my own personal belief is that this could play a part, as the message is a defiant one, not one taking a stab at jews.

in piers plowman the juwes are blamed for putting christ to death. the word also appears in chaucer works.

Chaucers' Prioress has a hired killer, alleyways, purged entrails and cut throats (Pilgrim, jtrforums) and jewes spelled with an e. My own opinion is that JtR had planned to use the GSG phrase at Berner Street, perhaps with Jewes spelled Jew or Jews. His plan changed that night with the Mitre Square murder and he couldn't resist spelling Jews as Juwes like in Piers Plowman as per your theory which I heard about from Pilgrim's posts on another site.
Piers Plowman has three characters named Dowel, Dobet, and Dobest.... Is this another source for Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum? I think so. Friars play a big part in Plowman and the brotherhood Freemasons is based on the fraternity of Friars.
A stab at the Freemasons and the Jews....Another Double Event.

[Mascara & Paranoia]

I don't think it has any meaning whatsoever other than to either claim or dismiss Stride as one of Jack's victims; though it's hard to determine precisely which one it is with the word 'nothing' written in that context.

But going by the description of how it was written, and assuming it was Jack who chalked the graffiti, it seems to me that the From Hell letter was written by a different person (likely a hoax).

[caz]

If a killer is going to advertize his presence he is going to broadcast his scribble in large bold letters, not itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny 1 inch high characters "in a round schoolboy hand".

C'mon people, the graffiti has nothing to do with the killings..

Blimey, how hard can this be people?

The killer did advertise his presence - by discarding the bloody apron piece where it could be found and connected to his latest crime by providing a perfect match with the piece left with his victim.

Very obviously the message - whatever else its writer intended - wasn't there to advertise the killer's presence, otherwise he could very obviously have written in a round schoolboy hand: ‘I woz here and I am the killer and a Jew’ if he had wanted to. But what possible purpose would that have achieved?

Also, I think people need to make their minds up whether graffiti of this nature would have been left hanging around for any length of time by the residents, or rubbed out by the first one to read it and take offence (if they saw it as anti-Semitic) or worry about trouble being brought to their door (if they saw it as defiantly pro-Jewish). Would it have happily remained there indefinitely, causing no offence to resident or passer-by, if the killer hadn’t picked that particular spot - a Jewish doorstep - to foul with the distinctly physical evidence of what had just taken place in Mitre Square?

If the writing was so small that it could have been there for a whole day or more without a mortal soul even spotting it, what was its function? Graffiti artists typically make their unwelcome presence felt with large, bold letters, whether the result is neat, fancy or scribbled, and the message simple to grasp or incoherent. So any objection on the grounds of size applies just as much, if not more, to a disaffected or defiant yob. Again, what was its function, if it would take a murderer’s leavings before anyone would even be aware of it, or take the blindest bit of notice?

What we do know is that the person who found it did so because he first found the apron piece while performing his constabulary duties, feared that a crime had been committed and then spotted the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny writing on the wall as his eyes travelled back up from the pavement. Bingo for the uncharacteristically shy and retiring graffiti artist, whose work finally got noticed against the odds, but double bingo with knobs on for the killer, whether he had any idea things would play out that way or not: coppers running around predicting a riot, and more resulting publicity than he could shake a stick at.

That may not have been the intended function of the message, but it wasn’t bad for one that had supposedly been sitting there quietly for some time, minding its own business and not expecting to draw any attention to itself.

Love,

Caz
X

[Shelley]

Yeap my theory is...The GSG was already there before the Ripper got there with Eddowes piece of apron, he probably darted in there to avoid a copper on his beat and got rid of the bloodied apron. Further up was a well know Jewish district with the markets and anti-semitism was common being chalked on walls etc anyway, it was merely coincidence that there happened to be some anti-semitic chalked writing, i mean how can anyone write that clearly in the dark in a drafty doorway, it would be all crawled up jumble with oodles of spaces in between to ensure enough spacing for such a message to be written...And in the dark?

[chrismasonic]

every time i use chalk it disappears at the end of my sentence...
i look at the size of the stick...estimate how long my sentence will be from the length of the chalk...and it disappears during the last letter

[c.d.]

Just goes to show you that you are only as good as the size of your stick.

c.d.

[Stephen Thomas]

Hi c.d.

It's not the size of the ship.

It's the motion in the ocean.

[protohistorian]

A minimalistic pointer to Jack NOT being the one who wrote the graffito:

He takes the piece of apron with him, and when it has served itīs purpose, he throws it away.
Wouldnīt that piece of chalk had served itīs purpose too? But it was not found on the ground as the premises were searched, suggesting that whoever did the writing, it was somebody who had not finished with the chalk.The best,
Fisherman

Of course, Jack may have intended to write more, or he may just have put the piece of chalk back in his pocket reflex-wise. Or somebody may have picked it up without realizing itīs importance.

But still ... They apron and the chalk are not exactly analogs of each other. If the apron was used to wipe his gore covered hands, in the killers mind, the context of removing gore is the boundary condition for the apron's usefulness. With chalk, there would be no such boundary condition within the mind of the killer. Respectfully Dave

[Mascara & Paranoia]

Right now I have four running theories about it. Ill list them in the order I feel most likely.

3: The message was meant for Schwartz.

Given that it was Eddowes' apron that was found along with it, and that there's a cloud of doubt hanging over Stride's candidacy as a Ripper victim, your option #3 got me thinking; could it have been about Lawende et al?Nothing sinister or cryptic, just Jack being petty at having to rush with Eddowes more than usual after having been seen with her, fearing he'd get nicked by the police. He clearly botched her up, and the likeliest reason being was that he was rushing with her after 'wasting' some time with the facial mutilations. Dismantling her face and writing the GSG could have been his way of saying 'mind your own business' and 'look at what you made me do'. I doubt it, but still. Could be something in it.