Does the Goulston Street Graffito eliminate Jewish Immigrants as suspects?

[c.d.]

This killer was shrewd, calculating and could charm these street wise women who knew JtR was on the prowl.

Given their circumstances, I don't think "charm" was a requirement for engaging with these women. Simply having money in hand and not sweating profusely while raving incoherently was probably more than sufficient.

c.d.

[Patrick Differ]

Motive is instrumental in finding any killer. Jacob Levy had motive , means and location on the night of clues.

I don't believe in " that many" coincidences when we are dealing with a legitimate suspect.

[John Wheat]

At the end of the day the GSG may or may not have been written by Jack who may or may not have been Jewish. For me it doesn't help at all in the search for Jack the Ripper.

[Doctored Whatsit]

Hi Tony. Yes, I think I recall that as well. I don't remember that it was a pair of shoes, but that's not important. The idea was that he had sold something of low quality, and I believe didn't give the customer a refund. It seems a reasonable possibility. The question is how likely it is that the graffito would have been there for awhile without there being any evidence that anyone had seen it before.

Yes, whilst a disgruntled customer is perfectly possible, nobody reported seeing the graffito previously, and in a property primarily accupied by Jews, it would have been quickly removed once seen. I favour the probability that the graffito was written during that night.

[Lewis C]

Didn’t Martin Fido argue that there was a market near by and that the writing was probably done by a disgruntled customer who had been sold a dud pair of shoes by a Jewish stall holder? Makes more sense than JTR writing on a wall.

Hi Tony. Yes, I think I recall that as well. I don't remember that it was a pair of shoes, but that's not important. The idea was that he had sold something of low quality, and I believe didn't give the customer a refund. It seems a reasonable possibility. The question is how likely it is that the graffito would have been there for awhile without there being any evidence that anyone had seen it before.

[Patrick Differ]

The Sunday Market where thousands would descend included Middlesex Street ( Petticoat Lane) , Wentworth Street, and Goulston Street.

Charles Warren was smart to erase the message because there were near riots 2 weeks prior to Kelly because of Stride and Eddowes. Have read Fido but never heard the disgruntled buyer story.

If the killer wanted to make things worse for Immigrant Jews then incitement of a riot targeted at them would make sense.
Whitechapel was an active place at all hours so you cant discount the possibility that the apron and message were left to incite the masses.

I lean to the killer wanting to accomplish more chaos but because Eddowes was murdered in London City and not Metro, he wanted to throw them off the scent of his living outside of Metro. That would also make sense.

This killer was shrewd, calculating and could charm these street wise women who knew JtR was on the prowl.

[Tonylondon]

Didn’t Martin Fido argue that there was a market near by and that the writing was probably done by a disgruntled customer who had been sold a dud pair of shoes by a Jewish stall holder? Makes more sense than JTR writing on a wall.

[Tani]

It was reported that a chalked message was found on the wall of the arch under which the Pinchin St torso was placed and subsequently found.

IIRC, the word "Lipski" was chalked on the arch wall.

If this were a common slur this may have been a common graffito. We'd need more information on this particular slur. And if the GSG were well known, someone may have copied this as a kind of macabre taunt.

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

The Echo, 2nd October 1888, scotched a rumour—

“One Of Many Canards.

“Among the many discredited rumours current in the neighbourhood is the assertion that Sir Charles Warren on visiting the yard on Sunday morning last discovered some writing on the wall in chalk, which gave expression to very objectionable sentiments of a religious character, and which was supposed to have been the handiwork of the murderer."

The Morning Post, 3rd October 1888, also ran the story—

“Another rumour alleged that the murderer, at the same time that he took the life of ‘Long Liz,’ inscribed in chalk on the brick wall some words of a religious character that were calculated to provoke no small amount of exasperation. Further, it was stated that Sir Charles Warren, when he saw the writing on the wall early on Sunday morning after the murder, ordered it to be washed out, and that that direction was implicitly carried out by the police. A careful examination of the wall, however, has revealed the fact that the whole story must be a fabrication.”

Close but no cigar.

The yard in question was Dutfield's Yard. It would be a further seven days before the BSG travelled a mile to become the GSG, and a further month until written transcripts of the graffiti were submitted by Commissioner Warren, Superintendent Arnold, DC Halse and PC Long.

The City of London and Metropolitan Police officers who viewed the chalked message [allegedly in Goulston Street] presented a combination of seven variations as to its spelling, grammar, capitalization and linage.

Stellar detective work.

[The Rookie Detective]

And if the killer had some sort of compulsion, there would have been messages left at more locations.

It was reported that a chalked message was found on the wall of the arch under which the Pinchin St torso was placed and subsequently found.

IIRC, the word "Lipski" was chalked on the arch wall.

[Patrick Differ]

The truth is there was an Apron and graffiti written in chalk at the entrance of the recently built Wentworth Dwellings # 108 the night of September 30,1888.

From a timing perspective the killer, who took organs and very likely put them in the Apron, had to deposit the organs somewhere immediately after the murder. The apron was empty. Did the Constable miss the deposit at 2:20 am on his beat ( 35 minutes after Eddowes is murdered?), or did the killer stop at his lair ( a butcher shop perhaps) sitting between Mitre Square and Goulston Street?

The killer also wrote a message with a double negative in chalk. The killer therefore had chalk on his person. Assuming the killer wrote the message. It seems unlikely that he did not write the message. It was also a straight forward implication of Jews. But what Jews specifically? Anglo Jews and Immigrant Jews were the 2 distinct groups and the latter already being blamed for these murders. ( No Englishman could commit these atrocities).

Why would this killer deposit the Apron on Goulston Street?
If the killer was Jacob Levy, for example, then the answers are easily understood.

1. He lived at #36 Middlesex Street between Mitre Square and only 1 block over from Goulston. He knew this area like the back of his hand.
2. He needed to get Police attention away from London City. ( the killer must live in Metro, look where he deposits the apron)
3. He hates Immigrant Jews and specifically he hates his accuser, an Immigrant Polish Jew, Hyman Sampson , who he blames for destroying his life. He wants revenge.
4. Where did Hyman Sampson live? Goulston Street.
5. Who was implicated in the graffito? Immigrant Jews, already being blamed.

I would argue in this case that the circumstantial evidence points to one man. There are no other known suspects that match these 5 simple truths. The logic could fit any name but in this case it would clearly fit Jacob Levy.

First the Police interviewed 76 known Butchers in the area and came up empty. But the method of killing in this case points more to a Butcher ( a profession Doctors called out) which was likely why thr interviews were conducted in the first place.

Secondly they scoped out lunatic asylums and recent releases yet Jacob Levy is never mentioned anywhere. Not until Mark King discovers him in 1999. Jacob Levy was released from Essex Asylum at the end of February 1887. How far back would they have thought to go?

The Jewish Butcher Theory where a lunatic Butcher was being watched on Butchers Row can easily be tied to the Levy Family. The Kosher killers on Butchers Row started where Middlesex Street meets Aldgate. Also easily accessible from Black Horse Yard. Henry Levy lived on Aldgate directly accross from Butchers Row. Coincidence?

JtR butchered these women. He was not some low class Polish immigrant Jew. He knew exactly what he was doing as the escalation showed. He wanted to bring down the immigrant Jews as revealed in the grafitto. He had Revenge as a strong motive. The unfortunates were the low hanging fruit. They were everywhere and in every Pub on virtually every corner of Whitechapel. Syphilis would be a motive against these women but I do not believe this was a prime motive.

The Jews are the men who will be blamed ! Specifically the immigrant Jews who the Police and their Leadership were already blaming.

Stride murdered at the very epicenter of the Jewish Immigrant faction- the Berner Streeters. Already prime targets of the Jewish Chronical, the mouthpiece of the Anglo Jewish Elite.
Just a coincidence? Not if the killer was an Anglo Jew.

[Fiver]

Contemporaries such as Roselyn Stevenson wrote that the double negative and even the spelling of the word "Juwes" seemed like French translated to English.

For example, since there is no photograph of the graffito, it was only copied down by two(?) English-speaking policemen, it's possible that the word was not "Juwes" at all, but instead, "the Juives," which is a correct spelling of "Jews" in French, albeit the feminine form.

The GSG was written in a "round hand", which means it was cursive. The various police who recorded the GSG disagreed on the spelling, which may indicate nothing more than bad handwriting.

[Fiver]

What was the Primary language in Whitechapel? English.
What was likely the second? Yiddish and Hebrew.
And the third? a Melting pot, pick one. Polish, Russian...

Doing a quick online search, Russian, Polish, and Hebrew all use double negatives. So do French, Spanish, and Italian. But in those languages, the double negatives don't cancel each other out, they reinforce each other. English is not the only language where double negatives cancel each other out, this also happens in Yiddish and Welsh.

So what the double negative of the GSG means could be completely different depending on the native language of the speaker. It tells us nothing about the writer's nationality. The only thing certain about their education is they knew how to write English in cursive.

[Fiver]

The only reason I can think for stopping to write such an absurd, meaningless message would be a psychotic disorder, but I doubt someone with a psychotic disorder to the point of world salad would go unnoticed, either, let alone be able to talk to vulnerable women in confidence.

And if the killer had some sort of compulsion, there would have been messages left at more locations.

[Patrick Differ]

Hi c.d- I'm not sure that the GSG and this location were haphazardly picked.
Levy was convicted of stealing 14 pounds of inferior meat. Its not a stretch to think that a killer who lived one block over from Goulston Street, in the City where it was suddenly hot from Eddowes murder, might not attempt to throw off the Cops by making it look like he was heading East through Metro.
The apron and graffito in this case would match. Killer deposits apron which held human meat the killer maintained in his butcher shop at # 36 Middlesex and throws Police off his scent. He deposits it where his nemesis Hyman Sampson lived before the Board of Public Works moved him next door to Jacob. Two competitors side by side?
The double negative is straight forward when canceling not and nothing out. The Jewes are the men who will be blamed!

The killer, by writing the message when and where he did, could have easily started a riot that would not have blamed the Anglo Jew but the Immigrant Jew. The immigrant Jews who Jacob hated and blamed for his predicament. He was going to get his revenge. Warren foiled the Killer which outraged him even more.

An outrage he took out on Mary Kelly.

I believe that after Mary Kelly the Jewish Guardians had to come forward as Joseph Hyam Levy would have confided in the Chief Rabbi. The same Anglo Jews that were fighting against the International Working Mens group also called the Berner Streeters.

My thought here is that the Jewish Guardians would have denied actual knowledge and instead would have offered candidates to watch. Was this Levy the crazed butcher and Kosminski the immigrant Jew? Did Joseph Hyam Levy and the Jewish Elite control this outcome?

Levy was committed in 1890 and Kosminski became the prime suspect by police?