Abberline and Klosowski

[Steven Russell]

Dear all,

Could Abberline's suspicions of Klosowski / Chapman have been reinforced by half remembered details of Kosminski? Both were Polish Jew barbers / hairdressers called K-----ski, lived in the right area, and were of similar ages.

Even more tenuously, Abberline could have been loth to mention this to the PMG man since that could mean that a bona fides JTR suspect (assuming Aaron was one) had gone unpunished and committed further murders. As someone else said, the traditions of his old department would suffer.

Finally, Abberline's dismissal of "a man who died in a lunatic asylum a few years ago" does not rule out Kosminski as he was still alive at the time of the interview.

I am extremely doubtful that these are original thoughts but they just struck me today and I honesty cannot remember if or, more likely, when and where I came across them before.

Best wishes,

Steve.

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks Steven,
It has never been hinted at that Abberline ever had any suspicions about Kosminski.The PMG article makes it pretty clear that Abberline poured scorn on such an idea :

you must understand that we have never believed all those stories about jack the ripper being dead, or that HE WAS A LUNATIC ,or anything of the kind.
Abberline to PMG reporter in 1903.

Best
Norma

[Steven Russell]

Thanks Steven,
It has never been hinted at that Abberline ever had any suspicions about Kosminski.The PMG article makes it pretty clear that Abberline poured scorn on such an idea :

you must understand that we have never believed all those stories about jack the ripper being dead, or that HE WAS A LUNATIC ,or anything of the kind.
Abberline to PMG reporter in 1903.

Best
Norma

Thanks, Norma.

I was not trying to suggest that Abberline had any suspicions of Kosminski. I only wondered if he had heard of him and, consciously or otherwise, details of Aaron's story had served to strengthen his (Abberline's) Klosowski theory since there are several, no doubt coincidental, similarities betwen the two men. I fully understand that this is all highly fanciful but wished to canvass the thoughts of others.

Best wishes,

Steve.

[Adam Went]

Hey all,

Unfortunately I think the differences are too numerous to confuse the two of them - only in age, nationality and name are they similar in any way.....Klosowski was never in an asylum, Kosminski wasn't a known killer, Kosminski had been locked up for years before the Klosowski trial, etc.

Besides that, Abberline had his old sidekick George Godley on the Chapman case in 1903, and no doubt would have heard some information from him as well....

Although the names are an interesting point, because Arthur Neil did refer to him as "Kloskovski" in 1932.....but in 1903, no, I think we can be fairly sure that he had Klosowski and Klosowski alone in mind.

Cheers,
Adam.