Anderson - More Questions Than Answers

[Jeff Leahy]

By the way,I have worked with patients suffering from paranoid schizophrenia myself in the Art Therapy department of a large Psychiatric Hospital in the North of England.
Never have I heard of a person entering such an institution and being referred to in their case notes as "not dangerous to others" or "harmless",when that person had committed a murder.

Aaron was never charged with murder. If his brother did not mention the ID, why would they believe Aaron had committed murder?

Again, Schizophrenia by itself is unlikely to drive someone to murder, other factors, possibly alcohol, might have an exaggerated effect.

In early stages my brother described people resisting the condition by using other drugs or alcohol to alleviate the initial symptoms. An internal struggle.

Incidently,the average time of onset of severe psychosis is usually around the age of 29 [not 23 or 24], and what used to be called "burn out" used to happen after some 10 to 15 years l -ie at 40 or 45 years old.Burn out ,as far as I have always understood it, only happens after many years of recurrent episodes---as can be discerned in Aaron"s case notes,recorded though as a harmless person suffering from dementia .You can see he becomes more and more withdrawn and incoherent as the years pass.
In the end,left untreated,the person becomes a shell of what they once were.They shamble rather than walk,are usually very thin,disco-ordinated ,
vacant in expression and unable to communicate meaningfully or clearly.But this happens only after many years of suffering.However, it is one of the saddest sights you could ever see.

The on set of schizophrenia is typically 19-22 years old. As 'psycotic' attacks increase in severity the sufferer slowly loses touch with all reality becoming increasingly disfunctional. Burn out can vary from patient to patient but is typically between 35 and 45 years old. Typically with paranoid schizophrenics, they believe themselves to be someone of importance. My brother described two patients on the same ward who both believed themselves to be Lord Mount Battern.

On the whole however Norma's discription is fairly accurate.

Something tasked me laying awake last night about Aaron. When describing suffers of the condition my brother stated that he would usually expect schizophrenics to experience low sex drive. So Aarons, condition was NOT completely typical. I will see if I can dig up any further info on this point.

Pirate

[Natalie Severn]

Pirate,
Well lets stick with how Kosminski presented upon being admitted.In 1891 at Colney Hatch he was able to describe,presumably in reasonably good English, his "auditory hallucinations"-to the extent that he was understood to believe h is movements were guided by a "universal instinct" ---"that knows the movements of all mankind" etc .They record that he was" rather difficult to deal with on account of the dominant character of his delusions"-we know some of these dictated that he did not take his weekly bath and concerned food intake.But on the whole Aaron was said to be quiet and well behaved and his habits were recorded as "cleanly".Between 1892 and 1893 Aaron continued like this with one or two bouts of "dementia and incoherence" but still in 1893 able to answer questions concerning himself when not having one of his "episodes".However in 1894 there is a note saying he is again "demented and incoherent" and he is transferred to Leavesdon Asylum.
This state of affairs continued for a number of years with Aaron experiencing only random episodes of what is described as "mania" or "dementia", during such times he became excitable,stubborn and incoherent,refused to speak English used only German [or his mother tongue-probably Yiddish].The rest of the time he was said to be quiet,well behaved and answered questions reasonably.There is no mention of any "self abuse" when he was in hospital and his "habits" are described as clean most of the time.
Now by the time we get to the turn of the century Aaron is often refusing-or unable to speak English with people ,or answer questions -a fair bit of the time and is "incoherent" -which probably means he mutters to himself in Yiddish in a stream of consciousness kind of way.And Aaron does appear to have arrived at or be getting close to "burn out".He is described by 1911 certainly , in one entry, as being "dull and vacant in expression" . Certainly if we skip to 1916 he did not know his age or how long he had been at Leavesdon.By then he had" hallucinations of both sight and hearing" was very obstinate,was untidy but clean and "did no work".
But he also appears to have continued with his refusals to drink except directly from taps because in November 1915 he had a cut over his left eye caused by a knock on the tap in the wash house.So some glimmer of his old self seems still to be flickering from time to time.
All I can say is that I am glad Aaron was able to take his dog for walks in Cheapside when he was 24 years old, even if he did get into trouble with the law because the dog wasnt wearing a muzzle.At least he saw a little of the real world -the London scene, the river,St Paul"s-----before he withdrew completely into his own private world of visions and voices -and fought off all attempts by trespassers to enter it .

Robert,
Well there is no mention of any sexual mania in any of the records from Colney Hatch or Leavesdon but from what it sounds like ,if he did have any sexual activity, it was only with himself.

Best
Natalie

[Jeff Leahy]

Yes, if your estimate of 10-15 years before ‘burn out’ that would make Aaron in his late thirties..1903.

By ‘Clean’ I assume they mean he uses the toilet?

And its interesting that no masturbation is hinted at once admitted, which would be more in line with my brothers thinking.

Psychotic episodes last around 12 weeks, however, I’m uncertain of how long between attacks and if this is a regular pattern. I also need to discover more about how coherent the suffer can become at this time. The picture my brother painted was a spiral, slow decent, if not treated with drugs.

I do wonder if we have strayed off topic re:Anderson.

However I do feel a thread on Aarons mental condition would be useful. Are you interested in starting one? I’m interested in your views and might convince my brother to contribute. Although he does have his worries about a connection being made between Schizophrenia and JtR, giving a false idea of how dangerous Schizophrenics can be.

As serial killers they are very rare indeed. Schizophrenics are NOT dangerous.

Pirate

[Robert]

Hi Nats

Of course, I speak from ignorance of Victorian asylum procedures - back in 1895 I escaped from Colney Hatch before I had a chance to get to know the place - but I want to make sure that I've got this right :

1. Hospital accepts self-abuse as a cause of mental illness.
2. Hospital makes no mention of self-abuse in case notes.

Isn't that weird? You'd think they'd keep an eye on the self-abuse, believing as they do that it will make him worse. Maybe they actually stopped the self-abuse - sewed up his pyjamas or something. But then, how come Aaron is so docile? (boxers are supposed not to have sex before fights, so as to maximise aggression)

Of course, one can take the cynical view that self-abuse was tolerated, as it kept the patients quiet. But still....

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Robert,
No,Colney Hatch did not seem to accept it.They write in the Male Patients Day Book,"supposed" cause-"self abuse".
But there is no question that both the Colney Hatch records and the Leavesdon Records state that the problem was 1st "dementia" and in 1894 "secondary Dementia".Neither institution makes any mention of self abuse after the note in the admissions file of 1891.Much of the information concerns his "hallucinations" which by 1916 included hallucinations of sight as well as hearing /voices.
As Jeff says, there is usually very little sexual interest or activity in a person with the illness Aaron appears to have.But he could have had a habit of touching his genitals,maybe for comfort,but its not mentioned.

[Cap'n Jack]

What concerns me is that would a man who was viewed as being very dangerous - like a man who was known to have killed at least five women in the most horrible fashion - be sent to an asylum that formulated and practised the novel system of 'non-restraint'?
I think not... and that was Colney Hatch.
He would have gone to Broadmoor, like all dangerous criminal lunatics.
One doesn't need to be a scholar or genius to realise, and understand, that if the police had become aware of the Whitechapel Murderer's real identity at any time after, or during, 1888, then he would have been detained at Her or His Majesty's Pleasure and confined to Broadmoor, as they were.
Not Colney Hatch.

[Simon Wood]

Hi AP,

Broadmoor makes sense, and is exactly where Anderson [NYT March 20th 1910] said Jack the Ripper had been sent "five or six years ago".

Regards,

Simon

[Jeff Leahy]

Your forgetting that the police didn't take Aaron anywhere. His brother, presumably to avoid the police, took him in voluntarily.

I am now curious about the self-abuse. Schizophrenics have low sex drive I need advice.

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

New York Times, March 20th 1910—





Regards,

Simon

[Natalie Severn]

Thankyou Simon,a very interesting cutting.
Its interesting especially since Ap has just been addressing this very point : that a hospital such as Broadmoor was where a "criminally" insane person such as the Ripper would have been taken , if he had been caught and found to be insane.Aaron ,by contrast,was obviously not considered to be "criminally" insane.
However Thomas Cutbush,the nephew of ,Supt Charles Cutbush had been sent to Broadmoor and had subsequently been named as "Jack the Ripper"by the Sun National Newspaper in 1894.
So did Robert Anderson want his cake and eat it? Did he want his readers to understand that he and other police had known who Jack the Ripper was---but didnt want ,any more than Macnaghten didnt want , in his 1894 memorandum, to come clean and admit it was the nephew of his and Macnaghten"s colleague,a fellow Scotland Yard man, Supt Charles Cutbush,a fellow after Anderson"s heart with his deep distrust of all Catholics ,it was Cutbush"s nephew, who was actually incarcerated,from 1891, in the asylum for the criminally insane,Broadmoor, and that it was Thomas Cutbush who had died there "five or six years before"-not Aaron Kosminski?---but hey-you can"t have "one of your own"- being implicated in the "Crime of the Century" can you? Much better to wheel out the reliable scapegoat,the Jew!

[Scott Nelson]

Broadmoor makes sense, and is exactly where Anderson [NYT March 20th 1910] said Jack the Ripper had been sent "five or six years ago".

Anderson never said this. I believe it was "Vetern Diplomat's" interpretation of what asylum the suspect was sent to based on Anderson's just published Blackwells Magazine articles.

[Cap'n Jack]

That's what I've been trying to say all along, Nats, so thanks for that.
Thanks Simon for the pertinent article.
I don't believe it was possible for a family, or relation, to have someone committed to a public asylum without the authority of two doctors and a justice of the peace; and an offical of the local parish, besides a police officer who had to provide a danger to the public.
This was certainly true in the case of Thomas Cutbush, when he spent time in public asylums before being HMP'd to Broadmoor.

[Cap'n Jack]

Scott, there was only one asylum that awaited Her Majesty's Pleasure, and that was Broadmoor.

[Natalie Severn]

Ap, thanks for your words. So..........it wasnt Aaron who was "confronted"by a witness, but Thomas,and maybe it was by the Mitre Square[beat] PC -or another PC perhaps,at the Policeman"s Seaside Home, around 1891.However when the PC realised the suspect was the nephew of a senior policeman,he declined from continuing with the procedure.
That scenario might even makes slightly more sense,especially as we know Charles Cutbush was very depressed and took his own life before the century was out.

[Jeff Leahy]

All very fancyfull. However we still have McNaughten and Swanson writing the name Kosminski

So back to the drawing board

Pirate