The could be knife Thomas Coram found on October the 1st 1888

[niko]

reply to Raoul,

Hi Niko,

welcome to the boards
Casebook describes the finding of the knife thus:

"Resident of 67 'Plummer's Road' (probably Plumber's Row) who was employed at a coconut warehouse. He was returning home from seeing friends at 16 Bath Gardens, Brady Street in the early hours of 1st October 1888, when at about 12.30am he passed No. 253 Whitechapel Road (a laundry business belonging to Mr Christmas) and noticed a knife lying on the bottom of two steps that led to the front door. A bloodstained handkerchief was folded and twisted round the handle and the blade was 9 to 10ins long."

This puts the blade at 9 - 10 inches rather than the 12 you have on your knife. Furthermore, we have no photo of this knife (though my mind recalls a photo of a similar knife doing the rounds and appearing in various publications, I don't think it's the one found by Coram. I'm sure I'll be corrected on that by someone more knowledgable if I'm wrong). Basically, with no photo, how can we ever say that your knife and Coram's knife (which in all likelihood wasn't the knife used by Jack: according to Dr's Phillips & Blackwell) are one and the same.

I would say there are probably many buried knives lying around the metropolis; claiming that this one is 'the' one, is a bit of a stretch, me thinks.

regards

Raoul

Hi Raoul, this are the exact measurements of the knife i have. The total length of the knife is 44cm=17.32inches, the blade is 30cm=11.8 long and the wooden handle is 14cm=6inches long, i measured it with a tapemesure. Ive also read about the 9 or 10 inches, thats a difference of about 2.5cm, did they mesure the knife, or did they measure it by sight, if that was the case they could of also of said about 10 or 11 inches. I have a copy of the Illustrated Police News of Saturday, October the 1st. On the front page there is an ilustration of a man picking up a knife, it says as follows, finding a blood-stained knife, Whitechapel, knife 12 inches long, did they mean the blade or the whole knife, remember a biggish knife the handle must be around 5 or 6 inches long. what stranges me about the newspaper is that in the whole newspaper there is no writen article about the finding of the knife, the rest of the newspaper illustrations all have somthing writen in the paper, except the knife ( strange ). Just occured to me whilst looking at the Police Illustrated ews beside me. If Thomas Coram found the knife on October the 1st, why did it take 19 days to print it in the newspaper? i supose theres a logical answer as always, maybe the newspaper came out every foortnight.Tried to post photo but no luck. Does anyone know if this forum has an email which i can send a picture of the knife for all to view, all the best.

[lynn cates]

Kosminski

Hello Niko. Welcome to the boards.

I was curious regarding your comment about Aaron Kosminski being a suspect at the time of the murders. According to the best available information, he was not suspected until some time later--possibly as late as 1891.

The medical examiners were not too keen on the Coram knife as being implicated in Liz's death. Do you think that, perhaps they were mistaken?

Cheers.
LC

[Raoul's Obsession]

Hi Niko,

welcome to the boards
Casebook describes the finding of the knife thus:

"Resident of 67 'Plummer's Road' (probably Plumber's Row) who was employed at a coconut warehouse. He was returning home from seeing friends at 16 Bath Gardens, Brady Street in the early hours of 1st October 1888, when at about 12.30am he passed No. 253 Whitechapel Road (a laundry business belonging to Mr Christmas) and noticed a knife lying on the bottom of two steps that led to the front door. A bloodstained handkerchief was folded and twisted round the handle and the blade was 9 to 10ins long."

This puts the blade at 9 - 10 inches rather than the 12 you have on your knife. Furthermore, we have no photo of this knife (though my mind recalls a photo of a similar knife doing the rounds and appearing in various publications, I don't think it's the one found by Coram. I'm sure I'll be corrected on that by someone more knowledgable if I'm wrong). Basically, with no photo, how can we ever say that your knife and Coram's knife (which in all likelihood wasn't the knife used by Jack: according to Dr's Phillips & Blackwell) are one and the same.

I would say there are probably many buried knives lying around the metropolis; claiming that this one is 'the' one, is a bit of a stretch, me thinks.

regards

Raoul

[niko]

Hello to everybody, my name is Niko. Firstly i would like to say its a pleasure on joining the forum, i have been reading various threads on this forum and i must addmit a lot of you know a hell of a lot about the Whitechapel murders, i wish i could say the same about me. not too good on handling the computer, the other day i accidently named myself ripperologist on facebook, ( what a bodge up ). I joined this forum to see if anyone could help me with the following subject. I think i have the knife Thomas Coram found along the Whitechpel Road. I lived in the East End of London, in the heart where Jack the ripper commited his horrific murders. At the age of seventeen whilst working in a near by railway arch to my home i unburried a knife. The condition of the knife found was as follows - a twelve inch long knife, the blade of the knife was bent or turned, the blade was covered in a thick crust, the handle was wraped up in a rotten cloth and a thin string tied around the blade end of the handle. I remember the string being very neatly tied. I after straightened the blade and cleaned all the knife (now i know that was a stupid thing to do). However in 2006 i became interested on JTR, i started looking on the internet and to my suprise i came across some amazing information, being the following - a man called Thomas Coram on Monday the 1st of October 1888 at half past midnight found a twelve inch long knife on a door step along the Whitechapel Road. He handed the knife to P.C Joseph Drage, who further on took it to Leman Street Police Station. The discription of the knife found was as follows - along bladed knife with a hankerchief tied around the handle, both knife and hankie were stained with blood. I have my own hypothesis about the Whitechapel murders. I have spoken with the up most experts on JTR they make me belive, they think im inventing the whole story up, " im telling the truth its not in my nature to lie". I have also come to think that society has been more interested in making money from JTR than actually interested in resolving who was or who were the real Jack the ripper for once and for all. I ask myself many questions about the JTR case, but one that baffles me is,if it is the SAME KNIFE, how did it get from being in Police custody at Leman Street Police Station, to being burried for more than a hundred years in a railway arch in the East End. In my research i have found a possible conection between the arch were i found the evil knife and Aaron Kozminski, the number one suspect i think at the time of the murders. The possible conection being that the propioter of the mentioned arch grandfarther could of been Aaron Kozminski,s cousin. Now put yourself in my shoes, you find an old bent up knife wraped up in a rotten cloth when your a kid and twentyfive years later you find out there was a knife with the same discription found at the times of the murders, what would you think or do? open to all sugestions, within limits,will try to place picture of knife on forum,thanks for reading, all the best, live and let live.