Dissertation- A curious find in Goulston Street by Derek Osborne

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  • Patrick Differ
    Detective
    • Dec 2024
    • 360

    #1

    Dissertation- A curious find in Goulston Street by Derek Osborne

    I found this to be an interesting read and thought it might be worth further exploration. This is on the Wiki under Dissertations. I wanted to sight Paragraph 7.

    A Further source online is " Policing the Ghetto- Jewish East End 1880 to 1920" by David Englander.

    " If the Ripper had really sought to blame the Jews for his crimes, why would he choose such an insignificant place for that purpose? Better by far to leave such a condemnation at the scene of one of his crimes, where the impact could have been far greater..."

    A fair question. But then I asked myself why Charles Warren was adamant about erasing the message. In other words was this an insignificant location? Did the location represent anything pertaining to the killer or his crimes? Did the killer write it? Does the location answer that or is it easier to say its just a coincidence?

    Would a Constable see a white apron in the darkness but not writing in chalk on a black background right above it? Its possible. But for the sake of argument lets assume the Killer of Eddowes wrote the message.

    " The Jewes are the men who will be blamed". Was this meant to mean All Jews or just Immigrant Jews who started arriving in 1886 out of the Prussian purge? Who would this statement draw attention to? Would it include the Anglo Jews who had little affinity for the migrants either. Or is it as simple as a Gentile implicating Jews after he murdered another Gentile prostitute in a once again predominantly Jewish area?

    The Apron without any doubt was deposited by the killer of Eddowes within the roughly 50 minute window after Eddowes body is found. The GSG presents a real dilema if the killer wrote it. Why would the killer implicate the migrant Jews and draw attention to them causing a potential riot? Or would Police believe it to be a false flag and that a gentile was trying to pass off blame?

    In 1888 Charles Booth had assistance from Edmund Reid and several others in walking all the Streets of Whitechapel and developing Demographics. The Apron and GSG were in fact planted in the very heart if the Jewish Quarter. Its not hard to understand Charles Warrens reason for erasing it. Written in a good schoolboys hand would reveal the killer to likely be educated in English. Not a migrant who could not write or speak English.

    The Police in this case had a distinct disadvantage in dealing with the migrant Jews of Whitechapel. They did not understand Yiddish. In fact it was the Jewish Board of Guardians through the Rothschilds financial power controlling the entire Jewish equation in Whitechapel. The Police were in effect dealing directly with the Board in Civil matters. As Booth illustrates the Anglo Jewish Middle Class could be found along Commercial Road and Petticoat Lane- Wentworth St and Goulston and also at Middlesex' Aldgate and Whitechapel Rd, with the Migrants heading East throughout the smaller roads along Old Montague and towards London Hospital. The Socialist Class of Migrants were headed off in the area of Berner and Batty Street as well as Fieldgate.

    As with everything in this case the GSG and Apron raise more questions than answers. However, considering the bias towards the Jewish Migrants the GSG would have had the desired effect if the word in the Market area ( where it was written) got out. The target would no doubt be the Migrants eventhough Wentworth Dwellings had Anglo Jews as well as migrants.

    If the killer wrote GSG, in English, one would be hard pressed to believe a migrant Jew was JtR. It would make little sense to implicate your own. Who would the Police have expected wrote this? Yiddish was written all over Whitechapel. Would the killer be versed in writing in English, a double negative, if they were a migrant?

    Booths work reveals that the Jewish migration path by street was more of a wave. Hanbury Street, Bucks Row and Berner Street were included in that path.

    The few witnesses and the GSG tie the Jewish community to the Whitechapel Murders. The changing Demographics illustrate the murder locations that were largely Jewish as opposed to the Dutch, German, Italian and Irish exclusion zones. None of the witnesses described a Migrant Jewish person with an impoverished look, dark complexion, high cheekbones and larger lips. But they were in fact that distinguishable.

    Could the GSG point to motive? The killer wanting to implicate the Jewish Immigration Class after being seen by Long and Schwartz and then 3 Jewish men at Church Passage? They would have been a perfect Scapegoat. He knew he was seen and needed to draw attention away from himself?









  • Doctored Whatsit
    Sergeant
    • May 2021
    • 889

    #2
    There are numerous questions of possibility and probability, and many different opinions regarding this general issue. I do disagree with the "insignificant place" suggestion, as the gsg was written just a few hours before the street would be thronging with shoppers, mostly gentile, at "petticoat lane" market, and the message was apparently readable from the street. If the aim was to cause trouble, it seems to have been in the right place.

    Comment

    • c.d.
      Commissioner
      • Feb 2008
      • 6814

      #3
      and the message was apparently readable from the street. If the aim was to cause trouble, it seems to have been in the right place.

      Are you sure about that Doc? Wouldn't the writing have to have been pretty large for that to have been possible?

      c.d.

      Comment

      • c.d.
        Commissioner
        • Feb 2008
        • 6814

        #4
        Also, would chalk writing on stone be completely legible from a distance even if it were large?

        c.d.

        Comment

        • c.d.
          Commissioner
          • Feb 2008
          • 6814

          #5
          Case in point:

          Take the Money and Run - I Have a Gub Apt Natural



          c.d.

          Comment

          • Patrick Differ
            Detective
            • Dec 2024
            • 360

            #6
            Originally posted by c.d. View Post
            Also, would chalk writing on stone be completely legible from a distance even if it were large?

            c.d.
            This is why I believe the killer wrote it. The GSG together with the apron would have a different impact as opposed to each standing alone. The killer obviously dropped the apron and its hard to believe the GSG " just happened" to be there, in that same spot, in the same hour.

            The GSG written in a good schoolboys hand and roughly one half inch high is pretty small. As a standalone the only affect would likely be a local tennant just wipes it off.

            As Doc points out, if the intent was to cause gentiles to riot against Jews it almost certainly would have needed the apron. If antisemitic graffiti was so pervasive in the East End, would anyone at all look at that message and even care? Oh just another graffiti..one half inch only???

            Warren would not have been there without the apron and Eddowes murder but it was clear that the pulse with 2 murders in one night and a message blaming Jews, and likely immigrant Jews, would have caused a riot.

            What would this say about the killer?
            1. He was killing gentile women in Jewish areas ( Booth) and could write English.
            2. He was blaming Jews and the immigrant Jews already had targets on their backs at that point.
            3. If JtR were an immigrant Jew who only spoke Yiddish, how could he write in English ( with double negative) and be heard speaking English by witnesses?

            A gentile killing gentile women and then blaming Jews makes little sense. Would the Police think that suspicious and have the reverse affect and draw attention to gentile men roaming about at night in the Jewish areas? Or by then was it too late?

            It is unlikely that immigrant Jews would blame themselves.

            What about the Anglo Jews? They were established off the main thoroughfares and the immigrants were being pushed East and Southeast from Houndsditch. They had less affinity for these migrants than gentiles. They were ruining their gains over the last 60 years to be accepted as Englishmen.

            Who had motive or even incentive to blame migrants for killing their women? Even women of the lowest possible class? JtR did if he wrote the GSG. Not photographing the message was a mistake. But how many people around Whitechapel were proficient in writing English in one half inch letters in chalk. In a good school boys hand? Likely those educated Englishman using chalk in their business?

            You can say that Eddowes murderer, who clearly left the apron, did not write the graffiti message. But the message as a standalone at that time and place makes little sense.


            Comment

            • Lewis C
              Inspector
              • Dec 2022
              • 1409

              #7
              Originally posted by Patrick Differ View Post
              I found this to be an interesting read and thought it might be worth further exploration. This is on the Wiki under Dissertations. I wanted to sight Paragraph 7.

              A Further source online is " Policing the Ghetto- Jewish East End 1880 to 1920" by David Englander.

              " If the Ripper had really sought to blame the Jews for his crimes, why would he choose such an insignificant place for that purpose? Better by far to leave such a condemnation at the scene of one of his crimes, where the impact could have been far greater..."
              He wanted to get away from the scene of the crime to reduce the chance of being caught. I'm not sure the impact would have been that much greater anyway.

              Comment

              • Wickerman
                Commissioner
                • Oct 2008
                • 15072

                #8
                Originally posted by Patrick Differ View Post
                . . .
                You can say that Eddowes murderer, who clearly left the apron, did not write the graffiti message. But the message as a standalone at that time and place makes little sense.
                We know from modern examples, when the graffiti artist has a message to offer, political, racist, or otherwise, they almost always write it big and bold so as to be seen from across the street.
                This scribble was more akin to a whisper than an in-your-face message intended to cause social unrest.

                Jews have traditionally suffered social injustice for centuries, juvenile scribble like this is nothing to raise the emotions of Jewish people, they are used to far worse.
                Warren may have wrongly believed the words would cause a riot, we can't judge the writing based on Warren's perception.
                Regards, Jon S.

                Comment

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