hot potato

[rjpalmer]

Hi Simon

I'll light a fire under my backside.

Let me just suggest, for the time being, that I strongly suspect that James Monro's private review of The Lighter Side of My Official Life was not as favorable as Swanson's, but the marginalia would have made for far juicier reading. My belief is that Monro's memoranda existed and it was in response to certain impressions left by Robert Anderson.

If I may ask, has anyone ever responded to your observation about the penciled inscription "from Fred" in Swanson's copy of TLSOMFO? (Deconstructing Jack, p. 199) I haven't seen anyone mention it.

Cheers. RP

[Simon Wood]

Hi RJ,

Thanks for asking.

Nada. Not a post, not an email, not a letter, not even a semaphore flash.

Nor any reaction to my pointing out SRA's various porkies in TLSOMOL.

I plough a lonely furrow.

Regards,

Simon

[packers stem]

Kosminsky literature appears at regular intervals ....... table runners a little less frequently
Very apt as Kosminsky was a literary character in a popular 1892 work of fiction depicting the life of poor east enders.
Had the marginalia read "Fagin was his name....." the roars of incredulity would have been deafening

[c.d.]

I plough a lonely furrow.

Sad but somehow erotic. Go figure.

c.d.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

I plough a lonely furrow.

Sad but somehow erotic. Go figure.

c.d.

Quarantines got that effect on a guy.

[Scott Nelson]

Hi Simon, Roger

I seem to recall it was suggested that "Fred" was Frederick Wensley.

Hope you're all staying safe as well.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Scott,

You might be onto something.

The Aberdeen Journal, 5th December 1949, awarded Fred Wensley the ultimate posthumous accolade—

“It is said he was the only living person who knew the identity of Jack the Ripper.”

Stay well.

Simon

[Scott Nelson]

Kosminsky literature appears at regular intervals ....... table runners a little less frequently
Very apt as Kosminsky was a literary character in a popular 1892 work of fiction depicting the life of poor east enders.
Had the marginalia read "Fagin was his name....." the roars of incredulity would have been deafening

Israel Zangwill's book featuring Kosminsky was likely a result of Zangwill's childhood living in Ebenezer Square, Aldgate (near what was later Stoney Lane) where a Jacob Koski family lived. Speculation: Koski was shortened from Kosminski.

Jacob Koski and family later moved to 2 Hutchinson Street, next door to the butcher (and Mitre Square witness) Joseph Hyam Levy.

[packers stem]

Israel Zangwill's book featuring Kosminsky was likely a result of Zangwill's childhood living in Ebenezer Square, Aldgate (near what was later Stoney Lane) where a Jacob Koski family lived. Speculation: Koski was shortened from Kosminski.

Jacob Koski and family later moved to 2 Hutchinson Street, next door to the butcher (and Mitre Square witness) Joseph Hyam Levy.

That's not shortening , it's lengthening

Bit of a stretch that......

[S.Brett]

Israel Zangwill's book featuring Kosminsky was likely a result of Zangwill's childhood living in Ebenezer Square, Aldgate (near what was later Stoney Lane) where a Jacob Koski family lived. Speculation: Koski was shortened from Kosminski.

Jacob Koski and family later moved to 2 Hutchinson Street, next door to the butcher (and Mitre Square witness) Joseph Hyam Levy.

Hi Scott!

Maybe Koski was shortened from Kothsolkowski.

Karsten.

[NotBlamedForNothing]

That's not shortening , it's lengthening

Bit of a stretch that......

That's what she said

[rjpalmer]

Hi Scott,

You might be onto something.

The Aberdeen Journal, 5th December 1949, awarded Fred Wensley the ultimate posthumous accolade—

“It is said he was the only living person who knew the identity of Jack the Ripper.”

Stay well.

Simon

Another complication: Wensley considered Francis Coles a Ripper victim, which is hard to reconcile with...just about anything...let alone Cohen, Kosminski, or Druitt...

Still, I don't think we can allow a Wensley to bother our sleep in the same way as a Swanson or an Abberline…

If you take all the police opinions and piece them together you initially end up with something akin to a duckbill platypus painted by a drunken Picasso during his cubist period.

[Simon Wood]

Hi RJ,

Yours is without doubt the best ever description of the collective recollection of the Metropolitan Police regarding the identity of the Whitechapel murderer.

The sooner we all agree that the LVP police were, by agreement, talking bollocks about Jacky Boy, the happier and more contented our lives will be.

Stay well.

Simon

[Scott Nelson]

Perhaps the most telling recollection of all is rarely commented on:

"Now we have Sir Robert Anderson saying that 'Jack the Ripper' was a Jew. That I challenge him to prove; and, what is more, it was never suggested at the time of the murders. ..... The number of descriptions that have been given of 'Jack the Ripper' are truly astonishing, but I challenge anyone to prove that there was a tittle of evidence against any man, woman or child in connexion with the murders, as no man was ever seen in the company of the women who were found dead."

--Edmund Reid Morning Advertiser 23 April 1910

Here we have an ex-Metropolitan Detective Inspector openly challenging his former superior about the Ripper's identity. Its not a nebulous attempt to befuddle the issue -- it's a blunt statement contradicting Anderson's belief.

[John Malcolm]

Perhaps the most telling recollection of all is rarely commented on:

"Now we have Sir Robert Anderson saying that 'Jack the Ripper' was a Jew. That I challenge him to prove; and, what is more, it was never suggested at the time of the murders. ..... The number of descriptions that have been given of 'Jack the Ripper' are truly astonishing, but I challenge anyone to prove that there was a tittle of evidence against any man, woman or child in connexion with the murders, as no man was ever seen in the company of the women who were found dead."

--Edmund Reid Morning Advertiser 23 April 1910

Here we have an ex-Metropolitan Detective Inspector openly challenging his former superior about the Ripper's identity. Its not a nebulous attempt to befuddle the issue -- it's a blunt statement contradicting Anderson's belief.

I should have included this in ...Another Dead End? Because I do have a reply to this, as well as other criticisms of Anderson that were not included in the first edition. In short, this is just another policeman pissed off at Anderson for saying what he said. "...it was never suggested at the time of the murders."? Really? Bitterness towards Anderson (H. Smith, et al) is justified, in my opinion, but "challenging him to prove" what he said is clearly a safe and hollow statement that needed no reply. Could Reid have been so obviously oblivious to the Macnaghten memoranda, or maybe his memory had failed him, yes? One other famous criticism used, found in H.L. Adam's Behind the Scenes at Scotland Yard relating to Anderson's "failing memory" is also overblown and deserves addressing. And I'm currently also tackling Simon Wood's Anderson obsession in Deconstructing Jack.

I do appreciate the challenges Scott, keep them coming. I don't have an answer for everything, but I'll continue fighting the current until something more substantial comes along that might change my mind. When that happens, I'll admit defeat and disappear into the ether with my tail between my legs. Until then...