Originally posted by Jonathan H
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To Trevor
Yes, that is one way of looking at it, but it is not the only way -- and arguably not the strongest argument either.
The head of CID at the time and the operational head of the case both, arguably, backed a suspect who was completely plausible: local, mad and obscure, as opposed to exotic, a V.I.P. or a candidate for a real life Dorian Gray or Dr Henry Jekyll.
That other significant police figures did not agree is because, arguably, they did not know about Aaron Kosminski, or 'Kosminski', because he was strongly suspected only after he was incarcerated -- which the first version of Anderson's memoirs can be interpreted as meaning. That the Polish Jew suspect was not known about in 1888, at all, hence the ignorance of Smith, Abberline, Reid, et. al.
Well this is where the viablity of Kosminki goes out of the window.
If he was looked on in the true light of being a suspect in 1889. Then there was and is no more evidence against him than there is against any of the other hundreds of persons who came to the notice of the police during the autumn of terror. those that walked into police station to confess they were the ripper those who names were put forward by members of the public.
I am sure that if the CID register equivelant to The Spccial Branch Register were still around today that would confirm that and if that be the case would we be saying that all of them were the ripper.
The fact is that there is nothing at all to connect Kosminski to the Whitechapel murders other than what was "Supposedly" written and that as evidence is not worth the paper that "whoever" wrote it is written on.
That Macnaghten, who did know about 'Kosminski', pushed -- hard and publicly --for an alternate and oppositional suspect; a real life gentleman-monster, can be explained by a long-standing, personal antipathy between Anderson and himself, and an overweening, even adolescent need, on Mac's part to solve the case himself -- to not be 'six months too late' for the most sensational nurder mystery of the century.
The marginalia is, arguably, a terrific primary source because Swanson did not have to please, or over-reach, or deceive, or cover for anybody; it was written entirely for himself and is therefore reliable.
Yes, there are large errors in both sources, but that can be explained by both the distance of time, and the acute frustration of both officers finding the murderer already 'safely caged' from them.
Yes, that is one way of looking at it, but it is not the only way -- and arguably not the strongest argument either.
The head of CID at the time and the operational head of the case both, arguably, backed a suspect who was completely plausible: local, mad and obscure, as opposed to exotic, a V.I.P. or a candidate for a real life Dorian Gray or Dr Henry Jekyll.
That other significant police figures did not agree is because, arguably, they did not know about Aaron Kosminski, or 'Kosminski', because he was strongly suspected only after he was incarcerated -- which the first version of Anderson's memoirs can be interpreted as meaning. That the Polish Jew suspect was not known about in 1888, at all, hence the ignorance of Smith, Abberline, Reid, et. al.
Well this is where the viablity of Kosminki goes out of the window.
If he was looked on in the true light of being a suspect in 1889. Then there was and is no more evidence against him than there is against any of the other hundreds of persons who came to the notice of the police during the autumn of terror. those that walked into police station to confess they were the ripper those who names were put forward by members of the public.
I am sure that if the CID register equivelant to The Spccial Branch Register were still around today that would confirm that and if that be the case would we be saying that all of them were the ripper.
The fact is that there is nothing at all to connect Kosminski to the Whitechapel murders other than what was "Supposedly" written and that as evidence is not worth the paper that "whoever" wrote it is written on.
That Macnaghten, who did know about 'Kosminski', pushed -- hard and publicly --for an alternate and oppositional suspect; a real life gentleman-monster, can be explained by a long-standing, personal antipathy between Anderson and himself, and an overweening, even adolescent need, on Mac's part to solve the case himself -- to not be 'six months too late' for the most sensational nurder mystery of the century.
The marginalia is, arguably, a terrific primary source because Swanson did not have to please, or over-reach, or deceive, or cover for anybody; it was written entirely for himself and is therefore reliable.
Yes, there are large errors in both sources, but that can be explained by both the distance of time, and the acute frustration of both officers finding the murderer already 'safely caged' from them.
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