the Goulston St Graffiti

[mariab]

Scott Nelson:
Does this mean you won't be sleeping in a doss house?
I once slept at a doss house-like student hostel in the outskirts of Rome, I think it cost 3-€/night. One had to climb tiny metal stairs to the beds, which had matresses wrapped in thick plastic, which made so much noise it woked one up even if one moved a tiny bit. It also had a little pond under some olive trees where I swam at night when I arrived, and a cat came to see me, and sat at the edge of the water. The place is called Oikos.

[mariab]

Fish, is this Catherine Lane or Elizabeth Tanner speaking? I can't look it up tonight, I'm a bit ill. I'll check it out in a few days.
PS.: How did we get from a GSG thread to Stride? I'm the ultimate thread highjacker.

[DVV]

David:

"No matter the day we are looking at ?"

Maria and I were discussing KILLING days, David!

The best,
Fisherman

You're right.

I'm left.

She's gone.

[mariab]

DVV wrote:
You're right.
I'm left.
She's gone.
What's that, a reference to a song or something?

[Fisherman]

David:

"You're right.

I'm left.

She's gone."

Journalists like me have a soft spot for things like these. Thanks for the elegance, David!

The best,
Fisherman

[DVV]

You're most welcome, Fish !

[Fisherman]

Maria:

"...is this Catherine Lane or Elizabeth Tanner speaking?"

It´s Lane - I should have added that.

The best,
Fisherman

[mariab]

Thanks, Fish, I'll look it up in the next days.

[mariab]

“The Juwes are the men that won't be blamed for nothing.“
I've just realized something (probably completely insignificant):This is a verse!
It can be understood both as an aléxandrin or as an iambic 15 syllabe verse, (but definitely too long for a Shakespearean pentameter). The only explanation I come up for this is Professor Higgins' (Rex Harrison's) observation of a natural rhetoric in Cockney English as displayed by Eliza Doolittle's father in My fair lady. (Such thoughts are meant to happen if you introduce an opera specialist to Ripperology...)

[harry]

I do not see a reason for wanting to place the blame for the murder on the Jews.If,as I suspect,and there is good reason for such,the murderer of Eddowes was the person seen by Lawende,how would the murderer know what kind of person(nationality wise),would Lawende and companions communicate to the authorities.That is,if they came forward,a circumstance the killer would not have been aware of at the time he discarded the apron piece.
This is where an appraisal of the various suspects needs to be taken into consideration.Would Kosminski for example,have brought attention on the Jews,and for what reason?Thats supposing in the first place,he could express himself ,in English,in the manner in which the words were written.

[Rubyretro]

I have to disagree, Harry :

Since the Police and Public had already been looking for a Jewish suspect in Leather Apron, then JtR might have enjoyed throwing continuing suspicion in this direction and away from himself, if he were a Gentile.

He might have been very racist to boot.

Imagine that there is a series of muggings in London, and word is going round (egged on by the Daily Mail) that it's a West Indian to blame -wouldn't it make sense to a nasty white rascist thief to mug someone near a Reggae Club and leave a clue in a building mainly inhabited by West Indian immigrants ?

The fact that Mitre Square was in proximity to a Synagogue and the night was a Jewish Club night is enough, even if Lawende didn't exist.

Furthermore, there is no proof that Lawende ever saw JtR and Eddowes : he saw a couple, in the dark, for less than a minute and, due to the close timing, went to the morgue surely with the idea that the woman was the same one that he'd seen. He hadn't seen the couple walking down the passage, and the woman that he'd seen had her hand on the man's chest -not pulling him close.

He only identified the woman by her clothes..yet women must have had far more uniform clothes than today, and he couldn't have registered colours and patterns very well in the circumstances.

I don't know how JtR could have got Eddowes across the Square so silently despite the nightwatchman being awake with the door ajar, nor why he wouldn't have murdered her as quickly as possible once off the street.

I think that it's 50/50 that he didn't come in from the other side of the Square
-and it still makes sense that he wanted to cast 'the blame' on the Jewish community.

[harry]

Ruby,
Your example would not fit the information.To suggest a Jamaican involvement,then a Jamaican would have to have been seen,or thought to have been involved in an earlier murder.
In the Ripper crimes,the only person,the one seen by Long,thought to be connected to a former victim,was not identified or described as Jewish,and this was the only information that Eddowes killer would be aware of.
The question of whether either the person seen by Long,or the one seen by Lawende was the killer,is open to opinion,neither can reasonably be discarded.

[Lechmere]

A ‘door jam’ with black painted dado rail. I believe the Goulston Street entrance would have been very like this. Gloss black paint over the brickwork up to a height of about four feet. It would readily ‘take’ chalk.
This should assist in visualising roughly what the GSG with associated apron would have looked like.
This example is from Cressy Houses, Cressy Place in Stepney Green. This block was built in 1894. I used to live in this stairwell!

[The Grave Maurice]

Oh, very nice, Lechmere, thanks. But, wait a minute, you seem to know an awful lot about this aspect of the case....So, where exactly was your great grandfather during the early hours of 30 September 1888? Hah?

[Lechmere]

Having a pint in the Grave Maurice