Leather Apron and Julius Lipman

[Mike Covell]

The Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle, Saturday October 20th 1900.

Not Jack the Ripper
A man named Julius Lipman has just died in the East End of drink, neglect and starvation. He was a cobbler by trade, and was known as “Leather Apron.” He fell under the suspicion of being Jack the Ripper, and although he completely proved his innocence the stigma never quite left him, and his business dwindled away.
Lipman was peculiarly unfortunate in the matter. “Leather Apron” as a possible Jack the Ripper was invented by an imaginative journalist on a sensational paper. He did not suspect for a moment that there was a real man in the district known by that name.

[perrymason]

The Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle, Saturday October 20th 1900.

Not Jack the Ripper
A man named Julius Lipman has just died in the East End of drink, neglect and starvation. He was a cobbler by trade, and was known as “Leather Apron.” He fell under the suspicion of being Jack the Ripper, and although he completely proved his innocence the stigma never quite left him, and his business dwindled away.
Lipman was peculiarly unfortunate in the matter. “Leather Apron” as a possible Jack the Ripper was invented by an imaginative journalist on a sensational paper. He did not suspect for a moment that there was a real man in the district known by that name.

Thats an interesting bit Mike and seems to corroborate Pizer when he stated that he had never heard of himself being called that by anyone, nor did his family ever hear that name being applied to him.

Its an article that suggests what Ive already assumed....Pizer wasnt Leather Apron.

Best regards Mike

[Phil Carter]

Hello all,
Well done Mike!!
Dare I say this?... Lipman.. pretty near the word Lipski...what?

best wishes

Phil

[Mike Covell]

It appears as though Leather Apron's are like Hull Buses, you wait ages for one, then loads turn up!

This is from the Illustrated Police News, Saturday October 6th 1888.

[Chris]

For more on the mysterious Julius Lipman, see Chris Scott's "Jack the Ripper: A Cast of Thousands":

http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/book_reviews/non-fiction/castofthousands.julius-lippman.html

[Mike Covell]

I found one from the Belfast News Letter, dated Friday October 12th 1888 describing an Irish Leather Apron, and another report from Reynolds Newspaper dated Sunday October 21st, 1888, however, both were too large in file size to publish.

[Mike Covell]

For more on the mysterious Julius Lipman, see Chris Scott's "Jack the Ripper: A Cast of Thousands":
http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media...s-lippman.html

Cheers Chris, I found a fair few on James Brame but noticed he was also named in Chris Scott's book, so ignored them.

[tnb]

Does anyone know if Isenchmidt was ever alleged to have been known as 'leather apron' while he was under suspicion? It seems that it didn't need to be proveable that you HAD*ever been known by the sobriquet, simply that you conceivably COULD*have, , by dint of wearing such a garment for your occupation. Which potentially our 'mad pork butcher' may have?

Also, what kind of light does this throw on the testimony of the women who gave the police the original story about a man 'known as leather apron' mistreating prostitutes in the district? Seeing as the more digging we do the less 'exclusive' a nickname it appears to be, do we still think the story to be accurate, or was it, at best, embellished with a few uncheckable details, for whatever reason?

The popular line (that I have heard, at least) always seems to have been that the enquiry moved away from 'leather apron' once the police realised Pizer was not the killer, which of course assumes they believed him to be not just A 'leather apron' but THE*'leather apron'; but not the Whitechapel murderer. Could it be alternatively that they actually came to believe Pizer's inquest testimony and realised they had been strung a tale, and that searching for every potential leather apron wearing man in a district full of butchers, shoemakers etc was a fruitless task? Because for one reason or another the whole 'leather apron' hunt seems to drop from the case altogether as quickly as it appeared, and not just in the press - captivated by the new 'Jack the Ripper' monicker - but also from between the lines of police activities?

Or did it? Alternatively, do we think that beneath the stalking horse of looking for 'Jack' the letter writer the police were still interested in tracking down the correct 'leather apron'? Could this perhaps explain the Butcher's Row suspect?

I am personally not a 'letters man' (by which I mean I doubt the validity of the majority if not all such) but IF we are to believe for example that the sept 21st letter (correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't rechecked) that first gave the now famous name WAS genuine, AND the killer was actually, at least occasionally, known as 'leather apron', you'd have to say the way he managed to switch focus in the case was pretty clever wasn't it?

[smiffy]

For more on the mysterious Julius Lipman, see Chris Scott's "Jack the Ripper: A Cast of Thousands":
http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media...s-lippman.html

On checking the 1901 census, Julius seems to be very much alive, and living with his family at 75 Berkeley St. Cheetham, Manchester.

Julius Lipman age 36 Slipper Maker born Russia
Esther Lipman age 34 born Russia
Marcus Lipman age 13 born Sunderland
Jacob Lipman age 12 born Newcastle
Harry Lipman age 7 born Sunderland

RG13/3770 f114 p57

[PaulWilliams]

The Julius Lipman in the census returns was a slipper maker from the North of England.

The man referred to in the press reports as dying in 1900 was a cobbler who, according to those reports, had been accused of being Leather Apron in 1889 (presumably 1888 was meant).

He satisfied the Police of his innocence but the stigma never left him and his business collapsed. The North Eastern Daily Gazette (18 October 1900, p4) comments that he went to another district. This suggests that he was a different person to the man found in the census,

[Tom_Wescott]

By 1901, a Barney Lipman was deputy of many lodging houses around Dorset Street, including number 35, where Timothy Donovan claimed to have known Leather Apron and thrown him out. But I don't know that Lipman was involved with the Crossinghams and McCarthy's in 1888.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Simon the Whitmore]

I find it difficult to accept Julius Lipman being anything other than a victim of the times and suffered because of it, losing his dignity and his business due to naive ideals and ridiculous thick-headedness. Are we now to believe that the man responsible for those determined and calculating murders, a man who was always one step ahead of the police and the WVC, a killer so absorbed in his act he would remove the victims' entrails and carefully arrange them, to suddenly stop his debauched ways and slip into bankruptcy, depression and finally obscurity - only to be bandied about as a tenuous suspect of three murders (no way did Jack kill Liz Stride or MJK) because he owned an apron?

Sorry