The insane medical student - a police theory from 1894

[The Good Michael]

Rob,

There are many jobs in a hospital that have nothing to do with medicine. Kosminski could have been involved in anything. Imagine a young kid involved in clean-up after 19th century surgery.

Cheers,

Mike

[robhouse]

It seems that we have a conundrum here. This is getting more and more confusing (to me anyway)... seems like we have a big puzzle in any case, so I thought I would add a few more pieces.

Obviously, I think it is possible that these reports have something to do with Aaron Kozminski... in any case, I am now confused since these two "separate" suspects (doppelgangers) seem to share many traits, but in other ways are irreconcilable. This is very interesting stuff anyway, so lets try to figure it out!

I will just add a few pieces to the mix:

July 29, 1890, in the Galveston Daily News (Texas USA)

JACK THE RIPPER’S VACATION
A Possible Explanation of the Suspension of Whitechapel Horrors

Halifax, N.S. July 28.

A curious story has got out here that if true explains the long rest which Jack the Ripper has been taking from his diabolical work in the Whitechapel district, London. A lady from this city visiting a distinguished official in London, states in a letter written to friends here that the Ripper has been under arrest in the London metropolis for some time. He is a medical student and was arrested on the strength of information given by his own sister.

The authorities, the letter states, have kept the matter a strict secret in order to work up the case against the prisoner, and they are said to have a very complete chain of evidence.

These statements are vouched for by the writer of the letter who came into possession of the facts accidentally. The person who makes the story public, however, refuses to divulge her name

This article has always been of interest to me, since I suspected it may have had to do with Kozminski. The line he "was arrested on the strength of information given by his own sister" is interesting, as is the date of the article since it appeared just 16 days after Aaron’s first admission to Mile End Old Town Workhouse... in other words, arguably around the time of the identification and police surveillance.

However, obviously we also have the "medical student" aspect, and I am wondering if this is the earliest report that mentions the medical student theory?? I am wondering also if this may have planted the seed for the later "medical student" stories, which perhaps evolved over time, to include other elements, as seen in the Forbes Winslow accounts, etc.

We also have Sims statement, which clearly refers to Aaron Kozminski, since it is derived from Macnaghten etc:

"The first man was a Polish Jew of curious habits and strange disposition, who was the sole occupant of certain premises in Whitechapel after night-fall. This man was in the district during the whole period covered by the Whitechapel murders, and soon after they ceased certain facts came to light which showed that it was quite possible that he might have been the Ripper. He had at one time been employed in a hospital in Poland. He was known to be a lunatic at the time of the murders, and some-time afterwards he betrayed such undoubted signs of homicidal mania that he was sent to a lunatic asylum." - Lloyds Weekly News on September 22 1907


It is of course unknown if Aaron Kozminski was employed in a hospital in Poland... it certainly seems like it is possible, but there is no evidence of this apart from the above statement. Indeed, the Klodawa Book of Residents (undated entry) gives Aaron Kozminski's profession as "tailor". Presumably, and naturally, Aaron would have learned the trade from his father along with his two brothers Woolf and Isaac. Of course, it does not appear that Aaron kept up with this since he was later listed as a "hairdresser."

So IF, and its a big if.... If Kozminski was "employed in a hospital in Poland," presumably it was after being employed as a tailor, and probably after the death of Aaron's father in 1874... in other words, between the ages of 8 and 15... which seems plausible. But again, there is no evidence of this.

Still, it is interesting to me given the statement "He was a lunatic, and learnt the butchering trade in his father's shop, had become a medical student on his father's death"... would be interesting if instead of "the butchering trade," it said "the tailoring trade."

You are doing a great job, Chris, as usual in finding these things, and posting them for consideration. I have a feeling there is something important behind all this. But at this point, I have only questions... no answers.

Rob H

[Chris]

Curiously there is a report in the press section concerning an insane medical student, committed to a private asylum and suspected by the police, who are even said to have regarded the clues pointing to his guilt as "the best they have had all along". If one takes the report seriously, this may conceivably be the same person referred to in the reports from 1894.

The "severe disappointment" suffered by the police - when they discovered that he was already in the asylum at the time of "this latest murder" - won't disturb modern theorists too much, as it obviously refers to the murder of Alice Mackenzie, whose wounds Phillips did indeed describe as different from those of the earlier victims (though I haven't managed to find a public statement by him to that effect before the date of this report).

The police have just had a severe disappointment, says a London correspondent, in connection with their search for the Whitechapel murderer. They received information of a man exactly answering the description of the person they are looking for. He was a lunatic, and learnt the butchering trade in his father's shop, had become a medical student on his father's death, had absented himself from home frequently at nights without giving any explanation of where he had been, and had written an extraordinary series of letters to the rector of his parish, which parish was in direct communication by a straight line of tram-rails with the very circle within which all the diabolical crimes have been perpetrated. Those letters indicated clearly that the writer was a lewd-minded lunatic, such as the murderer must be, and there occurred in them such ominous and coincidental expressions as threats to "rip up" both his mother and the rector. In fact, every conceivable circumstance about him exactly fitted in with a rational theory of the crimes with him as the chief actor in them, until one discovery upset the entire superstructure. He was at liberty during the whole of the murders except the last of all, when he was safe under lock and key in a private asylum. Until that false link in the chain was found the police certainly regarded the clues as the best they have had all along. Of course, there yet remains the contingency that this latest murder was the work of a fresh assassin, and Dr. Phillips inclines to that opinion from the nature of the mutilations.
Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian, 10 August 1889
http://www.casebook.org/press_report...n/w890810.html

[robhouse]

Sorry... OK, I have read it now.

RH

[robhouse]

Interesting, among other things that Winslow is said to have been raised in a "private asylum", and took over proprietorship of one for a while... I am not suggesting this has any bearing on the "private asylum" remarks..

Also, there is this from the following page here on casebook:
http://www.casebook.org/suspects/lodger.html

"When the English press picked up the story Scotland Yard dispatched Chief Inspector Swanson to interview Forbes Winslow who immediately began to back-peddle. He said the story printed in the paper was not accurate and misrepresented the entire conversation between himself and the reporter. He claimed the reporter had tricked him into talking about the case. In truth, Forbes Winslow had never given any information to the police with the exception of an earlier theory of his involving an escaped lunatic. A theory which even Forbes Winslow had abandoned. He showed the boots to Swanson and they turned out to be canvas topped boots the tops of which were moth eaten and the molt of the moth still adhering to the tops. No bloodstains."

I don't have my books with me... is there a police record of this interview with Winslow? I am assuming it happened in 1889?

Rob H

[Chris]

Abberline

It's possible that some of Abberline's comments, published in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1903, refer to this theory.

In the first Pall Mall Gazette article, of 24 March 1903, Abberline is quoted as saying:
"... you must understand that we have never believed all those stories about Jack the Ripper being dead, or that he was a lunatic, or anything of that kind."
http://www.casebook.org/press_report.../19030324.html

That could indeed refer to Druitt and Kozminski respectively. But in the second article, a week later, there is a specific denial that the murderer was known to have died in a lunatic asylum:
""I know," continued the well-known detective, "that it has been stated in several quarters that 'Jack the Ripper' was a man who died in a lunatic asylum a few years ago, but there is nothing at all of a tangible nature to support such a theory."
http://www.casebook.org/press_report.../19030331.html

The report goes on to say that Abberline's attention was drawn to a statement in a well known Sunday paper. This refers to an article by George Sims in the Referee of 29 March 1903. Sims had written, obviously with reference to Druitt:
"It is perfectly well known at Scotland Yard who "Jack" was, and the reasons for the police conclusions were given in the report to the Home Office, which was considered by the authorities to be final and conclusive.
...
The genuine "Jack" was a doctor. His body was found in the Thames on December 31, 1888."
http://www.casebook.org/press_reports/dagonet.html

To add to the confusion, in the Pall Mall Gazette this becomes "... it was made out that the author was a young medical student who was found drowned in the Thames" and Abberline is quoted as referring to this suspect initially as "a young doctor" and then as "the student".

[Chris]

Forbes Winslow

During the late 1890s the indefatigable Forbes Winslow seems to have adopted some elements of the 1894 story when retailing his claim to have identified the Ripper in 1889.

In a report of an interview with Winslow in the New York Times of 1 September 1895, his suspect - whose original business was to raise money for the Toronto Trust [or Truss?] Society, and who had originally disappeared without trace - has become "a medical student, of good family", who was subsequently "removed to a lunatic asylum" (referred to at the head of the article as a "county lunatic asylum"). In this version, the man is still alive, but Winslow insists that his guilt has been officially recognised:
"These facts are all known to the English authorities, and it is conceeded [sic] that the man now in the asylum is 'Jack the Ripper.' It was deemed desirable, however, to hush the matter up. The details were too horrible to be made the subject of a public trial, and there was no doubht [sic] of the man's hopeless insanity."
http://www.casebook.org/press_report...nyt950901.html

According to later reports of Winslow's theory in New Zealand newspapers in 1898 the suspect "died some months since", and by that time the asylum is identified as Broadmoor.
(Marlborough Express, 3 June 1898:
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi...EX18980603.2.2
Timaru Herald, 7 June 1898:
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi...D18980607.2.26)

Later still, Winslow dropped this aspect of the story, flatly contradicting his earlier pronouncements:
"'It has been stated that 'Jack the Ripper' was confined in a Government lunatic asylum. But in that case he would have been brought to trial. A criminal, though mad, must take his place in the dock."
(Grey River Argus, 14 July 1905
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi...RA19050714.2.2)

By the time he came to write his memoirs in 1910, Winslow seems to have decided to have his cake and eat it. The story of his own suspect reverts to something close to its original form, but he claims that the insane medical student was a man the police mistook for that suspect:
"Several months after the publication of my discoveries a young man was arrested for attempted suicide, and when examined by the police surgeon was proved to be hopelessly insane. He was committed to a Government asylum.
...
a theory started that the mysterious lodger, Jack the Ripper, and the unfortunate inmate of the asylum were one and the same man. This man was found to come of a well-to-do and respectable family, and evinced considerable ability in his college career. His speciality was anatomy, and he studied so hard that his mind, never very strong, gave way under the strain. Always of a religious turn of mind, he became afflicted with religious mania. But it was found that he was not Jack the Ripper."
http://www.casebook.org/ripper_media/rps.winslow.html

Perhaps Winslow has incorporated something of Druitt's story here as well, with his reference to a young man being arrested for attempted suicide.

[Chris]

Other "private asylum" stories

Regarding other possible connections, it's interesting to compare the language of these reports with that of the 1892 Daily Telegraph article that I posted the other day - http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=3904 - and also with the report of Robert Sagar's opinion after his death.

1892:
"The Whitechapel murderer, in their belief, is at the present moment confined in a private lunatic asylum, to which he was removed as soon as his madness, no longer amenable to control, was apparent to his friends."

1894:
"His friends at last discovered the horrible truth, and had him confined in a private asylum."

Sagar:
"It was Mr Sagar's view that the murders were committed by an insane man employed at Butcher's Row, Aldgate, who was subsequently placed by his friends in a private asylum."

It is difficult to reconcile the description of the 1894 suspect as a medical student with the statement that Sagar's suspect was employed in Butcher's Row, though. And the implication of the 1894 reports seems to be that the evidence of the suspect's guilt emerged only after his death around 1893, which casts doubt on whether he could be the same man who was suspected early the previous year, and stated then to be still alive.

[DVV]

Hi Chris,

I don't know whether he can help you or not, but he really is a courteous and pleasant person.

Amitiés,
David

[Chris]

As much as the press was prone to publish hearsay and get facts mixed up, don't you think it's possible that this story is a combination of Kosminski and Druitt?

I have seen Druitt referred to as a doctor, and since he was a teacher, could easily be mistaken by the press as a student, or "medical student". and supposedly, according to McNaghton, his family ("friends") suspected him. Kosminski was also apparently suspected or protected by family and/or friends and was committed to an asylum.

I suppose anything's possible, but as neither Druitt nor Kozminski was a medical student, or was committed to a private asylum, or died around 1893, it doesn't seem very likely to me.

how easy/hard would it be to check the asylum records of the time to find out if a medical student was admitted and later died?

I can't think of any easy way of doing this.

As far as I know the existing census indexes are searchable by either relationship to head of household or occupation but not both, so it wouldn't be possible to search for "inmates" who were also "medical students", for example. And, in any case, occupations often weren't included in census returns for asylums.

Equally, as far as I know there are no central records of people committed to asylums which specify their occupations, and I would think many - probably most - private asylum records have not survived.

[Chris]

In which case I would suggest Bailey.
Truly a nice guy, although he doesn't post enough and doesn't care about rugby.

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't actually thought of trying to press-gang someone into it, but I'l drop him a private message to see if it would interest him.

[Pontius2000]

As much as the press was prone to publish hearsay and get facts mixed up, don't you think it's possible that this story is a combination of Kosminski and Druitt?

I have seen Druitt referred to as a doctor, and since he was a teacher, could easily be mistaken by the press as a student, or "medical student". and supposedly, according to McNaghton, his family ("friends") suspected him. Kosminski was also apparently suspected or protected by family and/or friends and was committed to an asylum.

seems likely that this is just another case of the press getting their facts mixed up.

how easy/hard would it be to check the asylum records of the time to find out if a medical student was admitted and later died?

[DVV]

In which case I would suggest Bailey.
Truly a nice guy, although he doesn't post enough and doesn't care about rugby.

Amitiés,
David

[Chris]

could it be the "Evening Standard" ?

At a guess, it's probably the Evening Star of Dunedin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evening_Star_(Dunedin)

Unfortunately, that's held by the British Library only from 1903 onwards, so a collaborator from New Zealand would probably be needed to follow the paper-chase further.

[DVV]

Hi Chris,

could it be the "Evening Standard" ?

Amitiés,
David