Isenschmid(t) Records: Part 2

[YankeeSergeant]

Isenschmidt

Great photos and splendid research all! One question, why isn't ISenscmidt listed as a suspect/ is there compelling evidence that keeps his name off the list? Neil

[Lechmere]

I think Isenschmid is an interesting character in the Jack the Ripper saga, but not because I think he committed any of the murders e.g. why would he be in Bucks Row – quite a way from the Commerical Street area of which he may have had some experience.
I think Isenschmid’s significance is that as the police regarded him as their prime suspect and he seemed to fit the bill as Leather Apron, the investigation fixated on him until the double event, for which he obviously had a water tight alibi as he was in the Grove Hall Lunatic Asylum.
I think the police investigation was thrown completely off and skewed by the Isenschmid fixation and then they couldn’t cope with the hysteria following the double event.
It is also interesting that the police couldn’t over rule the doctor who wouldn’t let them question or ID Isenschmid. If this had happened promptly then the police could have got their investigation back on track. In that period I would have not imagined that the well being of a ‘lunatic’ would override the requirements of the police.
There has previously been some dispute as to whether the Grove Hall Lunatic Asylum was the same as the Fairfield Road Asylum. However it is clear that the Bow Infirmary Asylum, Fairfield Road is just a colloquial way of referring to the Grove Hall Lunatic Asylum. Grove Hall being just off Fairfield Road, in Bow.
Bow Bus Garage occupies the front garden of the Asylum. A side garden is now Grove Hall Park. The main building lay across what is now Wrexham Road, and a couple of other streets of Edwardian houses. Grove Hall being demolished in 1909.
I used to live in Wrexham Road and my house must have been built slap bang on top of the foundations (although I only realised this recently). Here’s a snowy picture of Wrexham Road today (looking west towards Fairfield Road). The building was at right angles to the road, roughly I think on the line of the cream coloured houses.

[Scott Nelson]

Goodbye! Lynn

Hello

[Little Nell]

I'm quite sure there were lots of men with foreign accents in London in 1881.

[lynn cates]

Sugden

Hello Scott. I just checked Sugden again. The report from a month earlier was off by over an hour.

There is no basis for Sugden's equating these 2 incidents, except perhaps, point of view.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Lloyd's

Hello Scott. Actually, this is from Lloyd's, not the Daily Telegraph.

Cheers.
LC

[Scott Nelson]

The two exerpts above from the DailyTelegraph September 10th and the Times September 11th, would appear to be journalistic inventions that were later clarified by the deposition of Amelia Richardson on September 12th. The man in the passage wasn't spotted on the 8th of September, but actually a month earlier -- sleeping on the stairs by her tenant, Mrs. Thompson.

See Sugden's chapter, "The Man in the Passage and Other Chapman Murder Myths" for an effective analysis of this story.

[lynn cates]

origin

Hello All. As I stated above, this may provide a link to the man with the foreign accent.

Trying to seduce a prostitute, using shiny trinkets, luring her into 29 Hanbury st.
All this just a few hours before Annie Chapman's death.

Fascinating!

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

accent story

Hello All. We've all seen and heard the story about the man with the foreign accent. I have often wondered where it originated.

Perhaps the next post will provide a hint.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

arrest

Hello All. Here is the account of his arrest. Note the incorrect nationality.

This is the first account I've seen that hints at his change of wardrobe. The story is likely from Mrs. Isenschmid who had indicated that he had visited home and taken away some fresh clothes. The dates of his visits coincide with the dates of the slayings.

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

also

Hello Nell. Thank you for the kind words. He was very interesting to research.

Besides having access to knives, Isenschmid also seemed to carry one or two about with him. He also attacked his wife (and some of the children). He was caught in the act of strangling his wife. He also admitted to some of the local girls that he was Leather Apron. And, of course, he himself claimed to be in the east end procuring sheep's heads and organs. (Of course, one would have to cut deep to sever a sheep's head--down to the vertebrae. And when country butchers kill sheep, they disembowel them very carefully--without cutting through the colon, which would ruin the sheep.)

Interestingly, he matches the description of Mrs. Long, as well as Mrs. Fiddymont et al. But what I am most keen on is the fact that he kept a small piece of paper with trinkets in them. If only we could ascertain whether those trinkets included brass rings.

Cheers.
LC

[Little Nell]

Thank you Lynne and Chris for your research. I am interested primarily because Jacob Isenschmid's daughter Catherine was my gt grandfather Charles Williams's 2nd wife. (Hasten to point out I am descended from Charles and his first wife Ellen Purvey!)

Why was Jacob a suspect? Because he had access to knives, knowledge of butchery and threatened his wife. Well, that probably applied to hundreds if not thousands of Londoners.

My personal belief is that "Jack" was someone totally unnoticable or probably someone well known in the Whitechapel area and thought of as harmless. He wouldn't be a man going around making threats and behaving in a way to draw attention to himself.

I have an actual blood relative - Charles Williams' maternal uncle, William Mealing, who killed his fiancee in 1862 and spent the rest of his life in Broadmoor. I am doing my own family history research into criminal lunacy! and its quite staggering how many Broadmoor patients share the same delusions. But its very difficult to pin down exact diagnosis for each patient especially as much of what we know about mental illness has been acquired very recently.

[lynn cates]

diagnosis

Hello Roy and Phil. Thanks for the warm wishes.

I am indeed not sure what to make of his diagnosis. It looks like 2 incarcerations were of beyond 1 year. My impression is that GPI does not work like that.

I suppose I shall leave his exact difficulty to the experts, although I think Casebook has at least 2 posters--Silverstealth and Jeff Leahy--who might know a good deal about things psychological.

Cheers.
LC

[Phil Carter]

Hello Roy,

Indeed. Comparing the history of his condition upon admission each time, he was classed as a danger to others, and threatening in his behaviour.

best wishes

Phil

[Roy Corduroy]

Good luck with your further research efforts, Lynn.

The records show a man who was quite mad but responded to treatment each time. Compare his history of visits, each ending in successful discharge, to other patients, who, once commited were never released.

Roy