Plausibility of Kosminski

[kensei]

I remember years ago when I first started studying the Ripper case casually (before I really delved into it more deeply the past couple of years) having the impression that Kosminski being the Ripper was almost a done deal. He was the first suspect I had a strong feeling about. But having learned a lot more now, one thing seems to stand out. The Ripper was clearly not a predator that lurked in shadows waiting for his prey to pass by and then pounced on them, but one who approached his victims posing as a client, talking to them with some level of charm and convincing them to come away with him into dark and remote places. As the body count grew and the prostitutes would have become more and more cautious, he would have had to have seemed as non-threatening as possible. But Kosminski is described as having deteriorated mentally to such a low state that he roamed the streets eating garbage off of the ground. Does anyone else feel that there is no way that such a character could have posessed the appearance, charm, or even the mental capacity to put his victims at ease? I no longer feel there is any chance that he was Jack the Ripper.

[The Good Michael]

Kensei,

the deterioration of course happened, but evidence uncovered in some quite late newspaper articles show Kosminski to have been coherent and rational enough to appear in court for some charges brought up against him, and possibly even showing him making a bit of a mockery of the proceedings, and this was some time in 1889, if I recall correctly. One of the members here, I believe it was Chris, found these articles not too long ago, but of course the postings have been lost in the great crash of 2008. The idea of Kosminski being a bumbling loony who ate out of the gutters and had voices to guide him may be true, but certainly at a much later date than many earlier believed. I hope that thread gets reposted, as it is a real eye-opener.

Cheers,

Mike

[Jon-Erik]

There certainly seems to have been plenty of incorrect information about Kosminski circulating throughout the world of Ripper Research. For all we know Kosminski should never have been a suspect at all. Someone should gather all the correct info about him in one file and we can go from there.

[plang]

Hello fans. What I would like to see is evidence that Kosminski ever did really 'eat out of the gutter'. I've heard and read plenty of hearsay, but there is no evidence. Please direct me to the evidence.Sounds like a case for Myth Busters.
Sincerely,
Plang

[robhouse]

This is from the certificate written by Dr. Edmund King Houchin, on Kozminski's admission to Colney Hatch asylum Feb 7 1891:

In the matter of Aaron Kozminski of 16 Greenfield St Mile End E in the county of London Hair Dresser an alleged lunatic.

I, the undersigned Edmund King Houchin do hereby certify as follows ... 2. On the 6th day of February 1891 at the Mile End Old Town Workhouse in the county of London I personally examined the said Aaron Kozminski and came to the conclusion that he is a person of unsound mind and a proper person to be taken charge of and detained under care and treatment. 3. I formed this conclusion on the following grounds, viz.:- (a) Facts indicating insanity observed by myself at the time of examination, viz.:- He declares that he is guided & his movements altogether controlled by an instinct that informs his mind; he says that he knows the movements of all mankind; he refuses food from others because he is told to do so and eats out of the gutter for the same reason. (b) Facts communicated by others, viz.:- Jacob Cohen 51 Carter Lane St Pauls, City of London says that he goes about the streets and picks up bits of bread out of the gutter & eats them, he drinks water from the tap & he refuses food at the hands of others. He took up a knife & threatened the life of his sister. He says that he is ill and his cure consists in refusing food. He is melancholic, practises self-abuse. He is very dirty and will not be washed. He has not attempted any kind of work for years. 4. The said Aaron Kozminski appeared to me to be in a fit condition of bodily health to be removed to an asylum, hospital or licensed house

E. K. Houchin of 23 High St Stepney
Feb 6th 1891

[plang]

Thank you for that robhouse. May I ask where you obtained this certificate?

Plang

[Carrotty Nell]

I am sure Rob will reply, but in any case, this certificate is quoted in every recent JtR book I have read, including both Sugden and Begg.

[Blackkat]

So could Aaron being Schizophrenic made a difference? They say he was dirty etc etc, but if he was schizophrenic perhaps the 'other aaron' came out to play.

[Sam Flynn]

So could Aaron being Schizophrenic made a difference? They say he was dirty etc etc, but if he was schizophrenic perhaps the 'other aaron' came out to play.

<pedantry warning>

"Schizophrenia" isn't the same as "Multiple Personality Disorder".

</pedantry warning>

[Blackkat]

Ok I'll be more specific.

Undifferentiated schizophrenia: the presence of prominent psychotic symptoms but not classifiable as catatonic, disorganized, or paranoid schizophrenia.

Or undifferentiated schizophrenia with psychosis

OR

as you stated multiple personality disorder.

Some people with schizophernia can act as if they are a totally new person, or take on a new identity that can lead into MPD

[Dan Norder]

Some people with schizophernia can act as if they are a totally new person, or take on a new identity that can lead into MPD

No, not really.

And MPD is a bogus diagnosis anyway. It's just some lunatic fringe therapists and their patients playing a game of make believe instead of trying to get to the real, more boring problems. It's the modern equivalent of the spiritualist movement. Give it another 50 years and it'll be thrown on the heap of bad pseudoscience with mesmerism, phrenology and all the rest.

[Blackkat]

Dan,
Thanks for your opinion, and your response. Although I disagree, time will indeed tell.

[mariag]

Dan is right.

The idea that Schizophrenics have split personality came from the "schizo" part of the word that does mean split. But it refers to a split from reality not a split personality. It's a very common misunderstanding.

[mark]

former Assistant Commissioner, Sir Robert Anderson claimed that the Ripper had been identified by the "only person who had a good view of the murderer" . Anderson and Swanson further stated that no prosecution was possible because the witness was not willing to offer testimony against a fellow Jew
In marginalia in his copy of Anderson's memoirs, Swanson said that this man was "Kosminski"

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Mark,
Robert Anderson who is alleged to have claimed a "low class Polish Jew" was The Ripper, said and did a great many controversial things.It is from words written by Macnaghten[1894] and later a seemingly rather baffled Swanson that we glean he was referring to a man named Kosminski. Swanson allegedly wrote hand written notes in the margin and back sheet of the Anderson autobiography.He was Anderson"s subordinate in overall charge of the Ripper Investigation in the Autumn o0f 1888.
First though a little about Sir Robert Anderson.Anderson was a man of strong Unionist persuasion and he devoted the Irish Nationalist movement"s attempts to break free from colonisation by the Westminster Government in London.This lifelong commitment included conducting a very dirty fight against the elected leader of the Home Rule movement, the MP, Charles Stewart Parnell ,who was attempting to gain freedom for Ireland through Home Rule via Parliamentary Democracy. When he took up his post as Assistant Commissioner for Scotland Yard
in charge of CID-in August 1888,he began his duties for the post on the day Polly Nichols was found dead.
The Autumn of Terror,1888, when the series of Whitechapel Murders took place,coincided with one of the blackest moments in Robert Anderson"s entire career when supporters of the MP, Parnell had taken out a libel action against The Times Newspaper for running a series of articles on Parnell entitled " Parnellism and Crime" .As a result a Special Commission was set up in October 1888 to get to the bottom of the affair.The forged letters by an Irish [-pro Anderson] journalist named Richard Pigott whose confession caused Robert Anderson great embarrassment but not only this Robert Anderson had also contributed to this series of forged documents intended to destrot Parnell. .The two are alleged to have met in Paris in early October 1888 to try to prevent it coming out at The Special Commission.Anyway its known for certain that they both left Paris on 4th October 1888,a time when Robert Anderson should have been attending to the murders of Liz Stride and Catherine Eddowes.
Now the reason I have included this "backdrop" in a thread entitled "the Plausability of Kosminski" is that I firmly believe the deep trouble Robert Anderson was in during "the Autumn of Terror" and the furore and backlash against the Chiefs of Police created by the Press due to the "Ripper" not being caught,caused Robert Anderson to conceive of an almost mythical "Low class Polish Jew" before the year 1888 was out to get himself off the hook.
He claims in his Autobiography,that he came upon his idea during discussions on the police findings of the October 1888 house-house searches,when,he also claims, it was thought the Jewish Community were the ones who would be prepared to hide the identity of the murderer if he was one of their own.This statement was robustly challenged by Major Henry Smith,present at the time in his role as the City Police Acting Commissioner at the scene of the Mitre Square murder of Catherine Eddowes---who claimed it was utter rubbish and that nobody ever knew who Jack the Ripper was.
Of Aaron Kosminski we know only that he was admitted to Colney hatch in February 1891 and lived 30 years as a harmless inmate of an asylum.That his condition deteriorated markedly after 1894, around the time he transferred from Colney Hatch to Leavesdon Asylum.That he at no time appears to have been considered a danger to others because of violence-unless you include the one record out of some forty or so twice yearly reports, when he is stated to have picked up a chair and threatened another patient with it.

We know from the newspaper report that in 1889 he walked an unmuzzled dog in Cheapside and was fined 10 shillings.
There is nothing to suggest in any of the asylum records,sketchy though they are that in the 30 years of incarceration , any member of staff was warned of him being violent,needing a restraint jacket ,let alone being a murderer,let alone Jack the Ripper.
Best
Natalie