ID event of Kosminski-Did it take place or not?

[Scott Nelson]

"...David was the suspect." -DSS

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Booth
Good posts.

"Kosminski was the suspect"

Boom. To me this statement seals it. he was a suspect only, probably a strong one in Swanson's mind, but at the end of the day just a suspect.

Yes but this makes it sound as if it seals the deal. But we are talking about some private annotations made in Swanson's copy of his boss's book. It by no means implies that it was a "strong" suspect in Swanson's mind. We just don't know that. All we know is that Swanson was making a notation, for his own information, to give the name to the suspect that Anderson had not named in the printed text of his book. It might seem to be a strong endorsement of the statement Anderson was making but might not be at all. It merely provides some verification of Anderson's story and tells us who was meant -- "Kosminski", presumably meaning Aaron Kosminski.

Best regards

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello Mac.

"Anderson's comment: "if we had the powers of the French police we would have caught/convicted him" (or something to that effect), has always intrigued me.

What did he mean?"

My interpretation is not flattering. I think Sir Robert is trying to jack up (no pun intended) a case fraught with lack of evidence and to make it look like he was on top of things.

Cheers.
LC

Hello Lynn

The passage that you are thinking of is the following one in Anderson's autobiography, The Lighter Side of My Official Life:

"And if the Police here had powers such as the French Police possess, the murderer would have been brought to justice."

I would agree with your interpretation. It's another statement that papers over the inadequacies of Scotland Yard's investigation. "We would have had him if only. . . ."

Best regards

Chris

[Abby Normal]

Yes but this makes it sound as if it seals the deal. But we are talking about some private annotations made in Swanson's copy of his boss's book. It by no means implies that it was a "strong" suspect in Swanson's mind. We just don't know that. All we know is that Swanson was making a notation, for his own information, to give the name to the suspect that Anderson had not named in the printed text of his book. It might seem to be a strong endorsement of the statement Anderson was making but might not be at all. It merely provides some verification of Anderson's story and tells us who was meant -- "Kosminski", presumably meaning Aaron Kosminski.

Best regards

Chris

Hi Chris

I was specifically responding to Booth's post in which he wrote this:

The fact that he names a Kosminski at the end strikes me as a personal admission - This is what I know, this is the man we caught, this is how we caught him,this is his name and to be honest, if I was Swanson, I probably would not be happy with the outcome of the investigation, and the fact they didn't get a concrete conviction in a court of law, so that is why he specifies at the start the whole "witness refusing to testify" part of the story. What he writes here is very specific and detailed compared with the rest of the marginalia. I always read that part as pretty much "look we had him, but our witness wouldn't let us hang him, so we had to take care of it another way".

I read this as Booths interpretation of Swansons marginalia as being along the line of Anderson's "definitely ascertained fact" that is- Swanson also thought they had there man-case solved.

My response was merely to say it does not appear swanson was going that far.

Your interpretation seems not to go far enough.

All we know is that Swanson was making a notation, for his own information, to give the name to the suspect that Anderson had not named in the printed text of his book. It might seem to be a strong endorsement of the statement Anderson was making but might not be at all. It merely provides some verification of Anderson's story and tells us who was meant -- "Kosminski", presumably meaning Aaron Kosminski.

"...and he knew he was identified"
"..no other murder took place.."

IMHO seems to indicate more than just "some verification of Anderson's story and tells us who was meant -- "Kosminski",

[lynn cates]

one time only

Hello Chris. Thanks for that.

Did you, perchance, catch Christy Campbell's cute assessment of Sir Robert?

"But for once, he was telling the truth."

Cheers.
LC