A possibility for the Seaside Home?

[Sam Flynn]

It's perhaps worth noting that the Destitute Sailors' Asylum doesn't appear to have been an insane asylum, but seems to have used the word "asylum" in the broader sense of a place of shelter or refuge. There's a brief but interesting article on Drew Gray's blog:

https://thepolicemagistrate.blog/tag/destitute-sailors-asylum

Interesting to see that it was formerly known as the "Sailors' Home".

[Darryl Kenyon]

Interesting but, unless Swanson got his wires crossed, how does an inland establishment tens of miles from the sea get to be called a "seaside" home?

Hi Sam I think it was Stewart Evans and Don Rumbelow in their joint book Scotland yard investigates who first suggested that when he was writing the marginalia at least 22 years after the murders that he may have misremembered the seaside home for seamans home . Where I differ is in the confusion about him misremembering the Sadler ID for one with Kosminski.
In the marginalia he says - at the seaside home, not our seaside home nor the police's seaside home. I simply fail to understand why the police would take a witness and a suspect miles to Brighton for an ID. It could not have been an ID parade because Kosminski's mind was deteriorating then and this would have been next to impossible.
So it must have been a confrontation. But why not do that in London? It was a good 18 months since the last ripper scare [Alice Mackenzie], so it wasn't exactly at the height of the murders, the furore would have well died down by then. Not only that but when Francis was murdered a few days after Kosminski had been incarcerated and the scare was back in full swing, the witness was sent to ID Sadler at his seamans mission. Why not take the witness and suspect miles away then?
One last thought Anderson wrote in his autobiography that the witness made the ID after the suspect was safely caged in an asylum, completely at odds with Swanson. He wasn't caged, but is Anderson thinking of the Destitute Sailors' Asylum where, if the ID did happen there Kosminski would almost certainly have been restrained.
Regards Darryl

[Sam Flynn]

Interesting but, unless Swanson got his wires crossed, how does an inland establishment tens of miles from the sea get to be called a "seaside" home?

[Darryl Kenyon]

I am wondering if the Seaside home mentioned by Swanson in his famous marginalia could be a reference to the Sailors Home in Well St [now Ensign St], and the nearby Destitute Sailors' Asylum which was on the next street , Dock St. Both built, seven years apart to provide shelter and food for seamen, both connected and commissioned, I believe by the the same philanthropists.
The location is less than a mile from Mitre Sq and Aldgate [Butchers row suspect?], in City Police territory [watched by City Police, so in effect their suspect for Eddowes murder] and less than a mile from Lawende's workplace St Mary Axe. If indeed Lawende was the witness.
It seems strange to me that you would take a witness and a suspect miles [Brighton], just to confront the witness with the suspect, why not do that in London?. Doesn't sound much like a proper ID and could their actually be one with Kosminski's deteriorating mental condition?
Bearing in mind that Lawende said that the man he sighted had the appearance of a sailor. What better place to put a mentally unstable suspect who may have been a sailor in front of a witness than an asylum for sailors. Now I believe not everybody or indeed probably most people who resided there suffered from mental illness but it still gives the ID an air of credibility to it in case there was a court case. In fact Lawende could have been confronted with a few seamen, one at a time but it was Kosminski he recognised. He certainly didn't know he was a Jew at the time [when he learned he was a fellow Jew, he declined to give evidence] and probably not a sailor.
Although I have no proof of this and just a few suggestions it is tempting. A suspect who had the appearance of a sailor but wasn't, yet picked out by a witness at a Sailors home after perhaps looking at a few other seamen beforehand. Even if Lawende says he wasn't positive and reminded the Police that he only had a cursory glance at the murderer it might have hardened the thoughts of Anderson and maybe Swanson that Kosminski was their man. Particularly after he said Sadler wasn't the man not long after, even though he could be seen as a reasonable suspect. He could even have been used at the Sadler ID to test his veracity. Pick out Sadler as well and the case against Kosminski gets watered down, but he didn't.
Regards Darryl