Is Kosminski the man really viable?

[lynn cates]

cutting remarks

Hello Ben. You are sharp as ever and right to the point. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[Robert]

And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

[Errata]

I feel like I should nip these circumcision puns in the bud.

[Phil H]

Actually, you are all wrong. What MM meant to write was "circuses".

Kosminski was a Russian escapologist, a CIRCUS performer in ther vein of Houdini, which explains why no one saw him. He had worked in MANY CIRCuseS. He escaped from the Seaside Home and was never caught, hence Sir RA and DSS had to cover-up.

Phil H

[Robert]

Of course! Kosminski - bread and circuses.

[Phil H]

Spot on!

That is - a spot of mould on the bread didn't worry Aaron.

Phil H

[Bridewell]

"Circs"

I thought it worth asking because many years ago, maybe ten or more, I'm pretty sure Stewart used the word circulars when we talked about this line in the Memorandum.

Circulars is more police terminology and officers might recognize the abbreviation 'circs' as a term often used in reports, so I wondered if this interpretation (circumstances) was the result of a consensus or just an alternate interpretation.

Regards, Jon S.

Hi Jon,

I too can't speak for anyone else but, even as a retired police officer, I see it as much more likely that 'circs' is an abbreviation of 'circumstances' rather than 'circulars' or 'circulations'. 'Circular' is not a word in common police usage in my own experience, but different forces probably use different words to describe these things.

Regards, Bridewell.

[Wickerman]

Hi Jon,

I too can't speak for anyone else but, even as a retired police officer, I see it as much more likely that 'circs' is an abbreviation of 'circumstances' rather than 'circulars' or 'circulations'. 'Circular' is not a word in common police usage in my own experience, but different forces probably use different words to describe these things.

Regards, Bridewell.

Thankyou Colin, I thought it a question worth asking. The word 'circular' for 'notice', definitely belongs in 19th century terminology, but must have died out with the advent of immediate communication, radio, phone, etc.

POLICE NOTEBOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONS

Every Victorian constable on the beat had his pencil and notebook, often smartly bound in leather with a metal catch to fasten it. However, books containing original jotted notes are extremely rare. What a policeman was more likely to preserve was a neatly kept booklet listing his successful convictions.

Personal notebooks of this kind tend to be kept in families proud of a great-grandfather who served in the force, along with scrapbooks of cuttings. Of wider interest are the booklet and circulars printed for all members of the force, and the notices designed for display on police station notice boards and in public places throughout the country.

http://www.antiques-art-collectibles.com/collectible/police_ephemera.html

All the policemen have, per circular, been instructed to keep their ears open, and if they hear any cry of distress, such as "Help," "Murder," or "Police," they are to hasten to the spot at once.
Times, 12 Nov. 1888.


Regards, Jon S.

[sleekviper]

Well drats! The unknown detective is not Wensley, I checked. He kept a series of scrapbooks with all his press clippings, and that one is not included.

[Bridewell]

Pocket Books

Sadly pocket notebooks have to be handed in after about 18 months in the modern era and are routinely destroyed after around 6 years. They carry serial numbers so there is no effective means of preserving anything of more than usual interest.

Regards, Bridewell.

[Fleetwood Mac]

Hi Jon,

I too can't speak for anyone else but, even as a retired police officer, I see it as much more likely that 'circs' is an abbreviation of 'circumstances' rather than 'circulars' or 'circulations'. 'Circular' is not a word in common police usage in my own experience, but different forces probably use different words to describe these things.

Regards, Bridewell.

Doesn't make sense anyway.

There's a monumental attempt to fit square pegs into round holes round these parts.

"There were many circulars that made this man a strong suspect"......what?!

"Murderer would have hanged"....."He didn't mean murderer; he meant misunderstood loveable vagrant".......dear god!

As is stands, Anderson was a two-bob blaggard and Swanson didn't know what day it was.

[RivkahChaya]

FWIW, PG Wodehouse used to use it in the Jeeves & Wooster stories, where it clearly meant "circumstances." I don't have a book in front of me, but IIRC, there were many times Bertie Wooster would say something like "extricate oneself from difficult circs." I know Wodehouse wasn't writing in 1888, but the first stories appeared right after WWI, and Wodehouse was born in 1881, and while I realize that slang does change, Wodehouse was a professional writer, and probably would have avoided ambiguous words. If he is going to use "circs" to mean "circumstances," he's probably not using an abbreviation that, in his childhood, meant something entirely different.

[Beowulf]

Was thinking, Kosminski is kind of like Eddie Gein.

I really think this is what Jtr was like. Secretive, quiet, unclean habits, no natural abhorrence of the way he played with a corpse.

Makes me wonder about motive, if there was some similarity between the two. I would not be surprised to find there was a dominating mother.

[The Good Michael]

Was thinking, Kosminski is kind of like Eddie Gein.

I really think this is what Jtr was like. Secretive, quiet, unclean habits, no natural abhorrence of the way he played with a corpse.

Makes me wonder about motive, if there was some similarity between the two. I would not be surprised to find there was a dominating mother.

I think that's a fair enough assessment based on what we know. It isn't c;ear what his mother was like, but one supposes she just may have been a strong enough women to have ensured her children survived their difficulties living in the pale and making new lives in an alien land. Aside from conflicted dates re: Kosminski's committal and believed demise, the scant facts we have about Kos point toward many mental issues that suffice to make him a viable candidate. The only thing against him, besides what I mentioned above, is the scant information.

Mike

[Lechmere]

Is there any similarity between what is known of Kosminsky and Ed Gein?
The way Gein 'played' with corpses has nothing whatsoever in common with any of the canonical murders. You could perhaps draw similarities to the Torso murders but I have never heard a case made that Kosminsky may have been responsible for any of them.
There is nothing about his mother to suggest she was domineering or in any way different to any other Jewish migrant mother.

Kosminsky's mental issues were clearly enough to make him a viable candidate at some point in the 1890s, but I would suggest that they point in the opposite direction based on modern day knowledge of stealth serial killings.
And the lack of knowledge about his death undermines his status as a serious suspect that was investigated on the ground during the crimes, rather than an after-the-event name that popped out of the asylum registers and landed on a desk on Scotland Yard.