Kosminski - Dead or Alive

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

Hi all,

Quick question: How did Melville Macnaghten know that 'Kosminski' was alive yet Assistant Commissioner Anderson and Chief Inspector Swanson did not?

Sincerely,

Mike

Another quick question: why did Anderson turn down his publisher's offer to indemnify him against any libel action brought against him in consequence of his naming his suspect, if his suspect was already dead?

[Lewis C]

Another quick question: why did Anderson turn down his publisher's offer to indemnify him against any libel action brought against him in consequence of his naming his suspect, if his suspect was already dead?

I think it's because he didn't want to name his suspect anyway, so the offer was of no interest to him.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

I think it's because he didn't want to name his suspect anyway, so the offer was of no interest to him.

Thanks for your reply.

I did not ask the question with a definite answer of my own in mind.

One reason could be that Anderson knew that even if his suspect was already dead, he might be liable to prosecution by the suspect's relatives, who he implied covered up his guilt.

I suspect the reason he did not want to name his suspect is that deep down he was not as sure of his case as he made himself out to be - in short, that his identification of the Whitechapel Murderer was a definitely ascertained fact.

In particular, the question as to whether anyone else could confirm the identification of the murderer would have become a question of whether anyone else could confirm that a particular named person was identified as the murderer, and Anderson must have known that that was not going to happen.

Swanson was obviously not a witness to the identification, as he recorded that Kosminski was 'sent by us'.

Anderson would have been unable to substantiate his allegation that Kosminski was identified, let alone that he committed any murders, let alone that his relatives covered up his guilt.

Had they sued him for libel, he could hardly have claimed he meant someone else, since he made it clear that the people who covered up his crimes were living with him.

He could not have proven that they covered up anything unless he could prove at the very least that they were ever questioned by police.

How could he have explained to a court that he questioned the suspect's relatives but that he did not attempt an identification of the suspect until he had been incarcerated?

It is quite obvious that they never were questioned.

There is no record - not even anecdotal - of Kosminski's / the Polish Jewish suspect's relatives ever being questioned in connection with the Whitechapel murders.

[Lewis C]

Most of that seems pretty reasonable to me. One thing though: at one time they did a house-to-house search in which they talked to a lot of people. It seems to me there's a good chance that Kosminski's family, along with many other people, were likely to have at least been briefly interviewed at that time.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

Most of that seems pretty reasonable to me. One thing though: at one time they did a house-to-house search in which they talked to a lot of people. It seems to me there's a good chance that Kosminski's family, along with many other people, were likely to have at least been briefly interviewed at that time.

I don't think so.

According to Anderson, the search was of premises where single men were living alone, which would exclude the Kosminski household.

Like so much of Anderson's claims, it is, however, not credible.

But there is something else: the areas where that search took place did not include the street where Kosminski lived.

[Scott Nelson]

The initial search after the Stride murder did. The later search (completed October 15th) did not.

[PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR 1]

The initial search after the Stride murder did. The later search (completed October 15th) did not.

Please provide details of the initial search.