Is Kosminski still the best suspect we have?

[Abby Normal]

Hi Trev

Suppose the witness changed their minds . Id Kosminski, then say they are not certain when they are asked if they are 100% positive.

Valerie Storie in the A6 case initially picked out the wrong man in her first ID parade before Hanratty was arrested and put on a second. She said she felt pressured to pick someone out , could the witness have not said something similar ?
Regards Darryl

Hi DK
agree its probably nothing more than the witness saying something along the lines of I think thats him. Over the years in Andersons mind it became more positive than it actually was.

[Joshua Rogan]

some have suggested he meant the Seaman's Home in the East End which would be more logical from a distance point of view, but we are still left with, why?

Misremembering Sadler? He sold a knife to a man in the Sailor's Home just after Coles was murdered, and was subsequently identified by him at a parade in Leman Street station.

[Darryl Kenyon]

In connexion with the arrest of a lunatic at Holloway, it appears that he has been missing from his friends for some time now. The detectives have been very active in prosecuting their inquiries concerning him, and it is believed the result, so far, increases their suspicion. He is at present confined in the asylum at Grove-road, Bow.

There are at present three cases of suspicion. 1. The lunatic Isensmith a Swiss arrested at Holloway who is now in an asylum at Bow & arrangements are being made to ascertain whether he is the man who was seen on the morning of the murder in a public house by Mrs Fiddymont.

In the early hours of 12 September Isenschmid was arrested and taken to Holloway Police Station. Judged insane, he was sent to the Islington Workhouse and from thence, the same day, to Grove Hall Lunatic Asylum, Fairfield Road, Bow.

Dr Mickle, resident medical officer at Grove Hall, was so concerned about his patient’s health that he declined to permit the witnesses to confront him. On 19 September, the date of our last police report on Isenschmid, the doctor was still obdurate and we do not know whether Mrs Fiddymont and her witnesses ever did identify the suspect.

Abberline himself, in a report of 19 September, let that particular cat out of the bag. There he suggests that the chief police surgeon or one of the divisional surgeons be requested to contact Dr Mickle in order to expedite arrangements for the witnesses to see Isenschmid because ‘time is of the greatest importance in this case, not only with regard to the question of identity, but also for the purpose of allaying the strong public feeling that exists.’

NOTE CONFRONT HIM
Regards Darryl

[Darryl Kenyon]

Strangely Sadler was charged with murder on the fifteenth by Smith the day after Swanson interviewed, but didn't charge him. Perhaps Smith had ideas of trying to tie him to all the murders more vigorously than Swanson who knew the Mets prime suspect was in an asylum.
Regards Darryl

[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 by perhaps the same philanthropists.

The location is tempting 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

[Wickerman]

Misremembering Sadler? He sold a knife to a man in the Sailor's Home just after Coles was murdered, and was subsequently identified by him at a parade in Leman Street station.

That may have been the origin of the idea, but I think I heard/read it from Paul Begg a number of years ago.

[Wickerman]

Could this be where the suggestion that witness refused to give up a fellow Jew come from? Maybe the witness, as you say, was pretty confident when first confronted, but after a bit of thought uncertainties crept in and he started to worry about the possibility of helping to send an innocent man to the gallows and so he backtracked? Perhaps some officer at the Parade believed that he was only backtracking because he now knew that the man was a fellow Jew and he passed this opinion on to Anderson?

The Achilles Heel in that view is the reason given. It may have been the uninformed view of the witness but the police would not be able to charge a lunatic because the courts expect an accused to be able to understand right from wrong and have the mental capacity to form a logical defense. If what we read is accurate that situation barely applies to Kozminski.
Swanson of all people would have known this.

Some might say that this places the ID at a time prior to Kozminski being determined insane, certainly before he was assessed by Houchin on Feb 6, 1891. However questions were raised about his sanity 6 months earlier in July 1890. Yet according to surviving records that was the first time Kozminski had been taken to an Asylum.
There's so many questions here, nothing is straight forward.
It's just the reason given, coming from Swanson, doesn't sit well.

[Wickerman]

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 by perhaps the same philanthropists.

Precisely Darryl.

The red dot is the Sailors Home, and we can see how close it was to the south end of Leman St.

[Darryl Kenyon]

That may have been the origin of the idea, but I think I heard/read it from Paul Begg a number of years ago.

I could be wrong but I think this idea was suggested in Scotland Yard investigates by Stewart Evans and Don Rumbelow.

Regards Darryl

[Darryl Kenyon]

Precisely Darryl.

The red dot is the Sailors Home, and we can see how close it was to the south end of Leman St.

Thanks Wick

[rjpalmer]

That may have been the origin of the idea, but I think I heard/read it from Paul Begg a number of years ago.

It was Stewart Evans in a dissertation available here:

Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Kosminski and the Seaside Home

[Scott Nelson]

It appears he was only certified insane on the 6th Feb. and by one of their own doctors, Edmund Houchin, police Surgeon for H division.

OK, so he was identified before this date, or could there have been multiple ID attempts?

[Wickerman]

It was Stewart Evans in a dissertation available here:

Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Kosminski and the Seaside Home

Thankyou RJ.

[Wickerman]

It was Stewart Evans in a dissertation available here:

Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Kosminski and the Seaside Home

I just had to look, for some reason Paul Begg's name stuck in my mind.
I found Paul debating this with Jonathan Hainsworth about 10 years ago.

https://forum.casebook.org/forum/ripper-discussions/witnesses/5356-lawende-and-schwarz?p=307771#post307771

Credit was given in another post to Stewart, and I do have Scotland Yard Investigates, but for some reason I could only remember Paul.

[John Wheat]

Kosminski is not a particularly strong suspect in my opinion however he's a better suspect than a lot of so called suspects.