Jacob Levy

[Harry D]

I'm curious to see what geographic profiling could tell us in connection to Jacob Levy. When I look at the map Middlesex street is right at the triangle between Eddowes, Chapman and Stride. So for the sake of argument, if Levy was JtR and he did use his very direct surroundings as his hunting ground, Buck's Row seems to be a bit further out. Is there any information about Levy that could explain why he would be there at that time of night?

Depends. If it was his first kill, maybe he trolled for victims slightly further afield before establishing his comfort zone? After all, there was a good chance that Lechmere disturbed the killer as he came down Buck's Row.

[lilyofthevalley]

Good point.

I've been reading up on Kosminski and the similarities are quite striking. Levy at some point lived just around the corner of Sion sq. Could there have been a mix up?

Finally, we must not forget that ‘Kosminski’ was identified by a witness. According to Sir Robert Anderson, the suspect was ‘unhesitantly’ identified by ‘the only person who ever had a good view of the murderer.’ Interestingly, he also notes that the suspect ‘knew he was identified’. The identity of this witness is still a subject of much heated debate amongst Ripperologists. It is clear that the witness was a ‘fellow Jew’, as this is the reason, according to both Anderson and Swanson, that he refused to give evidence in court. In my opinion, the witness was probably Joseph Lawende, the Jewish commercial traveler who witnessed a man and a women talking at the entrance to Church Passage in Duke Street just prior to the murder of Catherine Eddowes. The other most likely candidate is Israel Schwartz, who witnessed a man attacking Liz Stride in Berner Street, just before she was murdered some 10 feet away in Dutfield’s Yard. The only other possible Jewish witness is Joseph Levy, who was with Lawende and also witnessed the same couple standing at Church Passage; but Levy claimed to have not got a good look at the man, and said ‘I passed on, taking no further notice of them’. In the final analysis, the identity of the witness is perhaps not relevant for the purpose of this article. The simple fact is that the suspect ‘Kosminski’ was identified by someone described as ‘the only person who ever had a good view of the murderer.’

What if it wasn't Lawende, but the reluctant Joseph Levy who recognized his coreligionist and family member? The whole article on Kosminski is quite interesting because a lot applies to Levy (for instance Levy had older (step)sisters).

[lilyofthevalley]

Just going to leave this here as well: this map shows that 11 Fieldgate st where Levy at one point lived, is right at the top of Greenfield st around the corner of Sion sq. where Kosminski lived.

When we look at the point between Middlesex st and Fieldgate st the place where Martha Tabram was found is almost exactly in the middle of these two streets.

Does anybody know when Levy lived at Fieldgate st?

[Damaso Marte]

Do we know anything about Jacob Levy's hair color or skin complexion?

[Errata]

Do we know anything about Jacob Levy's hair color or skin complexion?

As an Ashkenazi Jew it is reasonable to assume he had the brown hair/eyes gene, and pale sallow skin.

There are of course variations, myself included, but it's usually a result of mixed breeding. Which back then seems a bit unlikely given the isolation of The Pale. And the brown hair/eyes gene is stubborn enough to reassert after a couple generations. So unless his mother was impregnated by a blond Russian, it would be my default.

[tji]

Hi Lily

Does anybody know when Levy lived at Fieldgate st?

[/QUOTE]

We don't know when he actually moved from Fieldgate Street as yet but what we do know is that he lived there in the 1881 census but by the time of his arrest for theft in 1885 he was living at 36 Middelsex Street.

Tracy

[MysterySinger]

Night time reading....
https://saucyjacky.wordpress.com/sus.../1-jacob-levy/

[tji]

Hi Mysterysinger

it is a good read but he actually got all the information from here and the article written on Jacob in the Ripperologist magazine.

[lilyofthevalley]

Thank you TJI for answering some questions and also for the excellent work on Levy so far. We may never know the real name of JtR, but I think Levy is worth the investigation.
I think 1881 is too early for Levy to be mixed up with Kosminksi.

[Pierre]

For me there is only one candidate to be the Whitechapel murderer and that is the jew Jacob Levy . He used to work as a butcherer and he used his knowledge with the knife when he killed and mutilated his victims . When he disembowelled Eddows in complete darkness there can only be someone with similar knowledge lika a butcherer to do that . And the whole point with mutilating the poor victims was because that Levy had in the past recieved syhpilis from a hooker and when it turned out that this sickness of his was brought to his children and made their faces deformed he wanted revenge . And right after the last murder he was sent to a hospital for mental treatment . And when he died in 1891 the whole investigation of the Whitechapel murderer was abruptely closed without explaniation . Thats my conclusion !

The 1888 serial killer view = The 1888 serial killer jew.

Regards, Pierre

[Elamarna]

The 1888 serial killer view = The 1888 serial killer jew.

Regards, Pierre

Dear Pierre

Have you read any of the sources from the time on this man.

That view above portrays an incredible degree of bias.

Steve

[Pierre]

Dear Pierre

Have you read any of the sources from the time on this man.

That view above portrays an incredible degree of bias.

Steve

No, Steve. It is the incredible degree of bias of 1888. Aaron Kosminski, David Cohen, Joseph Isaacs, Michael Ostrog (described as a Polish Jew), Jacob Levy and all the rest.

"Jewish Chronicle (U.K.)
Friday, 12 October 1888

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

There are not wanting signs of a deliberate attempt to connect the Jews with the Whitechapel murders. A butcher writes to a contemporary to suggest that the character of the incisions is such that they were made by a butcher, and thence he jumps to the conclusion that it was a Jewish butcher, a trade rival exclusively employed by Jews. Now we have made it our business to ascertain whether this could be. Dr. Gordon Browne, the City Divisional Surgeon, to whom the City detectives submitted the body and to whom the knives used by the Jewish slaughterers have also been shown, has authorised us to state that he is thoroughly satisfied that none of the knives have been used. We may add that the Jewish slaughterers are a very small, learned and respectable number of persons whom nobody acquainted with them would suspect. As a make weight the report has been thrown in that the murderer wrote on the wall in a neighbouring street "Shall the Jews be blamed for nothing?" But if this inscription ever existed, if it had reference to the murders, if it was the work of the murderer, it was written to throw the public off the scent, not to put them on. The peculiar horror entertained by Jews of any mutilation of the human body after death is either unknown to, or concealed by, the theorists. To us it seems wrong for respectable newspapers to lend their columns to such suggestions, which are the work of ignorance if not of malice. We observe with satisfaction that the more ably conducted journals refrain from reproducing them."
http://www.casebook.org/press_report.../jc881012.html

And in this forum the bias appears in the form of an old ghost from 1888.

Oh, I forgot: Often in the company of another old ghost from 1888, The Lunatic.

And The Butcher.

Regards, Pierre

[Elamarna]

Pierre

Is the view that we cannot consider a member of the Jewish faith then?

How do we justify excluding a large percentage of the population in the area in 1888?


It is obviously there has been no looking into this individual, no source criticism or analysis.

Comical

Steve

No, Steve. It is the incredible degree of bias of 1888. Aaron Kosminski, David Cohen, Joseph Isaacs, Michael Ostrog (described as a Polish Jew), Jacob Levy and all the rest.

"Jewish Chronicle (U.K.)
Friday, 12 October 1888

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

There are not wanting signs of a deliberate attempt to connect the Jews with the Whitechapel murders. A butcher writes to a contemporary to suggest that the character of the incisions is such that they were made by a butcher, and thence he jumps to the conclusion that it was a Jewish butcher, a trade rival exclusively employed by Jews. Now we have made it our business to ascertain whether this could be. Dr. Gordon Browne, the City Divisional Surgeon, to whom the City detectives submitted the body and to whom the knives used by the Jewish slaughterers have also been shown, has authorised us to state that he is thoroughly satisfied that none of the knives have been used. We may add that the Jewish slaughterers are a very small, learned and respectable number of persons whom nobody acquainted with them would suspect. As a make weight the report has been thrown in that the murderer wrote on the wall in a neighbouring street "Shall the Jews be blamed for nothing?" But if this inscription ever existed, if it had reference to the murders, if it was the work of the murderer, it was written to throw the public off the scent, not to put them on. The peculiar horror entertained by Jews of any mutilation of the human body after death is either unknown to, or concealed by, the theorists. To us it seems wrong for respectable newspapers to lend their columns to such suggestions, which are the work of ignorance if not of malice. We observe with satisfaction that the more ably conducted journals refrain from reproducing them."
http://www.casebook.org/press_report.../jc881012.html

And in this forum the bias appears in the form of an old ghost from 1888.

Regards, Pierre

[Pierre]

No, Steve. It is the incredible degree of bias of 1888. Aaron Kosminski, David Cohen, Joseph Isaacs, Michael Ostrog (described as a Polish Jew), Jacob Levy and all the rest.

"Jewish Chronicle (U.K.)
Friday, 12 October 1888

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

There are not wanting signs of a deliberate attempt to connect the Jews with the Whitechapel murders. A butcher writes to a contemporary to suggest that the character of the incisions is such that they were made by a butcher, and thence he jumps to the conclusion that it was a Jewish butcher, a trade rival exclusively employed by Jews. Now we have made it our business to ascertain whether this could be. Dr. Gordon Browne, the City Divisional Surgeon, to whom the City detectives submitted the body and to whom the knives used by the Jewish slaughterers have also been shown, has authorised us to state that he is thoroughly satisfied that none of the knives have been used. We may add that the Jewish slaughterers are a very small, learned and respectable number of persons whom nobody acquainted with them would suspect. As a make weight the report has been thrown in that the murderer wrote on the wall in a neighbouring street "Shall the Jews be blamed for nothing?" But if this inscription ever existed, if it had reference to the murders, if it was the work of the murderer, it was written to throw the public off the scent, not to put them on. The peculiar horror entertained by Jews of any mutilation of the human body after death is either unknown to, or concealed by, the theorists. To us it seems wrong for respectable newspapers to lend their columns to such suggestions, which are the work of ignorance if not of malice. We observe with satisfaction that the more ably conducted journals refrain from reproducing them."
http://www.casebook.org/press_report.../jc881012.html

And in this forum the bias appears in the form of an old ghost from 1888.

Oh, I forgot: Often in the company of another old ghost from 1888, The Lunatic.

And The Butcher.

Regards, Pierre

The use of these ideal types does not follow empirical methods but theoretical hypotheses, where you deduce from ideal types and apply their typology on people you think are similar to the types.

And the types were created in 1888. It was their first attempts to do "profiling".

So empirical material is forgotten and the ghosts (ideal types from the past) live on forever as potential "Jack the Rippers".

Regards, Pierre

[David Orsam]

And in this forum the bias appears in the form of an old ghost from 1888.

Oh, I forgot: Often in the company of another old ghost from 1888, The Lunatic.

And The Butcher.

And the police officer?